Kingpin Motel (Supernatural G/T)

Chapter Twenty-One

"What do you mean they're gone?!" John all but shouted as he burst into the hotel room shortly after their phone conversation. His face was contorted with pure rage. Something Sam hadn't seen since he went off to college. 

"I mean what I said, they're gone," Sam spoke softly, doing his best to keep his cool. Fighting wouldn't find Dean and Starla after all. "I left them in the car while I went to investigate the sirens and-"

John cut him off with an angry glare. "You left them in the car?! In a public place?! Sam, I thought I taught you better than that!" 

The youngest Winchester silently balled his hands into fists but didn't speak another word that would be considered arguable. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and tried to focus on the task at hand. "Dad. I figured out what it is."

Now it was John's turn to be quiet if only for a few seconds. "Then what is it? I haven't found anything that shrinks people before."

"That's just it. I went to the morgue. Besides the bones being crushed to bits, there was something else. It's only been on one of the bodies though. That's how I figured it out. It got cocky. There was a bite mark on the victim's neck. A vamp bite. Which is when I did a little more digging. There was a hex bag in their car." Sam sat in a chair, unable to hold back the excitement he felt from how strange this case was. 

"What about the barb in Dean's chest? What's a hex bag gotta do with vamps?" John questioned, listening carefully and taking in his younger sons words.

"The barb is the thing that's enchanted. The hex bag had pretty useless stuff in it. Mostly to cause a curse. But not a curse on a person, on an object. That 'barb' in Dean's chest is just a wooden stake. Cursed to shrink the people it comes into contact with." He glanced toward his closed laptop. "I don't understand it all just yet. But before you got here I did a little bit of research and that's what I came up with." 

John didn't speak a word, mostly because he felt a little guilty yelling at Sam like that when the boy had gone and figured out the monster. Biting down on the inside of his cheek, John muttered another question under his breath. "Any idea where this human shrinking vampire is hiding?"

"I have a fairly good idea. This old house not too far from here. It looks brand new on the outside, and I have a theory on that part. If it looks new, people won't come poking around as much. Guess the vamp didn't expect hunters to show up." Sam grabbed the Impala's keys from the table and headed out to the shiny black car with John right behind him.

Chuckling lightly, John watched Sam begin to load a duffel bag from the trunk with a couple machetes and a jar of what he could only assume to be dead man's blood. "I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you're the one that does the research, Sam."

"Well, I mean, Dean had a good excuse this time." Sam briefly paused what he was doing to cast a troubled smile in his father's direction. "I just need to get there before the possibility happens where he may not be able to skip out on his share of the work again."

Placing an awkward, comforting hand on his son's shoulder, John spoke in a low voice. "We'll get him back. Starla too. That's what our family does, right?"

The corner of Sam's lips curled up and he nodded as he closed the lid of the trunk. "Yeah. Right."

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Dean woke up with a splitting headache. What little vision he had was blurry, and his chest ached where that weird barb stuck out of his body. Through the pain, he could hear muffled cries. As he slowly regained his focus, the cries became clearer and he could remember what happened.

After that figure showed up in the Impala, there was the sound of glass shattering, an intense pressure on his entire body, then the world went black. Then he remembered that he wasn't the only one that was snagged. 

Now fully focused and partially aware of his surroundings, he forced himself up so he could sit on his knees. A few feet away from him, Starla sat with her back against a clear, smooth surface, her head buried in her knees. From what he could tell, they were both trapped in some sort of old aquarium tank. Loud frightened sobs echoed around them, no doubt from the Borrower. "Starla?" Dean forced out through gritted teeth, one of his hands resting on his chest a few mere centimeters from the purple barb.

"D-Dean, y-you're awake!" Starla exclaimed, relieved to see he was finally conscious. She'd been extremely worried about him. He'd been out for what felt like hours after that hooded creature stole them from the Impala and brought them here.

Unlike Dean, Starla was awake for the whole thing. She felt helpless when pale fingers snaked around Dean, then her. She couldn't do anything even if she wanted to. And then in the hand opposite of her Dean was already limp, and those same fingers looked like they were holding him rather tightly. 

The fear she felt then lingered. She hadn't been able to tell at the time if he was still alive in that grasp or not. And then she felt like it was her fault. She was the one that was set on staying in the car and out of any more pockets. 

Hurrying to his side, she threw her arms around him and held him tightly. With shaky hands, she began to check for any type of bruising that could have occurred. To her easing, there was hardly anything. Besides the purple barb, he didn't appear to be in any other pain or have anything broken. The Winchester really was as tough as he looked.