Demon Blood: A Supernatural Fanfiction

Chapter 8: Books are Love, Books are Life

“What’s up, moose?” was what Sam was greeted with as he walked in the door. Reyna was sitting at the island, a half-empty bottle of beer in her hand. Mallory stood opposite her, the ever-present can of dark cherry soda hanging in her hand as she leaned on her elbows. The clock behind her read 3:02.

Sam raised his eyebrows at this nickname. “Moose?”

“Just thought I’d try it.” Reyna responded casually, taking a long sip of her beer. She nodded at Dean, who had come in as well. “Pinto.”

He stopped in the middle of taking off his jacket. “Pinto?”

“Well, because you’re short and because it’s a car and you seem to like those things. I personally don’t see the need.” She teleported behind him and stuck a finger in the small of his back, then returned to the stool.

“Just because you have fancy powers doesn’t mean you get to show them off.” Dean muttered under his breath, tossing his jacket onto his shoulder.

“What’d you find?” Mallory piped up, standing up completely and taking a large drink of her soda. She belched loudly, covering her mouth. “’Scuse me. Find anything useful?”

“Maybe.” Sam walked around the corner, not bothering to take his shoes off. “We, uh, can we borrow your library card?”

Mallory smiled like being asked about her card was the greatest thing in the world. “Sure! Actually, I’ll come with you. I was planning on getting some books anyway, and I need to return stuff. Let me go get them.” She ran up the stairs two at a time, leaving the boys alone with Reyna.

“So, Pinto, how was your night?” Reyna asked, flicking her long brown ponytail off her shoulder. She was wearing a different striped shirt than the day before, her fondness for stripes similar to Sam’s for plaid.

Dean rolled his eyes, plopping himself down on the chair across the hall. “First, ‘Pinto’ seems a bit far-fetched.” Reyna started protesting, but he spoke over it. “Second, why are you concerned about my welfare?” he narrowed his eyes slightly, but when there was silence, he sighed. “It was the best sleep I’ve had in ages.”

Reyna’s eyes crinkled around the edges as she smiled. “There we go. I just wanted to know, does there have to be a reason? Or do you just not trust me? Ooh, spooky demon-me?” she set down her beer and wiggled her fingers around, a goofy grin on her face. “I get it. I’m a demon, you don’t trust me yet. But you will, because Mallory does.”

At that moment, Mallory came bounding down the stairs, arms full of books.

“Speak of the devil!” Reyna muttered under her breath.

Pretending not to have heard it, Mallory set down all her books on the counter with a thunk. The ones on top of the pile spilled over and fell with various heavy-sounding bonks onto the hard top.

Mallory swore and replaced some so the pages weren’t bending, then ran over to the closet in the mudroom, where a large bag was hanging on the doorknob. Without a word, except some quiet muttering that everybody assumed was to herself, she expertly arranged the books inside.

“Well? Are we ready to go?” she turned to the boys with a giant, passionate smile on her face. “I can’t pass up a trip to the library. It’s one of my favorite places!”

Dean looked at Sam incredulously, but rose and grabbed his keys out of his pocket.

“Meet you there,” called Reyna, who then promptly disappeared.

Dean couldn’t help but smile as Mallory belted the lyrics to some of his songs from the backseat. Sam just rolled his eyes and looked out the window, tuning out Dean’s horribly off-key singing and Mallory’s surprisingly not bad singing. It was a little bit off-key, but it was better than he could do. And at least Dean and Mallory were getting along again; the spat from the night before had dissipated and they were good again. They were bound to get into another fight soon, but hopefully not too soon.