CHAPTER EIGHT

The hunters climb up an elevator shaft in the old warehouse that Sam followed Meg to yesterday. The youngest Winchester gets onto the floor she's on, and Dean passes him a rifle before climbing up as well. Sam has the barrel pointed at Meg as Dean reaches down and helps his girlfriend up. Then the three of them go to hide, and Sam keeps the gun trained on Meg as they get into a better position.

"Guys. Hiding is a little bit childish, don't you think?" Meg asks suddenly.

"That didn't work out like I'd planned." Dean says, glancing at the other two, and the blonde turns around.

"Why don't you come out?"

Dean raises his own gun as they slowly walk forward. Nyx keeps her gun pointed at the floor because she's walking behind the two boys.

"Sam, I have to say, this puts a real crimp in our relationship." Meg says as she looks at him.

"Yeah, tell me about it." He retorts.

"So, where's your little Daeva friend?" Nyx asks, and Meg looks at her.

"Around. Your​ boyfriend's shotgun isn't gonna do much good." She says.

"Oh, don't worry, sweetheart. The shotgun's not for the demon." Dean tells her.

"So, who is it, Meg? Who's coming?" Sam questions. "Who are you waiting for?"

"You." She says with a smile.

Sam's gun suddenly flies out of his hand, and he ends up on the ground. Nyx is shoved backward, but she doesn't see what's attacking them. She hits her head, and everything goes dark.

Nyx doesn't know how much time passes before she starts to come to, but it hasn't been much, just enough for Meg to tie the three of them up to concrete pillars. Sam's voice is the first thing that registers in her mind.

"This whole thing was a trap." He's saying. "Running into you at the bar, following you here, hearing what you had to say. It was all a set up, wasn't​ it? And that the victims were from Lawrence."

"It doesn't mean anything." Meg confirms. "It was just to draw you in, that's all."

"You killed those two people for nothing." Sam accuses.

"Baby, I've killed a lot more for a lot less." She tells him.

"You trapped us. Good for you — it's Miller time." Dean says, and she looks at him. "Why don't you kill us already?"

"Not very quick on the uptake, are we?" She questions. "This trap isn't for you."

"Dad." Sam says. "It's a trap for Dad."

Nyx starts angrily fidgeting​ against the ropes, and Meg looks over at her with a smug smirk. "Oh, what's the matter, sweetheart? You don't want your precious boy-toy to lose both of his parents like you've lost yours? All of yours?"

"Go to hell." Nyx says through clenched teeth, and she chuckles.

"What's wrong? You don't like that I've looked into your past?" She asks. "You shouldn't​ have gotten involved with a Winchester then — now their enemies are your enemies. Just as the Salvatores' enemies are now Elena's. You and your sister really need better taste in men."

"You're dumber than you look. Even if John was in town — which he's not — he'd never walk into something like this." She says, ignoring her comments about Elena and the Salvatore brothers. "Sweetheart."

Meg walks over and kneels down right in front of Nyx. "You put a lot of faith in your Winchesters, maybe even more than Elena puts in Stefan and Damon." She says, clearly amused.

"You talk about us like you have a clue who we are." Nyx says, and she smiles.

"Oh, I do. You all have a weakness. Your biggest weakness is that cute little brother of yours." She says, and Nyx starts struggling against her restraints again, making Meg laugh. "Dean's is a toss up between you and Sam. And their dad's...is them. He lets his guard down around them, the same as you do with Jeremy. You two are very alike in that way — you both let your emotions cloud your judgement."

"You're wrong." She says, and Meg's smile widens.

"I guess we'll see." She says. "I happen to know that John is in town, and he'll come and try to save them. And then the Daevas will kill everybody, nice and slow...and messy."

"Yeah, well, I got news for you." Dean says, and the blonde looks over at him. "It's gonna take a lot more than some...shadow to kill him."

"Oh, the Daevas are in the room here. They're invisible. Their shadows are just the only part you can see." She tells him and then she looks back down at Nyx. "Maybe I'll take them to meet your family when I finish with you four. I think I'll start with cute little Jeremy, or maybe Ric. I'll make him watch as he fails to protect you all for Jenna."

Nyx spits in her face, seeing as she can't punch her like she'd like to. It wasn't hard, the blonde's only about a foot away from her. Meg wipes it away with her sleeve, then backhands Nyx across the face. She clenches her teeth tightly as she turns her head back and looks at Meg again.

Dean's jaw tightens as he watches the women; he's trying to get out of his ropes, but they're too tight. He wants Meg to get the hell away from Nyx, he hates seeing her so close to someone as violent and brutal as the blonde.

"Ric knows, you know​? About the twins. The doctor told him after you ended up in the hospital in Missouri a few weeks ago — let him know that they were healthy and there was no cause for concern after your attack. He was shocked, but he asked the doctor not to say anything to anyone else. He's a good surrogate Daddy that way — protecting your secret, even from your own family." She continues as Nyx glares at her; Dean's frozen as his eyes dart back and forth between the two of them. "How do you think he'll react to finding out that he couldn't save his dead girlfriend's pregnant niece?"

"Go to hell." Nyx says through clenched teeth, and Meg laughs.

"I didn't ruin the surprise, did I?" She looks at Dean with a smile. "I mean... How are you doing over there, Dad?"

"Why are you doing this, Meg?" Sam asks; he's the first of the two boys to shake off the shock from what they just heard. "What kind of deal you got worked out here, huh? And with who?"

Dean looks away from Nyx, who hasn't been able to look at him yet. His gaze is trained on the wall across from him as he tries to process what Meg just said, and what it all means for him and his girlfriend.

Nyx is pregnant.

"I'm doing this for the same reasons you do what you do." Meg says as she looks​ over at Sam. "Loyalty, love. Like the love you had for Mommy...and Jess."

"Go to hell." Sam says.

"Baby, I'm already there." She then crawls over to him. "Come on, Sam. There's no need to be nasty. I think we both know...how you really feel about me. You know... I saw you...watching me...changing in my apartment. It turned you on, didn't it?"

"Get a room, you two." Dean says, finally pulling himself from his thoughts. Neither he or Nyx are looking at them, and she gets her knife out of her jacket sleeve.

"I didn't mind. I liked you watching me." Meg continues, and Nyx makes gagging noises. "Come on, Sammy. You and I can still have a little dirty fun."

"You wanna have fun? Go ahead, then." Sam tells her. "I'm a little tied up right now."

The blade that Dean's trying to use to cut his ropes clinks on the cement then, and Nyx sighs as she looks down. Meg moves away from Sam, who was just trying to distract her so that they could all get free.

She walks past Nyx, and the brunette stops using the blade in her own hand. Meg takes Dean's away from him and then tosses it to the side, then she goes back over to Sam. Nyx starts cutting the rope again once she makes it back to him. She's almost got herself free.

"Now, were you just trying to distract me while your brother cuts free?" Meg asks Sam.

"No." He says, and Nyx feels the blade go all the way through her rope. "It was because I have a knife of my own." He grabs her shoulders and hits her head with his.

Nyx pushes herself up and bolts for the altar; she flips the table and then the hunters see shadows come down from above the huge window. Sam runs over to Nyx and pulls her out of the way. Meg screams as she flies across the room and then goes out the window, and Sam uses his own body to shield Nyx's from the glass. Once things seem to settle, they both run over to free Dean.

Sam helps his brother up and then they walk over to the window. The boys see Meg laying on the ground a few stories down.

"So, I guess the Daevas didn't like being bossed around." Sam says.

"No more than that reaper that tried to kill me." Nyx says as she turns and walks away from the window.

"Hey, Sam?" Dean says.

"Yeah?"

"Next time you wanna get laid, find a girl that's​ not so buckets of crazy, huh?"

"Yeah, and won't threaten to kill my family." Nyx adds. "That'd be great. Thanks."

"Speaking of your family." Dean says, and she takes a deep breath as she turns around and looks at him. "You're pregnant?"

"Yeah. I am."

"Were you ever gonna tell me?"

She nods. "At some point."

"At some point?" He questions. "When? The day that I was gonna have to take you to the hospital because you were going into labor?"

"This hasn't exactly been some cake walk for me, Dean." She says. "I didn't get to pee on a stick and sit with my boyfriend while we waited for the results. You know how I found out? Klaus told me that he could hear their heartbeats. And then he killed me."

"Klaus?"

"And then I buried my aunt and my father, and I was trying to find my bearings. Then we go to Missouri to help your lost love, and Katherine shows up to screw with us. Speaking of screwing... How do you think that felt? Finding out about you and Cassie while I'm over here pregnant with your twins?" She asks. She isn't angry; she sounds hurt — heartbroken. "Then Sam has this nightmare that turns out to be real and you accuse me of caring more about Mystic Falls than about what's going on with him. Sam and I got kidnapped, and now we're in a warehouse and we were being used as bait to lure out your dad so that some crazy ass chick could kill us for the demon that you've been hunting for almost twenty-three years now. And all of this has been in the last month, so I'm sorry that I've been trying to keep my head on straight for a while before telling you something that could change everything​. And the best part of all of this is that an hour ago, you were saying that you're never gonna be done hunting because there's always gonna be another monster out there. So, what exactly do you expect me to do here, Dean?"

"I don't know." He answers honestly, and she nods, sighing as she looks down.

"Can we just get the hell out of here please?" She turns around and walks away from the brothers. The hunters head back to the motel so that they can leave Chicago.

"Why don't you just leave that stuff in the car?" Sam asks as they walk down the hallway toward their room.

"I said it before and I'll say it again, better safe than sorry." Dean says as he unlocks the door and they walk inside their room. Nyx starts toward the bed with her head down, but Dean suddenly grabs her. "Hey!" He yells, and she sees the dark figure standing by the window.

He turns around, and they see his face in the light that's shining in. All of them are surprised by who they see standing in their motel room.

"Dad." Dean's the first to speak.

"Hey, boys. Nycole." John smiles.

Dean lets go of his girlfriend and walks over to his father. The two men hug, and Nyx looks up at Sam. He has tears in his eyes, and his cheek has three nasty looking slashes from the Daevas.

Sam and Nyx walk over to the two of them as they back away from each other. She moves to stand next to Dean as Sam and John look at each other.

"Hi, Sam."

"Hi, Dad." Sam says as he puts what he's holding down.

"Dad, it was a trap." Dean tells him. "I didn't know. I'm sorry."

"That's alright." John nods. "I thought it might have been."

"Were you there?"

"I got there just in time to see the girl take the swan dive." He says. "She was the bad guy, right?"

"Yes, sir." Sam and Dean say in unison.

"Good. Well, it doesn't surprise me. It's tried to stop me before." John says.

"The demon has?" Sam asks.

"It knows I'm close. It knows I'm gonna kill it. Not just exorcise it or send it back to hell, actually kill it."

"How?" Dean asks.

"I'm working on that." John says with a smile.

"Let us come with you. We'll help." Sam says.

"No, Sam. Not yet." He shakes his head. "Listen, try to understand. This demon is a scary son of a bitch. I don't want you caught in the crossfire. I don't want you hurt."

"You don't have to worry about us."

"Of course I do. I'm your father." He argues. "Listen, Sammy, the last time we were together, we had one hell of a fight."

"Yes, sir." Sam says.

"It's good to see you again. It's been a long time."

"Too long." He agrees.

They hug, and Nyx takes a deep breath.

"I should probably call Jeremy." She says as she pulls her phone out of her pocket. "After everything that Meg said, I wanna make sure that they're all okay."

"Who?" John asks as he and Sam turn toward her.

"The woman who took us tonight said that our enemies became Nycole's once she and I got together." Dean fills his dad in. "She knew Nycole's siblings' names, and their legal guardian's, as well as her sister's boyfriend and his brother."

"She said that she was gonna kill us and then go after Nycole's family." Sam adds.

Nyx is about to hit call on Jeremy's contact when John suddenly flies backward. He hits the wall behind him, and then Sam goes down. Nyx ends up pinned to the floor and something scratches her across her chest.

"These things are shadow demons, let's light 'em up." Sam says and then he lights a flare, filling the room with a white glow. "Dad!" He yells as he runs over to him.

Nyx gets to her feet, and Dean rushes over to her. "Come on." He helps​ her stand up straight, and she clings to Dean's jacket as they run out of the motel together.

Sam helps John get out, and they run for the cars. "Alright, come on, we don't have much time — as soon as the flare's out, they'll be back." The youngest Winchester tells the others.

"Wait, wait. Sam, wait." Dean says, and they turn to him. "Dad, you can't come with us." He tells their father.

"What?" Sam questions. "What are you talking​ about?"

"You three — you're beat to hell." John argues.

"We'll be alright." Dean says.

"Dean, we should stick together! We'll go after those—"

"Sam, listen to me!" He quickly cuts off his brother. "We almost got Dad killed in there. Don't you understand? They're not gonna stop. They're gonna try again. They're gonna use us to get to him. I mean, Meg was right. Dad's vulnerable when he's with us. He... He's stronger without us around."

"Dad..." Sam turns to his father, and John looks at him. "No. After everything, after all the time we spent looking for you, please. I've got to be a part of this fight."

"Sammy, this fight is just starting, and we are all gonna have a part to play." John tells him. "For now, you've got to trust me, son. Okay? You've got to let me go."

Sam reluctantly agrees, and John walks over to his truck alone. He stops when he gets to the driver's side door and looks back at them. "Be careful." He says and then gets into the truck.

The other three hunters quickly climb into the Impala and watch the truck disappear. Dean then puts the car in reverse and then drives away.