CHAPTER SEVEN

Nyx and the Winchester brothers stop at the grill to eat before they hit the road, and then they end up running​ into Sheriff Forbes on their way back to the Impala. The blonde woman looks between the three of them.

"Nycole, boys — just who I was looking for." The sheriff says. "I need to see the three of you at the station."

"Is something wrong?" Nyx asks, confused.

"This isn't something that should be discussed in public." She tells them, and then she looks at the boys before again returning to the teenager.

"We'll meet you there." The youngest tells the sheriff, and she nods.

"Any idea what this is about?" Dean asks once she walks away, and Nyx shakes her head as she looks up at him.

The three hunters walk into the sheriff's office not half an hour later, and they see John Gilbert standing in the room as well. "What the hell is going on here?" Nyx question​s.

"I could ask you the same thing." Her uncle says, and she shakes her head.

"No, actually you can't. You lost all right to have anything to do with my life when I came to see you last Summer."

"Nycole, we're concerned." Sheriff Forbes says. "We just want to talk."

"I have nothing to say to him."

"Alright." John says as he picks a paper up off of the sheriff's desk. "Do you have anything to say about this?" He hands it to her, and she looks at what's on it.

It's a police report about the day that she was attacked by that shapeshifter in St. Louis. Dean shifts uncomfortably behind Nycole, and she looks back up at John.

"Now you wanna play the concerned uncle? Or are you trying to play father now?" The brunette questions, shoving the report into his chest. "Screw you, John."

"If you don't explain this to me, I'll have no choice but to arrest him." Sheriff Forbes says, and she looks at her.

"It wasn't him. You don't want to know anything else. Trust me." Nyx tells her.

"I heard you were pretty banged up when you showed up in town last night. It was bad and likely that you'd ended up in the hospital at some point." She tells her. "So, I ran a check on you and found that. I want answers."

"If I asked Caroline about you, would she be able to tell me anything about your V5 unit?" Nyx asks, and she hesitates for a moment before walking over to the door and closing it.

"Excuse me?" Sheriff Forbes questions.

"Vampires. The founder's council." The brunette says, not bothering to hide her anger.

"How do you know about that?"

"I know things that even you don't." She tells her. "You two deal with the monsters that come into Mystic Falls and threaten life here. We deal with the ones everywhere else in the country."

"I don't understand." Sheriff Forbes says, and Nyx looks at her for a second longer before turning to John.

"After our conversation last June, I was headed to Georgia. I made it to North Carolina and I stopped to get something to eat. It was late, but I hadn't eaten all day. When I was leaving the diner, something attacked me. It was fast and it was strong. I screamed for help and then the thing attacking me suddenly stopped.

"I looked up at this man's face, and I watched his skin turn all gray as veins rose all over his body. Then he fell to the ground, dead. I looked up, and Dean was standing in front of me​. I was freaked out and I was bleeding, so he got me out of there. He took me to his motel room and helped me clean my neck where the thing had bitten me. He explained to me what it was: a vampire.

"I kept asking questions, so he told me about all the monsters out there and he explained to me what he does. See, he reads about these unexplainable things and then he goes and investigates and kills the monsters that are hurting or killing people." She explains. "I asked him to take me with him, and he said no. Well, he'd never met anyone as stubborn or determined as me. I eventually convinced​ him and he started teaching me. He spent months helping me learn how to do what he does."

"And this?" Sheriff Forbes motions to the police report.

"Vampires aren't the only monsters in the world." Nyx tells her. "My first job with Dean was a voodoo thing in New Orleans. Then we went to California and picked up his brother, Sam. The three of us have killed ghosts, a wendigo, a shapeshifter, and vampires. While I was here once, they also sent a demon back to hell."

"You honestly​ expect us to believe any of that?" John questions.

"I really don't give a damn what you believe, John. What you think doesn't matter, it only matters if she believes me." She says.

"Tell me about this one." Sheriff Forbes says, and Nyx reluctantly nods.

"It was a shapeshifter — a skinwalker." She tells her. "Sam got an email from a friend of his saying that her brother was being charged with murder, but during the time that he was supposedly​ killing someone, he was actually with his sister, at their parents house. So, we went to St. Louis to see her and figure out what was really going on."

"This is ridiculous." John says, shaking his head.

"Shut up, John." Sheriff Forbes says.

"While we were there, another woman was beaten in exactly the same way as the first by a completely different person — her boyfriend. And just like the first suspect, he had a witness that placed him somewhere else when all of this was going on. We figured out what it was and went after it to kill it, but it caught us all off guard. It kidnapped us and locked the boys up in the sewer where it had been hiding​, then it took me to an abandoned building in town. I woke up, and it looked like Dean because it was able to take his...I don't know — form, I guess you'd call it. That's why it's called a shapeshifter." Nyx explains.

"That's why this report says that the suspect is dead." The sheriff says, and she nods.

"I fought it. It wasn't easy and it almost killed me. As you can see." She looks down at herself for a moment. "People heard the fight from the street and called the police. He had me pinned down with a knife to my throat when they finally showed up. I got him off of me, and he ran." She tells her.

"These injuries." She looks from Nyx to the page in front of her that has it all detailed. "Broken and bruised ribs, busted lip, split eyebrow, bruised knuckles, a large cut to your forearm..."

"The injuries to my ribs were from him hitting me. He slammed my head into the wall and that's how I cut my eyebrow open. He punched me in the face and split my lip. The cut on my arm was from his knife, he tried to stab me and I blocked it. My knuckles are from fighting back." She tells her. "This is the first time that Dean and Sam have heard the entire story of what happened to me that night. Look at them, and tell me if you think Dean did this to me."

Nyx looks at the boys and sees that both of their jaws are clenched so tight that she can see the strain on their faces. Sam's grabbing the chair in front of him so tight that his knuckles are white, and Dean's​ hands are clenched into tight fists; they both have tears in their eyes.

"They're my friends." Nycole says as she looks back at Sheriff Forbes. "They would never hurt me. The only reason they didn't help me is because they were trying to get out of the ropes they were tied up in. Sam was on his way to see me in the hospital when the shapeshifter kidnapped him again."

"How did it end up dead?" John asks, and she looks at him.

"Dean killed it." She tells him. "He looked at this thing — that had his face — and he shot it in the chest." She looks back over at the sheriff. "If my story and their reactions aren't​ enough for you, ask Stefan Salvatore. I changed my emergency contact, for obvious reasons, and he came to the hospital to make sure that I was okay. He was there, he left me with Dean and Sam because he knows that I'm safest with them."

"You three can go." Sheriff Forbes tells them.

"We're leaving town." She says and then looks back at John. "You know, I couldn't believe it when Elena told me that you are our biological father. I don't understand how we possibly could've come from you. You're arrogant and cruel. You can pretend that you care about us all you want, but I know that your every action is driven by hatred."

"That's not true." He argues.

"And I don't care enough to argue." She tells him. "But do not ever play the concerned father with me again. It's a disgrace to the man who actually loved me like a daughter."

"Nycole—"

"I hope you've enjoyed your time scheming with Isobel and Katherine. And I hope it's been worth making the only family you have left hate you. Go to hell, John." She says and then walks out of the sheriff's​ office with Dean and Sam right behind her.