CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Their rather large group pulls up outside the church tent and climbs out of the car. "If Roy is using a spell, there might be a spell book." Sam says.

"See if we can find it." Dean tells them.

"Hurry up, too. Service starts in fifteen minutes." Nyx adds.

"I'll try to stall Roy."

"Roy Le Grange is a fraud. He's no healer." The same protester from before says as they walk by him.

"Amen, brother." Dean says.

"Keep up the good work." Sam tells him.

"John, go with Dean. Elena, stay with me and Sam." Nyx says, and they split up.

The three of them go to Roy's house, which is by the tent that he "heals" from. They wait for him and his wife to leave and then go in through an open window.

"Hey, over here." Sam says when he finds​ something, and the twins walk over to where he's looking at an old book.

The book isn't what's important though, it's what he finds behind it that matters. It's a small leather book with information on reapers and a picture of the cross that Sam and John saw in the tent before. Then Sam finds​ an article about an openly gay teacher and the message that it supposedly​ sends to children. He finds more, and Nyx pulls out a different article that catches her attention.

Wright: 'local church a cult' and under the headline is a picture of the protester they just saw outside the tent.

"Sam." She gets his attention, and he looks at the article in her hand. "Roy's next victim." She says, and he pulls his phone out to call Dean and tell him​.

Once they're back outside, they go to the parking lot to look for the protester to protect him. Nyx walks between cars and looks through different rows, but she can't find him.

"Elena!" She calls, and her sister runs over to her.

"What's wrong?"

"Go find Dean. Tell him we can't find the protester, he has to stop Roy." Nyx tells her, and she runs for the tent.

She and Sam keep looking and soon enough they hear a man yelling​ for help. Both hunters turn and start in the direction that it seems to be coming from. "Help! Help me, please!" He yells.

"Where is he?" Sam asks when they get to the protester.

"It's right there!" Wright points, but they can't see anything.

"Alright. Come on, come on." Nyx pulls him in the opposite direction that he's pointing.

The three of them quickly take off running, and they stop when Sam's phone rings. "I think it's okay." He says, and Nyx looks at him.

"No." Wright says, and he falls to his knees.

"Dean, it didn't work! The reaper's still coming." Sam says into the phone.

"What do we do?" Nyx asks as Wright ends up laying on the ground.

She kneels down and grabs Wright's arm, and she tries to pull him back up, but he's too heavy for her to lift. She can't move his dead weight on her own. He suddenly starts to get better and he grabs her arm. She looks up at Sam.

"Hey, I got you." He says as he kneels down beside them. "I got you."

Sam helps him back to his feet. "Thank God." Wright mutters as Nyx starts looking around.

She sees two cops holding Dean, Elena, and John as Sue Ann walks out behind them. She tells them something and then walks away from them. One of the cops says something and then they push John and Dean forward. They both look at Elena one last time before walking​ away from the three of them.

They make their way over to Sam and Nyx and they all get into the Impala. Wright already left.

—

"So, Roy really believes." Nyx says as Dean paces the motel room.

"I don't think he has any idea what his wife's doing." He tells her.

He told her and Sam that it's not Roy controlling the reaper. It's his wife, Sue Ann. And they barely managed to stop her from killing Wright. They yelled that the tent was on fire, and Elena grabbed Sue Ann just before the reaper could kill Wright.

"Oh. We found this hidden in their library." Sam says as he pulls the little leather book out of his jacket pocket and hands it to his brother. "It's ancient. Written by a priest who went dark side."

"God, you two are such nerds." Nyx mutters, referring to the Star Wars reference.

"There's​ a binding spell in here for trapping a reaper." He says, ignoring her comment.

"Must be a hell of a spell." Dean says.

"Yeah." He nods. "You gotta build a black altar with seriously​ dark stuff: bones, human blood."

"To cross a line like that — that preacher's wife... Black magic, murder... It's evil." Nyx says, and Dean looks at her.

"It's desperate." He says. "Her husband was dying. She'd have done anything to save him. She was using the spell to keep the reaper away from Roy."

"Cheating death." Sam says. "Literally."

"But Roy's alive. So, why is she still using the spell?" John asks, and they look at him.

"To force the reaper to kill people she thinks are immoral." Nyx tells him.

"God save us from half the people who think they're doing God's work." Dean says, and she just nods.

"We got to break that binding spell." His brother says.

"Sue Ann had a cross just like that." Elena says as she looks at the book in Dean's hand. "When she dropped it, the reaper backed off."

"Look at you, you're​ learning​ faster than I did." Nyx says, and her sister smiles. "Then again, it took five months before I could convince Dean to take me out on a hunt."

"Because I had to teach your insubordinate ass how to fight." He says as he looks at her.

"My apologies, Colonel Hard-Ass." She says sarcastically. "I was raised to have a mind of my own. I've never been one to follow the crowd."

"Stop calling me that."

"Ay, ay, Captain." She says, and Elena laughs as Dean narrows his eyes at her.

"So, do you think we have to find​ the cross or destroy the altar?" Sam asks, once again being the one to get them back on topic.

"Maybe both." Dean says as he looks back at his brother. "Whatever we do, we better do it soon. Roy's healing a girl named Layla tonight." He tells them.

—

They pull up outside the reverend's house and see another car parked outside. "She's already here." Sam says and they get out of the Impala.

They all look inside the tent and see Roy with a blonde woman — Layla. There's a small group surrounding them.

"Where's Sue Ann?" Elena asks.

"House." Nyx says, and they start walking in that direction.

"Go find Sue Ann. I'll catch up." Dean tells them.

"What are you..." Sam trails off when he sees the cops by the house.

The others hide as he and John go to distract the cops. They quickly start chasing after two men, and Nyx, Sam, and Elena go to find Sue Ann.

They look inside a few of the windows of the house, but it's completely dark.

"Guys." Elena gets their attention, and they walk over to her.

She's looking at something below them and they follow her gaze. There's a basement and the crack between the doors has a light shining through. They go down there and find the altar that Sam was talking about from the book.

"Guys, we have a problem." Sam says, and the twins quickly walk over to him. There's a picture with an X in blood over the face.

"Is that me?" Elena asks, and Nyx sighs.

"Damn it." She mumbles.

"I gave your friend life, and I can take yours away." Sue Ann says from behind them, and Sam and Nyx turn around to face her. Elena turns away from the picture on the altar then, and Sue Ann's eyes widen when she sees the two of them.

"Let's go." Nyx grabs Elena's​ arm and shoves past Sue Ann.

They make it outside and the older woman follows soon after. They hear a crash from the basement and turn around. Sam's still down there, he destroyed the altar. Now, Sue Ann's locking him inside the basement.

She turns and looks between the twins. "You can run, but one of you is still going to die." She says, and Nyx sees the reaper as she turns.

"No." She whispers.

"You see him too?" Elena asks, and she nods. "What do we do?"

"Run." Nyx says, and they turn around and take off running.

The girls don't make it very far before the reaper's suddenly standing in front of them. They slide to a stop in the dirt, and Nyx makes Elena back up as she steps away from him.

"Nycole." Elena says, she sounds terrified.

"Find Sue Ann." Her sister quickly tells her. "Destroy the cross. Break it."

"What? I can't leave—"

"Elena, go!" Nyx yells, and she runs as the reaper walks toward Nycole.

He puts his hand on the side of her head, and she immediately feels an agonizing pain where he touches her. She lets out a scream as she drops to her knees. She's never felt pain like this before. It's almost unbearable.

"Nycole!" Dean yells as he runs toward her. He skids across the ground as he nears her, and then he quickly drops to his knees at her side.

She clenches her teeth as tight as she can, her eyes screwed shut, and she groans in pain as it only gets worse. It takes everything in her not to keep screaming from how much it hurts.

Dean wraps his arm around her as she starts to slump toward the dirt. Her hand finds his jacket and her fingers curl around the material as tears run down the sides of her face from the corners of her eyes. She feels Dean's fingers on her skin as they brush over her cheek, but it's no real comfort.

"Nyx. Nycole." John's at her side now too. He grabs her arm.

Suddenly, the pain just stops, and she gasps as she opens her eyes. The reaper's slowly backing away from her and he turns around. He actually looks confused for a moment, and then he completely disappears from her sight.

"Nycole?" Dean's voice is low, still laced with worry, and she looks up at him.

"He's gone." She says and then leans against his chest.

He wraps both of his arms around her as she lays her head against him. Her breathing's​ still heavy as she looks over at John.

"I'm okay." She tells him. "But you need to find Elena. We could both see the reaper." She says, and he quickly gets to his feet and runs in search of his other daughter.

Nyx turns her head and buries her face in Dean's chest as she closes her eyes. He brushes her hair back, tucking it behind her ear as he lets his head hang next to hers. He presses a kiss to her hair, near her forehead.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asks, his voice low, and Nyx sits up and looks at him.

She nods. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure." She tells him, and he helps her to her feet.

He wraps his arm around her shoulders and pulls her into his side as he leads her toward the Impala. She leans into him, her hand clutching tightly to his jacket. Once at the car, the pair settle against the driver's side and he keeps her close. Watching her nearly get killed by something that he couldn't see, couldn't fight to protect her against — it's the most terrifying thing that he's ever witnessed.

Elena beats Sam and John back to the car, and she sighs in relief when she sees Nycole leaning against Dean. "Oh, thank God." She mutters as she walks over to and reaches for her sister's hand. "I was afraid I didn't break the cross in time. I thought that he—"

"I'm okay." Nyx tells her as she pulls away from Dean and turns to her sister. She can feel Dean's hand on her lower back, not willing to completely let go. "Not bad for your first hunt. You saved my ass tonight, Elena."

The younger girl chuckles. "How do you do this all the time?" She asks, and Nyx smiles as she looks between Dean and Sam.

"Them." She says as she turns back to her sister. "I'm okay out here. You don't have to worry about me so much."

Elena looks up at Dean. "Nycole told me...how much you blame yourself for what happened to her against that skinwalker." She says, and his eyebrow furrows as he wonders where this is going. "I can't help thinking that that's partially my fault. I shouldn't have put all of that on you when I asked to talk to you that day. I know that you'll do everything you can to protect her, but sometimes you can't. I'm sorry I added to the pressure you already put on yourself."

"You were worried about your sister, you never have to apologize for that." He tells her, and she smiles. "But I promise you, I will always be here to protect her."

—

"I'll take our stuff out to the cab." John says as he grabs his bag.

"I'll help." Nyx says as she grabs Elena's.

"I'm gonna go say bye to Sam and Dean." Elena says as her sister and their uncle leave their motel room.

They put the stuff in the trunk, and Nyx looks at John. "I wanted to ask you something." She says, and he looks down at her.

"And what's that​?" He asks.

"I want to know how you could show up to family events​ — like family game night — and see me and Elena, and say nothing. I want to know how you could watch us grow up and not tell your​ brother the truth. I want to know how you could stay away the way that you did all our lives." She says, tears filling her eyes, and he looks away. "But mostly, I want to know how you could say those things to me when I showed up asking you for help after the funeral. How could you look your daughter in the eye and tell her that you would be disappointed in her if she went off on her own for a little while to try and find who she is without the people that raised her for almost seventeen years while you hid from your responsibilities as my father?"

He looks back at her. "I don't have an answer that's going to make you feel any better, Nycole." He says, and she clenches her teeth. "I'm guessing this is the part where you slap me for being a disappointment and then go back inside to stay with your boyfriend and his younger brother."

"No." She shakes her head. "I don't slap."

Her hand balls up into a fist and she punches him across the face. He stumbles to the side and steadies himself using the back of the cab. She wipes the tears from her face and turns away from him.

Sam and Elena stand by the open door to his motel room, shocked by what the two of them just saw. They just walked out so they don't know why Nyx just hit John.

"My parents are Miranda and Grayson, no matter what biology says." Nycole says, her voice no higher than a whisper. "I don't need anyone else, they were the best parents I could've possibly asked for. And I sure as hell don't need you or that vampire bitch, Isobel." She tells John and then walks away, going​ back inside the motel.