CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

"Elena, if you give me one minute to explain—"

"Explain how you're teaching Jeremy to be a hunter while tracking Stefan and telling Damon where he is?" She cuts her sister off. "I don't want to hear it, Nycole."

Nyx stands there for a second after she hangs up and then chucks her phone across the hall. It hits a wall and then breaks. She takes a deep breath and then walks over to pick up the pieces.

She goes back into the motel room, and the boys all look at her. "Hey, is everything okay?" Dean asks.

"Yeah, everything's fine. Can I borrow your phone?" She asks him.

"What happened to yours?"

"It's, uh... Dead." She tells him, and he hands her his phone.

"We're headed to Salvation, Iowa." He tells her, and she nods.

"I'll put my stuff in the car." She grabs her bag and walks outside before calling Ric.

"Hello?" He answers.

"Can you explain to Elena what we're doing?" Nyx asks him.

"I think she knows."

"I'm not training Jeremy to be a hunter." She argues. "He's just here because he's worried about me. What was I supposed to do? Pack his bags for him and force him to leave?"

"There's an idea." He says, and she sighs.

"You don't think Jeremy should be out here either." She says as she looks down.

"I didn't think you should've taken him in the first place." He tells her.

"He wasn't​ exactly forthcoming with the real reason that he wanted to come with us, Ric." She tells him. "I was trying to help​ him."

"Just take care of him. I'll try to talk to your sister." He says, and she nods.

"Thanks."

The hunters leave for Salvation, and they make it there the next day. John's leading the way in his truck, and Dean follows when his dad pulls off to the side of the road. The four in the Impala get out to talk to him, all of them now standing in the dirt.

"Damn it." John says.

"What is it?" Dean asks.

"Son of a bitch."

"What is it?"

"I just got a call from Caleb."

"Is he okay?"

"He's fine. Jim Murphy's dead." John tells them.

"Pastor Jim?" Sam asks, surprised, and his dad nods. "How?"

"Throat was slashed. He bled out." He says. "Caleb said they found traces of sulfur at Jim's place."

"A demon?" Dean asks. "The demon?"

"I don't know. Could be he just got careless. He slipped up. Maybe the demon knows we're getting close."

"What do you want to do?"

"Now, we act like every second counts." John says. "There's two hospitals and a health center in this county. We split up. We cover more ground. I want records. I want a list of every infant that's gonna be six months old in the next week."

"Dad, that could be dozens of kids." Sam says. "How the hell are we gonna know which one's the right one?"

"We'll check them all. That's how." He says. "You got any better ideas."

"No, sir."

"Nycole, I want you to come with me, if that's alright." John looks at her, and she nods.

"Yeah, no problem." She walks past Dean and slips his phone into his pocket as she goes.

"Dad?" Dean calls.

"Yeah." He turns back to him. "It's Jim. You know, I can't... This ends now. I'm ending it. I don't care what it takes." He starts for the truck, and Nyx starts walking toward the passenger side.

"Nyx." He calls as he quickly walks over to her. She turns around to face him, and he leans down and kisses her as soon as he reaches where she's standing. "Be careful."

"You too." She says and then look​s over at her brother. "Stay with Dean. I mean it. You do not leave his side."

"I promise." Jeremy nods, and she turns around and gets into John's truck.

The two of them get to the hospital, and John pulls out a fake I.D. "We'll call you a trainee or a student, see how far I can get you in." He says, and she nods. "Just act the part."

"No problem." She says, and they head inside.

The receptionist accepts that Nyx is a student that John's teaching and lets them inside. They start looking for as much information as they can possibly find to help them out.

John gets a call from Sam a little while later, and they immediately leave to meet the boys at a motel. Once they get to a room, they all go inside, and Sam tells them what's going on.

"A vision?" John questions.

"Yes." Sam says. "I saw the demon burning a woman on the ceiling."

"And you think it's going to happen to this woman you met because?"

"Because these things happen exactly the way I see them." He explains.

"It started out as nightmares, and then he started having them while he was awake." Dean tells their dad.

"It's like... I don't know. It's like the closer I get to anything involving the demon, the stronger the visions get."

"Alright, when were you gonna tell me about this?" John questions.

"We didn't know what it meant." Dean says as they all look at him.

"Something like this starts happening to your brother, you pick up the phone and you call me."

"Because you answer your phone so damn often." Nyx says as she stands up and walks past him.

"Excuse me?"

"No, Nycole's right." Dean says. "Dad, she and I both called you from Lawrence. Sam called you when I was dying. Hell, even Nyx's father showed up with her sister then, and he didn't even like me — he hated me. I called you after Klaus took her. Getting you on the phone— I got a better chance of winning the lottery."

John nods. "You're right." He looks between the two of them. "Although I'm not real crazy about this new tone of yours, you're right."

"I am." Nyx says as she walks over to the coffee pot.

"Nycole—" Sam starts.

"Yeah, I know." She cuts him off. "Sorry."

"Look, visions or no visions, we know the demon is coming tonight." He says as Dean walks over to Nyx. "This family's​ gonna go through the same hell we went through."

"No, they're not." John says, his eyes on his oldest son as he leans down and kisses the top of the brunette's head. "No one is... Ever again."

Dean and Nycole lean against the counter with their coffee cups, and he looks at her. "Should you be drinking that?" Dean asks, and she narrows her eyes as she looks up at him.

"I haven't been sleeping well, and I need something to keep me awake right now. I swear, at least one of these little Gremlins is a boy, and he takes after you." She says accusingly. "Friggin' pain in my ass, man, I swear. And I haven't had any caffeinated drinks since Texas, so bite me."

Nycole tries to walk away from him, but he grabs her waist and pulls her back against him. She leans against his chest, and he lowers his head so that he can bite her shoulder. She smirks as she shakes her head at him.

"Smartass." She mutters, and he chuckles.

"That's what you get for calling my children Gremlins." Dean says, and she rolls her eyes.

Sam's phone starts ringing then and he picks it up from the table in front of him. "Hello?" He answers as John chuckles, watching his oldest with his girlfriend. "Who is this?"

"Hey, what happened to your phone again?" Dean whispers, his lips near Nyx's ear since she's still leaning with her back against his chest.

"I killed it." She mumbles as she takes a sip of her coffee.

"What?"

"Meg." Sam says, immediately gaining all of their attention. Jeremy looks at his sister and Dean as they both stand up straight — the youngest doesn't understand the significance of who's calling. "Last time I saw you, you fell out of a window​."

Nyx grabs Dean's arm as he tightens one of them around her waist, and he sets his coffee down. She squeezes his arm tight and he rests his other hand on her hip as he pulls her flush against him. He's trying to comfort her, knowing how rattled she was when Meg threatened to go after her family. And having Jeremy with them actually makes her a little more nervous.

"My dad. I don't know where my dad is." Sam lies as John walks over to him.

He hesitates for a second and then hands the phone over to his dad. "This is John." The oldest Winchester says.

"Nycole, baby, I'm losing circulation in my arm." Dean whispers to her, and she reluctantly loosens her grip, though she never takes her eyes off of his father.

"Caleb." John sounds worried now. "Caleb... You listen to me. He's got nothing to do with anything. Let him go."

Jeremy sits down on the foot of one of the beds, his gaze constantly flickering to his sister so he can gauge how she's doing.

"I don't know what you're talking about." John says, obviously angry.

"I'm gonna teach you three about this little thing called speaker—" Nyx is whispering to Dean, but she's cut off by his father yelling.

"Caleb. Caleb!" His expression hardens after that, and his jaw clenches. "I'm gonna kill you. You know that?"

"I don't like this." Her voice is barely a whisper; only Dean heard her.

John suddenly looks over at Nyx and sighs, which causes Dean to tense up behind her as her eyebrows furrow. "Okay." He says, and Jeremy stands up again as he looks at his sister.

"I swear to God..." Dean's voice trails off; he's talking to himself.

"I said okay. I'll bring you the colt."

"Come on..." Nyx mutters.

"It's gonna take me about a day's drive to get there." He tells Meg and then pauses again. "That's impossible. I can't get there in time, and I can't just carry a gun on a plane."

Jeremy shifts uncomfortably on his feet, not liking that John looked at his sister, and they have no idea why. And Sam's still sitting at the table, his eyes on his father as he waits for information.

"Now tell me about Klaus." John says, and Nyx's​ teeth clench. Dean's hands move protectively over her baby bump, and Sam and Jeremy look over at them as tears fill her eyes.

He finally hangs up and looks at Nyx. "What did she say?" She asks.

"Klaus is looking for werewolves." He tells her. "He wants to create more hybrids like himself."

"And?"

"She doesn't think he'll be able to."

"Because I'm alive?" She asks, and he nods.

"And possibly even Elena."

"Damn it." She pulls out of Dean's grip and looks up at him. "Give me your phone." She says, and he pulls it out of his back pocket and hands it to her.

Nyx goes outside the room to call Ric so that they can talk. "I haven't talked to her yet." He says when he answers.

"Klaus is looking to make hybrids, and there's a possibility that he may not be able to because I'm still alive." She tells him. "It also might be because Elena's alive too."

"How do you know all this?" He asks.

"Let's just say, a little birdy told me."

"Do you think you guys are in any danger?" Damon's voice comes through the phone.

"I don't​ know." She tells him. "Just keep Elena away from Klaus and Stefan." She says and then hangs up the phone.

Nyx walks back into the room and hears what John's saying. "I want to stop losing the people we love. I want you to go to school. I want Dean to have a home and to build a real life with Nycole, I want them to have that choice for them and their kids." He says as she walks over to the boys and he turns away from them. "I want Mary alive. I just..." He looks back at them. "I want this to be over." Nyx takes a deep breath, and John looks at her. "Is Elena safe?" He asks.

"As long as she stays away from Stefan and Klaus, she should be." She tells them. "Damon and Ric are keeping an eye on her."

"Do you think Klaus will come after you guys?" Dean asks.

"If he can't make hybrids, yes." She nods.

"Did you know this was a possibility?"

"No, I had no idea."

"Are you okay?" Sam asks, and she looks at him and her brother.

"I'm fine. I'm not gonna worry about something that hasn't happened yet." She tells them. "And neither should either of you."

"You know, my advice sucks." Dean says, referring to the conversation they had outside their motel room when they had their first conversation about the twins.

—

Dean and Nyx get out of the Impala, and the pair walk over to Sam, John, and Jeremy.

"Did you get it?" John asks them. Dean pulls a gun out of the pocket on the inside of his jacket and hands it to John.

"You know this is a trap, don't you?" He asks his dad. "That's why Meg wants you to come alone."

"I can handle her. I got a whole arsenal loaded. Holy water, Mandaic amulets."

"Dad."

"What?"

"Promise me something." Dean says as they look at each other.

"What's that?"

"This thing goes south, just get the hell out. Don't get yourself killed, alright? You're no good to us dead."

"Same goes for you. All of you." He adds as he looks between Nyx and Jeremy, and she nods. "Alright, listen to me. They made the bullets special for this colt. There's only four of them left — without them, this gun is useless. You make every shot count."

"Yes, sir." Sam says.

"I've been waiting a long time for this fight. Now it's here, and I'm not gonna be in it. It's up to you four now. It's your fight. You finish this. You finish what I started." He says as he looks at them. "You understand?"

Sam nods, and John hands the real colt over to Dean. "We'll see you soon, Dad." Sam says.

"I'll see you later." He says and then walks away from the four of them. He goes and climbs into his truck, before driving off.