30

*Elly POV*

I opened the door to the motel room the next morning and paused as I found Jack in front of the mirror trying to tie his tie. His dirty blonde hair had been slicked back and the suit coat with the school's emblem was laid nicely on the bed behind him. I smiled a little as he struggled to get the knot just right and at the muffled voice from the laptop in front of him.

"I said to go over the top and down," it said.

"I'm trying." Jack hissed through his teeth. He groaned in frustration and threw his hands down at his sides. 

I quietly stepped further into the room and closed the door, setting breakfast down on the small round table next to the window. I took a seat on the edge of one of the beds and tilted my head just enough to see Cas on the laptop screen.

"I can't do this," Jack grumbled.

Cas frowned. "One moment." He disappeared off-screen. "Dean!"

A low groan came from the speaker and I smiled more. It sounded like Cas had woken Dean up. "What do you want Cas?" 

"Come help me."

I swallowed a chuckle as Dean appeared now, groggy, shirtless, and his dirty blonde locks still sticking up with bedhead. He rubbed at his candy apple green eyes and yawned before blinking the sleep from his eyes and focusing on Jack.

"What kind of origami shit were you trying to do?" Dean teased lightly. "Untie that crane. Come on." Jack untied the fabric around his neck with a deep calming breath. "You want the bigger side on your right." Jack quickly switched the tie around. "Now, the bigger side goes on top and then it goes up and under. There ya go."

"Where did you learn this?" Jack asked, his tongue sticking out between his teeth as he concentrated.

"Believe it or not, my dad did teach me some things." Dean chuckled softly. "Now take the large side and wrap it around the other one. Now go back under and up again."

"Like this?"

"Exactly, kid." Dean complimented with a handsome smile on his face. "Just put it through that loop and tighten it."

"Thank you, Dean." Jack sighed, tie completed.

"Anytime, Jack."

Jack closed the laptop and suddenly jumped as he noticed me for the first time. "How long have you been back?"

"Long enough," I said kindly. "I forgot that you don't eat, so I brought some food for both of us. But even Ally eats, so if you would like to join me you can."

Jack hesitated for a moment before walking towards the table as I got up to take a seat at it. He took the seat across from me and I held a styrofoam box out to him. He gently took it and opened it. The sweet smell of pancakes and syrup-filled the room. I had forgotten that Nephilim didn't commonly eat. It was a hard thing to settle on, especially when I had been cooking for one for the last eighteen years. And when we were at the bunker, even Alex, Cas, and Lucifer at least attempted to eat.

"Thank you," Jack said softly.

"You're welcome," I replied, opening my box and taking a bite of pancake. "You excited for your first day?"

"It's just school." He said with a shrug, digging in. "I'm sure I'll be fine. What are you going to do?"

"I think I'm going to stop by the morgue and see if I can get any more information on the bodies that have come up." I nodded to myself. "The descriptions in the articles about it are pretty vague. And then I think I'll try to see if I can get us in to talk to this Max guy."

"Didn't you say that we wouldn't be able to?" Jack asked around a mouthful of food.

"I said it would be difficult, not that we couldn't." I pointed out gently. "I'll see what I can do. Might call around and see if Bobby has any connections."

The rest of the morning passed on in silence as we finished eating and Jack went through everything he would need. The drive to the school wasn't any louder, but at least this one didn't feel like an awkward silence.

"Have a good day." I offered as Jack got out of the car. He froze hand still on the door. "What?"

"Is this what it's like to be normal?" What an odd question.

"I mean, we're still hunting…"

"No. Is this what normally happens when you go to school?" He rephrased.

I frowned, unsure of the answer he was looking for. "Yes?" I settled on.

I knew he had seen different school things depicted in movies. Just the other week, Dean had sat us all down to watch 'Freaky Friday'. I knew that there were many differences between the movies and real life, but it was still a pretty basic school day. A rich, popular kids' school day, but still a school day nonetheless. 

"It would be more normal if I were to pick you up at the end of the day, but you'll be staying here tonight, remember?" I said. "I do want you to have a good day. I promise it's not as bad as the movies and books make it seem."

Jack seemed to hesitate on what he wanted to say next as he closed the door. "Thank you, Elizabeth." He walked away from the car and I sighed before pulling out of the parking lot.

I knew getting comfortable with him would just take time. That part was inevitable. Just like it was impossible for this not to be awkward and hard at times. After all of the horrible things that had happened in my life, I wanted this one thing to at least go right, and it still felt like I was asking a lot. I knew there would be no saving me from Hell when I did die, this world or mine, but maybe creating this bridge with Jack would at least shine a little light on my name. 

I groaned and rested my head against the steering wheel as I came to a red light. "What the hell is wrong with me?"

I jolted back up as someone honked behind me and found the green light waiting. I turned the radio on as I pulled forward, 'Take it Easy' by The Eagles blasting through the speakers as I drove.

"Why does the FBI want in on this case?" The mortician asked, his arms folded across his broad chest, dark blue eyes cold and icy.

"Isn't it a little strange that you caught the guy a decade ago and yet there's still bodies coming up? That should be answer enough to why I'm here. Because someone here didn't do their job right the first time." I wasn't going to take any of his shit. I didn't have to with this badge. It made me above him. "May I see the body now, Dr. Herd?"

His thin lips were turned down in a frown, but he didn't fight it again. He simply went to the freezer and pulled open one of the large doors, dragging out a silver table topped with a dead body, white cloth draped over it. It had turned up this morning. I'd heard the call come across the radar just after dropping off Jack. That made seven now.

"Your last name's an interesting one…" I started to say.

"Max was my brother." He interrupted, grumbling as he pulled back the cloth. He turned away to grab a clipboard from the wall beside the freezer. "His decisions do not define my worth."

That was better than I could hope for. "It sounds like you don't think highly of him then."

Dr. Herd shoved the clipboard into my hands. I flipped through the pages as he took a seat on a stool behind us. He didn't offer me one.

"He'd been weird ever since we were little." He said gruffly. "Killed the neighbor's cat. Talked about hearing voices and seeing things that told him to do things."

"Was he schizophrenic?" I asked, trying to discern the badly scribbled text in front of me.

"He was never diagnosed," Herd said.

"Why not?" I looked up from the clipboard to find the man inspecting his nails as if he was bored. 

He was a handsome man, with dark golden curls and deep forest-green eyes. Even wearing something as casual as jeans and a button-up with a doctor's coat appeared better on him than most. His honied skin was even accented by a small yet beautifully carved Inuit-style wolf hanging around his neck. But the ego that seemed to leak into all of his words and posture was enough to scare anyone off. "He could have gotten help with an insanity plea that way."

"The doctors didn't think he was telling the truth. Just thought he had an 'overactive imagination' and he was making it all up." My nose scrunched at that. I was going to ask more, but he continued. "Are you done?"

"No," I said stiffly.

I put the clipboard down on the end of the body table and looked down at the graying corpse. It was just like the others. Hands, feet, and head had been removed. The cuts at the wrists, ankles, and shoulders were rough, as if the appendages had been ripped off rather than sawn or cut. There were deep slashes down the chest of the victim, cutting straight through the flesh and into the rib cage. There were even a few ribs that seemed to have been sliced clean through. No werewolf I knew could do that. Not to even start on how much bigger these cuts were compared to any werewolf injury I had seen. It almost looked more like a bear attack.

"This body was found along the edge of the woods?" I asked.

"Just like all the rest," Herd said lazily.

"The clipboard said his name was Marcus Reese. Wasn't he out hunting deer at the time of his disappearance a few days ago?" I knew the answer to this of course. I had done as much research into the bodies as I could get my hands on before coming in here. But fishing for anything Herd knew that the public didn't would be good to have.

"I haven't messed up the paperwork if that's what you're fishing for, sweetheart." He wasn't going to be easy to play. Which was good. He knew his job well and his rights even better it seemed.

"I was just making sure you were being truthful," I said almost as coldly as he had. "Was there anything that got caught in the cuts or to the body?" There had to be something more.

"No. They were clean cuts, straight through. Just like they are now." There it was. Something in his tone that suggested he was hiding something small. Something he thought wasn't important, that any normal cop would just brush off and forget about. He hadn't met a hunter before then.

"Right," I said, not looking up at him. He needed to think I hadn't heard his tone change, to think I was just some normal fed.

I looked over the body again, getting close enough to just smell the lingering smell of pine, petrichor, and blood on it. There was nothing more I could learn about it. If there had been anything stuck to it, hair, spit, shed nails, or maybe a tooth, it was gone now. Picked clean after it had gotten here. We'd need to keep an eye on Herd. I had no doubt he was somehow part of this now. Maybe he was covering for his brother or knew the new thing that was doing this. Either way, it was clear he couldn't be trusted anymore.

"I'm done here then," I stated, straightening up again. "I'll call if I need any other information from you, or if a new body shows up."

Herd nodded, stood slowly, and walked up to me. "You know the way out then." He said as he slid the sheet back over the mangled corpse.

I stepped back from him and found my way out of the cold room and back to the main office. I stepped out into the afternoon sun and shook my head. There was no way I had just caught the same smell coming from Dr. Herd as I'd passed him.

"No Bobby, I promise you're not just hearing things." I chuckled softly, sitting in a chair next to the window of the motel room, phone to my ear. "I am Elizabeth Castle, and I do need your help."

"Well excuse me for being cautious." The older man chuffed. "The last time one of you came back it was as a demon."

"And we all know how you cried when you hugged her." I laughed now. "Can you please listen to what I've got going on now?"

Bobby Singer grumbled something about making Alex pay for the gossip whenever he saw her again and sighed. "Whatcha got kiddo?"

I smiled at the soft nickname. "I'm not sure. It sounds like a werewolf, but it's not stealing hearts and the wounds on these bodies are…" I paused, trying to think of the wording. "Too large I guess. Is there something like a were-bear maybe?"

Bobby laughed at that. "Not that I know of. But plenty of weird shit has been popping up recently. Have you seen any signs of a pack?"

I thought about it. We hadn't. Sure enough bodies were popping up for that to be possible, but with how infrequent they were being found, it was unlikely to be more than one creature.

"Honestly no. There's been seven kills, including the one that turned up this morning. But the one before that was almost a year ago." I sighed. "It sounds like a single thing that doesn't have to hunt that often, or doesn't want to."

"That's not werewolf behavior. They always stick to packs of at least three and hunt often enough to feed the group." Bobby hummed in thought for a second. "It sounds more like an Amarok."

"A what now?" I asked.

"Remind me to have the boys go over the lesser-known things again." Bobby sighed. "It's an old Inuit myth creature. They look like gigantic wolves, save for the ridge of black spines down their backs and the carved totem pole for a head. They're lone hunters and kill anyone they find alone in the woods at night."

"And that's why we've never heard of one?" I asked, "They have to be more common than that. Like the Wendigo myths?"

"Would you announce yourself to hunters if your more common brothers made enough noise to keep them busy for centuries now?" Booby pointed out. "I wouldn't be surprised if this thing has been hiding in plain sight for decades now and we only just caught wind of it because of the werewolves dying out."

"It would make sense." I sat with the static of the phone connection for a moment, until something else Bobby had said clicked. "You said it's an Inuit myth?"

"Yup. To keep children and young men from wandering around in the woods on their own." Bobby said.

"I gotta go, Bobby. I think I have a lead."

"Are you sure about this?" Jack asked from the passenger seat.

I had rushed to pick him up once I had hung up with Bobby. The school hadn't wanted to let him just leave on his first night in the dorms, but there wasn't much they could do against a Nephilim who could teleport.

"As sure as Gabriel is still alive and playing blackjack with Loki," I said more to myself than to Jack.

I brushed off the feeling of confusion that filled the car as I focused on the dark house that sat across the road. I'd parked a little down the opposite block from the little white home. It hadn't been hard to search for Dr. Herd's address, and it had been even easier to get here through town. I knew the man was home. Apart from his car in the driveway, the morgue had closed up shop a few hours ago. But the house was still dark, almost cold. It only solidified the feeling in my mind that he was the Amarok we hunted.

"And you couldn't have mistaken what he was wearing?" Jack asked. I had filled him in earlier, but I wasn't annoyed by his questions. It was nice that he wanted to make sure.

"No way. It was too close to be anything else." I answered him. "And that's too much of a coincidence for me to not pay attention to."

"Alright then. So what do we do?" Jack sat forward in his seat, looking towards the dark house.

"We wait and watch for right now. I was able to pull up the blueprints for the house while I was waiting for you." I motioned to the closed laptop in the back seat. "There's a backdoor, so if he is this thing he'll probably use that to get out to the woods. But I'm not sure if he'd need to hunt tonight either. There was already a new victim this morning."

"So we just wait," Jack repeated. "Right."

And we did. We watched the dark house as the sky around it grew steadily darker as well. We watched the small house until two in the morning. Still, nothing happened. Not even a shift of shadows in front of the windows. 

"You should rest," Jack stated suddenly, breaking the heavy silence that had settled around us.

"I'm fine." I didn't want to take my eyes off of the dwelling. Not even for a moment. That would be when it would happen.

But my eyes were growing heavy, and exhaustion pulled down on my limbs, making my arms and legs feel like lead. I knew it would be a losing battle if something didn't happen soon. If nothing slunk out of the shadows or from the trees behind the house, I would be asleep in my seat and it would be up to Jack to watch. I couldn't do that to him. It wasn't fair to leave him alone in this, Nephilim or not.

I opened my mouth to make another comment on how hunters didn't need to sleep but closed it as something did finally move between a few trees behind the house. I sat straight up, sleep forgotten as my blood began to race.

"Tell me you saw that," I whispered.

"Yes," Jack answered.

"Good." I thought quickly about our next steps. "Get out, quietly. And we'll go take a closer look. Make sure you have a…" Jack wouldn't need a gun. "Never mind, just get out and wait for me."

I saw him nod out of the corner of my eye before opening the door and moving as quietly as he could. I did the same, standing in the road now until he came silently to my side. I nodded and slowly started towards the house.

It wasn't hard to be quiet as we crossed the cooling asphalt and started along the neatly cut lawn. There were no bushes or flower beds or gravel driveways to avoid. There wasn't even a stray cricket to stop its noise as we passed. Even more confirmation that we were in the right area. 

I stopped at the edge of the house, just before turning into the backyard. We could hear it now. A soft whimpering sound, followed by crunching and something tearing. Damn it. It sounded like he had killed…

"Stop that." Came Herd's voice just beyond this corner. "You can't just…stop. You're going to draw attention."

Was he talking to it? Was there another one of them? Or had he just not transformed yet? It didn't seem to be conditional like werewolves were, but that didn't mean it wasn't. But if he was talking to it, did that mean that he wasn't the Amarok? 

"I…I can't stop…" A new voice said. They sounded tired. "I can't stop it…the thing wants to…it wants to hurt…them."

"You have to control it." Herd sounded annoyed. "If you can't get a hold of it you're going to end up just like your uncle."

His son? Herd had a child? That hadn't been anywhere in the information I had dug up on him. There had been nothing about a child, alive or dead. How had he been able to hide him if this was his child? Why wasn't he hiding him now?

There was more of a tearing sound and more whimpering. It almost sounded like cloth tearing, but there was something under the sound that told me it wasn't just cloth. A sickly, wet sound that suggested there was skin tearing as well. A low growl tore through the air.

"For fuck's sake, Jacob." Herd cursed. "You're going to wake the neighbors.

"Help…me…" The words were not those of the owner anymore. The animalistic growls took over for the human phonics. Until the words were no more than guttural sounds.

And I was going to take that as my cue to reveal Jack and I. I turned to the Nephilim, his golden glowing eyes confirming we had the same thought. I pushed off the wall and rounded the corner, gun-cocked and searching for either Herd or the monster. 

I wasn't prepared for the thing that greeted us. A student's uniform lay shredded on the ground around the things large feet. The massive, monstrous paws looked like they were triple the size of my head and led up to a body that was easily bigger than anything I had ever faced before. The creature's shoulders almost came flush with the beginning of the house roof. Huge black quills lined down its spine, thick and barbed. And it's head. It almost looked as if it were carved from the trunk of a large tree. Dark red, blue, and white paint covered its features and defined its ears, eyes, and jaw. The ears stood straight up, stiff in the wood it was carved from. Its eyes were nothing more than black pits rimmed with deep blue paint. White steam hovered in the air around its carved red snout as the creature huffed hot breath into the autumn night air. Its jaw opened and closed, snapping shut like a mouse trap.

I was paralyzed as I stared at it. Every thought of this hunt being easy or ending here and now leaving as I took it in. The massive thing hadn't seen me yet, or at least I didn't think it had. There was no indication that it had noticed anything more than the man in front of it. But Herd had heard us as we'd rushed around the side of the house and my gun had cocked. 

"Whoa there." He said, my attention slipping to him. "This isn't what it looks like."

"Oh really. It doesn't look like your son is a monster?" Jack said behind me. I could feel the energy radiating from him as the monster's attention finally pulled to us, solid golden spheres appearing in its eyes.

Herd clicked his tongue. "You're hunters aren't you?"

His declaration snapped me from my paralysis. "And your son is a murderer."

"My son can't control the family curse. Nothing else." Herd sighed.

"Then I'm sorry, but he has to die," Jack muttered.

"Hey now!" Herd stepped closer to us. "He hasn't done anything wrong."

"He's killed seven people," I said, stepping in front of Jack. "I would say that's a pretty wrong thing to do."

"And do you know what those people have done?" Herd stated, throwing his arms out to the side. "Because it might change your mind."

"They were still people." I hissed.

"You wouldn't say that if you knew them." Herd started. "Some of them bullied other young men until they committed suicide. Others belong to families that are corrupting the city around us. Stealing money through the churches or polluting the ground around them with unnecessary buildings like that damn new theater. They dug up a grave sight for that eye sore!"

"That does not give him the right to kill people," I stated. "No matter what they or their family have done, they are still human lives. And that can not be allowed to continue."

"So you would kill an innocent child who has no control over himself and is arguably doing good by ridding the world of scum?" The creature lowered its head next to Herd. God, the thing's head was almost as tall as him.

"Yes. Don't make us kill you too." Jack said. He stepped around me, hand out towards both human and monster.

Herd sighed. "I was so hoping this wouldn't be too messy."

He sidestepped, and something in the beast decided that was the signal to lurch forward. It was across the small backyard and to us in a matter of seconds. I had barely enough time to jump out of its way as it barrelled towards us. I turned back as my feet slid in the grass, and found Jack hadn't moved. Instead, he was now face to face with the monster, hands gripping the thing's nostrils with all his strength. There were hard tracks in the dirt now from where Jack's heels had dug in as the creature pushed against him. 

The Amarok huffed a hot breath out, obscuring Jack in thick white steam for a moment as it studied him. Its jaw opened and clicked shut, its carved teeth more like stakes than true teeth. 

"I'm not just a hunter." Jack smiled at it. "I am a child of Lucifer. The fallen angel and devil himself, and I will not fall to you."

The Amarok opened its jaws again and roared at Jack before picking its large head up and shaking it vigorously, trying to shake Jack off. But Jack held on, his hands beginning to glow with energy and the wooden head beneath them starting to smoke as it burned. The creature let out a pained howl, throwing its head towards the ground and slamming Jack down, pinning him against the grass and its jaw. 

"Jack!" I yelled out.

I took a step towards the creature, unsure of what to do until I raised my gun again and aimed for it. I could shoot it. I would shoot for its heart and hope that it had one. I had loaded the gun with silver bullets in preparation for a fight, even if we had no idea if it would have the same weakness as a werewolf or not. But I had to try. I had to protect Jack. Save him.

So I aimed for just behind the thing's shoulder as Jack struggled beneath it. I took a deep breath as it opened its jaw again and lowered its teeth to Jack's face. I started to pull the trigger, but as the gun discharged, a hard force smacked into me. I tumbled to the ground with Herd, the tackle throwing off the gun's trajectory and causing the bullet to just miss the vital part of the beast.

The thing cried out as Herd yelled at me. "I will not let you kill my son!" 

I threw the butt of my gun into his jaw, throwing Herd to the side enough for me to get to my feet and aim it at him instead.

"Your son is a monster and I will not let him continue to kill things." I looked up when the thing cried out again.

Jack had gotten free of it and was sending his golden energy through it again. It wouldn't be long before it was nothing more than ash, especially if Jack had been honing his abilities in the five years I'd been away.

"No!" Herd shouted as the monster cried in pain, the leg Jack had grasped began to crumble.

I cocked the gun again as he attempted to stand and go for Jack. "Don't. You lost your chance to protect your son, but I will not lose mine as well."

Herd stared down the barrel of the gun, green eyes smoldering as he stared me down. He challenged me as if he didn't think I was serious. But I stared right back at him, trying to shut out the continuing sounds of Jack ending the fight with the Amarok. I knew it wouldn't be much longer, and soon the sounds faded, and there was no more fight in Herd's eyes. He slumped to the ground as the energy I could still feel coming from Jack faded back to his usual warmth.

"He was the last thing I had of a family…" Herd whimpered. "He was just trying to help people…"

"He was killing innocent young men. They may have been shitty people but that does not forgive his actions." I said, relaxing as I heard Jack start across the grass towards us.

"I will not let you leave here without paying for his life." Herd jumped to his feet, a hidden knife suddenly in his hands as he leaped for Jack.

I knew Jack wouldn't be hurt by the flimsy piece of metal. I knew he had lived through much worse and something as small as that wouldn't do more than cause Jack momentary pain. But I reacted nonetheless, and Herd was dead before the gunshot that rang through the air registered in my ears.

A heavy silence hung in the air around us after his body had hit the ground. Only our breath broke it for several minutes until crickets began to chirp again. The distant sound of sirens is what made my blood start to move again.

"We need to get out of here," I said softly.

"Yes." Jack agreed.

Once back at the motel, I fell back onto the soft bed and stared at the ceiling. I had just killed a man. I know he hadn't been a good man, and if I had left him alive, surely would have done more harm than good. But there was something about ending another human life that I knew would haunt me for years to come. I would have to talk to Sam and Dean about how they dealt with it. They had run into plenty of hunts that turned out to be fucked up humans rather than monsters.

"His son had a different last name," Jack commented, bringing me out of the haze in my mind.

"What?" I asked.

"His son went by a different last name. That's why you didn't know anything about him," he repeated. "His last name was White. He was one of the boys at the school. I saw him in the halls yesterday."

I nodded, understanding now. "Do you think Max was also killing his bullies? He would've been around the same age when they started right?"

"It would make sense. He was also a student there." Jack stated.

"You left that part out before, kid." I tried to joke.

"It wasn't relevant until now." He came to the edge of the bed then and sat next to me. "You didn't have to defend me."

"I know, Jack. But I also wasn't going to just let him stab you." I closed my eyes and rubbed at my temples. "We should pack up and get…"

"I want to take over Heaven."

That was something I had never expected to hear from anyone other than Luci. "What?"

"I…" Jack swallowed as I opened my eyes and sat up. "I think I could be a good…god. I want to take up his spot and attempt to do good with this world, especially since there won't be anything left to hunt soon."

"You're giving Alex and her idea a lot of credit there, Jack," I said. "Why are you bringing this up?"

"I want Ally to rule beside me."