Supernatural Fresh Meat

FIFTY-EIGHT




Dean regained consciousness, his eyes flying open. Again, he couldn’t move. He still sat against the freezing wall, and now he was really cold. He had lost all sensation in his toes and fingers. His breath frosted in the air, and he could feel a rime of ice around his mouth.

Across from him, Don still lay on his stomach. Dean couldn’t see his face anymore.

In the other corner, the body of the man the aswang had fed on had been flipped on its back, puncture holes covering the bare chest above the heart, stomach, and lungs. Another hole, not sealed, yawned in the temple. Dean could see the empty black inside the skull.

Dean scanned the room, but still didn’t see Grace. Where was she? And what had happened to Susan? He wondered how many people were alive down there, how many victims for Jason to devour to prolong his own life?

“Hey,” he heard from the air vent.

His eyes darted in that direction. Jimmy’s silvery eyes flashed at him in return.

“I couldn’t get out. We have to wait for rescuers.”

“There isn’t time. Don’t you see that?” Dean wanted to shout at Jimmy. “You have to kill Jason.” But even Dean knew that Jason couldn’t be killed. Not until Bobby and Sam brought the weapon.

Dean thought of the other clip in his pocket, of the gun lying by the hallway entrance. Had Jason taken it? He looked at Jimmy, then at the area where the gun was, trying to get his attention.

“He took your gun,” Jimmy said, understanding. “I don’t know where to. I heard that girl crying out, but I couldn’t find her—the one shouting that her leg was trapped? I think she’s in another part of the building, cut off from us. But that’s good. Maybe she’ll be able to get out, or maybe rescuers will spot her faster.”

Dean stared at the thin man’s glowing eyes.

Jimmy looked down, shame creeping over his head. “I’m such a goddamn fool. You know that?”

Dean waited. There wasn’t anything else he could do.

“I wanted to be a hunter so bad. Wanted to go with you guys to hunt that wendigo. Then Jason said I could come when more killings happened, said you guys needed all the help you could get. Only he didn’t take me out hunting. He took me to a nest of vamps outside Dayton. He told them where they could find the infamous Winchesters, and left me there as a little treat to sweeten the deal.” He sighed, gritting his teeth.

“Suckers near bled me dry, then they turned me. I got away when they were gearing up to leave for Point Reyes. They went out there to kill your brother and Bobby.” His brow furrowed. “Now I’m one of those things. But I didn’t want to leave you alone out here with Jason.” He stuck his chin out defiantly. “And I wanted to kill the son of a bitch.”

Dean breathed in the gloom, alarmed by Jimmy’s news about the vampires. At least Dean knew Sam and Bobby had made it out okay. Sam hadn’t mentioned anything about it on the phone. Maybe they’d missed them.

Dean’s own situation was dire, too. The aswang could eat its way through all the people trapped down here and Bobby and Sam might not even know they were buried yet. Again, he wondered how long it had been since the avalanche. He looked to Jimmy, hoping he could tell him, but this time the vampire failed to pick up what Dean was thinking.

“I just don’t know how to do it,” Jimmy continued. “I was going to lure him outside. He’s vulnerable to cold. I know that. He was kneeling over you at your camp in the forest, about to attack while you slept, when he saw me and slashed at me, but I got away. He got me pretty good, though. Left a hell of a blood trail. He wandered around in the snow and got lost. I did it twice, luring him out like that, but it didn’t kill him. I think it came close, though.” He shifted his position, staring down at Dean. “But I can’t find any way out of this place.”

Dean blinked, eyes searching the gloom of the room for anything that could help him. This was ridiculous. He was paralyzed once again, and seriously doubted Jason would be careless a second time. Right now, his hopes rested on a clip of ammo with no gun, a missing ranger who wasn’t a ranger, and a vampire in an air duct.

He heard the now-familiar sound of something being dragged along the hallway. In an instant, Jimmy shimmied back the way he came and fell silent.

Jason appeared, pulling someone along. Dean’s heart sank when he saw the short crop of blonde hair. It was Grace.

Grace’s terrified eyes found Dean’s in the gloom. She was paralyzed, too. Jason dragged her over by Don and dumped her. Dean shut his eyes as Jason turned.

Dean heard the aswang crunching along the ruined floor towards him. There was a pause, and Dean could sense Jason standing over him. Dean didn’t open his eyes, but he could feel the weight of his stare.

“You awake?” Jason asked. He slapped Dean hard in the face. Dean forced himself to keep his eyes closed. “I need you awake!”

From the pocket of his parka, Jason pulled out a length of rope. He pushed Dean over on his stomach. His face hit the dirty floor, and he felt the sharpness of a ski binding under his cheekbone. His face flushed with anger at the helplessness of his situation. Was Jason about to feed on him?

But instead of ripping Dean’s jacket open, Jason wrenched his arms behind his back. He bound his wrists, then his ankles, finishing by hog-tying them to each other.

“Wake up, you son of a bitch. I have a question for you.” Jason brutally kicked Dean in the side for emphasis. Then he stormed out of the room, clawed feet clicking on the floor.

Dean tried to see Grace, but too much debris covered the floor for him to get a line of sight on her. He couldn’t see the air vent, either.

Dean took being tied up as a good sign, though. Maybe Jason was going to let the paralysis wear off so Dean could talk. If so, the second it did, hog-tied or not, Dean was going to do everything he could to destroy Jason. If he had to, he’d hack off all Jason’s limbs with his Bowie knife. It would take the son of a bitch a while to recover from that.

Dean lay waiting for the feeling to return to his body.