Bone Key (17 page)

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Light flashed throughout the hotel room. A mighty wind came out of nowhere and extinguished the black candles. The Last Calusa’s scream grew louder and louder.

Fedra tried to continue chanting, but the wind was now pounding into her meat puppet’s face. She clasped Alberto’s hands and chanted more intently, more loudly, hoping to get this spirit under their control as they had the others. The Last Calusa stopped screaming and straightened, raising his hands toward the two demons. An invisible force sent the demons flying against the headboard, smearing the blood that made up the reversed pentagram.

The spell was broken. The other spirits looked about in confusion. Some disappeared. Some ran. Others stayed and looked befuddled.

Again, the Last Calusa gestured.

Demons lived in hell, so they were used to pain. Still, it had been a long time since Fedra felt pain such as what the Last Calusa was inflicting upon her and Alberto. This wasn’t just meat-puppet pain, for demons were immune to such trivialities. No, the Last Calusa was striking at their demon essence, which shouldn’t have been
possible
for a mere spirit.

But this obviously wasn’t just a “mere” spirit, Fedra realized, as the Last Calusa’s anger pounded into her.
And worse, we made it
more
powerful . . .
170 SUPERNATURAL

The report of two pistols echoed through the room, and Fedra saw that the Winchester boys were using their silly rock-salt rounds to try to disrupt the Last Calusa. It didn’t work, of course, but it did distract the Last Calusa long enough for Fedra to break his hold on her and try to strike back.

But the Last Calusa merely said, “We are not impressed.” He gestured, and Dean’s and Sam’s pistols flew across the room. Then he gestured again, and Alberto screamed.

Fedra had thought herself beyond fear, but that was before she heard Alberto scream. Demons weren’t supposed to scream. Demons were supposed to
provoke
screams. A pit opened in the core of Fedra’s demon essence, as if something had been ripped from her very being.

Then the Last Calusa spoke once again. “This will all end soon. We will have our vengeance.”

With that, he and all the remaining spirits just disappeared, leaving Fedra alone with the Winchester brothers. But not with Alberto. She grabbed him, shook him, but he did not respond.

“Alberto!
Alberto!
”

She couldn’t
feel
his presence. They’d been together for millennia, and only now did she realize that he was always there, not just physically, but mentally Bone

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and even, bizarrely, spiritually. Demons weren’t supposed to have soul mates—mostly by virtue of not having souls—but apparently Alberto was hers. And he was gone. She hadn’t been aware of this connection between them, but now that it was gone, its absence was all she
could
feel.

“He’s gone.”

She heard the click of a safety being taken off a pistol. “One down, one to go.”

Whirling around Fedra slammed Dean Winchester into the wall. He kept his grip on the Colt, but Fedra pressed his arm against the wall so that the muzzle was facing the window. Then she looked at Sam, who was making as if to rush her.

“Take
one step
, Sammy boy, and Dean fulfills his end of the bargain half a year early.”

Fedra saw fury in both brothers’ eyes, but she didn’t care.

Alberto was
dead.
Someone had to pay for that. At first, Fedra was ready to kill these two upstarts out of revenge, but a moment’s reflection made her realize that they were not her enemy. Well, not her
primary
enemy. The Winchester family was fairly high on demonkind’s most wanted list, but right now Fedra’s main concern was the Last Calusa. So she used her meat puppet’s mouth to say words she never imagined she’d have cause to say to Sam and Dean Winchester.

“I need your help.”

THIRTEEN

“You have
got
to be freakin’
kidding
me!”

Dean said the words, though he spoke for both brothers. Sam stood watching the demon-possessed body of Fedra Fedregotti. Her face was curled in a rictus of fury, and tears streaked down mascarastained cheeks, coming out of the all-black eyes that were the common symbol of demonic possession. Sam wanted desperately to wipe that expression off her face, but as long as she had Dean pinned, he didn’t dare risk moving.

At least not yet.

“Listen to me,” Fedra said. “That—that
thing
is incredibly powerful. It’s not just a single spirit, it’s the collective spirit of an entire tribe.”

Needing to keep her talking while he tried to figure a way out of this, Sam said, “The only reason it’s incredibly powerful is because of the spell you and Alberto cast.”

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Fedra whirled on Sam, and he saw true anguish in her face. “Don’t you
dare
speak his name! We were together for millennia, and he’s dead. We were supposed to live forever, and he’s
dead
!”

“Sam didn’t speak
his
name.” Dean’s voice was strained, as he was pushing hard against Fedra’s power. “He spoke the name of the poor bastard your not-so-immortal-as-you-thought demon possessed. And that’s one of about a billion reasons why we wouldn’t help you if you were the last demon on Earth, up to and including that girl lying dead on the floor.”

“I cannot defeat the Last Calusa by myself—and neither can you.” Fedra looked down at the corpse of Alberto. “But together, we can do it. You’re the legendary Winchester boys. Sam was Azazel’s chosen one, and Dean, you
killed
Azazel. If we collaborate . . .”

To Sam’s delight, Dean continued to strain, and he was actually making some headway. Considering that she had completely immobilized both Sam and Dean before, the Last Calusa had obviously taken a lot out of her. They needed to press that advantage, so Sam kept her talking. “Why would we work with one of your kind, exactly?

You aren’t known for being the most trustworthy of partners.”

Fedra smiled viciously. “I don’t expect you to trust me, Sammy, but we have a mutual enemy—or 174 SUPERNATURAL

do you think that the Last Calusa is just going to scare the tourists? He’s already killed two humans and one demon, and you
know
it’s not going to stop there. His last words were—”

“About vengeance, I heard.” Sam did not look directly at Dean, instead keeping eye contact with Fedra while Dean struggled.

His words apparently surprised her. “You understood what he said.”

“Yup.” It had surprised Sam, too. The Last Calusa wasn’t speaking English, but Sam found that he’d understood everything he said. Presumably, Dean did as well, which meant that the Last Calusa was powerful enough to allow himself to be comprehended despite speaking a language that had been dead for over two hundred years.

“Then you know that this spirit is probably out to commit murder on a grand scale. Sweet little do-gooders like yourself don’t like it when spirits kill people.” She tilted her head. “And don’t get all holier-than-thou with me about how you wouldn’t lower yourself to collaborate with a demon. You’ve been working with one for months now.”

Sam tensed.
Somehow it just figures that she
knows about Ruby.
Then again, Ruby had gone so far as to help Bobby replicate the Colt’s ability to kill demons with a single shot—Sam could see how that sort of thing would get around the Bone

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demon grapevine. Ruby had also dropped some hints about Sam and Dean’s mother that were leading Sam down some disturbing roads—sufficiently disturbing that he hadn’t yet shared Ruby’s revelations (and his own research) on the subject with Dean. First thing was to get Dean out of his deal with the crossroads demon. The rest would come in time.

But that was for later. Right now, he just had to say, “I didn’t ask for Ruby’s help, and I didn’t want it.”

Fedra actually sniggered at that. “Oh really?

You didn’t
want
her to save your pretty little ass, huh? ’Cause without her help, you’d both be worm food about now. And if I didn’t need the two of you right now, you’d both be—”

“Ooof!” That was Dean, who had finally broken free of Fedra’s will, which caused him to fall to the floor.

From his prone position, Dean raised the Colt.

“We’ll talk later,” Fedra said. Then she leaned her head back and expelled black smoke from her mouth toward the ceiling, which then zipped out into the hallway.

Pounding the floor with one fist, Dean cried,

“Dammit!”

Sam, however, was running over to the woman, who had collapsed onto the floor with the departure of the demonic essence. Her eyes were wide 176 SUPERNATURAL

with shock, and she was making gurgling choking noises.

Kneeling beside her, Sam said, “It’s okay. We’ll get help.”

She grabbed Sam’s arm in an iron grip and stared intently at him, making more choking noises, but unable to speak. “Hkkk—hkkk—”

Then the grip loosened, and Fedra’s head collapsed onto the floor with a hollow thunk. The light went out of her eyes, which now stared blankly at the ceiling.

Dean had gotten to his feet and walked over to Alberto, and checked his pulse. “This one’s gone, too.” He got up. “Let’s blow this pop stand, Sammy—last thing we want is to be around when Yuri finds out there’s three dead bodies in here.”

“Yeah.” Sam didn’t like the idea of just leaving the Fedregottis or Dean’s friend from Captain Tony’s to lie there on the floor. But the corpses would prompt questions that “Agents Danko and Helm” were in no position to answer. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.” Dean gave Sam his trademark smirk.

“Didn’t even really hurt much.”

Sam knew that the smirk usually went side by side with bravado, but he was willing to let it go. They snuck down the back stairs and out a fire exit, dashing to the Impala. “Remember what I said before about not wanting to know what stage three is?” Sam said.

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“Yeah.” Dean loosened his tie and climbed into the driver’s seat.

Sam took out his Treo as he approached the passenger door. “I’m gonna give Bobby a call, bring him up to speed.”

Dean nodded as he started the car.

“Hey, Sam,” Bobby said after the second ring.

“ ’Fraid I ain’t had no luck findin’ a spell that’d hype up a spirit like that.”

“We’ve actually moved past that,” Sam said. As Dean inched down Duval, Sam filled Bobby in.

“Jesus,” Bobby said, “the Last Calusa?”

“You know about the Last Calusa?” Sam repeated the spirit’s name for Dean’s benefit.

“I know what it’s supposed to be, yeah. It’s a spirit that’s infused with the life essence of the
entire
Calusa tribe, and it’s out for vengeance on the rest of the world for living while they all died. If the lore’s right, this is a majorly powerful spirit.”

“Great. And now it’s even
more
majorly powerful.”

“Lemme dig through my books, see if I can find some specifics. I’ll call you back.”

“Thanks, Bobby.” He ended the call and pocketed his phone. “Looks like Fedra was right—it’s a vengeance spirit with a mad-on for anyone who isn’t a Native American. Maybe anyone who isn’t Calusa.”

“Which,” Dean said, “since they’re all dead, is everyone.”

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“Pretty much. He’s gonna dig into it and get back to us. We need to get down to the construction site. That’s where it showed up first, and that’s where the bones are.”

“We may need to find a barrel of salt,” Dean said. “That burn-the-site-down idea is startin’ to sound
real
good right now.”

“I’m not sure it’d work, Dean. It didn’t even blink at your rock-salt round, and it’s powerful enough to kill a
demon.
I don’t think the usual tricks are gonna work.”

“Then we’ll think of some
unusual
tricks,” Dean said with a snarl. “Because I’ll tell you one thing, Sammy, there is no way in hell I’m workin’ with that demon.”

Smirking, Sam said, “No pun intended.”

“Yeah,” Dean said with a snort. “Ruby’s bad enough.”

Sam said nothing in response to that. He knew that Dean had thought Sam’s working with Ruby was a huge mistake, and the last thing he wanted right now was to get into the latest in a series of arguments about her.

Within a few minutes, they pulled into the Naylor House driveway. The first thing Dean retrieved out of the trunk was chalk. “Come on. I don’t think our lady demon’s gonna take ‘screw off and die’ for an answer, so we better be prepared.”

* * *

Bone

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Shannen Bodell had to keep reminding herself that kicking the client in the ’nads was really bad for business.

Besides, she had worked very hard to get the contract from Kevin Lindenmuth to build a new house on the site of the one that Katrina demolished, and she was damned if she was going to let his attitude jeopardize that.

Especially since the cops were doing everything they could to shitcan the whole thing anyhow . . . They were standing on the site just after sunset, all the workers sitting around doing nothing, as they had been all day. They were union guys, and they knew they had to show up to work to get paid, even if they didn’t actually
do
any work. It was past quitting time, but Lindenmuth had asked them to stay until he and Shannen could work out their “difficulties.” This meant overtime, which the workers didn’t object to, and Shannen was perfectly happy to bill Lindenmuth for—as well as hitting him with the electric bill for running the work lights they needed after sunset.