Darkness Ch. 3

Emily watched the two with fear and fascination. Her focus was mostly on Alex. When Alex said they were coming to finish the job Emily let out an involuntary whimper. She looked up at Alex with tears in her eyes. Emily watched Alex take out two matching blades. She was going to fight them off, Emily could tell. She wouldn't let her, not alone. Dean took care of her, he always took care of her and she was supposed to take care of him now. She said it was her turn. Emily moved to try and stand but her legs wouldn't budge. She let out a loud cry but stifled it quickly then looked up at Alex once more. She wanted to help, more than anything she wanted to help but she couldn't move. Emily felt so helpless. All she could do was let Alex handle it.

For all the amount that Emily didn't trust Alex, she had seen the look of love in the girl's eyes when she looked at Dean. She cared deeply for Dean and Emily could tell. Though Emily had no comprehension of what real love was. All she had for that was Dean and he was on the ground, dead to Emily's knowledge. Love was not something Emily wanted anything to do with at the moment. Her father always told her he loved her. It was all a lie. Emily loved Dean and he left her, he died. She looked up at Alex once more. Love was what fueled her, made her stronger. Emily knew there was something inside the girl, something not quite human. There was no other way she could have ripped the doors from the car or picked Dean up the way she did. There was a strength inside her that was brought forth by something, almost demonic. At the same time though Emily could almost feel that it was fueled by love. What kind of love could give strength like that?

Alex came forward with her blades as one of the demons tried to rush past her to get at its prone targets. She held out the blade and spun as he passed, burying it to the hilt in the back of his neck. The demon stopped and began jerking and convulsing as she twisted the blade. From the other side Sarah could see the tip of the blade protruding from the demon’s throat. Alex jerked the blade out and kicked the body to the ground as she turned to meet the rush of a second demon.

He barreled into her and successfully knocked her to the ground. She went down with the demon on top of her and managed to get her foot up and onto his chest before her back met the dirt. She brought her blades in a crisscrossing X at the demon’s throat and quickly pulled them apart. The head severed, showering her with a spray of blood, and she kicked out sending the demon flying back fifty feet to slam into the front of the semi truck.

As Alex stood from the ground a dark haired young man bolted past her at a speed that Alex couldn’t possibly attempt to catch. She turned and watched him run toward Dean and the others but something in her gut instructed her to leave him be for now. She would challenge his arrival later.

Alex wiped off some of the blood and managed only to smear it further. She shrugged and walked forward with her already bloodstained blades at the ready in her hands.
Emily stared at Alex with fear in her eyes. She was terrified of this unstoppable force, but at the same time there was something comforting about it. She was protecting them. Emily wondered who this girl was, what her connection with Dean was. How did she know them? Dean never mentioned her. Though there was a lot about the eldest Winchester's life that he had never mentioned. Emily never claimed to know Dean very well, but he protected her. He was the first person in her life that loved her. He was her safety and now, when it mattered most she couldn't help him, but this strange girl could.

There was something dark about the girl that frightened Emily. She looked back and forth between Alex and her opponents watching them each meet their demise at the end of her blades. Suddenly she noticed someone run to her side. She turned quickly, causing a searing pain to shoot through her right leg and the rest of her body. What she saw in front of her made her heart skip a beat. "T... Tri... Tristan," she whispered with tears in her eyes.

The young man smiled and wiped away her tears with his thumb. He tucked her hair behind her ear and kissed her forehead. "Shhh," he whispered. It was the same comforting tone that Dean used with her back in Salvation. "Its all right now," he whispered resting his forehead against hers.

Sarah turned her attention from Sam to the newcomer kneeling beside the girl with the broken legs. Her heart skipped a beat and she feared she had a let a demon slip past unnoticed. She remembered her promise to keep the girl safe now and she stood up quickly. She put her hands to her temples, focusing her power at the young man. Tristan glanced up at the younger woman. He found himself being compelled to his feet. Tristan stood and stared at her for a moment. He looked down at Emily then back at Sarah. "I'm trying to help," he called to her and glanced down at Emily. His heart ached to see her like this. He knew it shouldn't but it did. "Please, I'm trying to help," he said in an unnaturally calm voice.Sarah held fast to her psychic power, pinning him into place so that his feet were weighted down to the earth. He made no move to attempt to come toward her but she kept her power focused on him all the same. She stepped nearer while she did so and began scanning the surface of his emotions like a radar detector. She probed deeper, seeking out anything that would make him a threat. She found nothing and when she scanned him she was startled to feel a deep feeling of peace. She looked closer and saw the tiniest pinpricks of white light surrounding the inside of his being, as though he were a candle in the night. Her eyebrows furrowed in mild confusion. “Who the hell are you?” she demanded.

Tristan stood in place and watched Sarah inch closer. He kept glancing down at Emily and he smiled at her to let her know he was fine. He knew what the girl was doing and didn't want to seem to be a threat. The last thing he wanted was for her to send him flying because she thought he was a threat to Sam and Dean. She spoke again and he couldn't help but smile. There was power in her voice, a sense of command. It amused him. "My name is Tristan," he said simply. "I know Emily. Please, Sarah," he paused and locked eyes with her. She had seen into his heart, at least had a glimpse at the truth. "I am trying to help. They need to get out of here; it is too dangerous for them."

Sarah hesitated slightly. “I know that. What the hell do you think we’re trying to do? The bigger question is what are you doing here in the middle of the night on a deserted highway?”

Tristan turned his attention to Sarah when she spoke. "That's much more complicated than I would care to explain Miss Delaney," Tristan asked. His voice showed that he was in no mood for an argument. "These boys need help now and if you don't let me go then they will die. Please, I am trying to help them." Tristan met the girl's eyes once more and studied her. "Please, trust me for now and I will tell you everything at a better time. Just trust my judgment." His voice was unusually calm and rather soothing. Tristan spoke with an unsettlingly calm voice and the only emotion in his eyes came when he looked at Emily.

Sarah searched him harder for a moment, seeking anything that would deny his claims and again came up empty. She released her hold instantly and stared hard at him.
“You and me,” she said firmly, “we’re going to have a talk later. Count on that.” Under her breath she muttered, “Mr. Show’s Up In The Middle Of The Freaking Night. You glow like a damn candlestick!”

"Tristan," he said as he dropped to his knees beside Emily. Sarah looked at him, startled, as she realized that he had heard her and was correcting her informal name for him. She had to stop herself from wondering how in the hell he had managed to hear her comment. He smiled and picked Emily up in his arms, holding her tight. "Shh," he whispered to the trembling girl as she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. Tristan chuckled at her comment and looked down at Emily. "Thank you for trusting me Sarah." He wondered when she would notice that he knew her name. She probably had since she knew he had knowledge of her capabilities.

Sarah turned her attention to the girl that Tristan called Emily. She appeared badly frightened and her entire body shook from fear and pain. Sarah’s heart broke for the girl and all she wanted to do was run to her and take her in her arms and tell her that the world really wasn’t so bad. She suppressed the urge and watched the loving way that Tristan handled her. The comfort and compassion that he imparted with just a mere touch and soft spoken word. Her eyebrow rose slightly and she felt herself even more at ease with him. She no longer thought he posed any threat at all to them but she knew that there was something supernatural about him, albeit in a good way. Her heart told him that he was on their side, for better or worse, and she needed to trust him implicitly.

Tristan smiled at her and looked down at the bodies that surrounded him. He looked back up at Emily and smiled. "Shhh," he whispered once more. Tristan stroked her hair gently and looked up at Alex in her fight. A small smile formed on his lips and he looked down at Dean, then back at Alex. She was better than he thought she'd be. He could feel the demon inside her, but still her heart prevailed. That was amazing to Tristan. He had never seen a human so strong in the presence of a demon.
Alex ducked a punch that the third demon sent at her and she remained low to the ground in a perfectly balanced crouch. She kicked out with her right leg and hooked it around his knee. He was a skilled fighter though and instead of falling to the ground he jumped over her extended foot to safety. She came back up on her feet in an instant and circled him warily, searching for an opening in his defenses. He came at her with a fierce three punch combination and she blocked all of them before having to drop one of her blades to catch the extended foot that came kicking out at her face. The demon jerked his foot from her grasp and dodged backward out of her reach.

“Enough games,” she snarled.

Alex launched her body into a cartwheel, her legs flying in an arc through the air although her hands never touched the ground. When she landed she was positioned behind and slightly to the right of the demon. He came at her quickly, spinning on his heels and she dodged behind him. She grabbed his neck in the crook of her arm and jerked. His neck snapped audibly and Alex swore she could hear the bones snapping all the way down his back in the near-still night. She caught Sarah’s eye as the younger woman turned at the gruesome sound. Alex shrugged and dropped the body to the ground without a second thought.

Tristan's head turned quickly at the sound of breaking bones. He stared at the girl in amazement. She would need more help than he originally thought. Tristan glanced down at Dean's all but lifeless body. He would be strong enough to give her the help she needed. Then Tristan looked down at Emily. She stared at Alex in terror and tears streamed down her face. "Shh," he whispered looking down at Emily as she turned to meet his eyes. "Don't worry. She's on our side."

Alex turned and spotted the demonically possessed truck driver running off into the night, most likely to the safety of whoever his benefactor was. She considered giving chase and putting him out of his misery but something in her heart stopped her. He was a human, trapped in his own body. She couldn’t kill a human being. She stopped suddenly, standing as if frozen to the ground beneath her feet. All she heard was her own heart beating quietly in her ears. But she had killed . . .those months where her own identity was a mystery to her she had killed plenty. Demons and humans alike. Anything that had stood in her way she had taken out of existence. She stared at her hands and swore that they were stained with more blood than she actually had on them. Her heart trip hammered and for a moment she felt like she was going to be sick. A single tear found its way down her face and she swiped at the foreign object, not understanding the cause of it. Her heart hardened again and the memory of the innocent lives she had taken faded back into the recesses of her mind.
Alex turned around and faced the group of people she had pulled from the broken Impala. In their midst was the brown haired young man that had escaped past her earlier. She started forward toward the group, where the woman that called herself her sister seemed to be having a confrontation with him. He wasn’t going to escape a second time.