Witch's Canyon (37 page)
Authors: Jeff Mariotte
Maybe
, Sam thought, because
the threat has passed.
They’re just glad to be safe with their families.
The same went for him.
“That’s right,” Beckett answered, “they vanished.
One second we were surrounded, and I was thinking how much it would stink to die in such a freaky way.
The next, they were gone, and we were pointing our guns at empty air.”
“What about you, Sam?” Juliet asked. “Where were you?”
“I had just knocked on Carla Krug’s door to tell her and the mayor that the coast was clear. Mayor Milner was starting to open the door when one of them fired my own shotgun at me. Of course, it was just rock salt.” He shared a conspiratorial grin.
“Milner screamed like a girl when it hit the door, though. I told them that she couldn’t kill us with my gun—she had to kill the way she’d been killed, which was strangulation. But he locked the door again and wouldn’t come out. I didn’t want to have to strangle her, especially since I knew the rock salt would sting like hell, and could really hurt me at close range, but I was headed for her when she disappeared.”
“Milner wouldn’t open the door until I told him it was okay,” Beckett added. “Even though Carla was begging him to by then.”
“Did you come up with some kind of story to tell the people at the mall?” Dean asked.
352 SUPERNATURAL
“Donald and I worked one up,” Beckett said. “But by the time we got out to tell it, there was already a story going around. Armed robbers, trying to get the mall’s opening day take.”
“That doesn’t make sense on so many levels,” Sam said. He cut into his steak. Medium rare, still the slightest bit of pink in the middle. “But I guess it doesn’t need to.”
“People had convinced themselves of it,” Beckett said. “They were explaining it to me, like I’m not the sheriff or something. Like I wasn’t in the middle of it.”
“Better than them knowing the truth,” Dean said.
“Even though it’d be nice if we could tell them about Baird’s sacrifi ce.”
“You said he didn’t even really like the town,” Juliet said. “Maybe he’d be just as happy without them turning him into some kind of hero.”
“Maybe.” Dean lifted his bottle of beer off the table, held it up. “To Harmon Baird, anyway.” Sam tipped his bottle against Dean’s. Beckett raised his iced tea, Juliet her white wine, and they all clinked together. “To Harmon Baird.” Sam wasn’t surprised that Dean would let Baird have all the credit. Baird and Juliet, really—he had stressed her role, and her almost impossible courage, from the beginning. Dean was an amazing guy, Sam knew, with skills and abilities most people
would never even imagine, and smarts Dean himself wouldn’t credit, even though he relied on them all the time. And yet, at times like this, he was so humble, Witch’s
Canyon
353
so unassuming, that he seemed almost unaware of the importance of his own contributions.
At other times, of course, that humility vanished.
Knowing and accepting both Deans, he guessed, was what being brothers was all about.
Maybe I wouldn’t
want to
be
Dean
, he thought.
But I’m sure glad I
have him around.
“What about you, Juliet?” he asked, largely to take his mind off his big brother before he choked himself up.
That would be embarrassing as hell
, he knew,
and Dean would never let me forget it
. “You going to tell prospective buyers there’s a witch buried on your property?”
Juliet took a swallow of wine and put the glass down. “Forget about prospective buyers,” she said, chuckling. “I fought for that place. I’ll never sell it now.”
“You’re staying in town?” Beckett asked.
“If the town will have me. I don’t think I want to be quite as isolated as Elizabeth Marbrough was, but—”
“I know the town would be happy to have you around, ma’am,” Beckett said. “As would I.” Sam caught Dean’s eye. Dean’s shrug was barely noticeable: a slight shifting of the shoulders, a minute pressing together of the lips. His eyes lit up with a secret smile.
Dean had been thinking about asking Juliet out, Sam knew. He’d been around his brother long enough to read those signs loud and clear. They only had the one night left in town, but Dean could work fast 354 SUPERNATURAL
when he had to. And her motel room was only three doors down from theirs, after all.
With the shrug, Dean told him that it didn’t matter. There would be other women, maybe even other beautiful young widows.
Let the sheriff have this
one,
Dean’s smile had said.
“We should . . . call it a night,” Sam said, scooting his chair back.
Dean caught his meaning and nodded his agreement. “Yeah, that’s right. We’ve got to get an early start in the morning.”
“We can get the tab,” Sam offered. Just to be polite; Sheriff Beckett had already told them it was his treat. That was just as well, since he didn’t really want to commit credit card fraud while buying a meal for an officer of the law.
“No, it’s mine,” Beckett said. He and Juliet both rose from the table, but without giving any indication that they planned to leave yet.
“If you’re sure,” Dean said.
“Absolutely. I’ll expense it, anyway, and Donald Milner won’t dare say a damn thing about it.” Sam and Dean took turns shaking the sheriff’s hand and hugging Juliet, then they headed out the front door, into the chill night air. The Impala was parked right in front. When Sam had fi rst told Dean about the fi refight in the parking lot, Dean was afraid that his precious car had been caught in the middle.
“She’s really pretty,” Sam said as he climbed in the passenger seat. “You sure you don’t mind letting the sheriff take a crack at her?”
Witch’s
Canyon
355
“Everything you said, he’s a brave man,” Dean replied. “He’ll need every bit of courage he can fi nd.
That one’s a handful, I can tell you that. In the best possible way. She’s full of life, and honestly, I think she might be a little too much for me.” Sam regarded his brother. In the dark he was harder to read, but then he leaned forward, cranked the engine and burst into laughter. A Bad Company tape blared. “Anyway,” Dean said when he could speak again, “we’re leaving town, and I didn’t want to break her heart.” He pulled into the street and started toward the motel. “Seemed like the right thing to do.”
Without Eric Kripke, of course, all of the pages after this one would be blank.
Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, and the rest of the massively talented cast and crew make the series one of the most entertaining on TV, and I’m honored to have been invited into their sandbox.
Great thanks go out to my family, to John Morgan and John Nee, to Howard Morhaim and Katie Menick, and to Cindy Chapman.
Jeff Mariotte
has written more than thirty novels, including the supernatural thriller
Missing White Girl
(as Jeffrey J. Mariotte), the original horror epic
The
Slab,
and the Stoker Award–nominated teen horror series
Witch Season
, as well as books set in the uni-verses of
Las Vegas
,
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
,
Angel
,
Conan
,
30 Days of Night
,
Charmed
,
Star Trek,
and
Andromeda
. Two of his tie-in novels were nominated for the first annual Scribe Awards presented by the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers.
He is also the author of many comic books, including the original western/horror series
Desperadoes
, some of which have been nominated for Stoker and International Horror Guild awards. With his wife, Maryelizabeth Hart, and partner Terry Gilman, he co-owns Mysterious Galaxy, a bookstore specializing in science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and horror. He lives with his family and pets on the Flying M Ranch About the Author
35
8
in the American Southwest, a place fi lled with books, music, toys, and other products of American pop culture. More information than you would ever want to know about him is at www.jeffmariotte.com.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
WITCH’S CANYON
NEVERMORE
THE SUPERNATURAL BOOK OF MONSTERS, SPIRITS, DEMONS, AND GHOULS
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SUPERNATURAL™: WITCH’S CANYON. Copyright © 2007
by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. SUPERNATURAL
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Document Outline
- Title Page
- Dedication Page
- Contents
- Prologue
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Chapter Twenty
- Chapter Twenty-One
- Chapter Twenty-Two
- Chapter Twenty-Three
- Chapter Twenty-Four
- Chapter Twenty-Five
- Chapter Twenty-Six
- Chapter Twenty-Seven
- Chapter Twenty-Eight
- Chapter Twenty-Nine
- Chapter Thirty
- Chapter Thirty-One
- Chapter Thirty-Two
- Chapter Thirty-Three
- Chapter Thirty-Four
- Chapter Thirty-Five
- Chapter Thirty-Six
- Chapter Thirty-Seven
- Chapter Thirty-Eight
- Chapter Thirty-Nine
- Chapter Forty
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Supernatural Books From HarperEntertainment
- Copyright Notice
- About the Publisher
- Prologue
Table of Contents