Ares by Nikki Hall (best books to read all time TXT) 📕

Suddenly, it hit me. "Guys!" I yelled. "I know what we're dealing with!" Sam turned around to face me. "What?" he asked.
"We've got Hell Hounds on our hands. That would explain why the victims were successful out of nowhere and then died ten years after their success. We need to find the place that they've all got in common!"
"How the hell did you figure that out so fast?" Dean asked.
"I dealt with a Crossroads Demon a couple years back. They're slimy little bastards."
"I see," Sam said. "They're the ones that control the Hounds?"
"Yes and no. See, they just tell the Hounds who's ten years is up. After that, the Hounds are taken care of by a higher level Demon. Though, Meg is the one that usually uses them to do her bidding. Mainly because Yellow-Eyes is her father, which makes her more powerful than she looks." I stopped myself because I was going into a rant again. I couldn't believe that I had missed the obvious signs of Hell Hounds. What in the Goddess's name was wrong with me?
"So, we have to worry about another

Demon?" Dean sighed. I nodded. "Seems that way to me," I admitted. Normally, I didn't care, but it seemed that these two had had their share of Demons for a while. "We could always find another case," I said, knowing in my heart that neither would pass this up.
"Hell no," Dean said. "We've already told Bobby we'd check this out. I don't go back on my word." The unspoken sentence was in the air, though. I could almost hear him say "unlike you." I clenched my teeth and said nothing. I didn't want a fight here. Not now. I promised myself I'd be civil with Dean.
"Sorry," Dean said, as if he could sense why I was angry. "That wasn't a stab at you, okay? I was just saying that some Hunters will change cases if they think a case is too tricky for them. I'm pretty sure you haven't done that."
"Nope. I don't go back on my word either." Sam smiled, and I could tell that he was enjoying the fact that Dean was finding a new outlet for his snide remarks. It wasn't that he was happy that Dean was being rude, he was just glad that the attention had shifted a bit.
"OK, so here's the deal," I said. "Mississippi is a pretty big state, if you haven't guessed. We need to do a hell of a lot of asking around to find the place. If, that is, they do have anything in common." Dean nodded and Sam had a thoughtful look on his face. "Well," he said. "Maybe they don't have a place in common. How do you even summon a Crossroads Demon?"
"First, you have to be at

a crossroad. Then, you've got to have some type of bones, I forget which, a picture of you, and dirt from the road in a box. Then, the Demon shows up and you tell it your wish."
"Is it really that simple?" Dean asked. I nodded. "Most people think they'll be making a deal directly with the devil. That doesn't happen. Lucifer has more things on his mind than to go making deals with people. He just gets the lesser Demons to do it for him."
"Hmm, I didn't think about that," Sam admitted. It was something that really made my skin crawl. I hated, and still do hate, it when people didn't bother to think things through. I just shook my head. "OK, so here's the deal," I said. "There's bound to be a place there that they've all been to. It's got to be at a crossroad and it's got to be within the state. I doubt any of them went out of the state to make a deal."
"Right," Sam said. "That would be the only thing that would make sense to me."

Chapter Seven

Sam and I, in our tailored suits, went up to the condo that Sean Boyden was building before his death. We were posing as writers for "Architectural Digest" or some other magazine like that. I almost laughed as Sam said that, but managed to keep a straight face.
"Yeah," his partner said. "I've known Sean for a while now. He had quite the flair for business."
"How long has he been an architect?"
"About ten years. He couldn't design for beans before that, and he was working at a bar called Lloyd's. We met up, and he showed me his stuff. It was pretty damned good." I shot Sam a Look. "And you know what?" the partner said. "Then overnight, he became this genius designer, designing some of the most ingenious buildings anyone had ever seen. It was just plain weird."
"Well, thanks," I said. My mind was working to piece the whole thing together. Normally, Hell Hounds don't drive their victims off a roof. They just claw them to shreds. Obviously, this guy was smart. He probably died on impact.
"What do you think?" Sam asked when we had left the condo. I sighed. "He was smart, that much is obvious," I said. "Instead of sitting around while the Hounds ripped him apart, he jumped off a roof. Died on impact. Not too much pain there."
"Thank you, Miss Cynical," Sam joked.
"I'm being serious, Sam," I said. "If it were me, I'd take a silver bullet to the brain before I let a Hound tear me apart. It's not pleasant, from what I've heard."

We met up with Dean, and he had a little info for us. "OK," he said. "They've received 19 calls total. The most recent caller was a Sylvia Pearlman. And, she gave me her Myspace address. What the hell is a Myspace?"
"You seriously don't know?" Sam asked.
"No, what is that? Some kind of porn site?" Sam just rolled his eyes, as did I. Dean was so clueless.
At Sylvia's house, we spoke with the maid and found out that Sylvia disappeared two days ago after reporting of seeing black dogs. She was a surgeon at a very young age, the youngest in the history of the hospital. She got the job ten years ago. Dean noticed a picture of Sylvia and her friends at a bar, he flips it over and reads Lloyd’s Bar 1996. He gave us a Look, and I raised my eyebrows.
"Thank you, ma'am," I said to the maid as we left. "OK," so that's victim number two so far," I said to them back in the Impala. "We've got to find her."
"Look," Dean said. "Her number is up. We need to check out this bar." I nodded reluctantly. He was right, of course. I hated to leave her alone out there, but there's no way to escape a Hell Hound. They were ruthless, and would stop at nothing to get their target.

We walked up to Lloyd's, where all the victims were ten years ago. Dean noticed there were yarrow flowers planted in the middle of a bunch of weeds, used for summoning rituals. Dean starts digging a hole at the center of the crossroad and finds an old metal box buried inside. Dean opened it up and found a bottle of graveyard dirt, a black cat bone, and other deep hoodoo items, used for summoning demons. "Looks like you were right, Ares," Sam said. "Crossroads Demons." I nodded. A chill had found its way into my bones. That was a black cat, one of my animal relatives. What the hell?
"All right then," Sam said. "We need to find out who else made a deal ten years ago. Dean shook his head. "No way, man," he said. "It was their idea to make these deals. There's nothing we can do about it, Sammy."
"Come on, Dean. We have to do this. It's our job, remember?" Dean swore under his breath and agreed to finish the job. "OK," I said. I'll go ask around and see who else in the area was here on that night."


I came out with a smile on my face. "We need to find George Darrow. He was the last one that I haven't checked out yet." Sam nodded and we got back into the Impala. What was I getting myself into this time?

Chapter Eight

Outside of the apartment, we noticed a line of what looked like pepper on the floor behind the door. Really? Everyone knows you use salt to keep a Demon out,

I thought. I looked at the boys, who nodded. They had noticed that too.
Dean knocked on the door first. George answered with a simple "Whatever it is you're selling, I ain't buying!" Then slammed the door in our faces. Dean wastes no time in mentioning the deal he made ten years ago. Darrow gave us five minutes.
He explained that the stuff outside his door was Gofer Dust, used as protection against demons. We didn't get much out of him and he didn't seem to want our help. He brushed us off by saying, “sometimes people make their bed and they have to sit down and lie in it.” All he wanted to do, it seemed, is buy a little time to finish one last painting. However, he did give us the name of another guy who made a deal with the demon, Evan Hudson. We thanked him and left the apartment, speeding along, trying to get to Hudson's house before it was too late. I couldn't