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In Sam’s defense, he did tend to get more and more paranoid the longer he went between hunts. And it had been two years.
Jack was staring at him without blinking. “Uh…Sam? This…this is Ligaya. The friend I told you about. Ligaya Adlawan. My friend.” His voice fell hard on the last word, as if he wasn’t sure Sam had heard him at all.
It was bad enough that Sam had his gun trained on the girl himself, but when Dean came walking in the room and saw the scene, he immediately spat out his candy and pulled his own Colt.
“No! Dean!” Jack shouted. “Stop! She’s fine! Sam, please!”
Ligaya looked more angry than frightened, a fact which was not making it easier for Sam to take Jack’s word for it that she was who she said she was. “Back off,” she spat at him.
His eyes narrowed.
Jack seemed relieved to see Castiel hurrying into the room now. “Cas! Help me!”
But the angel took one look at the Winchesters and raised his own left hand while his blade slid into place in his right. “What is this?” he demanded.
“Sam?” Dean said in a low growl.
Sam shook his head. “Jack? Get away from her. She’s what’s been killing people at the hospital. I just need to be sure she’s the only one before we take her out.”
Jack took a step, but not in the direction Sam preferred. Instead, he moved himself between the gun and Ligaya. “Sam, stop. Please. There’s an explanation.”
Dean snarled. “She better make it fast.” But then he glanced quickly at his brother. “What people? At what hospital?”
Castiel lowered his hand. “You mean you don’t even know why-“
“Sam’s gonna tell me why,” Dean snapped, without moving.
A tendril of doubt began to tickle at Sam’s confidence. “The-the hospital at the university. I’ve been looking into some reports of…”
Ligaya glared up at him defiantly, in spite of the nearly two feet of height between them. “Of patients being harvested,” she said for him. “Organs missing after attacks in the night. And how did I get to the ones on the top floor, when the attacker clearly came in the window, tulala?”
Dean blinked. “What-what did she call you?”
“I don’t know,” Sam admitted. “I hadn’t figured out the window thing yet. Enlighten me.”
Ligaya rolled her eyes. “Idiot. I called him an idiot.”
Castiel and Dean exchanged looks of confusion. Dean shrugged at his friend. “I just came over to get back the power tools you guys borrowed from the garage,” he muttered. “I don’t know any more about this than you apparently do.”
The angel shrugged. “I’ve been visiting Upstairs for the last three days. I just got home to find you all like this.”
Jack let out a frustrated groan. “Guys. I need you to lower your weapons. Now.”
Castiel had put his blade away, and was reaching for Sam’s wrist. “My love, if a smiting is in order, I’m happy to deliver one,” he promised. “You and Dean can stand down and let this girl speak.”
Sam frowned hard, then finally signaled to his brother, and they each let their guns lower to their sides.
In compromise, Castiel lifted his hand to Ligaya’s forehead. “She is human, Sam,” he confirmed quietly.
A punch of shame hit Sam’s gut and he stumbled backward. “She can’t be. Are you sure?”
Dean sighed, and put his gun away.
“As sure as one can be. Now why don’t we begin at the beginning. Please? Jack, your friend-“
“Ligaya,” he offered with relief in his voice.
Castiel nodded. “Ligaya. Please. Come sit with us. You seem to know a great deal about whatever it is that Sam is looking into, so you may as well tell us.”
The young woman and Sam eyed one another with suspicion, even as they moved into the living room to talk. Sam took a deep breath when they all sat. “Ligaya. I’m sorry. I was wrong about what you are. But you need to tell us who you are. Who you really are.”
Dean’s eyebrow was lifted. “My brother ain’t wrong very often, kid. And being human isn’t enough to say you’re innocent. So? Witch?”
She smirked at him. “Tao po ako, hindi aswang,” she sighed.
They all stared at her, except for Castiel who nodded. “Ako ay isang anghel, hindi aswang.”
At last, the woman lost a little of her defiant snarl. “An-an angel? What does that mean?”
Jack smiled at her kindly. “An angel. Ligaya, this is my dad. And he’s an angel. I’m half-angel.” He turned his smile on Castiel. “I didn’t think we were supposed to tell anyone that.”
“You’re not,” Dean barked quickly. “So don’t make it a habit. Cas, you wanna translate for those at the back of the class?”
He sighed. “Tao po ako,” he repeated. “I’m human. It is a Filipino phrase which has worked into modern use, but which used to be a way of reassuring someone that it was safe to open one’s door.”
“Tao po,” Ligaya breathed. “I’m human, let me in.”
“Human. The alternative being…what?”
Sam cleared his throat. “Aswang.”
Dean threw a hand up. “Oh, now you speak Filipino too? Are you just always studying? When do you sleep?”
Sam scowled at him. “I don’t speak Filipino. But I know my monsters. Aswang are a group of creatures from the Philippines, with subsets that are like vampires, and others like ghouls. And, yeah. Some are witches.”
Jack hurried to speak. “But you’re not a witch! Are you?”
Ligaya shook her head. She was still staring at Castiel. “No, of course I am not a witch. Just like you’re no angel.”
Castiel smiled down at her. He allowed his power to manifest, let his wings cast deep shadows along the walls behind him, and let his eyes burn blue. Then the light show was over and he shrugged. “I am an angel. And Jack is a half-angel, called nephilim. Now it is your turn, young lady. Reveal yourself.”
The shock and fear on Ligaya’s face was far more pronounced than any she had felt while staring down Sam and Dean’s guns moments ago. She took a deep breath, and nodded. “Angel,” she whispered to herself. “That’s new.”
“Cas is actually very old,” Jack said helpfully.
She nodded at him too. “Uh huh. Um…okay. Well…I’m a human, like you said. Like I said. Tao po. But I’m what we call mangangaso, from Capiz.” She shrugged. “We save people. We hunt things. Ito ay negosyo ng aking pamilya.”
Dean frowned at Castiel. “Did she just…”
Castiel was the one smirking now. “She is a Filipino huntress,” he announced. “And yes. It is her family’s business.”
Sam let out a huge held breath, and put a shaky hand through his hair. “I almost shot a hunter.” He leaned his elbows on his knees. “God, Jack. Ligaya, I’m so sorry. We’re hunters too. I’m rusty. It’s been so long, and I got paranoid…”
Castiel reached across the couch to place his hand on Sam’s knee. “You wouldn’t have shot her.”
Dean snorted. “Of course he wouldn’t have. He said he had to be sure she was the only killer. Sam isn’t stupid enough to shoot something without figuring out if she’s part of a freaking nest.”
Jack smiled. “Ligaya, this is amazing! We are hunters, you’re a hunter! I-I mean, I’m a student now, but I learned…I used to help them…Anyway, Sam, what are we hunting?”
It was Ligaya who spoke up again. “Aswang. Sam is right. They are terrible things. I have tracked this one across the world, followed it here, but it found its intended victim before I could find it.” Tears sparkled in her eyes before she could blink them back. “My cousin came to school here. This evil thing killed her before I could track it down and stop it. Now that it did what it came to do, it is taking any opportunistic kills it can in the area. It is killing patients in that hospital, and I can’t stop it. It is too powerful for one hunter. And I am all that is left of my family.”
Jack took her hand in his. “Now you have another family of hunters. I’m sorry about what happened to your family, Li. But we’re here, and we’ll help you hunt it.”
Sam nodded. “Ligaya, I’m so sorry. I thought it was you because of the security cameras. You wiped three of them, but there was a fourth, and it showed you walking down the hall just around the time the last victim was killed.”
She smiled grimly. “Walking. And that’s how you know it wasn’t me.”
He narrowed his gaze. “What do you mean?”
“Manananggal.”
Dean cleared his throat. “That’s…that’s the song from The Muppets.”
Every pair of eyes in the room turned to stare at him.
“What are The Muppets? Are they another form of aswang? Like vampires and ghouls and witches?” Jack queried.
Castiel took a deep breath and shook his head. “I…don’t think Dean was offering anything productive.”
“It’s the song…Manamana…”
Sam shook his head too. “No,” was all he said.
The others turned back to Ligaya. “Manananggal are a subset, yes, Jack. They are horrific. When they identify a victim, they separate their bodies. That’s what the word means, a separation, a severance. The upper half of the body detaches itself from the lower, leaving the legs and abdomen standing without the top, as the upper body, the chest, arms, wings and head, leave to attack.”
“Oh, ew,” Dean and Jack said together with disgust.
She nodded. “You have no idea. They’re vile. Our scientists say that sightings of them are attributable to our kagwang, which are called flying lemurs. They are like large flying squirrels, and they make little sounds like tik-tik. The poor sweet animals are blamed for our nightmares. No one can believe there are actually human-like creatures which can fly on wings like bats with only half their bodies, making those horrible noises, tik-tik-tik-tik. Better to laugh and say it is only a kagwang. For if you believe, how could you ever sleep again, knowing what is truly out there?”
Sam smiled shakily. “Hunters don’t sleep much,” he admitted.
“No,” she agreed. “We don’t. And it is just as well, because this aswang will kill again tonight if I don’t stay awake and destroy it at last.” She turned to Jack. “Half-angel. That must make you very strong. And it must mean that God is with us.”
Castiel exchanged looks with Sam and Dean, who each shook their heads at him, so he remained silent.
“Will you help me, Jack? I will go alone, and I will probably die, but I cannot allow this thing that killed my family, one by one, live to kill others. With or without you, I will go to fight it.”
Sam stood. “We’re with you. Tell us everything you know about these creatures. Dean? Start making some coffee. We’re going to be up all night.”
Ligaya gave him a relieved smile, and nodded.
***
Dean’s text that he and Sam had found the creature’s missing half and had burned it with the blessed coconut oil Ligaya had given them came just in time. Jack was just about to show Ligaya when the creature sprang at the hospital bed where Castiel lay as bait.
It was a very unfortunate aswang who came hungry to a still, vulnerable figure who smelled of human blood, only to find that it was, in fact, a resting angel. There was just enough time for Jack to see himself reflected, inverted, in the thing’s widening eyes before Castiel grabbed it by its throat. Jack tossed the oil over its wings to cripple it. Finally, Ligaya shoved the bolo knife between its shoulder blades from behind. Castiel let his grace burn the oil into the creature without mercy, then let it drop to the floor, where it turned to gray ash. Jack caught Ligaya as she stumbled backward.
“You did it, Li!” he cried happily. “You’ve killed it!”
Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she glowered down at the ash. “Tao po ako, bitch. And you’ll never hurt any of us again.”
Jack took her shaking hands, and then let her throw herself into his arms and weep. He looked at Castiel with surprise.
But his dad simply waved a hand over the floor to clean it of the aswang’s remains and evidence that they had been there themselves, and gave Jack a lifting of his thumb. Then he hurried from the hospital room, with a little wink.
Jack sighed, and held Ligaya tight, and told her everything would be all right, now that she had avenged her family and saved innocent lives. “It’s the family business,” he whispered to her. “Your family and mine. And we’re proud to have helped.”
***
Castiel wiped his hands on his coat. “It’s done,” he reported. “Jack and Ligaya will be down in a moment, I suspect, and they will take her car.”
Dean nodded. “Well? Get in. We’re going to an all-night diner for some pie, like the old days.”
He smiled at his friend. “The old days were not so long ago, Dean,” he said as he climbed into the backseat.
“Two years,” Sam sighed. “Long enough for me to get anxious and paranoid.”
“You know, Jack can take care of himself pretty well,” Dean noted. “If you wanted to come with me and Cas for a hunt now and then, it would be okay. We wouldn’t mind sharing the fun sometimes.”
Sam smiled at him. “Maybe. Now that Jack’s older, and he’s taking classes full time…Yeah. Maybe. I don’t miss it. But maybe I need it.”
Castiel sat back and smiled to himself. Sam had wanted to join him and Dean for hunts for a long time now, but he had been so determined to give what he called a normal life to Jack that he had moved out of the bunker and refused to be a part of any job. He wanted to give Jack some stability, he said. But what was stability for Jack was unnerving for a man who had spent his entire life saving people and hunting things, whether he had wanted to or not.
The angel had happily split his time between the bunker and Impala with Dean and the warm little home with Sam and Jack. He knew Sam never wanted to live the life again, and that was all right. But right down the road in Lebanon, Kansas, he could still have an occasional piece of that life now and then. It was part of Sam, the saving people and hunting things, just as it was for the rest of them. Sam could give Jack what he needed, while still being the person he was. And Castiel loved the person he was.