Dean looked around the room with a sort of twisted admiration for his own bloody masterpiece. His glance finally fell on Abaddon's face. They say that serial killers, seeing the fear and terror in their victims' eyes before the light goes out forever, are not unlike junkies. In fact, it's so intoxicating that they just kill again and again, in search of their next fix. Serial killers wanted to play God, having the power to take lives and feel the flux of power running through their veins. But why play God, thought Dean, if it was so much fun playing the Devil.

Dean smiled. It wasn't a pretend smile, it wasn't even a cruel smile. It wasn't your obligatory villain-like smile that said, "I'm bad so I just have to smile at horrible things."

Nah.

Dean was genuinely enjoying the whole situation. He felt like a kid who had just got what he most wanted for Christmas. He loved it, all of it. The rich, dark red color of blood truly mesmerized him. There was something utterly beautiful about the maimed, broken dead bodies on the ground. And it was the pureness of that joy what made him much more terrifying than any other demon, any other villain. He didn't pretend to have yielded to the darkness. The darkness begged to be accepted by him.

"Oh, what's the matter, sweetheart?", he taunted as he hopped over the dead body of a man in his forties and slowly made his way towards Abaddon "Did I crash your party?"

She stepped back involuntarily and hated herself for it the moment she did it. The movement didn't go unnoticed by Dean. The Mark was burning white-hot now.

"Don't worry. We can have another one", he pointed the blade in her direction and his eyes turned black, "Just you and I".

Abaddon had recovered most of her composure by then. She knew it was one thing to feel terrified and completely another to let it float on the surface. "What's wrong with you? You're acting like an amateur! Get a grip, you bitch!",she thought to herself. Well, it really took some getting used to-having to conceal a feeling that you haven't felt for centuries. Others feared her! It was not the other way around. Not until now. Not until him.

"You know", he said while circling her like an animal playing with his food before eating it, "It took me a fair amount of time to find you. I guess after the last time we met, I can't blame you."

"To be honest", she tilted her head a little and let a small smile appear on her lips before continuing, "You really did take me off guard, Dean, I'll give you that. Not once, but twice. That's more than any other mortal, or immortal for that matter, can boast with."Her smile disappeared in an instant replaced by a stone-cold expression."I don't intend to make the same mistake three times."

Dean let out a small laugh and shrugged casually, "Well, you know what they say", he said in a sing-song tone, "third time's a charm."

"But a demon", she continued as if he had never interrupted her, "That must be a new low even for you. I knew there was something more to you than it met the eye but when Marcus told me, I just couldn't believe it. Dean Winchester. A demon. We had quite the laugh that day."

"Oh, yeah, Marcus. Nice guy. A bit clingly. You might wanna look for him in the dumpster behind "Andy's". Well, at least most of him, anyway. I think I saw his eyeballs roll over the street at one point."

It was her turn to shrug nonchalantly.

"Marcus was disposable. They all are",she cocked an eyebrow and looked at him challengingly, "But then again he's not your first kill, is it? Or the hundred and first? How does it feel, Dean? Is little Sammy okay with the fact that the big bad Mark has turned you into the thing you hated most? ", she gasped dramatically, "What would Daddy say if he could see you now?"

"You know about the Mark", it wasn't really a question but more of a statement. He simply ignored the last thing that came out of her mouth.

Abaddon laughed almost indignantly.

"You're kidding me, right? I was the first knight to be trained by Cain! Of course I know about the Mark, you idiot! Besides I could feel it in you. There's power inside of you that I haven't felt in a long time. A power that only a knight is able to hold and not self-destruct. Hell", she spread her arms to her sides, "We're practically family."

"Hmm", Dean smiled but this time the smile didn't reach his eyes. He stepped slowly towards Abaddon which followed vigilantly his every move. She was prepared to fight him with everything she got, but she wouldn't run. Not this time. Her kind was not the kind that stepped back. But, she thought, her kind was his kind now as well.

"You know", Dean said in a dangerously low voice when he was just a few steps from her, "I'm so sick of family."

And he hit her in the jaw with force that made Abaddon lose her balance.

She gasped and lowered her head down with her fiery hair falling in front of her face so that he couldn't see it. When she raised her head again, Dean could see the bloody gash on her bottom lip. Abaddon licked the blood seductively and smiled.

"Big mistake", she hissed and next thing Dean felt was the impact of her fist with his face.

She was quick. Almost a little too quick for his liking. Almost.

"Mommy never taught you not to hit a woman?",she kicked him in the abdomen, which forced all of his air out of him, "Oh, right, I forgot-", she said before uppercutting him under the jaw, "She burned alive ripped open on a ceiling!"

Dean stumbled backwards and a ferocious smile appeared on his face.

Abaddon tried to kick him in the temple, but he caught her leg mid-air only to see her make a backwards somersault .

He didn't wait for her to react and make a few blows aimed at her head which she tried countering but he managed to grab her arm and pulled her towards himself, twisting it at such an unnatural angle that a sickening crack echoed throughout the room. Abaddon screamed.

"Do not. Talk. About. My. Mother" , his voice felt like murder in her ears.

She kicked him in the kneecap so that she could free herself. His grip on her lessened and she tried stealing the blade from under his shirt, where she saw him put it earlier, but suddenly felt a burning pain in her chest as she flew halfway across the room and landed on her back.

It took Abaddon a moment to recover and when she made an effort to get up, she was stopped by the blade gracing the skin of her neck. She froze and look defiantly into the emerald green eyes who turned to pitch black as Dean licked his lips standing over her .

"Oops.", he mocked.

They stood like that for a second, which stretched forever.

"What are you waiting for?",she challenged him, "I'd have never thought twice about slicing your throat. And I would have enjoyed it."

Dean clicked his tongue.

"Oh, sweetheart, I'm sure of that. But I'm not here to kill you. "

He then grabbed her hair and pulled it back, pressing his lips towards hers so fiercely that she was sure it was going to leave a bruise afterwards. But it wasn't just a kiss. It was fire. It was lust. It was blood. And it was power. Dean's tongue forced her lips apart and intertwined with hers, like a snake looking for a poison to match its own.

Few things shocked Abaddon. This was one of them. She realized she was kissing Dean Winchster, not only a hunter who had killed hundreds of her kind, but who also tried to kill her and nearly succeeded. More than once. She ought to hate him. And she did. But beyond that hatred there was something else, asleep until now. And she realized she was responding to the kiss. She wanted him, she realized so suddenly that it nearly overwhelmed her. And somehow she had always wanted him, in a twisted, masochistic sort of way. Maybe because she could see the darkness in him, even while he was human and that's what had drawn her towards him. But the darkness had been covered with layers of righteousness and self-loathing up to this very day, and Abaddon had missed its potential.

Oh, what a mistake. What a big mistake. Because now she saw that darkness in its full magnificence and, oh my, was it beautiful. It consumed everything around him like a vortex and it left her craving for more and more. It was delicious.

Abaddon couldn't help but shudder and when Dean pulled back she was almost ready to protest.

Dean smiled lopsidedly and tilted his head to the side somewhat playfully.

"I'm here to make you a deal."

"It's not my fault that psychotic brother of yours went completely mental and took off with the Bitch of Hell! Shall I remind you lot that I too got screwed in the process so,-ugh!—get off me , you giraffe!"

Sam had slammed Crowley into one of the walls of the bunker after he had heard the news and was now holding him by the collar of his black suit. He had been trying to contain all his rage inside of him for months but all of the walls he had put it behind broke down after he heard three simple words. Dean is gone.

"You son of a bitch! You took my brother, I didn't hear from him for months and now you're telling me you lost him?", Sam raised his blade and put it to his throat, whispering maliciously , "I should have done this long ago."

"You won't do it, Moose. You still need me."

"Oh, yeah? Watch me."

But before he could do anything else, he felt a hand on his shoulder and a familiar gravelly voice spoke behind him.

"Sam, stop!", Cas walked up in front of him and looked him in the eyes, green ones meeting navy blue. "He's right."

"Cas, he did this! He took him and turned him into a monster…"

"I didn't turn anybody into anything! He woke up as a demon and wanted to get away from you! What, you didn't get the memo? Your. Brother. Doesn't. Want you. Anymore!"

Sam greeted Crowley's jaw with his fist so hard that blood started running from his nose.

"We still need him. Let him go!", and Cas yanked him away from the King of Hell who took a satin handkerchief out of his pocket and soaked the blood In it.

"You Winchesters. No manners at all."

"Calm down, you'll get your turn with him in due time", Cas said lowering his voice and looked Sam with genuine sympathy, "But if what he's saying is true and Abaddon's back, right now he is the only thing staying between her and the throne of Hell. And who would you rather sit on it?"

"He said that Dean's on her side. That they are working together. Cas—",all of Sam's anger suddenly vanished only to be replaced by an expression of great sadness and the angel saw in the pleading eyes of this grown man, a scared boy who needed his big brother to feel safe again."What if he really is-gone? What if we actually find him—Dean will no longer be there?"

Sam seemed to share Castiel's own troubling thoughts but the angel pushed those thoughts back, locked them in a box and threw the key away, for if he allowed them to conquer his mind, he was afraid that they would consume him.

"This is not any other man" , Cas was trying to sound as reassuring as possible, "this Is Dean. He survived Hell. He survived the Apocalypse. He survived Purgatory. Sam-", Cas grabbed the younger WInchester's shoulders and as if he was trying to reassure himself as well, said confidently , "He will survive this."

Sam just looked into the angel's deep eyes and managed a weak, crooked smile.

"I hope you're right. For all our sakes".