There were flashes of black, red and white. A dark figure glided across the front lawn to the door. Another flash of black, and the figure was inside the house. It drifted up the stairs and entered the first room it came to, where a husband and wife were sleeping soundly.
No sound was made as they were slaughtered in their beds. Blood seeped down the sheets and splattered against the wall. The figure drifted away and back into the hallway. Its next stop was across the hall, here a young man no older than 24 slumbered, snoring loudly.
In a flash, he met the same fate as his parents.
As the shadow made its way to the final room of the hallway, its path was blocked by a large black retriever. Teeth bared and hair standing straight up it growled threateningly at the dark intruder. It barely let out a single bark before it was slain.
Everything went black, and a young girl shot up in her bed, breathing heavily. She swept her sweat soaked hair from her face and wiped the streams of tears from her eyes.
It was only a nightmare, she said to herself as she buried her face in her hands, trying to steady her breathing.
After a few moments, she pulls the covers off of herself and creeps quietly out of her room towards the kitchen. As she turns the corner, she sees the vague shape of her dog sleeping on the floor in the middle of the hall. Silently, she tip toed over the shape not wanting to wake him. To her dismay she landed in a puddle of what she assumed to be urine on the other side.
"Damn it Gizmo." She muttered under her breath as she half runs half hops the rest of the trip to the kitchen. She fumbled in the darkness for a towel, not wanting to search for the light switch. After finally finding one she wipes the bottom of her foot, but notices something very peculiar. The substance she stepped in felt very thick and sticky.
Her curiosity getting the best of her, she began blindly searching for the light switch. She found it and switched it on. As soon as the light filled the room she fell backwards in horror, she glanced at the towel in her hand and sees that it is covered in blood. She cupped a hand over her own mouth to stop from screaming as she sees her own bloody footprints she had left on her way to the kitchen leading from a deep red puddle that her dog Gizmo lie in, dead.
Stumbling she raced down the hall to her parents room only to find their mutilated bodies in the blood soaked sheets. Backing out of the room she falls through her brothers' doorway into a puddle of blood on his carpeted floor, his body lying not even two feet from her. Half sobbing she crawled out into the hallway, now covered in her brothers' blood. Finally she pulled herself to her feet and turned to run, but her eyes grew wide with fear as a black shadow raced towards her.
Her blood curdling scream echoed down the entire street.
The bright sun glistened across the shiny black Impala as it sped down the road, music blasting loudly out the open windows. Although the volume of the music was drowning any other sounds, the driver was loudly singing along to the radio. Beside him in the passenger seat, his younger brother was flipping through a filing folder of papers, occasionally throwing irritated glances to his left.
"The road is coming up." Sam said pointing up ahead. Dean, who was still singing, did not hear him.
"Dean!" Sam shouted, which did get his attention.
"What?" Dean shouted back.
"The road is coming up!"
"What?" Dean yelled, not understanding what he was trying to tell him.
"THE ROAD IS COMING UP!" Sam shouted even louder.
"IF YOU'RE GONNA THROW UP, AIM OUT THE WINDOW!" Dean replied.
Getting fed up; Sam leaned over and switched off the radio.
"I said, the road is coming up."
Dean glared at his brother.
"What?" Sam asked defensively.
"Don't touch my radio." Dean said, looking back to the road.
Sam scoffed, "Are you serious? What are you…"
Dean suddenly cut the wheel and turned onto another road. The surprise cut Sam off mid sentence and sent him clambering into the car door.
"Thanks for the heads up on the road, map boy." Dean said as he regained normal speed.
Sam rolled his eyes and turned his attention out the window, knowing that there was no use in fighting.
Dean let out a small chuckle as a mischievous grin spread across his face.
When they reached the house, Dean pulled up to the curb, but they didn't get out. He and Sam both looked out the window, surveying the scene. There was only one other car there and the front porch had been almost completely blocked off with crime scene tape.
"I'm assuming this is the place." Dean said.
"Yeah."
"Not much security." Dean commented on the lack of cops. The murders had only occurred two days prior.
"It seems like a very goody two shoes neighborhood; maybe they didn't want the bad publicity? So they're trying to keep it hush hush?" Sam suggested.
Dean snorted. "Not so much 'love thy neighbor' going on."
"Guess not."
"Alright, let's get to this then." Dean said exiting the car.
The boys ascended the porch stairs and ducked under the police tape to enter the house. They barely made it over the threshold when they were stopped by a detective.
"Can I help you gentlemen?" he asked.
They flashed their fake badges, "I'm agent Freely, and this is agent Simons with the F.B.I., could you tell me what happened here?"
"Family' name is Torian. A friend of the father came by to check in after he didn't show up for work, found Neil, his wife Susan and their 24 year old son Charlie dead in their beds. Oh and the dog slaughtered in the hallway."
"Any sign of a break in?" Same asked taking notes.
"Nope," answered the detective. "They have an alarm system but it didn't go off, doors and windows were locked and unbroken. No one knows how they got in."
"Any suspects?" Dean asked.
"Not exactly." The detective answered hesitantly.
"What do you mean, not exactly?" Dean asked.
"Well currently no one knows where their daughter Ella is. A neighbor said that they heard a scream come from the house last night that sounded like her, but there's no sign of her having been killed in the house. Her room is clean. Only sign of her are some bloody footprints."
"Hang on; the neighbors heard her scream and no one called the police?" Sam asked, shocked.
The detective shook his head. "Apparently Ella has been known to have really bad nightmares, wakes up screaming like that all the time. I guess they learned to pay no mind to it."
"Do you think she could have done this?" Dean asked.
"Personally? Not at all, but we don't know anything for sure yet."
"Do you mind if we go in and have a look around?" Sam asked.
"Not at all." The detective said ushering them towards the house.
They had barely taken 5 steps from the door before they spotted the pool of blood in the hallway. As they made their way through the one floored house, they saw that there were bloody footprints that led from the kitchen to both of the bedrooms.
"Jesus." Dean muttered as he glanced around the blood stained bedroom. "It looks like these people were put through a wood chipper."
Sam crept towards the bed. "Coroner's report didn't say anything about missing hearts so we can rule out werewolves."
"Vengeful spirit maybe?" Dean suggested. "A very, very vengeful spirit?" he added as he looked across the hall into Charlie's room and saw that is was almost worse than his parents'.
"Maybe." Sam said. "But where's the girl? Spirits aren't ones to take captives, unless she summoned them and then made a run for it."
"I don't think so." Dean said from across the hall. "Look at this."
Sam joined his brother in the sons' room. Dean pointed to the strange smudges in the blood on the floor. "See how they go out into the hallway like this? And look here."
"It's a handprint." Same said as he stared at the barely noticeable print on the carpet.
"Kind of looks like someone was crawling away from something doesn't it?"
"So maybe, she wakes up, walks to the kitchen, finds the dead dog…."
"Then runs to her parents room, finds them dead, goes to the brothers room and catches up with whatever killed them, tries to crawl away." Dean finished.
"So question is, where is she and why wasn't she killed?" Sam asked.
Dean simply shook his head, not knowing what to say.
Later that night, the boys sat in their motel room. Sam was busy on his computer and Dean was pacing around the room talking on the phone.
"Alright, thanks anyway Bobby." He hung up the phone and sat across from Sam at the table.
"Anything? Sam asked looking over his laptop.
"Nada." Dean answered busying himself with some of the papers that were littering the table. "He doesn't know of anything that fits the description of how the victims were killed without leaving any sort of evidence behind. He especially doesn't know of anything that would snatch up a 19 year old girl in the process. He thinks our best bet is some sort of possession."
"That the daughter killed her family? But that still doesn't explain how everything was still locked, the blood trails, and why none of her footprints were near the exits…"
"I know Sammy, I know." Dean cut him off, sounded irritated and tired. He picked up one of the missing posters they had found in town for Ella and stared at it for a long time.
"Where the hell are you?" he mumbled to himself. His lack of sleep was finally catching up to him, and his head had begun to throb painfully.
"Have you found anything?" he asked Sam.
"Um, only one thing. A few weeks ago there were a few more murders similar to this one, except this one a man was found outside instead of in a locked house."
"And how does that relate to this one?"
"The bodies were mutilated pretty much the same way and the man's fiancé is the prime suspect, but no one has been able to find her."
"Huh, well I'll take what I can. Anything else on the missing fiancé?" Dean asked hopefully.
"Not yet, but I'm still looking."
"Alright, well keep on geeking. I'm going on a pie run. You want anything?"
"Anything you can find with caffeine. I have a feeling this is going to be a long night."
"Alright." Dean said as he walked out the door.
He got into his car just sat for a minute with his head in his hands, waiting for the spike of pain in his head to subside. Once the pain had become just bearable he started the car and drove towards a diner they had passed when they came into town. Suddenly his radio started to switch stations rapidly.
"The Hell…." Dean muttered as he fidgeted with the dial.
He was glancing back and forth between the radio and the road. As he looked up his gaze momentarily glanced into the rear view mirror where he saw a face looking back at him. He jumped and nearly ran the Impala off the road, but luckily regained control before he hit the guard rails.
"Hello Dean." A deep familiar voice said from the backseat.
"God damn it Cas, are you trying to kill me?"
"My apologies." Castiel said. "I didn't mean to alarm you."
"Well what did you think was going to happen when you just popped up in my backseat? What are you doing here?"
"I'm here for the same reason you are. The murders."
"Do you know what's doing it?" Dean asked.
"I think so, but before I can be sure we need to find Sam."
"…Can we get pie first?" Dean asked, he had been hoping that he had a hunger headache and that food would help.
Castiel didn't answer him but just stared intensely at him through the rear view mirror.
"Fine." Dean said sounding disappointed. He turned the car around in the middle of the street and headed back towards the motel.
As Dean opened the door Sam looked up at him confusedly. "You're back already?" he asked.
"Got a little surprise heart attack on the way there." Dean answered. He didn't need to explain as Castiel followed him through the door.
"Cas…what are you doing here?"
"Search for the name Caroline Bridgly." He said quickly, ignoring Sam's question.
"What? Who's that?"
"Just look for it." Castiel instructed, obviously having no patience.
Sam did as he said and did a search on Caroline Bridgly. His search brought him to a page that was covered in stars and random symbols, titled Free Psychic Readings followed by a phone number and an address. As he scrolled down the page he came across a photo that made him say, "Woah."
Dean and Castiel quickly huddled around the computer and saw that the photograph was of the missing woman Carly O'Brien.
"Wait, this is Carly O'Brien?"
"Yes. She changed her name when she moved here. Apparently she wasn't too popular of a psychic in her last town." Cas said.
"She's a psychic?" Dean asked.
"Yes, a very powerful one too. That's why she was taken." Cas replied pacing about the room. He didn't say anything more and Dean got the sense that he was withholding information from them. This made Dean very frustrated with him.
"Care to explain a little more?" Dean asked impatiently.
"There has been talk amongst the angels that an angel by the name of Adonael is planning a rebellion. He is very strong and very stubborn, and I knew he was displeased, but I never thought it would come to this. He must have left heaven weeks ago…"
"So wait," Dean interrupted him, "you didn't notice that one of your men when AWOL from heaven?"
"Unfortunately no. It is difficult to track angels when they are in heaven, and you wouldn't even notice they left when they are not using a vessel. It's like trying to follow smoke, nearly impossible."
"But how did he leave if he doesn't have a vessel?' Sam asked, "I thought angels needed a willing vessel in order to come to Earth."
"Apparently Adonael was in the process of developing a ritual that would allow him to travel without a vessel, but still maintain his powers and abilities."
"Just without a meat suit weighing him down." Dean finished his train of thought.
"Essentially. I believe that he had a vessel for a short amount of time before he was able to complete the ritual, and then he had no need for it."
"What kind of ritual are we talking about?" Dean asked.
"I have no idea all I know is that to make it work he needed a powerful psychic. I didn't think that one could just create a new ritual. The ones we use are from millennia ago. I've never heard of an angel simply creating a new one…" Castiel rambled on, still pacing about the room.
"Well even those ones had to have been created by someone." Sam said. Castiel stopped and glared angrily at him.
"Well yes, I realize that now, Sam." He snapped. Sam seemed taken aback by his sudden annoyance with him. He knew that he wasn't Castiels favorite person in the world but he was still surprised by how quickly he became annoyed with him.
Dean hadn't noticed this and kept asking questions, determined to get Castiel to tell him something useful.
"So he's going through all of this trouble to come down here just to kill people? What for? How is he choosing his victims?"
"So far all of his kills have been completely random, almost as though he is killing them just for the sake of killing them. I know that he is furious that he was not the next in command after Michael had gone. Apparently he had tried to take over while we were still on Earth and thought that his efforts would be rewarded with the official title. When he did not, like many others, he was furious. I believe that this is him lashing out against God. The only pattern I've been able to find is between the families of Ella Torian and Carly O'Brien."
"They were the only two families where someone was taken." Sam said.
"Precisely." Castiel replied.
"Does that mean the Ella Torian is a psychic too?" Sam asked.
"I believe so, yes. I cannot think of any other reason why he would take her."
Dean ran his hands through his hair, his head was throbbing painfully and he was growing more and more frustrated, "So we have angels pulling hissy fits, kidnapping psychics and killing people for sport. Great, that's just what we need, angels acting like demons except with you angels, you believe that everything you do is for a greater cause so that just makes it ten times more fun."
Castiel was beginning to lose his patience. "I'd appreciate it if you kept your opinions to yourself, Dean. I don't know if you've been listening, but I am fully aware of the situation at hand and I do not need you throwing it back in my face." The two of them glowered at each other in silence until Sam spoke, trying to break the tension.
"So if he doesn't have a vessel, then how do we kill him?"
"We can't." Castiel said.
Dean was now on his feet, his head felt as though it was going to burst "Well great, that's real helpful Cas." He said, not even trying to hide the sarcasm and rage in his voice. "Do you have any control over these bastards? They are murdering people, for fun. And you are doing nothing." He snapped, not caring how accusatory he sounded. His head felt close to bursting and he was furious.
Before he had fully finished his sentence, Castiel lunged across the room and pinned Dean to the wall, tightly gripping the collar of his shirt in his fists.
"Until you are in my position, you will not question how I do what I do." He growled. "Do you have any idea what it's like up there? It's like trying to stop a wildfire with nothing but a watering can. So when you have that kind of responsibility, then you can talk. But until that day don't you dare assume for even a second that I am not doing everything in my power to fix this."
By the time he had finished speaking he had Dean raised a few inches off the floor and was, without his knowledge, slightly choking him.
Sam had stood up but did not know what to do, so he just stood in shock.
Suddenly, there a loud bang on the door and the three of them all turned towards it. Castiel released Dean who stumbled towards his duffle, coughing slightly and pulled out his gun. There was another bang as he approached the door. Sam crept behind and grabbed the handle. He looked at Dean who had his gun raised and nodded.
Sam quickly opened the door and Dean pointed his gun at the young girl who stood there.
He lowered his weapon once he realized that he had seen her before. Although she looked beaten and worn, he knew instantly that it was Ella Torian.
She swayed slightly on the spot. "I'm looking for Dean Winchester." She said weakly before she slowly collapsed. Castiel had rushed forward and caught her before she hit the ground. Supporting her unconscious body, he looked to Sam and Dean who seemed to be just as shocked and confused as he was.
Castiel carefully picked her up and brought her over to the bed. When he placed her down he noticed that he had gotten quite a bit of blood on him. He soon realized that it was from a rather deep gash on either of her arms.
Dean had rushed forward with towels and wrapped them tightly around her arms. "She's losing a lot of blood. We're gonna have to stitch her up, Sam!" he called, but Sam had already been rustling through his duffle bag for his any supplies he could find and rushed over to Ella. But before he could reach her, Castiel stopped him and nudged Dean out of his way. He gently lifted Ella's arm and ran his fingers over the gash. He picked up the towel and wiped away the blood, revealing her unscathed arm. He did the same to her left arm, but as he wiped the blood off, she shot up violently, throwing her fist directly into Castiels' face. There was a small crack as it broke and blood immediately came gushing from his nostrils, but he made no sign that it had caused him any pain but he looked shocked that he was bleeding. A human should not be able to damage his vessel so easily. Deciding he would worry about it later, he simply wiped his hand under his nose and the bleeding stopped, leaving only slight traces of blood on his upper lip.
Dean rushed over to Ella and grabbed her flailing arms, trying to calm her down.
"Ella, Ella come down, Ella it's ok!" She did not seem to understand where she was or what was going on and continued to writhe and flail. Castiel approached her and touched her forehead, sending her into a deep sleep.
Dean let go of her now limp arms and walked away from her. "How the hell did she find us?" he asked, collapsing into the chair beside the bed.
"I do not know." Castiel said. Dean looked over to him and saw the remnants of blood under his nose. "Cas, are you bleeding?"
"I was. I think she had broken my nose."
Dean looked at him in confusion, "How did she break your nose?"
"I don't know. Perhaps I'm not up to my full strength just yet. It has been some time since I've been to Earth."
Dean got up from his seat and patted Cas on the back, "Getting beat up by a nineteen year old girl? Getting a little rusty Cas." He joked as headed towards the fridge for a beer.
"I suppose so." Castiel said, taking Deans' now vacant seat, feeling slightly confused a a bit concerned though he did not know why.
"So now what do we do?" Sam asked looking over at the unconscious Ella.
"Uh," Dean said shrugging slightly, "keep an eye on her until she wakes up and I guess try to talk to her then."
Sam nodded in agreement, he had no better ideas. "Do you think she'll remember anything?"
"Based on how shaken and frightened she is, I think she'll remember everything unfortunately." Castiel said.
Sam and Dean spent the rest of the night sleeping in shifts in case Ella woke up. Castiel had disappeared without warning not long after he had put her to sleep. The night was rather uneventful, she slept throughout it. The next morning, Dean sat "on watch" while Sam went to get coffee. He was exhausted, even during the few hours he slept he was restless. His head had begun to ache again and he did his best to ignore it, hoping that the caffeine would help when Sam returned. It grew worse the longer he was awake.
He leaned forward into his hands, putting pressure on his forehead to alleviate the pain radiating through his skull. The pain frustrated him more than anything; he had gone much longer without much sleep and never had such headaches because of it. He only looked up when he heard Ella stir. Her body was twitching slightly and her eyes were moving rapidly beneath her lids. Dean got up and moved closer to the bed in case she started flailing like she did the last time she woke up. Standing a few inches from the bed, he watched her as she started to thrash slightly in her sleep.
"She must be having a nightmare." Dean thought, and felt that it would be better to just wake her up than to let her suffer through the bad dream she was in. Not wanting a broken nose like Cas, he made sure that he was in no way on the path of her arm if she decided to throw another punch. Creeping towards the bed, he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a light shake.
"Ella." He muttered, "Ella, wake up."
He shook her a few more times before her eyes flew open. Not moving any other part of her body, she rolled her head towards Dean who had taken a few steps back from her in order to give her space. Not knowing what else to do, he gave her a small wave. "Hey there. You alright?"
She stared at him for a moment. "Are you Dean?"
"Yeah. Yeah I am." He took a few steps closer.
"I had to find you." She said, her eyes welling up with tears.
At that moment, Sam walked through the door. The sudden sound alarmed her and she sat up violently, her eyes wide and fearful. Sam stared at her in surprise.
"Whoa, whoa, easy now. Despite his sasquatch like quality, he's okay. Just relax." Dean said trying to get her to ease back onto the bed. She let herself fall back onto the pillows so that she was still sitting upward but not as rigidly.
"She alright?" Sam asked Dean when he walked over to join him by the door.
"I don't know. She just woke up. She seems to know where she is now, at least."
"Has she said anything?"
"Only, 'I had to find you'. But that's about it."
"Do you think she remembers anything about who took her?"
Dean shrugged. "Only one way to find out." He said as he jerked his head towards Ella, "Go get 'em Mr. Softie."
Sam gave Dean an exasperated look, but walked over to Ella regardless. Dean patted him on the back and took a seat at the table with his head in hand, listening to Sam and Ella.
"Hey, I'm Sam." He said gently, pulling a chair beside the bed.
"Ella." She answered shakily. "Who are you?"
"I'm Deans' brother."
"I didn't see you." She said. Sam looked at Dean confusedly who just shrugged.
"See me?"
"When I was…wherever I was. I had blacked out, I think, and I saw Dean looking at a missing poster of me. And then I saw the motel sign, and the car."
"That's how you were able to find us?"
She nodded.
"I know this is hard for you, but can you remember anything about what happened?"
Ella's body tensed up, and she took a shaky breath before she spoke. "I was asleep in my bed, and I had a nightmare…about my family being…" her voice cracked but she fought back tears and went on. "And I woke up and it all really happened. Everything that I had dreamt had happened."
"Does this happen a lot?" Dean interjected.
She nodded, "Over the past few years, yeah. About 4 years ago, I started having these awful nightmares about people dying or having these terrible things happen to them and then they would come true. I'd find articles in the paper about the same person in my dream having the same thing happen to them."
"Did your parents know?" Sam asked.
"No, I never told them. They thought I was insane as it was, I didn't need them knowing that I was seeing people die before it actually happened."
"So going back to the other night, after you found your parents and brother, what happened."
"Um, there was this shadow. Not a person but just a shadow and it was in my brothers' room." She scrunched her brow slightly as she tried to remember what happened next. "I remember trying to run, but it caught up with me and then… then I don't remember what happened. The next thing I knew I was in this dank basement- like place."
"Can you remember anything else about where you were?" Sam asked, trying not to sound too pushy but needing her to tell them as much as she could.
"It was dark and had all of these strange symbols on the floor and the walls and there was this… this altar."
"Altar?" Dean asked, exchanging worried looks with Sam. Ella nodded. "There was a man, at he would take my blood in these weird bowls and start muttering these chants. Then there would be this flash of light and the man would fall to the floor, like he was dead until a few hours later when he'd just wake up and do it all again."
"How many times did he do this?"
"Twice, I think. I was blacked out for a while so I can't be sure."
Dean rummaged through the papers on the table until he found the picture he wanted.
"Was this woman there?" he asked showing her a picture of Carly O'Brien. The sight of it made her burst into tears. "She…she was there with me. But he…it…it killed her." She choked out.
Sam tried to soothe her and was mildly successful, she did stop sobbing. Dean brought her over a glass of water and a box of tissues, and then beckoned Sam to follow him to the opposite end of the room while Ella tried to compose herself. Once he was sure they were out of earshot, he spoke.
"Okay, so this is good news then right?"
Sam looked at him like he was insane, "How did you interpret any of that as good news?"
"Well, Adonael hasn't gotten the ritual down. If he did then he would have had to repeat it. So we don't have to worry about a free flying killer angel swarming around and we know that he has to be in a vessel at one point or another."
"Which gives us opportunity to take him out before he gets the ritual right." said Sam, catching onto Dean's train of thought.
"So all we need to do is find out where the son of a bitch is holed up and catch him in his vessel."
Sam glanced back at Ella who was staring blankly at the bed spread. "Do you think she knows where it is?"
"She's got to; she made it from there to here didn't she?"
Sam turned away from his brother and went back to sit beside Ella. "Ella, do you remember where exactly you were?"
She sniffled and said, "Yeah."
"Could you direct us there?"
Her eyes grew wide. "No, no I don't want to go back. Please don't make me go back!" She pleaded, growing slightly hysterical.
"Hey, hey, listen. We're not going to make you go back. We just need you to direct us."
This eased her a bit, "Like, like draw you a map or something?"
"If you could, or any way you can remember how to get there."
"Do you have paper?"
Sam got up and brought her over a piece of paper and a pen. She took them from him and began scribbling notes rapidly.
Dean, who had returned to his seat at the table was staring very intently at her, a question had been burning through his throbbing head since she had started talking. Not being able to hold it in any longer, he just came right out and asked it.
"How did you escape anyway?"
She didn't look up from the paper as she answered. "I managed to break through the ropes, hit him over the head with a stone statue from the altar."
"And that worked?" Dean asked, really quite shocked by her answer. He had a very difficult time believing that this girl had managed to escape from an angel's clutches by hitting it over the head.
"Yeah, why?" She asked looking up at Dean.
He tried to play it off as nothing, not wanting to worry her with anything more than she already was. "Nothing."
"Here." She said handing the piece of paper with directions to Sam. Sam looked them over and brought them over to Dean. He reached over to grab the sheet from Sam but instead jumped with surprise as Cas appeared behind him. Ella let out a small shriek and Dean groaned at the pain shooting through his knee from bashing it on the table when he jumped.
Castiel quickly turned to the panicked Ella and placed his fingers on her forehead. When she fell back onto the bed asleep he joined the Winchesters at the table.
"What did you do that for?" Sam asked.
"I felt it best to keep her as un involved as possible, as far as she knows she was being held by a lunatic. There's no need for her to know any more than that." He said flatly. "Has she told you anything?"
"Yeah, according to her Adonael had to keep taking her blood to perform a ritual to travel without a vessel, so he hasn't gotten it right yet. Also, Carly O'Brien is dead."
"I assumed as much." Castiel said sadly. "He's been traveling a lot, for which he would have needed a mass amount of psychic blood."
"We also have the address where he was holding her."
Castiel stared down at the paper, his brow furrowed in confusion. "This doesn't make any sense."
"What doesn't?" Dean asked, still trying to relieve the pain in his leg.
"Adonael is smart and he would not have such a conspicuous location as this, nor would he let his victim escape so easily."
"Well apparently, she put up a bit of a fight. She said she knocked him out with a stone statue."
He looked even more troubled. "That's not possible, there's no way she could have overcome an angel."
"She's a lot tougher than she looks," argued Dean, "she managed to break your nose, didn't she?"
"It doesn't matter how "strong" you consider a human to be. You can't defeat a powerful angel like him just because you have verve."
"Verve?"
"Yes verve! Acquire a dictionary, I don't have time to teach you vocabulary." Cas fought, growing impatient with Dean's remarks.
"Okay, so if she couldn't take down an angel then how did she get away?" Sam interjected, trying to steer the conversation back on topic.
"I have no idea." Cas admitted. "But something here is not right, that I am sure of."
"Ah, well thank you for gracing us with you infinite knowledge." Dean snapped. The combined pain of his head and his leg had pushed him to his patient limit. Castiel glared at him.
"If you like having your mouth still attached to your face, then I suggest that you keep it shut." He growled. Dean snorted.
"You really think that I'm afraid of your feathery ass?"
Castiels' face flushed and he went lunged in Dean's direction, but Sam jumped in his path. He was shocked and alarmed at the level of anger the two of them had reached so rapidly.
"Hey! Relax the both of you. What's wrong with you two? I've never seen you this close to killing each other over nothing."
Suddenly, a look of enlightenment appeared on Castiels' face. "That's it." He said. But before either Sam or Dean could ask any questions, he vanished.
"Where did he go?" Sam asked, sounding a little annoyed.
"I have no idea." Dean answered, coming down from his rage.
"Is everything okay with you man?" Sam asked.
"I don't know.' Dean answered honestly. "I've had this headache for the past few days and it's like, like I can't control my temper anymore."
"Well you were never too good about controlling your temper." Sam said.
"Yeah, but this is different. It's like whenever Cas is around, all I can think about if fighting him."
"I think you just need to get some sleep."
"Yeah, yeah maybe. But what are we gonna do about her?" Dean asked referring to Ella.
"Ah, damn I forgot about her. Uh, I guess I'll drop her off at the hospital, let them take care of her from there."
"Good plan. I'm gonna stay here and try to get some sleep."
"Alright." Sam said. He pulled on his coat, walked over to Ella and hoisted her into his arms with ease. Dean walked them out and helped Sam get her into the back of the Impala.
He watched them drive off until he could no longer see the red tail lights in the distance then went back into the room.
After shutting off all the lights, he collapsed onto the nearest bed, holding his throbbing head in his hands. He just wanted it to stop throbbing. In the few minutes that he had been laying down, the pain increased substantially. He was pushing the heels of his hand so hard against his forehead that he thought he might bruise himself, but this was nothing compared to the feeling that his head was about to spilt wide open any second from the pain.
His stomach began to turn and he felt himself starting to get sick. He tried to get up to get to the sink or the garbage, but as soon as he stood he could feel the entire room spinning and instead fell to the floor. He could taste the blood in his mouth as he coughed up onto the floor and soon felt like his insides were on fire. He tried to pull himself up and half crawled to the table where his phone was. He picked it up and blindly tried dialing Sam's number.
He heard someone pick up, "Dean?" Sam's voice asked through the phone.
"Sammy..." was all he managed to get out before he toppled over coughing up more blood onto the floor. Everything slowly began to disappear. He could hear his brother frantically calling his name through the phone, but could not answer him.
Then there was a bright light as the door opened. He could barely make out the figure approaching him. He couldn't tell if it was his wishful thinking, but he could have sworn that he caught a glimpse of wing shaped shadows as a passing car sent a small amount of light into the room.
"Cas?" he asked weakly as the figure grew closer. They were not even a foot away from him before he felt his eyes roll back into his head and everything was black.
Sam had been walking out of the emergency room when Dean had called. "Dean?"
He asked calmly at first. All he could make out was his brother saying his name before the line went dead.
"Dean?" he shouted into the phone, but it was no use. He bolted to the car and sped back to the motel. He was horrified as he approached the room, gun at the ready, to see that the door was wide open. He slowly entered the room and flipped on the lights. The room was empty. He scanned the room, gun still aimed to fire but it was clear. No one was there, not even Dean. Sam's stomach dropped as he noticed the small puddles of blood and vomit on the floor. He quickly pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Deans' number. He swore under his breath when he heard it ring from behind him. He turned around and saw Castiel holding the phone in his hand.
"He must have left it behind when he was taken." Castiel said opening and closing the phone to silence it.
"Taken?" Sam asked, "Taken by who?"
"Adonael." He answered looking worriedly at the blood stained carpet.
Sam stared at him in disbelief. "What does he want with Dean? I thought he needed psychic blood."
"Only to hold him over until he worked out the rest of the ritual. "
"So why did he take Dean?" Sam repeated.
"As bait, for now."
"What do mean, for now? What the hell is going on?"
"I found some of his minions and managed to get information about the ritual Adonael is trying to create. In order for the ritual to succeed he needs the blood of a hunter, an angel and a demon."
Sam stared at him in disbelief. Castiel noticed his confusion and explained further.
"I knew Adonael was very powerful, but I was unaware just how powerful. He has the ability to alter emotions. He can create them or simply intensify them, which would in result weaken the victim quite a bit. That's why Ella was able to break my nose."
"And that's why Dean had those headaches."
"Yes."
"Why wasn't I affected?" Sam asked.
"Because unless he is directly in someone's presence, his power only targets angels, and the mark I left on Dean when I pulled him from hell is in a way a part of me which is why he was affected by what I was affected by."
"But we never got anywhere near him. how was he able to do that?"
"Ella. He must have used Ella as a vessel for a short amount of time."
"She doesn't remember how she left the house; he must have possessed her and just zapped to where he had to go."
"And in turn he made her a bomb of sorts. When an angel uses a human vessel, a small part of them is left behind when they leave, even more so for vessels who has special abilities, such as Ella. Their bodies are used to the strange supernatural alterations so when an angel uses them they have no problem latching on and holding onto a stronger piece than a normal human. So he made her have a vision of Dean and let her escape knowing she would come here, exposing us to his power. He needed to make me leave you alone and he knew that if he pushed me past the point where I could control my rage, to the point where I could and would kill you or Dean, that I would notice and be forced to leave before I did something regrettable. Then you and Dean would be vulnerable enough for him to take."
"Wait, me and Dean? How many hunters does he need?"
Castiel was silent for a moment. "It's not the hunters' blood he needs you for. Even though you are no longer capable of the power you once had and you are no longer consuming it, you still have traces of demon blood in you making you usable for his ritual. It's easier for him to get to you than an actual demon."
Sam twitched slightly as an odd mixture of fury and shame rose inside of him. The fact that he was basically considered a demon for this ritual was far too unsettling. But he pushed it from his mind; there were far more important things at stake here.
"What are the chances that Dean is, is…" he couldn't bring himself to say the words "still alive" for he wasn't entirely sure if he wanted to know the answer.
"He won't kill him until he has completed the ritual, for which he needs the three of us. "
"So if Deans' bait, then he should still be in his conspicuous location so we could find them."
"And walk directly into his trap, yes." Castiel replied. He did not deny that it was a trap nor did he try to convince Sam that they should not walk straight into it. He wanted to get Dean out as much as Sam as well as put a stop to Adonael.
"Let's go then." Sam said. Castiel placed a hand on his shoulder and everything went white.
Deans' vision flickered back slowly after he woke. The pain in his head had nearly vanished, but his temples and forehead were sore. He slowly lifted his head and blinked rapidly, trying to bring the room into focus. After taking in the strange symbols on the walls and floor as well as the altar against the opposite wall, he concluded that he was in the basement like place where Ella was. This, to his dismay, meant that Adonael had been the one who had walked through the door. He tried to move his arms and legs but they were tightly bound to the chair he was sitting in. He kept staring at the door, waiting for Adonael to walk through it and most likely kill him.
Not gonna happen. He kept saying to himself as he pulled and pulled against the ropes until he could feel them bruising his wrists.
"Son of a bitch." He muttered. There was a sound behind him, laughter? He turned his head as far around as he could and could just out of the corner of his eye see a man leaning against the back wall.
"Am I amusing you, chuckles?" he shouted over his shoulder.
"I was always entertained by you humans over assumption of your own strength. You feel pain, and yet you continue to push your bodies until it can be pushed no more, as though you do not comprehend your own mortality. It's very strange, very pathetic."
"Oh yeah, I'm the pathetic one." Dean retorted. "I'm not the once who is trying to glorify a temper tantrum because daddy wouldn't give me what I wanted."
He didn't even hear him approach him, but Adonael was now directly behind him; his hands were clenched around his throat pulling him backwards to that he was tilted and looking upside down at him.
"Apparently I struck a nerve." Dean choked out.
"Do you have any idea what I'm capable of?" Adonael hissed. "I could bring out your worst memories and make you feel as though it were happening this very moment. I can bring the strongest man falling to their knees with grief. I could make a cold blooded killer out of Gandhi himself. I will not take snarky remarks from a helpless whelp like you."
He released Deans' throat and he fell backwards, bashing his head against the stone floor, gasping for air.
"If I'm such a pain in your ass, then why am I here?" Dean asked once he caught his breath.
"Because I need your blood." Adonael said simply, now in front of Dean.
"You need to get a new informant, because I may be a sweet piece of ass, but I'm not a psychic buddy."
"No, but you are a hunter. And it turns out that's 1/3 of the recipe for this ritual to be successful. Psychics were just holding me over until I worked out the kinks."
"So what's the other 2/3?" Dean asked, now growing legitimately curious.
"You'll know soon enough, which reminds me." He said as he twitched his hand, lifting Dean and the chair back up right. "It'll probably be better if they can see you before they come barging in here. Seeing you alive might make them a little more reckless."
"Them?" Dean said out loud without meaning too. Surely he didn't mean…no. They wouldn't be stupid enough to walk into a trap like this. Sam would if he thought his brother was in danger, but Cas would stop him from doing anything reckless to save his life, right?
His train of thought was cut off by a blow to the face. Dean grunted in pain, he could feel the blood flowing down the side of his head and his vision momentarily blurred due to the strength of the hit.
"What the hell was that for?" Dean demanded as he felt warm blood trickle down his face.
Adonael shrugged. "You didn't seem to be in enough peril, I thought some blood would be a nice touch. I deal with emotions, Dean and the more injured to appear, the higher the emotions of your brother and your little angel friend will be. Also, I've been dying to hit you since you woke up." He smirked, and suddenly disappeared before Dean could respond. He looked around the entire room but Adonael was gone. Then he heard faint shuffling sounds coming from above him. They were footsteps. He muttered curses under his breath as he heard the sound grow closer and closer until he could hear them just outside the door. Through the small window he could just make out the top of Sam's head approaching the door. He had to warn him.
"Sammy!" he yelled, but before he could say run he lost his ability to speak due to a gag that had simply appeared around his mouth. He looked up at the ceiling and saw Adonael lying across the ceiling over the door. He smiled wickedly and pressed a finger to his lips, "Shhh."
"Dean!" Sam yelled from beyond the door. He tried to force words out as Sam's face appeared in the window, but all he could do was make distressed sounds which were not helping.
The door slowly opened and Sam slipped inside the room. "Are you alright?" he asked Dean. Dean tried to draw Sam's attention to the ceiling where Adonael was still smiling cruelly down at him. He jerked his head upwards, but Sam did not understand and approached him anyway. Cas entered the room as Sam reached Dean and stayed in the doorway. He could feel Adonaels' presence, but where was he. An idea dawned on him and he slowly raised his head to the ceiling. As soon Sam removed the gag Dean shouted "He's on the ceiling!" But it was too late. Adonael flicked a lit match to the floor quicker than Castiel could move. Flames erupted in a circle around him and he looked frantically at the ground, but there was no way out of the holy fire.
Sam pulled a silver spear from his jacket and sprinted towards Adonael as he landed on the floor, but with one flick of the wrist Sam slammed into the opposite wall and collapsed to the floor.
Adonael clapped his hands together, looking immensely pleased with himself.
"I'm so glad you were able to make it." He pulled a silver knife from his sleeve and flipped in playfully in his fingers, let's get started then shall we?"
Sam managed to pull himself off of the floor and made another run at Adonael. Without even looking at him, Adonael snapped his fingers and there was a loud crack as Sam's leg broke sending him back to the floor.
"Adonael." Castiel said. Adonael turned towards him, his eyes burning with hatred.
"You don't have to do this, please." Castiel pleaded, trying to give him one last chance at redemption, although a part of him very much wanted to fight him.
"I did everything, everything to keep order upstairs while you were down here playing with the humans. And what do I get? NOTHING! I get bumped right back to where I started, no thanks, no gratitude, nothing while you get all the glory and the power!"
"That is why you got nothing. You didn't do any of it for the good of heaven, or the good of mankind. You did it for control. All you've ever wanted was control and that's why God would not give it to you." Castiel said through gritted teeth.
Adonael was now standing on the edge of the holy fire, glaring at Castiel with such distain and fury that he was literally shaking with rage.
"The good of mankind? The good of mankind is obsolete Castiel. These vermin will continue to eat each other as they always have. The apocalypse may be over, but that does not mean that this world will not be destroyed. They don't need us to start and apocalypse, they are perfectly capable of causing one themselves, and I assure you they will. If I had power, if I had been given Michaels position, I would have done something about it. Not made nice and kissed their asses like you. "
"You are blinded by hate, and jealousy!" Spat Castiel. "You mock them and insult them but in reality, you envy them. Because you realize they have more power than you will ever have, because god trusts these "vermin" more than he trusts you." Castiel was now almost face to face with Adonael, standing on the very edge of the circle. His hands were clenched so hard with fury that there were small droplets of blood dripping to the floor from the cuts his fingernails were digging into his palms.
Castiel was unsure what to think when Adonael cracked a small smile. "You have such faith in them." He said. "Such faith that they aren't what they are...we'll see how much faith you have after this."
Turning his back on Adonael, he approached Dean.
"What are you doing?" Castiel said, becoming more alarmed.
Adonael grabbed Deans' face in his hands, and spoke over his shoulder at Castiel. "Showing you how wrong you are, brother." He stared directly into Deans' eyes. Dean refused to make eye contact for as long as he could, but eventually glanced into his gaze where his sight became stuck. The rest of room began to spin away into blackness and Adonaels' brown eyes began to glow until they reached a bright reddish orange color. A burst of white hot pain radiated through Deans head and seeped into the rest of his body. He tried to scream but no sound would come out. There was a strange buzzing sound in his ears as he felt his temper rising as the pain grew stronger. Once his anger had reached dangerous levels, high enough that he could kill, he heard Adonaels' voice echoing in his ears.
"Think Dean. I want you to think on how angry you are that your brother made the foolish mistake in coming here. How stupid he was for falling right into my trap. After all you've gone through trying to keep him safe."
"All I've done…" Dean repeated, rage boiling inside him.
Sam watched helplessly from a few feet away as Dean's eyes glazed over and he stared at Adonael as though he was in a trance. He looked to Castiel for help but Castiel was watching with a mix of horror and anger. Sam tried to pull himself onto his not broken leg as Adonael undid the binds on Deans arms and legs. Dean stood up and turned towards Sam who was trying to hobble backwards on one leg.
The look on Dean's face was almost blood thirsty as he went after his brother.
"All I've done to keep you safe. Everything I've sacrificed." He growled as he violently pushed Sam to the floor. "I died for you!" He shouted as he sent his foot into Sam's ribcage.
"Dean…" he choked, but Dean had sent another blow to his head.
"I went to hell, for you!" Sam tried to fight back from the floor as blood poured from his nose and mouth.
"Don't you kill him." A voice in the back of Dean's mind called. "Don't you dare kill him Dean." He was so distracted by the pain that he could barely comprehend what it was saying.
"Remember, it's Sammy. Little Sammy. You were willing to die for him, because he's your brother. Just like he's be willing to die for you."
Dean felt his arm stop mid punch and go limp. The pain and fury was still radiating through his body, but his muscles had simply stopped working. He was fighting it.
Adonael did not notice his lapse and thought that he was simply watching his prey squirm.
"You see, Castiel?" Adonael said to Castiel as we watched helplessly. "You see how strong your vermin are?"
Castiel slowly turned to Adonael, who had turned his back to him and was watching the fight with enjoyment. Without making a sound, Castiel slipped off his jacket and threw it over Adonaels' head. Using it as a net he dragged him into the ring of holy fire and began beating into any part of him that he could.
"You weak. Pathetic. Poor excuse of existance." He delivered a blow with each word he said. Adonael fell to the ground and Castiel ripped his trench coat of him. Adonael was cowering at his feet in fear, bleeding all over the floor.
Castiel pulled the silver spear Adonael had taken from Sam from his jacket and knelt down so that his face was barely an inch from his. "Now who's the vermin." He said and he drove the spear through Adonaels eye. A blinding white light filled the room as he died. On the other side of the room, Dean, who had been standing completely still while everything happened, fighting off himself, collapsed to the floor. Sam, who was severely bloody and broken and barely an inch from unconsciousness, leaned over and checked his pulse. Once he felt his brothers' rapid heartbeat beneath his fingers he fell back and drifted into blackness.
Castiel ripped the spear from Adonaels' head and pushed his body onto the holy fire, using him as a human bridge and then leaving him to burn. He rushed over to Sam and Dean, who had begun to stir. He opened his eyes just as Castiel had grabbed hold of both of the Winchesters and they disappeared from the basement.
When Dean opened his eyes again he saw the familiar surroundings of their motel room. He was standing near the table alone, and Castiel was leaning over Sam who was on the bed.
"Jesus…" Dean muttered as he saw his brothers' broken face. He rushed over to Castiels' side overlooking Sam.
"He'll be fine." Castiel assured him and in one quick movement Sam was good as new.
"He'll sleep for a while, but he'll be fine."
"I can't believe I did that. I could have killed him."
"But you didn't." Castiel said. "You should have, Adonael has power beyond anything that any human could fight. He intended on you killing your brother, to prove a point to me. But you didn't, you fought him. Which is…remarkable."
Neither of them spoke for a while. Castiel kept looking at Dean who was looking guiltily at Sam.
"I'm sorry, Dean." Castiel said.
"Sorry? Sorry for what?"
"For all of this. I feel like it's partially my fault."
"Listen, if this has anything to do with all the things I said before, you know I didn't mean any of that."
"No, but you were right. I'm slowly losing control. It's…it's become almost impossible. If Adonael went through all of this, who's to say there won't be more. I just…" he hung his head towards the ground and got quiet. "I'm not sure what to do anymore."
"Cas, listen to me. Just because one dick went insane doesn't have anything to do with you. If you recall, most of them weren't too stable in the first place. Out of all of the angels I've met, which has been far too many for my liking, you are the most capable and, dare I say, sane."
Castiel was grateful for Deans' encouragement and reassurance.
"You are a good friend Dean." Castiel said. Dean smiled at him.
"You too Cas…So," Dean said trying to lighten the atmosphere, "you can't defeat an angel with "verve" huh?"
Castiel cracked a small smile. "Well you never abide by any rules, so I suppose it only makes sense that this one doesn't apply to you."
Sam shifted slightly in his sleep.
"I should return to heaven." Castiel said. Dean nodded.
"Good luck up there." He said.
"Thank you Dean."
Dean glanced back to Sam. "Hey Cas!" Dean called turning around. But He had already left.
"Thanks." He muttered to the empty room.
Dean spent the next few hours packing up the impala. He wanted to get the hell out of town as soon as Sam woke up.
Sam came to a few hours later.
"Hey, how you doing?" Dean asked once he noticed his brother was awake.
"I'm alright, I guess. Sore, but I'm okay."
"Sam, I'm sorry…"
"Dean," Sam cut him off. "It wasn't your fault. You didn't know what you were doing."
"But the things I said, you know I didn't mean any of it."
"I know." Sam reassured him. "Let's just put it behind us, alright?" To be honest, Sam was unsure what to make of what Dean said. But there was a time where the situation was flipped and Dean let it go as quickly as it came. He was repaying the favor.
Dean was glad to let it go, but he still couldn't completely ease the knot of guilt in his stomach.
"We should probably get going." Sam said.
The two of them finished packing up the car and hit the road not even an hour later.
"Hey Dean?" Sam asked as they passed the state line.
"Yeah."
"Thanks for not killing me."
Dean looked at Sam who was smiling slightly.
"Well don't expect anything for Christmas, now." Dean replied, blasting the radio.
Sam leaned over to turn down the volume, but Dean smacked his hand away.
"Don't think I won't kill you now."
Sam shook his head and stared out the window. Dean smirked and started singing as loud as he could as he picked up speed.