Sacrificing Innocence

Summary: Pre-Series. When a case with their Dad goes bad & Sam gets grabbed & hit with a spell, Dean must decide not only to cross a line but also what he's ultimately willing to sacrifice to keep his brother safe; both now and down the road. *Angry/worried/protective!Dean & Hurt/cursed!Sam* See the note and warning. (Dean/Sam)

Pairing: Dean/Sam

Warnings: The usual for explicit language and content. I'm also going to say this one might not be a story for fans of John. He is not portrayed well in this story so if you're a fan, take that into consideration. I'll toss out a tissue warning for the last chapter when it gets posted but it will also have its own warning then too.

Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything but the muse who comes up with this stuff.

Beta: justashadow

Author Note: I know, it's been awhile since I've done any Wincest but the muse is busy with J2. This is a four chapter piece that is complete but is being checked out. It will have regular updates though. Enjoy!

~SPN SPN SPN SPN~

Chapter One

Rural Kentucky, October 29, 2000:

"Where the hell is my brother? Oh, and before you think of lying to me about that answer take a look at the asshole over my shoulder and ask yourself this. If I'm willing to beat the goddamn crap out of Caleb for listening to you, leading me on some wild goose chase and lying to me then will I do the same, if not worse, to you because right now you are not my father. Right now, you are a goddamn lying sack of shit who I will shoot if I don't have the answer to my question in the next five seconds…starting now. Where is Sam?"

At 21, Dean Winchester felt like he'd been hunting the weird and paranormal for most of his life and he guessed in some ways maybe he had been. He'd had a shotgun in his hands by the time he was old enough to hold one. He couldn't really recall the age he'd been the first time he'd dug up a grave or shot rock salt thru a spirit. He also couldn't recall the last time he'd been this furious with his father but he was damn certain it would be the last time.

At 6', the lean and rangy hunter was almost as tall as his father. He knew that while John Winchester might be an ex-Marine who'd taught his sons how to fight and how to hunt the things that he blamed for their mother's death. He also knew he'd learned how to fight dirty and he wasn't above using that now. He also wasn't above pulling the .45 he carried if he thought that would get him the answers he wanted; answers he very much needed and needed in a hurry.

For the past few years it had seemed like John was off hunting by himself or with the few hunters they knew that would still associate with the often gruff, hardcore, and somewhat obsessive man and that suited Dean just fine. If John was off on his own then that meant he and Sam weren't fighting every minute of the day as it seemed like they had been since the day his little brother hit 16 and started standing up for himself.

Dean had long since stopped caring that his life had pretty much been sealed the night Mary Winchester died on the ceiling of his then six month old baby brother's nursery. The night their house burned down and all hell had literally broken loose. Dean had gone from a normal four year old to someone who was still haunted with the things he'd seen that night and the knowledge that he had Sammy to protect.

The job of protecting his brother had been drilled into Dean's skull along with every other lesson John had instilled in his oldest. Except, it seemed like lately Dean was spending most of his time between brother and father as John just couldn't accept Sam's choice to not join the 'family business'.

Ever since Sam had learned the truth, since he'd found out what their Dad did, why they were always moving around from one cheap motel to another and why he could never stay in one school, his stubborn, often too mouthy little brother had made it known that he was getting out. That he wouldn't spend his life hunting when he wanted to go to college and find that little slice of normal.

From the first time Sam had thrown that in their Dad's face, during a fight shortly after he'd turned 15, Dean used to hope Sam might change his mind. Or that John would soften his hard ways, how he was always drilling Sam, trying to make his brother train with weapons or hand to hand when all Sam wanted was to be like the kids he went to school with.

Now that Sam was 6'4", a small annoying fact that Dean tried to ignore, and 17 it was getting more difficult to ignore his mood swings, the way he and John were almost always fighting or the letters from colleges that Sam didn't think Dean knew he'd been getting for a couple months now.

It wouldn't be a happy choice for Dean, but if he had to choose between letting Sam go to keep him happy and safe or possibly having his brother hurt, or even worse to lose him, all due to their Dad's attitude then the hunter was trying to prepare himself to make that choice.

Now, he and John stared at one another. Dean having made a frantic and furious drive back across three small towns in the backwoods of Kentucky, only to realize he was not only too late but that their father had finally taken his reckless obsession too far. He knew what his choice had to be, assuming he could find his now missing sibling, before Sam could be hurt or even worse.

Dean was pissed at John, he was pissed at his bruised and bloodied friend and fellow hunter Caleb, but he was also pissed at himself, for not seeing through the goddamn lie. For leaving Sam alone to do more research into whatever had been killing people in the area for the last several months.

"You lied to me! You used Caleb to lie to me so I'd leave Sam here. All because you knew I wouldn't take him into a situation that might be more than Caleb or I could handle, especially when I didn't know what it was I was heading into!" Dean gave a shove against his clearly angry father's chest and used enough force to move the man back three steps. "Go ahead! Punch me! But you hit me this time because I'm in your face over what you did and I swear that I will hit back, Dad. Now tell me where in the hell is Sam! Tell me what the hell you did!"

John Winchester's eyes were narrowed to slits and his hands were bunching into fists. He tried to rein in the temper that he knew he and both of his sons shared to some degree. But it was hard to stand there and let his oldest son, not only talk to him like he was, but to also shove him and not shove back. "Dean, calm…ugh!"

"Don't tell me to calm down after you let some goddamn coven of witches grab my brother to use as goddamn bait for some spell!" Dean was furious and it showed in both the tone of his voice and the fact that he'd just punched his father in the jaw without even thinking twice.

He heard voices behind him trying to urge him to calm down but both the hunter and the big brother inside him were long past calming down. Dean knew he'd been past that point from the moment Caleb had let something slip that he probably shouldn't have, and just like that, a switch had been thrown and Dean had known he'd been lied to.

He and Sam had been working this case in Kentucky solo which worked out well for both brothers. Dean enjoyed the time he and Sam got to spend together. It was a lot better when his little brother was laughing and smiling than it was when the tension got so thick that Dean often wanted to pull out his knife, as if could cut it, when Sam and John were in the same room.

Sam hated to hunt, but he didn't moan about it as much so long as it was just them. The case had been progressing even though none of the details their Dad had supplied them with were adding up to what Sam's research was hinting at.

Dean had thought they were getting close to at least figuring out the ghost, monster, or whatever the hell was killing young men and leaving dried out husks. But just when he was about to go look at a local place that seemed to be dead center of all the deaths, John had called with orders to drive three towns over to help Caleb wrap up the case.

John hadn't given a stunned and confused Dean time to argue. He'd immediately launched into one his bitching tirades that he'd let Sam waste too much time 'researching' instead of getting out and hunting the monster down, like he'd taught him to do.

It wasn't until Dean had gotten to where his unusually nervous friend was waiting for him that something began to tingle in the back of his head. Then nothing Caleb was saying about the case made any sense. But what triggered Dean's temper, what made him turn to throw the first fist into his friends face before slamming him onto the hood of the Impala with a hand to his throat, was when he'd nervously made some comment about Sam being the type of guy, young, hot, and a virgin, that this monster went for.

The tall, skinny, bald hunter had been friends with the Winchesters for a number of years and Dean usually cut Caleb some slack but there were limits even he had. Mentioning that Sam was hot was top among them as no one was supposed to notice how hot his no longer gawky or chubby baby brother had gotten sometime between 14 and 17.

Dean had been having a hard time reminding himself not to think that so the moment Caleb had offhandedly said it, it pissed him off. Then the fact that Caleb chose to point out that Sam actually did fit the profile, which made the hunter in Dean a little more nervous. Though what had finally made him start to think on things more was that Caleb had chosen to mention that Sam was a virgin.

First, the hunter considered that an off-topic subject with anyone and second, Dean hadn't relayed that detail to anyone yet when Sam connected all the similarities between the victims.

All five victims had been young, between 16 and 21, good looking, had all been good Church going boys from local areas and all virgins. They had all been marked with some odd design on their chest before, it looked like, the life had literally been drained out of them. The coroner's report on them had also been able to show that they'd all recently had sex, either right before or maybe even during death.

That was when it all hit Dean like a ton of bricks. He'd had Caleb by the throat a second later until the other hunter had grudgingly given up that John had been working the case behind Dean's back, and had reasoned that some kind of coven had been behind the murders. He'd also reasoned a good way to catch them in the act was to use his younger son as bait.

"You had no right to put Sammy in the middle of this without telling me you were planning to use him as bait for this sick-ass coven of nuts!" Dean was now shouting and didn't care who heard him. His fists bunching in John's jacket even as a hand was trying to pull him back. "Get the fuck off or I do more than bloody your face, Caleb!" he snapped as he glared at John.

"Would you have let Sam do this?" John countered when he finally broke Dean's grasp and gave him a hard shove back. Before he could do more he found that his oldest wasn't quite ready to back down, or to see reason in his plan.

"No, I would not have let Sam do this and did Sam do it on his own Dad?" Dean shot back angrily only to get more furious when he caught the way John's jaw twitched and knew his brother hadn't offered to be bait. "You son of a bitch! How'd you arrange this?" he demanded tightly as the fury slowly began to be replaced by sick dread. "Sam's smarter than you or I give him credit for. He just wouldn't open the door to the motel room to someone he didn't know. Plus, I can't see a bunch of witches just happening on him in our motel room unless you gave them the address…and if I find out you did, I swear you will die."

"Don't be stupid, Dean." John pulled away from his irate son even as the door to his motel room was opening to allow a cautious Pastor Jim Murphy to enter after he'd heard the fight from his own room. "If you and your brother had been paying attention, you'd have noticed that all the victims had vanished from roughly the same area. They'd all been in the local gas station shortly before they disappeared."

"Yeah, noticed that, thank you." Dean's teeth were clenched while glaring. "Sam and I had already checked the place out. It was clean for EMF but then you neglected to fill us in that we were looking for witches!"

"John? What's going on?" Jim Murphy had been one of the first hunters that had met John Winchester when he was on his need to learn what had killed his wife. He was also one of the few who still associated with the man but that was mainly because Jim wanted to offer as much support to John's two sons as he could. "I thought you told me Dean was working a case a few states over while Sam did research for you here on the coven." he narrowed his eyes as he stared between father and son awhile then threw a hard look at a guilty Caleb. "John! You told me it was Sam's idea to go to that gas station, to try to make himself get noticed and if they grabbed him we'd be able to follow them. What did you do?"

"That's what I want to know!" Dean took a step closer but this time his hand was moving to the .45 he kept in the back of his jeans. "How'd you get Sam to go? I told him to stay put and keep digging on that location I'd been about to go check out. He was pissed at you so he'd never go to that gas station by you telling him to so how…" he stopped when he followed where Caleb's eyes had moved to and grabbed for the phone that had been tossed on the table. One look gave Dean the answer. "This is one of my old phones. You tricked my brother into thinking I'd texted him to come meet me there. You knew the coven would be hunting their next victim soon. You…goddamn it!"

Jim was shoving in front of a furious Dean, not because he wanted to stop the younger man, but because he wanted answers before Dean broke John's jaw or worse. "You…John, I've overlooked and excused a lot of the crap that you've pulled, especially where these boys have been concerned, but right now I'm half tempted to take a page out of Bobby Singer's book and fill your ass full of buckshot. Did you send Sam in there on a lie? Did you set your own boy up to use as some sort of sex bait for the coven?" he demanded. "John!"

"Sam fit the profile. He's young enough still, he's good looking and still a virgin…unless he picked up on some of Dean's habits." John returned with a shrug, turning to point to the wall where he'd set up a timeline of events. "He's a hunter so it's his responsibility to take the risks in these situations rather than risk another innocent boy. I knew someone at the station was in league with the witches so I knew if they saw him by himself, without Dean, that the odds were good they'd grab him."

"The water or something in that station is drugged. That's how they get the drop on their victims. They drink or eat something from there, ingest the drug, and that allows the heavy hitters to grab them without a fuss," he glanced back over his shoulder to smirk at his furious son. "If your brother had paid more attention to those damn lessons he might not have been grabbed so easily. It was hard to watch two guys only a little bigger than Sam take him down but…ugh! Dean!"

Dean had been trying to rein his fury in. He had been trying to give his father the benefit of some doubt or at least try to convince himself that the man maybe hadn't known fully what sending Sam in there would do. But then as he listened to him bitch at how easy the coven members had taken his 6'4", wiry and agile as a cat despite those damn long legs, little brother down to kidnap him it sunk home with a sickening thud that John had been close enough to watch. He'd watched and had done nothing to stop the assault or the kidnapping from happening.

"You…watched Sammy get taken?" he asked tightly, his tone dropping into a much lower one. One that had Caleb shooting him looks of worry, because as the bald hunter knew from prior experience, when Dean's voice dropped that low it meant blood would soon be shed. "You set him up to get grabbed and then you watched him get grabbed and you did nothing to stop it? You're his father!"

"We're on a hunt! I'm not yours or Sam's father when we're in the middle of a hunt. You know that. You have got to keep emotions out of the field." John had never come right out and said that but he'd tried to teach his boys to control their emotions in the field. He'd given them the same training as he'd been given in the Marines and was still surprised that Dean, the son who never back talked him until recently, was giving him so much grief over this plan. "I needed Sam inside the coven so they'd be focused on him and wouldn't risk another local boy. I planned that Jim and I would be in position by the time night fell. By the time they finished the ritual, finished with Sam, we'd be close enough to stop what they summon before it actually killed your brother and then we'd deal with the other witches. But now you've put us behind schedule with this tantrum so…"

"Okay, you never told me any of that when you got me to get Dean to come meet me." Caleb had been torn between cleaning himself up, keeping an eye on his friend, and getting the hell out of the area before Dean remembered his part in this messed up plan. Now he was shocked, as well as a little angry.

The bald weapons expert considered John a mentor in hunting, even though the man was a bit too obsessive in his need to hunt the supernatural. His respect for John had led him to go along with the man's demands; that he pretend to be working the case three towns away. He'd been told John needed Dean away for a couple hours because John didn't want his oldest son investigating the area he'd been heading for. It hadn't made sense to Caleb but he'd gone along with it. Now it and John's offhanded comments about Sam, the very comments that Caleb had repeated to Dean, made too much sense and Caleb knew he'd been played.

"Dean, I swear that I did not know he was going to use Sam as bait…" Caleb shut up when he was pinned by hot green eyes and knew this had pushed Dean well past his usual over protective state toward his younger brother.

Jim had been looking between father and son when he suddenly latched onto Dean's arm a second before the younger hunter went to lunge for John's throat. "You didn't let me in on this plan either." he stared at his friend with a look of warning for the angry John not to even think of lashing out at his son. "You knew I'd never let you involve Sam in this plan or at least not as the victim! John! You know what that spell they use is! You know what those people will do to that boy! Tell me you planned to stop them before the ritual. Tell me that or I'm not stopping Dean from shooting you if he goes for the .45."

"No, he didn't plan to step in until whatever the ritual is was complete because he wants to take out the big bad thing that comes, if anything does." Dean didn't need to hear the words from his father, he'd heard enough to know how the man thought when he was on a case. He'd seen him take these types of risks before but usually it had been with Dean's own ass on the line, never Sam's. If Dean had any other doubt about finding a way to get Sam the hell out of this life then this stunt just took it away. "He needed me away for the same reason he never told you what he was planning. Because you wouldn't have let him use Sam as bait…wait, what kind of ritual or spell are they using?" he was trying to replay some of the pastor/hunter's words but kept coming up with two words. "Did someone use the words sex spell?"

"If you boys had done the right research then maybe you'd have known what you were up against." John shot back, tone and body language clearly saying how angry he was at this turn of events. "The coven needs to use the sexual energy of a virgin to appease whatever it is they're using for power. They drug the boy and…"

Dean had just been going back over things Sam had been muttering the morning he left when those words hit him. The next second had his hand moving and the .45 he carried at the small of his back was out and aimed at his now surprised father's face. "You knew going into this that it was a damn sex coven. You knew before you called me away that they drugged their victims so they could rape them for a damn spell. You knew this and yet you still let them grab my brother?" he stared at John while silently wondering why he wasn't more shocked.

"I know the ends justify the means in your brand of hunting but when does using my 17 year old brother as bait to be hurt or even raped justify anything?" Dean demanded in the same tone of voice that he'd used on others who had been a threat to his brother, usually right before he drew blood of some kind. "You put that boy in my arms when I was four years old and told me to run and don't look back. Well, I ran then and I swear to you the second I get Sam back, the second I make sure he's okay, I will take him and run again.

"I will do what I should've done when I hit 18 and saw how bad your fights were getting with him. The night I told you that if I ever saw you put one more goddamn bruise on Sam I would end you. I should've taken him and left because God only knows it's been mainly me and him all our lives!" Dean stepped back but made certain not to lower his weapon, knowing John would make some move to stop him if he did. "You wanted me away from that old barn outside of town. That's where they're at, isn't it, Jim?" he spoke to Jim Murphy over John and heard the man acknowledge his question.

"Fine. I'm going to go get Sammy back. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get my brother back. Jim and Caleb are welcome to follow me if they want to finish this case or deal with…whatever. But if you show your face at that barn, do not try to get in my way of doing whatever I have to, to fix what you let happen. And when I get Sam back, stay the hell away from us." he growled, dropping his arm only when he was by the door and only after he'd grabbed a small duffel. "Until you decide to see sons and not soldiers, until I get Sam the hell out of this life or until you realize just what the hell you've done, I don't want to see you."

"Dean!" John started to lunge for the door only to be knocked back against the wall by a furious Jim Murphy. "Jim! I can't let him go tearing in there like this! He'll ruin…ugh!"

Jim's fist stung a little from where it had just connected with John's jaw but he didn't care about that right then. He was trying to quickly decide how much time he could waste on kicking John's ass when he tossed a glance over his shoulder. "You! You didn't use enough common sense to see John was using you so get your ass out there with Dean and watch his back!" he snapped at a blinking Caleb. "I'll catch up just as soon as I finish here. Go!"

Caleb didn't have to be told twice. He grabbed his duffel and shotgun and made a beeline out the door with the hope that Dean would give him a chance to make up for this and not just run him over. He also didn't want to see what was probably about to go down between the two older men. "Ace! Wait up!"

Jim waited until he heard the sound of the Impala's tires screeching away to shoot a grim faced John a hard look. "Tell me why you used Sam. Tell me it's got nothing to do with him being disrespectful or impossible to deal with lately. Tell me you did not plan to let this coven use your own son in their ritual all because he pissed you off. Tell me something and mean it or else I will end Dean's problems with you real quick." he growled while moving around the room.

"I don't have to explain my reasons to you Jim." John knew on the one hand he'd acted recklessly and even understood how it looked or made him look as a father but the hunter in him was more concerned with not allowing the evil that had infected this town to harm another innocent. His own sons didn't apply in that case because he was trying to teach them that in this business there was no room for emotions or care to who got hurt so long as the hunt was finished. "Sam's a big boy. He knows his role in the family business is to follow orders and do what he's told. Dean coddles him too much. He'll never toughen up or survive what's coming if he doesn't take some lumps for the job."

Jim had heard this argument for years. He and Bobby had had this same argument with John numerous times as the boys were growing up but this time he had to start worrying about the man's mental health as he wasn't sure if John truly understood what his actions might have just caused.

"John, this isn't like pushing Sam too hard in training, or even those damn 10 mile hikes you used to make the boys do, or even taking him onto a hunt when he was sick with pneumonia! You watched Sam be kidnapped when you knew the ritual involved requires them to basically force sex on your son!" Jim stared at the other man before grabbing him by the front of his jacket to literally shake him. "Did you plan for us to lurk outside that barn tonight while someone was in there raping Sam?" he demanded. "John?"

"No, of course not. I…" John stopped when it suddenly dawned on him that if he and Jim had waited for the ritual to be over, for the witches to 'summon' the thing they thought gave them their power, then that actually would have been what happened. "Shit. Jim, I…I know I get caught up in the hunt, especially when people are being hurt but…"

"But you only saw a way to an end." Jim shook his head sadly. "Bobby and I told you that this obsession you have was going to get someone hurt or cost you. Well, it might have just cost you a lot more than just the life of one of your sons and it sure as hell might still cost Sam a lot more if Dean can't get there in time to stop this." he stalked to the door to grab his gear, and go help the boys if he could, but he paused to look back and saw finally there was some type of emotion, he wasn't sure if it was regret or guilt, showing on John's rugged face.

"I know you get carried away, I know you might even mean well with how you treat the boys but I'm going to tell you this one more time. Dean can walk away anytime he wants now and the second you push Sam too far and that boy leaves the only leverage you have on Dean will be gone." Jim had no doubt in his mind that eventually John would go too far in his treatment of Sam, he'd push his rules too far and the younger Winchester would walk. "Sam's all that keeps Dean here and you know that. You've known since Dean was a kid that Sam was basically his whole world. What you did today might have cost you what respect Dean still had for you and I sure as hell wouldn't try to go close to them until he calms down, because if Sam's hurt too badly, Dean will kill you John. Think on that."

John stared at the door long after it had slammed before he sat down on the bottom of the bed, pulling out his wallet to stare at the few photos he kept on him.

The one of him and Mary right after they had gotten married reminded him of the dreams they'd had of the future. He looked at the one of all four of them in front of the house in Lawrence, the house that was now nothing but a nightmare to him, and could recall how happy they'd been the day Sam had been born.

John still loved his wife but at times like this he wondered if she'd still love him or if she'd kick his ass for allowing their sons to grow up like they had, especially their youngest.

The fights with Jim and Bobby over how he raised the boys, or as it looked to people. How he'd allowed Dean to raise his brother weren't new to John but he'd accepted years ago that to find the thing that murdered Mary, to put a stop to the evil that cursed his family, it would require sacrifices. It wasn't always easy to accept what those sacrifices would be or who they would hurt but John knew there'd be many more to come if what he was learning was actually true.

Right then though he had to decide just how much of his younger son's life, his innocence, how much of Dean's respect was worth losing just to stop some witches. "Damn it!"

"Are you going to talk to me or growl under your breath until we get to this place?" Caleb figured he might be better off keeping his mouth shut, especially considering he knew how lucky he'd been Dean had even let him into the Impala to go with him. "Ace, I swear that I didn't know exactly what John planned or anything. I thought he'd talked with the kid or that he had other plans to put Sam in with…Dean, I'm…"

"Don't you dare apologize to me now." Dean's voice was hard and cold, nothing like it was even when he'd been in a fight with his Dad. He was furious with everyone involved and right then all he could think about was getting to his brother. "Apologize to Sam after I get him out of this mess and you and my father had better pray those assholes haven't touched him or else I will be ripping out lungs."

Dean knew where the old barn was located so he aimed the Impala in that direction after peeling out of the hotel parking lot. He'd debated briefly on allowing Caleb to come with him but had in the end because he knew he'd need someone covering his back once there.

"Tell me what you know about this coven or this ritual," he shot a hard glance beside him, fingers clenching on the wheel because it never felt right unless Sam was sitting in the seat beside him.

"According to some former coven member Jim talked to up in Atlanta, he was a member about 79 years ago when he was younger and foolish or so he said, the coven had been in existence since right after the Civil War. It had been started by some ex-soldiers who'd turned to the dark arts as a way to curse those they felt had wronged them." Caleb began while also rummaging in the duffel that Dean had tossed in the front seat to pull out some shotgun shells and another box of shells that he figured would work a little better. "The guy said the coven passed on by generational lines so the current members are descendants of those who had started it. They only use outsiders for…well…sacrifices."

"That's great to know and I love how somehow that managed to not get back to me and Sammy." Dean didn't even bother to demand why that was. He knew their father wouldn't have wanted him to learn that much because John knew the first hint Dean had that a coven of witches was behind the murders that he'd pull out.

Dean's hatred for witches was long and with good reason. He'd fight one if he had to but a whole coven when the risks to Sam would be too great? Nope, Dean would've pulled them out in order to wait for backup.

"This spell gets done once every 12 years and the guy said it's believed to strengthen the coven member's powers. They sacrifice five virgins after having sex with them and then the sixth one is the one that seals the deal so to speak." Caleb cringed and he swore the leather on the Impala's steering wheel was going to crack if Dean's fingers gripped it any tighter. "When John commented that Sam was the right choice it didn't click with me, Dean. You know I'd never let him do anything to hurt the kid. Hell, I've seen what you've done to people who looked at Sam wrong so…"

"No one touches my brother and lives to repeat the mistake." Dean had beaten up and threatened more than a few bullies while he and Sam were growing up. He'd also kept that promise that anyone who hurt Sam gets hurt in return. He was willing to do the same this time as well but something was making the hair on the back of his neck tingle in a way that he knew was bad. "Tell me about the ritual or spell? Can it be stopped? Or if it's interrupted, what happens to their intended victim or in this case Sam?" he demanded, slowing the Impala to avoid tearing the exhaust system out on the rough roads. He could see the lights shining from the barn that was up ahead.

"According to the old guy, once the ritual is started it has to be completed or else the victim…Sam…would die in agony." Caleb saw the frown Dean had and guessed the cause. "He said they really don't have to kill the victims. The main spell is a straight forward fuck or die spell so they use the power of their victims losing their virginity to work the spell but about the time this guy was a member, the coven leader at the time decided to start killing the victims so no one would talk." he watched the way his friend's jaw was clenching, the muscle twitching as Dean took all of this in. "He was never sure how the guy actually killed the victims. He left as soon as things went too dark."

Dean pulled the car over to let it idle and was running what he'd just learned back through his head along with other little things Sam had uncovered that hadn't made sense to him. "These witches girls, guys, a mix or…just how kinky is this coven, dude?" he asked only to groan when Caleb merely cleared his throat. "Okay, no…no way in hell is some kinky dude with delusions of grandeur fucking my brother just to get his kicks or maybe to summon some kind of big power. Nope, not happening."

"Dean, you know what this spell is. Fuck or die means just that." Caleb was so glad he'd never been hit with one of those because as Bobby had finally and with a little too much detail one time had explained to him those weren't always the easiest to cure. "Maybe, as wrong as it sounds to say or do, but maybe let the witch do the spell so it breaks the hold on Sam and then we'll…whoa! Ace! Just an idea! Just an idea!" he yelled when suddenly a hand was on his throat and hot green eyes had gone to narrow slits to glare at him.

"No goddamn witch is touching my brother in any way." Dean gritted but his stomach was knotting with unease and more than a little dread.

The hunter knew what the spell was and how it worked. He knew what it did to victims that couldn't break it so he understood the risk to his brother. Dean also knew he'd have to come up with another way to break it because despite the efforts of some really hot and determined girls that Sam went to school with since he hit 16 and grew out of that gawky stage he also knew his brother hadn't committed to any of them and knew, in a bad way, that was also another reason he'd fit the profile.

Caleb was about to try to point out they had very little other way around the curse when suddenly a sound broke through the near silent night air, a sound that they heard even in the Impala as far away as it still sat idling, and he knew his friend well enough to clench his teeth, close his eyes, and pray a second before he heard the engine growled as the car was gunned forward. "Dean! This is not a good idea!" he yelled, peeking from under his half closed lids before shutting them again to avoid seeing the car getting closer to the closed front doors of the barn.

"Neither is hurting Sam enough to make him scream like that! Shut up and hold on!" Dean had spent 17 years watching over his brother. He'd learned early on to recognize sounds, looks, expressions on Sam that others might overlook or not pay attention to but the one he figured he would never forget anytime soon was the pain and fear he could hear in Sam's voice as it screamed before choking off.

Normally Dean would have done the stealth route of approaching the barn on foot, getting inside and finding the best and hopefully safest way to deal with the witches but the scream from Sam ruled that plan out and brought 'Plan B' into play. Which was to drive his car right thru the closed wooden barn doors and into the middle of something out of some old B-grade horror movie or stereotypical old movie.

Dean had scouted the outside of the old barn earlier that week because he and Sam had deduced that it was actually in the center of all the dead young men but he hadn't gone inside. Now he was wishing he had as it was a lot bigger than it looked from the outside.

Most of the barn, or what Dean could see while working to slam on the brakes as he jerked the wheel hard to bring the car to a sliding side stop, scattering most of the robed men currently there, looked to be open space. There looked like there was a smaller blocked off area toward the back, a loft with stairs leading up to it, but it was what was in the center of the room that caught and held Dean's attention.

The large but smooth looking stone that had to have been a bitch to get moved into the barn was set in the center of the barn. It was surrounded by burning candles, small effigy statues that made Dean's eyes roll at how stupid this current generation of so-called witches was that they didn't even know what the hell they were calling on. He'd spotted other items hanging from the rafters that told him these guys weren't sure if they were witches or Satanists but for the most part the stone alter had his attention or the young man currently laid out naked on it had his focus.

"Sam!" he shouted, gun drawn as he exited the Impala while he heard Caleb's shotgun firing to discourage any particularly brave souls who thought it was a good idea to get in his face right then. "Get away from him!"

The witches in the barn had all scattered except for a few, most of them decided, after a few well aimed blasts from the shotgun in Caleb's hands, that retreat was the better part of valor in this case. Only two, the ones who were near the stone alter and who were now the biggest threat to Sam, remained.

"Get the fuck away from my brother!" Dean's aim was steady even though his hands wanted to shake as he moved close enough to see the bruises and blood on Sam's pale, sweaty face as well as on his arms and legs. It was clear that Sam had managed to put up a fight before his captors got him to the drugged state he appeared to be in now. "Drop the blade or my first shot goes through your damned heart!" he snapped to the man at the head of the alter. He was holding a bloody knife, too close for Dean's comfort, to Sam's throat. "Drop it!"

"The ritual has begun. To stop it now will certainly kill him." the man at the other end replied with a sneer as he glanced back to the bloody symbol that had been put on Sam's chest. "You interrupted our ritual but you cannot stop us from completing our goal and pleasing He who gives us power, hunter."

As Dean's eyebrows lifted in surprise and Caleb cursed that the head of the coven, the more ornate robe gave that clue away, revealed that he knew they were hunters the man's eyes moved to look at the way Sam Winchester's naked body lay free of any bonds but was still, except for the tremors that seemed to be increasing.

"The boy is much stronger than most of the other sheep were so his blood, his innocence will feed it well and it will reward those of us who are loyal. Stop me from claiming him, from completing the ritual and his death will be long and painful instead of the more merciful one I can grant. You can't complete what needs to be done and…"

The sound of the .45 firing cut the witch's bragging threats off with a startled yell from Caleb who hadn't been expecting Dean to actually shoot the man.

"I'll take my chances, thanks." Dean growled while ignoring a stunned Caleb to easily shift his aim to the other man who'd dropped his knife and was backing away once he realized things weren't going according to plan anymore. "You! Tell me what to do to save my brother or you can join your buddy in Hell. Talk fast and don't lie to me!"

"S-sex! He needs sex since that's the spell Malcom uses to appease the deity he says gives us power!" the other witch, a much younger man with long greasy red hair managed to get out while tearing off his own robe as this coven idea no longer seemed appealing to him.

"Told you it was a fuck or die spell." Caleb muttered even as he tried to keep an eye on things in case any of the others got brave enough to try to sneak back in.

"Since I'm guessing your buddy there drugged my brother so he can't fight or move, the spell can only be broken if someone fucks Sam, right?" Dean knew there were different versions of this spell and wanted to be sure what he was dealing with before he worked out a plan to get them out of this mess. "What else?" he asked as he recalled the bodies condition when found. "The other victims were all dried out husks. Is there a backdoor to this spell or didn't he cast it yet?"

The redhead swallowed thickly while staring between the two hunters and the now moaning teenager on the stone slab. "Malcom…we don't know what else he did to those boys once he fucked them. He'd take the bodies away himself but all I know is he didn't get to finish having me make all the marks on this one that the others had cause you came busting in here…ugh!" he cut off when a fist landed in his gut.

"Next time you pick to get involved with a bunch of half occult crazed nuts who think they're witches and go about killing virgins? Don't pick up the brother of a pissed off hunter because that just pissed me off a lot more. And whether or not you keep breathing or join your dead pal there in Hell depends on if I can break this spell in time to save my brother." Dean growled as he used the butt of his pistol to hit the guy in the head while snapping at Caleb to watch him and the dead guy. "Stay here and watch things in case any of the others come back and if Jim or the asshole who calls himself my father show up keep them the hell out of here." he ordered.

"Huh? What? Okay, keeping watch I get but…Dean? What're you doing?" Caleb nudged the guy Dean had shot with the toe of his boot so he was confident he was dead but he did keep his shotgun pointed at the groaning other one to be safe. "Dean? We need to get Sam and maybe give Singer a call to see if he knows of a counter spell to…"

"You know there's no counter spell." Dean hurried back to the stone to catch his brother's face between his hands to try to see if his eyes were clear as he'd seen they were open earlier. "Sam? Sammy? Hey, you in there, little brother?" he asked once he saw too wide, too dark hazel eyes were open and struggling to find his voice. "Sam? Can you hear me?" he was torn between hoping so and praying that Sam couldn't because he'd much rather do this if you could say later that Sam was unconscious or too drugged out to remember anything but Dean feared that while the drug kept his brother trapped in his body, unable to resist his attackers, his mind was still very much active.

Sam Winchester's thoughts were a jumble right then as he tried to fight the living nightmare that he'd woken up to. He vividly recalled still being angry that Dean had left but knew it was often easier on his older brother to just do what their father said than argue, especially since lately John had been on a tight wire and snapped without even that much provocation from either of his sons.

The call bothered Sam but not for the reasons Dean might have thought. He didn't mind his brother going to help Caleb but he did mind basically being told that they'd been wasting time and hadn't done the case correctly, when Sam knew both he and Dean had been busting their asses to find the last clue to tie all the weird and loose ends up. But it was like Sam kept running into dead ends online in his research where there shouldn't have been.

He'd been just about to run another search program when the text had come from Dean's phone, an older phone but still a number he'd recognized as his brother's, to meet him at the gas station a few miles from the hotel they were staying at.

Sam had just gotten off the phone with John who'd yelled and lectured him on something that had nothing to do with this case and he'd been pissed off but to save Dean from getting dragged into the middle of yet another fight he'd bitten his tongue until it almost bled to keep from saying the things he'd wanted to.

At 17, Sam was struggling to keep his grades up and still hunt with Dean. He hated 'the family business' and he couldn't wait to be 18 and hopefully able to go to one of the colleges he'd applied to. He didn't like the thought of leaving his brother and had been working on a way to convince Dean to come with him. But he feared his brother would stay with their Dad out of some warped sense of duty and obligation rather than fulfill his own dreams.

Of course Sam would never tell Dean the other reason he wanted him to leave to go wherever he did. He'd lie if he had to since he knew telling his brother the truth would be the worst possible idea, as that would only get Dean to hate him. So he'd been working on valid reasons for Dean to follow him, to hunt if he wanted to, but just away from their father and preferably on the West Coast which was where most of the colleges were that he'd been interested in.

Sam had been brooding over the fight with John when the text had come in so he knew he hadn't allowed himself to think too much about why Dean would use that phone when he'd just bought a new one. He'd walked to the gas station only to get angry that his brother's warped sense of humor had picked this time to come out because Sam didn't think it was funny that Dean wasn't there. After Sam waited for 30 minutes Dean had sent another text to say he'd gotten hung up and would call later.

By that point the younger Winchester had been tired, hot, and angry so he'd started the walk back to the motel only to realize he was getting dizzy. It took only five more steps for Sam to realize something was wrong and before he could reach for his phone he'd been grabbed from behind. He was dragged into a van that he'd noticed in the gas station's parking lot every time he and his brother had either stopped or passed by.

There'd been a dizzying moment of panic before the side of Sam that his brother had trained kicked in and he tried to fight back only to realize with a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach that he'd been drugged. He thought he might've connected with one of his attackers, he'd felt bone break under his fist, but then a heavy hand had pressed a smelly rag over his mouth and nose and the teenager felt himself drifting even as he felt the prick on his arm from a needle.

By the time Sam returned to semi consciousness he quickly realized he was naked on a stone slab in the middle of some run down barn, surrounded by men in robes. He also realized that despite being half conscious, he couldn't move to see what was happening. He'd been silently trying to fight past the drugs while cursing his own temper and stupidity for not seeing the obvious set-up when the knife cut into his chest. Despite being drugged to be mute and docile had screamed from the pain.

His voice had cut off when something was blown in his face. Sam's eyes had been clearing when he heard what he took as the head of the coven, of course it would be witches, brag that he'd be the final and most perfect of the sacrifices. It took another second for Sam to understand the full meaning behind that and that he wasn't sure if he was scared or sickened by the things being said while the other man cut marks into his chest as a and the chanting began to amp up.

Ever since he learned about what his Dad did, ever since he'd been dragged into hunting, Sam had picked up on things he'd researched or learned. So he understood, with nauseous dread, that a part of the spell that had just been cast was a sex spell. He'd already figured out from the other victims that they'd been killed during or after sex so now it all made sense to the reluctant hunter. He just hadn't planned to be the sixth victim to whatever these guys were praying to. Then it dawned on him what that sex spell really was and his panic notched up even as he felt his body aching in ways that it normally only did when he was alone in his bed at night.

Sam could feel he wasn't tied but his body was like lead, his blood was on fire and his head hurt. It was infuriating to Sam to be this helpless. But what hurt him the most was that if he survived, and that was a big if, he'd have to face his father and brother with not only his failure to defend himself, to see the danger before it hit, but also the shame of what was clearly about to happen. Sam could hear the voice of the man closest to him explaining in vivid detail how he planned to rape the helpless young man and then kill him slowly before having his way with him again.

It would have been blissful to be unconscious for any of this but Sam knew the spell would keep him conscious but frozen. Then he heard the roar of an engine, the breaking of wood, people shouting and a voice that Sam knew he'd never been so glad to hear…until he realized the spell was still active; then his fear returned.

The teenager was struggling to break the spell or at least find the strength to move when he heard a gunshot, he heard Caleb's voice, but it was Dean's voice that he tried to focus on. He needed the strength in his older brother's deep voice to keep him from sinking into despair, as he felt the burning pain in his groin begin to spread and knew this wasn't just a straight sex spell.

"Sammy!" Dean's voice calling to him, with just a hint of rare desperation, had Sam's eyes slowly trying to focus on where his brother was. When he finally locked onto the deep green eyes, he saw that they showed a worry that normally Dean might not show since they weren't alone. "Can you hear me?"

It took a moment before Sam managed to fight the drugs and give a small nod to show Dean that he could. He wanted to scream, to beg his brother to do something, anything, to stop the burning and the pain he was in. But Sam realized he was screwed because this spell needed something that this time his big brother, the hero Sam would look up to until he was dead, couldn't help him with. Dean wasn't just his brother but Dean was as straight as they came so even if they could get past the whole 'brother' issue then…

Sam had to stop his panicked flow of thoughts to backtrack his mind to what he thought Dean had just asked him. He'd been lost in his own head for a moment so he had to hope his scrunched eyes told his brother he hadn't caught the question, or if he had, then Sam knew he'd misheard it as Dean could not have just asked him what he thought he had.

"You know what kind of spell this is, right?" Dean's eyes were locked on his brother's face. His fingers not quite steady as they brushed over Sam's cheek to feel how cold it felt, along with the tears he could see on pale skin, he was sure Sam couldn't feel falling. "You know there's only one way for me to break it, don't you?" he asked and then repeated it when he saw his brother's face scrunch like Sam used to do as a kid and he hadn't caught something the first time and needed Dean to repeat it. "I'm not any happier with our options than I figure you are since I'm sure sex with your big brother, regardless of how hot I am, would not be your first choice when it comes to losing your virginity…not the right time to bitch face me, brat, but I'm also not letting some damn crazy witch touch you so…your choice, Sammy."

There was a choice? If so then Sam wasn't seeing it. He knew the spell would kill him long before they could find what Dean thought was a suitable person for him to have sex with. Sam had figured out a year earlier that while his brother wasn't so picky with the girls he seemed to sleep with, he sure as hell was about the ones who'd been after Sam to sleep with them…not that Sam had been interested in any of the too forward girls in his last couple of schools.

It took another couple seconds before Sam understood what Dean was basically offering but he couldn't make words come out of his throat to give an acknowledgment or let Dean know he understood vocally so Sam made his eyelids blink twice while nodding. He then slid his eyes to the side and back to his brother with a look of worry.

Sex with Dean to save his life was one thing but having to do it on a stone alter in front of Caleb? Sam thought he'd rather die in agony but he felt a warm hand settle on his wrist to offer a reassuring squeeze that told the 17 year old that Dean had already thought of that.

Dean's nerves were all over the place as he watched Sam slowly give him a sign that he understood what needed to happen and had given as much permission as he could. The older brother in Dean figured he'd be going to Hell faster for what he had to do than the things he'd been thinking about for the last few years. He knew they were running out of time as he watched his brother's body start to jerk more while a piece of Sam, that Dean had made a conscious effort to not notice, was now getting harder as the spell and drugs worked to make Sam's body crave sex.

"Caleb!" he snapped without looking back while he leaned down to wrap one of Sam's limp arms around his neck to help his brother sit up. "Take the prick and get the hell out! Wait outside and don't come back in or let anyone else in!"

"Huh?" Caleb had been glaring at the red-haired witch when he looked up to see that Dean was struggling to get Sam, who was four inches taller and just starting to get a little broader at the shoulders, off the slab and to his feet. At first the other hunter thought his friend would call for a retreat back to the motel but then he saw that Dean's eyes were swiveling around the barn to go between the back and the loft and it didn't take Caleb long to figure out where Dean's mind was going. "Dean? What…what're you doing or what're you going to do?"

Dean's arm wrapped around Sam's waist to support him given that right then his brother's body was almost useless, though he was able to stand so long as Dean helped him. He glanced over at a worried Caleb before moving his gaze back to where Sam's head had fallen to rest on his shoulder and then back to his friend. "I'm going to save my brother even if it might end up costing me everything."

TBC