Chapter one
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"Hello Dean."
The honeyed tones washed over him like thick dark liquid chocolate, filling all his pores with a sickly-sweet sensation of nausea.
He watched as the owner of the voice came towards him, a feral smile on his face, akin to a cat who had just spotted the cream, looking exactly as he had done on that awful day in Detroit when everything had crapped out, and Dean had found himself minus one little brother, while Lucifer had found himself plus a new upgraded vessel.
Dean found himself unable to move, as if the nerves and muscles in his body were answering exclusively to Lucifer's will and not his own, like some wooden puppet.
x
"It's always a pleasure to see you, Dean." the Devil mocked, his peeling face curling into a gleeful smile. "After all you're sort of my half-brother now, aren't you, and we both so appreciate the importance of family, don't we?" he finished off, the insincere smirk still plastered across his face as he glanced over meaningfully at the sleeping Sam.
Dean felt his throat go dryer than the sands of the Sahara at the thought that this foul being had tortured his baby brother for a hundred and eighty years.
x
As if reading his mind, Lucifer spoke, "Yes, and it's all your fault Dean. You went along with Sam's plan. It's all your fault that he let me in. What were you thinking of, eh, letting him do such a dangerous thing? I thought you were his sworn protector, his big brother, his personal Saint George, slayer of all Sam's dragons, only this time you threw him straight into the dragon's maw and with an efficient anticipation on my time-scale too, I must add."
"Shut up, you don't know shit," Dean managed to croak out, defying the dryness of his throat
"Tsk, Tsk, Dean," Satan countered, "Truth hurts, doesn't it, and the truth is that when you handed Sam to me on a silver platter, you relinquished your hold on him forever; he's mine now."
"No," Dean whispered desperately. "No, you're lying. Sam's here with me and you're in the Cage. You can't get your filthy hands on him ever again."
x
"Wrong, Deano," Lucifer countered almost fondly.
"He belongs to me; now and forever. What was Uriel's favourite expression for you humans? Ah, yes, mud-monkeys; an appellative that sums up the human race perfectly, so I'll explain in terms that are easy for your "mud-monkey" brain to understand.
If you fuse the ends of two bars of metal together they form one continuous piece. Oh, yes you can always cut through and separate them again, but the clean break that was there before can never be entirely reproduced; there will always be some residue from each one that remains in the other, even just a few molecules.
Just like those two pieces of metal, Sam and I fused together, and though Death tore his soul out of my grasp, parts of me are still embedded in him, as parts of him are still embedded in me."
x
Dean found himself unable to move his limbs as he tried to back away. He could only watch as Lucifer encroached into his personal space and thrust his flaking face into his, the tainted smell of sulphur and death overpowering his nostrils.
"You haven't saved him, Dean. You've only put off the inevitable. He will only be yours until that creaky wall in his head keeps him from remembering our little games in the Cage but when it crumbles to dust, Sam will be mine again, my own personal chew-toy to use as I wish, and there will be nothing you can do about it."
"No", Dean screamed silently, his voce refusing to co-operate this time, as Lucifer's leering face disappeared from sight, leaving him... tossing and turning,... prisoner of a sheet that had wound its way around his body like a mummy's shroud.
x
He opened his eyes to the darkness of the motel room, his body a mass of sweat. A nightmare was all it was he realised, as his racing heart slowed in relief.
He twisted his head round to look over at his brother. Sam was sleeping peacefully, some strands of his overlong hair covering his face, rising and falling gently to the soft puffs of air from his shallow breaths.
He turned back and stared up at the ceiling. It had only been a nightmare.
All the worry about Sam's wall coming down had provoked it, or maybe it was just due to the fact that he hadn't digested the impressive amount of pepperoni and salami-topped pizza he'd downed for supper last night, before conking out practically instantaneously on the bed.
He laboriously untangled his body from the bed-sheet, feeling the sweat cooling on his skin, now exposed to the frigid air of the room.
x
However the nightmare he had experienced was still vivid in his mind. It had felt so real. Could one experience odours in a dreamscape? He wasn't sure; all he knew was that the stench of Lucifer had been overpowering.
He felt the dark walls of the room closing in on him. He had to get out now, and like a man possessed he threw on his clothes and quietly let himself out into the welcoming chill of the night.
Could what Lucifer had said be true? Had the taking of Sam as his vessel given him an eternal hold over his brother? He had to know and so he called on the only being that could possibly tell him.
"Cas, Are you there?"
TBC