Prey
Stumbling down the streets like a madman, Castiel gripped a brick wall for balance. His eyes bloodshot and his lips peeled back in a snarl, he paused for a moment.
A sound.
He didn't dare move, stalking his prey with a swivel of his head. It was a quick flash of light brown hair as she ducked into an alley, dark and without streetlights.
Castiel didn't need to think to know how to follow her. His newfound instincts kicked in and he ducked into a shadow and followed her down into the alleyway. He trailed her for a while, his uneven gait making it difficult to walk quickly with the amount of stealth he required. Castiel held back a growl, as he slowly drew nearer to his quick walking prey.
The woman in front of him paused and began pawing through her handbag. She pulled out a set of keys before promptly dropping them on the ground.
"Shit." She swore, and crouched down on her pumps to get them. She stood and put them back in her bag and made to continue on her way.
Close enough now, Castiel made his move. With a roar, he launched himself at her, knocking them both into the side of a concrete building. Castiel's maniacal sneer was that of a predator but his eyes were devoid of emotion as he enclosed his large hands around her neck.
Startled and wide-eyed, the brown haired woman gasped as loudly as she could, "Retrorsum!" She made a shoving motion with both of her hands.
Castiel felt the air leave his lungs as he was thrust backwards with such force a rib cracked in his chest. He wasn't done however, and he'd chosen his prey and had to follow through. Kill, crunch, crush! shrieked a voice in his head over and over, just barely making itself heard over the deafening noise of his own rushing blood. He got up from the ground he'd been pushed to and made another clumsy rush at the woman.
Calmer now, but her heart still beating fast, the woman said loudly, "Prohibere." She made a stopping motion with one hand.
Castiel's body halted in its tracks. As much as he struggled, he couldn't make his legs go. The voice in his head got louder, kill, crunch, crush!
The woman took a shuddering breath,"Descendit." The hand making the stop motion turned so that her palm was facing the ground before pushing the motion purposely down.
Castiel dropped to his knees.
The woman approached him carefully, her hand still extended, palm facing the ground. "What do you want?"
Castiel could not reply, the voice in his head was screaming now, KILL CRUNCH, CRUSH!
The closer the woman got, the more her skin prickled. The hairs on the backs of her arms stood straight up and she could hear the quiet, steady crackling of magic at work. A closer inspection of Castiel's red eyes caused her to gasp and rear back a bit. "Nasty fucking business, that." She kept the hand facing the ground still despite the tremors that had begun to start in her fingers. "On such a powerful creature too…" She looked Castiel in the eye, feeling sorry that something so human had been yoked to another witch's command.
Her hand began to shake and she struggled to keep it steady, her hold on the creature diminishing by the second.
"I'm sorry I can't undo it." She told Castiel. "It's not my curse." She wanted to touch his face, he looked incredibly pained, and her heart squeezed a little. The creature, whatever he was, was still conscious in there, struggling and fighting against the magic that had a hold on him. "Rest now." She told him, her whole arm shaking with tremors as she desperately tried to retain her control on him. She took her other hand and touched it to the side of his head. "Somnum."
Castiel's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed, the woman barely catching his head in time to lower his slack body to the ground.
The voice in Castiel's head ground to a slow whisper and the pounding of blood slowed.
The woman stood and cast a quick protection ward over his body, pleased when it did not simply fizzle out when coming in contact with his skin.
"Sleep well, creature." She said quietly, observing him one last time before retrieving her abandoned purse and continuing down the alley.
As the voice in Castiel's head came to a stop and the blood rushing in his ears quieted, he felt a small peace. He found a newly created darkness in his mind and allowed his tired psyche to crawl into it. As sleep claimed him, the calming darkness grew and enveloped him, taking away the throbbing of his body and hushing the voice and all the blood.
And then Castiel knew sleep.