Gabriel pumped his legs harder, putting on an extra burst of speed to catch up with his brother. He may have been older, but Castiel was much taller and walked faster than Gabriel without even trying. He huffed and ran a few steps to come up beside Cas.

"Hey, where are we going?" he asked, panting slightly. Cas smirked down at him for a moment and slowed down.

"I told you," he said, "we're going to a new witch's bar that just opened up. I heard it's great."

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "You dragged me out of bed to go to a bar?"

"You weren't actually sleeping," Cas said.

"I was too!" Gabriel retorted.

"Gabe, sitting in the dark in a motel room with your face glued to your phone does not count as sleeping."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Gabriel said, stifling a yawn. It actually was pretty late. There were no people out and the only light came from the streetlights along the roads. Cas glanced down at his phone and frowned. "What's wrong?"

"It's a lot farther than I thought it would be," Cas said. "Maybe we should have taken the car."

Gabriel groaned. "Well, it's too late now. I just want to get out of the cold. Are we closer to the bar or the motel?"

"The bar," Cas told him. He tapped the screen of his phone a few times before smiling triumphantly. "I found a shortcut! If we cut through this alley and duck through a few parking lots, we'll get there in no time."

Gabriel looked at the small walkway between two buildings that they had stopped in front of. There were no lights in it, but from what Gabriel could see, there were lots of dumpsters. Every instinct screamed at him that this was a bad idea and he agreed.

"Cas, I don't know," he said. "Maybe we should stick to the main roads."

"Oh, relax, it'll be fine. There's no one crazy enough to be out here this late besides us."

"There's a reason for that," Gabriel mumbled to himself, but he followed his brother into the dark alley anyway. He stuck close to Castiel, peering into the darkness with wide eyes. He was extremely tense, sure that at any moment they would be jumped by some huge thug.

Nothing happened. They made it out of there alive, with nothing but a few bruises from running into stuff in the dark.

"See?" Cas laughed. "It's fine."

Gabriel let out a shaky breath and tried to calm his racing heart. "Yeah, I know, I'm good."

The two of them walked quickly, trying to reach the bar as soon as possible to get out of the chilly October air. When they finally made it to the bar, they practically ran inside. They walked down two flights of stairs and were patted down by a huge guard, and finally-Finally!-they were inside.

The bar itself was pretty big, still spacious even with the twenty something people there. Cas and Gabe walked up to the bar and grabbed two seats, looking around. Witches and familiars were scattered all throughout the bar, mingling and talking.

Gabe heard a bark and looked down. Sitting at his feet was a huge doberman. As he watched, it changed into a tall dark-skinned man with close-cropped black hair and dark eyes. He took the seat next to Gabriel and Cas leaned in, curious.

"Hello," the familiar said. "My name is Raphael. Are you new here?"

"Yup," Gabe said, popping the 'p' . "Me and my brother here are just passing through and thought we'd stop by." Raphael nodded in Cas' direction and Cas gave a little wave.

"Where are your masters?" Raphael questioned, looking around.

"We don't have any," Cas said. Raphael whipped his head around and stared intently at Cas.

"You two are Unbonded?" he said sharply.

"Yeah, why?" Gabe asked. He turned to the bartender, who had drifted over when he saw his two new customers. "A daiquiri for me and a green apple martini for him." The bartender nodded and Gabe looked back at Raphael. "Why is is such a big deal that we're Unbonded? I'm sure lots of familiars here are, too."

Raphael shook his head. "No Unbonded familiar dares to come here. You see that witch over there? The tall one one with the blonde hair? His name is Lucifer. He's the oldest and most powerful witch in the city. He's been looking for a familiar for years, but none have met his standards."

"Standards?" Gabe asked incredulously. He and Cas exchanged looks. "What happened to the ones he didn't approve of?"

"They all appeared dead the day after meeting Lucifer."

"He's been killing familiars?" Cas practically shouted and Raphael nodded gravely. "Why hasn't anyone done anything?"

"Everyone knows it's him, but no one can prove it. There are never any witnesses, and no one is brave enough to accuse him without solid proof. Anyway, if you two value your lives I would get out of here as soon as possible."

Gabe shot a meaningful look at Cas and the two of them nodded almost imperceptibly at each other, communicating wordlessly in a way that only siblings seemed to be able to do.

"Okay, we're leaving," Gabe said. He reached in his wallet and slapped down a few bills for the drinks. "Thanks for the warning, Raphael."

Raphael gave them a tight smile and transformed again, trotting over to a table crammed with witches. Gabe and Cas headed to the exit, walking briskly and trying to appear nonchalant.

"Hello," drawled a voice behind them and they froze, slowly turning around and coming face to face with none other than Lucifer. "I'm Lucifer."

"Uh," Gabriel started nervously. "I'm Gabriel and this is Castiel. It was really nice to meet you but we have to go." He grabbed Cas' arm and steered them back towards the exit, only to be frozen in place. He fought furiously against Lucifer's magic, but he was incredibly strong.

"That's rude," the witch said softly. "You haven't properly introduced yourselves. Witches or familiars?"

Gabriel's mind raced, trying to think of something he could say, but witches were great at picking up lies. "Familiars," he eventually ground out.

"How interesting." Lucifer walked around them until they were facing each other. "Who are your masters?"

Gabriel felt his heart sink. If what Raphael had said was true, then they were in serious trouble. He racked his brains for an answer, but thankfully he didn't have to.

"Hey, guys," said a new voice, and Gabe and Cas were unfrozen. They turned to see two witches walking towards them, each with a beer in his hand. "We didn't get to say goodbye." The one who had spoken was the shorter one, though he was by no means short. He was taller than Cas, and the other one was even taller.

"Uh, yeah," Gabriel said, playing along. "We have to get going."

"Okay, well it was nice to meet you two," the taller one said. Lucifer shot one last meaningful look at the familiars before stalking away towards the bar. Gabriel let out a breath.

"Thanks," he said. He looked up and locked eyes with the taller one. Something jolted within him the instant he did, making him gasp a little and step back in shock. The same thing had happened to the other man and Gabriel saw Cas and the shorter witch having a similar reaction to one another.

Gabe frowned. What the hell was that? He had never felt anything like that before, but it hadn't exactly been unpleasant. He looked back up at the witch.

"My name's Gabriel Novak," he said, "and this is my brother Castiel."

"I'm Sam Winchester," said the tall witch. "And my brother over there is Dean."

Gabriel looked right into Sam's hazel eyes with a small frown on his face. Something had happened and he was sure it had something to do with Sam. He shook his head and turned to Cas. It was probably nothing.

"Cas, let's go," he said. "We've got a lot of driving to do tomorrow." Cas reluctantly tore his gaze away from Dean and nodded to his brother. "Thanks again for the help with Lucifer."

"It was nothing," Dean said, staring at Cas. Well, that wasn't creepy at all. He gave the witches one last smile and practically dragged Castiel out of there in his haste to get away. He didn't relax until they were well away from the bar, but even then he still felt like someone was watching him.

"That was interesting," Cas said once they reached the alleyway.

"Interesting?" Gabe scoffed. "Sure, if interesting means almost killed by a psycho witch."

"Now, that's a little over dramatic, don't you think?" asked a familiar voice, and the familiars froze. Lucifer slowly melted out of the shadows in front of them, smiling. "I wouldn't kill you unless you failed the test."

"What test?" Gabriel asked, proud of himself for not letting his voice shake.

"The test to see if a familiar is the right one for me, of course. It's simple, really. I'm going to try to kill you, and if you can survive for five minutes, you'll have the privilege of being Bonded to me."

"What if we don't want to Bond with you?" Cas asked snarkily, and Gabriel resisted the urge to add an obnoxious "Yeah?" to the end of that question.

"Then you die," Lucifer said with a shrug. "Who wants to go first? How about you?" Lucifer pointed at Cas and Gabe felt his heart stop.

"No!" he shouted before he could stop himself. "Not him." Lucifer grins evilly at him and Gabriel felt fear course through him, followed by a small wave of urgency. Wait, what? Where had that come from?

"Very well," Lucifer said, snapping Gabe out of his thoughts. And before Gabriel had time to prepare himself, he attacked. Gabriel quickly sidestepped a ball of blue energy, feeling it singe a few hairs at it swept past.

He tried to channel the animal part of him but he couldn't reach it.

"You won't be able to change," Lucifer said. "Did I forget to mention that I'm blocking your power?" He throws another spell at Gabe and the familiar is too slow to dodge, getting hit right in the chest and slamming back into the brick wall behind him.

He can practically see the anger rolling off of Cas, but his brother is still frozen in place by Lucifer's magic. Gabriel got up shakily to his feet, one arm wrapped around his torso. He decided to go on the offense. After all, it is the best defense.

He waited until Lucifer was close enough to charge, tackling the witch to the ground and throwing a few good punches before being thrown off by an invisible force. Still, Lucifer was bleeding heavily from his nose and Gabriel can't help but feel a small surge of satisfaction.

"That was not what we agreed on," Lucifer said, wiping away the blood dripping down onto his lip.

"We didn't agree on anything," Gabriel snapped back. He tried once more to reach the part of him responsible for his transformations, but it was still locked down.

"Watch your tone," Lucifer said softly, and Gabriel can hear nothing but pure malice in his voice.

"Let us go," Gabriel retorted. "We don't want to be Bonded to you and you can't force us, you bastard."

Gabriel didn't get to say anything else as he suddenly found himself pinned to the wall, pressure slowly increasing around his throat. He gasped for breath, trying to free himself from the witch's power.

"I told you to watch your tone," Lucifer said, walking towards the defenseless familiar. "And when I tell you to do something," he lets a knife slip out of his sleeve and into his hand, "you do it."

He plunged the knife deep into Gabriel's stomach and the familiar can't even scream or gasp because Lucifer was still cutting off his air. He let Gabriel fall to the ground and leaned in close.

"Such a shame," he whispered into his ear. "I actually wanted you to win. You have such spirit, such potential. You would have made a great familiar. I guess I just have to hope that your brother can last longer than you did."

Gabriel felt another stab of fear for his brother, or maybe that was from the pain radiating out from his stomach. His vision started to go blurry and his eyelids got heavy. He watched helplessly and Lucifer sauntered over to his little brother, only to be thrown back by the same spell he'd used on Gabriel.

Castiel unfroze and ran over to him, and Gabriel could have sworn he was shouting although he couldn't hear anything over the sound of his own pounding heartbeat. Cas crouched in front of him and looked at something over his shoulder.

The next thing Gabriel knew, he was being lifted by a huge, dark shadow and cradled against a broad chest. He felt a sharp wave of fear, panic and determination, although none of those feelings are his. The last thing he hears before he blacks out is Sam's voice in his head.

It's okay, Gabriel you're going to be okay. I've gotcha.