The first week was relatively bearable. Castiel had to keep listening to Lucifer whining, and during the rare moments the archangel was quiet Castiel kept thinking about how he'd failed Dean again, but other than that, it was manageable.

The second week, however, the situation got a lot worse.

Unlike all the other times Asmodeus had come to visit, the demon didn't stop in front of Lucifer's cell to mock him, but instead he walked to Castiel's and gave him a pleased smile the angel didn't like one bit.

"I thought of a use for you," Asmodeus told him, and Castiel rolled his eyes.

"Great."

Asmodeus scowled, and opened the cell with a wave of his hand. Castiel was suddenly pinned against the wall. He tried to fight against the force, but it was hopeless. Why was Asmodeus so powerful? Castiel knew the demon was a Prince of Hell, but Ramiel hadn't been this strong.

"You've still got some grace left, don't you? And are able to recharge it?"

Castiel glared at him as the demon walked into the cell and stopped right in front of the angel, looking down at him. "Go to hell."

Asmodeus' smile dissipated. Castiel expected him to look angry, but instead he only seemed a little displeased. "I see we'll have to take care of that attitude of yours first."

Castiel glared at him even more, but when the demon made a large needle and a thick black thread appear in his hand, his expression morphed into a confused one. Castiel had no idea what Asmodeus wanted to do, but he knew he wouldn't like it.

Castiel groaned as the forced holding him still doubled, noticing that now he couldn't even move his head, open his mouth, or even blink, for that matter. Castiel felt as his heart started to beat faster and faster as he watched (not like he had a choice) as Asmodeus pulled the thread through the needle and made a knot at the end of the thread, before crouching down in front of Castiel, holding the needle a little too close to his eye.

"You angels. You're so much easier to tolerate when you can't talk," he said, and all Castiel could do was let out a muffled scream as Asmodeus stabbed the needle through his lower lip, and then his upper lip, pulling the thread through the newly formed holes. Castiel whined, feeling blood already escaping the small wounds and pouring into his mouth and down to his chin.

As Asmodeus pierced his upper lip again, Castiel tried with all of his might to break the demon's hold on him, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't move an inch. He just had to sit there and take it as Asmodeus continued to slowly sew his mouth shut. Castiel tried to keep the pained noises to himself at least, but he couldn't help but cry out occasionally when Asmodeus changed his pace.

By the time the demon was done, Castiel's mouth was full of blood, which he couldn't even spit out anymore. When the demon lessened his hold on the angel, Castiel tried to open his mouth with the intention of ripping the stitches, but all he managed was to make himself whimper at the horrible pain.

"Now you listen to me," Asmodeus said, his eyes glowing, "pull out the stitches and I'll gladly sew your mouth shut again."

Then the force holding Castiel flung him into a wall, and he fell to the floor with a muffled moan. Before he could get up, Asmodeus' shoe pushed down on Castiel's back, holding him in place while the demon leaned over the angel and stabbed a needle into his neck.

Castiel cried out and struggled as he felt his grace start to leave his vessel. Asmodeus fisted a hand in Castiel's hair, keeping his head still as he robbed him of his grace, ignoring the muffled noises the angel was making.

When the needle was finally pulled out of his neck, Castiel felt incredibly drained. So much so that he didn't even have the energy to get up once Asmodeus took his foot off Castiel's back, much less make an attempt to escape.

Castiel looked up at the demon, watching him inject the grace he'd taken from Castiel into his arm.

Oh, so that was why he had powers he shouldn't have. Despite his exhaustion, Castiel still managed to scowl at Asmodeus, feeling utterly disgusted that the demon was using his grace like this.

"Hm…not as potent as I'm used to, but it will do. I hope you can recharge yourself a little by tomorrow because I'll come by to take more."

With that Asmodeus left, closing the door to the cell behind him, and Castiel closed his eyes for a moment, trying to get together enough strength to at least sit up. When he managed to do so, he gingerly touched his mouth wincing as it stung, before wiping off his chin with the sleeve of his coat carefully.

He heard Lucifer yell at him, asking what Asmodeus had done, and Castiel hung his head. He couldn't even tell the archangel to shut up anymore. He had been robbed of his voice, which was probably the last thing he could use to defend himself here, and that thought was really much more discouraging that he'd thought it would be.

He slowly moved into a corner and hugged his knees loosely, sighing through his nose because he had no other choice now.

He'd thought that he'd be left alone until Asmodeus came back, but that didn't seem to be the case as he was rudely woken up when the demon who usually kept an eye on him and Lucifer entered his cell and dragged Castiel into the middle of the room.

The angel tried to put up a fight, but he didn't stand a chance as his grace was still mostly depleted. Castiel grunted as the demon held him down with a knee and wrenched his right arm behind his back.

"So powerless," the demon commented, sounding a little too happy about it. "I've been waiting for the moment I could have a little fun with you, so I've come prepared."

Castiel tried to throw the demon off of him, or at least free his arm, but the demon held him tightly. Castiel froze as he felt something squeeze one of his nails firmly, and screamed as the nail was pulled out of his finger, while the demon laughed.

"Your pain sounds so beautifully…animalistic when you can't open your mouth," the demon said, preparing to pull out another nail. Castiel really tried to stay quiet, but he couldn't. It just hurt too much, especially now that he was running low on power.

The demon then proceeded to rip out the remaining three nails before letting Castiel go. The angel looked at his bloody hand through tear-filled eyes as the demon chuckled.

"Tomorrow, I'll take care of the other hand."

Castiel was left alone again, and he stumbled back into the corner, burying his head in his knees and trying to heal his right hand enough to stop the bleeding.

The next few days went about the same way – Asmodeus would drain Castiel's grace, and then the demon guarding him would come and torment him, be it pulling out more nails, cutting him, or using a multi-tailed whip on him.

Castiel couldn't even really defend himself because his grace couldn't recharge fast enough to keep up with how much Asmodeus was taking. By the end of the week, Castiel couldn't even get enough strength together to sit up anymore, which seemed to make Asmodeus happy because Castiel wasn't attempting to escape anymore.

After the beating he'd received the last time for trying to fight Asmodeus, Castiel decided it wasn't worth it. It was pointless, and it only hindered his attempts at recharging his grace because he had to heal himself.

The only positive thing about Castiel's current situation was that the demon guarding him and Lucifer seemed to have finally grown tired of hurting him when the angel could barely stay awake most of the time, so he mostly just mocked him, which was easy to ignore.

Castiel shivered. He hated that he could feel the cold now, and he wished he still had his coat. Hell, he wished he at least still had his shirt, but the demon had taken both those items and his suit jacket from him, so the angel wouldn't have any protection against the whip.

He still hadn't managed to heal the whip marks, or grow his nails back, but he had at least managed to close the wounds. He just wished he could fall asleep, which would help him recharge, but his stinging back and the cold wouldn't let him, and he wasn't exhausted enough to pass out.

When he heard loud noises coming from somewhere down the hallway, Castiel didn't even bother to open his eyes to try and see what was happening, not until he heard a familiar voice swear. His eyes flew open in disbelief, and he dragged himself to the bars as quickly as he could, and with great effort somehow managed to sit up, feeling like he would fall sideways any second now.

Castiel wished he could call out to Dean as he heard the man bark questions at presumably the demon guarding them. The demon didn't seem to want to tell the hunter, but after a short yell, which was no doubt Dean killing the demon, Dean found Castiel's cell in a few second.

Castiel's lips immediately wanted to form a tired smile, but it only turned into a grimace as he let out a pained whimper when the thread binding his lips together pulled on the holes in them.

Dean stared at Castiel for a second with horror and incredibly anger before quickly opening the cell with a key he'd most likely gotten from the demon he'd just killed. "God, what did that asshole do to you, Cas?"

Dean kneeled down in front of the angel and pulled him into a hug, which Castiel tried to return, but he was too exhausted to lift his arms, so he just let his forehead rest on the hunter's shoulder.

"I was so worried, Cas. What did I tell you about not doing anything stupid?" Dean asked, shrugging off his jacket and wrapping it around Castiel. "Are you okay? Nevermind, stupid question, of course you're not."

Dean continued on like this, checking Castiel's wounds while muttering death threats aimed at Asmodeus, and Castiel let him, smiling internally at how endearing he found the hunter's actions. It was nice being reminded that Dean cared so much about him once in a while, even if he had to go through his grace being drained and being tortured to see Dean express it.

"Can you stand?" Dean asked, and Castiel really did try to stay standing up when Dean pulled him to his feet, but he almost ended up falling down again, so Dean instead decided to carry him. Castiel hid his face in Dean's shoulder, trying to fight the urge to fall asleep, but he felt so safe in the hunter's arms, it was a losing battle.

Soon enough he found himself falling asleep, hoping that when he woke up, he'd be home.