Disclaimer: I don't own SPN.
Welcome to the first chapter of 'Blood is Thicker'! So glad to finally be out of season 2 and into season 3! :D So I had this finished ages ago but didn't want to start posting until I finished fic 3, which I pretty much have, and got a head start on fic 4. Fic 3 is set in the interlude between S3-4 and fic 4 is…well, it's both S4 and S10, if that makes sense ;) But I will tell you, updates won't be daily like they were last fic.
Thanks to masterjediratgrl31, sjwmaw, JaliceJelsa4eva, aPathThat'sClear and DragonGatz for your reviews on the last chapter of fic 1 :)
Chapter 1. Deal with the Devil
"You did what?"
"Calm down, Mom!"
"Calm down? My son is going to Hell! I will not calm down! What on earth possessed you to make a deal with the Devil, Adam?"
"First off, she wasn't the Devil. She was a demon. And you would've done the same thing for me!"
"I'm your mother! It's my job to make all the sacrifices!"
"Well, maybe I wanted to sacrifice something for you for once!"
Kate pinched the bridge of her nose.
"What's dead should stay dead, Adam," she said softly. "You shouldn't have made that deal."
Adam scowled. Where was the gratefulness for making his own decision and being selfless? And she wouldn't be saying that if he'd been dead!
"Well, I did," he snapped. "And there's nothing any of us can do about it, so drop it."
He stormed into the hall and grabbed his jacket.
"I'm going for a walk."
Kate didn't answer him, so Adam just left. He shuffled down the sidewalk in the dimming evening light, feeling strangely numb about the prospect of going to Hell. Shouldn't he be panicking and fearing for his life?
"Adam!" Adam turned to see Lauren running towards him. Ever since her possession the previous day – by a demon, she called it, and Adam wasn't inclined to disbelieve her – she'd been quieter and more withdrawn. But they'd grown closer; after all, who else would believe her if she'd said that she was possessed by a demon?
"Hey, Lauren," he said with a small smile. When Lauren drew level with him, she threw her arms around him and gave him a tight hug.
"Did you tell your mom?" she said. "I stopped past and she was pretty upset."
"That's an understatement," Adam muttered.
"Aw. Be reasonable, Adam."
"Reasonable? She'd have done the same in my position!"
"Yeah but she's your mom. She's supposed to do that sort of stuff for you. And besides, you're her only son and now – now you're going to Hell! I can't believe it, Adam! You're really going to Hell!"
"Can you not remind me?" Adam said sharply. "It's not something I wanna think about."
Lauren bit her lip and nodded. They stood in awkward silence for a moment.
"I have to go," she said. "Mom and Dad want me to babysit Gina and I'm already late as it is. Just – try and understand your mom's position, okay?"
"Okay." Adam gave Lauren a small smile. "Thanks, Lo."
Lauren tucked a lock of brown hair behind her ear, smiled quickly at Adam and hurried off, looking all around her as she'd taken to doing lately. Adam couldn't blame her; being possessed would be enough to make anybody paranoid. But she was right. He had to make things right with his mom. He only had a year left with her!
As Adam turned into his street, a bad feeling settled in his gut. Frowning, he quickened his pace and shoved his front door open and gasped when he picked up the metallic, acrid smell of blood.
"Mom?" he said. Vividly reminded of yesterday, he sprinted to the kitchen and sighed in relief when he didn't find anything. But his relief was quickly snatched away when he entered the living room. "No! MOM!"
Once again, Kate was dead and lying in a pool of her blood. Standing over her was their burly next door neighbour, Steven – although the black eyes were definitely not normal.
"Hey, Adam," Not-Steve grinned. "You got here just in time."
"What the hell?" Adam cried. "A year! I was supposed to get a whole year with my mom! That was the deal!"
"Oh, that thing?" Not-Steve grinned. "Sorry, buddy. Read the fine print. The deal was that your mom would be brought back and you'd go downstairs in a year. It said nothing about her living once she was brought back."
Adam was frozen, his mouth open.
"But – but –" was all he could say. The demon rolled his eyes.
"End of the day, you're still going to Hell. If I were you, I'd turn around and walk away now. Or I'll kill you now and you can waltz on downstairs a year early."
"You lied to me," Adam whispered.
"Yeah. We're demons. We do that, kiddo." Not-Steve tightened his grip on the knife. "I'd run while I'm letting you. Because here's the thing. Technically, you get however many years you were given and then you get dragged downstairs. But, well…shit happens. That demon can't lay a finger on you but it don't say nothing about me."
Not-Steve advanced on Adam, his knife glinting threateningly. Adam whimpered and backed away until his back hit the wall, his eyes screwed shut. He was sixteen! He should be worrying about grades and girls and his boring teenage life, not being threatened by demons and his mom dying – twice – and getting killed and going to Hell! Just when he thought he was done for –
CLANG.
Adam opened his eyes. Standing in front of him was a woman with long, blonde hair and a short, jagged knife in her hand. She'd used this knife to block Not-Steve's and the demon was now staring at her with a terrible snarl.
"You! You traitor!" he hissed. Edging to the side a little, Adam saw a little smirk on the woman's face.
"Call me what you want," she drawled. "Doesn't change the fact that you're fucked."
She nimbly sidestepped, lunged and buried the knife deep in Not-Steve's chest. Adam saw his skeleton light up and glow orange as he jerked and when the woman removed her knife, he crumpled to the ground. Adam made a small noise.
"Is – is he –?"
"He's dead," the woman said shortly. "Sorry, kiddo. You wanna kill a demon, you gotta kill the meat suit."
Adam felt a pang of sorrow for Steve, who totally didn't deserve what had just happened to him!
"And – and Mom?"
The woman's face softened and she reached out and ruffled his hair.
"I'm sorry, Adam. Really, I am. But that douche was right. The deal was just to bring her back – there was nothing stopping them from coming back for her."
Adam felt his world shatter. This wasn't fair! He was going to Hell and his mom was still dead! He'd thrown his soul away for nothing! How was this fair?
"Wait," he said slowly. "How do you know my name?"
"Everybody knows you, Adam." The woman blinked and her eyes flashed black. Adam jumped, let out an exclamation and staggered back. "Calm down, shortie. I'm not here to hurt you."
"Sure!" Adam said hysterically. "Yeah, I'm sure you're not gonna hurt me!"
"If I wanted you dead, I'd have let Dumbass here shiv you," the demon said impatiently. "Would've made my job easier if that was the case – wouldn't get my hands dirty. But no. I stepped in to help you and by this time tomorrow, all of Hell's gonna know that I've gone AWOL. I'm fucked, Adam."
Adam shook his head. The demon sighed, reversed her grip on her knife and held it out to him hilt-first.
"There. Now you have the weapon that can kill me. Feel better now? Am I catering properly to your masculine pride?"
Adam reached out and slowly took the knife. He had to admit, it did make him feel better to have a weapon that could kill this demon if she tried to off him.
"Who the hell are you? And what do you want?"
The demon smiled.
"Ruby. My name's Ruby. And as for what I want? Well, all of Hell's talking about you, Adam Milligan. The kid with a year to live. Something big's coming up and you've got a role to play in it. I wanna make sure that you don't get iced."
"But why? You're a demon! I'm a human!"
Ruby chuckled.
"True. Sounds like the start to a bad romance, right? But I'm genuinely interested in you, Adam. See, nobody likes Hell. It's dark and bloody and fiery and trust me, it's not where you wanna go. So I thought, 'Why don't I make sure I don't get my ass sent back there?' There are people out there called hunters, who hunt down anything supernatural – vampires, werewolves, ghosts. You name it, they hunt it. And if I run into them, they exorcise me and I get my ass sent back there."
Adam blinked.
"You remember that massive blackout and dust cloud in Wyoming a week ago? That was everyone in Hell trying to get out through the Devil's Gate that was opened. I was one of the lucky few that managed to claw their way out and I don't plan on going back any time soon. So if I help you, you help me. I help humans, I don't get sent back to Hell. You following me?"
"Survival," Adam muttered. Ruby nodded approvingly.
"There we are. I knew I was right in backing you."
"But what can you do to help, Ruby? I'm going to Hell no matter what I do. What difference does another year make?"
Ruby leaned in, her now-blue eyes gleaming.
"Because," she said, "I might be able to save you."
Adam was thunderstruck.
"How?" he demanded, his heart pounding in his ears. Was there a chance that he could get out of this? "Can you break the deal?"
Ruby grimaced.
"Sorry, kiddo. Wish I could. But I'm just a low-level demon. I don't have that kinda juice."
Adam's heart sank.
"But I know a couple of people. Well, I don't know them personally and they sure as hell don't know me but they're famous around Hell. I can help you track 'em down and see if they can't find a way out of your deal. If anyone can do it, it's them."
Adam felt a sliver of hope.
"To get out of your deal, you've gotta kill the one who holds it. And that demon is one nasty bitch. Lilith, her name is. The first demon ever made and all that crap, so she's the most powerful. But these guys are probably the greatest hunters in the world, not to mention that they've got an angel on their shoulder. If anyone can ice her, it's them."
"You can take me to them?" Adam said. Ruby smiled and ruffled his hair again.
"Course I can. And if I get in their good books, I get protection from Hell when they try to shiv me. See? We both benefit."
And of course, the dark side of Adam's mind had to kick in (in a voice that sounded suspiciously like Darth Vader's).
"But how do you know that they'll help me?" he said gloomily. "How do you know that they won't turn around and tell me that it's my problem? Guys like me who sell their souls can't exactly be admired, right?"
"True," Ruby admitted. "But you've got a few things going for you. For one, you're a kid. Everybody loves a kid. For another, you made that deal to save your mom. One of 'em recently died and his brother tried to make a deal to bring him back, just like you did yesterday."
"Tried?"
"An angel smote the crap outta the demon and brought the guy back. But don't go thinking about summoning angels. From what I've heard, most angels are complete douchebags who'd sooner smite you than help you and these guys just lucked out and got the one angel that wouldn't kill 'em. Again, this is just what I've heard – I've been in Hell since the fourteenth century, so I'm kinda rusty."
Adam winced, feeling sorry for Ruby despite himself.
"And there's a third reason. Tell me, Adam. Who's your father?"
Adam blinked, wondering what this had to do with anything.
"Uh…John Winchester. Don't know him much. He used to drop 'round on my birthday but that's about it. Wait. Don't tell me. He's a hunter?"
"Was. Killed by a demon last year. Though last I heard, these guys offed him last week."
Adam looked down. He hadn't known John very well but the man was still his father and the news of his death made his insides curl. He was officially an orphan!
"What does Dad have to do with anything?"
The blonde grinned widely.
"That's the thing. These guys? They'd do anything to help family. Anything. And I'll tell you what?"
Adam began to feel sick again.
"Three guesses who their father is, kiddo. And the first two don't count."
Adam shook his head. This couldn't be true!
"No…" he said. Ruby laughed.
"Yep. These guys are your half-siblings. Well, the guys are, anyway. The chick's your cousin. But they're still family. Of course they're gonna want to help you."
Ruby stepped over Steve's body and crossed over to the living room entrance. She turned back to look at Adam.
"Well? I haven't got all day. Let's get outta here before the cops come or another demon decides to sniff you out."
Adam looked from Ruby to his dead mother. Could he trust her? She was a demon! Sure, she'd saved him and she'd been pretty straight with him and she was offering to help him out of his deal but she was still a demon!
"Seriously, are you coming? If not, can I have my knife back? That thing was hell to get – pun fully intended."
Adam looked down at the knife and made a decision. Kate was gone and no demon deal was going to bring her back this time. If he stayed here, he'd just have to face a tonne of questions and problems and he'd probably be sent to live with his insufferable aunt and uncle anyway. And who cared if the demon killed him, anyway? He was already going to Hell. Things couldn't possibly get any worse! If there was a slim chance that his half-siblings – if they were his half-siblings – could help him then he'd take it!
"Can I grab some stuff first?"