Chapter 2 - Something Familiar
A month.
That's how long it had been since Sam and Dean Winchester had come to Lima, and already it felt like years.
Normalcy had returned almost immediately after they'd gone. Everyone who had been there treated it like it had been some kind of bad dream, and they never talked about it.
It was just about the time when Blaine was finally accepting that everything was behind them when the headaches started.
Mind you, when else would they begin?
At first they never got any worse that a quiet buzzing in the back of his mind, a glass of water being the perfect remedy and they were easy to dismiss for dehydration and the like. But as the days wore on, the 'attacks' became increasingly vicious. He was forced to leave class on several occasions in order to go to the medical office, only to have them end minutes later.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop them from coming,
It was only luck that had kept it from happening in front of any of the Glee club members, including Kurt, so Blaine had managed to keep it a secret, but now, sitting in the music room with everyone, his head starting to throb, he had a feeling it wasn't going to remain a secret for much longer…
"Okay guys!" Mr Schue exclaimed as he came striding into the room, causing Blaine to cringe.
Does he have to be so loud?
Luckily, no one seemed to notice.
"Since we've gotten some of our star singers back…" he continued, several of the other students to cheer and whistle.
More cringing.
"… I thought we'd have our theme for the week on new beginnings!"
More cheers.
My head…
"Blaine?" Kurt's soft voice drifted through the noise to Blaine's ears, "Are you alright?"
He closed his eyes and put hands up to his head, resting his elbows on his knees. The throbbing was beginning to turn into pain.
He was far from 'alright'.
Kurt understood. "We should get you to the medical room…"
"No… It's happened before. It'll…" he sucked in a breath through his teeth as the pain escalated, "… go away… soon…"
… I hope.
The senior seemed to contemplate his answer for a moment before…
"Mr Schue!"
Blaine groaned as the pain spiked.
Why did he expect any less?
"Yes Kurt?"
"Blaine needs to go to the medical office."
"No I don't…" he groaned.
"Yes, Blaine, you do." Schuester interrupted.
"But it'll be over in a minute." He tried to explain. "The headaches never last long." He opened his eyes to find that he had become the centre of attention.
Mercedes frowned at him. "So… you've had these before?"
More pain.
He nodded.
Rachael's eyes widened. "And you didn't tell us?"
He grunted, closing his eyes again.
The throbbing continued to build and build with each new sound. It had never been this bad before. Maybe he should have gone to the medical office, but he knew it was far too late now.
It was too late the moment I knew what you were.
Yellow eyes flashed in the darkness of his scrambled thoughts, the demon's contemptible laughter joining the throng.
It was too much.
Aw! Can't the poor widdle baby handle a headache? The demon sneered.
Blaine could feel his anger building at how helpless he felt, at the fuss everyone was making over him, at the defiling of his personal thoughts. And yet there was something else building with it. Something he couldn't name. Something he'd never felt before. It felt like it was going to swallow him whole.
Yes. Let it take hold of you. Embrace it. Make it your own.
Shut up!
The voices stopped, only to be replaced by the sound of structural groaning.
Yes. Bend it to your will! Control it!
Control what?
Suddenly, the nameless thing inside him lashed out, hitting the ceiling, making the plaster crack. Before Blaine could do anything about it, the entity smashed through the various layers that kept the music room from the elements, debris falling everywhere, causing everyone, including Blaine, to retreat to the edges of the room in search of safety.
Was he doing this?
Are you…? Yes of course you are! …Well, sort of.
Sort of?
I believe this is your power doing this.
My…?
Don't interrupt. It's like a… a dog, if you will. The demon explained. Left to its own devices, it will cause havoc and mayhem, doing as it pleases, not caring the slightest about the consequences. You've had this… dog, locked away in a cage, and I simply unlocked the door.
What?
Another part of the ceiling collapsed, blocking the exits and causing several of the girls to scream.
Your power 'escaped' a little sooner than I'd anticipated, which is why I'm here now.
Is that a bad thing? He asked sarcastically.
The demon sniggered. In your case, no. I think your ability has matured quite nicely. In fact, I think its probably one of the most powerful one I've ever seen!
And it's running rampage in my school!
Another piece of plaster fell from the roof, landing on top of the piano.
Well, like I said, it's like a dog. But not just any 'dog'! It's well trained, and it will do anything its master bids it.
Its master?
The demon sighed. Do I have to spell everything out for you? Since its your power, that obviously makes it your… pet. Its yours. You tell it what to do!
But how do I do that?
I don't know! You tell me! It replied. Now, if you don't mind, I have other matters I need to attend to.
And with that, it was gone.
So now he was left with this problem on his own. Even though he hated the demon's guts, he preferred having some form of help rather than being left on his own to try to control something he couldn't even see!
A large crack appeared in the wall a couple of feet away from Puck, causing yet more debris to fall.
What do I do? How do I control this… 'dog' if I can't even see…
And there it was.
Stood in the middle of the room, growling and clawing the piano, was a jet-black Labrador, its hair all scruffy and dirty from the dust surrounding it.
"Where did that come from?" someone asked, but Blaine was too preoccupied with his thoughts to figure out who it was.
Slowly, Mr Schue began to shuffle into view, hand stretched out to the small beast.
"Come here boy," he cooed, making it face him, its eyes unsure and curious. It took a step towards him, sniffing the hand that was just above its nose.
Suddenly, it growled and its jaws shut around the teacher's hand, fangs digging deep into his skin.
Will cried out in pain and tried to pull his hand away, but the dog didn't seem willing to let go. If anything, its grip only tightened.
"Mr Schue!"
"Somebody do something!"
"Oh my God!"
"Stop it!"
Blood started to drip down from the man's hand onto the floor, mixing with the dust
Blaine felt his anger building up again.
How could anything that had come from him do something like that?
"Heel Fenris!"
The dog froze, releasing Schuester's hand.
Wait… Had he said that?
From the looks on everyone's faces, it seemed apparent that he had. And now the dog's attention was on him.
"Uh…"
The dog began to paw its way through the debris towards him, the other Glee club members moving to get out of its way as it approached.
Blaine began to shuffle backwards, trying to get as much distance between him and the dog as possible, but his foot caught on one of the chairs and he fell onto his elbows.
The dog was there in an instant, staring down at him.
Good doggy…
It smelt the air around him and licked his nose, closing the distance between them.
"Blaine!" Kurt cried, trying to get to him, but the dog growled, forcing the boy away.
He closed his eyes. He didn't want to see what would happen next.
Something wet scraped across his face, followed by warm breath.
Wait… what?
Slowly opening his eyes, Blaine found that the dog was panting, looking expectantly at him, though what that might be he didn't know.
Then it nudged his hand.
Oh.
Sitting up, the junior stretched out his hand to it, ignoring the warnings his friends were giving him, stopping about an inch from its face.
It stepped forward and allowed him to stroke him.
Yes, it was a male. And his name was most definitely Fenris. There was no doubt about it. He was Fenris' master, and he always would be. Their bond would never brake, he would never betray him, he would always keep him safe.
Blaine smiled as the dog clambered onto his lap and proceeded to lick his face.
He couldn't help but laugh.
Then Principal Figgins arrived.
He stared at the room for a few moments before turning to Mr Schue. "What happened here?"
Still clutching his bleeding hand, Will Schuester turned to his boss.
How was he going to explain this one?
Sam and Dean were just leaving Los Angeles when the phone started to ring.
It was an unknown number, so it was impossible to tell if it was another hunter or one of their father's old contacts.
Since Dean was behind the wheel, like always, Sam pressed the answer button and pressed it to his ear.
"Hello?"
"Sam? Is that you?"
He knew that voice. "Blaine?"
"Yeah! You remembered me!"
Sam huffed, "Well, I've been trying not to."
He would only phone up if something had happened. He'd specifically instructed him to do so.
"What happened?"
There was no answer for a moment, but then there was a deep sigh. "Well, about three weeks after you left, I started getting these headaches."
"Headaches?"
Dean looked at him from the corner of his eye but then continued to look at the road ahead.
"Yeah. At first it wasn't so bad. A buzzing in my head or something like that. But then it got worse."
Another pause.
"Over the past week, it's just been getting worse and worse, and about an hour ago, in glee practice, I had the worst one."
Something barked in the background, a dog probably, and Blaine laughed.
"Not now Fenris! Wait… wait over there. Good boy."
Fenris?
"Interesting name for a dog; Fenris."
"What? Oh! I didn't choose it."
Sam frowned. "Your parents?"
"No. They'd never let me have a dog! I'll uh… I'll explain in a bit."
"Could you put that thing on speaker?" Dean asked, his voice betraying the annoyance he had of being kept in the dark.
Whoops.
Sam pressed the loudspeaker button.
"Blaine, you're on speaker."
"Okay. Hey Dean!"
"Hey kiddo." the driver replied, not taking his eyes off the road, a smile suddenly appearing on his lips.
"I knew he was there! Told you Kurt."
"Shut up." came a quiet voice. He was probably in the same room or something.
The dog barked again.
"So… the headache?" Sam asked, eager to get back to their topic.
"Right, yes. It was the worst one I've ever had. Felt like my head was going to explode!"
That had never happened to him. What had made him different? Maybe it was because he'd been possessed by Azazel himself.
"That was when…" he trailed off.
Dean looked at the phone. "When…?"
"…He… It was in my head again. That monster."
They looked at each other. This was not good.
"What did he do?"
"Nothing much. He taunted me a little, made me feel small and weak." He paused. "You know, now that I think about it, if he hadn't done that, what happened next would never have happened…"
Stop being so cryptic! "What? What happened?"
"Well, I was getting angry, obviously, but I was also feeling something else. I don't really know how to explain it… Power? I don't know."
"Just get on with it Blaine." Kurt urged.
Dean sighed. "Just give us the outline kid. We can talk more later."
"Alright. Well, whatever it was, it got out and it started trashing up the classroom. Then the demon…"
"Azazel." Sam chipped in helpfully.
"…Azazel started telling me I had to control it. That it was like a dog let lose, looking for its master. He said I was premature, but I was one of the most powerful 'ones' that he'd ever seen. That's when it left. Something about having to be somewhere else." Blaine explained. "I didn't know what to do. I wanted something tangible to deal with, not just empty air. The first thing that came into my mind was a dog, because of what Azazel had said, and then… it was there. A black Labrador in the middle of the room."
Dean shook his head. "Wait, hold on a second. Are you saying that just because you wanted to see it in that form, it took that form, it just… did?"
"Um, yeah. I suppose so."
"So you could make it be whatever you wanted."
"I never thought about it, though I suppose so."
Sam coughed. "Um… you were saying?"
"Yes. Mr Schue, our teacher, he tried to calm it down, but the dog ended up biting his hand and it didn't let go. The whole class went berserk. They were all so scared. But I just felt angry. I shouted something. What was it Kurt?"
There was some murmuring on the other side of the line.
"I shouted 'Heel Fenris'… apparently. I don't really remember it all that much. That's when he came over to me. When I tried to get away, I fell over, and he was there in an instant. I closed my eyes, thinking it was going to bite me, but he just licked me, trying to make me stroke him. When I did, I knew he would never hurt me. I knew I'd called out his name; his true name. And I knew that he would never leave me, no matter what."
Sam stared at his brother.
Dean stared back.
"That sounds like…"
"… a familiar."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Blaine, can you hold on for a few days?" Sam asked, "We're in LA at the moment, and we'll be there as soon as we can, but it should take us at least two days."
"Yeah, sure. We'll see you then. Bye!"
The line went dead and Sam put the phone away.
None of this made any sense.
Why would Azazel visit him? How could he be so powerful as to gain a familiar from pure energy?
Along with the incident just over a month before, it seemed that Blaine was more than just your average Joe, run of the mill high school students. There was something more about him, and the Winchesters were going to find out what.
"He's so cute!"
Blaine sighed as his boyfriend stroked the fur of his 'familiar'. It was now a black cat, and was sitting, quite comfortably, on Kurt's lap, his eyes relaxed shut as the boy's hand smoothed over his head time and again.
It was strange to think that until about sixty minutes previously, it had been some sort of energy locked inside of him.
Fenris began to purr.
He had to agree with Kurt. He was cute… at least in this form.
As soon as Dean had suggested that Fenris could change into whatever form he wanted, he tested it out as soon as he could.
The cat wasn't the first try.
First there was the owl, the mouse, the horse, the penguin…
At some point, he decided that, since he would have to bring it home with him, and he was probably annoyed at how much his master was exploiting his power, he settled on a form he could easily smuggle into his house, and one that he wouldn't be uncomfortable watching him.
"He likes you." Blaine stated, scooting over on the couch; Kurt's, not Blaine's.
"How do you know?"
He shrugged. "I just… do." He reached out and smoothed out some of Fenris' ruffled fur, the feeling of security and peace passing through his fingertips and through his body. "He feels safe around you. Peaceful…"
Kurt sniggered. "Maybe he's reflecting how you feel."
Blaine shrugged again, smiling as his hand touched Kurt's. "Maybe… Or maybe he knows you're not a threat to me."
The senior nodded, putting his hand over Blaine's. "I would never hurt you Blaine."
"Me neither." Blaine replied before realising how it sounded. "For you I mean!"
Kurt giggled. "Nice save."
They sat in silence for a few moments, enjoying each other's company while the familiar dozed on the taller boy's lap.
Blaine's phone began to vibrate.
Removing his hand from Kurt's, he pulled it out of his pocket, the screen flashing with the word 'Home' across it.
Ah.
"Hey mom."
"Blaine? Where are you? You said you'd be home fifteen minutes ago!"
He rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, yeah. I got a little… distracted."
"Well next time I want you to call. I've been worried! I saw on the news about your school's music room and…and I didn't know what to think!" she sounded close to tears. "It said there were no casualties, but…"
"Oh mom! I'm so sorry! I'll come home right away!"
There was a sniff from the other end of the line. "Alright. I'll see you in a bit."
Blaine put his phone down and looked apologetically at his boy friend.
Kurt smiled. "Don't worry about it. She needs you more than I do."
He kissed his love on the forehead. "Thank you."
And with that, he left, Fenris tailing a short distance behind him.
He didn't like it.
How could that boy how so much power?
Not even a whole pint of demon blood when he'd visited him all those years ago would have helped him develop that quickly! And yet there he was, walking down the sidewalk, his energy practically spilling everywhere he went.
And then there was that familiar that was following him around; a manifestation of his 'excess'. From what he'd overheard, he knew it was the boy's protector.
That could prove difficult in the long run, but he'd worry about that when he got there.
He still had a few weeks after all, and this boy was beginning to get interesting.
Sure, it may be a little out of control, but what was life without a few risks?
A soft breeze blew past his ear, carrying the sent of freshly drawn blood.
"Is it finished?" he asked, not even turning to face the young girl that had appeared next to him.
"Yes." She replied, licking her blood covered fingers. "The last ones tasted sweet."
He smiled. "Of course they did. And I'll be sending more as soon as I can."
She grinned. "I can't wait." And with that she disappeared.
The yellow-eyed demon smirked and watched as Blaine turned the corner. "Neither can I."
Sam shook his head. "No!"
Dean sighed. "Come on Sammy, you can't just ignore the facts! If he has a familiar then that probably means that he's a…"
"Don't even say it."
His brother snorted, crossing his arms and turning from looking out of the window in front of him. "Then tell me. Tell me what it could be."
Sam chewed his lip, trying to remember what he'd read in his father's journal. "A familiar is a supernatural entity that is bound to an inexperienced or fully fledged warlock…"
"Thank you!"
"… Or!" He held up a finger from the steering wheel for emphasis, "A being with so much power that they are unable to control it."
Dean frowned. "What? Where did you…?"
"It's in Dad's journal," he explained, "If it's the later, then the familiar acts as a guardian and an outlet for the excess energy."
The shorter man frowned and opened the glove compartment, pulling out the leather bound book that had once belonged to their father.
He paused before opening it, taking a moment to remember what the man had done for him; for them. Right now, his soul was burning in the depths of hell, all because of him.
Coughing slightly to pull him from his thoughts, Dean opened the journal and started to search through the pages.
Eventually, he found the double page spread that John Winchester had made on familiars. It wasn't exactly extensive, but it gave the bare facts. And John never wrote them down unless he'd made sure they were true.
Every word that his younger brother had said was scrawled somewhere on those pages.
So maybe the kid wasn't a warlock…
"You still can't cross out the idea though." He said, slamming the book shut and shoving it back next to the pistol before closing the door.
Sam sighed. "I know, but…" he let his words fade into nothing.
Dean nodded.
He knew how he felt.
Hell! It was how he'd felt when he first found out about him! He was still felling it!
"How far is it?" he asked.
"Well, we've been going for about twelve hours straight, so we shouldn't be there before tomorrow. And I think we should probably stop somewhere before we get to Lima."
Dean nodded. "Alright." He shuffled down the seat into a comfortable position. "Wake me when it's my turn to drive."
McKinley High had been closed due to the destruction that had mysteriously occurred the previous day, so everyone had the rest of the week off to do some 'independent learning'. Of course the teachers knew it wasn't going to happen, but at least it meant they were doing their jobs.
Kurt had invited Blaine around his home, and so the two of them, and a rather small black mouse, were currently lounging in the garden, enjoying the sunshine.
It had been almost two days since they'd phoned the Winchesters, and they had warned Burt and Carole that they would be turning up within the next few hours, meaning Blaine had to explain his situation to them, which of course caused some speculation, leading to Blaine having to demonstrate what his familiar could do, and Carole lying unconscious on her bed.
It could have gone better; but then, it could have gone a lot worse.
There had been one thing that had been bugging the junior for some time now, and he couldn't quite get it out of his head.
"Kurt?"
"Mm?" his boyfriend replied, turning his head lazily towards him from where he was lying on the grass beside him.
"If…" he pursed his lips as he thought about his question. "If I have a familiar, does that make me a… warlock?"
Kurt frowned. "A what?"
"That's right isn't it? A warlock's a male witch… I think. So does that make me one?"
The taller boy got up onto his elbows and looked down at him. "Why would you say that?"
"Well, witches had… have familiars, and I have a familiar, so doesn't that mean…?"
"No."
Blaine sat up, Fenris scrambling up onto his shoulder from where he had been lying on his stomach. "But…"
"Do you know any spells?"
The black haired boy looked up in thought. "Unless you're talking about Harry Potter, no, not really."
Kurt nodded. "And do you know how to make any potions, or fly on a broomstick?"
Blaine laughed. "No. Though that would be really cool… Flying I mean."
His boyfriend giggled. "Then I don't think you're a witch!... Warlock!... Whatever."
He smiled. Kurt always knew what to say.
"You're so cute when you do that."
The boy blushed. "Do… do what?"
"Stumble." He replied, "It's just so… adorable!"
The blushing boy smiled.
Suddenly, Fenris started to squeak inn his ears, nipping lightly at his ear, pulling his attention away from where he wanted it to be.
"What is it Fen…"
Oh… Shit…
There, stood at the other end of the garden, was a man. Apart from the fact that he was trespassing, there wasn't anything about him that was entirely unusual…
…Except his deep yellow eyes.
Blaine jumped to his feet, pulling Kurt along with him, pushing him behind his back as Fenris jumped down from his shoulder, transforming into a black wolf on the way down and stepping in-between the demon and his master, a fierce growl emerging from his lips.
The demon laughed.
"What do you want?" Blaine asked through gritted teeth, feeling Kurt's hands tighten around his wrist as he noticed who (or rather what) the man was, "Why are you here?"
"Ah Blaine," he replied, "I had no idea you had so much potential!"
He tried to take a step towards them, but the familiar barked at him, keeping him at a safe distance.
"You stay away from us."
Azazel sniggered. "With your mutt around I don't think I'm going to be able to help that much. I just want to talk."
Blaine raised his head slightly.
What was he trying to pull?
"So talk."
The demon grinned. "Yes, so much potential…" he murmured before raising his voice. "Congratulations on creating a familiar! You know, not many people can do that."
"Not many people are stalked by men possessed by demons. I would like to know that I'm not watched on my way home."
"Hmm… touché!" he put his hands in his jacket pockets. "Your little friend over there was right," he nodded towards Kurt, "though his explanation was crude at best. The reason you have a familiar is because you have too much power for you to bottle up. In fact, that's what all those headaches were; the lid about to come off. That little display in that school of yours was only the result of… bad planning… on my part."
"Planning? Are you telling me that you think this is some kind of game?"
"Game? Oh no. This is probably the most serious thing in the history of your life. You see," he pointed at the wolf, "that puppy of yours may be strong, but it's only the manifestation of your… excess, your overflow, if you will. In your case, a familiar's only the tip of the ice burg. You haven't even seen the rest of what's lurking below the surface!"
Azazel stepped forwards.
Blaine stayed his ground, Kurt beginning to whimper in fear and burying his face into the back of his shoulder.
He was starting to get angry.
"Leave."
The demon blinked as though it couldn't believe its stolen ears. "I'm sorry?"
"Leave. Now."
It snorted. "Listen boy, I made you. No matter how much power you have, you can't…"
"Leave. Now." Blaine narrowed his eyes, "Before I make you."
Fenris' growl deepened as his form changed once again, only this time it vanished. Or at least to human eyes.
They could still hear the barks and growls the creature, whatever it was, was making, and Azazel's eyes grew wide in terror, but neither of the boys could see what he was staring at.
Suddenly, the back door flew open, and the Winchesters stood next to the two boys, cocking their weapons and aiming them at the demon.
The demon must have heard because he drew his eyes away from the dreaded creature.
As soon as he saw the brothers, he vanished.
Fenris ceased growling immediately, and, as if from appearing from nowhere, transformed into the black wolf, surprising the newcomers so as to point their weapons at him, and returned to his master's side, licking his hand.
Blaine had not stopped staring at the spot where the demon had been, but he returned to his senses at the wet touch.
Then he heard it.
Kurt was crying.
"Oh Kurt!" He turned around and held him close, wrapping his arms around him. "It's alright now. Everything will be fine."
The tall boy buried his face in Blaine's shoulder. "I was so scared Blaine. I thought… It was…" He looked up at him, his eyes red from his tears.
"Sh." He stroked his hair and Fenris hopped up onto his shoulder in his cat form and started to lick his wet cheeks, making him smile. "He's gone now, alright?"
The boy nodded.
"Come on, let's go back inside."
Kurt nodded again and let him lead him back inside, leaving the astonished audience to follow, the cat jumping back onto the ground and slipping past Finn who was still stood in the doorway.
Once inside, Blaine made sure his boyfriend went to bed, promising that he wouldn't be far away if he needed him, before joining both Sam and Dean in the lounge (Finn had decided he was hungry so he was currently searching the kitchen for food).
They needed to talk.
AN - ... Um... That didn't exactly go as planned... (Huzzah for surprise plot twists!)
I didn't really want to make it as Blaine based as I did, but it just kinda... happened... whoops.
I honestly didn't expect pretty much all of this to turn out the way it did, but, due to one tiny idea I had from a spontaneous burst of writing (on this), I've changed my entire plot line! Yay!
I think I deserve a magic cookie! ^_^
Criticisms welcome!
Anyone who can tell me what the invisible thing Fenris became are definitely Supernatural fans! And they get a magic cookie! (If anyone gets the magic cookie references, you are awesome!)
