Chapter One:
Running. The crunch of dead leaves and twigs underfoot. Branches swiping at her face and tearing at her hair. Trickles of blood falling from her cuts. Arms pumping and heart hammering out of her chest, there was only one thing on her mind.
My boys.
She ran long and hard, through the dense woodlands. The star spangled night sky poking through the top of the canopy overhead was the only thing to let her know she wasn't completely encased by trees. Without a light, she labored, stumbling over roots, scraping her knees when she accidentally knocked herself to the ground. Her lip bled—probably from hitting a tree branch—and her face stung, but she kept going strong, jumping over underbrush and whacking branches she could see in the cascading darkness out of her way. The shadows threatened to swallow her whole. The cold air made her skin numb and her eyes sting.
She heard a yell, and another, and another. Struggling. Fighting.
Eve thought she might be too late to save the people she held most dear. Tears of unbridled fear flew from the corners of her eyes and vanished in the air behind her. Her pupils darted across the darkness, desperately searching for wherever they might be. If she yelled out for them, she'd endanger all of them even more.
Her chest felt knotted and pained and her panting was too loud in her ears, but she swore she heard another shout and a dull thud. Yes, there was another! To the left! She swerved in that direction and brought her arms in an X to cover her face as she broke through some evergreen trees.
She jumped right into the fray.
The small clearing deep within this forest was flooded with demons. The only opposition was Eve herself, the angels, Castiel and Nathaniel, and Sam and Dean Winchester. From all angles, good was hounded by evil.
Eve ducked, reaching in her jacket as a demon's armed hand swung just above her head. She turned around, flinging holy water back at the demon as she charged forward. The demon was temporarily sidetracked by the infliction of holy water. Put out of action by Nathaniel, the demon dropped and was replaced by three more. Good was overcome.
Eve ran through the crowd, smiting any demon in her way, and was chased by more, to get to her brothers. Dean and Sam were ahead of her. Castiel was somewhere off the right, judging by the amount of light, smiting light, blazing in and fading out as another demon was defeated.
She saw Sam. His head was bleeding just above his eyebrow, on his temple, and his right cheek was painted in red. Eyes burning hotter than the flames of hell itself, he plunged the demon knife deep into a demon's abdomen, and ripped it out of her, looking fierce as a warrior when she dropped. The demon within its vessel blinked out of industry and Sam was attacked by two more demons. He threw them every which way, and sliced at them, not delaying to strike again when the demons had him on the ground.
Dean had his back to Sam, caught in a brawl with two demons himself. He had two angel blades—one in each hand—and sliced at the demons ganging up on him. His jacket flapped as he whirled in a circle, stabbing a demon in the back and then using him as a shield to deflect a spell from another. He shoved the dead demon off him, knocking another to its knees. In the same moment, Dean bent down to cut the head off that demon. He was then tackled from the side by another demon, seemingly coming from nowhere, and the two battled it out on the ground.
Eve tried to reach them. She needed to save her family and her friend, Nathaniel. But no matter how clear her path to them appeared, demons would obstruct it and she would be lured into more fights.
Eve was met with Nathaniel. He joined by her side without a word. A comrade in battle.
She flung holy water over the heads of a group of three. When they turned on her, Nathaniel smited one on the head, his arm extended, and Eve summoned her power. Light bloomed from her chest. It was pure and blinding, and it struck the other two demons in the chest, killing them on impact. In the next instant, Eve pivoted and swung her arm at a demon about to attack Nathaniel. A ribbon of her exemplary power blasted from her palm and the demon was thrown off its feet, over the heads of more demons brawling their unmatched opponents. The demon collided with a tree, fell downward, and got entangled in its branches.
Nathaniel gave Eve a nod of thanks before throwing himself back into the war.
Somewhere behind her, Dean yelled out. Sam screamed, "Dean!"
Eve swung around and her terrified scream peeled through the night, rattling the forest's branches and shaking its leaves. Birds flew up into the night, shrieking profanity.
Dean hit the ground too quickly. But then he didn't. Eve saw it as if one frame at a time. He flew back-first into the trunk of a tree, and a demon's mitt-like hand followed shortly after, holding Dean in place by his neck. The demon smiled as Dean cursed him and tried prying the demon's hands off him. Dean looked at him with nothing but a loathing deep-rooted into his soul.
The demon's free hand shot back in that moment, and all too quickly, the demon let go. Dean dropped to his knees, hunched over and blinking at his stomach. He fell onto his elbow and pulled a blade out of his stomach. He then let himself sink all the way to the ground.
This was when Sam screamed. And this was when Eve screamed.
Sam was dazed for a millisecond, not really believing what he just saw as as it was actually happening. Then, as if gaining the strength of a hundred men, he killed off the demons encircling him. He stabbed and sliced and killed ferociously on his way to Dean.
Suddenly, Eve was prisoner to a blunt crack of something large against the back of her skull. She hit the ground with her shoulder and rolled on her back, dazed and momentarily immobile. In the next second, a demon descended on her and lit a fire in her bones. She shrieked, burdened with this terrible agony shooting through every sensitive part of her. Eve let the feeling of her chest opening consume her as she clawed at the demon. Grabbing its arm, a light sprang from the demon's eye sockets and mouth. Eve kicked the dead monstrosity off her and rolled onto her stomach, searching again for Dean and Sam and Castiel.
Somehow, the number of demons had depleted significantly. Surely, they hadn't killed that many a number of them. Oh, but they had.
Eve's head pounded and her vision was screwy. At last she saw Sam. He was kneeling over Dean, holding him in his arms as he cried and said his name. He was begging Dean to stay with him.
A demon approached Sam from behind. A gun was in his hand. Oblivious to everything outside his brother, Sam did not notice.
Eve's voice sounded alien when she screamed, "Sam!" The demon shot and suddenly, Sam was on the ground next to his dying brother.
"No!" It was a long and unbroken note. Something from a nightmare, the scream was in vain. She struggled to get to her feet; the sides of her boots slid on loose dirt and her hands dug into earth. The pain and despair that entered her heart was like a wave crashing against the hull of a ship in the middle of a storm. It was an insoluble pain. It was ceaseless. Pieces of her were splintering away in the ages it took for her to stand.
This sudden loss was overshadowed profusely in the next moment by anger. Anger known to very, very few. Her power swirled. It swelled, treacherous and devastating inside her. She was a nuclear bomb about to desecrate every thing in a hundred mile radius.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, there darling." A demon—no, the demon stood behind the motionless bodies of Sam and Dean.
Eve took a furious step forward, fist clenched. "You."
"Surprise!" The demon struck a pose, putting a foot on Sam to taunt her even further.
"You get the hell of him or I'll do things so unimaginable to you, you'll be begging I send you to hell instead."
"Now, now," the demon stuck a finger in its mouth, picking its teeth, "Let's save the kinky bits for later. We wouldn't want you doing anything you regret. I just wanted to come say hi and tell you that I've got a proposition for you."
Eve narrowed her eyes.
The demon unclasped its hands to give a careless wave. "So hi. I've got a proposition for you."
If only looks could kill. She was the force to be reckoned with and this scum wanted to play games.
The demon motioned for her to come nearer. "Come closer. I promise no strikes will be taken without fair warning."
"Demons don't keep promises."
"Well this one does." The demon nodded to the others who had aligned themselves around Eve, caging her in a circle. At once, black smoke filled the air and floated into the dark sky and the vessels collided with the ground.
Eve then saw Castiel. Three demons had him restrained and out of the play, in a ring of holy fire. Castiel looked at Eve, hopeless and helpless. He was trapped. And so was she.
Nathaniel was on the ground, slumped against a tree as if taking a nap. Was he dead?
Eve stepped forward. The demon made sure she had a moment to gaze at the dead faces of her brothers.
Dean lay haphazardly on his side with his back to Sam; the two of them were scrunched together, with Sam's left arm under Dean's neck. There was a small wound in Dean's hairline and a bloody slice through the arm of his jacket. But that was the least of it. A hole as big as Eve's fist dug through Dean's middle. Blood pooled in the empty space and onto the ground, weaving like strands of yarn into the dirt and grass. The blood was everywhere, flowing silently and slowly away from Dean. His lifeless eyes stared after the red, like a ghost begging to be brought back to life. His mouth was agape, as if he was going to speak, but the blood coating his teeth and dribbling from his mouth said otherwise.
Sam stared up to the sky; an exit wound from the bullet was like a crimson flower covering his heart. Tears intermixed with blood on his frozen face. With his arm around his brother as if he'd just given him a hug, they could have been stargazing only moments before, joking with each other, and talking quietly before Dean drifted off to sleep…But they hadn't. Dean died in his brother's arms, and so heartbroken without his brother, Sam joined him moments later. He couldn't see past Dean. Without Dean there was no Sam.
Tears filled Eve's eyes. They went out together, just like they wanted. Her heart shattered like glass. If anyone were to touch her now, she would crumple to nothing. Her life, her reason for living was gone. They were at her feet and they were not getting up.
The demon cleared its throat. "Now, I know you have a lot on your plate right now but being a softy for this kind of thing, I'll tell you what."
Eve grit her teeth, only barely containing the storm within her.
"I can bring back the one and two to your three without a problem. In fact, I actually want to do it because you look absolutely terrible without them. But you know how demon deals work. It's a very formal business-y type show."
"What do you want? Ten years, you got it," Eve said.
"Oh no," the demon chuckled, stepping nearer Eve. The demon trailed a finger down Eve's cheek, knowing she wouldn't refuse it so long as her family was involved. "I want you."
Seeing the look in Eve's eyes shift, the demon withdrew its hand. "More specifically, I want your mojo. That power you harness, I'm not going to lie, is impressive. It beat God Himself. So, give it to me and Dean and Sam walk away unscathed. Good as new. I'll even let Cassie over there go free."
"All you want is my power?"
"Oh come on, don't say it like that. Of course…it will be painful. But then again, so is—"
"I'll do it," Eve said without skipping a beat.
"Eve, no!" Castiel shouted. "You can't trust—"
Eve turned, tears trailing silver ribbons down her cheeks. "You would do the same."
"You could die!" Castiel cried, desperately pleading. He knew she was right, but that didn't mean he would admit it.
"It's a risk I'm willing to take. Love you, Cas." Eve turned to the demon, shoving Cas' yells out of her mind.
"Great," the demon smiled. "Now you know how this bit goes. Time to tear it out of you."
"What? Me?"
"Just remember sweetheart, I know what makes you tick. Stole the manual right after you got rid of Mighty Man, so don't play coy with me. Of course you have to do it."
Eve sucked in a breath. "Bring them back first."
The demon rolled its eyes. Then it snapped its fingers.
Dean and Sam coughed and moved. They were alive. Just like that.
Eve moved instinctively to them, but the demon held out a hand to keep her from them. "Ah ah ah," the demon said. "Remember I can punch them out like a light if you don't come through."
"Eve?" Sam said. Dean turned to face Sam, checking him over before turning to Eve. Their wounds were magically erased from their skin.
"Hey boys," her voice trembled. "I'm so sorry."
"Dean! Stop her!" Castiel bellowed.
But before he could, before he even knew what for, Eve's entire body erupted in light. It consumed everything around her, including Sam and Dean, Castiel, the demon, and miles of forestland around them. She was the sun in a world of darkness…
Eve awoke gasping for air. Sweat clung to every inch of her skin. Her tank top stuck to her and she felt constricted in the thin sheets. She ripped them off her and sat up in bed, putting her head in her hands. And she cried into them, her body quaking as if her soul threatened to dislodge from her body.
Behind her, visible only as a shadow on the wall, were a pair of angel wings—what was left of them. Shaved of most of their feathers, they were now nothing but bone. A hideous, sickly skeleton on the wall was broken and without remedy.
Just outside her room, Sam watched her cry. He'd been standing there the entire time, looking after her and making sure she was okay. He clenched his jaw, his heart aching for her. Eve was haunted by her past and he could do nothing to help her. Silently, he kept her company for a few moments more, before leaving her doorway vacant.
A few days later, Dean and Sam were just getting back from grabbing dinner in town. They were talking as they climbed the steps down into the Men of Letters shelter, which they now call home.
They came in the main room to see Eve passed out at the end of the table, with her head resting on an open book. Dean gave Sam a look. He then unraveled the paper bag in his hand and opened it close to Eve's nose. When she blinked awake, Dean grinned, "See? I told you the smell of bacon burgers wakes her up."
Sam laughed through his nose.
Dean sat next to Eve. Sam sat on her other side. The food was dished out.
"Find a new job?" Eve asked tiredly.
"No, we didn't." Dean had replied too swiftly.
"Yeah you did," Eve argued, "When are we heading out?"
"Sam and I are leaving as soon as Cas gets here."
"Wait, no. I want to go with you. I'm not a kid anymore, Dean."
"Of course you aren't," Sam said, his voice soothing and understanding. "We just asked him to keep an eye out for you."
"I. Am. Fine. I want to come with you," she said.
Dean gave her a look. "Eve, you look like crap. You need to stay here and focus on healing because this," he motioned to all of her, "is a mess."
"I feel fine. I'm just losing sleep," she insisted. There were heavy bags under her eyes. Her collarbones were accented because of malnutrition. Her cheekbones were sharp looking because her cheeks were sunk into her face, and her hair was constantly tangled. She looked twice her age, old and frail, when she was only twenty-five.
"No." Dean shook his head, "No, you're not. You've been through so much in the last couple of years and you aren't getting any better."
"I can take it. I'm scrappy."
"Oh yeah?" Lemme' see your wings."
"Dean," Sam's tone was alarmed and scolding. They both knew how sensitive she was about her wings.
"No," Dean told Sam, his voice rising, "I want to see them. If they've gotten better, she can come with us. If not, she stays, because literally every last thing that has happened to us up to this point revolves around them! It's because of them that she nearly wiped the planet out of the solar system and why we're in this mess now!"
Sam stood quickly, defending Eve. "She was tricked Dean! She was doomed from the very beginning, you know that! Back when we first met her, when her face was busted up, do you remember that? Do you also remember how she saved everyone by sacrificing herself, and again for us, when all we did up to that point was shut her out? It was because we had our heads so far up our ass that we couldn't see God had played us as much as He did her! We are to blame just as much, Dean. Not all of this falls on her."
Dean stood up, too. They were about to yell it out, and shout abuse at each other.
Eve stopped them from fighting. A crack broke her voice when she said, "Sam. Sit down."
Sam sat. Dean sat without being told.
"I've been thinking lately," Eve admitted, picking her head up to meet Dean's eyes. "And you're right. I'm not getting better. And I don't think I will, ever, so long as I am around you two."
Sam asked, "What are you saying?"
`Dean furrowed his brow.
"What I'm saying is, I'm going to London."
"London? London, England?" Dean was shocked.
"Yeah. I already bought my ticket, so you can't tell me I can't go. I leave the day after tomorrow."
"The hell you do," Dean sat back in his chair, arms crossed.
"Listen, Dean. I can't sleep hardly because every time I close my eyes, all I see is you and Sam die. All I see is you die," tears entered her eyes and her voice squeaked at the end, "over and over and over and I can't stop it. I just can't. I can't take it anymore, so I have to leave. I have to get away from you for a little while to try to heal on my own."
"How long is a 'little while'?" Sam asked.
"A month or two."
Dean wanted to refuse, judging by the look on his face, but he bit his tongue.
Sam nodded, blinking hard and pursing his lips together.
This was a hard blow for the both of them.
Dean got up from the table. His chair skid loudly across the floor. He took a few steps around the room, digesting what Eve had said. "By yourself? You can't be by yourself. You're still on Hell's Most Wanted. Your head has a price tag on it and who the hell knows where we'll be if they catch you."
Eve got stiffly to her feet. Her joints ached, always, they ached. She stepped over to Dean. "They won't. I will be okay, Dean. I promise."
Dean caved, his face going soft. "Of course you will. But Sam and I need you."
"And that's just how Winchesters say 'I love you'," Eve smiled and Dean kissed her head after hugging her.
Sam joined the pair. "Then I guess we should go scrounge us up some money."
"I won't be able to move the darts anymore," Eve commented sadly. Way back when, when they were short on cash, Sam, Dean, and Eve would crash the local bar and hustle pool and darts. With Eve's telekinetic powers, she directed Dean and Sam's darts to the bulls-eye every time. They would rake in the dough (and sometimes get in deep crap with the big burly guys thinking they were tricking him…they were, but still).
That was when Cas walked into the room. "Sorry, I'm late," he said in his gravelly voice. "We had an emergency meeting in Heaven."
"Oh hey Cas," Dean's face brightened. It was something that only happened when he had a burger in his hands or he just had an epiphany. "We were just talking about you."
Cas halted and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What."
That night could have played as a going-away party, because the next morning Dean and Sam would be driving up to West Virginia to check out a possible job. They would be gone when Eve drove herself to the airport the next day.
The four of them, Eve, Cas, Sam, and Dean, shared a round table a few feet from the bar. They all had beers in their hand and smiles on their faces. Talking and making merry while the happiness lasted.
"Feel anything yet, Cas?" Eve smiled into the mouth of her beer bottle as she took a gulp.
Cas' eyebrows went up as he took his beer from his lips. "If you mean the intoxicating effects of the alcohol, no I do not. It's not nearly as effective now as it was when I was human. It's depressing."
Sam, Dean, and Eve laughed.
"Well we can take a few shots after we grab a few bucks, huh?" Eve proposed.
"Bribery. Hm," he squinted his eyes at her, the skin crinkling around his eyes. A sly smile slowly crept onto his face.
Eve grinned, knowing exactly what that expression meant. "Come on, Cas. Let's go squeeze 'em for everything they're worth." She grabbed him by his arm excitedly and got to her feet, not waiting for him to follow as she went to challenge an opponent by the dartboard.
Watching as she and Cas left, Sam said, "She'll be okay."
"Yeah, I know she will," Dean told him. "I asked Cas to look out for her."
Sam gave him a look. "She's gonna be pissed when she finds out, you know that right?"
"Even more than when she realizes I activated the GPS on her phone?" Dean took a sip of his cold one.
Sam scoffed, "What is she going to do without you?" A minute later he wryly said, "Especially since you're afraid of planes. If she gets in trouble and Cas isn't around, you have no choice but to let me go and help."
Dean looked away, "Shut up, clown boy."
Sam rolled his eyes, a tiny laugh blowing out of his nose.
Across the dimly lit bar, a man in a patched denim vest, a bleach white Stetson hat, and motorcycle boots took his turn at the dartboard first. He stood back from the board and threw his darts at the target. One landed on the bulls-eye, the other two landed just below on the rings, but it was still a good score.
The man stepped back, scratching his white mustache and fixing his hat. "You talk pretty big talk there Miss, but I'll be damned if you beat me and clean my wallet dry."
Eve gave Cas a smile and then he winked at her. She told mustache man, "Well then, you might need to prepare your wallet."
Someone near her passed her three red darts and she shuffled them in her hands. Eve stepped in front of the board a good distance away and readied herself. Eve was really good at darts by her lonesome, but she'd need a great deal more money than what her normal scores would get. That's why Castiel was here.
One, two, three darts she threw at the target. All three hit the bulls-eye like something from a martial arts film. That whole corner of the bar up roared. Dean and Sam laughed from where they sat.
Mustache man tipped his hat, knowing he was beaten. He took all the cash out of his wallet, folded it, and gave it to Eve. It was a hefty sum.
"Pleasure," she said. Then she yelled over the crowd, "Anyone up to the challenge? Three darts at once, this time! Could win you a pretty penny!" Eve laughed joyously when a younger fellow rose to the challenge.
He was balding and wore a stripped button up shirt. He was here most likely because his wife kicked him out for the night because of his excessive videogame playing. Eve knew all this from the impressions on his hands.
He shook hands with Eve and the mustache man bid him luck after handing him the blue darts.
"How much you bid?" he asked.
"How much do you want?" Eve replied. Really, there was no boundary. Because he wouldn't be getting it anyway.
"A night with you" he replied. He was too sober not to know what he was saying as implicitly inappropriate. "No clothes."
Correction: His girlfriend had kicked him out permanently…for being an insufferable douche.
The bar erupted into laughter once again. The men oh'd and the women told Eve to beat his ass.
Eve took a shot glass from someone's hand near her and downed it. She told him, "Honey, no one has been lucky enough to have touched this and survive."
She took stance in front of the target yet again, all three darts in her right hand. She aimed just for show, and released. Eve gave Cas a quick grin when all three deposited in the center dot.
The bar teased and ridiculed the man. Some threw balled up paper napkins at him.
Eve approached the baldy, "Gimme' all you got, pig."
The man scowled and huffed, finished and defeated before he even started. He pushed a wad of money in her hand and stormed out of the bar.
Eve laughed, her back getting pat by strangers as she made her way back to Castiel.
"I say, Dean's turn," Eve said. She and Cas went to the bar just as Eve promised and did shots of tequila.
The rest of the night was spent in merriment. The four of them talked and joked, drank and laughed, until it was time to go home, where the Winchesters said their goodbyes.
"Just hurry up and get whatever you need to get done and healed so you can come home," Sam said.
Eve nodded and smiled into Sam's kiss on her forehead. He pulled her into a hug.
Into his chest, she said, "I'll be back soon."
He let her go, and Dean replaced his brother. He squished her against him.
"Oh you giant cry baby," she teased affectionately. Eve gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just me in my old age—always leaking," Dean said.
"Oh hush. You're only forty-three. Cas is the old grandpa of the room. I mean, he's infinity years old."
"Excuse me?" Cas interjected from the other side of the room. He was looking at some files that he plucked from the shelf.
Eve tipped her head up at him, smiling. "Oh hey there Cas. Lookin' good."
Castiel shook his head and returned the file to the shelf. He stepped out of the room and turned down the hall to where his room was. "I swear if I didn't care for you Winchesters as much as I do…"
Eve chuckled. "Go kick butt," she told Dean and Sam. "I'll see you in a little while."
Dean and Sam fixed the straps of their duffle bags and settled them on their shoulders. They said another quick goodbye before taking the metallic staircase up to the surface. Eve waved them out the door.
Little did she know, her world was about to flip upside down. And then it was going to spin her around like a hamster tripping up in its exercise wheel.
