Hey everyone! Thanks so much for all my readers , and I'm glad you're enjoying this story so far. In this one you get to meet Cas' new unlikely ally :)
Chapter Two
Sam looked over at Dean as soon as his brother cursed and slammed his phone down on the seat between them.
"What was that all about?" he asked. "Is Cas all right?"
"I don't know," Dean growled, his eyes were dark, but his face was strained. "He said something about getting jumped by demons, escaping from them but…he said that they were working for Lucifer."
Sam's stomach dropped instantly at the mention of the fallen archangel. He swallowed hard. "What do we do?"
"We get the hell out of Dodge, Sam, what do you think?" Dean demanded already pressing his foot further into the gas pedal, as he tore around a corner, causing Sam to grab onto the side of the door. "Cas said he'd meet us at Bobby's."
Sam pressed his lips into a thin line. "Dean, what if Cas was just trying to get us out of here and he's really still in trouble? You know he never asks for help. We should go to the warehouse just to make sure he's okay."
"It's freakin' Lucifer, Sam!" Dean shouted, hands gripping the wheel so tight his knuckles whitened. "I'm not gonna let him get you, and Cas doesn't want that either! He can take care of himself."
"Yeah, but he's no match for an archangel," Sam said firmly.
"And we are?" Dean asked incredulously.
Sam huffed. "No, but Dean, Cas is low on power—'cut off'—because he joined with us, the least we can do is give him a hand if more demons show up. I think we can handle a few of those."
Dean shook his head, but then made a sharp turn again. "Alright, you're right. Let's go pick up that idiot on the way out of town."
They made good time to the warehouse and Dean skidded the Impala to a stop outside the closed front door. He left the engine running in case they needed to make a quick getaway and then he and Sam got out and approached the building cautiously, Dean with his gun and an angel blade tucked through his belt, Sam with the demon knife.
Dean nodded to his brother and then kicked the door in.
Sam looked around as they got inside. It was dark, but the skylights gave them enough light to see their way around.
Sam caught sight of a body off to the right. "Dean, over here."
They made their way over, seeing not one, but two bodies lying on the ground around something that looked like an Enochian sigil. Sam crouched to inspect one of the bodies, saw its eyes burned out and smelled the sulfur. Between that and the triangle shaped stab wound in the middle of the corpse's chest, told him that this was likely Cas' handiwork.
"Demons," he confirmed for his brother as Dean was busy looking at something else.
"Sammy."
Sam instantly became alert at the tone of Dean's voice. He straightened up and joined Dean to inspect the strange circle. "What is this?"
"It's Enochian, right? so I'm gonna guess it can contain an angel." Dean crouched to touch a gouge in the cement floor that cut through the outer circle, then touched some of the blood that was spattered and smudged around the inside of the circle. "This doesn't look good."
"Think it's Cas'?" Sam asked, his throat tightening sickly as he also took note of the chains and manacles bolted in the middle of the circle.
"You think it's not?" Dean replied blandly, straightening up again and running a hand over his face. "Dammit, Cas. If he's hurt, why's he not here?"
But Sam wasn't listening because something else had already caught his eye. He reached under the chains and pulled out a long black feather, a curious frown furrowing his brow before something pinged with recognition inside his head.
"Uh, Dean…" he said slowly as he began to see more feathers, some whole, some just bits, scattered around the circle.
Dean glanced back over at him after kicking the demon's corpse. "What the hell is that?"
Sam swallowed hard. "I um….I think this might belong to Cas."
Dean frowned. "But…" and then suddenly recognition set in and his face paled. "Aw hell. You don't think they winged him, do you? Literally?"
"If he was he couldn't get out of here that fast," Sam said. "At least…I don't think he could."
"Unless he tried and he's crash landed somewhere," Dean sighed, running a hand over his face again. "Dammit, Cas."
"But how…"
Dean walked over to a bowl that looked like it had been used for a spell. "I'm gonna make a wild guess that if demons have found a way to trap an angel then they have something that can make them manifest their wings too," he said grimly.
Sam felt sick in the pit of his stomach just at the thought. "I'm guessing Lucifer's to thank for that."
"Yeah, no doubt," Dean said. "Speaking of, nothing more we can do here. If Cas isn't here, then he must be long gone and there's no point in hanging around if Lucifer could show up at any minute so I say we haul ass to Bobby's and try to track down that idiot angel of ours."
Sam nodded and followed his brother hurriedly out of the warehouse, back to the Impala.
He just really hoped they could find Cas in time, because even if he had escaped these demons, there was no telling how many more could be on his trail, and if he were injured…yeah, they had to find him soon before Lucifer did.
Castiel came to in the dark. It took him a while to realize he was outside and it was nighttime as opposed to him being somewhere simply dark, or worse, blind. But eventually he could make out the light of a half moon and stars trickling down through the branches of the trees that had slowed his fall earlier. Some branches had come down with him and he was lying among them. He took a deep breath, coughing spontaneously as his chest spasmed in pain. Once he got his breathing under control, he began to take stock of his body.
He hurt, pretty much everywhere—that was the first thing he noticed. Besides that, he was also aware of his wings, still corporeal, and his grace, still locked down. Fear gripped at his chest, as he wondered whether both were indeed permanent instead of just temporary as he had hoped.
Permanent or not, he needed to find some sort of shelter while he rested from his injuries. He would be no help to Sam and Dean if he was captured again and he was sure that demons would be on his trail eventually. He could tell his location from the stars and knew he was only about thirty miles from the town they had been hunting in, somewhere rural, he figured, since there was mostly woodland around him.
Carefully, and very slowly, he sat up, somehow managing to not sit on his wings as he did so. They were miraculously unbroken from the fall, in fact, apart from a few cracked ribs that he was almost certain he had from one violent meeting with a tree, he was pretty positive that he hadn't broken any other bones.
Well, he was until he stood up.
Pain shot through his ankle and he nearly collapsed again, but managed to catch himself on the trunk of a nearby tree. He suppressed a shout of pain, nearly biting through his lip to do so, as he adjusted his footing and tried to stand again. But there was just no way he could bear weight on that foot. His ankle was most certainly broken.
Castiel wanted to scream in frustration. He couldn't fly, he couldn't walk, and he had gotten rid of the one communication he had with Sam and Dean so he couldn't even see if they were all right, nor could he go to their aid—if he could even figure out where they were.
He was going to be stuck until whatever the demons had done to him had worn off and he was able to heal again. But without knowing exactly what they had done to him, he had no way of knowing how long that would take. No way of knowing if Lucifer had already found the Winchesters. Castiel didn't even want to entertain that notion.
He grabbed one of the branches that had been knocked down during his fall and used it as a cane to hobble along. He didn't know what direction he was going in, but he knew he had to find shelter, any sort of shelter he could in whatever state it was in. He was in a rural area, so maybe there was a cabin or a barn he could take shelter in.
It wasn't long before he found just the thing, almost shocked that there was actually something that had gone right for him that night. Up ahead in the moonlight, he could see a small cabin in among the trees. It looked to be the perfect place for him to rest.
He staggered toward it, sending a prayer of thanks to his absent Father, and fumbled with the doorknob. It wasn't locked, just latched shut, which was a little odd, but he wasn't going to question that, not when he was so weary.
It was small and rather cozy. He couldn't make out much in the silvery moonlight, but he did feel a cushy rug under his feet, nearly tripped over a small, oddly low table, and just barely managed to collapse onto a couch set at the back of the cabin.
The ragged piece of furniture felt like the most lovely thing he had ever rested on to his aching body at that moment. He groaned slightly, propping his injured foot up on one end and his cheek on the other. His feet hung over the side, the couch being rather small, and his wings sprawled to either side of him, but he could move not an inch further and this was all he needed for shelter as it was.
However, with one last effort, he forced himself upright once more, and dug his fingers with a grunt onto a stab wound in his side, and painted several warding sigils on the window behind him. Against both angels and demons. He couldn't be too careful. Besides, if Lucifer was out there…
With those small precautions made, he slumped back on the couch and settled in an instant. His eyes slid shut and before he knew it, he was slipping away into sleep.
Maddie was bored. It was only a month into summer vacation, and while she didn't really enjoy school, there just seemed to be so much less going on right now, and all of her friends had gone off on family trips while she was stuck there, in the most boring place in the whole world, probably.
She sat at the kitchen table, a forgotten coloring book in front of her, and sighed deeply.
Her mother came into the room, giving her an askance look. "Maddie, you can't just sit there all summer. Don't you have anything you want to do?"
"I want to play with my friends but they're all gone." Maddie informed her with another deep sigh. "And it's too hot to ride my bike, and I'm tired of coloring!"
It was her mother's turn to sigh. "Why don't you take a book to your clubhouse? It will be a nice quiet place to read and will give you a change of scene."
Maddie considered this. "But the clubhouse is where me, Emily, and Leah play, it's not as much fun to go alone."
"How about I pack some lemonade and cookies?" her mom negotiated.
Maddie brightened slightly at that idea. She did like lemonade and cookies. "Well, okay, I guess."
"Alright." Her mom packed a little basket with the snack and handed it to Maddie. The young girl grabbed a book she had been reading— a Nancy Drew mystery—and skipped out the door toward the woods that lined the back of the house.
Her clubhouse had been an old garden shed on their property that her dad and uncle had fixed up for her last year for her birthday. Maddie usually loved to play in it with her best friends, Leah and Emily, but now both the girls were off on vacations with their families and Maddie was, as usual, left all alone.
Still, despite the lemonade and cookies, she sighed again as she approached the light violet clubhouse with white trim. Adults always seemed to think children should have infinite enjoyment but being eight was hard, and sometimes it could be so boring!
But as she got to the door, she instantly saw something was wrong. There was a smudge of something dark on the doorframe and the door was also slightly ajar. She hadn't left it like that the last time she had gone to the clubhous—at least she didn't think she had. And she certainly hadn't left anything nasty on the door.
Sudden anger flared inside of Maddie as she had the thought that Jesse Trenton and his no-good friends might have come to mess up her clubhouse. But she had been careful not to ever let them know about it, or even talk about it around them, so it wouldn't make sense for them to be there, even though she wouldn't put it past them—unless Emily or Leah had let the secret out…
Suddenly cautious, she almost ran back to tell her mom, but then thought about what Nancy Drew would do to solve this mystery. Nancy would never back down from an investigation. So she took a deep breath and pushed the door open slowly and crept in, peeking around the corner in case someone—or something—might be in there.
Of course, she didn't really expect it to be occupied.
Maddie wasn't quite sure what was wrong at first because it was somewhat dark in the clubhouse due to the surrounding tree cover. She flipped on the little lantern by the door and held it up to inspect the dark lump at the back by her couch. She froze.
Maddie took a moment to take in the strange scene. First all she registered was a man asleep on her couch. Fear drove her heart into her throat and she almost stumbled back out of the door, afraid of all the stories about 'stranger danger' her mother had told her about, but then she noticed something even stranger than just a man lying on her clubhouse couch.
He was surrounded by huge black feathers but…no, more than that, they were in the shape of wings! And they were coming out of rips in the back of the man's long coat!
Maddie gasped, dropping the lantern with a clatter, sending light and shadows spinning around the small place.
The man with wings started, his eyes flying open. The only thing that Maddie noticed then was just how blue his eyes were. The blue eyes widened as the man saw her standing there, and Maddie could only let out a scream.
Castiel started awake to an abrupt sound. He flinched, dragging his eyes open as a rush of pure adrenaline replaced his usual surge of grace as he came out of his stupor.
He expected demons, maybe even angels—at best, perhaps Sam and Dean had somehow found him—but the last thing he had expected was to be faced with a human child.
She appeared to have dropped a lantern, which was currently spinning around at her feet while she stared at him open-mouthed, and then he remembered—his wings…
That was when she screamed.
Castiel instantly pushed himself up, or attempted to, he was still very weak, his ankle was injured, and his wings continued to get in the way, his injured feathers smashing against the small space where the couch was pushed against the wall. He wasn't used to having them corporeal while in a vessel. It just wasn't something that was normally done.
"Please, I'm not here to hurt you," he tried to assure her, although he knew he must look a fright. It was one thing for a child to be confronted by a man with wings, another when that man was covered in blood and still bleeding from various injuries.
Her lip trembled and she took a step back as he finally pulled himself to his feet, holding up his hands to reassure her. That was when he remembered his injured ankle. It buckled under him and he collapsed with a bitten off cry, barely catching himself on the edge of the couch before he fell completely to the floor.
That seemed to catch the girl's attention. She halted her retreat, looking at him, still cautious, but with more interest now than fear.
"Are…are you hurt?" she asked with a trembling voice.
"I…yes," Castiel admitted in defeat as he was forced to lower himself to sit on the couch again and somehow managed to situate his wings so that he wasn't sitting on them. "I…ran into some trouble. I apologize for breaking in here, I wasn't aware it belonged to anyone."
"Y-you have w-wings," she said, her voice still trembling.
Castiel cocked his head to one side, finding it interesting, yet not surprising that that was all she had taken away from this. Humans tended to mostly focus on the oddities they weren't used to, so even a strange bleeding man found by a little girl paled in comparison to the fact that he had wings. "Yes, I do."
"Are you an angel?" she asked in a hushed voice.
Castiel ducked his head slightly, trying not to seem too ashamed at the moment. "Yes, I am, though…a rather poor example of one. Especially at the moment."
The girl looked less scared then, and bent to pick up the lantern, bringing it closer to Castiel and taking a few cautious steps further toward him. "My name's Maddie. What's yours?"
"I…um…Castiel," he replied, inspecting the girl—Maddie—closer. She was very young, perhaps only seven or eight years old and had reddish blond hair in two ponytails and a good dose of freckles on her face. She looked so innocent he was even more ashamed of her having seen him here in what he could now see was a place that could only belong to a little girl, and in his current state. He thought guiltily of the sigils he had painted in blood on the window, the blood he had stained the couch with too, but it was better that demons hadn't found him, especially if there was a child nearby.
"Castiel," she replied slowly, seeming to test the name out. "I like that name."
"Thank you," Castiel replied, unsure of what else to say. "Maddie is a very nice name as well."
Maddie looked around, setting her lantern on a small table to one side of the couch—the one Castiel had tripped over in the dark the night before. "This is my clubhouse, but…you can stay here if you need to. I guess it would be okay, since you're an angel. Mommy and Daddy probably won't mind."
Castiel felt some alarm at the thought of the child's parents finding out about him. He knew that humans typically didn't appreciate strange men spending time with their children, even if they meant no harm. He was sure that would extend even to angels. "Maddie, perhaps it's best they don't know I'm here," he said quickly.
She considered it a moment and then nodded as if in agreement. "You're probably right. I don't think they would believe me anyway."
Castiel was taking stock of his body as she talked, trying to summon even a fraction of his grace so he could start healing his injuries, but it would simply not come to him. It was still locked far away and his body was aching more than it probably ever had before.
"Oh!" Maddie said suddenly, startling him, but she only rushed back to the door where a small basket sat tipped on its side—probably another thing she had dropped upon seeing him there. She quickly retrieved it and brought it back over to him. "There's some cookies and lemonade here, would you like some?"
"Oh, I…don't eat," Castiel said, but even as the words came out of his mouth, a dry spot began in his throat, and he felt suddenly parched. "But I might have some lemonade."
That seemed to perk Maddie up and she hurried to a small cupboard in one corner of the cabin and pulled out a little plastic tea set. She took out two cups, set them on the little table and pulled a bottle of lemonade from the basket. Then she poured the drinks and handed one to Castiel. "Here."
He took the small object carefully in his hands and brought it to his lips. The lemonade was tart and sweet at the same time, and he found it rather pleasing. The cool liquid also helped soothe the dry patch in his throat.
"Thank you," he told the little girl who smiled at him genuinely for the first time.
"Castiel," she said after a few sips of her own. "How did you end up in my clubhouse?"
Castiel bit his lip, not wanting to tell the girl about demons, but it looked like he wasn't going to be going anywhere until this spell wore off since he couldn't walk or fly at the moment, and he wasn't sure if there might not be demons still looking for him. She should at least know to be cautious.
"I'm…fighting a war," he told her and instantly regretted it when he saw her eyes widen. Perhaps that had been too straightforward. He really wished Sam and Dean were there. They were much better with children than he was. "But you don't have to be afraid," he assured her quickly. "Myself and a few others are doing everything we can to stop it. But last night I ran into some of my enemies and I was… injured in a fight."
"Your wing…" Maddie said, her eyes falling onto his bloodstained feathers with a look of pure sympathy that only a child could give. "That looks like it hurts."
"It is rather uncomfortable," Castiel admitted. "But yes, my wing was injured, and I tried to fly away but… I fell. This was the nearest place I found, and I apologize for startling you."
Maddie smiled at him. "That's okay, Castiel. Now that I know you're a good guy, I don't mind you at all."
Castiel smiled back. "Well, thank you. I don't mind you either."
She giggled at that. "No one will bother you if you stay here. You can't even see my house from here."
"I appreciate it, Maddie, but I really can't risk putting you and your family in danger," Castiel told her sincerely even though he wasn't sure where he would go, or how far he could make it in his condition. "I don't know if the…men who hurt me will have picked up my trail."
Maddie scrunched up her face. "Why would they look for you here? If they're bad men, I don't think they would look in a girly clubhouse, right? Bad guys usually aren't that smart anyway. That's why Nancy Drew always catches them."
Castiel wasn't sure who Nancy Drew was but he nodded. Maddie was right about demons at least—they were not very smart—but Lucifer… "You're probably right about that."
"You really should stay, Castiel," Maddie insisted. "I don't think it would be good of me not to let an angel stay here."
Castiel smiled slightly at that as she continued. "Besides, you're hurt and you can't go out there where the bad guys are when you can't even stand or fly. At least stay until you feel better."
Castiel saw the genuine concern in her face and for some reason caved. "Very well, I suppose it would be best to stay for a couple days. Thank you for your hospitality, Maddie."
She beamed and picked up the bottle of lemonade again. "More lemonade?"
Castiel held out his cup to be refilled.
He sat for the next hour listening to Maddie chat happily about various things. He was fascinated by her. He had spent a bit of time now on earth with humans, but hadn't been around many children even though he had always been very fond of them. He found their innocence and straightforwardness refreshing, and seeing how innocent Maddie was, made him realize even more what he and the Winchesters were fighting for. There would be no place for a child's innocence in a world ruled by Lucifer or Michael.
"Castiel," Maddie said after a while. "Are you a guardian angel?"
Castiel cocked his head to one side. "Well, all angels are meant to be shepherds of humanity. We are to look out for them. But, some of us do take on particular charges—certain people who we look out for."
"Do you have any?" she asked, those wide green eyes bright again.
Castiel couldn't help but smile at her. "Yes, I have two very important men in my charge. I believe they will be the ones to stop this war."
Maddie's eyes widened. "Wow, you must be a really important angel!"
Castiel looked down, a deep sadness settling in his chest. "Well, I wouldn't be so sure about that."
"But you must be," she insisted. "If you're protecting the men who will save the world that makes you a hero!"
Again, childlike innocence was so refreshing. "Well, thank you." He didn't have the heart to tell her that being a hero was not like how it was written about in stories and movies. He hoped she never had to find out the truth about that.
Eventually, Maddie looked out the window. "Oh! I should probably get back home. Mommy will be making dinner soon."
Castiel nodded. "Yes, you should not cause her worry."
She picked up her backset and loaded the empty lemonade bottle into it before hesitating. "Will you be okay here? I don't think the couch would be very comfortable with wings…"
"I'll be alright," Castiel assured her.
"Can I bring you anything? To help fix your hurt wing and foot?"
"Perhaps just some water to wash with," Castiel said, again realizing how badly stained his clothes were since he couldn't use his grace to clean and repair them.
Maddie nodded. "Okay! I'll be back tomorrow morning. Will you…will you still be here?" she added hesitantly.
Castiel smiled at her. "Probably."
She smiled again. "Good! Sleep tight, Castiel!"
"You too, Maddie," Castiel replied. "And remember, be careful. If any strange men or women come around, do not talk to them, and do not let them into your house. If they do get in….take salt and go to a room and shut the door and then pour a line of salt in front of it and on the windowsills. It will keep you safe."
"Salt?" Maddie asked with a frown. "Why?"
"Because the men I am fighting are not human either," Castiel told her sincerely. "And salt keeps bad things out. Like those." He pointed to the sigils he had drawn on the window.
Maddie still frowned but she nodded. "Okay, I'll remember that. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Thank you, Maddie," Castiel told her and she waved at him before she closed the door behind her.
Castiel felt almost lonely after she was gone and tried to situate himself more comfortably on the couch in the silence. Now he just wished he could figure out what the demons did to him and how to fix it.
He also really hoped that Sam and Dean were safe.
