Castielle followed Sam almost compulsively the second she had found the Winchesters. Mostly because she had just seen a demon go inside the man and frankly Sam was bad enough hopped up on demon's blood. She didn't want to see how bad he was possessed of all things.

Knocking him out was ridiculously easy. Especially since the demon wasn't thinking to check for a drugged alcohol went it went into the store.

"Sorry about this idiot. I've been trying to get him back into rehab for months," she said apologetically to the clerk. She paid for the damage and dragged his sorry oversized ass to the first hotel, going by the name Mary Winchester.

If that didn't get Dean's attention when he came looking for his brother, nothing would.

Castielle looked annoyed when she saw the mark which would make exorcism impossible. So she used a bit of Grace to smite the demon and not the human instead.

Sam woke up with a groan of pain about an hour later, when he regained consciousness that is.

The first thing he saw was a rather pretty brunette with the most intense blue eyes he had ever seen watching him from inside a devil trap. He wasn't tied down anymore, but he could see where a burn had been from when Meg had placed some weird mark on his arm.

"Who are you?"

"Call me Castielle. You're lucky I noticed the odd behavior otherwise you'd still be possessed."

"Thanks. How did you get rid of her anyway?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Not now anyway. Call your brother Sam, and whatever you do, don't trust a demon when they say they remember being human. Demons always want something."

Sam stared at her in shock. How did she know his name?

She left the room, and when he went to follow she was nowhere to be found.

Who was she?

Dean pinched the bridge of his nose.

"So let me get this straight. This girl came in and saved you from demon possession, uses our mother's name as a cover, and then leaves without a trace?" said Dean.

"I'm pretty sure I've seen her before too. Back when we were hunting Loki," said Sam.

It had bothered him so much that he had to really focus on where he had seen such intense blue eyes before.

She had been watching Dean the entire time at the bar while they were hunting down information, though she left after the second teacher died. Sam had only seen her once, but those eyes were hard to forget.

"Dammit Sammy. I don't like this. It reeks of a set-up," complained Dean.

Everything about this stunk. The girl not only got rid of the demon, but already knew who Sam was and even used their mother's name? It just didn't feel right at all.

Still, she had done them a favor. She had saved Sam after all.

Dean ran into the mystery woman himself shortly after Sam went missing. Again. He had his gun on her, but something about her set him entirely on ease. Like he could spill everything to her and she wouldn't care.

"What the hell are you?"

"Nothing you've dealt with yet, Dean. If you wish to find your brother, he's currently being held captive by Azazel of the Yellow Eyes in Cold Oaks. Fair warning though, there are at least two other psychics there as well, most of them with powers far above Sam's at this point."

"Who are you?" asked Dean. Those eyes...it was like he was drowning in them. He felt he could trust her and he didn't know why.

"Call me Castielle," she said simply. She ducked behind a nearby tree and he heard the sound of large wings. He went to find her, only to discover her missing.

Who was Castielle?

Still, the tip was more than he had to work on for hours, and it wasn't like there was a big sign saying this way to his brother.

Bobby was not happy. He expressed this very clearly at least three times when he heard how Dean had gotten the information.

"A woman walked up to you and point blank said where Sam was. Are you a damn idjit?!" said Bobby. Again. He would swear Dean thought with his second head more than he should.

"Let's face it Bobby, we haven't got a damn clue where else to look. And she gave me that name," said Dean.

Bobby had looked up the demon Azazel, and he had been very surprised to learn that particular demon was high up enough to cause problems and had the same shade of yellow eyes as the demon the Winchesters had been chasing for years.

Dean was about to reply to this when he had a sudden migraine. He saw a vision of an oak tree in metal.

Suddenly the tip on where to find Sam had a hell of a lot more credit.

Gabriel watched the Winchesters from a mirror he had enchanted to keep an eye on the muttonheads.

He found Castielle a breathe of fresh air after dealing with the stuffiness of heaven.

The woman was more likely to flip him off or throw something sharp and preferably pointy on more than one end if he ordered to do anything. And the inventive curses she knew... he still got the giggles imagining the boring Castiel cursing worse than any sailor he had ever met.

Then again, this was an angel who admitted to having an actual drug and alcohol addiction before their Father dumped her into a woman's body and forcefully cleaned out her system.

Gabriel wouldn't have cared normally, but he had gotten one simple message from dear old Dad about Castielle since the two were pretty much stuck with each other.

Keep her from delving too deep into humanity's dark side or else I will turn every sugary food within your reach into the most foul thing imaginable for next thousand years Gabriel.

Dad always did have the worst ability to hold a grudge and he wouldn't doubt that God would steal his sugary goodness. He had done it once, and Gabriel was in no mood for a repeat.

Besides, Castielle was fairly amusing once she knew after he saw even a small amount of what happened if he didn't do something if he stood by and watched, that he would help. And if that meant letting her crash in his sub-space pad, then by all means, she could crash with him.

Not to mention the fact that despite having a woman's body, she was still very much a socially-awkward angel who had fallen far too deeply into the less pleasant aspects of humanity...and still had the mindset of a man. Which meant she occasionally went topless around Gabriel's house when he deliberately turned the heat up and didn't understand the simple concept of a bra, to his delight.

He wondered how Dean would react if she actually managed to catch him this time, since from what he had seen the angel had a major one-sided man-crush on the guy until he turned into another version of his father John.

Dean barely stopped the soldier from killing Sam, shooting him in the shoulder and just missing his brother. Sam looked at him with surprise.

Jake, the soldier, fully looked like he was going to get up and try again, but Bobby had his sorry ass pinned.

"How did you get here so fast?"

"The girl who saved your ass paid me a visit and all but said where to find you...and get this, she knew the demon's name!"

Sam's jaw dropped.

"She knew his real name?"

Dean nodded. That had floored him too when he found out she was telling him the truth. At least now they had a proper name for the prick who had ruined their lives.

"What the hell does this woman look like anyway?"

Sam was about to reply to Bobby's question when he heard something he really didn't want to mess with again.

The baying of hellhounds.

Dean shared a look with his brother, both of them not looking forward to this because dammit they didn't have the Colt and couldn't see the stupid things! They were all going to be ripped to shreds and it was all the demon's fault!

"Well don't you muttonheads look happy?" said a familiar and most unwelcome voice.

It was the Trickster.

"Didn't we kill you already?"

"One, that was an illusion the entire time. Two, do I look like I enjoy being stabbed? Three, I am way about whatever pay-grade you morons use to begin with, not to mention that the whole stake thing was a joke I came up with so the others could throw Hunters off their ass and they could move on," listed Loki in a deadpan voice.

He suddenly winced as someone came up from behind and slapped him on the back of the head. It wasn't a gentle one either.

"Back off Loki. The last thing I want to deal with is them trying to shoot you for being a smart ass, not that there's much difference between you and the Winchesters to begin with," said the mystery woman. Castielle if Dean remembered right.

Bobby snorted, because he fully agreed with that sentiment.

"Come on Cassie! How long am I going to be able to screw with their heads when they finally find out who I actually am?" whined Loki.

So they knew each other?

"One, my name is Castielle not Cassie. If you must mangle my name then for Father's sake call me Cas. Two, you know how I feel about your pranks when they're directed at people who don't actually deserve a smiting. And three, I would like to deal with those hellhounds before Azazel figures out what we really are," deadpanned Castielle. Dean was liking her more and more already.

"Yeah...speaking of hounds..." said Loki with a shifty expression.

Castielle had a very annoyed look on her face. It made her, in Dean's opinion, decidedly cuter than she had been before.

Dean heard the hellhounds, though he couldn't see them.

Jake, the idiot, used it as a distraction to run far from the Winchesters.

He didn't make ten feet before he was ripped to shreds.

Dean made an unconscious move closer to Castielle. Only she noticed.

"Loki," said Castielle.

"Yeah, I got this. Max! Bones!" he called out into the darkness.

A small terrier and a large golden Labrador appeared and sat obediently next to him. Loki petted them both and noted with some amusement that Sam perked up at the sight of dogs.

"Sick 'em," said Loki.

And suddenly the two weren't so cute and cuddly as they proceeded to rip apart the other hellhounds. Castielle gave Loki a very odd look.

"Why do you have half-breeds?"

"Won them off of Crowley," explained Loki.

And boy, had that demon been pissed losing his prized hell hound to Loki of all people in a game of what Loki had originally assumed was strip poker. He had adapted quickly when he learned it wasn't.

Crowley had been even more angry when he found out Loki hadn't kept his hound locked up during heat and she had gotten pregnant with Fenrir's pups. (He had visited his father and taken advantage of the situation.)

Crowley got his hound back, but the two pups that had the majority of Fenrir's blood had been given immediately to Loki because they refused to listen to Crowley.

Hence why the fake Trickster now had a pair of traveling companions he never wanted to get rid of.

Castielle looked resigned more than anything, like she had given up trying to make sense of the world. She even petted the little terrier half-breed when it ran up to her with it's skimpy little legs.

Bones, the bigger one, barked and immediately went to Sam instead. He scratched the dog's ear with obvious enjoyment. Loki looked rather pleased about that actually.

They were all at the Salvage yard, mostly because Castielle knew for a fact Azazel still wanted Sam to open the devil's gate.

"So who or what are you two?" asked Bobby. They weren't affected by holy water, silver, iron or any trap he had on hand. They were human, mostly but he knew for a fact that they couldn't be witches. Their annoyance at being compared to one had been telling enough.

"My name is Castielle, and at the moment he is hiding as Loki. The dogs are Max and Bones," said Castielle in her rather dry tone.

"Hiding as Loki?" repeated Sam. Bones had his head in the taller man's lap, and it was clear he didn't care one bit.

"Long story, one I hope we don't have to deal with later. We are not your enemies, and frankly I could care less if you trusted us," said Castielle flatly.

Which paradoxically, made them trust them more. Humans were strange.

"Needless to say we're one of the few things even demons wouldn't be stupid enough to cross. Particularly if Loki was in another one of his moods."

Sam, ever the smart one, was starting to put two and two together. Loki knew it was only a matter of time before he came up with four. Castielle was practically giving him clues.

It hurt. Like being stabbed in the stomach with a red-hot blade hurt.

Somehow the demon still got to Sam, though at least this time the gate stayed closed because Crowley hated Azazel more than the Winchesters did and refused to give any of his contracts so he could blackmail some poor bastard into opening the gate for him.

Sam died, and Castielle was helpless as she went with Dean to summon the demon and bring him back. Loki was more than a little angry too. Perhaps it was the shared love of all things canine (not hell hounds, but still canines), but Loki was somewhat partial to the Moose as he affectionately called him.

She did take a bit of vindictive pleasure in stabbing the demon almost immediately though. Not that Dean commented on it. Really.

Gabriel watched the interaction with Dean and Castielle with open amusement. He had popcorn, for crying out loud.

"Are they still at it?" asked Sam.

"You mean that weird staring thing? Yup," said a very amused arch-angel-turned-pagan.

Castielle and Dean had this bizarre ritual of staring at each other for almost hours at a time, only broken by the need to blink. It was clear the two had a thing for each other, anyone with eyes and common sense could see it, but there was this weird reluctance between the two to just get at it.

The last ghost they had hunted had almost burned himself just to get away from it! (Or so Sam claimed.)

"How long do you think they can keep this up?" asked Sam.

"Don't know. Cas always was a rather dim one. How about a bet though?"

"What kind of bet?"

"On who jumps who first."

"I'm game. What are the stakes?" asked Sam immediately.

"I win, you go out on a date with me. You win, you get one freebie from me," said Gabriel.

Sam choked. Then again, it was a harmless enough bet. Loki was surprisingly easy to be around once you got over the whole Trickster thing and they both loved dogs. He could have a long conversation about dogs if he had to.

"Fair enough, I bet Dean makes the first real move," said Sam finally.

"I'll place my bets on Cassie," said Loki. And they shook on it.

Loki ducked as Castielle threw a cup at him.

"For the last time my name is NOT Cassie!"

"How could she hear you?" asked Sam in open amusement.

"I don't know how, but she always knows when I call her Cassie," said Loki, dodging another cup. He found it funny to rile her up.