Sam was upstairs in the room he shared with Sera, looking through the pictures she had loaded onto it just a few days before. He recognized the ones they had all taken before, but when he got to the ones that Dean had taken when he and Cas were alone, the tone changed. Aside from a few that were taken of some pretty girls and the inside of houses while on a job, most of them were of Castiel and his different facial expressions. They were spread out with photos of random items in their motel room, but the rest seemed pretty damn obsessive.

Then there were some others, taken really late at night or really early in the morning, Sam was guessing by Castiel. They were of strange places, foreign places. He never really knew what Castiel did at night while the rest of them were sleeping, but now he did. Why Castiel decided to take the camera with him, he could never guess, but the angel did, and decided to give them all a peek into his nighttime activities. Sam stopped and just stared at a photo of the Northern Lights. There were so many colors, so much light, the camera had trouble capturing them all.

When he finally clicked next, those photos of the most beautiful things in the world were followed by pictures of Dean. He was just lying on some nondescript motel bed, on his stomach, like he usually slept. Castiel had just snapped one picture of him after another, as if he wanted to capture Dean as close to peace as he got.

Dean knocked on the open door and Sam closed the display screen, even closing the laptop entirely. "Hey." He said. "Feeling better?"

"The burning stopped, so I guess, but I don't know how long this will last. Cas says that they might give her more later."

He rubbed his wrists and necked. "They have her restrained, I can feel it. It's like there are thorns stabbing into my skin, and I feel like I'm going to be sick."

"Does Cas have anything in his bag of tricks that can make you feel better?"

"He says no, unless he can find a way to remove my soul, since that's where the pain is actually coming from."

"I'm guessing you'd rather endure it then end up soulless."

"Damn straight."

"Any word from Crowley?"

"Not a whisper. Castiel can't even track him down, he's either gone off the grid or he's in hell."

"Well, that's nice." Sam said sarcastically. Suddenly there was a loud thumping sound from beneath them and then Cas's voice rose up. "Dean!"

Sam jumped up and they both ran out the door and down the stairs. They skidded into the living room and Crowley was standing in the kitchen, using one of their dish towels to clean blood off of his hands.

"What have you found?" Sam asked.

"They're holding her somewhere in Lawrence, that's where several demons have gone missing. One of them escaped, but she's a bloody mess." He tossed the towel into the sink and took a glass full of scotch from Castiel's hand. "Apparently they've been capturing demons and bleeding them to force feed her."

"Yeah, we figured that much out." Dean said. He was leaning in the doorway holding his sides like he was about the throw up. Cas walked over and put his hand on Dean's shoulder, and he looked up and gave a weak smile.

"Well, I say we work fast. Going by how many they've taken, they've already pumped enough blood into her to keep our boy Sam here high for a month."

"And they're about to give her more," Dean said, starting to double over. Castiel was the only thing keeping him upright. The angel took the hunter out of the room, flicking his hand to slide the doors shut.

Crowley looked at Sam. "So, now we know where she is, sort of. When do we head out to go narrow it down?"

Sam's brows furrowed. "We? You're coming with us?"

"Of course."

"But whoever is doing this could kill you."

"This is Seraphiel, Sam. Anyone else I would not give a damn what happens to them but her…I owe her."

"You know if I can't even trust your self-preserving attitude I think this might be the end of the world."

"Don't get your hopes up, sweetheart."

Sam had loaded up with weapons, strapping on all of the holsters and sheaths that Sera had given him. He didn't really know what they were going up against, so he took everything. He walked into the living room, where Dean was laid out on the couch and Cas was standing over him.

"He was screaming a lot, so I put him to sleep. He is in no condition to fight."

"Great. So it's just the three of us."

"A Hunter, an Angel and the King of Hell…not a bad team."

"Could be better."

Castiel pulled the angel blade from his coat. "It will have to do."

The trio appeared in the all-too-familiar cemetery outside of Lawrence. It was a better location to appear than say, Main Street, considering Sam was carrying a full arsenal.

"So, any idea as to where to start?"

"Give me a moment," Castiel said, and he vanished. He returned a few moments later. "There's a building 3 miles west of here that I cannot get near. The two of you can get close enough to disarm the warding magic, and then I'll join you."

Sam sighed and looked at Crowley. "Well, let's go."

Crowley touched his arm and they vanished, and Castiel stood there in the cemetery, waiting, remembering the last time they had been here. For all it's sorrow, it had been a glorious day, the day they averted the Apocalypse. Castiel had died that day, if only for a few moments, and had returned stronger and better than before, all of his abilities restored. He had merely touched Dean's forehead and he had healed him completely.

Suddenly he felt the magic break, and then appeared next to his friend Sam outside the broken down building. They all looked at each other then made their way in. "What is it with these people and these abandoned houses?" Sam asked.

Crowley found a door and opened it. "Stairs here."

Sam and Castiel walked over. At the bottom of the stairs there was another door with brambles wrapped around the doorknob and a devil's trap painted on it.

"Seriously, who are these people?" Sam said, walking down the stairs and taking out the demon knife. He used it to scratch off part of the Devil's trap and then cut the brambles off of the doorknob.

Sera's restraints were removed but she was in too much pain and too tired to fight. Her captors left the room and she swallowed hard and opened her eyes, but everything was red and blurry.

She sat up and forced herself out of the bed, going over to the sink and looking into the mirror set above it. There was blood dripping from her eyes, nose, ears and mouth. The blood they were pumping into her was poisoning her, killing her slowly, even as the child inside her grew strong. She lifted the skirt of her dress and saw her stomach, which would probably have split from the rapid growth if she had been human. She looked to be about six months along now, and she could feel the child constantly kicking her insides.

She lurched over to the toilet and retched mostly blood into it. She had to get out of here somehow, fast, or she was going to die.