Chapter Two- Flying
God had spoken to Castiel, briefly and in guarded words as was normal for him. He had given Castiel the name John Winchester, and said this time, they were to do it correctly. The balance of world rested on John Winchester's daughters and they were to be driven down a very direct path.
The only problem was, that path was spoken of too vaguely for Castiel to know what to do with the girls. Taking John was a precaution, trying to learn about their place in God's plans. It had been nearly two weeks now, and Castiel hadn't come any closer to learning what he needed.
Currently, John Winchester was napping on a cot in the far corner of the room. The place was sealed with Angelic runes so there was no chance of him escaping. Balthazar had helped him set the place against demons and most other creatures. The angel was a genius when it came to sanctuary work; Balthazar had even set in place a few spells against Hell Hounds, which could be real pains in the ass.
Standing in front of a window, marked white with an anti-demon symbol, Castiel could make out the large field, carefully mowed down so that one could see across it to the main road a couple miles out. He watched for anyone coming up the road, as Balthazar could fly himself directly here. Specifically he was waiting for that black Impala to come grumbling up the road. He'd seen it once, the night he took John away and wouldn't soon forget it.
"Still up? Do your kind sleep?" John's voice came from across the room.
Castiel looked over his shoulder at the haggard looking man, hunting obviously taking its toll on him. He was half lounging on the cot, perched against the wall and watching Castiel through hard eyes. Trust was slowly gained when you kidnapped a person.
"No, we do not require the sustenance that your kind do."
"Even in a vessel?"
Castiel frowned at John, and nodded. "Of course not. My angelic nature has taken over the human form. Why would he need anything more?"
"Right..." John pushed himself further up, now on the edge and looking like he was going to get up.
Turning completely around, slightly wary of the hunter's intentions, Castiel watched the human curiously. He'd been trying to get the man to open up about his and his daughter's lives, to root out anything that might connect to God's cryptic message.
"So where's the other one? Obviously not out on a milk run." John stood, stretching out his popping joints. He looked about the place and then looked back to Castiel. He didn't seem to have anything devious in his mind.
"Looking for an object that might be needed by you and your daughters." Castiel's arms were at his side, trench coat long about him and comfortable. "We need the Hellfyre."
"Pardon, the what?" John narrowed his eyes and his thoughts echoed around the room like thunder. He did not trust Cas or Balthazar. And with the talk of Hellfyre, he was obviously questioning the allegiance the angel held.
Castiel could hear these thoughts and thought to dismiss them quickly, but remained silent. He turned again, looking out across the field. The quiet flapping of wings grabbed his attention, but he remained facing out. "Balthazar."
"No luck. There's a rumour that a demon has been let out who's working to find it and the Winchesters as well." ?" Balthazar's vessel's accent was a mix of Posh British and French, or so it sounded.
"Azazel, yes."
"No, another one Castiel. If Azazel finds the girls we still have John. But if this new demon finds them, he will not keep them alive as Azazel will." Balthazar came to stand next to Castiel.
From the corner of his eye, Castiel could see that Balthazar was facing John Winchester. That was probably good. The man was unpredictable. He'd already attempted to slip out of a window, pick a lock in the back room, and attempted slugging Castiel across the face. That ended rather unceremoniously for John, landing him with a broken knuckle and passed out on the cot after Castiel had glattened a palm to his forehead and bid him fall into a small coma.
Other than that, things had been going smoothly and John was starting to open up now.
"Who is it?"
"Crowley."
"God damn it..."
***
It was nearing two weeks since Samantha had been pulled from the burning down of her entire life. That was twice now, and this time she could picture it all quite clearly in her mind. She and Deanna hadn't gotten any new clues, but they'd found a case near them. They were now in Pennsylvania and had tracked down three mysterious disappearances in one town. Two men and one woman, not known to one another, went missing on the same night three weeks ago. They were all family oriented persons, upstanding members of society, and the girls were thinking demon possession.
They were currently in the Impala, headed for the County Sheriff's Office, both dressed in suits which had FBI badges attached at the hip.
"You have Bobby's card in case they ask questions?" Dean looked over to her sister from the driver's seat with an arched eyebrow.
"Yeah, you had an extra in the dash." Samantha watched Dean turning her attention back to the road and she herself looked out the window at the town passing by. It was a widespread area, so it was all together possible the missing did not know each other. If that were the case, demon possession looked more and more likely, although most minor demons tended to pick out people who wouldn't go missing.
The Impala pulled up to a stop in front of an old fashioned law building and Sam and Dean climbed out. Sam's heels clicked on the sidewalk next to the dull thud of Dean's FBI issue near-combat style boots. As they walked in, they found themselves in a bustling building. Elevators stood to the right and a welcome desk to the left, with a stern looking older gentleman manning the counter. He was in a dark blue police uniform and staring straight at the girls. Sam didn't think the tight pencil skirt was going to work on this man, and she let Deanna take lead. She looked fantastic in the tight, straight pinstripe paints and matching half jacket. The white blouse beneath was simple and revealed the shape of her chest subtly.
Pulling the badge from her belt, Dean leaned her elbows on the counter in front of the man. "Hello," she paused long enough to look at his name badge, "Officer Len. I'm Agent Benatar and that's my partner, Agent Ford. We were sent down about some missing person cases, any idea who I could talk to about that?" The smile Samantha watched her give was devious, a twist up in the corner of her mouth that made her eyes practically wink at the man.
Samantha watched the easy way she handled the gruff guy and just a few short minutes later, they had visitor badges and were being sent upstairs to the Sheriff's Office. Deanna led the way, of course. The sheriff was a woman. Sam watched as Dean balked and looked quickly sidewise to her.
Smiling, Sam stepped up and offered her hand. "Sheriff, thanks for seeing us. I'm Agent Ford. We came to work some of your missing persons cases that could have crossed state lines."
"Perfect, nice to meet you. I'm Casey Wash." The blonde woman smiled taking Sam's hand eagerly. "We're low on help in that department. Unfortunately with a place like this, missing persons often stay missing."
"That's why they send us when we don't have bigger cases. We know those are the worst to try and work. So there were three in particular we were curious about, two males and a female went missing about the same time few weeks back?"
Casey nodded. "Sure, weird cases. We don't know of any connection they had to each other. No one they all knew."
"Mind if we take a copy of their case files? We've got our stuff all at a hotel in town."
"Sure thing, it'll just take a minute. We don't have much on them, mind you."
Sam smiled at her, hand on Casey's shoulder. "Whatever you have is fine. Really, it's more than we have at any rate." She watched Casey smile widely and hurry out to wherever the files were kept.
"God Sammy, you're such a lesbian. She's ready to climb into your pants."
Scoffing, Sam shook her head. "Whatever, we're getting we need out of her at any rate."
"It wouldn't be a bad thing, you know."
Looking over Deanna, she frowned not following where this was going. Then it clicked and she frowned in a negative way, eyes hard locked on Dean's. She couldn't believe her sister was suggesting she climb into bed with someone so soon after... "That's not happening."
"I'm just saying, it's not a bad thing and there's no fear of some attached commitment. With what we do, hook-ups are a lifesaver. Keeps you from being depressed and lonely a hundred percent of the time."
Samantha gaped at her sister. "Please tell me you're not in the habit of picking up guys when you and dad are on a case together."
"Well..." Dean just shrugged.
"Awkward, moving on." Samantha looked around the office, turning on her heels and trying to get more of a reading on this Sheriff. If this case took some time, it was likely they'd been seeing more of Casey and it was better to keep a friendly relationship there. It was a bland office, with a few awards pertaining to work. So, workaholic. They could definitely bond over that.
"Here you are, Agent Ford. If you need anything else, I left my card in there for you. Don't hesitate to call." Her hand rested a little too long on the folder, and moved up to touch Sam's when Sam reached for it. She let go after the tiniest of a caress.
Sam smiled again. "Thank you, and please, it's Lita."
"Have a good one, Lita."
Once they were back in the Impala Dean scoffed, chewing her nails down. "She didn't even glance at me."
"Yeah, you're old guard didn't give me much notice, so we're even."
"At least yours was attractive. Granted, not my thing, but attractive."
Samantha rolled her eyes and started looking through the files. There wasn't much there at all; some statements from family and neighbours, the times of disappearance, not odd behaviours, and no connections that anyone could locate. They may have a case, but they didn't have much to go on. This might be as dead as the leads they had for the demon that killed Jess and the thing that took their father.
A knock sounded on the door as they were both delved deeply into research. Dean's head snapped up first, looking from Sammy to the door and back. She stood, putting a hand on Sam's shoulder, which let her know to play back up. Samantha wasn't always comfortable with the headstrong, guns blazing older sister to take lead but it was set already.
Samantha stood up, grabbing the gun from the table, nothing that Dean had one in her hand already. Watching Dean's gun level against the door at head height, Dean pulled the door open slightly and looked out. "Can I help you?"
Outside stood a beautiful woman with long dark brown hair, curled and tumbling down past her shoulders. She had tanned skin a pretty oval face with pouty lips. "I know what you're looking for."
"What we're... we're not looking for anything." Dean was on the offensive, opening the door more and allowing the gun to make an appearance. Sammy reached back, half crouching towards the bag open on the floor next to the little motel table, looking for the holy water.
"That gun won't do much, and Sam, you won't move fast enough to save your sister with a little splash of holy water. Don't. Try me."
Both girls backed up, Sam having the flask of water in her hands anyway. Her mind raced for the exorcising incantation but it had been a while since she'd used it. Exorcizamus te omnis... omnis immundus spiritus.
The dark haired girl shivered but pushed her way in. "Sam, let's play nice huh?"
Samantha hadn't realized she'd been reciting out loud. "Omnis satanic potestas. Omnis-"
"Your father will die if you two don't get the Hellfyre."
Dean cocked the gun, her green eyes narrowing sharply and levelled the gun higher. "Finish it, Sammy. She's a demon and can't be trusted."
"Omnis icursio infernaus adversarii. Omnis-"
The woman turned and fled. Dean fired off three tight, consecutive shots but only hit door as it slammed behind the demon.
"Shit. What the hell was that?"
Samantha was panting now, adrenaline coming down and her mind spinning with what had just happened. "You didn't go after her..."
"I don't have anything to hold her with and I don't know the incantation by heart..." Dean moved to look out of the window. "She's disappeared anyway." Turning back to her sister, Dean sunk into a chair and shook her head. "It's bullshit, Sammy. Just some demon trying to mess with us."
"But, what if we do need something? What if she's helping because this big bad that has him, is something even demons don't want around?"
The two watched each other for long silent moments. Things were becoming quickly complicated.
Dean was standing in the office of Mr. Geldring, one of the missing men. His secretary was crying into a box of tissues. Dean tried her best not to grimace at the emotional mess but Sam wasn't here to save her from this one. Sam was off questioning the missing woman's husband.
"So, the last time you saw him, nothing seemed out of the ordinary?"
"No, nothing. B-business has been g-good." She sniffled heavily and Deanna offered a smile, hoping it looked sympathetic, not annoyed. "There h-hasn't been anyone upset and n-nothing...out of the ordinary."
"Right, and did he act differently at all?"
"No, he was just happy! I loved him. His s-stupid wife didn't do anything for him, I was everything! We were supposed to go away together and now he's just left. Probably with some stupid whore." The sobbing re-took itself deeply and Dean actually sighed out loud.
Turning away partially, Dean started out of the room. "Thanks, that's uh, that's it." She strolled in, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. This was not something she could deal with. Besides, if there really wasn't anything odd about him leaving, other than the suddenness, Dean didn't have a guess as to a cause other than a demon or a human reason.
She went back out to the Impala and climbed in, taking a second to breathe. Even though she had Sammy back, Dean was starting to wish that it was her and John again, on the road with simple ghost haunting, wendigos, and vampires. Dealing with demons and whatever that blue-eyed, trench-coat-wearing thing was, it was beyond what Dean wanted to have on his plate.
She wondered if Sammy was faring any better with her interview. Starting up the engine, Dean drove to the other side of the city and parked at their rendezvous. The weather was nice and he was parked next to a park. Stepping out and locking the car she moved into it, heading for a park bench just down the path a ways.
It wasn't often that Dean got to sit back and take a breath. Granted, she really shouldn't be doing that right now, but she had no lead to go on. It was better not to stress for now. Sammy would get something, she always did. She'd been an amazing asset to hunting when the three had worked together.
Leaning back on the bench, Dean reached her arms across it, claiming nearly all of it and closed her eyes. The feel of the wind was nice on her face, and the soft noises of people around the park soothed Dean's frayed nerves. She could pretend to be stress free all she wanted, but now she was finally feeling it slip away.