A/N: This vampire lore is loosely rooted in the Vampire Diaries tone, similar in some ways, but different in others. The whole thing about Castiel's wings was in my dream and I couldn't understand why it worked that way, but that's just how it seemed to happen. It doesn't make a ton of sense, but then again, this is a fanfiction. Nothing makes sense, there are no rules!

Saying goodbye to not only her stores and the hard work that she'd put into achieving such high ratings among customers and corporate, but to her family of young vampires as well. She left behind two alphas per store, and made sure that a chain of command was in place so that they wouldn't be sought after by any other hunters. The last thing she needed was a band of hunters finding out her secret and wiping out what's left of her species, at least in this reality. Who knew what was happening to her kind on the other side of this dimension.

"So where's this super secret bunker of yours? I'd at least like to know where I'm being held against my will." She muttered from the backseat. The vampire had lost track of how many hours had past and miles they'd gone since leaving California far, far behind. Viveka lay stretched out across the backseat of the Impala with her phone held aloft in her hands. Sam and Dean looked at each other with the same thing in mind.

The Impala suddenly swerved and the wheels ran over a pothole, effectively tossing both the vampire and her phone around in the backseat.

"What is your problem?!" She screeched, bringing herself up from the floor by ways of the backrest where the two snickering Winchester's sat.

"Oh I'm sorry, that's the importance of seatbell safety, Sweetheart." Dean said with his stupid chuckle. An agitated breath of air disrupted the hair that had fallen into her face during her fall.

"My name is not Sweetheart...It's Viveka-HEY!" Another swerve and she was back on the floor of the Impala. Sam held in the snort when he heard the deep growl come out of their poor vampire friend. Keeping the peace, he gave his brother a nudge from his elbow to the ribs. Dean grinned and took the hint to leave her alone for the next 200 miles.

"So uhh, when's the last time you ate?" Sam asked with an uneasy tone. Viveka grunted as she climbed back onto the seat and sighed with exasperation. Flipping her hair over her shoulder, Viveka snorted.

"About a decade ago. I'm fine. You however need to learn how to be subtle. Don't worry about me." Dean looked at her using the rear view mirror with a crook in his eyebrow.

"If that's true, then explain all your cronies."

"You really don't know a lot about vampires do you," The way she said it didn't sound like a question, but rather a statement. But for the sake of not having him rattle her around some more, she resolved with a gentle huff. "You don't have to feed in order to make a new prodigy. They feed to make the transformation complete but they use blood from wildlife, it keeps them weak and easy to handle."

"You mean control." Dean said sternly. He could feel Viveka leering at the back of his head.

"Yes, control. If they fed on humans, they'd go crazy and then you'd have a good reason for coming after me. This isn't my first carousel ride, Dean. And by the time you and Sam are 6 feet under in the next 30 years, it won't be my last. YAH!"

Dean threw on the breaks hard enough for Viveka to slam her face hard into the back of the front seat. Luckily, this road was one less traveled and there was no one around for miles. Even Sam found the abrupt halt a little irritating.

"Dude!"

"It's talk like that which gets cocky vampires like you offed by hunters like me. If you make even the slightest hint about hurting another human being, it'll be nothing but dust, Viveka."

Once again, her hand slapped onto the backrest where her nails, threatening to sink into the leather, dug in to bring herself back up with a groan and a bloody nose. Looking to his left, Sam noticed a change in her eyes, they were suddenly dark and a long pair of fangs were on full display in a row of clenched teeth.

"Dean!" The younger brother panicked and knocked Viveka right in the face with his fist, cold clocking her unconscious. "Jesus, did you see the fangs on her?"

"Good work, Sammy. Keep an eye on her, I guess. You know how vampires like to play dirty."

Once again the wheels began to turn and the Impala did her duty to carry the boys home to the safety of the bunker. Their plus one seemed to remain unconscious the remainder of the drive home, but then again, she did get hit point blank in the face with Sam's fist of surprise. He didn't like surprises and seemed to pack a more powerful punch when startled. Sam had never seen a pair of teeth like that before and it had done quite enough to shake him to the core, her eyes were what frightened him the most. Black like a demon but with a burning redness just around the edges, like brimstone.

"Woah, nice shiner there, Tiger." Dean chuckled at one of the study tables as Viveka stumbled into view only to just barely collapse in the chair just opposite of the hunter. In his hands under the lamp was her Book the Ancients. She looked like the backside of a bad hangover, he knew all too well what it felt like to be knocked in the face until it was lights out. Dean leaned back, the back of his pen held between his grinning teeth.

"Shut-up. I got sucker punched, that's nothing to joke about."

"Quit your cryin' and do your weird vampire heal thing and feel better." Through the dim light, Dean was met with a glowing jade stare from an obviously displeased vampire. "What?"

"It takes blood to regenerate, you idiot. And I haven't fed in 10 years. This was a lot easier in the Dark Ages..." She sighed, sinking lower in the wooden chair until she slumped. "It takes a little more time for my wounds to heal when I eat the way I do."

"Sure does suck to be you right now, then, huh?" Dean replied by sitting back in his chair, his arms crossing his chest with a smug grin on his face. However, the look of destitute on her face did make him feel guilty, at least a tiny bit. Not enough to let her out and feast until she felt better, though. "Would regular food help a little?"

"It might. Maybe some eggs, just something with some protein..." She said, misery in her voice. Viveka wanted to be anywhere but here, Dean could feel that much, but with such a rare species like her on the loose. it was just better to be safe than sorry. One of her small hands rubbed at her sore, black eye. She'd develop a migraine if this didn't get fixed soon.

"Come on, we've got the grub you need and some ice for that eye."

"Mn?" Glancing up from the table, Viveka witnessed the hunter push back from the book in his chair to stand and tell her to silently follow him with a wag of his finger. By the time she stood up, his wide shoulders were already disappearing into the vast emptiness of the bunker in the direction she assumed the kitchen was in. Viveka made a hustle, this place was big enough for anyone unfamiliar to get lost; vampire or not.

"Heyy, there's our champ. Cas, this is who I was telling you about." The brightness of the large kitchen was a little too bright for Viveka's liking and her eyes took a moment to adjust. Her vision was so out of contrast that it made her dizzy enough to stumble a little more until she was met with the island in the middle. Dean was looking in the fridge for a couple of eggs while a pan began to heat up on the stove. But there was someone else here and he smelled...divine.

"Hello Viveka. Like Sam said, I'm Cas. Or well, Castiel is my given name but they seem to be better suited by calling me by a much shorter version of said name. I'm not really to familiar with the workings of nicknames but I'm sure in time you will earn one as well-"

"Cas, easy." Dean said from his place at the stove where the eggs had been cracked open to cook. Viveka stood in front of the angel a little awestruck. She was looking at him like a deity. "Viveka."

"Wha?!"

"How do you like your eggs?" Turning her head with a slow veer, she glanced at Dean.

"My what?"

"Your eggs, how do you like them fixed?" By the sound of the popping and crackling, she had to answer soon.

"O-oh, sunnyside up." Her attention turned back to Castiel where she circled him, completely fixated on his presence which only confused him all the more. He glanced at Sam for any sign of help but he could only shrug his shoulders. All the while, Viveka was entranced by Castiel, and it bewildered none of them more than Cas, himself. He felt spooked. "The angel..."

Viveka's fingers ran along what looked to be thin air, but only Castiel took notice and flinched when she did so.

"They're beautiful..." She whispered, without so much as an ounce of restraint. Now both hands came close together as she took some large steps to Castiel's side. "Magnificent."

"You...you can see them?" The angel tentatively asked. "My wings?"

"I can." Viveka marveled a little longer before stepping closer to the angel and giving him a sniff. She couldn't pinpoint what it was about his smell that was so magnetizing, but it was so powerful. "My people spoke of angels for centuries, about how that when one of our kind was in their presence we should be humbled that creatures as damned as we could be in their presence without bursting into flames."

"Uhh...Dean?" Castiel found himself uneasy around the creature who could not only see his wings, but she was touching them.

"Keep your trench coat on, she won't hurt you. Now, Fanger," Dean snapped his fingers in Viveka's ear to bring her out of the cloud of divinity that she'd ascended into and guided her by the shoulders to sit at the table across from Sam. In front of her was a pair of eggs and a slice of ham with some juice. "Shut up and eat so you don't go all Carrie White on us."

"Dean, I do not have a very good feeling about your new roommate. She shouldn't be able to see my wings, it makes me uneasy that she can." Castiel had pulled Dean into the hallway for a word while Viveka ate and chatted with Sam, telling him the same thing she did to Dean about regenerating. He found it interesting, endlessly educating. There was so much about her that he wanted to document.

"Look, I don't exactly like it, either. But, she's safer here."

"She?"

"You know what I mean. If she slips up just once, she could make a nest bigger than anything we've ever seen before." Dean leaned against the wall while his best friend paced anxiously back and forth. The sudden presence of someone so damned, yet so pure as to see his wings...it was just unnatural in the mind of an angel. Granted, one that was fallen. But still, it left him feeling unnerved.

"Dean, I'm worried that you're doing that thing where you think with your loins instead of your brain, again." The angel deadpanned, leaving Dean to scowl and scratch the back of his neck irritably. "I can see why, she is, indeed, attractive and would make a suitable mate if she wasn't a vampire-"

"Just trust me, I've got this, Cas." Dean didn't want to hear the rest of that sentence.

"Got what?" Viveka suddenly appeared in the doorway, spooking Dean enough to jump and look to see that Cas had pulled another disappearing act. She looked like she had much more energy, and her black eye seemed less swollen. With a shake of his head to regain his composure, the hunter cleared his throat and squared up to the surprisingly short vampire.

"Nothing, uhh... D'ya eat? How was it?"

"A little greasy but pretty tasty, actually. Thanks!" She was almost perky and it was weird. The last perky girl he'd been in the presence with was Charlie, which felt like a lifetime ago. Watching her leave was interesting as well, for reasons far more primal than Dean would care to admit. Her feet carried her to the book of her people and where it was left open. Just to the left was a pad of paper with what looked to be notes, the brothers attempting to translate it from the Latin it was in.

"Doing a little reading?" Viveka uttered quietly, glancing at Dean's handwriting. It was firm, like he pressed a little harder than necessary, but it was an attractive penmanship. Bold and clear just like his personality. Certain letters were heavier than others, his capital letters especially. But his punctuation was light and delicate, like he wasn't sure about how to finish that thought. A lot could be learned about the way someone wrote.

"Uhh yeah, well. Trying to anyway. I'm not as good with translating as Sam is. But um..." Dean had started to make his way over to where she was standing but stopped when she turned around from his notes to face him. Those eyes were glowing again, but he hadn't done anything to upset her. Or at least, he hoped he hadn't. Perhaps there was more about it in the book. Something about the way the glowing light of jade optics tore through the dimly lit bunker sliced him to the core. Viveka, in his eyes, didn't just see him, she was able to see through him. Through the thick veil he had pinned firmly in place.

"Looks like you're translating just fine to me," She muttered, running her fingers over the letters written in Dean's hand. He couldn't stop his feet from rushing him to the table to grab the notes and brush hands with the vampire. Her skin wasn't cold and dead, but tepid, like water left in a glass for a little too long. But as they briefly touched, both of them experienced a spark that went right to their minds. Like static, only stronger. The sensation scared her enough for her to quickly withdraw her hand and examine her fingertips just to be sure of what she felt, Dean did the same.

"It looks like you're on the chapter of what my kind believes is the possibility of reincarnation should we be destroyed." Viveka finally said after enough silence had past. She been alive for way too long to want more silence. So she pulled out the chair just beside the one that Dean had been sitting in and picked up the pen to help translate some of the words. Many of them couldn't be translated in this day and age but she knew them all well enough to help.

"Yeah it was uh," He paused, sitting down beside her and scooting in close to the table. "I didn't think vampires believed in that sort of thing. What with the whole being immortal. Or as this book wrote 'A child of infinite moons.' Wouldn't think you'd be open to the thought of being brought back."

Scooting closer, Viveka leaned over Dean to bring the point of the pen under a faded scribe that she read out in the mother tongue, only for her to transpose what it meant.

'Beati mundo corde, et adhuc vivere' It means, to be pure of heart, let live again." Hearing the Latin fall out of her lips so effortlessly sent a shiver down Dean's spine from top to bottom, even the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

"It doesn't happen often. Or rather, where I'm from, it was rare. Only a few spirits of my kind were chosen to be born again but as mortals. To live a life that would be extinguished. It had only been recorded a small handful of times, and we believed it to be connected to the holiest of souls." She managed to explain things in a way that made sense, and Dean found himself not feeling stupid as she did so. Sam often had a way of being a little condescending when trying to explain something Dean didn't grasp. And it had the tendency to rub him the wrong way.

"So do you have like a god or some entity that you pray to? You were all over Cas in there like he was the Pope." Viveka chuckled and leaned back into her seat, which offered a pang of disappointment in the back of Dean's mind. He'd caught a wiff of her scent and found himself not hating it. Vanilla and raw cotton, almost.

"Not exactly. But, we do have a higher...sense of being, if you wanna call it that. And they say that your sins of being a vampire are forgiven when the wings of an angel have given you the grace of their presence. I've been around for so long, it just...took me by surprise." Now it was Dean's turn to chuckle.

"Well if you need to repent a little more, Cas ain't your guy. Too flighty."

Hours flew by like minutes, and both Sam and Dean listened intently to Viveka as she went through her book page by page until they had worked their way through a good third before calling it a day. Viveka had the capacity to enlighten about her people all day long when given the chance, if only to erase the stigma that they were blood thirsty monsters who only looked at humans as walking meals. They understood that there was so much more, a secret society living under their feet, well, in another reality.

"This is some really great stuff, Dean. I feel like we should keep her here and study more, maybe she can help us with cases."

"Sam, don't get ahead of yourself, okay? She knows nothing about the monsters in our world, to her, they're legends. You saw how she acted around Cas, imagine how she'd be when she sees the alternate version of herself when another nest pokes up." Sam and Dean had once again disappeared into the kitchen to make another pot of coffee, this would be the third one for the afternoon. None of them had set foot outside to even see if there was daylight left. But the ache in Sam's neck and Dean's back told them they'd been there at least 8 hours.

Viveka had since climbed from her chair to perch herself on the table. It seemed easier to talk to the both of them with her feet crossed under her to stay comfy. She had to give it to them, their want and need to learn about her was rather flattering, if only because they'd never find anyone like her again. She knew she was being used, Viveka was old, but not stupid. And it made her wonder enough to pick up Sam's notepad and begin to thumb through what he'd chosen to write about her. While he wasn't looking and away in the kitchen, she picked through the hunter's notes like a nosy mouse.

After a few pages, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary until she noticed a heavy, thick circle around the word's 'regenerative blood properties.' But that's all there was to it, there was no other notes about it, which left her to wonder if he'd made a conclusion in his brain about her own power. Time would tell, she wouldn't let loose so much information that they'd never let her go. However, she had to admit it hurt a little, what if all she was to these guys was a source of regenerating strength and health? There was a drop in her gut, she couldn't tell if it was her stomach or heart.

Suddenly the vampire felt very small and very alone and her legs that were crossed at the ankles came up and bent at the knees when she hugged her own limbs for comfort. Viveka had never felt more alone in this world until she met these two, they made her alarmingly aware that she didn't belong here by all the surprise she was met with. Moments like this made her miss home so much that everything hurt from the inside out. She was screaming at the top of her lungs and no one could hear her, or save her.

"You okay?" Sam's voice jolted the vampire out of her own thoughts aggressively enough that she nearly lost her balance when the mug of coffee was thrust into her hands. Those eyes that usually reflected the sun on the sea were staring into the dull hot liquid, devoid of her previous temperament. "I made it this time, so it won't taste like garbage."

"Don't be a bitch, Sam." Dean said, taking a sip. Viveka turned away the offer of coffee and slowly came down from the tabletop where she began to saunter away towards the exit. "Hey, you goin' somewhere?"

"I just need some air, follow me if you want. I don't really care..." Her voice sounded empty of any and all character which they found a little odd. Glancing at each other and then at the vampire's disappearing figure, they chose to leave her alone, trust her a little. Perhaps that would build the same amount of faith in her as well.

Time would only tell how much faith and trust could be built between a pair of hunters and a vampire.

A/N: So she's moody. And the boys are greedy. Nothing new AMIRITE?! Luuuuuuuul. I am forcing myself to have this dream every night until I get this finished so I don't implode. Save me.