- Hi, everyone! Sorry for the delay, holidays, you know. This is a bit short, but that's kind of how the chapter lengths fell. *shrug* I also went back and cleaned up Chapter Two, so if you're a rereader, you might notice some updates. Thanks for reading!
"Cas?"
Dean's voice sounds very far away.
"Cas, who is it?"
Joshua has been murdered.
"Cas, babe, are you okay?"
Castiel feels himself thump into a chair as if through a thousand layers of cotton. The phone is pulled from his limp fingers and Dean begins speaking urgently to someone.
Joshua has been murdered.
The garden is vibrant and colorful, riotous flowers blooming all around them. There's a steady, lazy hum of bees in the air.
A warm, gentle smile on a dark, kind face.
"You are your own person, James, and you can make your own decisions. The circumstances that brought you to this life were terrible, indeed, but only you can choose where to go from here."
A gentle murmuring slowly draws him back from the shock of Anna's words. He blinks down at Dean, who's kneeling in front of him, hands on his knees as worried green eyes stare up at him. Sam, Gabriel, and Balthazar are gone. Only he and Dean are left in the sun-soaked kitchen.
"Hey," Dean says gently. "Are you okay?"
Castiel has to swallow twice before he can reply. "I think so."
Dean nods. He obviously doesn't believe Castiel, but since it's the best lie he can come up with right now, they both let it go.
"Who's Joshua?"
God save me. "Someone who… Someone who helped me a very long time ago."
It's not that Castiel wants to hide his past from Dean. He wants to share everything with Dean, for neither of them to have any secrets at all. It's just that he loves Dean so incredibly much. He loves this man with a fierceness that defies description, that no flowery language will ever be able to properly define (and since Castiel knows several flowery languages, he considers himself an expert).
It's because of that adoration that he stays silent. He doesn't want Dean to look at him differently, or leave him because of the way he was turned. He knows Dean doesn't love him like he loves Dean, as Dean has never said or even hinted at it, but he cares for Castiel. That's enough, it's okay. Watching Dean become such a strong, confident young man has been a pleasure, to turn him into something eternal a privilege. Castiel is grateful for the affection Dean holds for him, and he wants to protect it as long as possible.
"He is… Was… Important. To me."
Dean just nods, accepts that answer like it's any answer at all. "All right. Well, Anna gave me the skinny. Joshua was working overnight at a botanical garden in Reno." He smiles gently. "You up for a drive tonight, handsome?"
The Impala has been fitted with the same UV protective film that is on the windows in their house, so as long as Dean wears long-sleeved shirts, gloves, and sunglasses, he can drive in the evening without too much discomfort. It's a couple of hours before sunset when they begin their journey to Reno.
It's just he and Dean when they leave. Sam has class the next day and Dean refused to let him miss, but Castiel refused to let him be unprotected. He bribed Gabe and Balthazar with promises of frequent updates (and, to Gabriel, a promise that he would be all right) to stay behind.
The ride is silent, save for the rock music coming from Baby's speakers. Dean sings along softly, and Castiel finds it in himself to hum with the music after a while. His body gets looser as more scenery goes by, and his mind begins to relax a bit. Driving with Dean is familiar, known, and it's hard to stay worried and alert when he's in a scenario in which they've always been safe.
They get to the Wilbur D. May Center in just under four hours. The sun has set completely and the parking lot is empty when they get there. Dean pulls them into a space, parks the car, and looks over towards Castiel. His incredible bone structure and long lashes are dramatically highlighted by the bright light of the parking lot lamps and the dark shadow provided by the night.
"Hey," Dean says softly, bringing Cas out of his study of the boy. "You all right, Cas?"
He would lie, but he doesn't know if he'll be able to get another untruth by Dean tonight without a fight. "It… Has been a very long time since I lost someone important to me. I fear that not only does it not get easier, but the shock may in fact be more difficult to bear when it's cushioned by a century without loss."
Dean's eyes are dark with sympathy, his mouth turned down into a frown. He reaches across the seat and takes Cas' hand, twining their fingers together and gripping hard. "I'm sorry, Cas," he murmurs.
Castiel smiles. "Thank you, dearheart. I cannot tell you what it means to me that you're here with me."
Dean's answering smile is almost painful in its brilliance. "You and me, Cas. All the way."
The sentiment warms him, carries him through getting out of the car and walking with Dean over to the doors of the museum. When he sees a thin, pale redhead standing just in front of the doors, he stumbles a little. Dean's hand slipping back into his steadies and strengthens him.
When Anna's pretty, delicate features come into sight, Cas has to concentrate on fighting the flashbacks away.
Laughing, he chases his sister through a sunlit hallway. Her skirts brush against the walls as they run, her delighted shrieks cutting through the air.
He is not entirely successful.
Anna's red hair spilled down her shoulder and across her desk as they concentrate on arithmetic.
He sees by the strain around her eyes that Anna is struggling with the same.
Anna's beautiful green eyes, ringed with red and swimming with tears, her face framed by lank, damp hair.
Finally, by pure force of will, Castiel banishes the images that are trying to overtake him. He smiles at Anna, though he knows it's harsh and unfriendly. Her expression is much the same, but it does soften a degree.
"Castiel."
"Anna."
After a beat of silence that must be incredibly awkward, Dean clears his throat. "Uh, okay. Do you wanna show us…"
Anna nods. "Yes, of course. This way."
They follow her around the building to a second door. In letters four feet high along the path, the word ARBORETUM is displayed and lit up with minuscule spotlights as they walk. The foliage is thick, beautiful, a testament to the skill required to cultivate it. There's another set of glass doors at the end of the path, and halfway to them, the scent of blood starts to fill Cas' nose.
Dean inhales sharply but stays calm at Cas' side. He is, once again, intensely grateful that Dean has adjusted so well to vampirism. He doesn't know how well he would handle this without Dean next to him.
None of them say a word as Anna unlocks the door and leads them down a hall, then into a room to their left where the scent of copper is strongest.
"I spoke with your… 'Charlie,'" Anna is saying. "She helped to scramble the security footage before any human authorities were alerted. She is… Very strange."
Dean snorts, but Castiel is too busy staring at Joshua's blood on the walls. He slowly follows the trail until he sees the heap of a body on the ground in the corner.
Joshua is even more lifeless than he was before the sort of afterlife vampires live in. His skin, so dark in life, is strangely pale and waxy in the moonlight. He's wearing work jeans and a dark shirt with a vest over it, the same clothes he's been wearing for centuries. His heavy boots have dried mud on them, as do his hands.
The real shock, Castiel supposes, is that Joshua's head is lying a few feet away from his body. Castiel is fervently grateful that Joshua's face is turned away so that all he can see is the back of his mentor's head.
There is blood everywhere. It's smeared on the walls and pooled on the floor next to Joshua's body, a smaller pool next to his head. He must have fed recently, and well, Castiel thinks, a bit dazed, to have had this much blood in him. He's staring at the wall for a few moments before he realizes that the blood is smeared in a sort of pattern. Another moment and a step farther away from the wall reveals that there is a message written in the blood.
Itaque referri possit operiri iterum mane nocturnos.
"Bring back the dawn so the earth can be covered once again in the night," Castiel reads grimly, his deep voice reverberating ominously off of the walls.
Et ne nos inducas in te tenebrae est, et eius sectatores ambulabunt terram sine timore.
"She will lead us into darkness, and her followers will walk the earth without fear."
Anna is frowning. "'She?'"
Dean is staring daggers at the wall. "The Lightbringers."
The Lightbringers, an entity that has remained mostly in the shadows and largely faceless, are responsible for this. They murdered Joshua. They may not realize it, but they have brought the fight directly to Castiel's doorstep. Long-buried memories of lessons and drills fill his head. Among all of the other things he has been, Castiel has been a soldier more than once, a wartime strategist, and he falls back on those habits now.
"They will pay for this," he says solemnly, a promise to a father figure he didn't protect and a sister he can barely look at.