When they got to Carthage the following day, it was already a ghost town. Cars lined the streets but no one was in them, the posts were covered in missing person flyers but no one was out looking.

"Nice and creepy." Sam sighed.

Dean pulled the car over to let Ellen pull up next to them.

She rolled the window down. "Place seem a little empty to you?"

"We're gonna check out the PD. Stay here and see if you can find anything."

They continued down the road and found the police department. There were two squad cars in front of the building, but like the rest of the city, nothing was moving. In light of the trap theory, they went in locked and loaded.

"Marco." Kayla muttered as they searched the empty rooms.

The desks were littered with missing person flyers too but everything was quiet. The scanners didn't pick anything up but they took one just in case. It was starting to look less like a trap, and they didn't know which idea was worse. If it wasn't a trap, Lucifer was really here.

Dean's face was set in concern. "Alright let's head out. Maybe they found something."

As they were leaving the station, Ellen and Jo were pulling up.

"Station's empty."

"So is everything else." Ellen nodded to them. "Have you seen Cas?"

Kayla approached the window. "He was supposed to be with you."

"He went after the reapers?"

"Reapers?" Sam asked. "Where did he see reapers?"

Jo leaned across the seat. "Well, kind of everywhere."

"Dean."

He turned to Kayla and he knew exactly what she wanted. Cas would be a big target, and he's already gone missing. They couldn't send a group after him, they had too much on their plates already. The options were excruciating. Lucifer was almost certainly the one who nabbed him and there was a possibility of them running into them both. But would Lucifer really keep him around to chat? With the betrayal, he'd just kill him, wouldn't he? He was trying to set up a ritual, there was no time for petty torture. Which meant, if Kayla were to go looking for Cas, she'd most likely find nothing, but she'd be out of the way of Lucifer's ritual. If she did manage to find Cas, maybe he could get her the hell away from here.

"Sam give her the knife."

"What?" He didn't see that one coming.

"Give her, the knife."

He looked worried, but Sam handed it over. Kayla tucked it into her jacket.

Dean lifted her chin and gave her a firm, quick kiss on the lips. It's gonna be fine. Today's not our day. "Be careful."

"You too. I'll meet up with you later." She added optimistically.

Before anyone could argue, she'd taken off down the nearest intersection. Dean opened the trunk of the Impala. "Everyone load up."

They grabbed their guns and plenty of ammunition before heading in the opposite direction of Kayla. "I can't believe we already lost Cas."

"I'm sure he's not lost." Ellen offered. "Just detained."

"There you are." A female voice chimed.

"Meg."

She smiled. "Shouldn't have come here boys."

"I could say the same for you." Dean raised the colt.

"Didn't come here alone Dean-O." She smirked and the puddle on the ground next to her splashed. They all heard the low growl that came from nowhere. One growl turned into several from different directions; they were surrounded.

"Hell hounds." Dean kept the anxiety out of his voice.

"Yeah Dean, you're favorite! Come on boys, my father wants to see you."

"I think we'll pass."

"Your call. You can make this easy, or, you can make it really, really hard."

Dean listened to the sound of the hounds around them. God he hated hell hounds. "When have you ever known us to make anything easy?" He lowered his aim and thankfully hit the hound at her side. "Run!"

They took off but he wasn't fast enough. He barely felt the teeth at his ankle when he hit the ground and suddenly he was glad he sent Kayla after Cas. Shit. Jo was coming back. "No! Stay back!"

Of course she didn't. She shot several times over his head and hit the hell hound twice. Before he could get to his feet she was attacked from the side by a second hound, but the growl was replaced with a piercing yelp, followed by the distinct sound of dogs fighting.

"What the hell?" Meg looked confused and furious at the same time.

"My dogs are bigger than your dogs…" Dominic hummed melodically as he came out of one of the abandoned stores. In his right hand dangled a thick, iron chain with a collar at each end. "Get inside." He barked the order at them and held his hand out to Jo.

She hesitated but took it and followed the others into the store.

"You're shitting me, right?" Meg yelled at him. "You?"

He shrugged. "I had a battle of conscience."

"Fine time you picked for that one."

The yelping ceased. Dominic glanced back and smirked before lowering his hand, stroking one of the invisible hounds. "Stick around, your next."

Meg stared him down but took off in the other direction. He unbuckled the iron collars and seemed to be looping them around. When they closed again, a large, black dog was on each one. He grasped the middle of the chain and took them into the store with him. "Is everyone alright?"

Dean had stepped away from the door as they came in and was now looking at the dogs. "Everyone's okay, I guess I should thank you."

"Yeah, you should, but I won't hold my breath." He tilted his head. "They won't attack you unless I tell them to. I've had them since they were pups."

"Good to know."

"They're hell hounds?" Jo was walking up. "Like, real hell hounds?" He nodded. "Can you touch them?"

"You can, but they're not pets. You won't get them to roll over for a belly rub."

She carefully walked over and held a shaky hand out.

"Jo don't you dare touch that thing." Her mother warned.

But she reached out and stoked it, the creature just stood in silent tolerance. It made no move to attack, or no indication that it enjoyed it either. "Wow." She let her hand drop and looked to Dominic. "Thank you."

He nodded. "You're missing some of your crew."

Dean's eyes just couldn't leave those dogs. "Cas went missing, Kayla's looking for him."

"Good planning on your part."

"So what does this mean?" Sam asked. "I mean, you told us you were on our side, but I thought Lucifer wasn't supposed to know."

"Well he sure as hell knows now doesn't he? That bitch has already told him in great detail, I'm sure. Guess you're stuck with me now."

But Dean still wasn't convinced. Ruby had done this; she'd gained their trust with the entire demon community thinking she was on their side. The only one who knew was Lilith. No one was stupid enough to go after Lucifer, no one but them.

"So tell us what daddy has in store for Carthage."