A/N: Thank you guests Pony, Loreley, and Guest for your reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying the story (even with an OC!). ^_^ Loreley, yes, this story is all written. I got a ton of writing done over the summer and ended up with a bit of a backlog. Which is good, because I don't like to post a story unless it's almost or already is complete, so there's no long wait between chapters or risk of the story being abandoned.
Okay, time to meet up with the Winchesters!
Chapter 4
Dean slammed his phone down on the study table. "Cas is still not answering."
Sam glanced up from his laptop. "I'm sure he's fine, Dean."
"Yeah, then why won't he pick up the damn phone?"
Cas had said Tommy Tolliver was dead, and that "Cain had been very busy," which could mean a lot of shit, but Dean was thinking it meant more bodies. And then Cas had sounded spooked and hung up. That was hours ago, and he hadn't called back, and sure, Cas was flighty sometimes, but you just don't pull this crap with a crazed, Knight of Hell lunatic running around!
Sam gave him a sympathetic bitch-face. "I looked up the GPS on Cas's phone and he's moving. Looks like he's making his way here."
"Son-of-a-bitch can pull over and at least text us he's alright." Dean plopped in the chair, nerves and anxiety zinging through him like electricity. His forearm itched.
"Maybe he doesn't have good reception," Sam suggested. "Look, he's already in Kansas. If he stops somewhere, we can go meet up with him. In the meantime, I've been looking into Tommy Tolliver, seeing if I can figure out why Cain went to the trouble of springing him from death row just to kill him."
Dean forced himself to focus. Cas could take care of himself, he knew that. He was just pissed because deep down he was freakin' terrified about what Cain might be doing. And what Dean might have to do to stop it.
"And?" he asked, voice gruffer than normal.
"Still pretty unclear. I did find this blotter out of Orlando about his dad, Leon Tolliver. Uh, like father, like son. Convicted felon, fresh warrant for an assault charge, but he's gone missing, hasn't been seen in a week."
Dean tensed, sitting up straighter in his chair. "You think the two are connected?"
Sam shrugged. "I mean, the police just assumed he fled the warrant, but if Cain took Tommy, it might not be a coincidence."
What Cas had hinted at on the phone was starting to scream 'bodies' more and more.
"So, what," Dean said. "Cain's got a vendetta against the entire family?"
"Maybe."
Not that the tidbit helped them much. If Cain had grudges to settle, why start now? Why, when he had been out of the game so long? Dean's throat constricted. He'd been holding onto the belief that if Cain could resist the Mark for centuries, then Dean could learn to control it too. But if it was impossible, if there was nothing but blood and rage in his future…Dean didn't know what he was going to do.
Sure, Cas had said he might have found a cure, but Dean knew better than to get his hopes up. The Mark…it was big, and it was gonna take something big to get it off. But if the cost was too much…well, then Dean didn't want it. And in that case, he'd have to remind Cas of the angel's promise not to let Dean lose himself in the end.
Speaking of which… "Where is Cas now?" Dean asked.
Sam rolled his eyes, but made a few clicks on his laptop. "Still headed this way."
Dean's phone started buzzing on the table and he immediately snatched it up. "About frickin' time," he groused at the caller ID, and hit the answer key. "Where the hell have you been?"
There was a beat of silence on the other end before Cas hesitantly replied, "Dean, I'm, uh, sorry I missed your calls."
At another bitch-face from Sam, Dean put the phone on speaker. "What happened?" he demanded.
"Cain is attempting to wipe out his bloodline. Tommy Tolliver and…it was a massacre."
A knot started forming in the pit of Dean's stomach, and he exchanged a sickened look with Sam.
"And he won't stop," Cas continued. "Cain will murder half the world."
Dean got past his growing horror long enough to read between the lines of what Cas was saying. "How'd you figure out what he's up to?"
"I…" Cas paused. "Had a little run-in with Cain."
Sam's eyes widened. "Are you okay?"
"Yes. I'll be at the bunker in an hour." The line clicked as he hung up.
"Wait—Cas!" Dean shouted the angel's name like a curse and angrily tossed his phone across the table again. His hands were practically shaking, dammit. What the hell had gotten into Cain? Trying to wipe out his bloodline? What happened to the pacifist who didn't even want to fight demons when they invaded his home?
But, Tommy and his dad were criminals. Maybe Cain was just going after the bad ones… The excuse settled like acid in his throat. Killing bad men wasn't justification for what Cain did—or what Dean did to Randy and those thugs. No, whatever Cain's reasons, they couldn't just sit back and let him run wild on a killing spree.
Dean's stomach churned with bile. He knew what he had to do…Cain had warned him, after all.
He surged out of his chair, needing to move, needing to get the feeling of pins and needles out of his skin. "Contact whatever local law enforcement agency is handling that grave site," he told Sam.
He'd do it himself, but he just couldn't stomach it right now. Not the deaths, but the fear of the Mark fizzling with anticipation at seeing pictures of the bodies, of craving that blood for himself.
Afraid he was actually going to puke up his guts, Dean turned and swept out of the room, ignoring his brother's worried eyes boring into his back. He headed into the kitchen, intending to grab a beer, but changed his mind at the last second. Getting drunk might have been the most appealing, but he didn't need any more influences inhibiting his self-control. So he started chopping up vegetables for a salad instead. Unfortunately, this eating healthy crap just made him more depressed. What was the point, anyway?
He settled on throwing some frozen corndogs in the microwave. After finishing off those, he returned to making that salad. Sam would eat it, and it gave Dean something to keep his hands and mind occupied with. Of course, once he delivered the salad to his brother, he didn't have an excuse not to pick up the slack on research. And the initial reports on that mass grave were not promising.
At least Cas arrived when he said he would, and Dean looked up as the bunker door grated open. His brows rose sharply, however, when Cas walked in with a red-headed woman Dean had never seen before. If that was another angel, so help him…
Dean got to his feet quickly, instantly on guard. Sam stood as well, casting a barely concealed accusatory look at Cas.
Dean didn't bother to be so veiled. "Who's this?"
"This is Ryn," Cas replied. "Ryn, meet Sam and Dean."
The woman nodded, her eyes flicking to Dean's forearm for a brief second. "Hi."
"How ya doin'," Dean replied flippantly, then shot the angel a pointed look. "Cas?"
"She might be able to remove the Mark," Cas explained earnestly.
Dean's eyes narrowed in suspicion. He thought Cas had meant he'd found a spell or something, not someone. "You an angel?"
Ryn's lips quirked. "No."
"She's a phoenix," Cas interjected. "And she's here to help." The warning look he gave the Winchesters made Dean bristle.
"A phoenix?" Sam repeated.
"The Alpha phoenix." Cas glanced at Ryn. "She's agreed to at least try to remove the Mark."
Dean's suspicious frown only deepened. Why the hell would she do that? Dammit, what kind of deal had Cas made?
"You can do that?" Sam practically gushed, excitement dispelling any lingering wariness he might have had.
"Maybe," she replied firmly. "I've removed curses before, and that's what the Mark is. But it's practically the mother of all curses, so I'm not promising anything here." The look she gave Cas at saying that was a strange mixture of sympathetic encouragement mixed with realistic expectation, almost as though she cared about getting the angel's hopes up.
"Okay, what do you need?" Sam asked eagerly.
Dean held up a hand. "Whoa, back the cure train up. You're all forgetting one important thing here—Cain?"
"But Dean—"
"No, Sam. Cain is out there murdering dozens, maybe hundreds of people. We have to stop him, and if we're gonna have any shot in hell, I have to keep…this." His other hand drifted toward the arm that bore the Mark. He swallowed hard. "Just until we get this done."
And he had to hope beyond hope that it wouldn't be too late for him afterward.
Sam looked like he wanted to argue more, but his phone rang, and he moved away with a scowl to answer it.
Dean turned toward Ryn. "Look, I appreciate you comin' down. But this is important."
"I know." She cast a shrewd glance at Cas. "Stopping Cain won't be easy."
A muscle in Cas's jaw ticked, and he looked at Dean apologetically. "I'm sorry I couldn't bring better news, Dean."
He shook his head. "It's not your fault, Cas. And hey, potential cure? That's pretty good news." Even if he was somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of an Alpha helping them. "What do you get out of it, anyway?" Dean asked Ryn.
Cas bridled his shoulders. "Dean," he reprimanded.
"What? I have a right to know what kind of deal you made here." The accusatory barb made Cas actually flinch, and that made Dean feel a little bit guilty. But as much as he wanted to show his remorse, the Mark drank in that flicker of anger and only added gasoline to it. Dean clenched his jaw to keep from letting the explosion off on his friend. He could control it, he could control it…
"I didn't make a deal," Cas said through gritted teeth. "Ryn is…we…"
Dean frowned at the way Cas was suddenly fumbling for words. It wasn't in search of a lie to tell, that much he could see, but more like Cas was struggling to put into human language something that made his eyes crinkle in pain.
And then Ryn put a gentle hand on Cas's arm, stilling him. Dean arched a brow, anger momentarily doused with bafflement at the gentle calm she exuded toward Cas.
"I knew Castiel from a long time ago," she said. "I'm here to help an old friend, that's all."
Dean blinked at the two of them standing so close. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of this. Cas's face pinched with some distraught emotion Dean couldn't identify, though it didn't seem as though it was directed at Ryn being here. It had something to do with her, though. Dean needed to find a moment to pull Cas aside and ask him what the hell was up, but then Sam returned, having just hung up his phone.
"Alright, the sheriff gave me a few more names, some preliminary IDs on the bodies."
The mystery of their guest forgotten for the moment, Dean nodded to his brother. "And?"
"And it seems to fit Cas's story. I mean, there's no way to tell the relation to Cain, obviously, but he's wiping out entire families, one after another."
Dean's shoulders sagged in defeat. "So who's next? Is he done with the Tollivers?"
Sam went to stand over his laptop. "Uh, I think so. I mean, Leon didn't have any siblings or any other children I can see, and Tommy was never married, so I…" He trailed off, clicking a link on the screen and bringing up a window. "Oh, come on. Dammit."
"What?" Cas asked.
"Tommy did have a son, estranged, who lives with his mother in Ohio, uh…" Sam made a few more clicks on the laptop. "…Austin Reynolds, twelve years old."
Dean's gut tightened. "Is the kid still alive?"
He saw Sam open up a Facebook page. "As of an hour ago, yeah. He updated his status." Sam straightened. "But, I mean, come on. It's a kid. You don't really think Cain would…"
"Yes, he would," Ryn spoke up gravely.
Dean's forearm started itching again, and he clenched his fist to keep from reaching up to touch the Mark. "There were old men in those graves, Sam, women. I mean, you heard Cas. It's a fire sale. Everyone must go."
Which meant Dean couldn't put this off any longer. He started toward the dormitory.
"Where are you going?" Sam called after him.
Dean didn't stop. "We know where Cain's gonna be. The kid's in danger."
Sam's footsteps hurried after him. "Okay, so what, we track him down to Ohio, and then what?"
Dean steeled his jaw. "Then I'll do what I have to do. I'll kill Cain."
Sam followed him into his bedroom, but Dean ignored his brother as he grabbed a duffel bag from under the bed and pulled a shotgun off the wall, followed by a .45. Neither were the weapon he really needed, but he felt better with the extra firepower.
"Can we talk about this?" Sam demanded.
"When he gave me the Mark, Cain said that this day would come, that after I killed Abaddon, I would have to come and put him down." Dean had blindly agreed then, just like he'd blindly agreed to take on the Mark. Oh, how stupid he'd been.
Sam snorted. "Great. So you're taking orders from a madman."
"No, he wasn't mad then." Dean paused in his packing, hands fisting in the folds of the duffel bag. "Cain resisted the Mark for a long time, then I came, kicking up trouble about the Blade. I sent him down this path. This is on me."
So much was on him. When was he gonna learn his damn lesson?
"It doesn't mean you have to be the one to go after him," Sam pressed.
"Yes, it does. And there's only one thing that can kill him."
Sam's cheek twitched. "The Blade."
And that's why Dean had to be the one to do it.
Cas walked into the room, placing himself between the Winchesters. "Dean's right," he said, though his tone was heavy with regret. But it wasn't like Dean wanted to do this, either.
Sam gave him a pleading look. "Dean, wielding the Blade against Cain himself…win or lose, you may never come back from that fight."
Dean finally gave in to the urge, and covered the Mark with his hand. It was a death sentence. Had been from the start. "I know." He looked up at Ryn, who had followed them through the bunker but remained out in the hallway. "How would you try to remove the curse? Will it work if I…if I don't come back from this?"
Her mouth was pressed into a thin line, and she regarded him for a long moment. "Removing a curse this deep requires purification. As a phoenix, I can do that—by fire."
Dean's breath caught in his throat. "You'll burn it out."
"I'll try. But…" She let out a long exhale. "That itself could be fatal."
Dean wasn't that surprised; he'd known better than to expect miracles anymore. He nodded slowly. "Well, I'm dead either way, right?"
"Wait," Sam interrupted. "If Dean goes into this fight, if he uses the First Blade, will that make the curse harder to remove? Increase his chances of dying from this 'purification'?"
"I don't know," Ryn replied.
"I'll be able to bring Dean back," Cas spoke up. "As long as the Mark is gone and his soul is free of it, I can resurrect him."
Dean blinked. "Oh, alright then." What was one more resurrection added to his resume?
Ryn's eyes narrowed on Cas, but whatever she was thinking, she remained quiet about it.
Sam, at least, looked slightly appeased. "Alright. I guess we should get ready to confront Cain."
Dean nodded, and pulled out his phone. Time to get the First Blade back.
Castiel and Sam left Dean alone in his room, presumably to call Crowley and somehow convince the demon to give them the First Blade. Castiel didn't doubt Dean would manage it. Sam still seemed uncertain about the whole thing, but nevertheless went into his own room to pack his gear. Castiel and Ryn made their way back out to the library.
Ryn suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled him into the observatory. "How do you expect to resurrect Dean when your grace couldn't even heal your own wounds?" she hissed.
Castiel stiffened, and cast a look over his shoulder to make sure the Winchesters were still occupied. "My wounds did heal."
She scoffed. "Yeah, right before we got here. What should have been instantaneous took nearly ten hours."
Castiel bristled. "I can still muster enough strength to bring Dean back."
"So you can be the one who dies instead?" she spat, crossing her arms and turning away. "This is not what I agreed to."
Castiel's pulse spiked with a jolt of fear. "Ryn, please. Helping me means helping Dean. I can't—won't—let him fall to this."
"Do they know about your grace?" she asked, throwing one arm out to encompass the Winchesters' general direction.
Castiel gritted his teeth. "Yes."
She narrowed her eyes. "If they're willing to sacrifice you for themselves, then they're not worthy friends to die for."
"You can't tell them," he blurted.
Ryn's brows shot upward. "So they don't know what you're risking."
Castiel took a step closer. "Ryn, please, you don't understand."
"Explain it to me."
Castiel opened his mouth, hesitated, and then lowered his voice. "I rescued Dean from Hell. He was condemned to become a demon until I raised him from Perdition. For him to end up with that fate again…" He let out a shuddering breath. "I would have failed in the one good thing I ever did."
Ryn's eyes wavered with constrained emotion. "You've done other good things, Castiel."
"Maybe," he conceded, but only to placate her. "But all of them will be meaningless if this isn't one of them."
She looked away, jaw tight and expression pinched in distress. He hated to cause her pain, even if it was mild in comparison to what would happen if Dean completely succumbed to the Mark.
Castiel hesitated to draw on their past to manipulate her, but he desperately needed Ryn to stay. "I…know I don't remember, but if our…friendship—" The word tasted strange on his tongue, yet he plowed forward anyway. "—Truly means anything to you, you'll let me do what I have to."
She shook her head as though in denial, but didn't storm off, so that had to mean something. Finally, she turned back to meet his gaze. "You and Dean are a lot alike—self-sacrificing martyrs to the core."
Castiel's mouth quirked ruefully. Dean was a true hero; Castiel was just trying to earn his redemption. "I'm going to die eventually anyway," he pointed out gently. "I might as well do as much good as I can before I go."
Ryn's expression turned sorrowful, and Castiel saw her hand lift a fraction as though to take his. But then her fingers slowly furled into a closed fist and she took a step back.
"Alright, Castiel." Her voice dropped to just above a soft whisper. "As you wish." She ducked around him and back into the library.
Castiel watched her with a frown, that last phrase ringing strangely in his mind, like an echo he'd heard somewhere before. He was too frazzled to place it, though, and it wasn't important. Right now they had to focus on finding and stopping Cain, and then saving Dean from becoming the monster he feared most.
