"You know, can't we ever track down something that's in a five-star hotel, or maybe a mansion?"
"Okay, I still don't get it. How do you know it's your grace?" Dean asked for what Lucifer swore was the millionth time. But, of course, Lucifer was impatient, now that he had a lead, so trusting his judgment on how annoying Dean was couldn't be wise.
"Again, as I've now repeated more than I should, but I will, since your brain can't seem to process it; I don't know for sure. It's a gut feeling. Like that feeling you get when you come home. It's a feeling of security, and it doesn't make sense that I would get that feeling from a random vampire if my grace wasn't behind it." Lucifer huffed out in frustration, folding his arms as he glared at Dean, who was looking at him through the rear-view mirror.
Dean simply rolled his eyes, letting out a sigh. "I hate that it's not a solid lead…"
"But it's all that we've got," Sam chimed in, his laptop pulled out on his lap, open and scrolling through the news.
"Are we still headed in the right direction?" Dean asked hesitantly, speaking to Lucifer, of course.
"Yeah. That feeling is getting stronger, though… like there's more of it. You don't think that little girl has it all, do you?" Lucifer posed the question, looking skeptical.
"A vampire like her? No. She's probably working for someone." Dean answered immediately. It was a gut feeling and his logic made sense.
"That would explain where they got their information."
"What do you mean?" Sam inquired. Lucifer hadn't given the pair the details of the fight.
"Well, when I showed up, they told me they had been informed I was dead. Whoever's giving them information jumped the gun a little too early."
Dean shook his head slightly, thinking of another possibility. "That, or they were being fed false information."
Lucifer nodded at the idea. He'd originally thought the same thing. "I think the girl we're tracking knew I was alive. She didn't seem as surprised, nor as eager to fight me as the others. I think she knew the truth and left the other two in the dark."
"So, they were bait. Lovely. I think we're dealing with professionals." Sam stated. With a glance over his shoulder, Lucifer could see several news articles and even reports on weather open. Sam seemed to be trying to track his grace by its supernatural properties.
"Professionals that would work with monsters?" Dean countered, skeptical about that conclusion.
"They probably don't plan to keep the monsters alive, Dean. Just to achieve an end, you know?"
"We're close." Lucifer interrupted their current conversation in favor of paying attention to the current task at hand.
Sam sorted through his tabs, closing out a few and focusing on a weather report in the nearby area. "So, get this: for the past five days, this town's been at a record low for this time of year."
"And you think it's…?" Dean began to ask, but Sam just cut him off.
"Yeah."
"Oh, that looks pleasant," Lucifer commented as they neared the edge of a city, old, abandoned industrial buildings coming into view. Lucifer was pretty quick to assume their target was in one of those buildings, and Dean and Sam had the same line of thought. "It's strong here… We should continue on foot."
Dean looked for a good place to park the car, before getting out and going around to the trunk. Sam and Lucifer got out of the car as well, following him.
"You know, can't we ever track down something that's in a five-star hotel, or maybe a mansion?" Dean ventured sarcastically, mumbling to himself as he lifted the panel to access their armory.
They were already prepared for vampires, but they weren't sure what else they'd find in there. Angels? Demons? Who knows?
Lucifer got to work on reloading the gun he'd used, as did Dean. Sam got out two angel blades, searching for another.
"Hey, Dean, don't we have another blade?" Sam questioned, still sorting through the unorganized arsenal.
"Maybe back at the bunker, but that's a little far away…" Dean replied as he finished loading his gun. He realized why Sam asked swiftly. "Oh, we don't have enough?" He glanced at Lucifer, who hadn't been paying attention until this point.
Lucifer caught on as well, nodding slightly, "I got myself covered, don't worry." And he reached into his coat, pulling out, not an angel blade, but an archangel blade. "You don't think I'd let you get away with confiscating this, do you? Or the other one, for that matter. Call me sentimental, but they mean something to me."
Ah, yes, when Lucifer first arrived, he was stripped of all weapons, including his two archangel blades. He'd recovered them both, but he only brought one.
Now, Sam would have sworn he hid both blades very well. He even hid them separately, just in case Lucifer found one. But Lucifer knew Sam a little too well. Just a day in his head was more than enough to find his hiding place.
Sam didn't say anything, but he did pull a bitchface, which, in turn, made Lucifer shrug it off.
Dean just rolled his eyes, closing the trunk since everyone seemed to be done with it. "What's the plan?"
"Hold on, hold on… what if it's a trap?" Sam pondered, "What if there's an ambush in there?"
Both Dean and Lucifer were struck silent, unable to give an answer to that, since it was a very real possibility now that it was brought to their attention.
The silence continued for a long moment as the three contemplated their options. Eventually, however, Lucifer broke the silence; "I think you should let me go on ahead. You guys can come in after, and-"
Sam wasn't fond of that idea, and he interrupted before Lucifer could continue. "That will get you killed. We don't know what we're up against."
"If they wanted to kill me, they would have already done so. But I trust you guys to back me up if I get in a tight spot!"
Sam groaned slightly, not wanting to go through with that, but Dean seemed to be on the same page as Lucifer.
"Sam, he's right. He should go in first. He's the least likely of us to end up dead that way."
It seemed Sam was out-voted. "Fine, be careful."
Lucifer chuckled at that, starting to walk up towards what looked to be an abandoned car factory. "Aren't I always?"
The boys remained silent, deciding to stay in the car and watch Lucifer make his way into the factory.
It was cold and damp. Two things Lucifer had never gotten used to feeling. The squeaking of a rat set him on edge as if he wasn't already struggling to keep himself calm. Chains clanked together as a slight breeze drifted through a broken wall, the wooden structure barely holding itself together.
It smelled. It was like someone upchucked several times and left it to rot. It made the former angel wrinkle his nose in disgust. He had to push past such a human reaction. He'd been around worse. Then again, he didn't really have much of a stomach until now.
Lucifer knew well that he wasn't alone. Just by gut feeling. That was more than enough to prompt every ability to sneak he had. He stuck close to one of the walls, despite a lingering feeling that it wasn't the safest place to be. He felt that if he even leaned on the wall in the slightest, the entire building would come crumbling down.
His thoughts came to a halt as he noticed something on the ground near the edge of the room. A light, which wasn't on, making Lucifer squint to struggle to see what the figure that was haphazardly left to the rats was.
Lucifer glanced back towards the door, half hoping to see Sam and Dean there, despite his orders to stay behind until they were needed, but they had remained behind. The one time they actually listened.
The cool, blue-ish light of the moon dripping through holes in the roof was all Lucifer had to see by. A full moon had overtaken the sky, almost adding more superstition to the whole ordeal, as if it wasn't already eerie enough.
He continued to follow the wall, slowly inching closer to the unidentified figure sprawled out on the floor. The smell from earlier was getting stronger as he got closer.
A loud cry of pain erupted from a rat as Lucifer stepped once again, actually managing to startle him to the point of a small yelp. He looked around again, this time out of embarrassment, hoping no one had seen that. And then he promptly mentally smacked himself for losing focus. Who cared if he got scared? This was a life or death situation, and, right now, embarrassing himself was the least of his worries.
Continuing on, seconds felt like minutes. Each step was more hesitant than the last.
But the eerie feeling began to fade, as a familiar one came into play. His grace. With every step toward the figure, it got stronger and stronger. His steps became a bit more rushed, and he abandoned the wall, simply rushing over to the… body?
Yes, it was the body of the vampire he'd been tracking. Trace amounts of his grace were present, but there wasn't nearly enough for him to absorb any of it. That was depressing. He thought he might actually regain some of his power.
Something was wrong. He could feel it. Something behind him.
In an instant, the former angel stood, and, in one motion, he turned, his gun out and pointed at whoever thought it was a good idea to sneak up on the devil.
And the barrel of the gun was pointed right at Dean's face, who looked… well, unamused.
"You were taking too long. We thought you might be in trouble."
Dean's words didn't really register with Lucifer. The feeling of danger was still there, despite Sam and Dean having come to an unnecessary rescue. He shushed Dean, deciding that silence was best, despite Dean's internal protest, silence is what came.
Lucifer had lowered the gun at that point, the dimness beginning to clear away as his vision adjusted.
Sam made his way back to the entrance, looking around as he took out his own gun, making sure there was no one out there, and Dean turned to cover Sam's back.
And Lucifer, for one moment, was left without cover, and that's all it took.
In one moment, Lucifer was ready to kill anything that wasn't considered a friendly, and the next, he found himself quite literally paralyzed. A high-pitched squeal filled his hearing, although Sam and Dean seemed oblivious. Blood ran from his ears down his neck, and he felt himself begin to collapse, but he was silently caught by an unknown assailant. And he was gone.
Dean shook his head and turned around to scold Lucifer for being so damn paranoid, but when he turned, he was met with nothing. Lucifer was gone.
"Hey! Dumbass! If you think this is funny, this really isn't the time for jokes," Dean bellowed with a tone of irritation.
Sam glanced back once Dean started talking, and, logically, he went over to where Lucifer last was. It didn't take much investigation to notice a fresh drop of blood on the concrete ground. Lucifer was only lucky that he'd left that much behind. "Dean, I don't think this is a joke…"
With some prompting, Dean looked down at the drop of blood, very quickly coming to the same conclusion that Sam had. This was Lucifer's blood.
To be continued...
