The vampires—half a dozen of them—closed in, forming a loose circle around them. Sam's heart plummeted as he watched them stalk forward with casual grace, as if he and Emma posed no real threat at all. It was impossible to tell which one might be their leader. They moved in concert and had obviously been fighting together as a unit for a very long time. It was too bad Castiel had decided to take off, he thought bitterly. They could have used the help.

One of the vamps feinted at him with a crude blade fashioned out of some sort of dark metal. Sam didn't take the bait. Behind him, one of the others must have made a similar move toward Emma. Sam cursed silently as the teenager dashed out to engage her attacker. The remaining vampires swiftly took advantage and closed in, separating them.

Sam could only hope Emma would be able to hold her own as three vampires rushed him, baring their fangs. He swung his machete, metal ringing against metal as the one who had attacked initially parried. He barely had time to turn and knock aside a blow from yet another attacker. Behind him, Sam heard the clang of Emma's Amazon sword meeting an opponent's blade.

Then he felt a phantom breeze brush his cheek and heard that distinctive rustling sound. Castiel reappeared, cleanly beheading a vampire with one swift stroke of his sword. Sam turned, trusting Cas to have his back while he helped Emma. The teen was fighting a big, brutish-looking vamp armed with a crude weapon that looked like a cross between a battle-axe and a carburetor. She looked hopelessly outmatched: if Sam had been under the mistaken impression that she was a normal girl, he might have been in genuine fear for her life.

As it was he was only mildly concerned as she ducked beneath a swing of the clumsy axe and slashed at the blood-sucker's legs. Sam aimed for the vampire's neck with his machete, a blow the vampire managed to parry, but Emma took advantage of the distraction her uncle had provided and slashed his throat from behind.

Sam jumped back, but not before getting thoroughly spattered with blood. Emma, with her superhuman strength, had damn near severed the vampire's spinal cord. A glance back at Castiel, and Sam saw that the angel had dispatched another vampire while his back had been turned. The remaining three took off running.

"Thanks—" he started to say, but Castiel shook his head, cutting him off.

"Get out of here. Now. Run!"

Sam and Emma exchanged a look. The angel had his head cocked to one side, as if listening for some sound beyond the range of their hearing. His face was taut with anxiety. "What's going on?" Sam demanded.

Castiel huffed out a sigh as a black comet trailing a tail of smoke behind it streaked through the trees toward them. "Leviathan," he said, resigned.

The ball of black goo hit the ground, throwing Emma and Sam off balance and leaving a shallow crater in which the goo quickly rose upright, forming itself into a humanoid shape. Another comet zoomed in and crash landed in the same fashion, black goo shaping itself into the form of a woman in a crisply tailored suit. The first Leviathan, a male, was equally well-dressed, the pair's black business attire looking utterly incongruous in Purgatory's backcountry forest setting. They drew long-bladed knives and advanced on Castiel.

By unspoken agreement Sam and Emma engaged the female, who opened her mouth obscenely wide to reveal a face full of sharp, jagged teeth as they advanced. She didn't stand a chance. Sam struck her shoulder with his machete, a blow that chopped her torso almost in two. Emma swung her Amazon blade and lopped off the Leviathan's head.

A metallic screech had Sam whirling back to assist Castiel, who stood locked in combat, his angel sword hung up on the knife wielded by the male Leviathan as each struggled to break free and take a fresh swing at the other. Sam's machete sliced cleanly through the Leviathan's neck.

Castiel immediately began chopping the creature into pieces. Judging by his reaction, Sam thought, they must still possess the ability to reassemble themselves here in Purgatory. Emma followed suit, hacking a leg off the female Leviathan and kicking it away from the corpse. Sam frowned as he watched her. He'd gotten used to seeing her eyes flare during combat, but this time the coloring had yet to fade, leaving a ruddy, inhuman flush around wild, bone-white eyes. There was a spatter of dark blood across one cheek and a smear of black goo on her forehead, but it was her expression that Sam found the most disturbing. The teenager looked vengeful, a half-crazed Greek goddess of retribution.

"Emma. It's okay. I've got this," he said quietly, moving to place a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off impatiently and aimed a vicious kick at the Leviathan's decapitated head. Sam thought he understood. They'd been battling these creatures for the entirety of Emma's short life. The Leviathans had robbed Emma of any semblance of normalcy Dean might have otherwise been able to give her, and ultimately, they'd taken him away from her, too. Even so, seeing the bloodlust lingering in those inhuman eyes was unsettling.

"Emma," he tried again, and when the girl didn't answer Sam resorted to his best drill-sergeant dad impersonation. "I said I've got this," he barked. "Stand down. Now!"

Chastened, she backed off and sat down to rest on a fallen log. Sam took care of dismantling the rest of the female's corpse, giving Emma a moment to collect herself. He was relieved to see her coloring had returned to normal after a minute or two. Castiel kicked the male Levi's head away from its body and walked over.

"I see now why you didn't stick with Dean," Sam offered.

"He has a better chance without me shining like a beacon for every Leviathan in Purgatory," Castiel said gravely. "Keep following the river," he advised. "If I can locate Dean I will send him in your direction."

"Why don't you stay with—Damn it, Cas!" Sam ran a hand through his hair in frustration as, once again, the angel disappeared in a rustle of unseen wings. He sighed. Some things never changed. Walking back to Emma, Sam dropped down next to her. "Hey. You okay?"

"I'm fine, Sam." Her tone was dismissive. Emma hopped to her feet. "Let's go."

Sam suppressed another sigh as he followed her. There was another thing that never seemed to change.


"We're never going to find him, are we?"

They'd just finished fighting off a pair of Vetalas. Emma's eyes darkened back to their human coloration as she wiped her blade on the monster's clothing.

"I was hoping Cas would have at least had a lead on Dean by now," Sam admitted. In the two days since they'd run into the angel he'd waited impatiently for word of his brother. Now it was clear that Emma had been waiting, too. Hope was cruel, Sam thought. They'd both fallen prey to the hope that their search would soon be accomplished.

"That doesn't mean we won't find him, Emma." Sam finished cleaning his knife and walked over to his niece, suppressing his own doubts. It wouldn't do any good for both of them to give in to despair. "Come on, buck up. It hasn't even been a full week," he told her bracingly, pulling her against his side in a one-armed hug. Predictably, she shrugged it off.

Sam followed as the teenager led the way through the trees, the river off to their right. After another half hour of walking the deepening twilight began to play tricks on his eyes. Shadows lengthened, seeming to take on the shapes of any number of monsters moving stealthily between the trees, making his already-heightened nerves jangle. Sam was about to call a halt when Emma stopped walking ahead and moved back to stand close to him.

"Want to stop for the night?" she asked, her voice hushed.

"Yeah." Another flicker of shadow and Sam held up a hand, instinctively placing himself between the teenager and the possible threat. His eyes narrowed as he squinted through the trees. There was definitely something out there, slipping from the cover of one tree trunk to the next.

The strain of the last few days overwhelmed Sam and he huffed out an aggrieved sigh. Really? Another monster to battle, now? Just when they were about to settle down for a few hours of rest? Motioning for Emma to stay put, Sam stepped out into the open. Okay, so maybe trash-talking whatever was lurking in the gathering darkness wasn't the brightest idea he'd ever had, but the days of futile searching were wearing on Sam's nerves.

"Hey," he called out. "I've got better things to do than watch you stumble around out there. You're not stealthy and you're not fooling anyone, so let's get this over with." He glared into the woods, his ever-present machete swinging lightly in his grip.

There was a snort of laughter. "...Sammy?"

Sam blinked. "Dean? Dean!"

"Sam!"

"Dean!" Sam forced out past the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat.

"Dad!" Emma bolted past him and tore into the woods.


Author's note: Thank you for all the feedback! I have tried to take it into account. Personal thanks goes out to Mayrem, CommChatter, Rose-MaxareBadass, , nani'anela, CatastrophicCarnival, reddevil47, RHatch89, opi, vsncheze, kitkatthecat, and Olivia Crane (x2!) for your reviews.

Next up, family reunion and Dean's inevitable critique of Sam's surrogate parenting efforts. ;)