Zoey sat in the backseat of the Impala again, irritated that Dean wouldn't let her just teleport them to wherever it was he had a yearning to go to.

"You don't have to ride with us," Sam said placatingly from the front seat. She and Dean had been butting heads rather frequently in the last day, and he was continually trying to smooth things over.

"It would be just my bloody luck that as soon as I get you two to let me help, you would go and get yourselves killed," she snapped, irritated at both of them now. "So yes, I do have to ride with you."

Sam sighed and turned back around, and she rolled her eyes, leaned her head back, and suppressed the wish that a certain angel were in the backseat with her.

The connection Zoey felt to Castiel was scaring her. She wanted him around all the time, his cool hand in hers, or on the small of her back. She wanted to revisit that bed, when he'd been wrapping her in his grace ad she'd been shamelessly making out with him. She wanted to see those big blue eyes widen in surprise when he realized she was seducing him.

Stupid, Zoey, she chided herself. You're a half demon, you don't get to have relations with angels.

Before she could continue that thought, she sensed a rather familiar power flare to her right. She sat up and turned to look at it, trying to feel for it again. It had been brief… A celebration.

A celebration from hell. Literally.

"Stop the car," she said softly, tapping Dean on the shoulder. "We need to go that way."

He frowned in the rearview. "Why?"

"Someone call Castiel and tell him to get here, and we need to go that way," she insisted.

Dean started glaring at her, and Sam had turned around to look at her. "What are you talking about? Why do we need Cass? What's that way?"

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to resist the urge to teleport the car to the little town she had felt the power from. "That way is a demon who is going to drag an entire town full of souls into hell. We need Castiel because he will be able to spot a servant of heaven, which we need to kill the bitch."

Sam blinked, then, "Why can't you call him? You just have to pray."

She smiled, a little saddened, even after a century. "Sam, heaven doesn't hear hell's prayers. They never have."

xxxxx

When they got to the town, Zoey stayed in the motel room while Sam and Dean met the Whore and the head of the town. Castiel stayed with her, and she tried to studiously ignore the beds in the room. She could think of much better uses for them, so she sat at the table instead.

"How did you know she was here?" he asked.

She shivered at his delightful voice, but answered steadily. "I could feel her celebrate something. She probably damned another soul to hell, and got all giddy," she said bitterly.

Castiel turned to look at her. "How are you going to send her back to hell?"

Zoey smiled widely. "I'm not. I'm going to kill her."

At that moment, Dean and Sam reappeared. Zoey stood, tense. "Did you meet her? Which one is she?"

Sam shrugged. "Well, the girl, Leah, is claiming to be having visions. Visions of angels telling her what to do."

Zoey looked at Castiel, who nodded. "Yes, that will be her."

"All right," she said to the angel, "Who's our servant of heaven?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "I… I don't know. I'll need to meet the people of the town."

She shook her head. "The Whore will see you for what you are in a heartbeat. Same goes for me." Zoey sighed. "All right, I have an alternate plan."

xxxxx

Castiel looked at Zoey apprehensively. "What plan?"

"Why can't one of us kill her?" Dean protested.

Castiel watched Zoey roll her eyes. "Because, Dean, a servant of heaven has to kill the Whore." Zoey had explained this particular demon to the Winchesters already.

Dean gave Castiel a pointed look, but Zoey protested before he could. "Castiel has fallen, Dean, he no longer serves heaven." When Dean looked at her, she looked even more irritated. "You keep saying no to heaven, so you're out. And Sam and I, of course, are abominations."

Castiel frowned, then frowned at himself for frowning. Why didn't he like that? They were abominations.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by Dean.

"All right, Zo, what's the plan?"

"Don't call me Zo."

xxxxx

Zoey danced from foot to foot as they waited for the Whore to come out of her home. Dean had knocked, and asked to speak with her privately. After some hemming and hawing, the pastor had agreed, and now they waited.

"This could be dangerous."

Zoey turned to smile a little at Castiel, who was staring at her with an unidentifiable emotion on his face. His concern made her heart beat a little faster.

"No, it won't, Castiel," she said softly, shaking her head. "I can beat her. I know I can. I just didn't want to alert her to my presence until absolutely necessary."

Sam, on the other side of her, asked, "Why?"

She turned to look at him. "Because I was worried she'd alert the people in town. I can protect myself from pretty much any demonic or angelic power, but I don't know about bullets. I've never tried to stop a bullet, and I'd like to never have to test the theory."

Sam chuckled. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"What makes you think you can defeat the Whore?" Castiel asked, and she turned back to him, starting to get dizzy from all the turning.

"Because I can," she said simply. "Castiel, you know more than anyone how powerful I am." She took a deep breath. "No, she cannot beat me. I will win."

When the door opened, Zoey tensed, her body thrumming with energy. I have a plan, I can do this.

Unfortunately, the plan was ruined because as soon as the demon stepped outside, her eyes landed on Castiel.

The Whore snarled. "Angel." She held her hand out towards Castiel, and Zoey sensed power gathering there.

Shit. Zoey quickly moved to stand in front of the angel and met the Whore's eyes. "Gotcha," she snarked, then held her own hand out and wrapped.

The Whore's scream was silenced by Zoey's demonic power, and Zoey swathed the demon in several layers of it. She then closed her eyes and concentrated on opening a hole. There was a soft whirring sound, and when Zoey opened her eyes, there was a rather crooked circle opened in the air. A circle that opened into nothing. She quickly pulled the Whore into the air, then shoved her into the hole, ignoring her screeches and fighting. Zoey then closed her eyes and concentrated on closing that same hole.

All in all, it took about twenty seconds, but Zoey felt exhilarated. She laughed out loud, tossing her head back. She turned to smile at the three men around her, but they were all staring at her with varying degrees of disbelief on their faces.

She frowned. "What? She's taken care of."

"What the fuck was that?" Dean snapped.

"Essentially a pocket dimension," she said easily. "I just kind of… Put her elsewhere."

"Where?"

She shrugged. "Don't really know. The in between? The abyss? Whatever you'd like to call it. It's bad in there, and that's just what she deserves."

Sam frowned. "What happened to 'war is brutal?' I thought you were going to kill her."

"What part of 'servant of heaven' didn't you understand, Sam?" she asked, getting miffed now. "We can't kill her. So I shoved her into the in between, and from what I'm given to understand, it's pretty damn brutal in there."

Before she could protest again, Castiel came forward, put a hand on her arm, and teleported them away from the Winchesters.

When Zoey opened her eyes, they were in the room she'd slept in at Bobby's. She frowned. "Castiel, what are-"

Before she could finish her thought, his hands were on her hips and he was pushing her against the wall. She gasped, and he used the advantage to kiss her hard. It took only a moment before Zoey caught up. When she did, she went on tiptoe and kissed him back, her arms wrapping around his neck. She whimpered and opened when his tongue ran across her bottom lip, and he swept into her mouth, tasting and owning her all at the same time.

He pulled away quickly, breathing hard, staring down at her. She stared right back, and her breathing was a bit fast, itself.

She smiled. "You're rather good at that, Castiel."

He frowned. "I do not know why."

xxxxx

Castiel teleported them back to the Winchesters once he let Zoey go, still unsure of why he'd done what he'd done. He let Zoey make up a flimsy excuse as to where they'd gone, since he had no idea what to say. And because the Winchesters were intimidated by her now, he had his suspicions that they wouldn't question her.

He couldn't tell her why he'd done that, why he'd taken her away to kiss her. He couldn't explain it to himself, much less to her.

What he did know is that, far from being intimidated by her blatant display of power, Castiel had been… Intrigued? No, that didn't quite cover it. Intrigued wasn't a strong enough word to describe the compulsion that had overcome him.

Wildly aroused probably did a better job of it.

xxxxx

Hi, beautiful readers! Here are my notes:
I own only Zoey Crane, the original character. I don't own Supernatural or any of the characters. (heartbroken)
Reviews, comments, and kudos give me life and keep me going.
And, as always, thank you for reading, you beautiful, beautiful people.
**We're gonna have to go down to weekly updates for a while, guys, I'm sorry. I'm in the nonprofit world, specifically animal welfare, and this is both a slow season (which means harried fundraising), and a busy season (lots of little furry ones left out in deadly cold weather), so my life has exploded. 3 I love you guys, as soon as things slow down, we're back to every few days, I promise.
**I don't know what's up with Zoey, guys, she constantly confounds me. She just... Really wants to make out with Castiel. Like, a lot.