Daphne's POV
It's been about two years since I have started hunting full time. I hate to say this but it's been kind of fun... I know my dad and grandpa Bobby have given me huge lectures about saying I'm having a good time but Balthazar always gives me a smirk and I know he agrees with me so I'm not crazy after all. But I am getting a bit sick of the "It's not fun and games Daphne, you need to be careful." That they all give me all the time. We have hunted with Alex a few times and that is always a fucking blast. Again yes slightly ashamed but Alex is certifiable in the most amazing way possible and we got to hunt zombies the last time we were together. Balthazar did not quite understand why we were so excited about killing zombies but we were and thoroughly rocked it.
We are actually just leaving Alex who wants to go on a soul searching camp out in the woods with himself which I think is code for go into the woods and smoke peyote. But hey like I said my cousin is crazy but I love him. We've been on the road for about 12 hours and haven't slept in a decent bed in a few weeks. We are passing by Chicago and I decided we were going to surprise Cole and Gabe. They said we could always stay with them anytime and I need a good bed.
"Should we call them first?" Balthazar asks me stretching out in the passenger seat. He could travel via angel air, hell he could make me travel angel air, but for the most part we like driving around the country in baby. Every once in a while Alex will find some crazy hunt internationally and we'll go with Balthazar that way. Those trips we do not tell our parents about. What dad and uncle Sammy don't know about us hunting ghosts that don't even speak English won't hurt them. I am pretty sure mom and aunt Gabby figured it out but they keep their lips sealed, thank god.
The clock says 7 pm so it's not too late. "Nah, we're really close now and it's still a respectable hour." It only takes another 30 minutes and we are pulling into a parking spot near my brothers brownstones in the city. The twin sets are really close and both live together still. I am not sure what will happen if one of them gets married but for right now it works for them. We head to the trunk and pull out our duffels and get to the front door. I knock and am pleasantly surprised to see it gets answered so soon.
"Surprise!" I shout out hugging my brother Cole as he opens the door. He is to shocked at first to say anything then he hugs me back. "Hey sis what brought you in to town?"
"We needed a nice bed for a few nights and are headed out this way anyways. Is it alright if we crash here a few days?" I ask him hoping he says yes. Their water pressure here is freaking amazing.
"Of course, why don't you come in." Cole ushers Balthazar and I into the house and Gabe jumps off the sofa and runs to the door to give me a hug. "Look what the cat drug in."
"Love you too Gabe." I chuckle into his chest. All my siblings take after my dad and are tall unlike mom and me. So I am constantly talking to their chests and straining my neck especially when I am with Alex who is a super freak on steroids. He's 7' tall I mean who the hell is that tall and not in the NBA?
There is another noise in the townhouse and I tense up not sure what it is. Then a rather petite, well petite compared to the men in my family, blonde man who comes out of my brother room wearing a pair of navy sweat pants with a towel draped around his shoulders. It's obvious he just got of the shower. His gray eyes meet mine with confusion. "Hey babe what's going on?" He asks Cole.
Babe? Did he just call my brother babe? "Yeah babe what's going on?" I say with a laugh to Cole. Balthazar chuckles behind me. Cole looks to the half naked mystery guy than Gabe. Gabe gives him a look that says talk dumb ass.
Cole rubs the back of his neck like dad does when he is nervous and walks over the guy and grabs his hand and brings him over to me. "Daphne I want you meet my partner, Stephen. Stephen I want you to meet my little sister Daphne."
I extend my hand he reaches out to shake it. Once my silver ring hits his palm his hisses and pulls it back quickly. The next few moments are utter chaos. I grab the gun out of the back of my jeans and point it with deadly accuracy on Stephen. Cole immediately jumps in front of the possible shifter in front of me and Gabe runs over to get in the fray not about to let his twin get in trouble without him.
It gets even crazier in the next few moments. The room shifts and Uncle Cas appears in full on smite mood with his angle blade pulled and wings spanning out behind him to block his charges from the threat. That makes Balthazar flare out his wings and pull his blade. He pulls me into his chest and wraps his black wings around me, protecting me from the confused and angry angel in front of me.
Then the room stops spinning and the silence hits me. We are quiet waiting for someone to make the first move and all we can hear is our heavy breathing. "Alright I think we may have had a misunderstanding."
"Why are you threatening my charges Balthazar." Uncle Cas spits out his wings flaring out aggressively. I can only see my brothers over the tops of his raven wings. "It's like Daphne said I think it's a misunderstanding."
The angels don't back down. "Will you guys put the blades away and lower the wings please?" I try to plead with them. Uncle Cas eyes up Balthazar. "If you try to attack them and that includes Stephen I will attack back." Oh well shit Uncle Cas is pissed!
"If Daphne gets hurts in the cross fire I will kill you." Balthazar barks back. "Oh for the love of God will you two knock it off. You are brothers and those are my brothers no one is going to hurt anyone... yet. Now drop the wings and let me talk to my brothers."
It takes a moment but they both reluctantly put their blades away and their wings disappear again. Uncle Cas must know this Stephen well if he is willing to protect him as well.
"Ok so let's make this easy and quick. Stephen what are you? And Cole did you and Gabe know? And is he safe?" Those two questions will tell me what kind of problem we have going on right now.
"I'm a shifter." Stephen says quietly. Cole reaches out and grabs his hand. "And yes I have known since before we started dating and he's one of the best people I have ever meet."
That's all I needed to know. I put my gun up in a sign of submission and put it back in the back of my pants. "So I am going to want that story but for now that is enough for me. "
"Why don't I get us some beers and we can all talk in the living room." Gabe supplies walking to the kitchen. I shake my head and we all move to the living room. Cole and Stephen take a seat on the sofa and I notice they haven't let go of each other's hands. Stephen seems a little nervous, which he should be I am damn well trained and deadly hunter. Uncle Cas continues to stand next to them. I take a seat on the love seat and Balthazar takes a seat next to me and I can feel his tension vibrating through our bond. "I can't believe your brother is dating a shifter!" Balthazar shouts through our bond. I chuckle and elbow him slightly. Cole and Uncle Cas give us a strange look but I don't pay it any mind. I am the only Winchester to have this close of a bond with their guardian, and Balthazar I discussed that we will not be telling anyone about this development. It would show that we are too connected something we don't need getting around.
Gabe comes back in and hands everyone a beer and takes a seat on the other side of Stephen on the sofa. Now that I have time to look at him more I can see that he is quite handsome. I can see why my brother likes him. His features are bit softer than my brothers and he has kind eyes, something that no monster I have ever meet has had. He is slightly huddling into my brother who is happy to keep his arm around his partner. I can see him trying to comfort and assure him. It is quite sweet actually. "So how did you guys meet?" I ask Cole.
Oh I know he has it bad now. Cole turns and smiles at Stephen. "Stephen is a surgical nurse at the hospital with me. He was assigned to my OR the first time a little over 3 years ago. I guess you could say it was love at first sight. That was the most distracting surgery I ever did and it was just a simple gull bladder removal." Stephen blushes and leans further into Cole. Ok so my brother is gay. Not as big of a shock as the shifter thing but eh if he's happy. "I realized he was a shifter when we were leaving a surgery one time and I asked him to hand me my silver ring that dad makes us wear and it burned him. He didn't even know what he was yet."
So that makes my eyes bug out. "How did you not know you were a shifter? You should have been shifting since you were born?"
Stephen is pulled even further into Cole. He's taller than me but not by much so he sinks into my brother's body much like mom does in to dads. I can tell this won't be a happy story by the heart breaking look on his face. "I never knew my father. My mom said that he killed when she was 8 months pregnant with me. Mom and I always knew something was wrong with me. I mean I can't touch silver and sometimes before I realized how to control it I would shift into someone else. Mom was terrified for me, never of me thank god, and we kept moving anytime someone thought anything was up. She was worried if the government found out they would take me in for testing. Then I met Cole and he explained to me what I was and about the supernatural world. It's been a crazy adjustment but he's been with me through the whole things. So has Gabe and Cas."
"So you're a surgical nurse? How did you get into that?" Both of my brothers nearly choke, completely surprised that I am going to take the normal conversation route here and not drill him on the supernatural. It's obvious he knows nothing about his heritage and he isn't a threat unless he is the best liar I have meet. He chuckles. "I guess with what I was I got a bit interested in science and found I liked to help people and I became a nurse. "
Then I look up at Cole. "And why haven't you brought him home to mom and dad? Are you more worried about him being a guy or being a shifter?"
Cole blushes and looks down. "I didn't know how dad would handle the... well you know... me liking men part of the equation. And then how the rest of you would handle him being a shifter. This is his natural form. With a human mom he has a default setting you could say. Not that it can't be fun to um experiment with other forms sometimes."
Stephen hits Cole in the stomach and Cole just laughs. "That is not appropriate conversation in front of your sister." Stephen hisses at him. And I catch now what he means. Oh man not an image I need. After I shake that one off I focus back on the conversation at hand.
"And your mom how did she handle everything." I immediately notice Stephen's shift and Cole arm tightens around his shoulders. "About three years ago his mom died in a fluke home invasion right before we meet, it's been really hard." I can see the love between them. They are truly happy with each other. And Gabe obviously likes him too but I see his hand cover Stephen's knee with a supportive squeeze.
I look up at Uncle Cas. "So you have obviously meet Stephen then?" I ask trying to see how well he knows him. Uncle Cas shakes his head at me. "I meet him soon after they started dating. I was never concerned though because I could see part of Eve's good children in him." I could see the flash of pain behind his eyes when he said Eve's name. He still misses her. No still loves her.
"So have Rick and Luke meet him yet?" I ponder wanting to know I am I am only sibling who didn't know. Cole shakes his head. "Besides Gabe and Uncle Cas no one has meet him."
I get up off my seat and walk to my brother and hit him upside the head. "Ouch what the fuck Daph." I reach out and him hit again for that. "You tell me you have been with this boy for 3 years and he's your partner and you haven't introduced him to the family yet shame on you. Take him home this weekend so mom can fawn all over him and dad can kick your ass for hiding him from us all because you thought we wouldn't understand."
Stephen chuckles and Cole gives him a confused look. "What hun, with your sister being the only active hunter in your immediate family you were always most worried about her reaction and she is fine." Cole shakes his head and kisses Stephen softly. I want to go aww but refrain.
"Well as cute as this has been I have been in the car for 12 hours and just got off a zombie hunt and am ready for bed. We can continue this tomorrow. Can we crash in your guest room?" I try to stifle my yawn but it wins.
"Yeah of course you know where it is. Balthazar can stay out on the sofa." Gabe fills in while Cole and Stephen are making goggley eyes at each other. I don't think before responding. "No it's fine we can share."
That gets Cole to pay attention. "Oh you can share can you?" Cole asks me with an indignant smirk. I shake my head. "We hunt together guys we have been sleeping in crappy hotels for weeks and sometimes they only have one bed in the rooms. Act like adults for once."
I grab my bag off the floor and start to head to the guest room. I turn around though and look at Balthazar. "Before you can come to bed you and Cas need to work out that little pissing match you had." I tell them both then head into the room and shut the door.
My muscles feel amazing has I lay out in the bed and relax. I close my eyes for a moment before fighting myself to get up and get changed. I should probably make him sleep in the living room. I have developed a well I guess a bit of crush on my guardian over the years. I would never act on it because he would probably laugh at me and put me down easy and it would mess things up . But oh my when he went all guardian angel on my ass back there it well turned me on a bit. His wings flashing out and wrapping around me and the violent protective electricity that hums off him when he worried about me. Stop it Daphne. He is your guardian angel not some attainable boy friend.
He doesn't need to sleep but he will lay down in bed and kind of zone out with me sometimes he will actually sleep just to humor me though. I hope him and Cas work it out because I've never seen them fight with each other like that. More than likely it just took Uncle Cas by surprise. He probably felt Cole's and Gabe's distress and just came as fast as he could ready to fight. I can only control my relationship with my brothers not everyone else's though.
I've been sleeping for a few hours I am pretty sure when I hear the door to the bedroom open. My hand goes under my pillow to pull my gun out of habit. "It's just me Daph." Balthazar whispers as he comes in to the room. I let go of my gun and close my eyes again now that I know everything is fine. After a few minutes I feel the bed dips and I feel Balthazar get under the covers. "You guys good?" I yawn out.
"We're fine nothing to worry about. He just felt their distress and came without thinking. You know how it gets when we get all smity it's hard to turn off." That gets a tired chuckled out of me. "As long as you both are fine." My eyes start to drop again and I don't think I have the energy to stay awake any longer.
Before I can totally pass out Balthazar leans over and kisses the top of my head. "Everything is fine. Now get some sleep your are exhausted." I know when he's around I don't need to worry. He will never allow anything to happen to me.
a/n to a guest review they grew up in sioux falls. the mall of america trips were long weekend trips with just Lara and Daphne. I had friends who grew up in the Dakotas that would do the same thing with their moms once a year or so. And the reason they came home from Boston every night for dinner is because Balthazar is an angel so he would just transport them where they needed to go and when.
hope you guys like the new chapter.
