Gabriel had agreed to come with them to visit their mother's grave, mostly because John had made a bad deal and it cost him his life...and the infamous Colt.
Sam had convinced Dean to at least make a stop so they could bury John's dog tags with their mother, so she had a part of him even when his body had long burned to ash.
It was Sam who found the burnt out area around a new grave.
"Oh boy. This is most definitely not a good thing," said Gabriel.
"How bad?"
"It's a cemetery, and this grave dirt looks too fresh. What the hell do you think?" asked Gabriel flatly.
Sam sidled up to his twin with a look on his face.
"About that prank to force him to admit he's upset about Dad's death?"
"Still on," smirked Gabe.
Gabriel loved movies, the more obscure the better. This month it was the work of Mel Brooks.
Plus this was his way to get into the yearly Winchester prank war.
"GABRIEL!" shouted Dean when he got out of the shower.
His hair held back by a hat with a feather on it, and instead of a towel he was in some mock parody of a Robin Hood outfit...the one with tights.
Sam was howling while he took multiple pictures.
"Where's Gabriel?" growled Dean.
"Going somewhere...Robin?" said Sam, howling.
"I am going to get him. I don't know how or when, but I will get him for this."
"Gabriel wanted me to give you this."
If Dean was annoyed now, he was pissed when he read the note.
Sam was grinning outright evilly, because Gabriel had told him what he had done.
Every time Dean got near anything alcoholic, he would start singing the song 'Men in Tights'...the entire song.
Gabriel had to leave early because Crowley had called him a few hours ago, all but screaming profanities about a bunch of magicals there to harass him for his best employee.
For all the hassle and headaches Gabriel gave him, he was one of his best. The demons had to go through Crowley just to use Gabriel to claim contracts early.
And they hated every minute of it. If Crowley hadn't been the one in charge of most of the Crossroad Demons, having Gabriel as his pawn would have made him the King in very short order. As it was he had gotten a...promotion...of sorts.
He was now in charge of all the contracts managed by the pit demons. It had taken him months to sort through half that crap, and it cost Gabriel thirty markers to insure that his mother, who had apparently made a demon deal before he and Sam were even born went to where she belonged.
And it cost Gabriel another thirty markers just to get the profiles of Mary Winchester, her parents, and the entire family tree.
Apparently Hunting ran very deep on the mother's side of the family. Nearly seventy-five percent of the people on Mary's side were hunters, or researchers. Be fun to see the look on his brother's faces when they heard about that.
Gabriel couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Dean handed over the keys to the Impala," said Gabe incredulous.
"And then the same guy turns out to have the same powers as me," said Sam, equally surprised.
"Shit. He must be one of the psychics Azazel jump started. That sounds far too much like the Imperious curse for me to be happy. I'm on my way now," said Gabriel.
Gabriel got there in time to get hit with a haymaker from Dean.
"That was for the tights," he said.
"Fair enough. Just means I'll have to unleash the twin's old pranks on your ass later," said Gabriel rubbing his jaw.
"Oh no, you are not joining Sam's side in our yearly prank war!" said Dean.
"I'm not joining either side. I'm on my own, remember?" smirked Gabriel, "So what news do you have?"
"So far we've found that the guy was adopted and that his mother was only killed recently..." said Dean.
"Lead on."
It took Gabriel exactly five seconds to realize what was really going on.
"He has a twin," he said flatly.
"How can you be sure?"
"Take a long look at his eyes. One's turning green. And since from the surprised look on his face means this is recent, that can sometimes mean that the person has a twin they aren't aware about. Now the only question is where his twin is, and why he's killing people."
Gabriel didn't say that he got this info from Crowley, who had compiled a list of all those dosed with demon's blood to fight in this stupid tournament. It had taken ten souls to get the information and another five to make it self-updating. According to the list this guy had a twin brother.
Unfortunately it didn't come with photographs, just their names and the basics of their abilities...and it updated once a month.
Gabriel kept half an eye out for anyone displaying an unusually high amount of psi, and it took him two days to find the guy. From there he cornered the murdering bastard and gave him a dose of his own medicine by bringing out the pack.
The idiot actually shit himself in fear when he realized that not only did his power not work on Gabriel, but the other psychic came with a pack of invisible monsters that could and would rend him to pieces once Gabriel gave the mental command.
Sam still hadn't figured out the trick of mental control over the hounds. Then again he didn't keep a pack of them as guard dogs whenever they parked on the side of the road to get some much needed sleep.
Gabriel was sleeping off yet another hunt, this time a known career criminal who had found a way to evade the cops by making a deal, when his alarms went off.
He had two options. He could either go out and deal with whatever was trying to break into his 'house' (which was actually a tent inside several strong wards that activated the minute he set up shop) or he could let the pack kill the thing. It wasn't Loki, since he was long since keyed into the wards to the point he could pop into the tent directly using his angel powers.
Gabriel looked at the time, and rolled over.
However sleep was not to be, as the sound of the hellhound pack's snarls dragged him out of the warm embrace of Morpheus. Muttering enough curses under his breath to make even a seasoned lady of the night blush, Gabriel put on his work outfit and grabbed a gun. Considering whoever was trying to break in had woken him up when all he wanted was sleep, he took the gun off the default setting...which was a beanbag round to wing anyone long enough to cuff them...and went outside.
"Wizards. Of course it would be you idiots," he growled. He cocked the gun and got the more up-to-date of the group to immediately freeze in their tracks.
"Harry..." said one of the women and it took him a moment to realize that it was Granger. Mostly because she was actually wearing something close to the latest fashions and her hair wasn't bushy anymore.
Gabriel realized with a snort that she had probably been picked to try and seduce him...which wasn't happening after she betrayed him.
"Granger. Like my guard dogs?" he asked, not leaving his wards.
She looked at him wide eyed.
"These are yours?" she said in shock. Only the darkest of wizards had hellhounds as pets!
Gabriel snorted.
"Crowley was rather generous to his favorite hunter. Of course I had the pagan god Loki help to make the wards around my house. Now I'm not feeling generous so you have two minutes to either leave or explain your reasoning for tracking me down in the States before I start shooting and give them the command to kill you all," he said with a drawl.
Hermione gulped, but launched into a tale of how the European wizards had realized their mistake and had decided to award him the gold for killing Voldemort and the Death Eaters singlehandedly. How McGonagall had offered to give him the Defense post if they found him, or the chance to be Head Auror without going through training. All of the status and gold taken from him when they learned he was only a Potter by adoption returned...
Gabriel listened to the lies, never once lowering his weapon. The hounds were just waiting to rip these fools apart.
When her arguments started to repeat, she shut her mouth and waited for his answer.
"No."
"No?" she repeated dumbly.
"You think I'm the same naïve fool who followed the idiots who ran the 'Light' side without a question? I've moved on, Granger, and I know you idiots never bothered to do that much. You want me back because I stole nearly all the gold to make galleons before I left and because I'm more magically powerful than any other wizard in Europe. I'm not a fool, and my eyes were opened when you bastards left me for dead after you found out I was a first gen. I like my life working for the demons collecting contracts, and I have no use for any witch from Europe. So no, you can take all your pretty offers and shove them up your collective ass," he said flatly, aiming the gun at the first red head he saw.
"What if we were to sweeten the deal?" asked Granger, looking uncomfortable at the gun aimed at her face.
"With what? Having you whore yourself out to reel me back in because of some puppy love I once had for you before I was thrown to the side? Sorry to say, Granger, but you simply don't appeal to me anymore. Whatever feelings I had for you died when you left me in that ditch to be captured by the Death Eaters. I've found someone else," said Gabriel not even looking remotely interested in the girl.
Gabriel sensed someone exiting the tent and felt gratification when he felt a familiar pair of arms around his waist.
"Sensed my foul mood, did you Lo?" he asked without turning around.
Loki smirked behind him.
"More like Crowley called and gave me a head's up about the fact these idiots finally tracked you down through another demon. Said he wanted to give you some time to kill them before letting me know they found you," said Loki.
Granger looked like she had been slapped with a dead fish that had rotted in the noonday sun too long.
"You've really become a freak, haven't you?" she said in disgust.
"Lo, would that no-fly thing in England still be in effect?"
"War ended. No reason to avoid it, even if the demons are running amok making deals since the power-vacuum you left," said Loki.
"Good. Now would he be upset if I sent a rather pointed message to the magicals back in Europe?"
Loki looked at their souls.
"They look about ready to fall on their own terms, so I doubt he'll complain too much," said Loki.
Gabriel's smirk was cold and predatory. The magicals suddenly realized that their time alive was soon up, if they didn't leave and now. However that time had passed and Gabriel had brought up wards to prevent leaving unless they had angelic support. And with Loki there, that wasn't happening either.
"Time's up. Hope you've updated your wills, because you're not leaving here alive," he said coldly.
It was particularly satisfying shooting Granger in the ass before she managed to 'escape'. The others were all mauled or eaten by the pack.
Loki put Gabriel back to sleep, mostly to keep him from finishing the job. One of the tricks he had picked up since leaving England was the ability to track an apparition to the magical who used it.
And after all the crap England put him through, only to attempt to drag him back now...well, if Loki didn't put Gabriel to sleep then chances were he would try to end them just because he could. For even a semblance of closure.
The last thing he needed was for Gabriel to go on a vengeance streak and fall before he even had a chance to become an angel.
"What's up Loki? Got a hot case for us?" asked Puck eagerly.
"Better believe it. Seems the Magicals over in Europe want their savior back, but there's no way in the Pit I'm letting them get their hands on one of mine. Now I'm going to have my hands full keeping Gabe here in America and those idiots off his ass. But that doesn't mean I'm going to allow them to do as they please. Which is why I'm here to spread the word to you guys...the no-fly order in England was rescinded," said Loki popping a sucker into his mouth.
"Really?" asked Puck eagerly.
The trickster gods had been somewhat disappointed that Europe had a no-god rule since Voldemort returned. With that rule gone, that meant it was open season again for all the arrogant idiots there...and there were a lot thanks to inbreeding.
"You know what that means don't you? It's gonna be a free-for-all now. Aside from having to avoid demons anyway," said Loki grinning.
Puck cackled. Now that was news he couldn't wait to spread to the other tricksters!
"So you staying here? Too bad, you have some fun ideas for these idiots," said Puck.
Loki was infamous among the trickster gods, if only because he had been 'killed' multiple times but it had never taken.
"I know. But better I stay here and let you guys have all the fun for a change than to risk loosing Gabe," said Loki.
Puck looked at him oddly.
"This guy must be really important if you're passing up karmic justice to inbred morons."
"You have no idea."
Gabriel woke up in his tent, his wards still very much active and to the sound of the hounds chewing on something.
Looking outside he found them gnawing on thighs and spines, with wands turned into splinters on the ground.
Gabriel yawned...he had seen far worse during his tenure as Voldemort's favorite training tool and frankly he needed coffee before he was willing to even remotely care about the dead magicals outside his door.
His phone rang during his second cup of strong coffee.
"Gabe here... Whoa, whoa, whoa. What in the pit's name do you mean you've found a crossroads demon? No, I'm not about to waste one of my soul chips for someone I don't even know! Sam, the only time I break a contract for someone else is if they made a deal for unselfish reasons like saving someone they loved."
Sam then proceeded to tell him the man they had tracked down who had made a deal to save his wife.
Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Alright, I'll make a few calls. Tell Dean to sit tight or I'll shoot him myself," said Gabriel, "Now what was this guy's name again?"
A few minutes later...
"Crowley. What do you want Gabriel?" said Crowley making a face. It had been several weeks since his personal collector had called, let alone used up a favor.
Crowley went to his cabinet and used a little magic to look up the contract file.
"Yeah I got it. Says here the man sold his soul to get his wife's health back. Got a few hours before his time is up. What do you mean you brothers stumbled across one of my dealers? So they found one of my underlings and are going to kill her to break the contract? You did tell them it doesn't work like that right?"
"Of course I told them. Thanks to me you hold all the contracts the demons make unless a higher one takes control of it for a price. Killing this twit won't make a damn bit of good because you still have it."
"So what are you planning?"
"How many souls would it take to break this contract and keep them out of trouble?"
"Two."
"Done. Now do I have to show up to call off the hounds or will the demon leave this guy alone?"
"Hold on," said Crowley, grabbing a special stamp from his desk as he held the phone against his ear. He tapped it with his magic, giving it a blood red coat and stamped it on the contract.
A bright red 'COMPLETED' was stamped on the file, and he put it back in the cabinet.
"Right, this guy's free to go. But you might want to make sure that she get's the message in time, otherwise he'll be mauled anyway."
"Don't I know it. Thanks Crow," said Gabriel before he hung up.
