Chapter 9
This couldn't be right. It had to be some sort of a joke. Sam looked up at his brother as he was working on their map posted on the wall. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Angela rubbing her sword again. She was deep in thought herself as she was trying to go through her memories and knowledge of anything that was interested in virgins and gold. He looked back down at his laptop and tried again. There had to be a fluke in there somewhere.
When the same results kept popping up after he tried different ways of entering the specifics, he was at his wit's end. "This can't be possible."
Dean had been marking the abductions trying to see if the patterns might help to identify what it was they were looking for. He heard the exasperated tone and could tell something was frustrating Sam. "Try me."
Sam looked at his brother's back feeling like he was setting himself up for some teasing and replied, "I Googled 'fire,' 'claws,' 'flying,' 'stealing virgins and gold' and it all takes me to the same place."
"Where?"
"World of Warcraft websites," Sam huffed feeling like the universe was against him in this one. He used what the latest victim told him and Dean about her attacker. It had been one of those surprising moments to learn that what she saw may have been a giant bat but they had taken it seriously even though they joked about her being raped by Batman.
They did hit on a gem in that the girl that was attacked wasn't a virgin. Angela had commented when they were outside of the hospital that while some people may shout 'do over' in terms of rituals and supernatural beings, it was more black and white. You were or you weren't and in this case the girl wasn't hence she wasn't taken but her gold ring was. And that was what had Sam trying to figure things out when he revealed what his hits got him.
Dean heard his brother's reply and thought that maybe Sam had screwed up but not intentionally. He turned to look at him. "I don't know what that means."
Sam looked at Dean, surprised that he didn't get it and prompted, "Dragons, dude." At the look he was getting he continued, "See? Told you. Not possible."
Dean thought it was crazy but since they did have weird on their plates. "Actually, it might be."
"How? In what reality?"
Angela had been listening to the entire conversation and thought about it. It made sense and there were a few things she hadn't mentioned before. At the time it hardly seemed relevant. She voiced, "Lord Onigen."
Sam and Dean looked at her and Sam asked, "An Oni demon?"
Angela made a slight face like she was trying to make it sound less than what it was, "Well… He did invent the golden dragon fighting style he taught me and the family crest does have a dragon in it. Also legend says that the family is descendant from dragons."
It was probably the strangest thing to hear but in a way it was a reminder that they had come across strange and unusual before with her. Dean thought about it and nodded, "It has been a strange year. We should get a second opinion."
Sam couldn't help but make a slight exasperated sound when Dean walked over to grab his phone. "Dean…" He gave up when it was clear that the call was being made. He looked at Angela, "Did you really have to encourage this?"
Angela put the tip of her blade on the floor and leaned on it. "Well, it kind of makes sense and then again it doesn't. I really don't know how true that legend is but there were a few things Onigen showed me and they didn't quite fit." She shrugged her shoulders and continued to lean against the hilt.
Sam sighed, knowing that he really couldn't argue against it. After all they had seen strange things and it seemed to increase the moment they met Angela. He gave a nod and studied her as she leaned on her blade. It was then that he noticed that Absolution looked a little different. He couldn't put his finger on it but it was there. It was put on the back burner when Dean got a hold of Bobby and asked, "What do you know about dragons?"
Dean heard Bobby's response and knew that this was sounding crazier by the minute but… He said, "Seriously."
Well they're not like the Loch Ness monster, Dean. Dragons aren't real.
Dean rolled his eyes slightly at the response. They were desperate so he asked, "Could you make a few calls?"
To who? Hogwarts?
"Try Christian's family," Angela shouted so that Bobby could hear her. "He's a Dragonov."
Dean turned to look at Angela like she was crazy. He asked, "You got that? Can you humor me?"
Fine.
Dean grinned slightly, "You're a gentleman and a scholar."
Yeah, yeah. How's Memento doing over there? He caught you in any lies yet?
"Everything's fine. Sam says hey," Dean replied as smoothly as he could. Sam hadn't caught him yet and Angela knew a few things and said she would tell Sam if he asked. He hung up and stared at his phone for a bit. He knew that he was really toeing a line here and he knew that the lying got them nowhere.
"Everything, okay?"
Dean looked over to see Sam looking at him with concern. He saw Angela sitting with her sword propped against her shoulder and looking at him with that look that encouraged him to come clean but she wasn't going to rat him out if he didn't. He frowned slightly as he replied, "Yeah."
"Bobby say anything?"
"Nope."
Sam stared at Dean as he got up to go do something to fill the time. Something was up with his brother and not just Dean. Bobby had been acting funny as well. He didn't say anything since he figured it was something else but… He was broken out of his thoughts when he felt Angela's hand on his shoulder. He looked up and gave a lopsided smile at her and was rewarded with a gentle massage.
"Hey grab another room for that."
Sam scowled at Dean but calmed down since Angela just massaged his shoulder some more before she went to put Absolution down. He went back to seeing if there was anything other than dragons that could be what they were looking for. He almost didn't notice when she came back with a book as thick as his arm and plopped it on her lap. He watched as she opened it and flipped it to a section and started running her finger along the pages. He asked, "A bit of light reading?"
Angela smirked as she looked at Sam and then at Dean who was looking at the book on her lap. She joked, "Yes. I've read it three times now." She grinned to show that she was teasing.
Sam felt his lip twitch and gave her a smile. Dean said, "Read it through in one go?"
"First read through… about twenty years."
Sam started chuckling since he doubted that and the grin he saw on her face said it all. She always liked to tease Dean about things like that. It certainly made a ghost of a smile appear on his brother's face and it certainly lightened the mood in the room. He asked, "And that was thorough right?"
Angela grinned, "Definitely." She sobered quickly and said, "Actually this is a tome on the Dragonovs, Christian's family. It's an official one. The one that the family approved regarding the history and all that. Fang boy gave me this when we started working jobs together."
"So a history of what?"
"Oh the usual, rise to power and keeping it. Dry as dust." Angela gave a knowing smile before bending over the page to read. "But informative about where the family is from and a few things. There might be something here on dragons."
"Yeah, you said…" Dean made a gesture.
"Dragonov, Dean," Sam said softly. "Implies dragons."
"Oh."
The room fell silent as they went about waiting for a return call from Bobby. After a while, Sam decided to trade places and look through his dad's journal. Angela was still reading the tome but had moved to the couch and stretched her body out and Dean was looking through the articles and checking out the laptop. It was pleasant but it also allowed for thoughts to run rampart and for Dean in particular as he glanced up and Sam thumbing through the pages of the journal and Angela was looking calm. He couldn't help by sigh and closed the laptop, "Dad never wrote anything about dragons. I promise. I'd remember if I read The Neverending Story in there."
Sam heard Dean but something was bothering him. He asked, "Hey, did we hunt a skinwalker lately?" He looked at Dean with a confused expression.
Dean made to look like he was thinking about it but in reality it was hiding the first tendrils of fear. He kept it together as he replied, "Doesn't ring a bell. Why?"
Sam was still frowning and he didn't notice the look that crossed his brother's face nor did he see Angela glance up to study him before going back to her reading but hanging onto every word. He looked at the page in the journal and relied, "I don't know. Just déjà vu or something." He looked downward to think some more but still… "Are you sure? I could have sworn…"
"You got to remember your eggs are still a little scrambled," Dean hurried to cover. He gave a grin to keep it up. "But, yeah. I'm sure."
Sam still wasn't sure about the whole thing but Dean was sure about it and he really didn't want to pester Angela. He knew she remembered hell since she admitted it somewhere in between rounds two and three and nearly freaked out about something he couldn't see. He decided to ignore it for now. "All right. Yeah. Never mind." He went back to looking at the journal.
Dean wasn't too sure and wanted to ask if Sam was okay. He hoped Sam wasn't poking at the wall as Sam was wont to do. It wouldn't bode well. Deciding to say something, he was interrupted by his phone ringing. He had to table it for now. Glancing at Angela and saw that she had lowered her book into her lap and was sitting there looking at him, waiting for him to answer. Picking it up, he answered, "Hey, Bobby. What do you got?"
Can't believe she didn't jump right to mind. Dr. Visyak. Medieval Studies, SFU.
"Dr. Visyak, SFU. Got it. Thanks," Dean replied as he wrote the information down. He ended the call and got ready to go. "All right. I'm going to San Francisco, figure out how to kill these things. You figure out where they are." He pointed at Sam.
"Did Bobby say where they like to park?" Sam asked the question accepting that he was staying there.
"No."
Sam sighed at that. "Great. Back to the lore."
"Which says what, that they live in Middle-earth?"
"No," Angela interrupted. "Caves." When Sam and Dean looked at her, she held up the book. "Fang Boy's some odd great-uncle had an interesting story about dragon remains. Unfortunately he wasn't completely right in the head and people thought he was crazy." She stood up to put her book on the table and stretched her shoulders.
"Yeah," Sam added with a cough, "Caves."
Dean had nothing to say about that except, "You both are such nerds."
Angela ran her finger along the page, feeling the oldness of it. It really was an old tome and had been enchanted to preserve it. It was in the cover. Absently, she flipped the cover over to take a look at it. She recognized the crest of the Dragonov family and fingered it gently. It was raised and she noticed the detail down to the eyes, which had her pause a moment. She peered at what made the eyes of the dragon that was looking out to the world.
She touched them and realized they were glittering jewels. She blinked at that since it looked like it was real. It didn't help that she started hearing whispers again. When she looked at the emblem, it seemed to come alive and she made a slight sound in her throat and blinked again. When she looked again, the emblem was as it was. She ran her fingers around it to make sure her mind wasn't playing tricks on her. All of a sudden the emblem popped off and she ended up making a surprised sound followed by, "Uh…"
"You okay?"
Angela blinked at the emblem that was in her hand. She heard Sam and managed to respond, "Um, I'm fine but…" She held up the emblem.
Sam walked over to take a look. He saw where it had been on the cover of her book. He knew that she would never deliberately deface a book and could understand her surprise. "What happened?"
"It just… popped off," Angela looked at it and frowned. "I…"
"Can you fix it?"
Angela looked at Sam with a raised brow, "Not really. Unless you know a sage that is fluent in the Draconis chants of the medieval times and is a member of the Dragonovs here in the state." At Sam's look, she explained, "It's enchanted. More specifically so time doesn't affect it. A protection of sorts."
Sam stared at her and the emblem. "But you didn't break it. You said it popped off."
That made some sense but Angela wasn't comfortable with it. "I know. It's just… Chris gave it to me. He said that one day maybe the Dragonovs could do some good for the Ice Queen destined to save the world." She made it overly dramatic while imitating the vampire that was a good friend. "I just…" She shrugged.
"He won't blame you. He knows you like I do." Sam put his hand over hers to reassure her. He ran his fingers over her hand. He tried to get her mind off it. They could find a way to fix it and he might call the vamp. "So… was there anything else on the lore for… dragons?"
Angela smiled and moved to put the emblem in her pocket. She would worry about it later. "You still think the idea of dragons is impossible?"
Sam made a slight face at that, "Just…"
"You do know we deal in things that are supposed to be impossible."
Sam made a slight sound at that. It turned into a gentle chuckle as he admitted, "Okay. You're right." He turned to go back to the wall with the map and started looking all around for anywhere a dragon may be layered up. He hummed when he felt Angela's arms snake up and hug him from behind. "You know we have work."
Angela hummed as she rested her head on Sam's shoulder. "I know. That's why I'm studying the map."
"Well I got nothing. Nothing for miles that resembles a cave."
Angela looked at the map and thought about caves in particular. "Hmmm. Try less literal. Remember the caves idea was before industrialization. What else is cold, dark and wet?"
Sam thought about it as Angela held him. He looked at the map. "Well there are no subway lines."
"Too noisy," Angela pointed out. She took a deep breath and added, "They'll need privacy of sorts."
Sam hummed as he nodded at that. That made sense. As much as he would like her to give her answer, he knew that she was doing what she always did. She made him or Dean work for it. If they were stuck she would give them a push in the right direction but they still had to do the work of coming to the answer. So he thought about it. The only other thing that was cold, dark and wet and would be a good substitute for a cave, "Sewers."
"See? Knew you were smart," Angela teased as she straightened up. She gave a kiss to Sam's cheek. "Now you have to narrow it down."
"Still making me work?" Sam gave a slight pout knowing that she wasn't going to budge. So he was going to tease her.
"I've been through enough sewers and once got caught in an aqueduct to not want to spend a minute down there longer than necessary. Plus the smell…" Angela wrinkled her nose at the idea of the smells that would be there. She didn't look forward to venturing down there.
"Is it that bad for your nose?" Sam looked at her with concern.
"If it's really bad, yes," Angela admitted, "But don't have time to be squeamish now do we?" She gave a sad smile at that. "Duty calls."
"And you don't have to do it alone." Sam put a hand to her cheek to caress it. He took the time to study her features. He had noticed the change in her hair and did ask her about it. "And… if you need time since you remember…"
Angela smiled at Sam's thoughtfulness. She gently pressed her palm against his mouth to silence him. "I'm fine with the work, Sam. Keeping busy helps."
Sam wasn't too sure but he would follow her lead. He was just worried. He picked up on the fact that she would stare at an area like she was looking at someone but they weren't there. If she was zoned out, she startled too easily and what she did say about hell was bare bones. He got that she wanted to work but he was also noticing that she had been pushing herself hard on this case and she looked tired. He voiced the thought, "You look tired. Why don't you take one of your cat naps? I'll wake you if I need help or when I find anything."
Angela wanted to protest but the idea of sleeping sounded good. "Okay."
Sam was surprised that she didn't protest as usual but he was glad that she was going to take his suggestion and sleep for a while. The other night she seemed a bit restless and she tried to work through it without waking him. He had been awake for a time until she settled back in. He couldn't shake the feeling that she had been awake longer than what he had witnessed. It was why he was reluctant to ask her about the past year in hell. He waited until she was settled onto the couch with Moira half lying on her lap before turning back to narrow down the scope.
It wasn't long before she was sound asleep that Sam picked up his phone. He wasn't going to bother her with this. He dialed the familiar number and waited for the other end to pick up. It gave him time to think about what to say without sounding accusing.
Hello.
Sam straightened up and looked over at the couch to make sure she was still asleep, "Hey, Bobby. Uh Dean is visiting your friend and we figured out where the dragon is layered up."
That's good Sam.
It was sounding like a kid showing off his prize drawing. Sam knew it sounded silly but he just wanted to know a few things. "Yeah. Um… Bobby?"
Yeah.
"You okay?"
Yeah of course. Why? What's wrong?
There was the opening and Sam took it, "Besides the way you've been acting and talking… nothing." He walked over and pulled a chair over to be closer to Angela. He sat in the chair and automatically reached out and stroked her hair. "Is there something I should know? Something wrong with Angie?"
No. All you need to worry about is where Godzilla is holed up and how to kill it. Angie will be fine. She just needs time.
Sam looked at Angela. He could buy that but there was something else that he couldn't quite put his finger on. He gently moved a lock of her hair away from her face and gently brushed her cheek. She didn't wake up but she shifted slightly and actually looked like she was going to get some rest she needed. He focused on the conversation, "Well, Bobby… what happened this last year?"
Had its moments. No more than usual. Got nothing to do with you, Sam. How could it?
"Right. Of course."
Call me if you need anything and… let me know how Angie's doing.
Sam was intending to do that anyway. He and Dean both had when she had been sick and her injuries were bad. He was going to say that when Bobby cut him off and he heard the click of the line being hung up. He made a slight sound as he put the phone down.
Bobby said that it had nothing to do with him but Sam had a nagging suspicion that there was something he didn't know and it involved him. It irked a little to think that Dean was keeping something from him and acting liked things were fine. Then that whole thing where he was sure that they had hunted a skinwalker… Something wasn't right and the people he loved and trusted weren't talking. Maybe someone had an answer.
Taking a breath, he closed his eyes and prayed, "Castiel. Um. I'm back, so if you got a minute..."
He looked around and behind him to find no sign of the angel. Angela was still asleep, which was a relief since he had forgotten that she was jumpy. He then heard the flap and turned back around and saw the angel in question.
"Sam."
A/N: Okay we've got dragons. Dean goes to learn how to kill them and Sam is figuring out where they park. Angie is just amused by it all. Oh and Cas may be spilling the beans. All of this and we have next time on Virgin Eyes...
