Dean was bringing his things into the hotel room for their latest hunt. It had been almost a month since his fight with Sam. They barely spoke nowadays when it wasn't related to the job. Dean just could not get past Sam telling him he didn't trust him. He didn't let Sam see it, but it hurt to hear those words. Yeah, he knew he'd said pretty much the same to Sam, but he had good reason to say it. Sam had changed dramatically since he got back. He kept things from him. He even admitted that to him. Dean, on the other hand, had done nothing to earn Sam's distrust.

When Dean got inside, he found his brother paining something on the wall using his own blood. "What the hell are you doing?"

Sam turned to his brother. "I found this sigil while researching last week. From what I gathered, it's stronger than any other warding we've heard of."

"Okay, so you wanna get rid of the salt? What if this doesn't work?" Dean said. This sounded good if it was true, but they didn't know that it was. They knew salt worked. He figured they should stick with what they knew.

"No, keep the salt. If figure this will be an extra protection," Sam said. He of course neglected to tell his bother the sigil would only work against angels. He didn't want to get into another fight with him over it.

"Sure, whatever," Dean said before grabbing the salt from his bag and getting to work on the windows.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

A few hours later, Dean was headed to the bar. He'd done everything he could with the case and now Sam was doing research. Dean needed a drink.

Dean just pulled into the nearest bar to the motel. He'd just shut off the car when he turned to the passenger seat and saw Cas. He immediately jumped. "Jesus, Cas, we've talked about this!"

"Hello, Dean, I apologize. I meant to come to you in your motel room. Is there a reason you deemed it necessary to apply angel warding to it?" Castiel asked.

"What? I didn't apply any angel warding. I didn't even know there was any such thing as angel warding," Dean said confused.

"Your room has a sigil that keeps us out," Castiel informed him.

It only took a second more for Dean to figure it out. That thing Sam was drawing earlier wasn't just some stronger demon warding like Sam had led him to believe. It was angel warding. "Son of a bitch! Sam put it up."

"Yes, I suppose that makes sense. Your brother does not appear to like us too much," Castiel said. He couldn't deny that Samuel Winchester's disdain for him unnerved him. Castiel knew that many humans didn't believe in angels, but he never thought he'd find such hate in one when they realized he did in fact exist. Sam didn't react the same way that Dean did to him. Dean distrusted him a bit at first, but it was more like a natural distrust for a being he'd never encountered. His brother seemed to downright hate Castiel and his kind. Castiel's only explanation for it was the demon blood. Demon blood corrupted people. It was likely that it had Sam as well. Castiel's superiors believed that anyway. They believed Sam was nothing more than an abomination that would turn on humanity. Castiel could find no reason to believe they were wrong.

"Cas, I know that Sam wasn't down their long enough to be turned into a demon, but I feel like something happened to him in Hell. Something changed him. I mean, it's like he's not even my brother anymore. He looks and talks the same, but he's different.

"Well, sixty years of torture does damage the human soul, not to the point of demonizing or even of driving a person insane, but it is damaging. It can and probably would change someone. That is assuming that he was tortured down there," Castiel said. He wasn't sure Sam was tortured. Perhaps he was brought to Hell to corrupt him further.

"What do you mean assuming he was tortured? Of course he was tortured," Dean said.

"He wasn't put on the rack like most other souls. He was hidden. It's common knowledge that demons wished to use your brother for some sort of army. Perhaps they were furthering that plan," Castiel said.

Dean shook his head. "No, he wasn't groomed for anything down there. I've heard his nightmares. He was tortured." That was one thing he was sure of. He'd heard Sam scream and toss and turn at night. Hell had been no better for Sam than it had been for him.

"Well, then perhaps the torture did twist his soul some," Castiel said.

"Or they did something specific to him to change him," Dean said. He didn't want to believe that it was simply the ongoing torture. That would mean that this was just how Sam was going to be from now on and he didn't want to accept that. He wanted the brother he had before Hell.

Castiel looked at Dean for a moment. He was contemplating telling the hunter about the demon blood. While torture was an explanation, so was the possibility that the demon blood finally corrupted him. It could also be a combination of the two. But he'd been told that it wasn't time for Dean to know about the demon blood yet. Castiel was usually very obedient, but he'd become very fond of Dean. He wanted to warn him about what could happen.

"What, Cas? You obviously have something to say," Dean said.

"I am unsure if this is something I should be telling you, but I believe you'd want to be prepared. The night the demon, Azzazel, attacked your family, it wasn't your mother he wanted. It was your brother," Castiel told him.

"I know that. He wanted Sam to lead his army of demons. He even gave him powers," Dean said.

"But you don't know how he did it. We do. He placed drops of his blood into your brothers mouth. Sam swallowed that blood and it became intertwined with his soul," Castiel explained.

Dean felt sick just at the thought of some demon forcing his blood into his brother's mouth. He thought he knew everything demons were capable of, but even he didn't think they could be that disgusting. "Why?"

"We don't know that. We do know that demon blood corrupts though. If you really believe something is corrupting your brother, and I think you may be right, it's likely this is it," Castiel said.

Dean shook his head. "No. It's been in him his whole life. Why would it just start affecting him now?"

"The trauma of Hell, perhaps. It could've made him embrace it. I don't know," Castiel said.

Dean was silent for a few minutes before speaking again. "Does Sam know?"

"I don't know."

"I need a drink," Dean said before getting out of his car and walking towards the bar.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

After a few hours of research, Sam decided to take a walk to stretch his legs. He just managed to get out of the room when he heard a voice behind him.

"Nice warding."

Sam turned to see the Trickster standing there. "Are you ever going to leave me alone?"

Gabriel shrugged. "Maybe eventually."

"What do you want, Loki."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Loki. What brought you to that conclusion?"

"Research. Loki is the only trickster that isn't a demigod, but an actual god. You weren't killed when we got you at the college. I thought maybe it was a trick, but maybe it was also because the stake couldn't kill you," Sam said.

"It's both," Gabriel said.

"So I'm right?" Sam asked.

"More or less," was Gabriel's response.

"So are you finally going to tell me what it is you want?" Sam asked.

"Didn't I already do that last time?" Gabriel asked.

"No, you hit on me and then you disappeared," Sam said with an annoyed huff.

Gabriel smiled and started circling around him with a lustful look. "Well, can you really blame me. You are quite pretty Sammy.

Sam rolled his eyes. Honestly though, he wouldn't mind doing the Trickster. Loki was quite attractive himself. He remembering thinking about it when he and Dean met him the first time. He'd never really had a specific sexual preference. In fact, he lost his virginity to a guy. So, no, he wouldn't mind. He'd been taken aback right after Loki hit on him last time, but after thinking about it, he found he didn't mind too much. "I'm sure if you really wanted to get laid, you could do so. Hell, I've seen the girls you've conjured up."

"True. I could even make a fake you if I really wanted, but it would be a poor imitation, especially when I got the real one right here," Gabriel said before snapping his fingers, teleporting them both to his bedroom. It hadn't been his intention when he original revealed himself to the hunter, but he could see behind the annoyed facade that the youngest Winchester wouldn't be put off to the idea.

Sam looked around. He was standing in a large bedroom. There was a king sized bed in the middle of the room. The lights were dimmed and there was romantic music in the background. "Seriously."

"Why not? Come on, I can see in your eyes that you really want it," Gabriel said.

"I don't date things I've hunted," Sam said.

"Who said anything about dating. I'm just offering a night of pleasure," Gabriel said seductively before gently pushing Sam backwards until he fell into a sitting position on the bed.

Sam couldn't deny that he found this damn hot right now. Not only had he always been a little attracted to the Trickster, but it had been an awful long time since he'd gotten some with anyone. Sixty years was a long time to go without.

Gabriel took Sam's lack of response as approval to go ahead, so he pushed Sam onto the bed completely and got on top of him. He started ripping his clothes off, all the while kissing him passionately. It wasn't long before he found Sam reciprocating his affections.