Chapter 20

Sam knew something was wrong with his body but he just couldn't understand what it was. It seemed like he had this sense of impending doom that wasn't there before and he didn't know what to make of it.

Eros kept glancing over him with an expression almost akin to fascination, and Castiel strode on his other side, very openly sulking. Behind him, his three Chosen kept his pace. He held a firm grip on his Recurve; an iron anchor in his ocean of inner turmoil, but made no effort to raise it. He could sense wandering vampires long before his companions, but the others were able to eliminate them before they got very close. Sam regretted not doing this with just his group. He felt the Fist were little help here, but that even these magically warded vampires succumbed willingly to the scorching redemption of Eros's Angel fire.

He could sense the Fist distantly behind him as he descended further into the caves depths. There were a few vampires lurking among them but nothing Dean couldn't handle. Just some lowlings late for the party. A nudge at his shoulder and Sam turned to see that Shane was offering him a flashlight. The area around them had gotten so dark, the dim beams provided little ground coverage. Sam shook his head at Shane and closed his eyes. He didn't need to see when he had the void to guide his way. Gripping his bow tighter, Sam fell deep into the mental abyss.

Dean spent the better part of the hour searching all the twists and turns of the upper tunnels before satisfying himself that all the vampires were dead. All that remained were the ones ahead of them, where Sam had gone, and the master himself. Dean swallowed down his anxiety and clenched his stomach to hold it there. Sam, Castiel...both were in danger and this thing was far too big for him to do anything about it.

Many of the hunters were wounded so Dean made the command to fall back to camp. Only he would remain, with two of his most seasoned hunters, to wait for Sam's return. The others gathered up the wounded as well as the dead and removed them from the cave. Later, they would burn those who didn't make it on pyres as his father had shown him.

With a final word from Dean to stay on guard, the last of the hunters slipped away leaving them in eerie silence.

"Go," Sam said sternly. He rested a thumb to his cheek and pulled it away red.

"I'm sorry, Sam, I'm so so sorry," Kim said weakly as she wrung her hands. A vampire had lunged at Sam by his right flank, and Sam expecting Kim to retaliate, was surprised that the creature was able to rake a claw down his cheek. Kim had frozen and couldn't take the shot. He could not; would not see her getting hurt because of this. He had no choice but to send her back.

"I need you with Dean," Sam said as an excuse to spare the girl further humiliation. "Because his angel is here with me. Go protect Dean for me, Kim. Please." This seemed to lighten the girl's spirit a little and she vehemently agreed to watch over Dean until Castiel's return. She turned back to the tunnel they came from and trotted into the darkness; flashlight bobbing in front of her. Sam sensed no vampires were left behind them, and only a few handfuls remained ahead.

"It won't be long now," Eros said, his eyes drunk from excitement. Sam glanced at his bow. It would be easy to destroy all of them right where he stood, but he was warned against the dangers of killing so many so fast. Already feeling as though the world was going to end, he might just lose his mind in the process. Sam considered it anyway.

"Alright," he said at last, "let's end this."

Another hour passed and Dean was growing increasingly anxious. Just how deep do these caves go?

Please be safe, Cas, he offered up in a prayer. Then looked at his two hunters. Oddly, the one appeared to be slumped over and half asleep. What the hell?

"Hey! Billy! What's wrong with you? We are in the middle of a hunt and here you are sleeping."

"I'm sorry, Dean," Billy said weakly, and the tone in this voice put Dean on red alert. Annie and he both went to Billy's side and examined his neck. Nothing marked him there so they looked over his extremities. Dean checked hands and feet, arms and legs, and then on the boys ribs, he saw a fine scratch of red charred black with poison. Dean swore under his breath. Fucking witches.

"Get him out of here," Dean said gruffly to Annie, "see if one of the other hunters in town knows a thing or two about poison. Without that, I don't think he will survive the night"

"What about you?" Annie asked reaching for Dean.

"I'll be ok. Just get back to town. Sam has this under control." He hoped he sounded a lot more convincing than he felt. Annie hesitated a moment longer, then turned to tend to Billy. She helped him to his feet and minutes later they were gone. Alright. That was about enough of this horse shit. Time for Dean to work in the way he knows best. Alone. Picking through the remains of combat, Dean recovered some sturdy machetes to add to the ones he already owned. He put them in his back sling and made his way toward the cavern extending out in the middle of the room.

Suddenly, the ground growled below like an eruption was about to occur and Dean stumbled off the path towards the corner of the cave. He tried to gain his footing again but the ground roiled beneath him and large rocks rained down from above. Urgently, Dean found a place where the cave wall bulged, and managed to shimmy underneath it. He curled into a ball against the wall and covered his head in a feeble attempt to protect his noggin from any more potential brain injuries. The world around him erupted in a shower of falling rock and Dean winced.

As soon as it begun, it started to subside. The ground settled below him, but the damage was already done. Dean was able to avoid any impact of falling rocks because his nitch against the wall, but it did not keep him from becoming entrapped. All around him rocks clouded his vision and blocked him from any sort of light. Dean tried to move some of the rocks, but as they tumbled others took their place making the little pocket of earth around him half its previous size. Dean reached out in the darkness and found he only had about two feet of crawl space around him. He was also shrouded in complete blackness which led him to wonder how much oxygen was getting through all those rocks. Dean couldn't help but bark a dry laugh. Well ain't this just fucking peachy.

Sam had lost himself in the hunt. For he was truly a hunter now. Vampires dashed at them in groups, trying every tactic they could to get within reach of Sam's throat, but the void tells no lies. He eliminated them in an array of flashing light. He did not know if the others of his group were killing in kind, and it didn't matter. Sam could have come here alone. He didn't need the Chosen or even Eros. He didn't need Dean or Castiel, Sam was one with the power that burned feverishly inside him.

"Do you see what he is doing Castiel? Do you see what he is using? He's slipping again," he heard Eros say behind him.

"Sam, please hold on…I can't…"Castiel huffed. Already the angel had laid his hands on Sam twice and Sam suspected this was detrimental to the angel in some distant part of his mind, but he brushed the thought away. None of that mattered. The master was in front of him, pulsing in the void like a red blade of energy swirling in the black night of nothingness. He was alone, and he was waiting.

Sam rounded the last corner of the spiraling cave to see the vampire sitting in a throne of stone. Even with his eyes closed, he could sense the vampire there, poised and sneering at Sam in the distance. If he strained he could almost read the vampires thoughts. The creature was ready to die. He knew this was his time. Sam had destroyed everything he had built up; an empire gone in a night. And then there was…

"Who is the Chieftess?" Sam demanded and the vampire hissed. "Who is...Serrath?"

"How are you doing that?" Eros asked, his presence shrouded in wonder. Sam drank up the angel's adoration and added it to the flame of his core. He smiled at the vampire.

"Tell me, Ultrad, what did Serrath ask you to do?" The vampire glared at Sam for a moment, shock painting his emotions and clouding his mind. Sam tried to dig deeper, to see what the vampire was hiding. The vampire winced from Sam's effort but said not a word.

"Get out of here, all of you," Sam said flatly and his Chosen moved to leave without question. Dig. Dig. Deeper and deeper. What was Ultrad hiding? What was shrouded in the box of his mind?

"Sam…" Castiel whimpered. His Grace was fleeting. Cas felt barren inside. He was so stupid to do all that. And not for Sam but for Dean. For Sam could see all of it so clearly now. All of them laid open, their secrets spread before him like a hand of cards revealed.

"Father in heaven," Eros breathed, "I was right! He's using Grace!" Eros, on the other side. Secretly hiding a brotherly adoration for Castiel that edged on sickeningly sweet. Both of them too vulnerable to be of use to him.

"Get out both of you," Sam said again as he drove a blade of spirit into the box of the vampires mind, prying it open bit by bit. "Don't make me force you." Castiel was about to object, even though he was far too weak to fight Sam even without the Recurve, but Eros took his hard and the angelic brothers departed without another word. Again and again Sam drove the blade into the secret box. The vampires face contorted from the strain. Blood oozed from his ears and eyes. To think, such a powerful creature laid to waist by Sam Winchester.

"What are you hiding?" Sam shouted and with the words drove all his force of spirit into the box, bursting it open and shattering it to ruins. The vampire screamed, a hollow unnerving sound, as his mind broke under the strain. Sam saw what he needed to see and turned to go, but then noticed something more in the vampire's mind. A safety measure, in case the master was compromised. The true reason that the aged being made no effort to attack him. Sam broke into a run.

The magic bomb detonated far before Sam was out of blast range and he knew it. Run as fast as he could, he would never get away. He turned as the concussion fell upon him and fired his arrows at the onslaught. In the last moment he bent the arrows to curve around him and act as a shield. The roar of the impact threatened to blow his ear drums, so he bent the arrows thinner to cover him in a dome. When the blast was past and the rage of the bomb subsided, Sam surveyed his surroundings unscathed. The wreckage mostly behind him, Sam was relieved to see the way out could still be navigated, and he turned to go. He didn't have to worry if his friends made it out alive. He could already sense them ahead of him. Sam laughed to himself, a dry wheezing sound, as he thought about sinking his arrows into all of them at once. Shatter the world with his will. He could do it so easily.

"Dean?" Came a small voice and Dean lifted his head.

"Kim?" he asked past the rocks.

"They sent me back Dean to look after you," said Kim and then in a softer voice, "I wasn't brave enough."

"See, that's ok," said Dean with a smile, "because you can be brave for me now, can't you, Kim?"

"What do I need to do, Dean?"

"Shoot your arrows, or whatever it is you do, blast me out of here."

"What?" Kim squeaked, "what if I hurt you?" Dean tried to steady his breath even though he could feel the air thinning. The rocks and dust around him settled in nicely to form a little air bubble for Dean, and the bubble appeared to be depleting.

"You aren't going to hurt me. Ok? You're a Chosen. You can do this."

"Dean," the girl's voice was pleading but he didn't let her continue to argue.

"Kim I am going to die if you don't get me out of here," he said sternly, "Now can you please blast the hell out of these rocks?" There was a long silence and Dean wondered what she was doing when a surge of light erupted in the rocks beside him.

"Holy shit!" Dean shouted and he curled against the wall as the rest of the rocks shifted and tumbled on top of him.

"Dean!" He heard Kim scream and then suddenly she was next to him frantically pulling rocks off his chest. Dean coughed and sputtered but then sucked in dusty air filling his lungs. "Dean I am so sorry. I am so so sorry."

"Kim," Dean said with a smile, "it's ok. You were very brave."

"Brave? By almost killing you? And look, I made you filthy!" For some reason, Dean found this concern of hers hysterical. Maybe it was relief that he was going to live to see another day, or that she was so worried about how he looked when she actually saved his life. He started with a chuckle, but before he knew it, he broke into rolls of laughter.

"Dean, did a rock hit your head? Are you bleeding internally, Dean?" Kim asked and it sounded so much like Cas, it only made Dean laugh harder.

Castiel dragged his human vessel back through the darkness of the cave. He felt as though he had run across three states without the use of his wings. If he could even use his wings. Castiel took stock of his Grace. Not even enough to fill a thimble was left in him. If Dean should be gravely hurt now, all Castiel could do was watch in horror as his friend died. He didn't even have enough to end his own life to save that of the hunter.

The quake that shook beneath him hardly registered in Castiel's exhausted brain. The rocks that fell around them were easily thwarted by Eros's own Grace.

"I am telling you, Castiel, he shouldn't have been able to do that. Did you see the way he was weaving that Grace? The bends he put in the arrows to make them turn this way and that…what he is doing defies all comprehension. His power is far beyond what is safe for a human to wield." Eros's words registered in Castiel like a soft buzz. His ears rang, and he trembled from the effort of moving forward; his exhaustion threatening to do him in. It would be so nice to find Dean and just collapse into his arms. To sit beside him, and watch the sunny days pass by.

"Dean?" a voice called out and Castiel lifted his head. They were almost out of the wreckage now, the other Chosen just ahead of them in the widening expanse of the cavern. Was that…Kim? No matter, he would find out for himself soon enough.

Suddenly a blast from above them snapped Castiel back to alertness. He pulled away from Eros, not even aware he had been leaning on the other angel, and sprinted up the cave. His eyes blind to everything around him but Dean's soul flickering in the distance. Castiel broke into the clearing of the large sleeping quarters which now were laid to wreckage from the quaking below. Before him he saw Dean laying under a scatter of rocks, Kim frantically trying to claw them off of him.

"Dean!" Castiel gasped and sprinted toward the hunter. His fear was coming to life. Dean was dying and he couldn't stop it; he couldn't save him. Castiel rechecked the amount of his remaining Grace, seeing if maybe he could ease Dean's pain or put him to sleep or...

The sudden burst of laughter for where Dean laid drew Castiel up short. He stood, gasping for breath, and watched as Dean laughed even harder at the little hunter Kim.

"Looks like your boyfriend survived," Eros said casually behind him, and shook his head. "I will never get human humor."

Castiel looked down at his empty hands. He turned away from the hunter and his friends; turned away from the angel that swore oaths to him. Castiel shuffled toward the cave exit wordlessly, and without notice, vanished outside.

Part 2- Epilogue

Dean had about all he could take. His brother, sleeping deeply behind him, still clutched at the bow that now seemed welded to his hand. When he resurfaced from the cavern depths, Sam had…changed somehow. He was rambling on about destroying the world and seemed to not even see them. They tried to take the Recurve from him, but the moment it left his hand, he screamed bloody murder. Eros thinks that his mind cracked a little when that happened, and that it would surely break now without keeping that bow in his hand. Eros thinks the angel influence in the bow was the only thing keeping Sam in one piece. So that's the first thing that was just fucking great.

Secondly, Sam was too incoherent when he was conscious to even tell them a damn thing he learned from the whole event. Eros said he made mention of a Chieftess and the name Serrath, but nothing else. Eros said that the split second Sam was without his bow shocked his mind so much that he couldn't form the words to explain what he saw. Eros said if they try to take it again, he thinks Sam will be lost completely to insanity.

Eros said, Eros said, Eros said. The problem was that Eros won't bother to heal Sam because he 'only answers to Castiel', and Cas…Thirdly, Dean hasn't seen Cas for two days. So they were back to that again. He's had just about all that he could take.

The hunters mourned and burned those they lost, and did what they could to save those they could. Billy died, of course. He didn't even survive the walk back to town. With word of mouth, the annihilation of over a hundred vampires and an ancient master reached all ends of the state and beyond. Hunters were flocking to them now to join up with the Winchesters. For it was two tales told, and two brothers people wanted to follow. The Chosen banded together and held vigil over Sam who they all silently deemed to be their leader. They guarded him day and night, and bound his bow to his hands with strips of cloth. They held on to the hope that Castiel would heal him. As he had healed him so many times in the cave.

Cas… how much Grace has he used to spare Dean's brother for him? It made Dean's heart hurt for his friend. He could barely comprehend how the angel must feel, and Dean knows that Cas did all of it for him. Which certainly made him feel like the biggest royal asshole that ever walked the earth.

Leaving Sam's side, Dean got to his feet and walked to the edge of Rexpoint; to where the forest loomed in the distance. He located a large rock, and found it an adequate place to sit.

Castiel? He closed his eyes and strained to send a prayer to his angelic friend. To his lover. To his hearts greatest desire. Will you please come home, now? Please?

Dean… a weak voice echoed in his mind, and Dean settled in to wait for his angel to return.

Castiel blinked up at the sun. He remembered how it felt good on his skin once upon a time long ago. Since leaving the cave, days have past under its blaring heat, and Castiel has yet to move from the open clearing in the woods. Ferns tickled at his hands, and the angel stretched his legs over mossy grass. Birds sang to him, and night crickets offered harmony. His mind registered none of it. His time spent in the past two days was submerged in contemplation.

Castiel… a voice whispered in his head, and Cas held out his hand, bringing his fingers to rest softly against his thumb. The voice faded away.

"Dean…" Castiel mirrored in a whisper of his own, and his stomach twisted. He reached into his pocket, pulling something out from within. Slowly, Castiel opened his hand, and looked at smokey blue liquid contained in a small vial. He studied it for a long time, lost in the thoughts that have been tormenting him for days. He had a decision to make. It was past time he made it.

Slowly; cautiously, he lifted the vial in his fingers and worked the rubber stopper out of its opening. Tilting back his head, Castiel closed his eyes.

"Looking for an angel?" Eros said and Dean turned to see the boy approach him. He grunted in response. Over the past few weeks he had to admit that Eros had been a great help to all of them. He is the reason they all survived. He is also the reason Sam is a human vegetable, but Dean tried to not think about that too much. One thing at a time. He scanned to forest line in the distance.

"Is he still out there, Eros?" Dean asked softly.

"Oh yes. Sulking as usual," Eros said with a chuckle.

"Is he…well?"

"He's alive, I don't know what more to…" his voice broke off and Dean turned to look at him. Eros stared off into the distance, his expression slack, and his eyes wide. "No…" he whispered.

Suddenly a scream slammed into them as it stretched across the countryside. Dean was to his feet in an instant. He never heard a sound like this before. It stretched on and on, never ending, never pausing. An eternal, wailing, scream.

"What is that Eros?" Dean said edging on panic.

"I told him not to take it all at once," Eros keened.

"Eros, what did he do?" Dean shouted.

"It's suicide!" Eros's face reflected the panic that Dean felt and suddenly realization fell over Dean like an ice shower. Without another word, he turned towards the woods and broke into a run.

End of Part 2