An Apostle of the Lord, Chapter 36
"Hi."
"Hi."
"Hey there."
"Hey dere."
"What's you name?"
"Whatzur aim."
Vladimir was trying to get the dragon boy to talk with him, but he was only getting a mimicked response. He tried a different tact.
"Okay, I going to call you Viktor." Vladimir pressed his hand against the other boy's chest. "Viktor."
He pressed his hand against his own chest. "I'm Vladimir."
Hand against the dragon boy. "Viktor."
Hand against himself again. "Vladimir."
"Vladmer," said 'Victor,' cheerfully.
"Okay, Victor, let's look at things and I'll give you their names." Vladimir took the other boy's hand and led him into the barn. "That's Eddie's Jeep, it's red...that way up there's my stash..."
"Cute!" said Sam, sitting with Dean and Eddie. "Vlad doesn't know a stranger. Seems he'll even assign them their names to be friends."
Dean and Eddie were seated at a table sitting out in the yard. Eddie had some marbles placed on the table and they were going to test Dean's new supernatural power. Castiel arrived with Beryx and Anica just in time to see the demonstration.
The plan was for Eddie to pick a marble and Dean would flick another marble at it to see what happened. They started simply with Eddie pointing at a marble which Dean couldn't miss. Then he moved the marble farther away. Then Eddie would point and suddenly move the marble to one side. Dean's marble swerved when Eddie moved his and hit it anyway. Another test. Dean flicked his marble across the table top at a marble Eddie pointed at, and Eddie at the last second picked up his marble and held it high above his head. When he did, Dean's marble suddenly swerved up into the air against any sense of gravity and struck Eddie' marble.
The group marveled over the demonstration.
"Bob did say straight lines curve in his universe," Sam said.
"Yeah," said Eddie. "Let's find out how long distances affect Dean's throw." He gathered some walnuts from the ground and laid them on the table.
Just then, they heard Vladimir shout from somewhere in the barn, "Aaaah! Don't eat it Viktor! It's a kitty!" Castiel's cat Cassandra popped out through the side pet door of the barn. Two other barn cats followed.
Castiel disappeared. Shortly, so did Eddie, being summoned by Castiel.
When Eddie reappeared in the room with the barn cats, he saw Castiel pointing at a short string of small fires. Eddie held his hand out and the fires quickly snuffed out.
"Did you just change the air around the fires into air without oxygen to put them out?" Castiel asked Eddie.
"You got it! Call me whenever you need an inferno quenched. Quick and easy."
They looked up the wall to where the boy Viktor was clinging to a beam with a dragon hand and foot. Vladimir was just under him saying, "He didn't mean it Eddie. I scared him." Vladimir coaxed his friend down.
"I see I'm going to need a sprinkler system in the barn," Eddie told Castiel.
Outside the barn, Sam and Dean were continuing the experiment. Sam, with a target walnut in hand, was pacing steps away from Dean. But, Dean, in his impatience threw his first walnut directly at Vladimir, who, as Dean expected, jumped to the side.
Vladimir jumped onto the side of the barn, then in through the door, up into the rafters, and finally down to the table. The walnut took a turn and followed him all the way around and out. It passed Vladimir, the turned back and conked him in the forehead.
Vladimir was shocked. So was Dean.
Then Vladimir was pissed! He leaped onto the table and bit Dean deeply in his arm, not letting loose when Dean beat him about the head.
Beryx finally separated the two, carrying Vladimir away from the table as Eddie inspected the deep wound.
Eddie pressed his hand against Dean's wound and Dean cringed in response. It didn't feel good inside him. "What'd you do?" Dean demanded.
"I don't know if Vladimir's bite could affect you so I changed all of the blood into pure generic blood. That means any unnatural elements were eliminated. Castiel would you heal Dean's wound now?"
"So," inquired Sam, "does that mean that alcohol is gone from his blood and Dean's sober for the first time ever?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Eddie grinned.
Nearby, Beryx was telling his son. "What did I tell you about biting Dean Winchester?"
"It would make me sick?" Vladimir guessed.
"Right! You should do this instead." Beryx held up the back his hand in front of Vladimir who watched it grow hair and the nails push out to form large claws. "Then you shove it up through his belly and rip out his heart!" He motioned towards Dean to emphasis his point.
"Bite me, Beryx!" said Dean in response.
"Hey, Vladimir," Eddie asked from behind Beryx. "I thought you lost your fangs."
"They grew back." Vladimir proudly showed them off.
"Well, I think we need to take Vlad with us now," Beryx pushed on. "Children aren't safe around Dean."
Anica punched him. "Quit being a jerk, Ber. Dean didn't mean it and Vlad is thicker skinned that you're pretending he is. We agreed to leave Vlad with Eddie until we got the san restored and we're sticking to it. Cas, dear, our car's all loaded to go. Could you give us a send off now?"
"Happy to." Castiel waited for the Tomeskus to get into their sedan, and sent car and all to St. Louis.
Continuing the walnut test, Sam and Dean did determine that Dean's walnuts did lose out to gravity eventually, and if Sam ran fast and far enough, Dean's walnut stopped in midair and dropped straight to the ground.
That test done, it was time for the Winchesters and Castiel to go to the bunker. Castiel was about to pop the three of them there, when Sam said, "Stop a sec, Cas."
"Vladimir!" Sam called out. "Do you know what you have to do when you want to teleport home?"
Sam lifted up on his toes and clicked his heals together three times, saying "There's no place like ho..." and the three disappeared.
That left Eddie and the boys. He took them in the house for supper and thought about what he should feed a dragon – besides kitties. Vladimir chose for them. A bowl of cereal satisfied them. Eddie fixed himself cheese toasties and took them with him into the hall as in the kitchen Vladimir explained to Viktor the niceties of pouring milk without spilling it and using a spoon instead of fingers.
Eddie set up a second bedroom for Viktor, then went to the small mirror in the hall. He lifted the veil over it and tapped on the glass, trying to get the attention of someone in Glinda's ballroom. It was some time before someone noticed him, and she explained that Professor Wogglebug was far away at the university at the moment.
Castiel appeared behind him. "Hey! You need pills from the professor for Viktor, right? I just remembered."
"Yeah. One to give him skills with English and one to not forget me when I do miracles."
"I'm supposed to be able to go anywhere and I haven't tried transporting to Oz yet, so I would be happy to pop over to Wogglebug's university in Oz to get them for you, just to see how it works there. You need to sleep, so you take care of the boys and I'll have the pills waiting for you in the morning."
"That would be so nice. I'm frazzled," Eddie replied. So, Castiel disappeared to go about his task.
"Okay, boys. Take a bath and then it will be bedtime. Viktor, I'll show you your room." Eddie hung extra towels over the towel rod and got a bottle of Mr. Bubble out of the closet. Vladimir wouldn't need English to show Viktor the joys of getting clean in a bubble bath.
Eddie passed Vladimir's bedroom on the way back to the kitchen and glanced in to see two pairs of feet sticking out from under the covers in Vladimir's bed. The boys were already settled in and fast asleep.
So, Eddie instead quietly wiped down the kitchen table and prepared for bed himself. He sat on his bed musing over how his 'daddy' instincts seem to have begun to kick in. He didn't know a bachelor his age could have them, but there they were. Suddenly being responsible for someone else made the future feel a bit scary, but mostly Eddie was looking forward to the days to come.