Chapter 37: Met A Girl Who Sang The Blues
Sam did as he was told and hoisted his brother up as best as he could and dragged him back through the forest to where they'd left the car.
"I think you'd better drive Sammy," Dean joked through his pain.
"You're about to pass out, of course I'm driving," Sam grumbled.
"Lighten up Sammy, we got the job done. One more to go!"
"Why are we even doing it anymore?" He asked as he pushed Dean into the back seat.
"Because that's the job Sam," Dean said and groaned in pain as he laid on the bench seat, his legs still hanging out the door as Sam tried to help his brother while trying to jam all that dead weight into the car. "Yup, you're right, I'm gonna black out now. Pray for Cas, maybe he can fix it," Dean added as the one door slammed and moments later the next opened but he fell unconscious.
"Dean?" Sam called back to him as he fell into the driver's seat and revved the engine. "Dean can you hear me?" He called again and then looked over his shoulder. "Damnit!" He cursed and maneuvering as gingerly as he could, knowing full well that Dean would kill him if he scratched up the car.
Sam made his way, in reverse, back down the mountain path until it widened enough for him to turn the car around and descend at a much quicker pace.
They arrived at the temple and found it deserted and once again Sam pulled his brother out of the car. "Come on Dean, wake up."
"No Sam," Dean grumbled but was alert enough because of the pain of being moved that he wasn't completely dead weight for his brother to carry up the temple stairs.
"What happened?" Rei asked when the brothers made it to the top of the stairs and found her there waiting in the darkness.
"The demon attacked me," Dean answered.
"And Hokaru froze him, the fire thawed him and a thunder bird dumped him in the river to put out the fire," Sam carried on.
"Come, let's get you both inside."
"Just pray for the angel and I'll be fine," Dean protested still incapable of trusting Rei, or holding himself upright.
"We will, but what if he doesn't answer?" Rei asked. "We need to get you warm and dry before the shock sets in and the best place for you, to cure cursed cold is by the sacred fire."
"And stop the bleeding," Sam added.
"Sammy I've been torn apart by hell hounds. This isn't that bad," Dean protested valiantly but it was clear he was lying.
"Whatever, just get inside," Sam said and dragged his brother along as he followed Rei's directions.
"I'll tend to him," Rei said as they settled Dean down before the sacred fire. "You go and try to find the angel he's asking for."
"Thank you," Same said and rushed away.
"I'll be fine," Dean shivered as he protested her assistance.
"I understand that you are angry and that the trust between us is broken but I am trying to help you and these wet, bloody, cloths are not helping," Rei was stern in her speech as she tried to removed the layers of shredded fabric that Dean attempted to cling to. "Tell me about the hell hounds," she said to change the subject.
"What is there to tell? It's what happens when you make a deal with the devil," Dean said as his teeth chattered, "or rather it's what happens when you sell your soul. What did you do to get tangled up with demons?"
"Why would you make a deal like that?" She asked but ignored his question. "I assume that you, as a hunter and a warrior, would throw yourself into situations to save people from the attacks of such things but why make a deal?" She asked and pressed hot, clean, strips of clothe to the wounds on his chest.
"I made the deal to save Sam's life," Dean responded.
"The nobility of the idea was such an important part of your creation though we knew that some would take advantage of that. It was a concern brought up in our making but the clause in the ideas and the need to help others was determined by God. He said that the flaws were what would make you perfect. I don't think I ever understood that until today," She confessed.
"I'm far from perfect," Dean said as he flinched in pain.
"That is, I suppose, how you are meant to see it," She said apologetically.
"I've made so many stupid mistakes, in the spur of the moment. So many split second decisions that I seem to be flying by the seat of my pants most of the time," he said. "But I guess everything has worked out in some way, as God's plan."
"I'm sorry I deceived you about Hokaru," Rei said and lowered her eyes. "I should have know that you were made the way you were to help regardless of the situation."
"I accept your apology and I'm sorry that I didn't confront you to your face. I have a bad habit of trying to prove people wrong," he said and half a smile appeared on his tormented face. "Thank you for your help."
"You are welcome Dean Winchester," she said but there was a sadness about her.
"Don't worry, you're not the worst witch I've ever met. Those ones ended up dead before I left a place," he added jokingly to try and cheer her up but it seemed to make her even sadder.
"When does it stop bothering you that you've take a life?" She asked and the question hit Dean and shook him more then the demon attack had.
"It doesn't," he answered. "People believe that because we do it so often that it gets easier but really, even if the creature is a monster or dead by the standards of this realm and our knowledge, it's still killing in a way. You can tell yourself it's for the greater good and you can justify it by saying it's self defence, or that you've freed a poor soul from captivity, but it's still killing and it does something to you. You keep going and only at the end of the line, whatever and whenever that is, will you find out what it has really done."
"It put a spot on your heart that if left alone can become a plague," she said.
"You've had to kill often?" he asked.
"I spent much of my life looking for ways not to but I have coerced others into doing it for me and I feel like that is twice as bad. You asked me why I made a deal with a demon, but the truth is I didn't. I needed the essence of the warrior, whatever little wisp that was, and I brought the rich man with eyes for Hokaru to a place where he could make his deals and I would get what I wanted, what I had been commissioned with finding," She explained. "So because I deceive more than I am truthful, I do not believe I will find peace when my time does end and I am all right with that. The Garuda know not of how bad I have been and I hope to keep as much from them as I can, though they know now that I am a liar."
"That is something you will have to take up with them and deal with on your own," Dean spoke in a way that spoke to his displeasure but also that there was something like sympathy for the woman before him.
"And aside for this injury, how did things work out?" She asked to change the subject and then she was satisfied with the cleaning of his wounds.
"Akiniko and Hokaru have been reunited and they have passed on with the help of the reaper tied to their souls. They are with death now and he will deal with what is to come for them. I can only hope that now that they are both free they can be together in death. The demon beast is also dead," Dean explained.
"And I will deal with the corrupt master who cursed Hokaru. That is my burden to bare," she said.
"Is he still alive?" Dean asked.
"No but his soul is neither at rest or tormented in the afterlife. He is bound to the home and belongings he so greedily gathered for himself. When I return to my homeland, after I have finished what I have vowed to finish here, I will return to that place and deal with the spirit," She explained.
"Good, thank you," Dean said as his brother and the angel finally returned. "Rei this is Castiel," he said happy to see their friend and feeling the weakness of his blood loss.
"You look terrible Dean," Cas said with a slight bow to the woman and then healed Dean with a touch. "Why are you so cold?" He asked in shock at the chill that was emitted from Dean's body.
"It's a long story Cas and had to do with a curse. Will I ever warm up again?" Dean asked.
"Yes," Cas answered and touched his forehead once more. "But it may take some time."