I left the dungeon and was walking towards the table where the kids were sitting. Sam had whipped up some basic sandwiches for them and tossed cheese, crackers and some protein bar things on a few plates in case the sandwiches weren't enouugh. They were working their way through them pretty fast. I have no idea what they ate in Purgatory, when I was there I was never hungry, which may have meant I'd actually died again. Course I was starving when I'd gotten out. More things I didn't need to dwell on.
Sam motioned me away from the table to the kitchen so I kept walking and met him there.
"They're from all over the country," he said, "Not surprising but we have to get them home soon. They've all been gone for a few months. Death say anything useful about Crowley?"
"Other than telling me that Crowley more than likely already knows what I've been doing for the past year, not really. He said tread lightly. It's not like demons can't follow Baby or he doesn't have some spell he can use to watch her. I guess I should have thought of that." He looked guilty, which was stupid, "Sam, you did what you could. It's fine. The deal you made has probably kept them from actually doing anything other than watching. We just need to take that into account when talking to him." I hadn't gotten pissed about it when Death said it, mainly because it didn't surprise me all that much, but now that it had sunk in a little farther I could feel that wolf need to protect starting to build and make my own usual protectiveness sky rocket. The people on the Reservation were my people, Coyote's people. They get hurt, it's all on me. I couldn't let that happen, wouldn't...
Sam put his hand on my arm, "Dean, not here, not now. Kids? Remember? Look at your hands."
I looked down, the bones were already starting to move and change. Sam was managing to keep calm and was pushing that at me through the pack bond.
"You got Devil's trap bullets?" I asked.
"Yeah, for the nines. Why?"
"Fall back plan if he doesn't want to play nice. You pump the kids for information, I'm going to the armory."
He let his hand drop from my arm and nodded, "Sure. They're in the second drawer underneath the bow stands. Take Cas with you."
"I'm good."
He locked eyes with me and I felt it, the need to back down, and not because I wanted to. With Coyote out of reach he technically outranked me and I had to look away, "Take Cas. Please." There was a lot more force to his words than usual.
"Ordering me now?"
"No, asking with intent. This is the shit that always sent you over the edge before, the wolf side will make it a million times harder to stay rational. So please, take Cas."
"Fine." I couldn't argue, even without the whole pack thing, because he was right. I closed my eyes and noticed that more than my hands had started to shift, my body felt out of whack. I made myself think of something other than the Reservation getting attacked, it wasn't easy but I calmed down enough that the weird out of synch feeling faded. When I opened my eyes I checked my hands again, they were back to normal.
"You good?" Sam asked.
"For now." I walked away and gave Cas a signal for him to walk with me.
He caught up with me as we entered the hall to the armory, "You're upset. What did Death say?"
"That Crowley probably knows where I've been the last year so play nice."
"And playing nice requires a trip to the armory?"
"I don't expect Crowley to play nice back. Not after how you and Sam got him to back off. He's not going to be all that happy that we threw a wrench in his plan, especially bringing Death into things. So, backup plan."
"Which would be?"
I pulled open the door to the armory and stepped in, "Remind him of how this game is played. He wants to bring kids into shit like this, he pays for it."
I grabbed Ruby's knife and loaded a clip with Devil's Trap bullets. Taking adults into Purgatory is one thing. Kids? Hell no. Cas watched me without a word as I slammed the clip into a gun and tucked it into my waistband then slid the knife into my back pocket. What I really felt like doing was ripping Crowley to shreds using my fangs but I tried not to give into that, at least not yet.
"What if he grabbed children for a reason that had nothing to do with defeating hunters? If what Death said is accurate and Crowley knows where you have been this would be a way to get you into the field again. He knows you Dean."
That stopped me cold. A growl echoed through the room that I didn't realize was coming from me until Cas moved closer and his hand started reaching for my forehead. "Perhaps I should have kept that thought to myself."
"Don't, I need to learn how to control this." Cas stopped but he was still within arm's length.
The wolf was separate but not. I felt it's need to take out Crowley, well, any threat, fighting to break free. It scratched at the sides of my mind, but my Warrior Spirit still had to be in there somewhere too and he was much more rational. I had to be more rational, everyone knew I had a temper and once Crowley figured out what we were now he'd poke and prod at us to try to get us to snap. Anything to get us off balance. I put all thoughts of what was going on out of my head and pictured Coyote's house, our house, how it felt, the calmness that filled it, the happiness, the love. The wolf started to fade and something deep down inside my soul pulled at me. Coyote. Us. That was my anchor. I'd never had one before, not like this. Sam didn't ground me like she did.
It reverberated through the pack bond and Sam picked up on it, "What's this?"
"My happy spot. No, not a strip club."
"I sort of gathered that. Home?"
"Yeah, home. Feel free to use it when Crowley shows up. We'll need it."
What came back to me shook me to the very core, and there was no way he could hide it. Loneliness, a bittersweet sense of longing, old pain, new desires that would never happen and the feeling that no matter what he touched it would fall apart. It's not like I didn't know that was there in both of us but feeling it full force from him was a whole lot different, "Hey, it's your home too."
"No, not like it is for you. Sorry, couldn't block that out."
"Nothing to be sorry about. Let's get this over with."
Cas narrowed his eyes and inspected me, "Better?"
"Yeah, let's go summon the King of Hell. Put the kids in the room across the hall from the dungeon, keep the door to it open. You stay with them, if Sam or I need you we'll yell. Once we get him to agree to giving them their souls back we'll come get you."
"All right."
We got back to Sam and the kids, "Okay, here's the plan. We're going to get you your souls back, Cas here will keep an eye on you till then. Once that's done we'll get you all home."
"What are we going to tell people?" Cecilia asked.
"Have no idea but my suggestion, don't mention demons, Purgatory or monsters unless you want to end up in the psych ward. Sam?"
Cas rounded the kids up and followed us to the dungeon, he got them in the room across the hall and Sam and I slid the bookshelves opened, stepped through and closed them.
"Cas had an unnerving theory," I said as we got the herbs and everything ready to go, "Crowley went for kids to get to me."
"That's why you needed the happy place tactic."
"Yup."
He was pulling on his analytical side to keep calm, "It's possible. The deal was Crowley and demons couldn't hurt you, monsters weren't mentioned."
"Why?"
"Not saying this to be a jackass but he misses you?"
I added some blood to the herb mix, the cut healed itself almost instantly, convenient, "Wait, I thought weapons couldn't hurt us." I'd sliced my hand out of habit.
"Maybe if we're not furry they still do damage but won't kill us."
I sighed, "Let's test that." I pulled my clothes off and shifted. Sam took the knife and sliced it across the top of my front leg. I felt the blade but it didn't cut into the skin. "You got regular bullets in your gun?"
"Yeah, I'l go grab a silencer so the kids don't freak. Hang on."
He was back a few minutes later, "Where do you want it?"
I held up my front left paw and waited. He pulled the trigger, it hurt like a son of a bitch but blood didn't start gushing. I turned my paw around to look at the bullet. It was embedded into the skin but as I watched it got pushed back out and dropped to the ground. "Awesome! Shoot your foot."
"What? No. Hold on." He put the barrel alongside his shin at angle so it would graze his leg but not go all the way in and fired. "Motherfucker!" He snarled as the bullet kicked up some concrete when it hit the ground. His leg bled, then stopped and the skin started puckering around the wound and healing. "Interesting, so in human form we're still vulnerable-ish. Wolf form, basically impervious. Wonder why the difference."
"When we're wolves the gift is in full effect would be my guess. Still though, will come in handy."
"Yeah."
I shifted back, got dressed and looked at Sam, he nodded and started chanting. He through the last ingredient in the bowl, the mixture flared up and Crowley appeared in front of us.
"Back from the hinterlands are you Dean?" He asked while pointedly ignoring Sam. He noticed the table with the bourbon on it, "Is that for me?"
"Yeah," I answered.
"How civilized." He took a sip, nodded in appreciation and held the glass up to look at the color of it, "Nice to see one of you still has manners. Funny that it's you, what with Sam being the Ivy League one. Maybe your mother instilled it in you before she died. Sam would have missed out on all that I guess."
Yeah he was pissed, he was going right for the jugular straight out of the gate. Well, two could play this game, "We thought you might need it since you've obviously lost your touch. Teenagers Crowley? Is that what the King of the Hell is doing now? Funny, I thought that was loser demon turf, not yours."
"Maybe we've just scared the loser demons off," Sam chimed in, "So he's reduced to running two bit deals and hoping no one notices. Can't let those numbers drop, the rest of Hell might start talking."
He slowly set the glass down and the corners of his eyes tightened. Point for us. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Uh-huh, sure. That's why you're pissed."
"Last time I was here Moose and your damaged pet angel wanted to play rough. I didn't particularly enjoy the experience."
"Sucks when you're the one getting it up the ass doesn't it?"
"You, of course, being the expert in getting things shoved up and into places they don't belong. Funny you didn't get a taste for it after thirty years."
"You bastard!" Sam took the bait and lunged forward.
I barely got in front of him, "Don't do it." I could feel Crowley's smirk behind me. "Crowley, take a good, long look at us. You may want to rethink things." I kept my hand on Sam's chest but looked over my shoulder at Crowley who wasn't doing that great a job of hiding his reaction to however he perceived us now.
"What are...no..can't be. That wasn't the..." He shut his mouth and managed to regain his composure.
I gave Sam a slight push back and he forced himself to take a set back. I turned back to Crowley, "The what? The deal with Mariyn? Yeah, she got her own ideas once she was out. Thought we'd make a fun addition to her pack. They're all dead now by the way. Burned their bodies too, they won't be coming back. We passed that tip onto the other hunters too. Your monster recycling program ends now. We want those kids' souls back."
"What kids?"
I knew he wouldn't give up that fast, "The ones Death took out of Purgatory. They're here, void their contracts."
"Death? You're lying. He wouldn't get involved."
"Ask him yourself if you want, or check in with whoever you had watching them," Sam said, "He said since his Reapers were the reason the kids were there it was his job to get them out."
"He wasn't too happy with those Reapers either," I added, "Disintegrated one actually. You know how Death's such a stickler for staying on task. That schedule of his and all that."
That got his attention and I could see him trying to find a way to weasel his way out of it.
"Look, here's the situation, all thirty five or forty monsters you helped get out are dead, Mairyn and her pack are dead, Death is watching the Reapers to make sure they don't get sucked into your schemes again and we've got all the humans that were in Purgatory. That means the portal should be closed. It's over Crowley, give the kids their souls back."
His face hardened, "No."
Damn it, he was getting all butthurt and stubborn.
"You lost," Sam pointed out, "What's the point?"
Crowley smirked, took another drink and pointed at us, "Did I? Seems to me that turning the Winchesters into monsters is a win for me. You won't be able to have that touching romantic ending Dean and Sam, well, just another failure to keep the ones you love from getting hurt to add to the list. So, who's killing who first? That's usually the next part of Winchester Tragedy Theater isn't it?"
Which told us two things, one, he knew exactly what I'd been doing and two, whether or not the idea originated from him, he used it as a way to circumvent his deal with Sam.
I yanked out my gun and shot him with three Devil's Trap bullets, "Sam. Shift."
Crowley dropped the glass and stared down at the blood spreading on his black shirt, "Bloody hell!"
Sam was shifting before he even got his shirt off. His frustration and hate of Crowley pouring into the bond and almost taking me with him. I heard fabric ripping next to me, guess he hadn't gotten his pants off fast enough. He wasn't whimpering or panting, he was full on growling as he changed.
"What is this? Monster Moose porn?" Crowley was trying to bluff his way through this, but that wouldn't be an option.
Even before his face finished forming into the wolf he'd thrown back his head and howled. I heard the kids scream, then suddenly stop. Cas must have knocked them out. "Dean!" Cas shouted from the other room.
"We're fine! Stay there!"
Sam was on all fours, furry and stalking towards Crowley who looked a shit ton less confident all of a sudden.
"Since you brought up my time in Hell, let's play a game. It works like this. If you don't give them their souls back, Sam goes all hellhound on your ass and rips you to shreds. You heal and we ask you again, repeat until we get what we want. Sound good?"
Sam leapt straight at him, knocking Crowley flat on his back. As soon as Sam's paws hit the floor he ripped a chunk out of Crowley's shoulder to prove a point. Crowley flat out screamed in pain.
I didn't let up. He'd crossed the last fucking line, using kids to bait me, pull me out of retirement. No way in hell he wasn't going to suffer for that, "You made a deal right? Must have to get where you are. Remember how it felt when they came for you? The howls, the fear, the pain. We can make that happen again and again. We'll live a helluva a lot longer now and have nothing but time on our hands."
Sam dove in for another bite, Crowley threw his hands up on instinct which gave Sam the perfect opening to nearly rip Crowley's left hand clear off. With the bullets in him he couldn't access his powers or smoke out which made him almost as vulnerable as a human to Sam's teeth.
"So? Reconsidering that no?"
Sam paused in the attack, stuck his fangs right into Crowley's face while setting his huge right paw on Crowley's chest and digging his claws in.
Crowley actually looked scared shitless. I don't care how many years it's been, you never get over being shredded by hellhounds. "Stop Sam, please. I'll do it."
"Do I have to have you sign something in blood on that or can I trust you?"
"I said I'll do it. Get your rabid brother off me, take out the bullets and I'll void their contracts. I don't need four incompetent teenagers anyway. They're useless now."
"All right."
Sam lingered, his wolf was way too near taking over. "Sam? The kids, we need him to get their souls back. Let him up."
-Hurt pack, hurt Dean, not safe- Came back to me. Not good.
"Sam, don't lose it, I need you, they need you." A jumbled series of images, thoughts and feelings raced through my mind, the one that stood out was how he felt like he'd failed me, that he had to end Crowley to keep me safe. "He's not the only one. Plenty of other demons out there hate me. Killing Crowley won't help. I had this last year because of you. Got my chance to be happy. This doesn't change that. Save the kids Sam, do our job, do it right." Slowly he felt more like Sam, less like a wolf and he took his paw off of Crowley's chest. "Good, let me in there so I can take the bullets out." I wasn't about to get in between them until I knew Sam was in control. He took two steps back but kept his eyes laser focused on Crowley.
I wasn't going to leave them alone though, "Cas! Get the first aid kit, I need to take some bullets out of Crowley so he can fix the kids." I shouted then got between Sam and Crowley to make sure Sam stayed put.
Cas came in a minute or two later, handed me the kit and left without a word. Crowley had stared at Sam the whole time with some pretty serious hate in his eyes.
"Let's talk," I told him as I worked on digging out the first bullet. I didn't bother with any pain killers, he could suck it up. "Sam did what he did to protect me, you've obviously loop holed you're way around that deal so let's compromise."
"Why the hell should I trust you? You just had him use me as a chew toy."
"I'm the reason Hell didn't get shut down, I'm the reason he hasn't straight up killed you. That's why and you know it. That's why you wanted me back in the game because you think I'll keep a leash on him." He winced as I pulled the first bullet out. "So here's where we compromise. I got the sidelong threat to the people where I'm living at now. You or any demon come within fifty miles of that place or any of the people that live there, I don't stop him; as a matter of fact, it will be me standing over you ripping you to shreds with my claws. You give the kids their souls back and get to go back to Hell in one piece. This little meeting doesn't void Sam's deal with you since you were behind this whole mess to begin with, so his attacking you cancels out you round about sucking me back into hunting thereby putting me at risk. You live, we live, kids go home, life goes on. Deal?"
"Deal." He muttered.
I pulled out the other two bullets, he healed up, we cuffed him which we'd discovered allowed him to walk over the Devil's trap, they worked as some sort of lock and key set up, took the cuffs off, brought the kids in and he voided their contracts. They were too freaked to ask where the white wolf had come from. Cas herded them back out and shut the door.
As soon as the door shut Crowley's hand flicked in Sam's direction. Sam flew back a few feet but he splayed his paws and stopped the backward momentum, then his ears went flat against his head and he bunched his legs up to jump.
"Before you do that Snowball, consider this. I only deal with humans that have souls to trade, that have possible worth to me, as your souls are no longer in play due to being bound straight for Purgatory any and all deals are null and void. Consider those four souls and the safety of your pitiful tribe a parting gift, for old times sake. Your safety however, the safety of those you hold most dear, that's a different story. Rules have changed gentlemen, good luck." He snapped his fingers and disappeared.
