31: Your God Cares Not Afterall.

Katia could hear Auriel's chanting scratching her brain horrifically. She muttered her own counters while using whatever psychic ability she could conjure to protect herself. Both dhampirs on her sides were screaming in agony with no way to even attempt in defending herself. Katia realized then what was happening and flipped the direction of her counters. Nessa began to panic and tug at her restraints hopelessly. She looked at the dhampirs suffering around her; someone was trying to kill the line of them. Her eyes landed on Katia who seemed to be taking the mental ambush the best of the three. Her heart ached for the youngest creatures still amongst them.

"I can help you, Katia," she called hastily to the dhampir.

Her onyx eyes snapped open with tears. She shook her head furiously. "No; Zarya."

Nessa's eyes widened with surprise. The last human of the Vasiles with dhampir blood latched onto her core… She bit her lip until it nearly bled before nodding in agreement. It would keep the four of them safe from Remiel's selfish plots, and shield young Zarya at least a little longer from the darkness of their lineage. Nessa began loudly chanting her own protective counters so Katia's voice grew louder. Blood seeped from Anja and Claudia's noses and ears. Nessa's emerald eye slowly darkened with each word. Katia ignored the blood dripping from her mouth as she chanted. She didn't even realize that her eyes also dripped with blood.

As she focused on Zarya, directing her protection to the hunter, Katia still thought of Zina. She wished she could have had more time to at least talk just once. She knew what her mother had endured; she knew Zina had her reasons for fleeing. If only she had gotten the chance to tell her mom she understood…

Tears flowed from Nessa's eyes while she thought of her aunt. She could feel the light leaving her eye. Why hadn't she just stayed with Adina? Why hadn't she tried to find Adina when she knew - because she knew - that she wasn't going to snap and lose it? I guess I will see you from the Other Side now, auntie… she thought as blood came from her mouth too.

Zarya awoke with a start on her bed at the boarding house. She sat up and reached quickly for her scarred side. The grey shirt had been exchanged with a black one, but the scars remained closed and unharmed beneath the fabric. A ringing pain surged through her head as she tried to stand up. She stumbled a bit, catching herself on the nightstand, when she heard them clearer than she should have.

"It was a psychic link," she heard Zina trying to explain. "Meaning the magic linked Clara, seemingly Zarya, and whoever else."

"Come on, sister," Nova taunted tactlessly. "What did Clara and Zarya have in common? Who else of us likely have the same feat about them?"

Daciana gasped. "You don't think…"

"Clara was a dhampir. Zarya carries the gene for when she dies suddenly. How many other dhampirs are - or, were - still alive?"

Zarya froze as Zina accidently let a sob of realization loose. "Katia…"

The hunter put a hand to her mouth as to not make any noise before leaning against a wall with tears in her eyes. Someone just killed off the link of dhampirs with Vasile blood. Oddly enough to calm her nearingly irriatic vital signs, Zarya focused on putting the pieces together. Saskia traded Nova for a vial of Maxfield's dhampir research presumably acquired from Clara's blood. Saskia had used Riel in her attempt to retrieve Nova, leaving Riel behind, but Riel vanished from her comatose at the boarding house. Her eyes widened with horror.

Zarya dashed to the window while tuning out Zina's growing cries and her back and forth with Nova and Daciana. Damon's Camaro was gone but no sign of Elena or Stefan either. Her Coup de Ville was behind Nova's Firebird. She looked to the closed door before sliding on a pair of boots Daciana had found for her. With the vampires safely distracted and mourning their losses in their odd ways, Zarya silently unlocked the latch to the window. She looked down with dozens of thoughts swirling around quickly through her mind. It was only the second floor, there was a safe amount grass, and it was all directly beside her car. Boldly enough, she leaped out of the window. She hit the walkway first, tucking and rolling onto the grass until she was on her feet. Without so much as checking around, Zarya jumped into the de Ville and grabbed the set of spare keys from her glove box. The engine roared to life before she backed out and sped down the road with adrenaline surging through her veins.

Remiel stared down at the four corpses still chained to the walls with her mouth agape. Slowly her jaw closed until it was clenched tightly. Rage burned brightly in her pitch black eyes. The toll of her power was beginning to wear away at Runa's body. Saskia had succeeded in murdering all of the dhampirs still walking the Earth. If it hadn't been so infuriating to her plan then Remiel could have admired it. Instead, she ripped each of them down and dragged their bodies out by the chains carrying two in each hand.

Down in the depths of the Cage, Lucifer could feel his sister's wrath. He knew they would figure a way to get at least Katia back if they cared enough, but he also knew that Remiel would find every possible way to ruin it. She was finally aware that she no longer had a direct link to Zarya for anything. She also found out that it was her beloved brother's protection over the girl. He had marked her. Shielded her from Remiel indefinitely. Not even Saskia's attempt to destroy all of the dhampirs could penetrate Lucifer's protection over Zarya.

Remiel used the four dhampir's bodies to form a magic circle with herself in the middle. Using blood magic she was able to see through one of the veils straight to her brother with blinding rage. "What have you done, brother?" She seethed.

He stared down at her with an icy poker face. "I did what I had to do when I realized where this was going, Remiel."

"So you protect her?!" The young archangel shouted so loudly it shook the trees. "She is my vessel, brother! The Vasiles are my lineage! My legacy!"

"No, Remiel. You've been no different than dear old Dad watching your story get big while manipulating whatever you need to achieve the means to the end you desire. All the Vasiles are to you is an immortal army. Do you know why your own daughter just massacred a chunk of them? So you can't touch them! Not even Saskia wants to see you succeed anymore."

"Saskia is even more selfish than you seem to think I am. But isn't that what this has always been about? The selfishness of you and I?"

"Don't you dare drag me into your mess this time, Remiel." Her eyes widened with shock. "I refused to bow to Dad's humans so you think I'll be cordial about your line of super creatures? All you have managed to do is merge your ideals with Dad's and still screw it up badly enough for me to fix. It's only a matter of time before the Vasiles aren't even yours anymore Remiel."

She twitched a little, mostly at his common use of her full name rather than her nickname. She stared at him with an icy glare through cut eyes. "This is because of her," she hissed. "You turned an eye to everything because, why? It wasn't amusing enough for you at first? So boring you could barely remember the beginning of the story. But what was it that got you to pay attention then I wonder?"

"Watch your tone, Remiel."

"No, Lucifer," she snapped back coldly, "I do not think I will." She stepped to the edge of her circle though she was still at least a foot away from his projection. "What I do think, however, is that you have hampered and bamboozled what I was accomplishing because you care for the girl."

It was difficult, but he kept his face from showing any sort of response to the accusation. "So desperate that you're fishing for excuses now. You've lost, Remiel. Take it with grace."

"And yet I have never been more correct." She shook her head slowly with betrayal lingering in her eyes. "You saved her life when Katerina ran Siya's vehicle off of the road because somehow she got sent down to you rather than the Other Side where she belonged."

"That's enough, Remiel." He cut his eyes at her with his own anger boiling.

She didn't cease in the slightest, continuing on with her tirade. "You tipped the scales. You imprinted on her before sending her back." Her eyes were wide with fury. "Why?" She snarled through grit teeth.

"I'm not doing this, Re-"

"Why?!" Her voice shook the trees again, knocking a couple down. "What drew you of everyone to a simple human girl?! She is nothing like me!"

"That's why!" Lucifer finally shouted back. "Because Zarya Vasile is better than you, Remiel. She is everything you could have been and so much more if you weren't trying so desperately to be queen bee. You want to know why Zarya came to me? Because Siya was that desperate for her daughter to live. She had found out all she needed to know about you and how the Vasiles came to be and would you look at who she trusted in her time of need? Me! She trusted me with her daughter's life so long as I kept it the hell away from you!"

Remiel's eye twitched. Her fists clenched at her sides. "Then you can watch the little human you love so dearly submit to me and become nothing."

Zarya whipped right up to the front of the motel and parked before dashing inside. "Maxine Deighton," she said as she caught her breath. "I called yesterday?"

The desk clerk smiled kindly at her. "Oh yes, I have your reservation ready Miss Deighton. Your brothers were here about 45 minutes prior and they left this message for you." She handed Zarya the sticky note reading Boulevard Burger and Brew. "Miss Cressida also congratulates you on your survival and has this message for you."

"Miss C-" Zarya looked up in time to witness the clerk take a letter opener and slit her own throat. Her green-blue eyes widened with horror. She took a step back and walked into someone. When she turned to face them, the man's eyes were black and dripping with blood. She punched him as hard as she could in his chest, knocking him a few feet away. She raced back to the door only to be grabbed by two others looking the same. "Sorry fellas, but I saw a billboard for Boulevard Burger and Brew and I am not letting friggen Riel stop me."

With all her might she threw herself backwards and over the two men. The first one had gotten off the floor and charged for her. Zarya reacted quickly with a first to his nose that time. The sound of the bone cracking barely distracted her before she turned on the other two. The first dropped to the ground unmoving. She took her revolver from the back of her pants (because the smartest thing she had done in a while was leave it in the glove box) and swiftly shot both pursuers before sprinting back to her car. She zoomed through the town with the Mark itching at her arm, focusing on the signs until she reached Boulevard Burger and Brew. There was a significant amount of cars in the lot, but it was far too easy for her to find the Impala with relief.

She practically stumbled in the door with shaking legs. The hostess tried to talk to her, but Zarya was too busy scanning the dining room for Sam and Dean. As soon as she spotted them, she apologized to the hostess and ran directly into the dining room. Dean had his back to the front of the restaurant so it was Sam who saw the girl running and ducking through waitresses and trays toward them. "Clarke!" He exclaimed, his fork dropping onto his plate of salad. Dean immediately choked down the mouthful of burger and jumped to his feet. As soon as he turned around arms flung around him.

"Thank God you're alright," Dean exhaled as he held Zarya tightly against him. Once he let her go she darted to Sam and embraced him just the same. She turned back to Dean and they noticed tears welling in her eyes before she flung herself at him again. "Hey, hey, you're safe now, Zare. It's okay. It's gonna be okay."

"You're both still alive," the ravenette sobbed into his chest with relief. "You're both alive…"

The brothers exchanged wary glances. "Come on, Clarke," Sam offered with a peaceful smile, "why don't you sit and eat something? Relax and we can catch up, okay? The important thing is that we're all here, right? We all made it."

Zarya agreed and sat between the brothers at their table. Dean hailed their waitress over to order her the Mr. Moe burger with bacon and Whatever Floats Your Boat milkshake. "I know it's not absinthe," Dean teased her, "but it's a root beer float with whiskey!"

She smiled softly. "Listen, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna down a bottle of whiskey to my face when we get back to Lebanon."

"You aren't sticking around to find out what's going on?" Sam inquired.

"Yeah, you even cut your hair and everything," Dean added as he reached out and twirled a lock of her short hair around his finger. "We don't mind swinging through and-"

"No," she cut him off, "I want to go home." Her voice started to shake. "Saskia… she… she found a way to murder all of the living Vasile dhampirs… including Katia…"

Their eyes widened. "How the hell did she do that?" Dean exclaimed. "Last we knew the bitch was practically on her deathbed!"

Zarya exhaled a deep breath and rubbed her face. "Saskia traded Nova for some dhampir research at Whitmore… that dhampir research was made from Clara Vasile's blood because she'd apparently been there a while… Riel was able to do the spell with that vial. It fried every dhampir. I don't… I don't even know where Katia ended up after I told her to bail and now she's dead."

The waitress dropped off her plate and milkshake, and to keep from crying Zarya started stuffing her face. "I don't understand why Riel would do a spell like that for Saskia though," Sam finally commented.

"My guess is that they've been working together," Zarya spoke with food packed into her cheek. She swallowed before continuing. "I guess she had been at the boarding house after Saskia caused the accident to kidnap Nova. She made off with Nova and left Riel at the scene but by time we got there, the witch who was supposedly unconscious was just gone without a trace. She's the one who woke Daciana from the spell that kept her subdued and frozen for however many centuries. She turned Lethia into a hybrid with magic."

"But Lucifer was just using her as a suit," Dean spoke. "How do we know-"

"He's not," she snapped rather harshly. "It's Auriel. I don't think she went running from her coven and I don't think she coincidentally ended up working with me in Pike Creek. I think she was kicked out because she's a bad egg."

"Saskia could have compelled her," Sam offered.

She shook her head. "I would have liked to think that too until I got to the motel. The receptionist gave me your message but then told me I had another from a 'Miss Cressida' - she congratulated me for surviving and then the receptionist slit her own throat with a letter opener. Before I could make it out the door three guys with black and bleeding eyeballs tried to stop me."

"What did you do?"

"What I had to. I didn't know what they were, only that Auriel put some spell on them to try and kill me so I killed them first."

Beneath the table Zarya scratched at the mirrored Mark of Cain burning on her arm.

"Your body can't take much more, Saskia," Auriel commented.

"I am aware," the ravenette answered slightly hoarsely from a rocking chair next to a fireplace. "What of Zarya? Did she survive or did she turn?"

"She was likely going to survive regardless, but it seems she is very well protected."

"What does that mean?"

"It appears that Lucifer has taken a great interest in her. When he had control of my body I tried to ignore it thinking it was just torture, but at one point of breaking her he took his angel blade and… well, he quite literally carved his sigil into her flesh. While it seemed he was just claiming ownership and dominance, the sigil is actually a very powerful warding. And so when I began the spell, Nessa was able to direct her magic towards that link while Katia was doing the same. Nessa, Katia, and Lucifer were able to form a trifecta of protection around Zarya leaving her unscathed from my spell or Remiel."

Saskia chuckled with a faint smirk as she stared at the flames. "Remiel must be infuriated," she commented. "The brother she loved so dearly having turned his back on her plots for the human version of herself essentially. What a magnificent annoyance Zarya has turned out to be. That settles it then, I suppose."

"Are you certain that Zarya will follow that path? She could still easily deviate; she is a fickle girl afterall."

"No she isn't, not really. She cares for Dean Winchester, of course. She is supposed to. But in the end she will never truly be able to walk away from Lucifer. And I'm counting on that."

"So we continue onward to the next phase?"

"Why don't you go set up some bread crumbs to the Book of the Damned for them first?"

Sam and Dean chose not to catch Zarya up on what she had missed being kidnapped at Whitmore. They were just glad to have her back safely. As soon as they saw her asleep peacefully in her bed at the bunker, they closed the door and walked away. Unbenounced to them, though, Zarya was not asleep even a little bit. When the door shut her eyes opened, but she didn't get out of bed until she heard their footfalls vanish.

Zarya went to put her hair into a bun as she usually would, sighing when she realized she no longer could. She changed into spandex shorts that covered half of her thighs and the sports bra she would wear to train. Carefully she opened her door as to not make any noise, then crept her way into one of the back rooms where training equipment laid. Shoving headphones into her ears Zarya blared music and started rapidly beating on the punching bag barehanded. The Mark scorched against her pale skin, but not much more than Lucifer's sigil on her side. She thought about losing Katia, and her foot swung up and kicked the bag so hard it scraped her skin. Zarya didn't even notice; she just kept punching.

"Go home and survive."

Her jaw clenched before her right fist barrelled down on the bag. Just like her foot, added on top of all of the punching she had already been doing, the skin of her knuckle shredded backwards. Blood dripped onto the cement floor but she didn't even notice. She just kept punching until her other knuckle started to bleed too.

She would never say 'yes' to Remiel. She refused to be taken by anyone else. And she would be damned if anyone else she cared about died for her sake.

Zarya Vasile stormed ahead on the path of rebellion with her clan's blood scorching through her veins.