Chapter Twenty Four

Dean managed to side step the first attack from Kate but found his leg failed him as he plummeted toward the hard tiled floor, Sam advanced from behind but not before Kate was able to bring her foot down on Dean's chest with a sickening thud.

Sam leapt to his brother's defence and pushed Kate away, she momentarily lost her balance which he used to his advantage as he brought his machete across her shoulder, missing her neck as she stood upright to turn and attack.

She let out a guttural roar which sent dozens of crows from the surrounding buildings to take to the skies, almost as if they wanted to catch ,whichever soul it was that lost this fight, on their way skyward and pull them apart to carry them away.

Dean managed to crawl toward the stove, using the counter top he hauled himself back onto his feet.

The two brothers circled the vampire. Both unnerved by her excited grin and occasional run of her tongue across her lips.

She kept her head down, determined to make Luther proud as she avenged his death. I'll be with you soon baby, and I'll come baring gifts. Oh baby we'll torment and torture these two for eternity, they'll wish they'd never laid eyes on you and our family. Elkins started this but she was damned if these men were going to finish it. If this was the end for her, and a part of Kate hoped so, the torture of having to lose so many families, of having to lose Luther. The man she loved, the man she fought for, the man who gave her deprived lungs oxygen, her blackened heart life, who held her close and made her feel whole again, in a way she had never before felt, either alive or dead, the man she craved to be close to, even now. If she could take even one of these bastards with her when she went then she knew she could die complete.

She looked from one Winchester to the other. Her eyes playfully taking in their broken appearance. Their defeated stance. She couldn't chose which one to take with her on her journey.

"Come on then. Which one of you wants to die first? Or maybe you both want to go together? I can smell the pain and the fear in you, I can smell the excitement you have when you think of killing me."

"Yeah? Well you know what we can smell sweat heart? Bullshit, coming off you in waves"

Sam mentally berated his brother and his need to deflect all things bad away from Sam, but Kate moved so quickly Dean was knocked back against the sink in a flash, the corner of the counter dug into the small of his back as she pushed him further and further back into the sink, his breath was failing him as the angle prevented any oxygen reaching his straining lungs. His ribs, after writing formal letters of complaint for so long were now up in arms and marching across his being in protest at the position. His vision began to swim, Kate's shriek became a growl of words, lost in his failing hearing as the darkness crept around him.

"You're coming with me, I know this is the end , we're going together baby, Luther will make you pay, I know he will. You're coming with me baby"

Dean closed his eyes as her face began to lose focus. His mouth was dry and he had a strange warm sensation filtering through his skin. He welcomed the darkness, the feeling was almost euphoric as he was wrapped in a blanket of acceptance. He relaxed his grip on Kate's jacket, let go of the counter and allowed himself to fall into the abyss.

Landing with a thud against the tiled floor his mind was shocked as the eternal bottomless pit of death ended abruptly in a kind old woman's kitchen.

Huh.

Sam fell to his knees beside Dean, pushing his fingers against his brothers neck and letting out a relieved laugh as he felt the pulse beneath, getting stronger with each beat.

As he had watched, unbelieving ,as Dean had taunted Kate into a decision, watched as she advanced and pushed his brother backward, heard the bones in his joints pop and protest the angle, watched as Dean's face began to turn blue. Sam used all his remaining strength, all his anger, hatred, all his hurt and pain, from all the years of growing up, through all the hunts, all the arguments, the slicing abandonment as John had walked out at Bobby's , the desperation and panic as he'd watched his brother kept alive by machines , unable to breathe for himself, he used all that to gather his strength for the final blow.

Kate died attempting to exact revenge on the two who hadn't shot Luther. Another thing to be mad at his Dad about.

He carefully rolled Dean with his good arm onto his back and pulled him against his chest, sitting the older man upright in a bid to ease the pressure on his lungs, with a leg either side of Dean, Sam began to talk softly to him.

"It's ok Dean, you're ok, you're gonna be fine."

Sam kept a supporting arm across his brother, his other arm hung loosely by his side at an unnatural angle. He tried to not think of the amount of pain he was going to be in when that sucker had to go back into place.

"It's over Dean, it's all over and we're ok. It's all ok"

"S..Samm…Sammy?"

"Yeah Dean?"

"If it's not too much trouble, could you do me a favour?"

"Anything brother"

"I seem to have a head sitting next to me"

For a second Sam was sure he had heard wrong, but as he looked down to Dean's left side, Kate's head was staring back up at him.

"Guess she lost her head"

Sam groaned.

"She'll never be the head honcho again"

"Dean please"

"Never did have a head for heights"

"Dean, please be quiet"

"Wonder what direction she would have headed in"

"DEAN!"

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Bad jokes i know, but i get the feeling Dean likes em!