Chapter 48

"Babe, what the fuck did I tell you about your hero-suicidal bullshit complex?" He snarled, definitely not amused.

The fact that Abigail apparently didn't feel the need to hide things from him was great, meant they could have a great relationship, friendship, whatever. He would bet money, if money was still a thing, that she hadn't told Taker about their little encounter. Apparently, that was because she loved the big Boss, didn't want to lose him. Dean got that, he supposed, but this genuinely pissed him off.

"No. Ain't happening. This is bullshit. Taker agreed to this?" When she nodded, Dean's eyes sparked blue flames. "What a punk bitch…"

"Dean, stop it!" Abigail scolded, frowning at him, and shook her head, wishing he could see how hard this was for her. "It wasn't his idea, it was mine and it's the ONLY way. I already told Taker from the beginning, if he has to use me as bait, to lure that son of a bitch out behind his wall of defense, to do it! He's not a punk bitch just because he's doing what I ask of him! He's noble and he understands one life is not worth thousands! And you're not going to stop it because one way or another, it's going to happen. Please, see reason…" She gasped when he grabbed her by her upper arms, startled and her midnight blues were wide. "Please, understand why I have to do this…" Their noses were practically touching, and her heart thundered powerfully in her chest.

"No. No, I don't even think so, Abs!" Dean growled, knowing he was probably hurting her, and tried to loosen his grip, but he couldn't.

He couldn't because then she'd run away and throw her life away. Hell, why bother? Another Bray Wyatt would just pop up somewhere anyway, that was how the world of Vesperia seemed to work. Men, humans, were scum, history had proven that over and over.

"You've been on this kick since the day I met you, saying you would give your life. What the fuck do you have to atone for, huh? What have you done to make it, so you need to repay with your life? Not a thing, I'll bank on it." And what the fuck made other people's lives more precious than hers?

"Because it IS my fault this is happening, all of it!" Abigail cried out, fresh tears sliding down her cheeks, and could see the ice in his eyes building, her hands pressed against his chest. "B-Bray's doing all of this because of me, to give me the perfect world, in his mind. He's using me to justify what he's doing to all those women and abusing magic to build an unstoppable army of man child soldiers! I have to do this, Dean. He won't come out of his defenses for any other reason except me because of his obsession over me! For fuck's sake, he didn't fuck me because he was waiting for the 'right time' when the 'perfect' world in the Dominion was created! He forced me to remain a virgin for HIM! Don't you see that? Don't you see this is the ONLY way to stop him and break the spell he has?! He's UNTOUCHABLE if we don't break it and if I have to die to make that happen, so be it! I'll take him to hell with me!"

Abigail honestly thought she was going to hell. Dean could see that in her eyes, in her face, hear it in her tone, and feel it in her body language. She thought this was all her fault and, whether she acknowledged it to herself or not, believed she was going to hell. That was a religious concept, one probably from her former life.

"No! NO you're NOT!" He growled, knowing from experience she wasn't one to listen to reason.

Sure enough, she began starting again and he did the only thing he could think of to stop her. He kissed her. His arms wrapped around her body, drawing her tightly against him and Dean kissed her liked he had that night at the river, under the stars, when he had carried her into the water because she had been 'burning'. Alarm bells instantly went off in her head as Abigail felt his lips crash against hers, this time the kiss didn't last nearly as long as it did that night on their journey.

"What the HELL, Dean?! Have you lost your mind?!" She exclaimed, stumbling back with swollen lips and red-rimmed, watery eyes.

Why? Why couldn't he come to terms with the fact she loved Mark, not him?! She thought they could be friends, that what happened between them was just a one-time mistake because she hadn't felt nearly as much passion with him as he did her. Reaching up with a shaky hand, she pressed her fingers to her lips and swallowed hard, backing up when he took a step forward with those blazing blues.

"Don't! Please, I-I don't want you that way! I told you that! I told you it was friendship or nothing at all, so what the hell are you trying to do?! I'm doing this whether you like it or not!"

"I thought we were friends with bennies, babe." He drawled teasingly, though there was no amusement in his icy eyes. "You're not doing this, Abigail, hell no! You're not fuckin' bait, that wasn't the deal. We saved the sorcerer, we got him here. He and Taker don't need YOU to get into that castle and close enough to Wyatt for their hocus pocus bullshit." Dean reached out, pulling her back to him again. "You don't have to love me, Abigail, desire is fine too. You desired me that night." He reminded her, his lips caressing her jawline.

"Oh, really?"

Her heart dropped in the pit of her stomach at the sound of that voice, the unmistakable deep, dark baritone of the man she DID love. What the hell was Mark doing here? "Let me go NOW." Abigail ordered gravely, shoving Dean away from her and when he didn't let her go, she slapped him as hard as she could across the face. "I may have desired you that night, but I told you it didn't mean anything to me! I told you friends or nothing and you broke that. You told me it was fine, you didn't love me, you didn't see me that way, and we could remain friends and take it to the grave!" It was right after he saved her from the mineshaft when she nearly died and he had pulled her to safety. "You knew how much I missed Taker, you knew how worried I was for him and you KNOW I LOVE HIM!" He was the only person she had told about how she felt for the 'boss'. "I trusted you, Dean. I thought…I thought you were my friend and I was wrong. I was so fucking wrong. Stay away from me. Don't come near me ever again, I want NOTHING to do with you anymore!" Blinking, hot tears cascaded down her cheeks as she backed up to where Mark stood and suddenly, she felt ice cold and folded her arms in front of her chest, unable to meet his eyes. "I don't know anyone else we can use to test the blood on besides him, he's the…right height, just not as stocky as Bray."

Hopefully, there was an extra bed at the common house or Abigail would probably end up sleeping on the streets or in the workout building. Dean had just destroyed her relationship, however brief it was, with Mark by opening his mouth. Dean hadn't meant for anyone but Abigail to hear that, he wasn't out to hurt her, and he frowned, stepping forward only to find a massive fist coming his way. He didn't even have time to duck, feeling it connecting with the side of his face and began cursing violently, hands moving to hold that area.

"Report down to the barn, they're expecting you Ambrose." Taker ordered darkly, his eyes fastened on Abigail.

Dean opened his mouth to say something and then thought better of it, shaking his head. Right now wasn't the time to try talking to Abigail, he'd done enough damage.

She actually stepped aside, so Dean could walk through without touching her, feeling Mark's eyes boring a hole in her. There was no excuse and no way to make things right. She didn't have sex with him, just foreplay, but it was still sexual nevertheless. Abigail had been running high on adrenaline after the near-death experience and Dean was there, not Mark. She BEGGED Mark to come with her, and at the time, she resented him a little for not being the one to save her, for driving her into the arms of another man for help.

It was stupid on her part and she regretted it, but…there was no changing it. What was done was done. What was she supposed to say? Sorry for screwing around with another man, the same man he loathed and despised? The same man she claimed to be JUST her friend and nothing more? No, that wouldn't bode well in her favor either. Even if they weren't strictly together, Abigail felt guilty for fooling around with Dean, feeling as though she betrayed Mark.

There was quite a bit Taker wanted to say to her, to ask her, but… given his position, he had to put aside his personal life and issues and focus on other things. Which might not be a bad thing, it'd give him time to cool down and not say something he would regret. "We're going to go down and see this blood bath experiment." He said flatly, his fists clenched tightly. "Afterwards, you and I are having a talk, Abigail." There was no room for argument in his voice. "Come on." She looked terrified and hurt. A million things he couldn't comprehend and there were a bunch of questions racing through his head – questions that would have to wait.

Nodding, Abigail followed him silently down to the barn where Dean's blood bath would take place. She could just imagine what was going through Mark's mind. Was she even a virgin after all or did she give it up to Ambrose? She was a slut, a whore, and a bunch of other names to him, which broke her heart. Hell, she didn't know if she even had a heart anymore at this rate. Once they arrived at the barn, she remained standing beside Mark and watched as the pig's blood, which was drained, poured over Dean's body. It coated him from head to toe, his eyes closed, and Abigail felt absolutely zero sympathies for him like she normally would have.

"Will that be enough, Malcolm?" She asked in a monotone voice, her hands clasped in front of her.

The tension was thick in the air and couldn't be cut with the sharpest knife. It was stifling, actually. "Yes. And if you cut it in half, we may have a chance at surviving the actual blood draining."

Abigail should've relaxed upon hearing that, but she couldn't, not after what just went down with Dean and Mark finding out the truth. She hated Dean Ambrose. She hated him so much for ruining her happiness, for ever meeting him and asking for his help to rescue Malcolm.

"Good."

"Human body holds 10 pints… we need 10 pints, I say we do 5 today. Two and a half from each of you. That'll give us a few days to let your bodies recover, or your magic to kick in, and we'll boost you with transfusions, so… that'll definitely help." Jeff was probably too excited for this, the mixing of science and magic, but… they needed pioneers in every field, right? He and Malcolm were going to apparently lead that charge.

"We'll need containers to hold the blood…"

"I can blow some from Mythril." Unbreakable, and once the heat was high enough, it was a bit like glass working, providing one lived through the fumes. That's where magic came to play.

"We might live through this after all." Malcolm was becoming quite optimistic. "Do you have blood for transfusions?"

"Some. And if need be, swine blood has been, or had," Because that had been years ago, back before all of this. "Had been proven effective as a human substitute for emergency transfusions."

Wait, what? They were starting this TODAY? Abigail had to fight back the urge of screaming 'NO!' again, not wanting Mark to go through with this right after finding out something went down between her and Dean. She had to swallow down the panic, knowing they were running out of time and hoped, to whatever higher power watched over them, this worked. That Glen's magic replenished Mark's blood from the draining. Dean stepped out of the bucket and she suddenly felt vindictive, storming past everyone to grab the hose from Hardy and began hosing him down. He HAD asked her to do it earlier, right? Sure did! It was a HARD spray too, so she nailed him right in the face and then the junk, making every man in that barn cringe, holding their own and crossing their eyes. This stupid son of a bitch had a big mouth and, since she couldn't kick his ass, she would gain her revenge another way, nailing every part of him until the pig's blood was mostly gone.

"Oops, forgot your mouth." Abigail sprayed him again, making him fly back on the ground, and tossed the hose at him. "There, all clean, asshole!" That made her feel marginally better and she ignored Ambrose trying to catch his breath, folding her arms in front of her chest. "He asked me to hose him down afterward." She shrugged, refusing to tell anyone else what had actually been the reason for that, and looked at Jeff. "On with the draining."

"Uh, I'm not doing it in a barn?" Jeff sounded confused as he stared at her. "And Taker is making some containers to hold it."

"I would like to see your work with the Mythril, if I may."

"You're probably the only one besides me who'll be able to survive it." He snorted, shaking his head. "Abigail, why don't you run to the common house and see if they need you?" Since she obviously wasn't working with Dean Ambrose right now. "We will talk later."

"Or you can come help me." Jeff offered, not entirely sure what he was missing, but there was definitely something. "Mmm, yeah, I'm also going to need to drain some more pigs… not a lot, just a little from each pig." He didn't want to wipe out the livestock after all.

His balls were never going to function again. Ever. She had hurt him in ways he didn't know he could hurt, all because Taker had been stalking her and eavesdropping. "Fuck….."

The common house didn't sound good because Stephanie, Amy, and Trish would know something was wrong and Abigail didn't need them breathing down her neck. "I'll help Jeff if that's alright."

She did not care if she castrated Dean with that hose! The bastard deserved it for opening his mouth about something they had promised to never speak of again. It was all to taunt her and kissing her jaw…kissing her in general…was out of line. He never should've put his hands on her in the first place! Hopefully, Torrie didn't want any sex for a while because Dean wouldn't be able to function in the bedroom after that spray down. Jeff lead her away out of the barn, telling her what needed to be done due to their limited human blood supply.

"Are you sure animal blood will be alright and not hurt them?"

"Trust me, it's been scientifically proven and I'm rarely wrong."

That wasn't comforting.

Anticipating a good outcome with the blood on their Wyatt wannabe, Jeff had come prepared with coolers. Matt was there, driving an ATV with a trailer to haul equipment around for him. "Okay, so first… we're going to stock up on pig blood, and yes, animals have been used successfully in humans: blood, organs, etc. Just not in recent times because… well… no more doctors, or science, or anything like that." He walked her through it, noting that while initially squeamish, Abigail soon showed she had very steady hands and was a quick learner. "You'd make a great nurse or doctor." Jeff complimented, admiration in his tone as they carried their 'haul' to the trailer. "Melina hates drawing blood, makes her sick."

"Well, if she needs help, I can do it." Abigail didn't mind blood that much, at least not when it was in a controlled, semi-safe environment. Splattered on her, like it'd been during Malcolm's rescue, was a different story entirely. "I'll talk to her about it, see if she can train me on how to do it."

They needed way more people in the 'hospital'. Setting the first pig up, which was sedated since nobody didn't want to hear the poor thing squeal, Abigail proceeded to inject the needle into the vein of their neck, making sure not to hit the carotid artery. She watched the blood fill up the bag and did as she was told, listening intently to what Jeff said. Removing the bag, she applied the next one, smiling when Jeff grinned at her.