Crowley couldn't recall the last time he had been quite this bored. He slouched in his throne, twisting a coin between his fingers. But, just as he was about to stand and stretch his legs, he felt the familiar feeling of someone summonding him. He rolled his eyes and pocketed the coin. Hardly seconds later, he found himself at the side of a back-end road to nowhere with none other than Castiel stood in front of him.
"What do the Winchester's want now?" Crowley sighed, glancing down at his fingernails in disinterest.
"What do you know about an organisation called the Verrat?" Cas asked abruptly; he really didn't have the time for Crowley's games right now.
"Alright Cassie," Crowley drawled "is that any way to treat an old friend?"
"Just answer the question," Cas stood his ground and Crowley sighed, clearly seeing he was getting nowhere.
"I hear they work for some royal bloodline or another. Can't remember which one, there's so many of them in Hell's books these days,"
"Is that it?" Cas raised an eyebrow questioningly, unsure if Crowley was telling him the whole truth.
"Yeah, that's all I know. I really must be going now anyways, I'm very busy at the moment. I've got to manage some souls that are being collected all the way over in Vienna," Crowley suddenly said, brushing down his jacket.
"Wait, whose souls?" Cas stood up a little straighter at Crowley's comment.
"Funnily enough, I believe they're of royal blood. Not that I care, a soul is a soul after all. It doesn't really matter where it came from," Crowley shrugged. Cas frowned to himself for a moment. But, before Crowley could say anything further, he disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"Lovely as always, Castiel," Crowley sighed, adjusting his cuff links before he too disappeared from the quiet roadside.
"I really wish you could give me a warning before doing that," Nick sighed, blinking frantically as he looked up at Cas who had just re-appeared in the room.
"Sorry," Cas replied awkwardly, brushing himself down.
"Find out anything useful?" Dean asked, patting Cas on the back before sitting down next to Sam.
"He didn't know anything about the Verrat that you hadn't already told us," Cas said, gesturing towards Nick "but, he did say he was about to go collect the souls of royalty in Vienna,"
"The King of Hell going to collect souls personally? These have gotta be some pretty high up people then," Sam nodded towards Cas.
"Well, since the Verrat have strong ties to Vienna, there's a possibility those souls might be the people we are looking for," Nick stated and everyone nodded in agreement.
"Maybe that's why they wanted me- demon me, that is. Maybe they made deals 10 years ago and now don't want their souls to be collected?" Dean suggested.
"I'll call Renard, my captain. He's got connections to the royals in Vienna. Maybe he'll be able to shed some light on some of this," Nick offered, pulling out his phone. He dialed the number and let it ring. Within seconds, someone answered.
"Nick? Aren't you on holiday?" Renard's voice questionned down the phone.
"Yeah, sort of. Anyway, bit of an odd question. Do you know if any members of the royals made any shady deals around 10 years ago?" Nick asked. There was a silent pause as he could almost hear Renard's confusion.
"Most of the royal family make lots of dodgy deals all the time. Seems to be a genetic thing," Renard half joked "but, there was one man by the name of Gustavo. He was fairly low down in the ranks, probably a second cousin or something. But about 10 years ago, he suddenly climbed the ranks and now I hear he holds a lot of power within the family. I believe he still lives in Vienna too,"
"Thanks, that might just be exactly what we're looking for," Nick smiled to himself, thankful for at least a small victory.
"Any reason why you want to know any of this?" Renard questioned.
"Haven't got the time to explain it now; I'll tell you when I get back... whenever that's going to be," Nick replied before hanging up. He turned back to Cas and the Winchester brothers who were now all watching him expectantly.
"Renard thinks he might know a guy. Apparently, there's this guy called Gustavo. He rose to power within the royals around 10 years ago but seemed to be a complete nobody before that," Nick told them.
"Sounds like it could be our guy," Sam nodded.
"I guess we'd better look into this fella, then," Dean sighed slightly, standing up.
"Yeah... this is getting a hell of a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be," Nick muttered to himself as all four of them headed up the stairs and towards the door.
Somewhere in a hotel room in Vienna, two men who were completely unknown to all those around them, were pacing up and down opposite ends of the room.
"I'm running out of time here," one of the men sighed, his usual smart suit now unkept and disheveled.
"I'm sure it's just a minor hiccup, we'll find the demon Winchester again", the other man, clearly a suborindate of the first man, said a little shakily.
"But what if we don't?" the first man threw his hands up in frustation as he sat down on the edge of one of the beds.
"We'll think of something", his subordiate tried to reassure him. But this only seemed to make his superior angier.
"There's nothing else to think of! In less than 24 hours a demon is going to collect my soul and take me to hell and the only thing that can protect me has slipped through our fingers. We have to find Dean Winchester, and we have to find him now!"