Summary:
Dean and Sam fall into a vampire hunting pack's trap; Sam manages to escape but has to leave Dean behind. When he loses the trail to the nest, he calls on the vampire whose life he saved, Lenore, to help him find his brother. Kate, part of the nest that has Dean, decides Dean's punishment for helping to kill her mate, Luther, should include becoming a vampire himself. Post Croatoan.
Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own the copyrights to the Boys. But thank you Kripke for such fab characters and letting us play in your universe!!
Rating is for some bad-boy language. Some chapters of this story get a bit bloody and lean toward mature themes.
Blood Debt
Chapter 7
Sam had been reluctant to accept that he couldn't possibly supply enough blood to remove the tang of cow's blood from all three's scents. After several minutes of heated discussion, Sam finally agreed that they would need to involve innocents. Lenore told him they'd each need three pints of human blood to cover the animal scent and that it wasn't safe to take more than two pints from any one person. That meant they'd need five people. Shelley and Detroit went about procuring their donors while Eli and Lenore gave Sam the bruises he'd need to make his condition convincing. Before they left the motel that evening, Shelley, Eli and Lenore fed from both the innocents and from Sam. From Sam they took only enough to give their scent a bit of his own.
Sam lay bound in the trunk of Lenore's car, aching, and feeling worse than he'd have liked. His shirt was in shreds. Rope hobbled his ankles and bound his arms behind him, and a bandana was between his teeth and tied behind his head. The three bandaged vampire bites still hurt.
The last few minutes of the ride was particularly uncomfortable as they drove on a graveled drive and every bump rattled his teeth. He was grateful when the car finally stopped. He heard Lenore, Shelly and Eli get out of the car. It was another hour before the trunk opened and a welcome cool breeze brushed over him. Eli pulled Sam out roughly and dropped him onto the gravel. Sam grunted, wincing as the sharp gravel dug into him.
Sam's joints were stiff from the long time his large frame was crammed in the small trunk. As he started to stretch out his legs, Eli yanked him to his feet. He stood unsteadily, trying to get his bearings and get his stiffened limbs loosened. His right eye was blackened and swollen, but not so much that he couldn't see out of it.
The Protégé sat parked among ten or so other cars. The Saturn he and Dean had stopped for, and that he later gave chase to for days, was to his left and a few cars away he saw the Mustang that he suspected had chased him. Lights were on in the old two-story white farmhouse and its wraparound porch boasted a swing where two people sat, making out. Further back was a huge, old red barn and he thought he saw another smaller barn off to the side. The big barn's doors were open and music and laughter spilled out from inside. In the front yard of the house was a large oak tree with a tire swing that swayed gently in the breeze. There were no sounds or indication of any animals on the farm.
The sound of delighted laughter made Sam turn as the blonde he knew as Janine strolled up. Her eyes filled with mirth as she measured him. "Well, well, well, look at you, Handsome. I didn't think I'd ever see you again. Hey, Suzanne!" she called. "You have to see this."
Suzanne came around the corner of the house, her boots clicking on the gravel road. "What?"
"Look at who it was that went after Lenore's family!" Janine said. She caressed Sam's bruised face with her cold hand. Sam jerked away from her touch.
Suzanne joined them, eyeing Sam. Sam stared back at the two women with hated-filled eyes.
Suzanne turned to Eli, an apology on her face. "He was hunting for us, Eli," she said. "I'm sorry he found your family instead."
Eli's face darkened and his body tensed with anger. "You brought this down on us?" he demanded, brittleness in his voice.
"Lenore said you were near Atlanta?" Suzanne asked.
"Yes. The north side of it," Eli acknowledged.
Janine faced Eli. "That would be where Charles and I left the last of the trail for him before we decided we'd run him around in enough circles," she said. "We didn't know there were any families there and it seemed like a good place to ditch him. I'm really sorry, Eli." Her words seemed sincere.
"We hadn't been there long," Eli said. He sighed, the tension draining out of him. "It's not really your fault he found us. Detroit was sloppy and led him right back to us."
"Yes, Detroit wasn't a very bright one, was he?" Suzanne said mildly, her distaste for Detroit clear. "I don't know what Shelly ever saw in him."
Eli unfastened the leather holding his ponytail and gratefully ran his fingers through his freed hair. "Look, we've been driving for a while. I'm tired." He held up the rope attached to Sam's bound wrists. "Where can I put our food for the night?"
"I'll show you," Suzanne said, giving a nod to Janine. Janine's gaze lingered appreciatively on Sam's body, then she turned and walked toward the farmhouse. Suzanne continued. "You might want to talk to Kate, one of newer members of the family. I'm sure she'd be willing to give you quite a trade for this one. He was part of the group that killed most of her family."
Eli's gaze snapped to her, his eyes flashing. "And he killed most of ours," Eli snarled. He bared his fangs are her. "He's ours to kill and we'll kill anyone who so much as touches him."
She raised her hands, her blouse's loose sleeves falling back to her elbows. "I'm just letting you know that Kate might approach one of you about him. Follow me." She gave Sam a wicked smile. "You can put him in right next to what's left of his brother. He's been quite tasty, that one has."
Sam's eyes widened and he screamed muffled curses at her as he started to rush her. Eli yanked hard on the rope and Sam fell to the ground with a pain-filled grunt. Eli strode to his side and glared down at him.
"Seems you still have a bit too much energy," Eli growled and grabbed Sam by his arms, lifted him to his feet, and then sank his teeth into Sam's biceps. Sam tried to pull away but he only bit harder. Sam groaned, clenching his eyes shut and stopped resisting. Eli drank until Sam swayed on his feet. Finally, Eli extracted his teeth, his eyes glowing with satisfaction, and pushed Sam forward. Sam stumbled and fell to his knees; he shook his head, trying to stay conscious.
"Lead on, Suzanne. I don't think he'll be any more trouble for awhile," Eli said. "Get up, Food, or I'll drag you to your cage by your hair."
Sam slowly struggled to his feet, fearing Eli was serious. Eli had to guide him toward the barn as Sam staggered, seeming befuddled, his eyes unfocused and confused.
When they got to the cages, Eli shoved Sam inside one. Sam fell face down and Eli planted his boot in Sam's back. He cut the ropes from Sam's wrists and ankles and then shackled one of Sam's wrists. A chain ran from the shackle and out the front of the cage where it attached to a padlock. Eli ran an antiseptic wipe over the bite he'd given Sam. Groggily, Sam tried to pull away, his breath hissing between his teeth as the antiseptic burned. Eli left some water and fruit beside Sam, then he shut the cage, locked it, and walked away.
Sam laid there for a few minutes, listening to the surrounding noises. Slowly he pushed himself up, covertly glancing around, taking in the surroundings. Rock music playing from a stereo near the front door. Vampires were scattered here and there in the barn, some making out, some dancing, some drinking or talking. Hammocks strung from support beams, rollaway beds, workbenches, chairs, lights and tables were scattered throughout the barn and it reminded Sam a good deal of the place in which Kate and Luther had been holed up. Various tools and equipment hung on nails or hooks, and chains and leather harnesses and straps hung on the distant walls. Sam was in an eight by eight cage that was in a line of cages in the middle of the barn. Sam saw another set of larger cages by the rear wall.
After he felt confident no one was paying him any particular attention, he let his "grogginess" fade. Eli had taken only a small amount of blood, but his bite had hurt like a son-of-a-bitch. Sam worked his arm and was surprised; Eli had slid his teeth between muscle and the damage done to his arm was minimal. It twinged, but not as Sam had expected when Eli had first bit in.
Looking to his right, he saw a vacant-eyed woman in the next cage. To his left—the air rushed out of his lungs. His brother was lying next to the bars, shirtless, bruises and wounds peppering his back. Sam crept over to him and reached through the bars, his fingers checking his brother's neck for a pulse. Sam breathed a sigh of relief. Dean's heartbeat was strong and steady. He gripped his brother's shoulder and gently shook him.
"Dean," Sam whispered. "Wake up."
Dean slowly sat up and turned to see who woke him. It took a moment and then recognition lit his face. "Sam!" Dean said. His gaze went to the still dripping wound on Sam's arm and felt his mouth water. Fresh blood. He grabbed Sam's wrist and pulled his arm further into his cage. Sam winced as he felt Dean's human teeth bite into the wound, bringing forth fresh blood. He tried to pull his arm back through the bars, but Dean was shockingly strong.
"Stop it!" Sam hissed at him and threw all his weight away from Dean. Dean's head thunked against the bars and he released his grip on his brother's arm. The sudden release of his arm made Sam fall backwards and onto his ass, bringing chuckles from a trio of nearby vampires. He gave them a glare that only made them laugh harder. Ripping off a scrap of his shredded shirt, he hastily wrapped the bite wound.
Well, that answers that question, Sam thought grimly. He looked in on his brother. He'd never seen Dean look so pale, so … beaten. "Dean?" he asked gently.
Dean hung his head and wouldn't look at his brother. "I—I can't control it, Sam. Stay out of my reach."
"I've covered it. Will that help?" Sam asked, easing further back from the bars. He glanced behind him, wondering if the vacant-eyed woman was also turned and might be a threat herself. She continued to stare blankly from where she sat in the middle of the cage.
"Some," Dean said miserably, "but I can still smell it. I'll be alright, so long as I know you're out of reach." He laughed weakly, "Dude, hell of a rescue you've got going here."
Sam sighed. "Yeah, things didn't work out quite like I'd planned. So, they've, uh, turned you."
"Looks like," Dean said bitterly. "I'm sorry, Sam." He looked up. He wasn't crying, but his eyes shone as if he were about to. "I'm sorry I stopped to help those two bitches. I'm sorry I got us into this."
"If I'd been driving, I'd have probably wanted to stop, too. You didn't know. It's okay," Sam soothed.
"It's not okay!" Dean yelled. "Dammit, I should have known better."
"How, Dean," Sam shot back. "How would you have known?"
"It's my job! I'm the older brother. I'm supposed to know these things." Dean's face was contorted in rage and anguish.
"Dean," Sam said, "stop beating yourself up over this."
Dean stood up. "Really? Why? I don't know if you noticed, but I just drank your blood, Sam. And I liked it. I'm turning into a freaking vampire! I use to laugh when I said that word. Vampire. Dracula. Buffy the fucking vampire slayer." Dean moved closer to the bars and stared at his brother. "I stand here talking to you and all I can think of is how damned good your blood tasted and how much I want more. Thinking that I could sucker you closer by acting sick or hurt and then when you reached through I could rip your carotid open with my fingernails and sink my teeth into your throat and drink every drop I could suck out of your veins."
Sam stared at his brother, his face creased in sorrow and pain.
"Don't!" Dean snarled at him. "Don't you feel sorry for me. Just make sure if you get out of here that you kill me before you leave. You hear me, Sam? If you can, you've got to kill me. I won't live like this, or be undead like this, or whatever the hell it is. I won't be that slut Kate's vampire bitch."
"I heard she was here," Sam said quietly.
Dean pushed away from the bars and stared at the cobwebbed rafters overhead. He could see a few birds nestled down for the night and briefly wondered how bird blood would taste. He was still so very hungry. Sam's blood had only whetted his appetite and fanned his bloodlust. "Yeah. Sweet little bitchy Kate," he muttered. His gaze came back to his brother. "Hell, she's going to want you, too."
"I've got a feeling my vampires won't be willing to hand me over to her. They're kind of fond of me for their own reasons."
Dean tilted his head and took a deep breath. He could smell Sam's blood, still taste it in his mouth and was both repulsed and thrilled by its sweet flavor. The bloodlust was a fire burning high inside of him. He realized that he was judging how far Sam was from the bars and whether or not he could get to him. He fought the urge to do just what he'd told Sam; find a way to coax him just a little closer.
"Sam, you really need to move a little further back," Dean said, fighting to get the words out as his inner voice screamed, No! Don't warn him. Draw him closer!
Sam backed away another foot. "Better?"
"Not really," Dean said, "but at least I know you're definitely out of reach. Keep it that way, you hear me?" he ordered.
Sam nodded. "I will."
Their gazes locked and a thousand unspoken words seemed to pass between them. Old memories of childhood, new memories since their father had died, and everything in between. Dean finally broke eye contact and stared down at the dirt floor.
"So, tell me, how'd you get caught?" Dean asked.
Sam grimaced. "I thought I'd found the nest, went in to get you, took down over half of them, but there were more than I thought. So is Kate the one who turned you?"
"Yeah," Dean said. "She planned to send me after you and Dad when I was a little closer to being a full blown vampire."
Sam cocked an eyebrow at him and, after confirming the vampires in the barn appeared to be ignoring them, murmured softly, "I take it you didn't tell her about Dad being dead and all."
Dean managed a grin and whispered back, "Yeah, hadn't really gotten around to it yet. Figured it might keep her a little nervous. Kind of a private little joke I was playing."
"How long ago did she make you drink her blood? How many days?" Sam asked, afraid of the answer. Dean had been missing for fifteen days and fifteen days was almost certainly too long.
"I don't know," he said, returning to the bars that separated their cages. The craving for fresh blood was getting harder to ignore. With an effort he squashed the urge to wave Sam closer.
"Think, Dean. How long?" Sam said, almost pleading.
Dean ran his fingers through his short hair. "Maybe five days, I guess. She wanted to get a little obedience beaten into me or something first, and Suzanne wanted to feed on me for a while. I guess I stopped tasting so good and Kate decided beating me up and breaking my bones just wasn't as much fun as the alternative of making me her bitch."
Five days. We should still have time, Sam thought, relieved. Five days wasn't great, but it was a much shorter time than he'd feared. "How often does she make you drink her blood? Once, twice, three times a day?"
"What, are you taken a freaking survey?" Dean snapped.
"Just tell me," Sam said and started to move closer to Dean, then saw the hungry gleam in his eyes. He edged back to his previous safe spot. "How many times a day?"
Dean's adrenaline kicked up a notch when Sam moved closer and he found himself shifting subtly, ready to grab for him. He tried to push himself back from the bars but found he eased closer still. He breathed both a sigh of relief and frustration when Sam went back to where he'd been standing. It took him a moment to remember Sam's question. "Twice in the beginning, but she's feeding me more often since the bloodlust started. Why?"
Sam frowned worriedly, Lenore's words haunting him. The virus was overwhelming Dean's immune system. "When did the bloodlust start?"
"What's it matter?" Resignation was clear in his voice. His shoulders sagged as if the weight he'd been carrying suddenly became too much. "I'm done. It's over." He hadn't quite embraced that fact until just then. Always a small voice inside of him had denied that truth, had promised there was a way out, a way back to human. But there wasn't. The delicious taste of Sam's blood lingering in his mouth made that perfectly clear. His worst fears were made manifest. He'd become one of those things he hunted.
"When, Dean," Sam demanded.
Dean growled his annoyance. "I guess two or three days ago."
"How many times have you fed on non-vampire blood?"
Dean ran his hand up and down the cold metal bars. His mind told him the bars were too thick, even with his growing vampire strength, to bend. He should be trying to escape, not drooling over the blood that pumped in his brother's body! But he knew he'd never leave Kate, not willingly, and that thought made him want to puke. So long as she offered him her blood, he'd fawn at her feet like a lovesick puppy. He loathed himself more for that weakness than any other. He looked at the red dust that coated the bars. Even the land bleeds red, Dean thought.
"Dean?" Sam asked.
Dean refocused on his brother as he wiped the red dust from his hands to what remained of his jeans. "I don't know how often." He laughed harshly. "Should I include just now when I tried to drain my own brother and still would, given the chance?"
"Yes, including just now," Sam said patiently.
"Why? I've fed on human blood and I savored every damned drop. What does it matter if I've done it once or a hundred freaking times?"
Sam looked around and re-confirmed no one was paying them any attention. He dropped his voice to a bare whisper. "Because there might be a way to reverse the change."
Dean straightened. "What?" The vampire in him denied it, ridiculed it, but the hunter in him grabbed hold of Sam's words with both hands. It wasn't over? He might still have a chance to be human again?
"How many times?" Sam asked again.
Dean was dumbfounded. He stared at his brother, his eyes begging Sam that he was telling him the truth. "You're the fifth, I think, maybe the sixth? But I've got a helluva lot of blank spots Sammy. It could be twice that or more. There's really a chance?"
"Time's against us, but yes. Do you think she'll make you drink her blood again? And make you feed on human blood again tonight?"
"I hope so," Dean said before he realized it. He saw the look in Sam's eyes and ground his teeth. "Before sunrise, she'll be back. When the hunger starts really getting bad, she usually comes. And it's getting pretty bad. Sam, when she's here, especially right after—I can't control myself. I mean, worse than now. I'll do what ever she orders me to." His green eyes showed the pain that admission caused him. "I'll do absolutely anything."
"I know. Until you get your vampire teeth and can feed yourself, the sire can control you. It's not any weakness on your part, Dean," Sam told him. "The demon is exerting control. It's kind of like being possessed."
"You get this all out of Elkins' book?" Dean had read some of the journal but hadn't studied it as Sam had. He didn't recall reading anything about bringing a vampire back from being turned though.
"Something like that," Sam said, hedging. "Do you know if you'd be compelled to tell her information? I mean, do you think you'll tell her I might know how to reverse it?"
Dean's shoulders lifted in a helpless shrug. "It's like it's not me Sam. I see it all happening but I don't have any control. If you've got secret plans, you'd better not tell me. I can't be trusted."
"Okay. We'll get out of this. Have faith, big brother," Sam reassured him.
Dean looked at the bars around them and the shackled they both still wore. "You must have one hell of a genius plan, college boy."
Sam grinned through his split lip. "I hope so."