Disclaimer, timeframe, summary: see first chapter.
In the Wake of Angels: Part VIII
In the dim, dusty light that filtered through from the ceiling, Sam counted the four vampires that Castiel had sensed. He easily identified the leader, a buxom thirty-something woman with dark red hair; the other female was visibly younger, a teenager when turned, looking more childish still with a petite frame and a mop of unkempt strawberry blonde hair. The two men were more similar; both dark-haired and muscled, carrying the sort of handsome anonymity of soap opera stars. Only by their clothes-- one shirt black, one green-- would they be easily distinguished in battle. Good thing the Winchesters and company were there to kill everything, then.
The four of them lay in hammocks across the room, unmoving. Sam scanned for any live humans that may have been waiting for delivery to demons, but found none. Well, there was a touch of luck, anyway. He waved for the rest of them to follow him, and made his way slowly into the room.
"Don't think I don't see you just 'cause I ain't gettin' up, sug," the redhead drawled without opening her eyes, making Sam's stomach jump briefly. "Long night, you know."
"Long night working for the demons?" Dean guessed.
"Freelancing," she corrected, standing and stretching. "Oh my. Our little nest is worthy of Heaven's attention, is it now? Or is our feathered friend here a… freelancer too?"
"Tell us about your connections," Sam demanded, pulling the leader's attention back from Castiel. He desperately wanted to look over his shoulder and check on how Jimmy was doing, but knew better than to take his eyes off the woman for even a moment. Although he'd known all along, Sam was suddenly acutely aware that the three vampires still in bed were wide awake. "What demons do you work for? How high up?"
"Just a bunch of black-eyed Susans," she replied lazily. "Honestly, we don't ask questions."
"Why do it?" Dean asked then. "What's in it for you?"
"Alliances are good to have these days," she answered, crossing her arms but still looking relaxed. "Especially with so few of our own kind left."
"I thought you were just freelancers," Sam reminded her coldly. She shrugged.
"Well, we also get to drain all the bodies. Demons don't care if they're on their last legs or not. So they do the recon, find the vulnerable humans for us, and we do the footwork and still get all the blood we want. Suits us."
Growing bored, Sam pulled his gun and cocked it. "The bullets are covered with dead man's blood," he warned. "Tell us about the demons you work for and we'll leave you alone. Don't make us get it out of you the hard way."
The redhead smiled. "You won't leave us alone. It doesn't matter if we know anything. I think we're just practice for Hunter Junior back there, am I right? Doesn't matter what I tell you. You'll kill us anyway."
Sam kept his face clear but winced internally; he hadn't anticipated her getting an accurate read on the situation. Not that she was wrong. But the fact that they knew the Winchesters were only there to kill them meant they would only be out to kill in return. Still, he wanted to delay a moment longer and give them all-- especially Jimmy-- time to study the room and prepare for the inevitable fight.
"I don't want to hurt you any more than I have to," Sam said tightly. "But I will shoot you right now and keep shooting until you tell me who you work for."
She shrugged.
"Dead man's blood," he reminded her. "Please. Tell me about the demons."
She smiled. "You don't scare me, honey. Death neither. Won't be much difference 'tween here and Hell, soon."
Sam fired. The bullet hit her shoulder and went clear through. A moment later she faltered, her eyelids lowering, but then she shook it off and stood tall. "Gotta lay the poison on a little thicker, sugar," she chuckled.
"How 'bout I just lay on the bullets instead?"
That was Dean, of course, and moments later bullets were ripping through the air towards the leader. Well, hopefully everyone had gotten a lay of the land, because it was go time.
In an instant, the other three vampires had jumped to their feet and come running. The leader stayed back, making it a fair fight, numerically speaking, with Jimmy not really counting either.
Sam found himself facing off against the green-shirted man, who came at him with the force of a small truck, and so barreled right past him when Sam side-stepped. That moment's distraction was enough for Sam to see that Castiel was fighting the other man and Dean was circling the blonde girl. Damn… it was also enough to see that, in flying past him, Green Shirt had ended up right next to Jimmy.
But Jimmy, reacting quickly despite-- or perhaps because of-- his fear, pulled his gun and fired. The bullet managed to hit the vampire in the leg, and he hissed in pain and fell to one knee. Sam took the opportunity to come up behind him and press his blade against Green's throat.
"Tell me about the demons you work for," Sam growled. "Or so help me you'll be Jimmy's first lesson."
Green's body shook with laughter in Sam's arms, though he held his neck still, aware of the blood on the blade. "I was always excellent for making an example of."
Sam pressed the blade closer, letting a little of the poison bite through. "Class clown, huh? Well, this isn't a joke."
"Then why am I laughing?"
Sam pressed it closer.
"Go ahead," Green told him. "Kill me. Honestly. Marie doesn't see it but they're gonna kill us anyway. So go ahead, don't give them the pleasure."
"Believe me, I won't," Sam promised, but something wasn't sitting well with him. Why was Green giving up so easily? It wasn't like a vampire… it wasn't like anything. He was up to something. And by the time Sam saw it, he feared it was too late.
Bantering with Sam had given Green time to pull a syringe and hold it on Jimmy, to his leg. It was a small thing, strangely innocuous given the circumstances, but Sam and knew what was in it. Green felt him tense, knew he'd noticed.
"Oh yeah," he chuckled. "Vampire blood. Hey kid--"
And then Sam pulled back as hard as he could and sliced Green's head clear off. Had the vampire been counting on Sam's hesitation, his squeamishness? If so, it was the last mistake he'd ever made.
Jimmy jumped back as the head rolled towards him, aiming his gun at it instinctively. Panting, sticky with blood, Sam pushed himself to his feet. "Good work, Jimmy," he said, nodding. "That was really good." Jimmy nodded back at him.
"I'm getting really tired of juggling all these different blood types," he remarked, his voice somewhat high-- the first sort of inflection it had carried in weeks.
Sam tossed him a grin and then turned back to the center of the room. "Stay back," he called as he did so. "That's enough for now."
Still, Marie stood in the middle, watching with amusement on her face as Dean and Castiel faced off against her remaining nestmates. It answered the question that Sam had been wondering, though he knew it was ultimately irrelevant, of who was whose mate; clearly it was Green and the blonde, and Marie and the other man; had Marie been with Green, Sam was sure she would have reacted to his death.
As it was, her mate seemed fine at the moment; he'd been poisoned, Sam saw, by a number of bullet holes through his gut, but because he was sickened he was being ignored by Dean and Cas. They were concentrating instead on the young blonde; Castiel was holding her down with her angel mojo and Dean was cutting on her slowly, poisoning her bit by bit, demanding to know about her employers. Sam's heart ached at the look on Dean's face; torture still brought back terrible memories for him, although he'd had to suck it up more than once over the past few months. Still, Sam wished Cas would take the knife from him.
"Please," Black Shirt called from the floor, squirming in obvious pain at both the poison blood in his system and the treatment of his sister vampire. "We don't… know… anything."
"Tell me," Dean growled, and cut a neat line across Blonde's right forearm. "Who do you work for?"
But as Sam watched, Castiel pieced something together. She drew her own blade and pressed it up against Blonde's throat. Then she turned to Black and said, her voice cold and clear, "Who do you work for?"
"Please," he murmured. Cas pressed the blade down. Black twitched; maybe Sam had gotten the pairings wrong. Maybe Green was Marie's mate and she was just a heartless bitch.
"Who do you work for?" Castiel repeated.
"Okay, okay!" Black pulled himself into a crouch and slowly stood, hands raised. "We don't know names, I swear. We don't know how to contact them. Once a week, we meet them at a pub. It's about ten minutes from here. Kavanaugh's. They tell us a few people they want and we get them and bring them the next week."
"When do you meet?"
"Wednesday nights. Seven o'clock. That's all I know, I swear," he added.
"Are you holding any humans now?"
"No."
"Are you positive?" The blade dug a little deeper.
"Yes!" Black cried.
"Thank you," Castiel said. And then she pressed her blade down and Blonde's head went tumbling to the floor.
"No!" Black howled. Though still off-balance, he lunged at Cas, knocking her on her back, pinning her to the floor. There was a nauseating snap as her arm broke. Black didn't pause, beginning to pummel her with both fists, looking less like a vampire and more like a regular, heartbroken man.
Sam was running but Dean got there first, kicking Black off of her, guns forgotten.
"I told you what you wanted!" Black screamed. "You didn't have to kill her!" He was fist-fighting Dean now, while Castiel stood back, hand on her broken arm, the strain of healing it evident on her face.
"Aw, you didn't really think they were gonna let us go, didja?" a honey-smooth voice just over Sam's shoulder scolded. "I told you, Danny, from the moment they came close I knew. These are the Winchester boys. They aren't gonna let us get out of here alive. So I said to myself," she narrated, walking forward and into Sam's field of vision. They were all of them now crowded on one side of the room, far below a boarded-up window. "I said: I wanna kill an angel before I die." She grinned. "Just something I've always wanted to do."
And Sam understood why Marie had stood back, a queen watching her pawns sacrifice themselves first. Clearing the field. Inflicting injuries, weakening the enemy. A vampire leader with her self-preservation out the window. She was going to be a dangerous adversary, and she was heading straight at Castiel.
She lunged. Castiel was knocked back once more, this time against the wall. Castiel tried to push her away physically, but Marie was strong. Sam was right behind her, blade raised, but Marie, pinning Castiel to the wall by only her neck now, gracefully swung around on one leg, her other leg flying out and catching Sam in the gut. He stumbled backwards with a gust of air and went at her again. By now, Castiel had managed to raise an arm to Marie's forehead but before Sam could reach them again, Marie put her mouth up to Castiel's arm and bit down hard.
Castiel gasped and Dean, still brawling with Danny, shouted wordlessly. The distraction gave Danny time to plant a blow to the side of Dean's face, causing an instant eruption of blood to burst from both of Dean's nostrils. At the scent of human blood, Danny's fangs lowered themselves and he opened his mouth to display them. As he leaned forward to lap at the blood spilling onto Dean's shirt, Sam drew his gun and fired into Danny's back, then came running to pull him from Dean. But Dean shook his head frantically. "Cas!" he cried.
Sam whipped around again, not wanting to know what he had missed in his time assisting Dean. And it was as bad as he'd feared; Marie had bitten Castiel's neck and as sucking joyfully at the blood. But Cas still had her hand up and as Sam watched, she blasted Marie backwards, a clear ten feet from where she'd been standing. Despite the wound in her neck, her face was calm. This time Sam didn't waste any time deciding where to go, and ran instead, full tilt, back to Dean and Danny. How stupid could he have been, thinking that an angel needed his help more than Dean? And how stupid had Dean been to send him?
Dean had pulled his blade on Danny but Danny had him pinned to a wall in such a way that he couldn't move his arm to thrust it. Though weakened by the dead man's blood, Danny still had the strength to keep him there, and to stay on his feet despite Dean kicking out at his legs, thrashing wildly, making contact time and again. But movement was distracting Danny and so, blade drawn, Sam crept up behind him.
Danny turned to kick him, and managed to, but unlike Marie he didn't have the coordination to keep Dean against the wall at the same time. Dean fell free and in one smooth motion, whipped his blade forward and sliced through Danny's neck just as he was coming again at Sam.
Sickeningly, it didn't disconnect; Danny crumpled to the floor but his neck was partially together, his body still moving. Disgusted, Sam fired off two shots, finishing the process and fully disconnecting the head from the body. The massive amounts of blood on the floor weren't a problem for Sam, but the thought of shooting through a chunk of skin and muscle to disconnect a head from a body did leave him slightly nauseated, he had to admit.
But there was no time for that now. He and Dean, who had kicked Danny's head away to make sure that the deed really had been done, turned in the same motion to face Castiel, who was circling Marie with one arm raised, blood running down it, and from her neck as well. Her broken arm was still clutched uselessly to her side; she hadn't yet had time to finish healing it.
"C'mon, girlie," Marie was saying. "It's my dying wish. I wanna take some feathers with me. Be a dear." Castiel, unused to the concept of battlefield banter, was saying nothing, just glaring ahead, waiting for Marie to make the first move.
Too late did Sam realize that the circling was about to put Castiel a quarter-circle away from him and Dean, and Marie opposite them all, a perfect position for her to attack from. He was about to begin circling himself when a movement in the shadows behind Marie caught his eye.
Sam didn't think, crying out before he realized that Marie, distracted by Castiel, hadn't noticed the man behind her. "Jimmy, no!" For Jimmy had just charged, his small blade pulled, straight at Marie. She twirled, and in the same motion brought her hands to the sides of his head, split seconds away from snapping his neck. But in the same instant, bullets from both Sam and Dean hit her arms, giving Castiel time to mentally push her away from Jimmy, to the floor. Without hesitation, Dean jumped forward to stand over her, and brought his blade down cleanly through her neck.
Marie's head stayed where it was, long red hair pinned between her back and the floor, holding it there.
For a moment there was no sound in the boathouse but heavy, pained breathing. Then Sam snapped.
"Jimmy!" His voice echoed so loudly that everyone but Castiel jumped, Sam himself included. "What the fuck were you thinking? She was gonna break your neck! I told you to stay put! We had it!"
"Not from what I saw."
"What the fuck?" Sam demanded. The queasiness in his gut that had started at the sight of Danny's stubborn neck tissue intensified at the thought of a fifth corpse-- human-- on the floor of the boathouse. "What the hell is your problem, man?"
"No. What's your problem, Sam?" Jimmy replied. Although his face was bloodless and his hands trembling, his voice was calm and emotionless, almost… dead. "Why don't you get it? I don't care. Live, die. I don't give a shit. In fact given the choice, I'd rather die, okay? So, I figured, I'd take that bitch down with me. Now what about that is so hard to understand?"
Sam and Castiel stared at Jimmy who, along with Dean, stared back at Sam. It felt to Sam like they were back in some sort of face off, everyone waiting for someone to make the next move. "Jimmy," Sam said weakly.
"No." Jimmy spoke as though cutting him off, but truth be told, Sam had nothing more to say. "Let's just clean up and go." His voice never shook, but tears had begun to stream down his cheeks. He wiped his eyes absently and stepped over the bloodied body of the vampire leader.
Now if never before, Sam thought, he really, honestly might be sick.