Supernatural Blood Part II, Chapter 5.

'Cas, please, come on. I'm praying as hard as I can here,' Dean muttered, head down and hands folded. The Impala sat by the curb outside a rundown building. Inside, Dean had found several dead bodies, and sulfur, a lot of it. He had tried calling Sam's phone again, and realised that Eric probably had it, or the SIM card in his own phone. That was why his calls were being rejected all the time. It all came down to two conclusions.

Eric – or whoever it was – had somehow tricked Sam, and his brother was using his powers again.

Which meant Dean didn't really want to be calling Cas, considering the angel had told Sam he'd kill him if he started using his powers again, but what other options did he have?

He had to find Sam, but he didn't even know where to start. They had a whole day's head-start, in any direction. If he had an army of hunters, they could still easily hide. A vampire in this day and age could just check into a hotel and order a supply of True Blood to last a week.

'Dean,' Cas' voice was soft, but Dean still couldn't suppress a slight twitch. The angel was in the passenger seat, looking a little haggard. 'Are you any closer to finding Sam?'

'I think I'm farther away than before, to be honest,' Dean sighed. 'I think Eric might be possessed.'

'That's not possible,' Cas said with a frown.

'What?'

'Vampires are near impossible to posses because their souls are bonded to their bodies differently that with mortals.'

'I'm telling you, Cas, that wasn't Eric on the phone. I mean, it was him, but then the tone of his voice changed. It wasn't him anymore.' Cas looked unconvinced. 'You said near impossible, not totally impossible, right?'

'Perhaps...'

Dean sighed, trying to think, but his mind was filled with Sam. His little brother drinking demon blood. When he ha first heard about Eric, he had been so convinced Sam was hooked on V. Then he found out about Ruby... it was all just a story to him, though, because he couldn't imagine actually seeing it. Sam was the good one.

'You must find him. If he is using his powers-'

'You'll kill him?' Dean hadn't meant to bark it out like that. Cas gave him a half-impatient, half-sympathetic.

'When a person drinks from demons, nothing good comes from it,' Cas said quietly. Dean couldn't figured out that for himself, he thought grumpily. 'They can be very convincing.'

'Sam can't know,' Dean said, shaking his head. 'He doesn't know Eric's a demon.' That just meant he thought he was drinking V... which was just about as bad, but in the end meant a bad detoxing, not an angelic assassin.

'That may very well be the case. We must stop him. Maybe if you can reach him, he will listen to you.'

'I've been calling him non-stop. I think Eric has his phone...' Dean looked out the window as the building, trying to picture Sam in there, using whatever his powers were. God, he didn't even know what Sam could do past having those weird visions, but they hadn't happened since Yellow Eyes. Jesus, why would Sam go down that road? To kill Lilith, obviously, which they still had to do, somehow-

'We need to find Lilith,' Dean said, looking at Cas. 'That's why Sam got together with Ruby in the first place, right?'

'Yes...' Cas looked uncomfortable, like he was trying to say something, but knew he shouldn't.

'If we find out where Lilith is, that's probably where Sam is heading.'

'Most likely...' Cas was practically mumbling.

'Cas? What aren't you telling me?' Cas looked out the window, eyes almost sad. 'Cas?' Dean had a sinking feeling in his gut.

'You've probably wondered why Ruby was helping Sam kill Lilith.'

'I kinda assumed she just said that to trick him.'

'No, she was quite serious about it.'

Dean waited for the other shoe to drop.

'And?' he finally demanded. 'She wanted Lilith's job? Or another demon running the show? What's the deal?'

'She wanted to start the Apocalypse.' Dean blinked.

'How does killing Lilith do that?' Cas finally turned to look Dean in the eye.

'Lilith is the final seal. Sam's destiny is to kill her and release Lucifer from his cage. The angels want this to happen, and I have been a party to their plans, but...' Dean watched as the usually stoic angel struggled to find the words. He felt like he couldn't breathe. 'I have decided to make what I believe is the right choice. The threat on Sam's life was a ruse. My real task was to find him and make sure he is in the right place at the right time.'

'Wait, wait,' Dean pleaded, a hand coming up to hold his head. 'This is- the angels want it all to happen?'

'Yes.'

'And Sam's-' Dean closed his eyes.

'I'm truly sorry, Dean.'

'For what? That all your brothers are dicks? That the world is so fucked up even the good guys are... a bunch of dicks.' He was having a bad day, he reasoned, so he was allowed to be a little unimaginative with his insults.

'We must find Sam.'

'I heard you the first fifty times!' Dean yelled, then pulled himself together. Yelling at Cas wouldn't do any good. Cas remained silent, thankfully. 'The plan's still sound,' he thought out loud. 'They want Sam to kill Lilith, and he thinks he should. So we find her before they do.'

'We might be too late. Sam may be too far gone by then.'

'Well, unless you have any better ideas, that's what I'm gonna do.' Cas didn't say anything, and when Dean looked, he was gone. He sighed, hoping the angel was going demon hunting. He put the car in gear and pointed her towards Bobby. It was a long drive, but he knew he needed the older hunter to find out how to get to Lilith. There just had to be some ritual, someone they could contact, that could lead them to her.

'Hang on, Sammy,' he muttered, 'I'm coming.'

XXX

'I think you're ready,' Eric announced. Sam gazed up at him from the floor. He had blood running from his nose, dark circles under his eyes, but he looked relieved. He had just gutted three demons simultaneously. Eric held out a hand, which Sam took gratefully. They left the abandoned warehouse. In times like these, empty buildings were easy to come by. As they walked to the car, Sam asked:

'Do you know how to find her?'

'I have an idea,' Eric said cryptically. Sam glanced at him. He reached out and took hold of the pale wrist. Eric stopped and turned towards him.

Sam pulled the vampire towards him and captured his lips in a kiss. Eric kissed back hard. Sam pulled away a little.

'Easy,' he whispered. 'Just... a kiss.' Eric didn't seem to understand. Sam pressed his lips softly to Eric's, holding his head so he wouldn't press back too hard.

Suddenly, the vampire wrenched himself away, doubling over in pain. Sam tried to help, to keep him from falling, but before he could get a grip the vampire jerked, spinning to catch hold around Sam's neck. Sam ended up looking down into wild eyes.

Eric opened his mouth, but no words came out.

'Eric, what's wrong! Please, tell me.' They had never spoken about Eric's pain. Sam felt helpless as Eric stiffened in his arms, his eyes squeezing shut. The hunter looked around them, looking for help, or checking to see if they were alone, he didn't quite know. The road was completely empty, the abandoned buildings not even fit for a hidden vampire hangout.

Just as suddenly as Eric's pain had appeared, it disappeared, and the vampire righted himself abruptly. He smoothed down the fabric of his t-shirt and glanced at Sam.

'I'm all right now,' he murmured and walked around the car to the driver's side. Sam got in, feeling uneasy, but he didn't know what to say. Eric barely waited for Sam to get the door closed before speeding off. Sam watched him as he drove.

They left the decaying industrial side of town and drove into an equally rundown residential area. Sam barely noticed the houses passing by them.

'You know I love you right?' he felt the urge to say. Eric gripped the wheel tight, but didn't reply. 'You can talk to me about what happened to you,' Sam went on, knowing it was stupid to bring it up. Eric was helping him, making him strong and they were going to kill Lilith, so shouldn't he help Eric too? He felt so powerful from the blood, surely he could fix this?

'Just leave it,' Eric snapped. Sam pursed his lips.

'You've done so much for me, can't I just help you talk about this?'

The car's tires screeched as Eric suddenly threw the wheel to the side, hitting the curb hard and jolting the old Cadillac they'd stolen. They flew through an already broken fence and stopped abruptly on the gray front lawn of a house without windows left.

'What the hell did you do that for!' Sam yelled. He had almost hit his head on the dash when Eric had hit the brakes. Eric was leaning against the steering wheel, breathing hard. Sam leaned over and almost touched the vampire's shoulder, but hesitated. 'Eric?'

'Help... me,' Eric's voice rasped out.

'Okay,' Sam said, finally placing his hand on the cold shoulder. 'I'll help you, just tell me what to do.'

Eric shook his head twice quick, then leaned back and reached out. The movement was so fast Sam barely had time to react before Eric was biting his neck. He grunted, half in pain, half pleasure.

'Eric, Jesus,' he moaned. Eric hadn't drunk from him in a while, but he had certainly done it several times sine Sam had started taking demon blood. They hadn't discussed its effects on Eric, but Sam couldn't deny the vampire anything.

Eric pulled away abruptly and held up his wrist to Sam's face. With his eyes locked on Sam's he deliberately used his sharp nails to pierce his skin. Sam felt hot all over, and he didn't hesitate to attach his mouth to the wound.

He didn't see Eric's smug smile.