Chapter Eleven

Sam came too slowly. The first thing he noticed was the fiery pain in his right side, his ribs making it known to him that they were injured, possible broken. Blearily opening his eyes, Sam couldn't quite stifle the groan that came out as he lifted his head.

A tall, pale blonde woman looked up from a table on the other side of the room, "Ah good, you're awake."

"Who are you?" Sam asked as he pulled on the ropes fastening his hands to the chair, he was sitting in; they were secure and he had little hope of getting out of them. Sam could only hope that Dean found him.

"Miranda," the woman said shortly, making her way over to Sam, her long, black dress leaving trails in the dust on the floor as she did so.

"What are you doing? What do you want?" Sam moved his head away from the hand she brought toward him.

Miranda chuckled, "I'm bringing the ultimate power out of the underworld, as for what I want. I want you."

"Why?" Sam asked, though he already knew that answer.

"Sacrifice," Miranda said as she ran her fingers down his cheek, putting pressure on the gouge from earlier and electing a hiss from Sam. "I need a human with power, the others didn't have enough, but I can feel it practically oozing off of you."

"Others?" Sam said with a puzzled looked before it dawned on him, "You two killed those people."

Miranda nodded viciously, "Unfortunately they weren't what we were looking for, but you are. Now, as soon as she gets here, we can begin."

"As soon as who gets here? Miss Padalecki?" Sam asked slowly.

Miranda smirked at Sam as she picked a knife up off a table in the far corner; a table filled with different size and type knives among other things, "Of course not, silly. She's out getting rid of your brother. We're waiting for, Cari."

Sam looked up with confusion, choosing for the moment to ignore what she said about Dean; it was like he couldn't help him. "You're not talking about the succubus, are you?"

The tone in his voice must have tipped her off to the fact that he knew something she didn't, because the next thing Sam knew, he found himself on the wrong and of a knife. Hissing, but refusing to cry out in pain, Sam watched as Miranda sliced open his arm.

"What do you know?"

"About the succubus?" Sam retorted, which got him a backhand to the face.

"Yes!" Miranda hissed in his ear, bringing the tip of the knife to rest below his chin.

Sam forced himself to take as deep a breath as he dared before looking Miranda in the eye, "I killed her; she tried to kill my brother."

Miranda howled with outrage and moved to drive the knife deep into Sam's gut. She was stopped when a hand grabbed hold of her wrist.

Turning, Miranda ended up face to face with a very angry Dean, "Put the knife down."

Searching Dean's eyes, she gulped at what she saw there; nothing that would save her life if she didn't let go of the knife, just pure rage, hatred and pity.

With a whimper, Miranda let the knife fall out of her grasp, falling to the ground herself when Dean let her go in favour of picking up the knife.

Walking over to Sam, Dean bent down and cut the ropes holding him to the chair, "You okay, bro?"

Rubbing his wrists, Sam said with a grimace, "Just peachy."

Dean snorted at the sarcasm, "Careful, little brother. You're starting to sound like me."

"And we wouldn't what that now, would we?" Sam said as he slowly got out of the chair, putting an arm around his chest to the protect damaged ribs.

Dean shook his head and grabbed Miranda off the floor. "Get up." Turning to Sam, he asked, "What happened?"

"From what I can gather, her and Miss. Padalecki where trying to summon a demon, though I don't understand the need for a succubus."

Dean spun his head around to Miranda, "You summoned that thing? Why?" When she didn't answer, Dean shook her and asked a forcefully, "Why?"

"B-because," Miranda stuttered out, "We need life energy to bring the demon forth and succubus' are easier to control than other life-sucking demons."

"Dean?" Sam asked, stopping his brother before he could do anything to Miranda. "Where's Miss. Padalecki anyway, she was the one who brought me in here?"

"She's outside, I knocked her out when she came after me." Pushing Miranda towards the door, Dean said, "Move it. Why don't we see if those nice policemen are still here? I'm sure they'll be interested in who really killed those people."