Favor For a Friend

by starglow71

AU. Wincest. Sam/Dean/Dante/Victor/Cas/Gabriel/Balthazar/OOC/OOC/OOC, Bobby/OOC. Angel love. Victor calls the boys for favor, catch a runaway witness for him. What could the harm be in helping him with this? Where will it lead them afterward? Strong Sexual content, slave/master/submissive, lots of kink, bad language, very graphic!

2. Poetic Justice Part 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or the characters thereof.

Warning: Wincest! Sam/Dean/Dante/Victor/Gabriel/Cas/lots of other characters. Angel Love. Bobby/Sal/Cas/Gabriel/Sven/Leo/Sam/Dean/OOC. Strong language, graphic imagery. Very explicit and kinky Sexual Content. Lots of BDSM, Bondage, Master/Slave relationships and kinky things are included here. Lots of sex and orgasms, and a spectacular amount of Gay love and stuff, not to mention the PWP, which is abundant, lol!

If you don't like Wincest, don't read! I get graphic with most of my Wincest and I don't want to offend you. Don't read if that bothers you.

Plot: Sam and Dean and their lovers have gone on some Hunts. The first two are up. Dante and Victor are after a poltergeist. Dean and Sam are after another Killer Painting, a clown this time. Sven and Leo, along with our boys' Hunter Slaves, are after a Wendigo. A training mission for Sven and Leo with them supervising.

This will be a two-part chapter. Maybe just adding more to other chapters if I can work them around to make room. It's just running too long. This is only covering the first three hunts and some kinky action in between. Some angst and drama, too. I will be still working on the second half. I'll try to have it out soon. Just consider this an appetizer…

The main course is on its way.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dante and Vic parked outside the cemetery. Their brief interviews as 'Occult Specialists' for an obscure Supernatural Newsletter had panned out.

Their resident spook was Jacques DuBois, a Vandun priest that had been killed by a rival. At the hands of his own zombies, believe it or not. Talk about Poetic…Dante chuckled. "So that big monstrosity is his mausoleum…pretty fancy for a poor priest." They'd been told he hadn't had much money but this thing belied that lie. "Steel reinforced door, gated on the inside and outside, windows included…" He whistled at the security on this thing. "They sure do revere their Magic Practitioners here, wow!"

"More like they feared he would get out as a ghoul or something worse. That thing was clearly meant to keep something in, not out." Victor disagreed. Eying the animal bones and candles, and other paraphernalia littered at the door and on the steps leading up to it. "Wonder what they thought he could do from in there? And after they went out of their way to try to keep him in there, too. Which makes me nervous…if he was to be kept in there and these Marks say he was…then how in the hell did his spirit get out?"

"Someone summoned him out of it, obviously." Dante drawled and pressed a hand to the locks, melting them. Then doing the same to the steel door's handle. Going in, they looked around. "Got nothing here." Dante said examining some Marks on the wall. Wards, just as he'd expected to be there, powerful wards against Dark Magic at that…he thought troubled. These should have been more than strong enough to keep any kind of Dark Magic in or out of this place. Someone had warded the inside of this thing to Hell and back; it was a miracle the spirit had even gotten out…none were broken though, so how did it get past them?

"I got a circle and…some symbols, and some candle wax under the coffin here." Vic said and Dante went over to read them. Touching them as he examined them. "Was that to keep him in his coffin or…"

"To get him out. This is a summoning charm…a rather powerful one. It had to be to bypass the wards around this place…damn." Dante said thoughtfully. "Someone very powerful had to do this for it to work. No normal level of practitioner could have done this. Not even with borrowed or stolen magic, let alone the kind you get from deals with Demons either. Something much more powerful had to have done this, the level of magic used here…it shouldn't have been possible to do any of this. Those wards are too powerful to have been able to bypass! I couldn't even do it."

"The rival maybe?" Vic said. "But why in the hell would he do that?"

"Maybe to ask forgiveness for what he did to the man…worked for Macbeth, right?" Dante said, cringing at Vic's knowing look and groaned in dread. "Plus, wouldn't be the first time someone who should have known better did something stupid like summoning a vengeful ghost to them…seen it, fought it, barely lived through it…and forgot to buy the damn t-shirt. I'll have to remember to buy it this trip." He jested and they smiled grimly.

"It's my first one so…clearly I will need to make sure that I buy my shirt first thing." Vic said tightly and felt cold touch his neck. "Don't look now, but I think our resident ghost has figured out we're here."

"He has. Get in that damn salt circle; we don't know how much magic his ghost has left in it here. I'll put up a barrier over you to make sure. I'll draw it to me and you burn the bones on my signal, got it?" Dante whispered and tossed the salt in a circle around his coffin, too, trapping Vic in with it. "That will keep him out while you do it. Don't do it until I'm ready for you to…okay?"

"Got it." Vic said getting the supplies out as he ducked behind the coffin.

"Trespassers!" The ghost shouted and threw a purple bolt at Dante, which bounced off his Pheonix shield. "Hunters…" It growled.

"Yeah, we are. Now…" Dante said lunging at it as the ghost attacked him, catching it by the throat and holding it place. "Tell us who summoned you…who called you from your grave?"

"I don't know…I used to." The ghost seemed to calm down at his words and looked deep in thought, struggling to recall something then appeared troubled now. "There was a man here when I arose…but he left soon afterward, said something about being sorry for killing me. I didn't know what he was talking about. I don't even remember dying so how could I possibly know what I was supposed to forgive him for? Stupid man. I don't really care; I'm at peace here…feel a pull though. Can't go, something is holding me here. I hold no grudges anymore for anything. I don't understand why he did this to me, summoned me then left me here, in limbo. I feel like I'm supposed to be somewhere else but when I try to go there, there's this barrier that sends me back here."

"He just left you here, didn't put you back?" Dante asked, not letting up his fiery hold on its arms. It no longer wiggled though, it just stood and looked at him, listening.

"I…think he tried. But then he left when it didn't work. There was a brief pull back to my grave, but I resisted it. I didn't understand what it was. And now I can't go back into it or stay in my bones for very long…something dark keeps pulling me out of them. Something dark from out there." The ghost said pointing to outside the door of his mausoleum. Giving a shrug.

"Why are you killing the visitors to the cemetery then? Is he telling you to?" Dante asked, starting to feel sorry for the lost soul, trapped here by an incompetent priest. Drawing his power in to just let the ghost go, and it stood there watching him as it talked, not attacking so he assumed it was at peace again.

"No, they keep leaving things…and saying things, and these things make me feel strange. I'm normally just here, not doing anything…waiting for something or to go somewhere, I think. But, when they show up and do those things, this dark feeling takes me over and I lose control. That's when I'm suddenly there with them then kill them. I don't know why but it has something to do with what they are doing with those things out there in front of my mausoleum. I can't rest if they keep doing that." The ghost said.

"You can if we put you back…put you at rest, will you let us do it?" Dante said. "You won't hear them anymore if you do."

"I don't want to kill anymore. Put me back for good if you can, I don't want to stay trapped here anymore. Maybe you can do it, I've tried, and I can't. I no longer have enough magic in me to do it. That fled with my life when I passed." The ghost said, standing outside the circle of salt and looking longingly at his open coffin, eyes sad and yearning. Reaching for it and looking so lost and forlorn, pleading with Vic with his eyes. Pity touching the black Hunter's heart at that innocent look in its dying eyes. "Release this Ward, Hunter, let me into my bones before you burn them, only then will I be unstuck from this realm and free of the other's spell over me. I will go willingly to my rest, I won't fight you on it. Let me in so I can go home, please?"

Dante nodded to Vic as he broke the salt circle and watched the ghost lay over his bones. He gave a smile their way and sigh of relief. "They let me in, thank goodness. I should be fine." Then the spirit vanished altogether.

"Do it now. He should stay at rest if he goes willingly. He was too powerful in life to force to do it; like only the most powerful sorcerers and his kind can. We had to convince him to go peacefully into it. He wasn't evil and had no magic left, dying took most of his magic away. He was just trapped and lost here in his mausoleum thanks to what that other man did to him. He should have left him alone. He no longer cared what the man had done to him, nor did he even remember it. He shouldn't have been stuck here in the first place." Dante explained as Vic finished the oil and salting. Then he used a bit of his fire to set it to burn, casting an orange hue all over the walls around them. The bones flared white as the soul was consumed and freed of its bespellment. Sparkles of light floated up now and they watched in amazement as it vanished through the ceiling and out of sight.

"So that's it? He was only killing his followers that were doing that Magic stuff in front of his Mausoleum?" Vic asked in surprise.

"They were using what power they thought he still held to cast their own spells, piggybacking it so to speak, conjuring him and trying to speak to him…maybe looking for his blessings for something or themselves. But it backfired when he didn't have hardly any in him to borrow; just enough to keep him sentient. It instead invited dark forces into him and they possessed him; opened a door inside the ghost to evil and that drove him to kill them. I should have seen it. All the ones killed were magic practitioners. It's not unusual for weaker practitioners to try to 'borrow' power from someone or something with more power than them. But to try it with that powerful of a Vandun priest is suicide! It will only drive them to kill if you do. It's also why they get salted and burned, or have a stipulation for themselves to be cremated as soon as they die. So they can't be brought back. They can be used as vessels for evil if they aren't. Their bodies possess enough magic in life, even in death, to make them portals to evil if evil claims them. So they usually get turned to ash to make sure no one can use them that way after death." Dante explained. "The truth is, you cannot force someone powerful like him to serve you in his afterlife or during his life, it will backfire on you everytime and more often than not, get you killed in the process. You don't fuck with Magic, ever!" He then added since Vic didn't know this part. "Magic Practitioners don't make ghosts like humans do. Human ones go insane and become evil, start hurting the living. Magical ones don't do that, they don't lose themselves or go insane, due to their already Mystical nature. Them dying just makes them more Mystical, not insane. They just linger, they don't go nuts. They just get…stuck here and linger until someone helps them and puts them back. But if one tries to use them for their own powers or magic, it opens a portal in them to true evil, Hell evil, and that evil can possess their powerful spirits and make them do things without any control of themselves. They become vessels to other evil beings. Like what happened with the followers out there. That's why most magic Practitioners prefer to be cremated like us Hunters do, so they can't be used in that way nor can we."

"I didn't know that, I should write that down. So when I'm dealing with a Magical Practitioner's ghost, I have to treat it the way you did. Convince it to go back and let me put it at rest?" Vic asked and Dante nodded. "I'll keep that in mind next time. Thanks. So now that we got this done… what now?" Vic said motioning to the supplies strewn everywhere, the broken salt circle, and charred bones.

"Close the coffin, collect our stuff, and let's go. We can't do anything now, we're done." Dante said and helped him close it, ignoring the fading smell of burnt ozone. That lingering smell left by powerful spirits always had burned his nose. He was used to it. "Let's go find my other Slaves, they might need some help with the painting thing…especially if it involves a clown."

"Why a clown? They're pretty harmless, right?" Vic said getting into the car and looking puzzled.

"Not when you have a psychotic fear of them, like Sam does, they're not." Dante said grimly. "He's deathly afraid of those red-nosed freaks. One might even call it 'murderously' afraid…Sam does not do clowns well at all. Not that I blame him, they do tend to try to kill him everytime he runs into one."

"Red-nosed Freaks?" Vic teased him. "Sounds like he's not the only one with a fear of clowns."

"Yeah, I might not like them either. Dorian definitely doesn't. And Dean mostly never trusted them, never knew why. Probably because most evil shit likes to hide in innocent guises, like a clown suit or a child. Trust me, when a clown or a creepy homicidal little girl ghost shows up on a case, it's never pretty." Dante said with a growl. "They usually try to kill us eventually."

"I see why you might not like them." Victor said with a nervous look. "What kind of painting is he looking into anyway?"

"A Clown one." Dante groaned.

"Drive faster!" Vic growled as he pictured Sam and Dean's reaction to that one. "Let's get there before it tries to kill them. Or someone else."

"That was my thought, too." Dante said as he hit the highway, empty but for them, and floored it, hoping they got there before that happened.

xxxxxxxxxx

Sam wandered past the security guard in his new suit, Dean following beside him. "We're here…" He said quietly. "We just sneaking in again?" He nodded to the auction rooms. "Remember, they are called 'Provinces', not 'Proverbs'."

"Got it, they're called Provinces." Dean said nervously and gasped. "Don't look now…but I don't think we need to sneak in. But then again, we might however need to run."

"Why? Oh, shit…" Sam said with dread. The dark haired woman came up to them excitedly. They knew her immediately and took her hugs but Sam had to wiggle from it when she tried to hug him too long. "Sarah…were you the one that called us in?"

"Yes, got another crazy painting issue. Three dead so far, strangled and then stabbed after they were dead. I called your phone and got another number, they said it was a sex club but then I got on with this guy that said his name was Sal. He got Bobby and he got you. I requested your help." She said, eyes looking Sam over with interest. Sam decided then and there this had to nipped or it would only get worse.

"Did you call us in because you needed us specifically or did you do it because you also hoped for another chance at being with me? Be honest here." Sam said backing away and went to a private alcove to talk. "Did you want me here in hopes of sparking up something between us again?"

"Partially…I did need the help but kind of hoped if you came, we could talk…go out and maybe get to know each other better. We didn't get much time before." Sarah admitted but drooped when she noticed the look on Sam's face. "You aren't…interested."

"No, I'm in a relationship. It's complicated and will take too long to explain. But suffice it to say, my lovers won't understand me going on a date with you. They will be pissed." Sam said trying to keep it simple.

"I understand complicated, I am an Art Auctioneer, I live with complicated. Be complicated and tell me more." She said and sighed. "The painting isn't out. I locked it up last night after they took the body from the last owner's house. It's in a crate and in a salt circle. I'm keeping it there. Stay an hour and then I'll make some excuses and we'll go eat somewhere…not a date, I'd rather have this conversation privately. I need to tell you some things about that painting's Artist that I can't right now. Please stick around and wait?" She sighed again. "I really do need your help…it wasn't a ruse. I just kind of was hopeful we could hook up again but I understand if we can't and am willing to be friends. I just really want this thing stopped." She said pleading with them.

"Fine, but it stays platonic and no dating." Sam said firmly.

"Yes, just friends." She hurriedly agreed as a man waved her over frantically. "I have to go, my assistant needs me. Come in and look around, use the same identities like you did before. You're on the guest list as them. Show them these invitations." She said handing them two engraved invites with their old aliases on them. "I really do appreciate you being here. I feel safer knowing a real Hunter is here to help deal with it. I know about this stuff but…I'm just an Art Dealer. Not a Hunter. I can only do so much."

"We got it." Dean said and smiled as she nodded, then walked away. "I sure hope so. Got any idea what kind of painting it is?"

"No, they didn't say. Just said it was killing people." Sam said as they showed their invites and gave their identities, heading in when they were told to go in. "At least we fit in better this time…"

"Doesn't make me feel any better about this shit, Sam." Dean bitched as he examined some weird sculpture. It was like the cross between a hubcap and radiator with a little bit of a lock box of some sort melted into it. It was one fugly looking piece of crap…er, art. He corrected himself.

"It's Post-Modernist. Supposed to symbolize our dependency on transportation in this day and age." A kind of snobby looking woman said. "It's an exquisite example of it. So soothing."

"Um, yeah, soothing." Dean said pretending he understood a single word she had just said. He had gotten lost somewhere between 'Post' and 'Modernist'. Sam was still trying to see where the dependency on transportation played into it. Let alone what a lock box had to do with it, maybe it was there for esoteric appeal? He thought. The hubcap and radiator he kind of got…at least it related to a car or something…but he seriously wasn't feeling shit about this ugly thing.

"I don't get it." Sam admitted honestly. "The hubcap makes sense, so does the radiator, but where in the hell does a lock box play into it? It looks like nothing but…a melted mess to me."

"You have no eye for art." She huffed and walked away offended.

"Obviously." Sam drawled and chuckled. "We should buy it and give it to Bobby as a gag gift. He'll hate it!"

"Gag being the key word in that sentence." Dean teased back and went on to another piece. "What the hell is that? Is that a…melted sex toy? Right there, behind that spreader bar and those chains….?" He said looking closer.

"Holy Hell, it is." Sam laughed and looked closer. "And fuzzy cuffs, and I think that is…a leather collar?"

"A BDSM sculpture?" Dean asked himself. "Sal would love this thing. Seriously."

"We should buy that for Bobby and this for Sal." Sam said. "We do have our credit cards from Dante with no limits on them."

"What about something for Dante?" Dean asked. "We should get him something, too."

"Let's look around then, see if something fits him." Sam said then motioned to Sarah. "We want to buy that and this. Could you Mark them as sold?" He held up a credit card. "We're looking for one more piece. Then we want them shipped to our address, can that be arranged?"

"That one is fifteen hundred and this one is twelve…can you handle that?" She asked. "I'll give you a discount, don't worry. Just keep browsing."

Soon they found some painting with a man lounging on a Cuda that looked remarkably like Dante's. Laid out on the hood in jeans and a tank top, looking a lot like Dante. Legs laid out before him, up on his elbows, and his head back with his eyes closed as he seemed to be bathing in the sunlight. It illuminated him so wonderfully! A flaring Sunset was in the background, lighting up the side of the car like golden fire around him. "This one…Dante will love it." Dean said and picked up a reserved tag, then was handed a sold one. He thanked her for it. Then had to ask. "Who did this painting? Is there a story behind it?"

"Oh, yeah. There was this woman, she fell in love with this man she had a brief fling with, the man in the picture, and when he left her, she painted this picture to show her love for him and the loss she felt. She died a few months later. It was so sad." Sarah told them. "She always said he was meant to be free never to be kept. No one would ever own his heart. But she would always love him. She wasn't mad at him, she did this to honor the memory of their time together. She never regretted a moment of it or the time she had with him."

"I think we may know the Artist's Subject, her Object of Love." Dean said then went on to show a picture of them with Dante in front of the same car that was in the painting. "He's our Master."

"Oh, you will be explaining this. Me first, then you." Sarah said.

"We will, later." Sam agreed and gave her the card which she went to scan and get the payments from, then handed back. Promising to ship them first class to the address Sam gave her for the invoice. All three in separate but individually Marked crates. Each one with each Master and Bobby's name on them so they knew who they went to when they got them. "We'll look around and meet you at the restaurant. Where are we going?"

"Hanging Lotus Gardens Restaurant, on fifth. I'll get the reservations for us ahead of time. At six?" She asked.

"Fine with us." Sam said and headed off to call Dante with time and name of where they'd be. Just in case he finished early but only getting his voicemail and leaving a message for him anyway. So he wouldn't get the wrong idea if he got there and saw them with her.

Then went back to looking around for another hour before leaving to go back to their motel room to rest and make love a bit before dinner. Happy to be out of their suits finally, damn those things were annoying. Even now, after all these years, they felt like and probably looked like they were on their way to the Prom or some shit. They'd never really liked suits that much…it was more Cas's thing than theirs. He used to wear one all the time…and an over coat!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

They met at the restaurant, telling the Maitre'd who they were with and being escorted to the table. Wearing their suits again, hating them but knowing they didn't have anything else nice enough to wear to a place like this. Missing their jeans and t-shirts already…

Soon after she arrived some minutes after them, they sampled some seafood appetizer and began to talk finally.

"I suppose we could talk now, right?" Sarah said when the silence got too stifling as they all struggled with the awkwardness of the situation and what to say to start the conversation.

"Go on then." Sam said turning on his tape recorder.

"The Artist was a former Circus star, technically he was a Clown, who did a self Portrait of himself. He was also however unfortunately, severely depressed and severely Bi-Polar soon after that, undiagnosed back then of course…fell into a deep depression and soon murdered his wife and himself when he got pretty suicidal or manic. Right there in his studio he was using. They must have been arguing or something then he snapped and killed her, felt bad then killed himself. A violent death could cause a haunting, you taught me that. Violent deaths leave behind ghosts that tend to kill after death. I think that's what this guy did. He died in front of his painting, his soul or part of it, went into it and that's what's doing this. I just don't know what triggers him…he hasn't killed everyone that had the painting, just a few of them." She said wryly. "No one knows why they were fighting or if they were or not, or if it was murder… but they do know the pair turned up dead in a murder/suicide. Their belongings were sold back then to settle their debts since they were neck-deep in debt and they were very poor. The painting was the only thing of value they had so it was sold to a nobleman who then passed it down through his family line until centuries later they lost their fortune and also sold it to cover a debt. Which was then bought and taken in by another family who brought it here a week ago to be sold when they heard what it may be worth. Turns out with some research showed that three of the former family members died…strangled and stabbed by unknown assailants that somehow passed through locked doors strangely enough. One would have it then would die, it would then stay in the house which went to another family member, who also died soon afterward in the same way, then so on and so on." Sarah said. "We haven't been able to find any proof but there have been several unusual deaths in the family that weren't fully recorded. I suspect that whatever is killing in this painting has been doing for centuries. That's why I called you. I refuse to sell another murderous painting, thank you!"

"Good point." Dean said taking a sip of his wine. "Our turn I take it?" He asked at her enquiring look. Sam pushed the recorder off now. "Well, it all began when Victor, a friend of ours in the FBI asked us to help find a Witness for him…" Then proceeded to tell her an abbreviated version but leaving in the important parts. Telling her the meeting with Sal and then going to club he owned, then telling how they became Submissives and lovers with the men they were with now. About the other Submissives he shared them with and were lovers with as well. "And since we have Masters, we can't be with anyone else without their knowledge or permission or they will be pissed. We don't do women anymore so…sorry, I know it's shocking but we like this life we have now, and we love our Mates and Masters. We're happy this way, don't judge us."

"I'm not…so you're not brothers or…" She was confused but understood it somewhat.

"Yes…and no. We don't see it that way so we're not. It's not incest, we're Mated Soulmates and not human anymore…we're Pheonixes like Dante. Besides…I was adopted, we found out soon after we left you years ago. So we aren't related anyway." Sam said, lying about the adopted thing but it was what they'd come up with when it came to explaining their relationship to others so they didn't get creeped out by it.

"The guy in the painting…that guy?" Sarah said and they nodded. "Oh, well, that's fine, too. I'll just be friends with no touching or dating…but you will help with this case, right?"

"Of course, if you abide by the rules." Sam said.

"I will." She said. "So where do we start now?"

"How about you try introducing your Master and go from there first?" Dante said in amusement from behind them and they jumped up to hug him and kiss him and Victor, totally ignoring the shocked look of the other diners, too caught up in their lovers' arms to care. Eager to see them like the puppies they were. "My puppies, I missed you! Who's she?" He asked with narrowed eyes. "And why does it seem like you're on a date?"

"Not a date, a discreet meeting about a case where no one can bother us." Sarah said and stood to shake his hand. "I'm Sarah. Just a friend of theirs. You must be their Master. It's nice to meet you."

"So I heard. Explain, Puppies." Dante demanded quietly. Sensing something off here. Growing jealous of it.

Sarah looked at them curiously at that 'Puppies' remark but they just shrugged. "That's what he calls us, we're his Puppies. We love the title and insisted he call us it outside of our sex play. So…we're his Puppies."

"Oh, okay…that makes sense. So it's like 'Dear' and 'Sweetheart'." She said finally getting it.

"Something like that." Dean said letting it go. It was their kinky thing, she would never have understood fully anyway.

"She's a woman I knew years ago. We kissed back then, there was no sex, that's all it was. We stayed friends and she helps Bobby with research apparently." Sam quickly stated then told about the Hunt from before. "We destroyed the painting and left, that's it."

"But still…you went on a date with her." Dante said jealously.

"Yes, but it wasn't anything serious. I just needed the Provinces and I was single then. I don't want her now and we already agreed to just be friends, you have no reason to be jealous." Sam said. "Please trust us, this is totally innocent."

"It's not you I don't trust, Puppy. It's her. Tell me the truth…did you or did you not call them in so you could try to connect with Sam again? Why them and not any other Hunters?" Dante growled.

She paled but nodded, looking apologetic. "Yes, I wanted to see if we could spark something up again but once they told me he wasn't going to be more and that they were in a serious relationship, I backed off." She added then. "I just wanted to have a private talk with them without anyone listening in. I used this dinner as a guise of old friends having dinner together so no one would get suspicious…well, more suspicious that they already are. What with me locking up a painting in a salt circle and all. My workers already think I'm a little nuts for locking up a painting that could earn us a fortune. I don't think they'd understand the reason why I'm doing it. If I didn't know this supernatural shit did exist and had been through it before, I'd think I was insane, too." She sighed and looked at them with a determined look. "So personal shit aside, this thing has killed three people, maybe more, and I don't want it to get to do it again. Please, I'm no threat to your relationship, I'll just be a friend, but I need your help with this, guys."

"I'll go along with that. Bobby said you are a good friend so I'll trust his judgment. Get to know you myself to be sure. Be friends with them, too. They could always use some friends. But one wrong move, and we're gone and someone else will be dealing with your case. Am I clear?" Dante said cooling off now that he saw she was serious.

"Crystal. So just to be clearer. They are lovers and Submissives. He is a Submissive. But they Switch? I guess that seems to mean they are both Dominant and Submissive? That and they have several BDSM Masters they live with on a permanent basis. You, Sal, Gabriel are the Masters. Bobby, too, but not with the boys. They also have some other lovers who are Submissives for you, too. Sven, Leo, him, three other Hunters, and someone named Cas?" She said. "Interesting, not offensive, just never heard of that kind of thing. I haven't really done many kinky things but then again…I rarely date, too. I'm too busy with my new Art Auction house I'm getting started here." She said. "Growing a business doesn't leave much time for 'Me' time…if it's not one problem, it's another."

"I understand that. We have a bar and restaurant where we live I grew as well. Took years to make it successful." Dante admitted, admiring her entrepeuerly spirit.

"I hope this one is, too. I turned down my Dad's business when he tried to give me it so I could start my own. I wanted my own thing…not his." She said. "I'm mortgaged up to my ears on this venture. It flops and I'm finished. I couldn't even afford a cardboard box for the night if it does. And, if anyone finds out about this painting or starts thinking I'm crazy, I could lose every bit of good Will and personal reputation and respectability I've built up for myself in the Art Auction field over the years. I can't risk fucking it up, and that painting could do it if it got out I was treating it like it was 'haunted'."

"That's true. So, how about we eat and get to know each other then go look at this thing? I could tell you about me and you tell me about you. I would trust you more if you'd do it for us." Dante said and saw Sam's pleading glance. "I want to trust you around them…if not only because Sam does. He says you were one tough lady back then."

"I don't know about that…I just don't think we should let evil shit win and do nothing to stop it if we can. I won't let it hurt those I care about, not ever again. That creepy little girl killed my friend and it was my fault for not stopping them from selling it to her. The little bitch slit her throat, nearly cut her head off…she cut her that deep with that razor of hers. Then nearly killed me and Sam until Dean burned her damn doll." Sarah said vehemently. "I may not be a Hunter…but I do see right and wrong. And that was the right thing to do. And I know a haunted painting when I read about it. Besides, that thing gave me the creeps from the start. Once you see it, you'll see why."

"Why…tell me what was off about it?" Dante asked. "We'll talk about us later. For now, that odd feeling of yours tells me something could be badly wrong with it."

"Well, I have a photo that has the original painting in it from right when it was first sold by the original family. It shows it's…hold on, have it right here. Made a file for you like Bobby told me to…it's all in…here." She said finally digging it out of her briefcase. "See, I blew it up and that's what it looked like at that point in time. This is after the second murder that happened. I always suspected there was more." She said tapping the photo. "And that was when I got it back this last time."

"I see…scary big differences really. For this degree of change and taking into account it being possessed, there has to be more than three deaths….at least a dozen, if not more. Things don't just change this drastically after one kill." Dante said touching the pointed teeth and glowing red eyes of the clown that had seemed to be coming closer. In the first painting, some of the body was showing of the clown, but in the latter ones it's all but gone, and in the last one…the face was much closer to the surface of the painting. "It's like it's trying to get out…"

"That's what I thought." She said excitedly. "What if the more he kills, the closer he gets to getting out of the painting? Like magic, from art to being alive again…a monster clown but still…"

"Makes sense. Some spells work that way. Him dying that way could have bound him to it and then once he found the right victim, for whatever reason he needed one, he killed them and that brought him closer to coming to life again." Dante said thinking about it. "Burning the painting won't be enough…we need his bones and remains."

"That could be impossible. Read the article I found." She said tapping it.

Dante frowned and swore as he read it. "Son of a bitch…they interred him in concrete. Doubly interred him…crap."

"What does that mean?" Dean said taking it and reading it, too. "Like what we did with that Holmes guy, Sam." He said to his lover as they read it together. Then had to explain to the others what they'd done. "We could use our powers to break through the concrete to find the remains…why would they do this anyway? I know why we did it, why him though?"

"It seems he was seen as too evil to lay with his family he'd slain…but they couldn't stop them from burying him beside his wife. The priest insisted. But the family felt superstitious about it. So they poured stone mix over his body in the coffin then filled the grave in with it, too. The good news is they used an old stone mix, not concrete… maybe we could break it quite easily." She suggested.

Sam cringed from the photo with a definite twitch developing behind his eyes. He was skittish. Dante saw and pulled him close, rubbing a hand up his back with Dean's joining it to soothe him. While both men also hid their own fear of it. Vic also eyed the pictures with growing dread.

Yeah, clowns were not their favorite people right now. Damn straight.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Dinner went well and soon Sarah let them in her personal vault. She pulled the cloth from the painting and Sam stepped back instinctively, hand reaching for his gun. The others stared at it as well. Sam looked ready to run if the thing in the painting even looked like it was coming out of it anymore than it already was.

"Is it me or is that blood in his teeth? And it's different, changed…like he's closer to surface?" Vic said leaning closer to examine the minute traces of red there. "And that's new, too."

"Shit…does that mean what I think it means?" Sarah said looking around in dread and growing terror. "Did it…"

"Kill someone again, yeah. And recently, too." Vic said touching the red and coming back with it on his fingers, testing it's consistency. "Um, that's not paint…it's blood. that's real blood….and it's still warm, too"

"Who's missing? Who knew it was here?" Dean demanded.

"Just me and…oh, no, Hank…" She said. "He's my assistant kind of…a retired Hunter that helps me with the creepy stuff I go to Bobby about. I have to call him." She frantically dialed his number then froze as she heard it ringing nearby. "No…no!"

"This is not your fault. You couldn't have known it would kill again so soon. The salt circle should have held it in. You warded it right…somehow it is immune to it. The really homicidal ones sometimes are. Even we can't predict when it can happen. Let's find Hank first, okay? He might just be knocked out…" Dante said taking her hand to calm her. "We might be able to save him…"

"Hurry, please try." She whispered as they ran to where the phone rang from again, her dialing so they could find him.

"Shit…is he dead?" Dean asked and Dante checked his pulse. Looking at the dirt on his body and sniffed it, then tested it with his fingers. "What is it?"

"It's Gopher Dust. He must have tossed it at the clown when it attacked him…and he's not stabbed. He's strangled though. I'm getting a faint pulse, it's dying but…" Dante said wrapping a hand over the injury and pressed his Pheonix healing into it. Joining with it so they could heal him better. Catching the damaged tissue and healing it. His hand and eyes glowing with his Pheonix as it did it. The Hunter began to draw in faint breaths and soon was choking then coughing as he began breathing again. "He's okay, got most of the damage. It was mostly tissue damage. His windpipe will still be a little bruised though."

"Hank…I'm so sorry. I was sure the salt would hold it in." She said. "I used rock salt…"

"Gopher Dust. Use that." Hank said hoarsely after some drinks of water Sam brought him. "Do it."

"Yes, Sir." She said rushing off with his bag of it and soon had an inch wide ring of it around the painting, the red eyes now glued to the dust she'd laid down, looking frozen in an fury. "Oh, he sees it…he isn't going to get me, is he?"

"He's almost free." Hank said letting them help him up and immediately rushing to her to pull her away from the painting and behind him, looking at it with narrow eyes, protecting her and soothing her as he went. Rubbing his hurt neck and looking at Dante curiously. "You saved my life, boy. Won't ask how, just leave it that I owe you a debt. You are Bobby's boy, right? The one he adopted? I remember you three, you all sure grew up big!"

"What happened, Hank? I just took them someplace private to talk and came back to you being almost dead…I'm so sorry." She said and he hugged her, patting her shoulder reassuringly.

"These things happen, don't sweat it." He said with a smile as she eyed him with a relieved look. "I'm okay now. We need to talk." He told them and led them to his loft over the Auction area. "She gave me this place so I could have some place to live. Said I should have a home if I was working for her now…so to speak. She's a good girl."

"I can see that." Vic said with a smile as she blushed under his compliment. A howl of fury resounded from below. "You sure that ring will hold? He sounds pissed."

"Me living took whatever he took from me back." Hank said. "He needed it to manifest."

"What exactly does he need? What did you have that she didn't?" Dean asked. "He never went after her before so…what could you have that she doesn't?"

"I'm…special." Hank said averting his eyes and shifting uncomfortably. "I…died when I was born. I was born Still-Born but woke up ten minutes later and no one knew why. Mom said God brought me back. What if…that's what he's after?"

"What do you mean?" Dean said.

"Grace. God has Grace, Angels have Grace, what if he or one of them gave me some of it to bring me back to life again…? And he needs that to live again, too. He could get it by killing us and stealing it from us." Hank said then took his laptop in hand and began to search for the last three victims. A couple hours later, and all of them helping, they found the connection. "They all died and miraculously came back. One was dead for five minutes after a car accident…another O. and was brought back with paddles. The last one was into 'Flatlining'…or that's what I'm getting from what his website said. It campaigns against it and he admits he used to do it…"

"So if one is brought back from death…it could be Grace, not luck?" Dante said.

"Yeah, exactly." Hank said. "What if sometimes Angels or God give us Grace to save us, and that's what he needs to get out of that painting?"

"Well, I don't have it." Sarah said. "It never happened to me."

"I did." Sam said nervously jumping as something thumped below.

"Me, too." Dean said. Both following Vic and them below to see what had happened.

The painting stand was knocked over and the painting lay face down over the dust, breaking the dirt circle. And the painting was empty.

"Shit, he got out." Dante said looking around. "Guys, you watch Sarah here. Vic, Hank, you're with me. I'll explain about myself on the way."

"Yes, Dante…be careful…he's powerful now, and homicidal." Sam whimpered.

"I know." Dante said grimly and rushed out with the other pair. "Use those powers if you need to."

"We will." Dean said looking around, sure it would come after them. They were like Shaggy and Scooby in the cartoon, if something monstrous had a choice in targets, it would always come after them first. It was their curse apparently.

"It will." Dante said reading his mind and sighing. "You both have Grace he would love to have. More than enough to bring him back into this World for good. Fight him off while we burn his bones…once we get them out of the stone mix. Should be sedimented enough to get through by now."

"Should be." Hank agreed.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Dean cringed when the clown appeared, Sam's sharp intake of breath warning of its approach. But Sam still stood his ground with the salt gun while still clearly confused whether he should be terrified and run screaming like a little girl or just tearing the son of a bitch apart in a homicidal rage...and choosing to be both at the same time instead. Indecisive thing that he was…and Dean wished he'd thought to grab the Colt or Demon knife for this Hunt.

Then they backed up and ran, the solid specter chasing them.

All praying that the others got the bones taken care of quickly.

Xxxxxxxxxx

"So you think your fire can break through that stone stuff?" Hank said as Dante kept pressing glowing hands on the solid stone and it kept dusting and breaking up a little at a time under whatever he was doing.

"I already am. I just had to get to a deep enough depth that I could get a Pheonix shield around the bones in the stone so I didn't break them, too." Dante groaned with effort as yet another layer of stone shattered under the force of his Fire. "Almost there…"

"Sure hope so…it's getting dark here." Hank said. "Specters love the dark." He said looking around apprehensively, shotgun at the ready.

"Yeah, they do." Dante said finally busting through enough to free the bones and pull some of the stone loosely away from around them. "We'll need to burn the stone, too. Some of his DNA could have gotten mixed into it when they poured the stone mix over his body. Just to be sure."

"On it." Hank said and spilled the oil and salt over the bones and rock, the air shimmering around them and making them shiver. "He senses us…"

"I feel it, too." Dante said tossing some fire into it and backing off. Then answered the call coming in.

Xxxxxxxxxx

They kept Sarah in between them so they were between her and it. Suddenly they hit a gate that wouldn't open, pinning them against it. One blow sent Dean flying, Sam grabbed Sarah and tried to run the other way. But the clown saw it before he could and reached out to cut him with his knife.

Sam went to duck it's slash while still protecting Sarah, and shook his hands but his fire kept flickering, hating that his Pheonix powers sucked and Dean's worked perfectly. Fucking Demon blood, he swore. Made his Pheonix powers fizzle out on him. They didn't burn constantly like Dante's and Dean's could. And he was responsible for Sarah with Dean down to the side over there. He shoved her out of its reach as the blade dug into his shoulder and the clown twisted it. Sam had to fight the pain to summon his fire which now went out entirely and he had to resort to shooting the thing with the iron bullets…which, predictably enough, didn't work…surprise, surprise. His growls of pain and anger filled the air, the clown's insane and creepy tittery laughter followed.

That's when Sarah went after the specter with some paint remover or some shit and set him on fire for him. The clown slashed at her as the fire caught around him and his knife got her chest and neck, sending blood spurting. Sam looked horrified and pressed a hand to her wounds to stop the bleeding while Dean grabbed Sam and her as the specter began to spin and howl his in pain. Then they watched in relief as the specter suddenly flared up in supernatural flame and was gone.

Sam continued to press his hand over her throat and chest. "Dean, help…" He pleaded. "She's dying here."

"No, she's not. Sam, look…you're doing it…Look! At least the healing powers work for you. You're bringing her back…look." Dean said ruffling his hair and Sam watched in awe as his hands glowed bright gold like Dante's and Dean's never had, not even on their best Power day. Sam's Demon blood interfered with his Pheonix powers and clearly the only ones that he could get to work even halfway right were the Immortal part and the Healing ones. The fire itself never seemed to settle into Sam well, not as well as Dante's and Dean's had. On the other hand, neither of their Healing powers were nearly as advanced as Sam's. It was like they were mirrors of each other. Dean's for fighting and burning things, his shields even worked better, and Sam's for healing and helping. The Pheonix Armor for them worked fine in training but still eventually failed them in real battle. And that damn Fire barrier and shield only worked sometimes…so far. Dante said they'd grow into them and that it took him years for his to work perfectly like they did now. But that they were developing normally. "You're doing great, Sammy. Dante said it would take time…the fire powers take longer to work for some people. Yours are just slow, that's all."

Even though Dante knew better, he didn't want to hurt Sam's feelings and make him feel worse. The truth was the fire powers were the first powers to kick in and flare out. Sam's weren't delayed or taking longer to come in for him…they weren't slow, they just weren't working well. Maybe never would, not in Sam at least…

Dante had confided in Dean that Sam's fire powers were being retarded by the Demon Blood in him and may never manifest right. But that they would work on strengthening up the other powers if that happened.

Like now for instance.

Dean rushed to call Dante while Sam took off his outer shirt to tear it into strips and used some to wipe the blood off her. He wet others from a nearby puddle and cleaned her off the rest of the way. Catching the rest of the conversation as he checked her healing wounds, all were just pinkish scars now. Fading fast to barely there white lines in her pale flesh.

"Yes, he was able to heal her…she's resting. We're behind the auction house…in the last alley to the south. Sam is trying not to move her yet just to be sure." Dean was saying. "Tell Hank she's okay, he sounds like he's panicking."

He listened then nodded. "Yeah, the fire wouldn't work for him, flared then went out, he tried shooting it with the iron bullets instead and they didn't work." Dean said then listened again. "Nah, he was immune to that, too…what kind of fucking spirit was this?! Iron always works on them…" He went quiet as someone spoke then went on. "It was trying to stab Sam and she poured some stuff on the clown and set him on fire. That's when it turned on her as she got him away from Sam. I think she was distracting it. I tried to help but by then my fire had fizzled as well. It worked at first then, poof, went out. I tried shielding then armor but nothing happened. If I didn't know better, I'd say that bastard was dampening our powers…mine usually always work…is that possible?" He asked.

He nodded at the response and sighed. "Yeah, she should be stabilized soon, the wounds are still tender and pink scars. You'll meet us here?" He asked. "Yeah, she's still out…we think it was the blood loss…what should we do?"

"I suppose we could try it…" Dean said as he pulled a knife out. "Yeah, I'll try it. Get here soon." Then he hung up. He went over and cut his palm. "Open her mouth, Dante said some of our blood could help her heal better. Yours is still tainted so…it has to be mine. Shouldn't change her into us, might mess with the cells some but she won't be exactly like us. He said just a little might only give her enough gifts temporarily to regenerate the blood she lost back faster…guess that means she might heal faster from now on."

"Here's hoping it does." Sam said as he did as asked, opening her mouth. Dean dropped a few long streams of blood in then bandaged his hand. Then they waited after wiping the remaining trace of it off her lips. Listening to her breathing and feeling for a pulse. It was normal enough, a little fast but that was expected with the changing she was doing. The increased blood flow would cause it, too. He just wanted it to work.

"Is she…?" Hank said running up to kneel by her. "She just jumped in and nearly…shit, my beautiful girl...always had more guts than brains. She saved his life?" He asked Dean, nodding to Sam.

"Yeah…for the most part. It wouldn't have killed him, she should have just stayed out of it." Dean said sadly. "Instead she nearly died. She sure is one brave girl…got a strong spirit. Gotta give her that." He sighed. "The truth is…seeing her now…she'd have been perfect for Sam, if he hadn't been so grief-stricken about Jess and scared of losing her. If he hadn't been grieving…I just know he'd have stayed and married that girl. Maybe not…he was still wanting to spend time with me at that point. He would have felt I needed him to Hunt with me and find Dad. But still…she could have easily been his 'normal'. Even I saw it. Felt proud of him for kissing her, for letting her start healing his heart."

"He was that lost after Jess died?" Dante asked as they got her in the building and up to Hank's bed to rest.

"He was…devastated, lost, and I think the only thing keeping him from going insane from it was the hope of chasing down and killing the thing that killed her. He had a death wish, I think. He was practically a walking dead man, lost in his grief and hiding it, but still having nightmares, not sleeping, waking up screaming and howling in rage and pain. Jess was his last chance at a normal life, Dante. It wasn't just her that died on that ceiling, it was his still beating heart that bastard ripped out of him! Don't you get it…I thought she was his last chance at a normal life, until I saw him with Sarah, then I knew." Dean said.

"Knew what?" Hank said.

"I knew that if he wasn't grieving and paranoid as he was about losing another person in his life, she could have been his second chance at a real normal life…without Hunting, without me. He'd have abandoned his revenge on the Demon for a chance to be with her. But he didn't do it and lost it forever. And it's good he didn't, the Demon would have killed her for sure if it had even realized she was with him like Jess was. He never had a chance…not with anyone, least of all her or Jess. The Demon would never have allowed that. He'd have just killed another woman he loved on him…again. Just to break him. You have no idea how lost and broken he was without her. He never slept, he didn't talk, he barely ate…and I had no idea of how to help him. Just did my best to hold him together until he put himself back together again. Even so…I was losing him more with every day that passed, until he met Sarah, then something in him healed and put itself back together so he could heal again. And if the Demon had got her, he'd have been gone from us for good. He was breaking enough as it was and it took me months to put that man back together as it was; and, trust me, it wasn't easy to do. He is not an easy man to help or fix. But I have to admit…whatever feelings she made him feel, they healed him enough to wake him up from his pain and grief and on into becoming ready to face life without Jess and his 'normal'. To try to live again without them. With me." Dean admitted. "I always needed him more than he ever needed me. He was always stronger that way…inside and out. I was the one that couldn't bear to be alone, Sam could function well that way and been a fine normal guy. A cop or a fireman, that kind of heroic type. Have a wife and three kids, all kinds of medals. I was the fuckup…I could never wanted that. Never had. I just wanted…him." Dean said. "I'm pathetic."

"No, no…" Sam said reaching for him. "I could have lived normally enough for a while but I would have come back to you someday…even without the Demon driving me to you. You aren't pathetic. You were always told to take care of me, it was drilled into your head from the time I was six months old by Dad. Then you always had to be my Dad because our own was always being gone, the constant warnings to watch over me and all your life you've been told to take care of me…and you have! Even without being told to, you kept doing it because…it was your life's goal to do it. Keeping me alive and safe was your only mission. I was your only purpose in life, me and keeping me safe; you always managed to and do it well, you were the only one that ever could. I think the reason you could never be alone, wasn't because you couldn't face being alone…it was mostly because you couldn't face a world alone with me in danger in it. And I would always be in danger and so would you. Don't you see? I feel the same way about you…I always thought I had to take care of you, too. Couldn't let you down either. So if you're pathetic, then I am, too. I just wanted you, too. The truth is…the only person I really needed back then was you, I just didn't realize it until it was almost too late."

"Did I ruin your life, Sam? Were you better off without me showing up that night? Did I get Jess killed?" Dean said crying. Sam rocking him. "It all gets so confused. Needed you so much, needed someone with me, needed a Hunting Partner with Dad gone, one I was comfortable with and knew I could trust with my life. I always had been told to be careful who I trusted, and that led to me be very untrusting of others I didn't know very well. So when it came to choices for Hunting Partners, it could only be you, Sam. I only ever really loved and trusted you… and I'd missed you for so long, was so selfish…should have let you be and maybe the Demon wouldn't have found you. You were safe. But I was lonely and needed someone to help me with the Hunting, and there was you…the one I'd been trained with so I could Hunt with you; Dad meant for you to be my Hunting Partner, Sam. But still…I should have left you alone."

"I wasn't safe. You heard the Demon before, he knew where I was. He had plans for me. You saved me from him by coming to get me. Selfish or not, you saved me like you always did. You were always there for me and you could never have ruined my life." Sam told him then pulled his face up to look into his. "You are the strongest, bravest, most loving person I ever met or knew. Still are. You say you're violent and stubborn, aggressive and closed off…but you embrace everything, you feel everything! You let everything in and accept it, even if it hurts." Sam told him. "You knew we were soulmates and accepted it without realizing it long before I ever did. You felt it and let it happen. I denied it and it nearly killed me to find it out. So trust me when I say you definitely made my life better and you didn't kill Jess. The Demon had already found me and was probably going to kill Jess anyway, I just happened to be there when he did it, he set it up so I would. I was broken…and you and your stubbornness put me back together. And, yes, by letting myself feel some attraction and liking for someone else it helped my heart to start to heal better, jumpstarted me again…but you did the work and never doubt it was you that brought me back from all of that." Sam said in his ear, whispering desperate for him to understand it. "I never needed a normal, I already had it. It may not have been the normal you wanted me to have but I had a version of it. I needed you, too."

"So…I was what you really needed all along? Like you were what I needed all along?" Dean said calming down and finally starting to smile. Daring to believe things were just the way they were meant to be between them.

"Yes, you are." Sam said and smiled. Pulling him in for a kiss. "My one and Only, after all this time, you still are." Then winked at their lovers raised brows. Amusement in their eyes though. "You gave me the courage to love others again once I loved you…to give them a chance. Otherwise, I'd still be alone and repressed instead of free to love and be happy. He was my first love but you guys…you came next. You can't possibly be jealous about something you saw happening for years between us. At least Dante and Bobby did. Some knew us from before we got together, we did know Vic before we got together and after, but Sal and his Submissives were new to us; most of you met us after we got together. But we still fell for you guys, too. So don't think we love you any less."

"We didn't. We're just glad to hear she was never a threat to us. We weren't sure." Dante said with a grin. "You are still and always will be my Puppies, babies. No woman could ever change that."

"I never thought she was, I knew you far too well for far too long to ever think that you would ever betray someone once you loved them. You don't cheat on people. You fooled around sure but not when in a relationship. You are a good and faithful man…but you still should have reported in and told us about her being his Ex and that you were having dinner with her. We'd have agreed to let you…and trusted you. You not telling us said you didn't trust us to understand. It happens, we expected it. What we didn't expect was for you to not let us know ahead of time. All couples tell their spouses when they run into their exes and have dinner with them so they don't think they are cheating on them. You didn't do that." Vic said. "That is why we are upset."

"Okay, you're right…we could have been more honest about it. Sorry." Dean said chagrined to realize they were right. "We've only been with each other before and are always together, so this never came up before…we're still learning about relationships and aren't used to running into exes and didn't know that we had to tell you first. We never really discussed this with you before this…sorry. This 'more than one Mate that's not Sam' thing is more complicated than I'm used to."

"I know that, but you still will need a punishment to make sure you really get it…but we'll deal with that when we get back. For now, we got a Hunt to finish and an innocent to make sure they are okay first. Then move on. Until then relax. We still love you and you are ours. That's all you need to know." Dante said. "Do we agree a punishment is needed to restore my trust that you will tell me next time?"

"Yes, we agree." Dean said humbly. Suddenly afraid. It was his first real punishment as a Submissive and it terrified him that he had hurt his Master that way and he worried how much he'd hurt him back for it. "I'm scared, Master. You've never had to punish us before…will it hurt too much?"

He'd probably take it anyway but…

"Yes, it will hurt but briefly and not too much. Hopefully not as much physically as mentally. But, no, it won't cause you undo harm. It will only reinforce that you broke my trust and need to restore my faith that you won't hesitate to tell me again. It won't be permanent and you will recover. But it won't hurt you too much physically. But mentally it will…and there will be enough pain to prove my point. And it will hurt me, too. Punishments hurt us both, not just you. I don't want to have to punish you, Puppy. I have to." Dante said. "No matter what you say, the punishment will be required. I just wanted you to understand why you are being punished and know that it would be happening. A fair warning. As your Master, you agreed this was my right to punish you. And I feel it is. So you will be expected to do whatever punishment I require."

Dean almost said he damn well didn't have to but pushed it down and reminded himself that Dante was his Master therefore entitled to punish him as needed. Dante saw this as 'needed'. So he'd have to allow it. "Yes, Master." Dean said and gulped down his fear, not that Dante cared, he thought bitterly. His fears didn't matter anymore, clearly he'd given up that right, too. Sadness filled him at that thought when anger evaporated at that thought. Hopelessness setting in as he began to wonder if he'd made the right decision giving himself over to Dante this way, if Submission was worth being humiliated that way…should he call this off before it got out of control? What if he wasn't ready for this intense of a relationship? Was it fucking up on them already?!...And would it be better just to cut it off at the pass and end it now, so they didn't hurt each other more than they had? Damn, he reflected. They really were bad at relationships with other people that weren't just him and Sam…fuck! And he had so hoped this would work out. "Look, Master, maybe we should…" He started to say 'end it' but was cut off by Dante pressing a hand to his mouth stopping his words. Already reading his thoughts and terrified of what they could mean for their future happiness if he got to voice them, seeing that he had actually began to believe them.

"Come here, Puppies. Come here." Dante said and pulled them close and kissed them. "I care that you're afraid. I care that you are upset. Your feelings matter. I heard that thought, guys. I am not a cruel Master, just a firm and strict one. It's only a punishment, not meant to hurt you like some evil bastard would. It will be brief, and I won't lie, it will hurt. Not just physically but also emotionally, hell, mostly emotionally that you let me down, let us down. But once it's over, it's all done and forgiven, never be brought up again. Not even in an argument we may have later, not ever again. I am your Master so I have to punish you at times. But for short periods, not forever. And it won't kill or cause you to be hurt the way a bad guy would hurt you. It will be done out of love and to reinforce you can trust me to keep my word and for me that I can trust you not to do it again. That you will know better next time." Dante said. "But no matter what, you need to remember that I do love you and care about you, and if you're afraid, that's okay…that's normal, too. Be afraid and get past it. Trust in me and reflect on what wrong you did, and why it deserves to be punished. The punishment will earn my trust back, and yours. Be nervous about your punishment, a little scared is good, but never be afraid of me. I couldn't bear that." Then added. "We'll work out fine, Dean. Don't give up on us yet…this relationship we have can work. Don't end it yet, give us a real chance, please?" He knew he had to stop Dean's thinking that way, or Sam would follow his lead and he'd lose both the men he'd always loved. He couldn't bear life without them and that was just what he'd get if Dean walked away from him and their relationship. He'd take Sam with him. And Dean would stay gone, too. He just knew it. Stubborn man that he was. He didn't want a life without either of them, he had to fix this. Find a way to make them stay!

"Fine, I'll take the punishment but…I won't like it." Dean said bitterly. "But I will accept it because I earned it. And you are my Master, and whether I like it or not, you have the right to punish me."

"Only to make you a better person, to teach lessons. Not to be mean or to abuse you. And I will be most grateful when it's over. So we can be happy again." Dante said sadly. "Your first punishment will terrify you the more you wait for it to happen but that can't be helped. We need to go help Edwin and them and go help Dorian if needed. Or I'd get it over with. And neither of us will like it, trust me."

"I'll take mine, too." Sam said quietly but put on a brave face. "Does that mean we can't make love or play until the punishment happens or is that part of it, too?"

"No, we can be lovers still. I love you and need it with you guys, too. As your Mate, we need it and it is to go as it normally would. The punishment is a separate thing. Act normal for now, I'll let you know when the punishment happens." Dante said. "I was so worried the clown would hurt you guys! Then you said she was hurt…and I know how badly this would upset you if she died…I just wanted you to be safe, babies. That's all. I love you so much."

"We're fine. Almost wasn't. She is one gutsy lady. I'll give her that. She'd have made a fantastic Hunter." Dean said. "If she hadn't pulled that fire stunt, Sam could have been really hurt. As it was, if he'd been human, that thing could have killed him if it kept up its attack. Being Immortal though, it wouldn't have killed him but it damn sure could have done some serious damage to him. She's put herself on the line for him, we owe her for that much."

"I'm just glad we were able to help her. She really is one of the toughest ladies I've ever met next to Dorian." Dante admitted. "I see she was honorable and I'm sorry I didn't trust you more. I just got jealous when I saw you with her and hurt that you didn't tell me first. I would do it for you, if one of my Exes showed up. I can see us being friends."

"Good." Sam said and was relieved when Hank came out smiling. "Did it work?"

"Yes, she's fully recovered, the scars are all gone thanks to what you did, and she's resting easily. I'm very thankful for all you did for us. I couldn't have stopped that thing by myself." Hank said. "She just…that thing could have killed her."

"She did it to protect me." Sam said feeling guilty. "If only my powers worked better…like theirs do."

"Mine didn't work either, Sam." Dean pointed out. "Somehow that thing was repressing or dampening them when we were around it. My powers hardly ever fizzle on me, you know that. And they did it with that clown."

"What could do that?" Sam asked Dante.

"Could have been a dampening field…some creatures have them around them naturally. Poltergeists, too, once they start to go Demonic. A few have at least. It's only until they fully transition, of course. It's a temporary side effect to the changeover." Hank said thinking out loud. "Seen it happen before. They use it against other monsters that come up against them. Seems it works on Pheonixes, too."

"So you're okay with what we are?" Dante asked to be sure.

"Well, it did save my life." Hank said. "So probably. As far as the kinky thing you got going on…good for you, too. Congratulations." Then added. "It'll be our little secret. I won't tell a soul."

"Thanks, man." Dante said feeling relieved. "Um, we should get going then. You going to be okay with her here?"

"Yeah, I've locked up the place and put out notices for her that it will be closed down temporarily for renovations. Once she's ready, we'll open back up. I got her assistants running the phones for us, letting the clients know we had to do some renovations and would be available soon. They will be sending all the new acquisitions to a warehouse until we're ready to evaluate them as safe to sell." Hank said. "You saved our lives, so we owe you one." He said casting a loving look at the bedroom door. "Mostly for saving her life. See, she's very precious to me. I don't know what I'd do without her."

"I know the feeling." Dean said looking at his lovers. "You have feelings for her, don't you?"

"Yes." Hank admitted. "I saw you and she said your name and I knew…I could lose her to you. Scared me so bad." He said sadly. "You were the one that got away, she never stopped wanting you…despite my best efforts to get her attention. It was always you in the way. Then there you were and…I thought for sure you'd get together this time."

"Oh, you never needed to worry about that, man. I don't do girls anymore. I got my lovers. I'm happy with them." Sam reassured him. "But you should still tell her…she might be more receptive now."

"I'll consider it." Hank said and shook his hand. "Truce…?"

"Truce, on one condition..." Sam teased.

"Anything." Hank agreed.

"Even if you don't invite us to your wedding…invite us to the reception." Sam said. "I'm not her ex, I never really was."

"In her mind you were…but I'll still invite you to the wedding if and when we get there. I trust you. You're our friend now. You definitely will be at the wedding…and the reception." Hank chuckled and hugged him. "You're a good guy, they are very lucky men."

"So are you." Sam said. "Treat her the way she deserves. That's all I ask. She's a queen, man."

"A queen among women in my eyes. From the first time I laid eyes on her." Hank said going to go in. "Call me sometime, I'd like us to meet the rest of you guys. I know she'd like that. We'll arrange a double…well, a group date, how about it?"

"You got it." Dante chuckled. "Good luck. With everything."

"Thanks, I may need it." Hank said.

Then headed in and shut the door quietly behind him, only to see her smiling up at him from the bed, seeing she had probably heard most of what they said. "Um, we were…they were just leaving…and he said…" He said going red and looking away. "How much did you hear?"

"That depends…how much did you mean?" She said motioning him over.

"All of it. What did you hear?" He repeated to be sure they were on the same page.

"Depends on if you ever getting around to telling me what you told them that I should have heard first." She sparred back.

"Oh…that." He said smiling a little. Meeting her eyes.

"Yeah, that." She teased then asked. "When you called me your beautiful girl, was that fatherly or…as a man interested in dating me? Maybe with feelings for me…speak now or forever hold your peace and we'll forget we ever had this discussion and still just be friends, either way…I want an answer first."

"It was…as a man interested in dating you, with feelings for you, too. I'm…in love with you. Have been for months." He admitted looking down as he held her hand in his and finally risked a look up at her to see if she realized how serious he was. She was tearing up and smiling.

"I'm not there yet but…I would be willing to try dating, if you don't mind dating a younger woman." She hinted. "I realized something while I was sleeping, hell, at dinner while we were talking. I was into an idea of who I thought he was, I idealized him through past memories. Our initial meeting was so brief…I guess I overdid it when I added to it. Once I saw him again, I realized he wasn't what I thought he'd be…what I'd mistakenly seen him as. He was just some romantic hero that rode to my rescue and I was lonely before, it was never him I was falling for. It was the idea of what I wanted him to be. What I fantasized he'd be." Then added. "But you were always who you were, and I liked that. I'd like a chance to date you and fall for you, too. "

"As long as you don't mind an older man as your date, sure." He said. "I know I'm significantly older than you. It's normal for that kind of thing to give you pause."

"Good thing for you I always saw age as just a number. And I do not hate my Dad or have Daddy issues. I love my Dad, and you aren't him. I'm not getting back at him by doing this nor am I trying to rub it in his face. I just don't see age as a factor in who I date or love, it's what you are like inside that matters. The outer packaging changes but the inside never does." Sarah said. "Besides…you are very handsome for an older man. You should already know that."

"I'm not vain, I never saw myself that way. I'm a humble guy with no aspirations that I'm better looking than I actually am. I am just a guy that had this beautiful woman he's fallen for and wants nothing more than to make her happy enough to agree to be with him. So he can be there for her and spend time with her, too." Hank said leaning in to kiss her. "Can I assume a kiss would be welcome or not?"

"More than welcome." She said. "I've been attracted to you for months, too. Just didn't know how to tell you yet. If it was real or not. Sam was never an obstacle. My uncertainty to the reception an offer from me would get me was. I was unsure if I was ready to face the chance that you might say no if I said I wanted to date you. That I liked you as much as I did." She said quietly. "Kiss me, please…haven't we waited long enough?" Her hand touched his approaching stubbled jaw. "This is not a rebound thing. I'm not a rebound kind of girl. I just know what I want and go for it, once I make up my mind to."

"And you want me?" He said brushing his lips over hers, his hand running through her silky strands. Their breaths mingling as he awaited her answer before kissing her again.

"Yes, I do." She teased him. "Enough with the chase, Hank. Just kiss me."

So he did and they were both left breathless from it and smiling like fools. He crawled in with her and pulled her close to cuddle as he nuzzled her neck. Then drifted off holding her close and she shrugged and joined him. Both exhausted from the day's events and relieved it was over.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

(Edwin, Stanley, Sven, and Leo's Hunt)

The four men sat by their fire and reflected over a map they shared. "Well, we got the campers out. And we have checked three of the five rock formations for caverns. What are we missing here?" Edwin said scratching his head. "Scrying didn't work…well, it did but it led to an underground culvert. A very unoccupied culvert."

"Still say it could be there." Leo grumbled.

"Didn't find an entrance to its lair, guys. And it wasn't in the culvert, so…what are we missing?" Edwin repeated, tapping the burned spot, also thinking he had to be there. Scrying was usually right when it came to Wendigos.

"Checked every nook and cranny…I think." Stanley said. "How about you two go recheck it and we'll go check out the last two formations?"

"Just to be sure…" Sven said uncertainly.

"Good idea, babe." Edwin said and they waited until daylight to go do it.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Well, I was right…" Leo said as he gasped for air. The large Wendigo was strangling him while Edwin got up to recover their blowtorch. "And are they always this strong? Fuck, blacking out here." He said as he fought, kicking it in the jewels and getting nothing. Was the bastard wearing a cup?! He punched at his attacker's chest and stomach as well, then resorted to trying to use one hand to keep it from getting too hard a hold on his neck, which was predictably enough, failing horribly, and the other trying to gouge one of its weird black eyes out with his thumb. The creature shrieked in pain but just squeezed him harder.

"No, he's stronger than normal. He's fed off ten people so far, ate them up, of course he's gone mega-size on us." Edwin said as he got it burning and ignored his own broken bones in the process. The thing was strangling Leo, he had to stop it. Then he could collapse like the most girly girl and proceed to scream and cry in pain in private.

And maybe pass out from it. Maybe…

Or get a really good pain pill from his car's glove box, or ten.

Yeah, that would do it. He sighed happily as he called out to Leo. "Duck your head if you can, I'm burning him. Don't let him pull you close once he's burning, he will take you with him. Kick him away once his hold weakens!"

Leo nodded and Edwin shot out the flames. The creature was nothing if not predictable. It tried to grab at Leo while trying to fight the fire that was engulfing it. Shrieking and eventually spinning, Leo kicking it away and ducking for cover out of reach of its hands. They both sunk to their knees in relief when it fell to the ground finally and lay still, a burnt but empty husk. Not even human-looking anymore, just a burned skeleton, the skull nothing but ash.

"You okay?" Edwin asked Leo and he shook his head, touching his throat. "Oh, your windpipe…it's probably bruised and swollen, we'll get you to a doctor. Probably have a few broken ribs, too…take shallow breaths, it should hurt less."

Leo pointed to him and he nodded. "I'll get them to patch me up at the club…or now." He said as he saw Dante approaching him from their car. He was leaning heavily on Leo by then. "He can't talk, his windpipe was damaged when it strangled him and maybe some broken ribs. I'm injured otherwise. Broken bones and maybe some internal bleeding. He nearly busted my blowtorch, so I let him bust me up instead. I needed that blowtorch more. I'll be okay."

"Sam, you and Victor heal Leo. Dean, you and I will heal Edwin." Dante said and they got to it. Laying him on the hood of their car and running glowing hands over his body, and soon he was filled with warmth. Then no pain and felt fine. Getting up he saw Leo looking better.

"He okay now?" Edwin asked.

"Yes, I know it's looks bad but it's just bruising. It should be down in a day or two. I'd go easy on the collar though, it will hurt more with the bruising. His windpipe was completely crushed but I was able to regenerate it and it's fine. His ribs were broken but I was able to remend and heal those, too. His throat is the worst though. He's got bruising through the tissues and to the bone itself. I got most of it. This is just surface tissue damage and will take a bit more time to fix. How about you, Ed?" Sam asked. Leo went to talk and Sam put a hand to his mouth. "No talking for a couple days, let the windpipe heal. I had to regenerate a ton of bones and tissue, all of it for you. It's all new, give it time to toughen up before you talk, okay? A couple days at most, we'll have Scott check you out at his office when we get back to be sure."

Scott was the club Whore and their group's trusted doctor, the only one they trusted fully. He always took good care of them at the club and after Hunts, both sexually and medically. Man was a great doctor, he'd earned their trust. Some nurses, both male and female, came to the club so they helped at times, too. The ones that knew what they were did, the others remained ignorant of it. It was safer that way.

But most did know it was a Hunter's Sex club now, at least those that knew about Hunters and Hunting. A Sanctuary and blessed, fully warded by Angels, good Demons, and Hunters themselves, a place evil could not enter. So maybe they did know and weren't as ignorant. They hadn't said anything yet so it was unknown if they did or not.

But still…Edwin was able to walk over and hug him, kiss him softly. "So glad you're okay, Leo. I was worried there for a minute." Edwin said.

Leo did a tilt thing with his head and smiled wryly, as if to say, 'Me, too.'

About that time, Sven and Stanley came up and looked frantic, eying the damaged pair. Stanley went to Edwin and immediately rushed to check him over. "We healed him, he's fine. Still bruised though, so go easy on the paddling and whippings, forego it for a day or two. Mostly remaining tissue damage. We'll have Scott check them out when we get back to be sure we didn't miss anything." Dante promised. "We'll call him on the way."

"How about I take them back? Vic could go with me. I could use the extra security he could offer." Sam said. "My powers don't really work as well as yours do, and my healing is better, so I could help them more there. You and Dean go see if our slaves need help. I'll take them straight to the club and wait for you there. Sal will want to take care of Leo himself."

"And you, my Beloved Boy, are going to be on bed rest. No sex either, just me taking care of you and your every need. Or almost all of your every needs. Not sex. Not of any sort." Stanley said. "Just until Scott okays you for getting up and getting back to normal, got it? Until then I want to take care of you and make sure you heal up right, I was so worried about you! And you look so bad, how injured were you?"

"He had some broken bones and internal bleeding, some bruises to the bones and tissues from being tossed around trying to save his blow torch so he could kill the fucker. He was bad…trust me." Sam said. "I got all but the surface tissue bruising. It should only take a couple days at most for the swelling and bruising to go down. Check with Scott to be sure though, I'm no doctor."

"We will." Stanley said and smiled. "Glad I'm vegetarian…how many did it eat to get this souped up? They usually aren't this strong."

"Ten in two weeks, it was worse than a football player on steroids. Practically invincible, feral." Edwin said. "Feeding and eating their prey energizes the Wendigo. But only one or two, they usually capture more and save them for later, don't eat a lot. But this one glutted on them, which is unusual. His hunger was amped up. Which made him stronger and harder to kill."

"And you wonder why I went vegetarian, won't touch meat anymore. Used to be a Carnivore from hell, very few veggies. But after enough bloody kills and remains, and Wendigo remains of the people they ate, I had to give it up. Eating steak gave me nightmares! Eddie, here though, he loves the stuff. I however won't touch any kind of meat." Stanley said firmly. "I don't mind, he does good veggie dishes."

"What about the cheese and stuff? That comes from them." Dean asked, he'd heard of veggie diets.

"I eat that stuff, and don't use grease or lard. He uses vegetable oil for our food, so I don't get meat stuff that way either." Stanley said. "He doesn't like the taste either and he eats more veggies now. We share my veggie dishes while he eats his meat. And we work out more, stay in better shape."

"Me and Sam do that, too. He only eats chicken. Hates that tofu crap. Soy, too. He makes a lot of veggie dishes, too, but keeps the byproducts in his diet. So I share them now and work out with him and the others, we're in better shape because of our change of diets and new exercise routines, that and the vigorous sex works wonders." Dean chuckled.

"So I'm like your Personal Trainer or something?" Dante said teasing but very proud of how good they were doing. They'd needed the diet change, Dean and him more than Sam, but the new exercise routines they'd come up with and some jogging and other stuff, and the vigorous sex they all had, had done wonders in their bodies' builds, endurance, and stamina. And they were heart healthy now, their cholesterol and blood pressure were within normal ranges. His, too. "I like that. I'm your kinky Personal Trainer, with terrific side benefits."

"Yes, they are." Dean agreed and looked almost sad again but Dante touched his shoulder to whisper in his ear, Sam met Dean's eyes and looked sad as well. That look making both Dante and Vic share a look of their own, a 'wish we could make this better for them' look. That and a 'they are clearly overreacting about this' look. But still did their best to soothe the pair without giving into their desire for their Masters to withdraw their punishments, which they were not going to do. They'd earned them and as such, had to serve them. Them liking it was not a part of that at this moment but would come into play for them when it was over to prevent them from doing their wrong again. Since it was part of the whole 'not doing it again' part of the issue.

"Punishments are part of it. Part of our relationship. You can't avoid it but it won't happen often. Things will be good again, all bad forgotten and forgiven. But you'll still be loved and kept by us, only good will remain. Don't fear it yet, it's not time. Be happy, be yourselves." Dante said pulling them in for kisses, Vic doing the same.

"Don't be too upset. He loves you, I love you. It's not the punishment that is bothering you…it's mostly the waiting." Vic said. "It'll get better once it's over, I promise."

"Yes, Sir. We're trying." Sam said. "And you're right, it's the waiting that's worse…I'd rather just be whipped bloody and get it over with…this wait is killing us."

"I would never do that to you. The punishment won't hurt that way. It will hurt but not that much, only enough to make the point." Dante said. "Don't be sad, please? I love you. Sarah and a punishment could never change that."

"Just scared." Dean admitted. "I hate being afraid. It pisses me off."

"I know. Let it go for now, baby. Don't be scared, I would never harm you." Dante said.

"Trying." Dean mumbled. "Sir."

"What happened again?" Stanley said looking concerned. "You guys okay?"

"Fine, we're fine." Dean mumbled and headed to their car. Dante's troubled look followed his retreating figure. "I'll be in the car, Sir." He looked so defeated but also still a little determined, it touched Dante's heart.

"We had an 'Ex' issue on the last Hunt. It earned them a punishment. But I had to delay it to help with the Hunts. It's their first one and they are terrified of it. Not of me, at least I don't think they are. But still…the waiting of the punishment is bugging them." Dante said. "I won't harm them, just teach them to be more honest with me about being around their Exes." He sighed. "I keep trying not to bring it up so it won't bother them as much…but it keeps popping up on its own. It's never far from their thoughts. I've tried to distract them from it but…that's not working either."

"Should I talk to them? I went through that." Edwin said looking to Stanley. "He's punished me a few times. The first one is the worst. You don't know what to expect or trust that your Master will do it and not harm you…despite their reassurances that they won't. Plus you've never experienced a kinky punishment before, so there is the fear of the unknown there, too. After the first one, I felt safer with him punishing me and knew kind of what to expect, it wasn't so scary. Waiting has to be making that feeling worse. Let me talk to them about it, okay?"

"Okay, go do it." Dante said. "I don't want them to fear me."

"They don't. They're really scared of their punishment, not you." Edwin reassured him.

Soon he had them with him and was explaining his first experience with punishment. And once he told it, they nodded. "It hurts, I won't lie. It's a punishment, it's supposed to hurt. That reinforces the mental pain you'll feel at disappointing your Master. But it's nothing to be scared of. Fearing it will only drive you nuts for nothing. Do you trust Dante? Outside of this punishment, do you trust him?" He asked.

"Yes." They said and sighed.

"Then trust he would never do anything brutal or abusive to you. It will be a punishment but nothing violent or dangerous. It hurts more to know you hurt his feelings, doesn't it? And while it hurts, that's nothing to be scared of. He'd rather cut off his own head than really hurt you, you know that. So he would never do anything too bad to you. It was mostly emotional and mental when I did mine, I thought about what I did the whole time and felt so bad at the end of it that I ended up crying in his arms and begging for forgiveness, and we didn't even get to the make-up sex! And he's never brought it up again but…he did trust me implicitly with the issue next time. I've had dinner with my Ex since then, he's one of my contacts, and as long as I tell him I'm meeting with the guy first, he doesn't care. It was the issue that I did it without warning him first that was wrong, not that I had the date. Which wasn't even a date, we were having lunch and he was giving me information. Stanley walked in, demanded to know what was going on, but before I could speak, the man smarted off to him and he punched the guy, my Ex, then dragged me out. You can guess the rest from there." Edwin said with a knowing look at his Master. Who shrugged then smiled, both acknowledging his Master did indeed have a large jealous streak there. "My Ex apologized, by phone of course, he was terrified of Stanley after that for a while, and was advised to keep his distance for a bit until my Master decided he could trust him around me. Turns out he'd said we were cheating on him and he was the best dick I ever had, and I was dumping Stanley for him. That I just hadn't worked up the nerve to, he said that as we were leaving. That was why he'd punched him."

Edwin then said. "He later admitted it was a lie and I'd told him up front I was taken and in a relationship months ago, that there was nothing going on. He'd just said that to fuck with him. He hadn't expected his reaction to be so severe. He was always kind of stupid that way, always thought he was the king shit and everything he said was funny, that it was others fault when they didn't get his idea of 'humor'. He was a mean shit when we dated; that's why I broke up with him. And we hadn't dated since High School. He was just in the know about my family being Hunters and kept it a secret for us. Other than that, he was a total dick. He never screwed me over on information though; he understood it was a matter of life and death that I had it. His information was always good. Though now Stanley insists on meeting with us when he calls me with info. He just doesn't like or trust the guy; he's not jealous about him or anything. It's not a trust issue he has with us or me; he doesn't think we'll fool around."

"It's just…part of us doesn't understand why we have to be punished. We told him to truth, he said he was fine with it. Why can't he just let go?" Dean said. "I feel like a five year old being punished by my Daddy here for stealing damn cookie. Exes are a part of our lives, they show up. Usually when we least expect it! I don't understand how it can be that big of an issue. I nor Sam would never fool around on them, let alone with a woman, which we both have sworn off of by the way….it's like he doesn't trust us to deal with this ourselves without running to him and tattling about it first!"

"It wasn't that you cheated or that you lied. Or that there was anything going on. It was that you didn't tell him about her and what was going on. And the punishment is part of the BDSM thing. Masters use punishments to reinforce lessons for their Submissives, that's the way it works. It's nothing like a kid stealing a cookie and being punished for it. And while he may be okay with it, he can't be sure you won't forget to tell him again…thus the punishment engraves the lesson in your head that you have to tell him." Edwin added. "It was the fact that you didn't trust him enough to tell him first. The built-in lie of it. It was a lie of omission, still a lie. I did it and understood that. And that was why I was punished. I had to learn to remember to be honest with my lover about those kinds of things, that's all. He knew I'd never cheat on him, he trusted me. He just thought I should have been honest about meeting with the guy when I knew I'd have to do it. He deserved a heads up. I didn't give him one, I forgot to." Then he touched his face kindly and smiled. "All couples deal with this issue and feel that way. It's not just him being unfair about this. All Mates and spouses want a heads up if you are meeting with or going around an Ex. It's a common courtesy we give each other that says there's nothing going on, we're being honest with each other, and there's no threat to the relationship from them. Being up front with them says they mean more than the Ex does."

"Oh, so you didn't after that because you were afraid he'd do it again? What was your punishment?" Dean asked. "Was it really painful? I've never really been a couple with anyone but Sam before and it's never come up with him. I'm just…I didn't know that was how it was supposed to be. I see now why he'd be so upset…I'd want it, too. This 'couple' stuff is hard…but I'll keep trying. I just wish I was better at it so he wouldn't leave me for sucking so badly at it."

"He would never leave you, no matter if you were good or bad at it. He wants to work with you on this as much as you do with him. He's committed to you guys. You need to stop letting that worry you, it was never an issue. That being said, this is now an issue he has to deal with before it breaks your relationship. And since you're kinky and a D/S couple, you have to deal with it like they would. Like I did. It was a spanking, a really hard one, so it did hurt but no more than it should have without being abusive or harming you, only enough to make a point, and, boy, did I feel it for a week, and a cock cage for another three days. And that was very uncomfortable. Especially since my Master suddenly found the sight of me in the cage too arousing to stop fucking me pretty much constantly for those three days and I didn't get to cum once! I had no idea that the sight of me in a cage was that much of a turn on for him at that point. Now I know it's the hottest sight he's ever seen and he ravishes me often while I wear one. And I enjoy it. Not the punishment one, a more flexible but just as uncomfortable one. The punishment one he only makes me wear one like the hard one for that, no other time. He uses a cod piece or soft cage instead for other times." Edwin said. "Don't be so scared, it will be fine once it's over. I think Dante is worried you'll hate him once he does though, you should reassure him you won't."

"I can't do that, I can't promise not to be scared of it. Although…I can reassure him that I love him still and am trying to understand why he's doing. And, honestly, being afraid pisses me off. I don't deal with fear well, I usually face it and move on, but this waiting shit is just making it worse than it should be." Dean admitted. "It's making me cranky."

"I understand that." Dante said going to get in the car. "That's why I said don't be afraid. You have nothing to be afraid of from me. A little pain and some kind of Repentence, and it's done. You should feel safe with me, not afraid. And if you let the fear go, you won't be so upset and cranky about it. Don't think about it, don't let it creep in to scare you, just be with me and be happy. I'll let you know when the punishment time comes. There's no point in worrying about it right now. We have Hunts to finish and lives to save. We don't have the luxury of dealing with our own fears right now."

"Okay." Dean said quietly.

"Forget something there, puppy?" Dante hinted, seeing Dean drawing in on himself, shutting himself down and putting up a wall between them so he could figure out how to deal with this on his own, and trying to stop it. To reinforce he was his Master and he needed to acknowledge that, too. And to keep that damn wall down and Dean from shutting him down on him!

"Yes. I do feel safe with you and I do love you. I could never hate you. I just hate waiting for what I'm waiting for." Dean said then straightened his shoulders and looked at him. Not giving an inch. "You are still my Master, that has never changed. Me not saying 'Sir' changes nothing. I still belong to you. I still love you." Dean said. "I'm not saying 'Sir' right now nor am I saying the 'P' word. I'm not. You have to hear it, go Hunt with Sam. I'm sure he'll say it willingly enough, but right now I won't." He tightened his jaw and waited. "You know how the door opens. I'd rather spend time with you and have you stay with me for the Hunt but if you must go because you're too mad at me for my impudence, I understand."

"Not going anywhere." Dante said. "Just answer me one question, am I still your Master even though you're pissed at me right now and do you intend to take your punishment anyway?"

"Yes, you are my Master and I'm devoted to you. I respect you and will obey you no matter what. And I do intend to take my…thing." Dean said and sighed. "I don't hate you, but can my Submission wait for a minute until I cool off. Then I'll call you 'Sir'."

"I can live with that. Just call me Dante or Cuz if you want. I'll still call you my Puppy in private of course. Dean in public." Dante agreed and waved Edwin off, seeing whatever he'd said had helped calm Dean down. Dean was an aggressive and volatile guy. Submission didn't come as natural for him as it did Sam, although Sam was still not prone to Submission as much otherwise either; or rather as much as they both used to be when they first got into this BDSM relationship with him, they were changing, becoming more than they used to be. Both were born Alpha types, really strong and stubborn men, a trait they'd both inherited and learned from their very stubborn and strong father, so that made it hard on them come 'Submission time' lately. Their Dominant side was definitely becoming more pronounced and no amount of making them Submit was making it go down. They were definitely become Equal Switches, rather than the more Submissive than Dominant that they used to be. But they still craved and needed the Submission, too, loved it with their Masters. Dominant or not, they still saw them as their Masters. An interesting situation to deal with everytime it popped up.

Handling it was a very creative but satisfying matter. Their little Dominant Submissives being what they were made them very entertaining at any given time. Like now. Dean's Dominant side was prevalent so all he could do was wait it out and was willing to compromise and encourage that Dominance most of the time when it reared its head, and knew that pushing him would only make it worse. So he decided to let it be which was the only they'd found to deal with it without driving themselves nuts or starting a fight with them; and they were just stubborn enough to win that one so they knew better.

His Submission would show up later, it always did; it was his most predominate choice when it came to his kinky side. Sam's Submissive side was still in effect but Dante knew from experience that his would show up eventually, too; usually when he least expected it to and over the most surprising issue, like it always did. Dante was happy and accepted that sometimes they were Submissive messes because of their growing Dominance inside them lately that confused them and caused them to act out as they tried to find their own ways through it. Dante couldn't help them with that, only they could…but their Dominant sides did sometimes annoy the crap out of him when it got out of hand as well; not that he was against them being Dominant. They were sexy as hell as Dominants and he enjoyed it very much most of the time when they got that way on him, as did most of their Masters and lovers. But when it came to emotional outbursts, especially the growing rebellion inside them and more angry ones, he was finding it harder to deal with. Not that he was giving up on making their relationship work, no, he'd fight with them to hell and back for it to work. But the emotional carousel they were on at the moment, due to their still developing and reemerging Dominance clashing with their now mostly normal Submissive sides, was confusing him and driving him nuts. Like it was probably doing to them, too, which was why they were pinwheeling from it, and their Masters were doing their best to ground them until they found their feet in it and were balanced the way they'd eventually be. Like Dante had been able to, Sal and Gabriel, too. But until then, he'd keep trying to be patient and understanding as he could be as their Master, trying to give them what they needed as they needed it, to take care of them as best they could…and learned to live it until they were stabilized again, not as off balance. He swore that he wouldn't lose them over it. So he'd accepted that about them, too, like he knew they would accept their punishment with the same sentiment as well.

Humbled and willing to remember and learn from it, willing to Submit to their Master even while a large part of them was clearly rebelling against the control that Submission was placing on them both. Knowing he and Sam had done wrong and were willing to pay for it, but wanting to know it wouldn't be abuse or inadvertent torture, or accidental damage to them. Punishment was one thing, he knew they'd accept that, but abuse they'd never tolerate. With Dean, it meant he would fight them to end about it if it involved Sam. He would protect Sam from it, just as Sam would do it for him, at all costs if they tried it. He would tolerate no abuse or harm to come to Sam, he'd take the abuse or harm for him first. Kill you for it. And Sam would probably help him do it, too. Dante felt the same way, they all did. So he understood Dean's hesitation. He'd hesitate, too. Since he was already like Sam and Dean were becoming; they would be like him soon enough, at least Dominant/Submissive-wise. But he suspected they'd be more Submissive than Dominant while he was more Dominant than Submissive.

So Dean balking this way was no real surprise. Sam was taking his in silence but even Dante knew that wasn't going to last too much longer. Sam would speak his piece soon enough. Dante was just waiting for him to do it to talk to him, too. Dean was just the first he had to deal with, the first to crack. But like the smart man Dante was, unlike the monsters they fought, he knew you didn't get one Winchester without the other showing up, and Sam would show his fear sooner or later. Sam hid shit far better and repressed it far better than Dean did. He withdrew and his leaked out in brief intervals, with a quiet Dominance in his silence, while Dean exploded outwardly; a more aggressive Dominance compared to Sam's. But they all knew that what went in with Sam usually came out, too. In a quieter more overt way, of course.

"Dean, it's okay that you feel this way. It's not fear that's bothering you. I…guess I should have discussed this with you already but…I thought we'd do it after we had some free time to deal with it together without a Hunt to get in the way." Dante said. "It's not fear, Dean. It's Dominance. You're not as Submissive now, Sam either. You're becoming more Dominant, too. You are however more Submissive than Dominant lately…and that is natural, too." Dante explained. Then went on to explain what he was realizing and thinking, all of it, including his theory for why the punishment was bothering them more than it would a normal Submissive/Dominant Switch. Then added. "I'm okay with this, Dean. I find you being more Dominant sexy and a turn on, but with your emerging Dominance is clashing with your former Submissiveness, it's causing you to feel all in turmoil right now." Dante said and pulled him in for a kiss as they reached a stoplight. "It's your strong Will and stubbornness, your Dominance inserting itself. You need to call on your Submission more right now and it should go away. I love you either way, no matter how you choose to be. Or if you stay a Switch. I will always love you, so will they."

"I like being a Submissive, Dante. But…I'm finding I want to be and like being Dominant, too. I want to be both but being them both at the same time is making me act crazy…I know that, I see it, and I can't seem to stop it. And through it all, I'm so afraid it will drive you guys away and make us seem not worth the continued trouble. And we'll lose you and we can't bear to lose you. And I do feel better knowing it wasn't fear of the punishment bugging me." Dean admitted. "It's just hard to think only as a Submissive about it, that's all. We're trying and mostly succeeding though. So how about a deal?"

"I'll try anything at this point, babe." Dante admitted as they pulled out ahead of the other vehicle. Waving goodbye to Sam and them and resolving to bring this up to him later when they got back to the club, privately of course.

"I will keep trying to be Submissive about the punishment. I will try to stay happy about being with you this way. Enjoy our time alone and I am, don't doubt that. It hasn't ever been just us and I find that I want to savor it, do something romantic, fun, and special between us that's just us, no one else around, while we have it. Maybe a One-on-One date, show our love just between the two of us for a day or two before adding the others back in. I want that and I think this all will be easier if we could work out more alone time with you and them. Do One-on-One dates and spending both kinky and normal time with you. Not just me and Sam…but you and me, him and you, me and Sal. I'm in love with Sam but I'm in love with you guys, too. And we've come to need time apart and alone with you guys, too. I don't need to be around him all the time now. I'm okay away from him. I have you guys. And I think with it always being a group, it makes it difficult to form closer relationships with each of you like I already have with Sam and he with me. And we want that with you guys, too." Dean said. "So when you see me worrying about the punishment, just love on me, show me affection, don't let me pull away. Don't worry about it, take action and make me see you love me, show me you love me too much to hurt me, to hurt us. Reassure me, be patient with me. Give me love when I seem afraid of it again. That's what I really need, we really need to get past this hesitation about our punishments. And we need to restructure our relationship with you guys. I think that would serve to alleviate a lot of our issues with all of it, too. That includes the punishment."

"Tell me how you'd suggest we do it and we'll have a group meeting, bring it up then work it out among us. I think you're right though and that they will agree with you, too. We're not one large couple, we're a group of several couples that have Mated to each other and need more separate time with each other. We haven't done that since we Mated. We need to do this if we are going to work." Dante agreed. "Tell me, Dean. Help me understand your idea so we can bring it up to them as a united front."

So Dean outlined a plan he'd been hatching with Sam for over a year. Beginning with them realizing they were feeling the need to be around each other less and less all the time at that point and that they were really wanting to break apart sometimes and be as close as they were with each other with their other lovers and Masters, too. That they were secure in their own relationship enough to give the others the same amount of attention. To be apart but together as a couple still, and be with them the same way, too. How they'd talked about setting up 'alone' dates with each of them, and doing more things as just them and their lovers without it being more than the two of them. It felt more intimate, much special-er that way to them. They wanted alone time with each Master and lover now, to maybe be the top and Dominant in public with them, too. To show them off as their Submissive's, too, from time to time at the club like they did with them. "We want what you guys have with us. We want some romance and dates with just us and you, like we have here now. You and me, without Sam. Sam with them, without me. We want to let you in and join you to us as close as we are to each other. Can we try it?" Dean asked, pleading.

"I think we need to. It seems to be a necessary step for us. I will bring it up with you when we get back. For now, let's just be you and me, and enjoy it. I'm all for it. And…thank you for being honest with me about this." Dante said. "I know it took a while for you and Sam to grow secure enough with each other to let others in, and I don't blame you for waiting so long to tell us. The Dominance brought it out and made you comfortable with us enough state your needs more. And this is one of those new needs." Then added. "I'll do that affection thing for you, too, when you start worrying about the punishment again."

"I'd like that. Do it for Sam, too. He needs it, too. He may not say it, but he's feeling like I am. We've discussed it at length and, before you get mad we didn't tell you, too, we were going to mention it before the others got hurt and Sam had to go with them. So I told him I'd bring it up for us. This is our telling you like we were going to." Dean said. "Not punishment worthy, right?"

"No, not punishment worthy. Just tell us sooner next time, we understand you are new to relationships, Dean. Sometimes people that haven't had a lot of relationships have some trouble being honest with their feelings and stating their needs when they should. We understand that and there is a learning curve, I'm on it, you're on it, Sam's on it, and most of us are, too. Gabe and Cas, too. We're all feeling our way in the dark here so no one is judging anyone for it. We just need to be patient with each other. We're getting really serious here. It's not just a kinky thrill for us, this is a real relationship and family to us now." Dante said. "No one is leaving, we're all in this for long haul. This is a real permanent thing for all of us, not just you guys. So don't worry about us not feeling like you are. Because we are."

"Like a marriage…like what Sam and I have. Sal and Bobby have?" Dean asked. "Are we kind of…married?"

"Yes, that's exactly how we are." Dante said with a smile. "Why?"

"Does that mean we can get rings from you guys, something to Mark us as permanently yours, not just the collars and cuffs? Wedding rings of sorts…" Dean said blushing a little. "Tattoo or brands…something like other kinky committed couples have. We want that, rings or something from you guys. Maybe a really big, just us but not really legal, civil ceremony where we marry you all, be husbands…not just lovers, Dominants, Submissives, and whatever else we are…would you marry us?"

"All of it, we should do all of it. And I would be so happy to marry you, Dean. Sam, Sal, all of them. My answer is yes!" Dante said making him pull over and giving him a long sizzling kiss. "I want to marry you!"

"I want to marry you, too." Dean said. "But legally I'm already married to Sam. Sal is to Bobby…so why don't you marry one of the others legally?"

"I could marry Vic, gods know I love that man! And Sven could maybe marry Leo…" Dante said thinking. "A double ceremony."

"What about Cas and Gabe and them?" Dean asked.

"Well, they need to do Angel Matings to us. That's much different than a normal marriage. So we need to ask them to see if they'd do it. And they could do it to us as a group, Angel Mate to all of us. God could maybe preside or something…we could propose to them! Why not?!" Dante said getting excited and taking his phone. "I'm proposing to them all right now…all three of our Angels, well, not three, two…one is a god. I keep forgetting that."

"Put it on speaker, include us in it." Dean said grinning and pulling into a spot by a restaurant. "Can we include the Hunter Slaves?"

"Sure, get them on." Dante said and they both dialed their phones. Soon all of them were on the line and listening and he and Dean looked at each other nervously. "Don't say a word yet, just listen. Are Cas, Gabe, and Bal there, too?"

"Yes, we're here." Cas said curious.

"Good, cause…okay, this is a first for me…I have two proposals for you guys, well, three…" Dante murmured and took a deep breath. "Vic, you first…will you marry me, only me, um, legally?"

"Yes!" Vic said in surprise. "Wow, that was a surprise…but yes!"

"Good, next…Cas, Gabe, and Bal, I know you have to Angel Mate and that allows multiple partners. So…would you consider marrying and Angel-Mating to all of us? Marry us? Well, I can only speak for me, Dean, and Sam…but will you do it if they agree to it, or just the three of us asking now? Will you marry us?" Dante asked. Worried they may say no.

Did Angels and gods agree to this kind of thing or was their joined relationship as far as they were able or willing to go?

"Yes, I would marry all of you." Cas said sounding happy about it.

"Me, too. I'd do it." Gabe said. "Mating would share our Divine Immortality with you guys. You'd share my godhood with me…maybe you'd be gods, too, I don't really know how that would work. Not that you aren't possibly already immortal because of the Pheonix thing but still, couldn't hurt to be sure. I'll ask Father about later before we do it if you're willing to chance it with me. I know being a god screws with the normal change so…"

"I'd risk it!" Dante and Dean exclaimed. "We want to marry you no matter what you are or that it entails."

"We'd do it, too." Sal and the others said taking turns and adding. "And we want to marry you three, too, Dante. You, Sam, and Dean."

"I'd love to Angel-Mate to you guys." Bal agreed. "Would you do it with me, too?"

He sounded doubtful about it though. Dean noticed. He shouldn't, he had to know they loved him just as much as the others. He made a mental note that they'd have to spend more time showing Bal that he was just as special as the others.

"We want to marry or Angel-Mate to all three of you Angel types, or god-Mate, however that works for Gabe." Dante said. Dean doing the same.

"That leaves one last, no, three others. Demetri, Taylor, and Jared, would you marry me and Sam?" Dean asked. "In a group civil thing, I mean…"

"Yes!" All three men said and then smiled. "We want rings…and Marked!"

"We'll do that when we get a chance and get back." Dean agreed.

"Now…that leaves Sven and Leo. We figured with all the legal and Angel Marriages, that still leaves you two as not married, not legally at least. So we were thinking that when Me and Vic got married, that you two could with us, to each other?" Dante suggested. "You are a couple with us but why not legally to each other?"

"I'd do it, Leo…would you consider marrying me legally?" Sven asked. "You know I love you, so…?"

Leo must have nodded because Sven gave a whoop of joy and kissing sounds followed, a lot of them, and some people talking to Sam about it and him agreeing he wanted the marriages, too. Dean had spoken for him, he agreed.

Happy sounds followed from all. "We're so celebrating with a private party when you all get back!" Sal exclaimed. "And we need to talk…what aren't you telling us?"

Dante sighed, figuring Sal would pick on that one. He was way too perceptive. So he told them what Dean had suggested, his concerns about their relationship needing more from them, and how they'd come up with the ideas about the dating and separate time with each other helping their relationship. "What do you think? They thought about it. I have, I'll admit it. I want what they want. I think we should do it or at least try it while we wait to marry. I vote yes on it." Dante said. "And we could do alone dates and playtime with each other, not just with Sam or Dean, but all of us try being more romantic in a One-on-One setting with each other. Sal with me, Gabe with Leo, that kind of thing, too. They aren't the only ones that need separate dates and romantic time to bring them closer. I wouldn't mind dates with each of you guys, too. I'd suggest you guys do it, too."

"Yes, for me." Dean said.

"Yes." Sam said. "We were going to say something but the Hunts came up and got in the way. Will you do it? Me and Dean don't need to always spend time together to be as close as we naturally are anyway, distance won't change that, and we want to be alone with you guys, too. Do things away from each other, with you guys, and One-on-One Romantic dates and just two of us at a time, that kind of thing. We don't always have to do it as a group. And we want to Dominate you guys, too. We're more Dominant now and if we're to be equal partners in this Mating, we should be allowed the same rights as you guys. We are more Submissive but…" Sam said then hesitated before outlining their idea and desire to use them as Submissives in public and alone, too. Complete Submission with them as the Dominants from time to time. "Can't promise we always want to be kinky though, some normal could be great, vanilla stuff isn't so bad in small quantities…it could spice things up if you'd be our Submissives around the club, too. If you're not too proud or ashamed to bend to us in front of the others in public. I suppose we'd just be Dominant to Dante, Vic, and our Hunter Slaves I suppose…if you're against it. Or they could be Dominate to us, too."

"I'd love for you to be Dominant with me. I'd even let you lead me around the club and kneel to you, Submit to you!" Sal said happily. "You're so damn hot and sexy when you go all Dominant like you have more and more this past year. I'd love to be your Submissive."

"Me, too. I agree to it all!" Gabe said playfully, teasing them. "Spank me, Sir. I'm good with that."

"Me, too." Cas said.

Soon all of their lovers agreed to it and said they could have just asked sooner and they'd have already been bowing and worshipping their beautiful Winchester men. "Speak up more, Dean. We want to hear your ideas. Sam's, too. Submissive doesn't mean you don't have a say in our sex play. Tell us what you'd like to do, we'd love to try anything you ask." Sal said. "We love you guys, so sure, I've Submitted to Leo and Sven, too. So why not you guys?"

"We were afraid you'd say no if we didn't explain it right. And it took us awhile to get up the courage to ask. We've never tried something so new with anyone but each other and we want to try to be as close to you as we are to each other, include you more and be apart but with you guys, too?" Dean asked.

"Yes!" Was the group response and he felt a little guilty when he heard the relief and gratefulness in their tones, as if they'd never thought they'd let them in. Were they so close that their lovers thought they didn't love them as much as they did each other? Were they that bad at showing that? He realized that yes, they'd been just that selfish..

"I'm sorry we locked you out. I know we're twisted together and seem to exclude you sometimes but we really did want you in with us. We're just not really good at showing that we love you as much as we do each other. We'll try harder if you give us the chance to…what with the One-on-One dates and things we discussed before." Dean said. "We never meant to hurt your feelings or make you think you had to take less than all our love, and that we didn't love you as much as we really do. You shouldn't have had to have accepted that." He said and shook his head. "That was unfair of us. Sorry."

"Well, you weren't the only ones. We should have spoken up about it sooner, too. We're all guilty of fucking up here, so let's just get past it and get to the fun stuff. Like who dates who first…I want Dean first…I call dibs!" Sal said excitedly.

"I want Sam." Cas said quietly. "Please?"

"Yes, Cas, a date with you sounds fantastic." Sam said pulling him in for a kiss. "My future Angel-Mate, I love you."

"I love you, too." Cas said and snuggled in. The others eyed them with expectation and began to say their demands for dates, too.

"Wait, wait!" Dean said laughing. "We're not there yet, let us finish our Hunts first. Then set up dates with us…Sal, I'll go out with you first. Sam will go out with Cas. You others get a calendar and mark when you'd like a date and who it is with. We're all for it. What you want is fine with us, just ask and talk to us personally about the details of it, don't just assume we'll go along with what you want to do on the date. We'll work it out together like normal dating couples do. Sound fair?"

"Very." Sal agreed and the others said the same. "Get back soon. I have so many ideas for wooing you, Dean."

"I look forward to every one of them, too, Sal." Dean agreed and smiled into his phone. "I love you, Sal. All of you guys…so in love with you. I think this does help deal with the punishment thing. It wasn't fear that I was feeling, it was my Dominance clashing with my Submission and I wasn't dealing with it well." Dean sighed and straightened as he relaxed about it finally. Feeling his fear just sliding away. If he was willing to marry him, he sure wouldn't have meant to harm him. So he could trust that and it showed him he had been wrong to doubt that Dante would hate to punish him as much as he'd hate it. That he had nothing to be afraid of where Dante or any of the others were concerned. He'd let his emotions cloud his judgment and came to the wrong conclusion. Judged them all unfairly. "I'm sorry." He said then told them what he'd realized. "I won't do it again now that I know I'm doing it. I'll do better. Can you forgive me for being such an ass about it?"

"Of course. You weren't being an ass. Like we said, you're new to relationships so you're bound to screw up at some point. We all do where relationships are concerned. At first there are bound to be mistakes and missteps. No one faults anyone for messing up. Nothing to forgive, baby. Let it go." Sal said.

"Good, I was…I'm so happy it's not an issue anymore. Thank you." Dean said and soon was telling them he loved and missed them. Then Dante told them about how Sarah's Hunt went and about Edwin's.

"Can you take care of them for us?" Dante asked. "Make sure Scott checks them out and is involved with their treatment. We'll do the rest, just tell us what they need. Edwin and Leo need us."

"He's already seen them a moment ago and agreed with your treatment ideas. He's also prescribing some pain pills and lots of rest. Stan is taking care of Edwin mostly and making him rest. So it's fine on this end, don't worry about us. And now that the proposals are done and we've discussed the dating, I think we've got it all out and in the open. I feel better at least." Sam said.

"So do we." Sal and them said.

"Us, too." Demetri and the other Hunter Slaves agreed.

"So do, too." Dante and Dean agreed as well. "We'll see you soon, right? We miss you."

"Miss you, too." The others said.

And then they got off the phone soon after that. "I really do feel a lot better, Dante…Sir." Dean teased. "I'm ready to call you 'Sir' again…and the 'P' word doesn't scare me anymore. But I am nervous about it. I won't lie to you about that. The idea of being punished bugs the shit out of me, even if I do admit I deserve it, Sam deserves it, and we'll both do it. But we do know you won't like doing it as much as we don't like doing it and that makes us feel better than if you enjoy punishing so cruelly. We get it now, don't make it less of a cloud over our heads, but…we understand. Still love you, Cuz, my Master…you will always be my Master. Even if I do choose to Dominate sometimes, you are still and always will be my Master and Mate."

"And…" Dante teased him by playing with his leg.

"I can't wait to marry you and be yours forever." Dean said taking the hint and teasing back. "And I'm so in love with you and them, and Sam, it's got me in knots and I find that…I can't live without you guys. Any of you. Not just Sam. It's no longer just about us, we're ready to let someone else in now, too."

"I'm glad. And, for the record, you and he were always mine forever. We just didn't realize it before we made love on that stage." Dante admitted. "Mine forever, theirs forever."

"And for some odd reason, I find that despite my old ways of fooling around and being afraid of a real commitment, or trying it and finding it all falling apart eventually, that it doesn't bother me anymore." Dean said.

"Me, too." Dante chuckled. "Wow, aren't we a pair? Former manwhores, all reformed by love. Who'd have thunk?"

"Not me." Dean admitted then joined him in laughing. "Hey, hold on…wasn't the name of that town DePont or something?" He nodded to an approaching exit. "I see a sign to it up ahead."

"Yep, DePont…take that exit. I'll call them and let them know we're here. I didn't catch the motel where they were." Dante said and got to dialing while Dean turned off the highway. And they were told to go to the Citrus Grove Motel a mile away and it was room 6. That they'd be waiting for them when they got there.

And they called them their Fiancées and Dean their Master. Sounding so thrilled they could burst about it, too.

"Hurry, we want to celebrate with you two before we go to the hospital and let you interview the Wits with us." Demetri said.

And they were obedient to his request. Getting there moments later and parking nearby, running in to hold the men and kiss them a passionate welcome. Making love minutes later to all three men for hours after that, awaiting the sun coming up to start their work. Playing first and celebrating their new permanent love until then. Sleep could wait. Taylor thought as he kissed Dean before being laid wide below him, crying out as his Master thrust into his willing body. Love was more important.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

(Demetri, Jared, and Taylor's Hunt)

The group broke off in two directions so they could check it out. Demetri and Taylor went to the cops and spoke with their captain, explaining they were investigated the mysterious illnesses they were dealing with. The CDC had called them in, they were a special branch of the NSA that dealt with that kind of thing, just to make sure it wasn't some virus like Ebola or something at times, or Germ Warfare.

The man was cordial and agreed to leave them to it or loan them men as they needed it. Demetri assured him he had a team with him already, but he could use the back up if they needed to make an arrest if it proved to be something they needed to deal with. They were just checking here, there was no definite threat. Their captain said thank for the heads up and they left.

"We're heading straight to the hospital to check out the kids and talk to the staff." Demetri said into his phone as he called the others. "What did the family say?"

"Nothing. They have no idea what's going on but they're worried sick about their little ones in the hospital. It hit the baby first, then the three year old, and the seven year old. The only one left was the eldest at 17. And he was pissed. He was acting out and not being shy as to voicing his opinion to all the people at the hospital about them being idiots for not figuring what was hurting his brothers and his sisters by now…it has been a couple months here. He's not handling things well. His parents are overwhelmed and distant at best, always worried about their sick kids more than him, and pretty much yelling at each other all the time at home. And they're spending every available moment at the hospital, never are home anymore. Won't let him in to see the kids, say they are in isolation and only his parents can come in. He's breaking here, guys…he loves those kids as much as his parents do. It's not fair to him what's going on." Dean said feeling bad for the guy. "And now he's not believing us either that it could be a virus spreading through his family only. He thinks that doesn't make sense for it to target just them. And I suspect he thinks we're idiots, too. " Dean chuckled. "I have to agree with him…we really do sound clueless here. He's not buying our lies, guys." Dean said going serious. "Hell, at this point, I'm not buying them either…I really need to start lying better."

"Us, too." Dante said through the speaker. "Maybe this time…we could tell the truth. Just to him of course."

"He might allow us to use their house for a trap…he is the last kid and he's alone there." Jared added. "We'd use one of us as bait instead but let it see him in his room before we take his place. It attacks and we kill it. We could hide one of us in the closet while the others would guard the teen in another room, he could get in bed then we'd slip our man in next to him. He could slide out the side and crawl out with us out the door, his bed blocks the window view of the door at the bottom, and one of the closet doors could be ajar to obscure the rest of the view."

"Could work…you think he'll be receptive?" Demetri said.

"I think so…he does seem Supernaturally inclined if his reading habits are any clue. He actually has all the Winchester books Chuck wrote before he disappeared. He knows about the Winchesters and Hunting from them. We should let him know they are the Winchesters and see if he'll listen." Dante said. "I'm not in the books though, I was careful to stay out of it. Dorian, too."

"Well, tell him then. We could always summon Gabe here to mindwipe if he takes it badly." Taylor suggested.

"Okay, he's out walking the dog right now so…we'll tell him when he gets back. We're playing with the puppies that his dog had from her last litter right now, they are so cute…little black labs. Mutts of course, Daddy was the Rottie down the street…she was a naughty thing with him when she got out of the yard one day while she was in Heat. Oh, well." Dean said then chuckled as one licked his face again. "Stop that…I'm talking here."

"Huh?" Demetri asked confused. "Stop what?"

"Not you, the puppy that just climbed me like a mountain. Mount Dean…I like it!" He said smugly. Playfully catching his lovers' looks. "Yeah, you can do that later, too, babies."

"I'd love to mount you, Dean." Dante teased him by whispering in his ear as he leaned over to pretend to go over his notes with him. "Nice and hard…oh, yeah." He said teasing his hidden bulge with finger presses. "Stay that way, Puppy. I want to know you are hard and eager under those loose suits this whole time…the image of that turns me on. Obey me."

"Yes, Sir." Dean gulped and looked to Sam, who nodded his compliance to his Master's secret order as well. He'd had Gabe teleport Sam there as soon as they realized they just might need their lover, just for this hunt since he was needed back at the club to tend to Leo with Scott. But for now, they needed his help and would summon Gabe to come back for him when it was done. According to Sam, both patients were resting and out of it on pills from Scott as it was. So he was free.

"Yes, Sir." Sam said quietly as he took a seat next to Dante as the boy came in. He'd only appeared via a closed up room nearby moments before so he was trying to act like he hadn't just magically appeared out of nowhere in the poor kid's house and succeeding; Elliot never even seemed to notice he hadn't been with them before they'd gotten there, something he was deeply grateful for. "Jared, go get the first and second book for us from his library…we're telling him the truth now."

"The truth…that would be nice." Elliot, the teen, drawled. "Finally someone tells the truth, shocker!" He said dripping sarcasm from every word. "Thought everyone thought I was some kind of Savant idiot here…" They didn't blame him though, he was being treated unfairly here.

"The truth is I'm not Dane Simmons, and he's not Thomas Rose. I'm actually Dean Winchester and he's Sam Winchester, and this is a Hunt." Dean admitted. "Sit and try to listen before you don't believe us…we'll explain."

"But the books aren't real…are they?" Elliot asked weakly. "You really are them?"

"Yes, ask us any question, you're a fan, so ask." Sam said.

"How did your Dad die?" Elliot asked.

"Which time?" Dean asked. "Once when he made the deal with Azazel at the hospital to save me from dying, Tessa was my reaper's name. Second when he came back at the cemetery as a cloud, took form, and helped me kill Azazel."

"Um, what color were the flames around Jess when she burned, Sam?" Elliot asked him.

Sam looked like he'd been struck and flinched visibly, pain lit his eyes but he quietly answered. "Blue, then a kind of orange/yellow as they engulfed the ceiling and the room. She bled on my forehead. Her mouth was open in a silent scream and her pretty blue eyes pleading with me to save her, as if I could. Why didn't she scream?" He asked in torment. "There was no sound coming out!"

"He crushed her windpipe or suppressed her voice, Demons do that." Dante said. "It wasn't your fault, Sam."

"I should have been there! I could have died instead…she could have lived." Sam said and met their horrified looks. "She was an innocent in this, I'm not. Hunters die so innocents can live…that's how it works. I would have died eventually anyway. She didn't have to, I put her in his sights."

"No, Brady did that." Elliot said. "I read that part, too. He admitted it, he used her to entrap you then killed her so you would break to his Master's Will, Azazel of course." Elliot shrugged. "You had him tied up I think and tortured it out of him…killed him I believe. And there was a large Hellhound pet of Crowley there…wait, Crowley was there, too."

"I still should have left her alone, even if I fell in love with her at first sight. I should have known it would get her killed." Sam said.

"It was love and you're allowed to love someone, Sam…that's a normal thing to want." Elliot reassured him. "I believe you. I get it. Winchesters are real, what is in those books is real. There really is Hunting and Hunters…and monsters…which monster is this one? Sounds a bit like the Stryga you ran into before if that's all true. But they have significant blood loss, too. Wasn't at first, blood pressure was low, just a little. They said that was normal. But it kept getting lower and it shouldn't have! Mom and Dad said I was being paranoid, that the virus was doing it…but I just knew that wasn't right! I felt it! That's when the fighting started…I think they aren't just at the hospital all the time because of my siblings, I think they're avoiding me. I'm not as important as them and I'm more trouble than they can handle right now. They were tired of fighting with me." Elliot said sadly. "I hurt, too. I'm scared and I could be next! Not that they are listening or care."

"I'm sure that's not true." Dante said gently. "They're being a bit clueless but they're frazzled and are probably just trying to give you some space, and avoid the fighting. I'm sure you are just as important. They love you, they told us so. This isn't about them not caring…they just are handling this whole thing as badly as you are between you guys. It's fixable, don't let the resentment make it worse. Trust me, I've seen it happen."

"Oh, your Dad…it was like that for you guys, too. Sorry, didn't mean to sound like I was the only one that ever felt that way or that we're the only family to be estranged." Elliot said apologetically.

"We think it is Stryga." Dean admitted. "We want to lay a trap and use you as bait, kind of. See, you resemble Sam. Yes, Sam, you are bait…again. You look like him, what! Anyway, you get in bed, we make sure it's watching you. Then we slip Sam in beside you after room is really dark and blacked out, you roll out and we sneak you out, then Sam pretends to be you under the covers. That's it. It shows and we kill it."

"Why am I always Stryga Bait!" Sam protested.

"Because you're the one they always go for…so we're just using that attraction to catch this one, Sammy." Dean teased him glaring lover. "It's true, Strygas love Sammy, they like his energy or something more than ours. They'll even forego a kid to get it. He's irresistible."

"And Demon whores, he attracts them, too." Dante teased him.

"But he always attracted a better kind of woman than me, smarter ones, I only attract bimbos mostly or the really easy ones that are kind of smart, street smart. Sam gets the really intelligent smart ones. Like Sarah…and Jess." Dean said giving Sam a fond look. "I always admired that trait of his, I only attracted two smart women out of all the women I knew…and fell for them hard. So I get it, but bimbos are easier to leave behind. Smart women get under your skin, make it hard to leave them and you start thinking you get a chance to be more with them. You start wanting to be closer with them and wanting more with them, too. That's why Sam appeals to them so much, he's like that, too. Once you love him, you have to be more with him. Have more from him. You can't get enough."

"He is a more…intelligent kind of attractive." Elliot admitted. "I like girls but he is attractive. You always seemed to be more of a rugged, action hero kind of attractive to me. And I'm so glad you don't look like the guys on the cover. They make it look like some kind of romance novel, one of the Supernatural ones, you know? Kind of cheesy and way too airbrushed. And Dean does not seem like the kind to have long blond girly hair…or I think that was supposed to be him…it could have been Sam. I'm never sure where those covers are concerned."

"We had the same thought when we realized they existed. The clerk knew us! We were pissed." Dean admitted.

"So, not to be rude, um, but is the slash thing true? It seemed it was kind of there in the books…and a lot more in the older books. And there are the sites, they tell a ton of stories that have you two as lovers. I personally think you'd be hot together. So, is it true?" He asked excitedly. "And I'll do the bait thing. But answer my question first."

"We weren't before the Apocalypse thing, but after he got back from the cage and that other stuff happened with the Angels, yeah, we started getting closer and had sex eventually. Fell in love finally and gave into our repressed feelings for each other. We're a couple now, well, more of a large ménage." Dean admitted. "We're actually living with and in love with eight other men, two of whom are Angels, Gabriel is now a Trickster god so he's not an Angel anymore, and five others. All men, no women. We're entirely gay now, you okay with that?"

"I'm fine with it." Elliot laughed. "My best friend at school is gay and he's, get this, dating a college professor at the local community college in town here. He's married but…my buddy warms his bed more than his wife does. I don't approve but…he's gay and I'm okay with that. I just worry he can get hurt by this. He's really in love with the guy but the guy is using him. Your lovers aren't like that, are they? I hate it when people we love take advantage of us." Elliot asked. "You seem so nice in person, it would be a shame for that to happen to you. I'm such a fan and we like you happy. We think you've suffered enough. And are Castiel and Balthazar one of the Angels you're with? That would be so nice, we really like him."

"Yes, they both are…how many books are there? They've stopped, right?" Dean asked as a dawning thought hit him.

"Um, kind of. One comes out every year, in E-form. I own them all. They talk about… the closeness of course without saying you're being lovers. Mostly finds ways to say 'Closer than you ever hoped to be', 'the way they were meant to be'…things like that." Elliot said. "I can pull up the books in E-Book program…" He got his laptop and pulled them up. "Chuck…he's still writing them. He's around, trust me."

"I wonder where?" Sam said curiously. "He just vanished one day. Right after the Stoll thing and I went into the cage, Dean looked him up."

"Well, he could have just hid. I'm sure evil shit would love to get their hands on him…since he's got that 'Prophet' attachment to you guys." Elliot said. "I would."

"Figures." Sam said. "His house was empty of his stuff and laptop when Dean got there."

"He has to know how we are now." Dante said. "He must be leaving that out."

"Yeah, we threatened to hunt him down and beat him bloody if he ever revealed personal stuff about us again a long time ago. He probably, and wisely, took it to heart." Dean chuckled. "He knows better."

"So it's getting dark, you get your routine started. We'll leave then sneak back in, leave the basement door unlocked for us. We'll park about a block away in that parking structure there and walk back. Let us in and go about your routine. One of us will be in the closet, Sam will be under your bed waiting to join and take your place. Get in and cover your head and body but let it see it is you at first. The others will get you out of here and protect you if it gets wise to our plan and goes after you anyway. We promise it won't get you." Dante said.

"I'll be ready." Elliot said and shook his head. "My brothers and sisters, they will be fine if we kill it, like before with the kids in your books?"

"They will be. Killing the Stryga frees the essences they steal." Dean said. "This should save them and wake them up. We have others watching over them there at the hospital. So they are guarded, discreetly, as well."

"I…tried to tell them…I saw it! Damn it, I recorded it on one of Mom's old Nanny cams in some teddy bear. But it was so grainy. So I put the disk into my laptop, tweaked it, and got it better but it was still like one of those shadow B-rated horror flicks. They didn't see it and didn't believe me when I tried to tell them that I witnessed it! And…that's when my family started getting sick and we were fighting. I'm not lying here…I'm not crazy!" He said running frantic hands through his hair. "It's real, the Stryga, I saw it. But didn't know it was real, I thought I was dreaming…because when I went to help my baby sisters, it was just…gone."

"Wait, you saw it…tell us. We don't think you're lying, Elliot. Humans don't usually accept proof of the supernatural so their reaction is pretty normal really." Dante said.

"The first time I saw it when I had to share the nursery with my baby sisters. They were in the crib. It was dark and I'd slept awhile but something woke me up. That's when I saw it. It was really dark but there was some form leaning over the crib, the babies started to cry but stopped immediately. I didn't see a definite form but when I saw the thing lift them one on each arm, I got up but then it was gone and the babies were in their crib, looking like they were sleeping. I wasn't sure I wasn't dreaming so I waited. That's when they fell sick and had to go to the hospital." Elliot said. "Both of them."

"You said you saw it each time…go on." Dante said.

"I was stuck in another room the next night, too. My Aunt Edna was still in town and using my room. And with them sick, I was in my littlest brother's room. This time I had a bad feeling about it. So I tried to stay awake but dozed anyway. Woke up to him whimpering. It was dark but I could see some form over him, holding him down, but it blended with the shadows around him, and…I couldn't be sure. But I tried to see what it was anyway. Then it was just gone again, out the window. It moved so fast but I was sure I saw something…fangs, small ones when its mouth was open on his neck. There were small punctures, too…but they were gone the next morning and again my folks didn't believe me. So I knew I needed proof besides my word. So I used the nanny cam and set it up in my other brother's room. And set it to record for the night. I was in my room again and forbidden from leaving it. For telling stories and scaring the kids. Well, my last brother, he's seven. The others were hospitalized with some mysterious illness by then."

"How did that work out?" Dean asked feeling sad for him but also proud for his quick thinking.

"He was unresponsive the next morning, equally sick as the others. So I waited until they were at the hospital and viewed the recording. Like I said, it was dark and shadowy, and quite grainy. So I used my programs to fix it to it was sharper and clearer, lightened it. Saved that copy to my computer. This is the video I shot." He said handing Dean a small silver disk. "The original. I'll get my laptop, hold on."

They let him get it and soon were quickly watching the disk. "He's right, I can't see shit." Dante grumbled.

"Wait…go back and freeze it, there! Look at the bumps of the boy's figure. He's small there, on his back. go forward now…stop." Sam said and pointed. "See the vague body shape there…that's too big for a kid, even one turning over in his sleep."

"I see it…maybe." Dean said. "You said you sharpened it?"

"Brightened it, too…see for yourself. It's still a bit dark but you can clearly see a thing in a cloak there." Elliot pointed again. "And it's feeding. It's mouth is on his neck though, not sucking light out of his mouth like in your story. Which struck me as odd. Stryga suck energy from the mouth, right?"

"A blue light, yeah." Dante said watching it all with a sick feeling. The whole horrible show. It had fed from the boy all night! And no one had known, but Elliot had suspected and wasn't allowed to protect his brother. He felt pissed for the boy. They should have listened to their son and this could have been avoided. "Wow, I see it clearly. And there it goes out of frame…"

"So it has fangs, small ones we all saw, and no blue glowing light, they feed with. Not like a vampire, theirs are longer and drop, these grew from the canines, over them and are too small for Vampire fangs. But Cubi would work. What if this is a Hybrid of Eve's? A Chimera thing…part Stryga and part Cubi. Drinks blood and life force at same time." Dean said. "Sounds like something that sick bitch would come up with…remember the Jefferson Starship ones? Ugh."

"What is a 'Cubi'?" Elliot asked.

"A general name for Succubi or Incubi we use until we're sure which sex it is. If it is female, it's a Succubi. If it's male, it's an Incubi. It goes by the sex of the creature. So we just call it a Cubi to save time." Dean explained.

"Makes sense." Elliot said. "You believe me? You really do…my folks refused to even watch it for me. Said to leave it be and take care of the house and dogs for them. That's the last I saw of them for a couple days now. You sure this trap might catch it? I don't want it getting me, too. I'm the last one, you know…"

"It won't, it should work. Just wait for the signal then roll out of bed to the floor and crawl out with the others in the hidden route we set up for you. Sam and I will take care of the rest." Dante said. "Dean, you are with Elliot, you guys keep him safe. Sam and I will take the fucker out."

"Works for me." Dean said.

"And that means making sure he stays out of the way, he will try to kill it. He'll want revenge for what it did to his family. He may not say it now but he does feel it. We can't let him get involved anymore than he already is." Dante advised. "He's a tough one, he'll try to fight with us. That can't happen."

"Well, in that case, hold him in there kicking and screaming if you have to. Just make sure he does it quietly." Sam said. "Dante is taking Closet, right?" Dante nodded. "Dean, you take the boy and the rest to guard him, sound okay?"

"Yeah." Dean said and the others nodded. "Sam, get under the bed and make sure the bedspread covers the bottom of the bed first. Elliot, get ready like usual and in first, Sam will join you once the lights go out. Await his signal, probably a nudge, and then you roll down and under, Sam goes over, pretends to be you. Make sure you get that blanket over you before we do it but let it get a good look at you first. We'll let you know when you've been seen. Dante will be watching over him after that, you will sneak out with me. It will be dark so be careful where you crawl, don't want it to hear you hit a wall or something."

"Okay." Elliot said nervously. "I'll go get my shower in then I turn out the lights and make sure the windows cracked. So it can get in easier. Normally I'd lock it but that won't work for a trap. I'll also leave the alarm off, just in case."

"Good idea." Dante said. "Get to it. Sam, get under that bed, crawl with the lights off. I'll sneak into the closet. Dean, lay by Sam by the bedroom floor."

Soon the boy had bathed and brushed his teeth, fighting his shaking hands, and got to the room, puttered around like usual then got in place. Pretending to drift off. "Sleep, I'll wake you when it's time." Sam whispered from under the bed. "Relax, Elliot, we got you. You have nothing to worry about. We won't let anything hurt you."

"I trust you." Elliot said softly and let himself sleep, feeling safe with them being so close.

Sometime later, Sam rolled into bed next to him and waited, the teen still sleeping. He looked over at him and smiled. He looked so peaceful he hated to disturb him. "Sam." Dean hissed quietly. "It's here, staring in, wait for my signal then have him wake up and cover his head, but make it look real."

Sam didn't say a word but he didn't have to, Dean knew he'd heard him. "Now, Sam. It's looking down, cover up and switch." Dean said. Sam instinctive wrapped around the teen and the boy nodded, rolling them under the covers quickly and letting him slide down the side to the floor. Dean whispered. "Love you, Sammy, be careful." Then crawled with the teen out the door and was gone.

Then the wait began.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

They didn't have to wait long though…

It crept to his bed, Sam stayed turned away and trusted Dante to keep him safe, too. He still felt the butterflies in his stomach and tensed imperceptibly. Awaiting it finally getting to him, he could hear its robe swishing on the wooden floor, every step bringing it closer to almost killing him. But still…he dreaded this part. There were reasons he hated being Bait, and this was one of them.

The waiting wasn't even the hardest part. Managing to get the gun out in time to catch it's mouth open so you could shoot, that was! Timing really was a bitch where playing Bait was concerned. That and a whole lot of dumb luck.

Which they had, so he was glad for that at least…but still…Dean was so going to be Bait next time. He was done!

Sure thing, minutes later, it was to the bed and he felt its weight dip the mattress. Loosening his hold on the bedspread, he waited longer. The blanket was yanked off his head soon after that, the thing holding him down. He forced himself to be Still while being terrified. It's pale face and red eyes inches from his. He watched as its eyes glowed like red hot coals and its mouth opened. Sam saw its fangs and cringed. It lunged at his throat as he reached as much as he could with his hand, but it was hard since the fucker had him held down that way, too…by the forceps. He calculated he had just enough reach to get the end of the gun and hoped that was enough. His arms had been pulled down lower when it had grabbed them. Now he was desperately trying to reach up again.

He was relieved when the thing's head was pulled back from his throat and a shot rang out, and he tasted gun smoke and powder. Then it collapsed on top of him, dead but with lights flying out of its open mouth, it's eyes dimming now to black. Sam pushed as Dante pulled and soon they had it off him as it rolled to the floor on its back where it fell. Sam got up and out of the bed, watching as the lights floated out the window. Some shot outward and others floated upward into a golden lit portal over the house. Golden sparkles shimmered down from it, bathing them and the room in a beautiful light.

"The souls that they took that couldn't go back to their owners…so they are going up. That portal seems to be taking them up to Heaven. The ones they came from are dead so they can't be saved by their souls being returned to them, their pieces of essence they took. And with their souls incomplete without that piece but the good news is that piece will always be drawn to the soul to make it whole again…so those pieces are going back up to the souls they were broken off of and that's the right thing to do. We freed them, Sam." Dante said.

"So the ones shooting off in all those directions like stars, or an asteroid shower, are going back to the people they came from, there are so many…" Sam said and heard a soft gasp behind them, turning to see Elliot and the others watching as well from behind them, eyes on the sky, too. "There are a hell of a lot more than three there, Dante." He said troubled.

"Not all the victims died, Sam. Most are in comas." Dante said. "And since this thing is probably millions of years old, like most Stryga are…those going up are all souls from the past it held inside itself for Millenia."

"Is it changing?" Dean asked. "Ours…melted. Is it…"

"Um, it's starting to. But it's still identifiable for now and you won't believe who it is. Hurry, it's getting…soft." Elliot said then gave a shocked cry. "I know her…that's their doctor. Melissa something…"

"Melissa Cummings." Dean said. "I only remember because she was always there when we were looking on them, refused to leave. As if she were making sure they didn't wake up or something, or that they'd give some sign of it being her or something. I thought she was a little over-dedicated. Which made me suspicious but that's all I had. So I let it go for the moment. I told Dante my suspicions already and he advised me to wait on them, too."

"Could have told us." Taylor complained. "Let us in on it."

"Was going to but then we met Elliot and didn't get time to." Dean said. "Sorry."

"Yeah, yeah. We understand, happens to us all." Demetri said and sighed. "So what now? She's mushy."

"Give it a minute…" Dean said and then motioned to her empty robe. "And now she's gone. Don't take long for them to melt to nothing once you kill them…not even powdery in there."

"I'd burn the robe if I were you, too." Sam advised. "Just in case."

"I'll use the fireplace. No one needs to know what happened here." Elliot said. "So you think my brothers and sisters are waking up now…should I be there? You think my folks would mind if I were to show up and…say I'm checking on them?" He looked at them with wet eyes. "Please, I may not be getting along with my parents and be mad at them for doubting me but I love my brothers and sisters…please can I just get there?"

"Sure, toss the robe in your closet and hide well, then burn it later. We'll drop you off, son. Go on." Dean said softly. "We'll go wait in the car."

"Thank you." Elliot said dressing hurriedly and shoving the robe in one of his old gym bags and burying it in the back of the closet under some of his sports stuff. Tossing some cleats on top of the pile as well. "There, they won't look in it now."

They were in the car soon after that as the teen set the alarms and locked the door behind him. "Here's my number." Sam said handing him a card for Sal's club with his own number on the back. "Yes, it's a sex club and we do go there. And we can't tell you more than that. Don't call the club though, call the number on the back. You're so not old enough to know what we do there, so don't ask. Just know it's not what you think, at least not all you think it is."

"Does it hurt you? Make you happy?" Elliot asked from the backseat.

"Only as much as we need and want it to, and, yes, it makes us very happy." Sam told him. "If you need anything or something shows up, you call me, okay? If you need to talk or help dealing with what we did here, you don't hesitate to call, we'll listen and answer anything you need to ask."

"Elliot, after we let you out…we're going to keep going. Our work is done here. So you should just focus on those kids…and maybe forgiving your parents for being blockheads about this whole thing. They love you and you're their son, I'm sure they didn't mean to hurt you the way they did. They made a mistake…it can be fixed. Talk to them, work it out…it's not worth losing the ones that love you over hurt feelings." Dean said sadly. "You know what happened with our Dad before…don't let that be you. Let it go before it gets that far…it's not worth it, it's really not."

"Yeah, I lost so much time resenting and being angry with my Dad, fighting with him instead of seeing he was trying to make up to me, to us…made it worse. Then when he died after we fought and the last words we said to each other was an argument…it killed me. He was trying to say he was sorry and wanted to mend things between us…and I shot him down. I relented but I was expecting us to keep fighting. Then he was dead on the floor of that room and it was too late. Don't let that be you…you never know how long you have with them. Don't waste it on hurt feelings, Elliot, they could be gone tomorrow. Trust us, we learned that the hard way." Sam said.

"Tell me, did he ever come back? He mentioned it vaguely and left it hanging at the cemetery part…did he come back?" Elliot asked.

"No, not after he faded that time after saving Dean and helping kill Azazel. I'm afraid to say…he's gone forever now. Don't let that be your fate. You don't want to know how it feels to lose a parent. Love them, accept they were human and let it go. Please try?" Dean pleaded.

"I'm going to try, I don't want that fate for myself or them. I guess they were upset about my brothers and sisters, too, and didn't handle it well. I get that the supernatural thing freaked them out, too. I'll let it go. Thanks for everything, guys. You saved our family, in more ways than one." Elliot said.

"Don't sweat it, you helped a lot with that, too. You saved them by letting us in to help you do it." Dean said. "You should be proud of that. You were a good big brother, you took good care of your little brothers and sisters, watched out for them. Fought for their lives and won. That's all on you, you did that."

"I did do that, didn't I?" Elliot said smiling. Getting ready to open his door as they pulled up to the side of the building. "Thanks again, I mean that."

"We were glad to help. Just be sure to burn that robe, got that?" Dante reminded him.

"I will." Elliot said. Then was gone, shutting the Impala's door softly behind him. Running into the side entrance, excited to see if they were awake yet. Running to hug his Dad and Mom, he cried in their shoulders. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I've been so mean to you guys. I love you, please know I do love you, no matter what I do or how I act. I missed you so much…can I stay here with you now if I promise to not fight with you?"

"Sure. We've all been upset lately…sorry for being so rough on you. You're really hurting about this happening to them, aren't you?" His Mom said and looked at him sadly.

"Yeah, it's been hard seeing them so sick and when the doctor said they could die, I freaked." Elliot said.

"About the 'Supernatural' thing…" His Dad began.

"We're not going to bring that up again. I won't say I was lying but…I know you don't believe me about it either. And we'll only fight if we talk about it, so let's not. I don't want to fight anymore." Elliot said tensing.

"But it can't be true. You must have been seeing things wrong." His Dad said.

"I wasn't. I was telling the truth, not that you'll believe me…I have the recording cleaned up and you refused to even view it!" He fairly growled then put his head down shaking it. After a long drawn out sigh later, he added. "I wasn't wrong, that's all I have to say, and I refuse to say I was. But…for the sake of the peace of our family, I'm willing to let that go. You believe what you want and I'll believe what I want."

"Okay." His Dad said shooting a worried look at his Mom. She just shook her head and smiled softly.

"Yes, Dear." His Mom said. Elliot got the feeling they were treating him like a mental patient now and that pissed him off, but did his best to swallow his anger at that. Going silent and looking to their rooms anxiously.

"Have you heard anything?" He said hesitantly.

"The doctor never came to check on them when some of their monitors went off. So another doctor in that department is checking on them now. They said they'd be back as soon as they found out what was going on." His Dad said then reached for his son. "It's okay, we love you."

"I'm not crazy!" Elliot said in frustration. "Can't we please just not talk about this? And stop treating me like a mental patient about to have a psychotic episode."

"I know you aren't, but you aren't making sense here." His Dad said.

"I'm going to go wait in the other room. Don't follow me. I tried, I really tried." Elliot said with tears in his eyes. "Guess it was too late after all." Then shut the door quietly behind him.

"I…what if he's not lying?" His Mom said. "I know my son…and I know when he's lying. I'd swear he wasn't. Would it be so bad if we tried to believe him?"

"I…it can't be true." His Dad said and groaned. "You're right, he doesn't seem like he's lying…maybe he really wasn't. But what if he was telling the truth the whole time, where's the proof?"

"I say we ask. And look at that recording he asked us to." His Mom said.

"Like he'd let us near his laptop now." His Dad said sad he's rejected the notion before.

"At least ask him what he meant before. And, going by the way he just showed up, maybe he expected something to happen with them…he does seem unusually hopeful. We sure didn't call him and say there was an improvement in their conditions, how else could he know?" His Mom said.

"Good point." His Dad said and went out to bring in their crying son. Soon he was calming and they were urging him to tell them what he knew, what he did, if anything. "You know something, we're listening now. What did you do if you did something?"

"First you view the video then I'll tell you. But I can say they are fine now and are waking up, go see for yourself." Elliot said. "Go on, just trust me that whatever I did or who helped me that it healed them and they are fine. Go ask for yourselves." Then added. "I have proof, I honestly do."

"Come with us." His Mom urged and took his hand. "I trust you, honey…this is all very farfetched but I know when you are lying and you aren't. So let's just wait on the proof. So if you saved them somehow, let's go see if it worked."

"Okay. So you're trying to believe me now?" Elliot said softly.

"Yes, we are." His Dad said putting a supportive hand on his son's shoulder.

About that time, the nurse came to get them with a shocked look on her face. Running behind her, they soon found themselves in their sons and daughters' room and saw them looking at them with hope.

"Oh, sweetheart…" His Mom said to the seven year old. "How are you feeling?"

"Did you get it? The monster in the robe! It was on me and I couldn't fight it…it bit me and…I was so scared. I tried to scream but nothing came out! Why didn't bubby come help me like he said he would…? He said he'd help me!" The boy cried then looked at Elliot. "Where were you? You let the monster get me!"

"I…" Elliot said shooting them a harsh look. Locked in his room, that's where he was. And they both knew it! "I tried to get there, I really did!"

"We had him grounded to his room, we didn't believe him when he said a monster was after you. It was our fault. We locked him in." His Dad admitted. "We didn't think it was real…"

"It was and it hurt me." The boy said. "You really did try to get to me?" He said looking at Elliot.

"Yes, I did, I tried to get out, I banged on the door and everything." Elliot said taking the shaking kid in his arms. "I did my best."

"Okay." The boy said stopping crying and looking at him again. Wiping his tears away. "I'm sorry."

"You did nothing wrong." Elliot said gently ruffling his hair. "Believe me now?"

His parents knew it was directed at them and nodded, looking devastated. The thing nearly killed their kids and the one that was trying to save them got punished for it. They had a lot to make up for with him but were eager to heal their relationship first.

Starting with seeing that video.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

The next day, Elliot came in from school to find them on his laptop in the kitchen and stood waiting to see their responses.

"That thing…that robed monster, it attacked Jamie! For hours…" His Mom said and looked like she was crying.

"I tried to beg you to check on him, I banged on the door. You didn't do a thing, you ignored me!" Elliot said offended. "That is your fault. Not mine. I knew from the time in the nursery a monster was doing it, you didn't believe me! I saw it every time, you wouldn't listen."

"What was it?" His Dad asked seeming so defeated that Elliot's rage faded under the force of his parents' pain.

"A Stryga. Well, a hybrid." Elliot said then went to get the books and showed them the chapters. Then told them about the group coming and getting them to tell him what they knew. How they'd laid the trap and Sam had taken his place as Bait. He handed them the robe as well. "It melted after one of them shot it in the mouth after it tried to kill Sam. They said I had to burn its robe. I haven't had a chance to, you are always around when I try to. I was going to use the fireplace."

"Tell me about them." His Mom said and he told them what he knew. They were Hunters who hunted these monsters and had known how to save the kids. That they were the men in the books. Which were really visions a 'prophet', he pointed out the part about Chuck in it there, recorded in the pages. "So these stories are really someone's life someone is writing down?" She asked in shock.

"Yes, it seems he keeps getting the same vision unless he writes it down. And he decided he needed to make a living at the same time, too, so he decided to use the recorded stories to write books from." Elliot said. Showing them the card and the number on the back. "He looked so much like me, Dad…except for some facial differences, he was my twin…Sam was. It was like looking in a mirror."

"Oh…that's a different matter." His Dad said. "Let me talk to them first. Then I have something to tell you."

He dialed the back number while eying the front one with a skeptical look.

"Hello, Elliot." Sam said smiling then frowned when he was told it was his Dad. "Oh, sorry. Thought you were Elliot. Hello, Sir."

"My son just told me some fantastic things, I need to verify them." His Dad said and Sam agreed to listen. So his Dad told him what Elliot had told them, all of it, then waited for his response. "Is he right? Is that all true?"

"Yes, all true. Chuck writes our lives into books for a living…meddling man that he is. Ask away, we can verify anything." Sam said and put it on speaker.

His parents asked them a ton of questions as they leafed through the books to do it and Sam and Dean fully explained everything, being honest. Soon they were satisfied but felt sad for the Winchesters, seeing that they really weren't very safe that way. Nor was Chuck if anyone got a hold of him.

Dean and them also told them all about the Hunt and killing the Stryga. "He was right, she was doing it. It was their doctor doing it." Dean said finally. "No one's to blame here, innocents like yourself never believe in the Supernatural so that's to be expected. We're used to it. He's not. Go easy on him."

"Can we meet later? Somewhere private…?" His Dad said. "We have to talk to him first but there might be something we need to ask you about."

"Sure, you know our number. Consider us your friends if you need us." Dean said and then they hung up.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

"What's going on?" Elliot asked.

"We have something to tell you. And it doesn't change the fact that we love you and see you as our own son. Where you came from and blood doesn't change anything about that." His Dad said and struggled for words.

"I'm adopted!" Elliot guessed and went pale at their guilty looks. "You're not…not really my parents?"

"No, but you were always ours. Let us explain. And the only reason we think you ever had to know is that we think Sam may be your brother. Or half-brother." His Mom said. "Oh, baby, this don't change anything about how we feel about you and we hope it don't with you either…you are our son. Always will be."

"I'm listening. Who was my Mom?" Elliot said. "John Winchester was my birth father?"

"Her name was Julie Smith. She was one of our dear friends we grew up with and went to school with. She was dating this man while there were some mysterious deaths going on then he was gone. She was pregnant soon after that and…died a couple months after you were born. We never knew who your father was. Before she died, she told us she'd had us in her Will as your godparents. So we took you in and adopted you. We were there when you were born even, at her side. You were a beautiful baby, Elliot, and she loved you very much. It was a hit and run, no one ever found who did it." His Mom said. "We could ask Sam to do a blood test…see if he's your brother or not, if you want. Or we could let it go."

"I'd like to know for sure. But you are my parents and I don't see John as my Dad, just you." Elliot said hugging them. "Call him, set it up. I'd really like to know if Sam and Dean are my brothers."

"Okay, so…we're good now? No more fighting…you don't hate us for not believing you now…" His Dad said. "We were so mean about it. We never gave you a chance. We were brought up that that stuff wasn't real, and God disapproved of us thinking about it even. Religiously this clashes with what we grew up with but, you're right, it's all true. There are things out there that want to harm us that aren't human, I get it. I believe it. And I feel bad for those guys that have to hunt it down."

"He said that, too. Said most humans think that way." Elliot said smiling.

Elliot called Sam immediately to set it up.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

"No, don't come help…I got plenty, and they are annoying enough!" Dorian bitched in annoyance. "I'm fine."

"Okay, we'll go…see you soon." Dante said as Sam waved him over. "What's up, Sam?"

"It's Elliot again, he said…wow, it's unbelievable. He says he's adopted…and that we might be his brothers. John is his father, too." Sam said. "He requested a DNA test. I agreed to it. He has a right to know, and so do we."

"Where are we doing it?" Dante asked.

"Two days from now, a clinic in the next town from them. Sea Breeze something. At Califax Labs." Sam said.

"Works for me, gives us time to get there." Dante said then dialed the other Hunters. "We're turning around, going to Sea Breeze Harbor Town." He told them about the DNA test and they turned around. While congratulating Sam and them about it.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

They waited on pins and needles for their results after the blood was taken.

The nurse came out a few minutes later and ushered them into the doctor's office.

"Well, what does it say?" Elliot asked anxiously.

"It says you are related. Sam's blood is a match for your blood. It's a partial paternal match. His father is your father. There's a 99% probability of you being related by his Dad." The doctor said. "I've never had a such a high match before."

"So he's…I'm his brother…?" Dean said happily.

"Yes, you are." The doctor said.

Both men looked to Elliot and looked hopeful. "So…can we talk and get to know each other or do you want to leave here? We won't push it. It's all in your court, Elliot." Sam said carefully schooling his face as he awaited their new brother's decision. "You would be safer not being related to us. But we'd at least like to see you from time to time, get to know you if you'd let us do it. But we'd understand your reluctance to be a part of our family so it's up to you."

"I'd like to be a brother to you. Get to know you, too. I'm not afraid of the threat to you guys. But they are my family, too. John is my birth Dad so I understand why he did it, he did it with Adam, too. He was trying to keep us safe. I know we live further apart but we could call and make time to visit from time to time. Do I have any other relatives?" Elliot asked.

"Well, there was Adam, but he's dead. Ben, my son, but I gave him up to keep him and his Mom safe. Plus there are Dante here, he's technically a cousin from a long diluted bloodline, and Dorian, she's a cousin from a distant bloodline as well. And Bobby, he's an adopted Dad to us, too." Dean admitted. "Basically it's just me, Sam, Dorian, Dante, and Bobby now. The others are dead or…unavailable."

"You miss them, don't you? John and Ben?" Elliot's Mom asked sad for him.

"Yes, I gave him up but…I never stopping loving him or seeing him as my son. He's just safer not being my son. And Dad, we lost him when we weren't getting along, so that makes it harder. We'd just found him and then we had such a short time with him. Then he was gone. That hurt more than anything. We never got a chance to accept or hear his apology or to fix things like he wanted to. Our time was cut too short. We never got to tell him we still loved him." Dean said. "So, yeah…we miss him."

"Was he a good man?" Elliot's Dad asked.

"Yes, he was a good man, a good Hunter. We all have our demons, they pursue us and sometimes win. We Hunters have learned to live with a life that's not always good or evil…just necessary. We don't get normal lives so sometimes fair and good don't always figure into our decisions. But only when fighting monsters, we don't hurt people. We save them." Sam reassured him. "Dad was a complicated man and hard to get close to, even for us as his sons, but we always knew he loved us and was doing what he was doing to protect us. He never stopped loving us. He never stopped fighting for us, so, yeah, he was a good man."

"I'd have liked to meet him. I think I'd have liked him." Elliot admitted. "Not that I don't love you, Dad. But maybe as a family friend or something."

"I understand that. I'm not threatened by you having another Dad…I know you have enough love for both us. And I know you see me as your Dad more so don't worry about me being jealous of it. He was your birth father, I would never deny you that." His Dad said. "But I'm glad you have more brothers now, too. Maybe your other siblings might like to meet them someday. I'd see them as your brothers, even with them not being my own. They're all your brothers and sisters, blood doesn't matter where love is concerned."

"We'd like that." Dean said and they talked for a while. "Who's hungry?"

"We are!" The threesome said and relaxed after that as they sat down for a meal at a diner nearby, talking about their lives in general. Then explaining about the club and their lifestyles as BDSM people when Elliot was in the bathroom and their family asked. Keeping it brief but letting them know they were happy and safe, that they were in love and loved in return by their Masters and lovers. Elliot got back nearly twenty minutes later and had a smile on his face.

Then they went their separate ways, promising to keep in touch, and headed home. Sam and them headed to the club.

Hoping Elliot would be happy now that all their secrets were out in the open, especially those he was fighting his parents over. And that the kids recovered well, were happy.

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