Later that night. Dean is searching frantically through the lore on the internet, trying to separate fact from fiction which is becoming increasingly difficult, due to the lack of sleep and the sudden splitting headache as a result of the high consumption of alcohol over the past couple of days since Cas' disappearance. Yawning, the elder Winchester looks over the book-covered table towards his brother who is buried in a book on Greek mythology.
'Found anything?' Dean enquires sleepily.
'I found some basic history about the Lamia, but no way of killing it as of yet.'
He picks up an open book from under the pile and reads a passage, 'Lamia, a beautiful Libyan Queen, whom the god Zeus feel in love with was cursed by Hera because of jealousy. This cursed turned Lamia into a child-eating monster, she is half human and half serpent. Having a serpents tail from the waist down and the upper half of a beautiful woman.'
Dean looks at his brother with a look that clearly says wow that's messed up. But what he says aloud is anything along those lines, 'good work Sammy, next step is finding a way to gank her and soon.' He yawns again slurring the last of the sentence.
He looks at his brother blurry eyed and notices how bad Sam looks. When was the last time he slept? Dean had be so concerned with Cas that he hadn't noticed that Sammy had be taking care of him, making sure he ate and slept. But what about him? How was his brother feeling about the situation? Making a snap decision, Dean decides that there's no point in continuing research if they're going to be too tired to even face the new threat.
The Winchesters decide they will awake early and resume research before the big meeting to weigh up the odds against their newest enemy.
The sunlight that streamed through the crack in the motel curtains wakes Dean. Glancing at his watch, 7:52. He'd slept for a good 5 hours, the most he'd slept in one go since the newest problem started. Dean sat up and look over to his brother's bed, the younger Winchester was still sleeping peacefully and Dean didn't have the heart to wake him, after all he had looked after him for the past couple of days, it was time to return the favour.
Dean strolled over to the pile of books Sammy had abandoned the night before and commenced his research. Reading through the great tomes that were piled up was deathly boring. Dean was about to give up after going through most of the books, when one passage jumped out at him. He read through it and jumped up to wake his brother. Sammy woke up looking much better after his much needed rest.
'What is it Dean? Have you-' He was cut off by the book Dean had been reading being handed to him.
Dean pointed, 'That passage there, that's how we do it!'
The younger Winchester rubbed the remaining sleep from his eyes and focused on the passage reading aloud, 'To kill a Lamia you can use one of two methods, either use a silver knife blessed by a priest or a mixture of salt and rosemary to cover the Lamia and then burn.'
He looked up at his brother, 'Have we got any silver knives blessed by any priests?'
'I'll have to look in the trunk.' Dean replied grabbing the keys for the Impala.
When Dean returned he held a silver knife in his hand and some salt. 'The knife needs blessing and we've got no rosemary left. Looks like we're going, supply shopping.'
Before they left Sam looked up the address for the nearest church, grabbed his coat and left to prepare for the meeting.
'I don't know. I don't have the information you need.' Cas weakly responds. He's handcuffed to a chair, his wings clipped so he can't escape. His trench coat is ripped to shreds lying on the floor around him in tatters.
A man stands over him, an angel blade in his hand, readying himself to continue the torture. This had been going on for days now, the same situation. He would ask the angel the same questions, how do you get into heaven? How do you control it? How would claim the loyalty of the other angels? And the angel would resist saying he didn't know. Then he'd have no choice but to slowly drag the blade against parts of the angel's exposed skin and listen to the screams as the blood ran down his body.
Cas was now completely covered in dry blood, his clothes destroyed. He looked exhausted like he hadn't slept since he was taken. He looked up toward the man who'd been torturing him since he arrived, always the same man, always the same questions. The situation was becoming tedious. Cas sent a second prayer to Dean, 'Where are you Dean? Hurry up and kill these assbutts already!' He'd slowly been giving up hope that Dean would ever help him. He'd heard Dean praying to him but that had stopped and Castiel slowly lost hope. The thought of Dean not fighting to save him, made the angel's heart ache.
The man was about to start the torture process once again, when someone came into the small interrogation style room. A woman that Castiel now knew to be Evangeline the head of the operation, looked toward her lieutenant, 'Lucien, I'm to meet the Winchesters shortly, you're to continue trying to extract the information for our prisoner, I will hopefully return with information.' She left shutting the door behind her.
Lucien turned back toward Castiel, but he didn't notice Evangeline's words were still reverberating around his head, 'I'm to meet the Winchesters'. Castiel was both frightened and excited about this news. As this thought settled in Lucien brought the blade across his chest but Cas was numb to the sensation. All he could think was that Dean hadn't given up on him and that he had to get out of here and protect his humans.
A couple of hours later the Impala pulled into the small parking lot of the diner. The Winchesters with the dagger carefully concealed in Dean's inner jacket pocket they approach an empty table, scanning the crowd of people for the she bitch.
Dean was concerned that they didn't know the appearance of Cas' captor which gave her the advantage. He drummed his fingers on the table impatiently waiting when a woman approached their table. This woman was stunningly beautiful even Dean had to admit that, she wore a tight fitting violet dress showing a curvaceous shape which stopped mid-thigh showing legs that seemed to go on forever and heels that could be deadly.
The woman pulled up a chair and sits. 'my name is Evangeline. Tell me what I want to know and I'll give you your friend Castiel.' She looks at them both evenly with luscious kohl rimmed hazel eyes.
'What do you want to know?' Sam looks at her with suspicion, a deal with a demon is never a good idea.
Dean has been silently sitting, thinking, calculating. 'What I want to know is why you don't seem to look like a Lamia demon. Have you stolen some poor defenceless woman's body for your own means?' He glances at her with a look of disgust.
She sighs, 'I assumed you would be used to dealing with human appearing demons. No I haven't stolen someone's body this is my own. I have used a cloaking spell to disguise my natural lower form from the public eye.'
Sam appears alarmed by this new information, 'you can use magic?' he asks trying to conceal his worry.
'Unfortunately not, but when one lives as long as I have, you learn to make useful connections. I have connections with a witch family up in Wyoming, have done for several centuries now.' Evangeline looks bored by the whole conversation. 'That's enough of the pleasantries. Back to business. What do you know of heaven?'
Sam and Dean share a look that decides how much to tell her. They're about to tell her when a waitress arrives at the table, 'What can I get you?' She smiles brightly at the three, completely ignorant to the tense situation she has interrupted.
Dean and Sam order the usual round of coffee, and Evangeline glares at the woman until she leaves.
Evangeline's phone rings suddenly, startling everyone. She moves away from the table and picks up without glancing at the caller ID, 'What do you want?' she hisses. She pauses for a moment listening to the other end, 'I'll be back soon, with leverage. That should make him talk.' She hangs up. The waitress arrives back at the table with the coffees as she places them on the table Evangeline manages to slip something into the coffees as the boys thank the waitress.
Dean turns back to the demon, 'We don't know anything and we wouldn't tell you if we did.' He takes a mouthful of coffee.
The younger Winchester who'd already had some coffee slowly looks around confused, his vision blurry. 'What's going on?' he blinks several times to check it's not just lack of sleep messing his vision. Dean also looks disorientated as he says something to Sam that makes no sense, his voice is distorted and incomprehensible. The last thing the Winchesters hear is Evangeline laughing as two men appear in black suits and lift them to a black van. The last thing they see is the doors slamming shut shrouding them in complete darkness. The final thought Dean has as he loses consciousness is, 'I'm sorry Cas, I've failed you.'