Dead silence.

No one besides Samandriel had seen this one coming, but after about five seconds of silence, the vampires agreed that they loved the idea. They all started to hoot and holler and yell praise to their wise leader Samandriel, for thinking of a punishment worthy of Castiel's crimes and betrayal.

"No," Castiel murmured, "No no no no no. I won't do it, I can't.

"What was that Castiel?" Samandriel taunted. "You'll have to speak up! I can hardly hear you over all the affection your faithful siblings are giving me!" They rejoiced even louder.

"I said," Castiel shouted, "No! I won't do it! We're not going to be apart of your twisted game." He put his arm around Dean's waist and pulled him closer to his side. Mostly as a way to keep him safe from harm this time, but even more so because Dean's presence calmed him down and made him feel secure.

The yelling and shouting died down at Castiel's resistance.

"Awwww, why isn't this adorable," teased Meg.

"Castiel," bellowed Samandriel, "If you do not drain him off his blood, I promise you that I will kill every human you hold dear to you. This includes Sam, Jess, and the little one that Jess is carrying."

Dean's eyes bulged. "Sam didn't tell me they're having a kid! The little nerd tells me everything! What the-"

"Calm down you petulant child," boomed Samandriel, apparently using his high and mighty voice, "Jess doesn't even know yet. She's only a week or so along but we could smell it on her."

Dean whipped around to face Cas, who was biting his lip and visibly shaking. "Cas, Cas listen to me."

"No, Dean." Cas sounded as if he were being choked, "I can't do it."

"Cas, you're gonna do it but first you've gotta calm down. Look at me."

Cas looked him in the eye. Dean immediately regretted telling him to look at him. He had no idea how he was going to say what he needed to say while looking into his tear filled eyes. Looking into his regular big, blue eyes was already a struggle but this? Nope. Abandon ship.

"Well Cas, if this is it, I've gotta get a few things off my chest. First things first, I never actually minded your whole cuddling thing, it was actually kinda cute."

Cas' countenance flipped from being on the verge of tears to blatantly irritated. "I am not cute," he growled.

"Yeah, yeah I know," Dean laughed, gently grabbing Cas' shoulders, "And you're especially not cute when you wear AC/DC shirts, definitely not."

Cas smiled, just a bit.

"And I never liked the way you intensely watched kids shows, or the way you always asked 'are we there yet' when it was obvious we weren't, or the way your hair is a complete mess in the morning. I didn't like any of that, not one bit, and I especially did not find the hair thing sexy at all. I don't know why you would even suggest that."

"I- I didn't say anything Dean."

"Are you interrupting my speech? Seriously?"

Cas grinned ear to ear in response.

"Uh huh," Dean continued, "That's what I thought." Dean took a step closer, thoroughly invading his personal space. "Now, before I bite the dust, there's one last thing I've gotta say." Dean started to fiddle with the dumb tie Cas always wore, unsure of how to phrase the next part.

"I just wanna say, all sarcasm aside, you have the brightest, most serene eyes I have ever seen. Whenever you're not using them as weapons to scare the crap outta me, Cas, I swear to God I get endlessly lost in those blue orbs of yours."

A few vampires started to snicker, but Dean didn't feel his cheeks turn red from embarrassment for once.

"I don't care if I sound like a crappy poet reciting cheesy poetry, your eyes are freakin' breathtaking and it's just a cold hard fact. And another thing-"

Cas grabbed Dean's waist and met his lips with his own, cutting him off. He kissed him long and slow, savoring it, and Dean responded in earnest. The contact felt like lightening and fire and a thunderstorm of sorts, all at once. He pulled Dean in tighter,just to make sure that his feet were still on the ground, proving that the flying feeling in the pit of his stomach was just an illusion.

There were few things that Cas could coherently think of at the time, like how perplexing it was that such small human contact could make him feel so dizzy, or perhaps that was just a special reaction pertaining to Dean. Or how the feel of his lips was so much better in comparison to having to kiss his blood stained neck. And how, if he was being completely honest, kissing Dean was better than drinking blood, period. Nature be willing, he could live off nothing but Dean's kisses until the end of time.

Finally, Cas pulled away because yes, oxygen was a thing and they both needed that, and he needed to say his piece before Samandriel inevitably interrupted.

"Two things are true, Dean Winchester. 1. You talk an atrocious amount and must be stopped every now and again-"

"If that's how you stop me, I'd never mind."

"And 2. I've been wanting to do that for a very, very long time,"

"Well you really should've said something!" Dean said, already leaning in for more.

"Stop!" barked Samandriel, fed up with the display of emotions and prolonged farewell. "Do I have to hold your hand, Castiel? Drink the human dry in the next 15 seconds or else everyone dies!"

"Cas, please." Dean pleaded, "Do it now." He laid down on the ground in preparation.

Tears had returned to his eyes but he nodded in compliance and sank to his knees. His fangs slowly came out, not at all hungry, and Cas began to drain the life out of the one thing he truly cared for.

Fully draining someone was a slow process, and so Dean mentally prepared himself for the slow death. This was the second time Cas fed from him and again, it didn't hurt significantly. Every now and again, Cas even secretly stopped to plant kisses on his neck. Kisses in which he steeled his face to avoid revealing what was happening. If anything, Dean was more aroused than afraid.

Cas sure was making the whole concentrating on dying thing difficult.

But it was fine by Dean. He knew that this ordeal was internally killing Cas just as much as it was physically killing him.

It wasn't long until Dean started to see spots in his vision, and felt the contents of his head start to swim around. When he realized the edges of his vision was starting to become black he knew he didn't have much time left before he went unconscious, but he still needed one last goodbye from his vampire.

"Cas?" Dean gasped, finding it difficult to talk with such a huge loss of blood.

Cas stopped drinking and wiped his eyes before meeting Dean's eyes. "Yes, Dean?" He didn't want to reveal how much he had been crying, and make Dean's final moments anymore painful than they needed to be.

Dean put his hand out, palm up, and Cas instinctively grabbed it and squeezed.

"I'm thinkin' of somethin' Cas, guess what it is."

Cas couldn't help the new set of tears that rose up to the surface and threatened to spill over.

"Is it..." Cas pretended to ponder his choices, even though he instantly knew what it was. "Is it Beethoven's 9th symphony?"

Dean gave him the biggest smile he could muster with the little strength he had. "How'd you know?"

His smile slowly faded as his eyes fluttered shut. His peaceful face looked as though he was simply sleeping, but Cas knew he had passed out. He checked his neck for a pulse and there was one. Passed out is better than dead.

Heck yeah it is.

Cas almost cried out in joy, but stopped himself. He could still communicate with Dean and secretly no less. It was almost too good to be true.

"Hurry it up Castiel," said Samandriel, breaking his train of thought.

Cas dipped back down to finish up and get it over with.

Dean?

Yeah Cas?

I'm not going to kill you.

Oh. Well, I wanna say that's a relief but man you kinda have to. I couldn't live with myself if they killed Sammy and his family.

Oh no, don't worry Dean. You're going to appear dead, realistically so. But you won't be.

Cas continued to drink as one finger stayed on his pulse, ensuring that it was still there.

Dean?

Yeah uh, I don't follow.

I'm going to slow your pulse down until your heart beats are a minute apart, that way when they check for a pulse, they won't feel one. This is very tricky business though, Dean, I've never done a feeding this surgical, but I'm willing to try anything at this point.

By now his heart beat was about ten seconds apart.

Ok Cas. This feels kinda risky but hey, we've done riskier. What do you need me to do?

I need you to keep talking, about anything, so I know I haven't lost you.

Dean immediately began to send a wave of childhood adventures starring him and Sam across their telepathic hotline. Cas was glad that this was what he chose to ramble about, as he had always enjoyed Dean's stories about his plunders as a youth.

A few minutes passed and as Dean began to dwindle around the 45 second mark, Castiel was hesitant to go on. Dean's string of stories was still going strong, which was more than a good sign, but Castiel had never been much of a gambler, no matter how many times him and Dean had played poker to pass the time. He always bluffed, no matter how good or bad his cards were, and Dean would get on his case about it. And now, with this impromptu plan to try and get everyone out alive, he wasn't sure what his next move would be.

"For Christ's sakes Castiel," said an exasperated Samandriel, "Has it been done yet?" He began to make his way over to them.

There was no going back for better cards now.

It was time to fold.