Samandriel's finger lingered on Dean's pulse for longer than necessary, as if he suspected that Castiel had an ace up his sleeve.

The tears that were currently running down Castiel's cheeks were forced as he knew that Dean was still alive, albeit barely so. A stream of childhood stories were still being recalled in his mind, so it was difficult faking upset over Dean's "death."

However, after about 30 seconds and Samandriel's finger was still on his pulse, staring at Cas straight in the eye, Cas began to get anxious. Any longer and he would surely be able to tell Dean was alive. And then what? Would he kill him off himself?

Cas released the most theatrical sob he could muster, an imitation of one he had seen on a soap opera. His faux anguish made Samandriel furrow his brow, but also convinced him that Dean must surely be dead for his brother to have such a reaction. His hand dropped from Dean's neck, finally.

"Well brother," Samandriel purred, "I can't believe you've actually done it, but a deal is a deal. Gadreel! Bring forth Sam and Jess!"

Gadreel ran behind a corner and came back in a matter of seconds, one arm hoisting up Sam and Jess in the other, both bound by their hands with gags in their mouths.

"Bring them here," Samandriel said through clenched teeth, as though it irritated him to go through with his side of the deal.

Gadreel did as he was told and dropped Sam and Jess on either side of Dean. Cas could see that there were tears in both of their eyes, and it hurt his heart to not be able to tell them Dean was still alive.

Speaking of Dean, in all the commotion Cas hadn't even realized that Dean's rambling had ceased.

Dean?

No response.

Dean! Dean I need you to respond!

Again, no response.

Cas began to breathe in and out, alarmingly fast. He recognized this reaction as something humans knew as 'hyperventilating,' and he did not like it at all.

Why wasn't Dean responding? Had their telepathic communication expired? Or was Dean really... gone? He hoped for the former but knew the latter was more realistic.

"Well Castiel," said Samandriel, "My final gift to you will be determining what you would like to do with the body." He smiled, quite pleased with himself for being so generous."The rest of us will be back at the nest, preparing for your welcome back party. I'm sure Raphael will be pleased to know that we have led our wandering brethren back onto the right path."

Cas looked him dead in the eye but didn't bother to give a response.

"Come come everyone!" The vampires crowded in around Samandriel. "Our work here is done."

In a flash, he and the rest of the vampires disappeared. The only proof of them ever having been there was the gust of wind that followed in the direction of their departure.

The tears in Cas' eyes stung with a vengence, and so he furiously wiped them away. He would have plenty of time to cry later if he didn't act now to save Dean's life. Taking Dean into his arms, he quickly stood and faced Sam and Jess.

"Jess, to my knowledge you are still a nurse, correct?"

Jess nodded, unable to speak without the risk of crying.

"I need you to gather as many extra syringes you can get. Sam, follow me." Cas began to make his way to their house.

"Wait, Cas," pleaded Sam, "My brother. Is he? Is he-"

"I can't say for sure," mumbled Cas, refusing to turn and face them. "But if you two do not follow my directions to the letter," Cas slowly turned his head to see them in his peripheral, "then he will be."

Of course blood had always been worshiped in his family. The crimson liquid, with its pungent taste and abundance, was no less than the force that kept him and his family living, made life worth living, and prevented the outbreak of potential civil wars between their extended families. Blood had always been a delicacy to be respected and revered, but that's all it ever had been to Castiel.

A delicacy.

Never had he realized the utter importance of blood, that is, until he was pumping it by the milliliter into his very human friend and it was the only thing keeping him alive.

Being brothers, Sam and Dean shared the same blood type. Castiel, using the "desperate times call for desperate measures" logic that Dean himself had introduced him to, did not hesitate to ask consent to draw small portions of Sam's blood to distribute to Dean. Sam, of course, was all for the idea and, if Jess had any personal qualms about the idea she did not speak them, but Castiel knew that Dean would be no less than infuriated for recklessly putting Sam's life in danger, even if it was to save his own.

This sense of familial preservation, as stupid as it may be, was one of the many things Cas loved about Dean.

As the seconds began to drag on and the minutes moved even slower, Cas began to question if this plan would even work. So many factors had not been taken into consideration before commencing his plan, and for all he knew, they could be making the situation worse.

What is they couldn't extract enough blood before Sam passed out? What if Dean's white blood cells fought off the foreign blood? What if Dean was long gone to begin with, and this was all a waste of time? What if-

Jesus, Cas. Those loud thoughts alone should've woken me up hours ago.

At the sound of Dean's voice, Cas let in a sharp intake of breath and quickly dropped the syringe.

"Cas?" came Sam's concerned voice from the other couch, "What's wrong?"

Cas knelt down to face Dean, whose face was still a veil of tranquility. Had he imagined what he heard?

I dunno why I can't move anything, Cas, but trust me. I'm back.

Cas' hand shot up to cup his mouth, stopping the whimper of relief he almost let out.

Dean I am so sorry this shouldn't have happened if I could have stopped it I promise I-

For crying out loud Cas, it's fine! I'm fine, you're fine, we're all fine. If it wasn't for you I would have been dead anyway, in a more, er, permanent sense.

Cas couldn't help the tears of joy that now trickled down his cheeks.

"Cas?" Sam touched his shoulder. "Is it not working?"

Cas vigorously wiped his face, partially disgusted in how emotional he had allowed himself to become over the last month. "No Sam, the opposite. He's back."

Sam gave a laugh in response, a choked one. The next several laughs that bubbled out of his throat were borderline hysterical and he had to sit down.

Is that my idiot brother laughing at my impromptu funeral? Tell him if he doesn't shut up I'll make sure he joins me in a second!

A chuckle escaped Cas' mouth and a looked over his shoulder to Sam, now on the floor clutching his stomach from laughing so hard.

"Your brother wanted me to inform you that if you don't cease laughing he'll make sure you'll be joining him."

Sam took a few seconds of deep breaths to calm down before answering. "Haha what? Are you talking to him?" He looked from Cas' face to Dean's and his eyes grew to the size of saucers. "Holy crap! You two are talking telepathically aren't you! Holy crap, this means the legend is true!"

"What legend?" said Cas, bemused.

"Well," began Sam, now excited, "Ever since learning that my brother made nice with a freakin' vampire I took it upon myself to do some research on human-vampire relationships. One of them in particular, Jess and I found extremely interesting."

Cas simply stared at him, waiting for him to go on.

"You've, uh, sucked blood from him before, right? I don't know if that's too personal a question or whatever but the legend only makes sense if you have."

Cas remained motionless, although his cheeks did burn scarlet at the inquiry.

"Yeah, too personal a question, gotcha. But anyway, uh, what I'm trying to say is Dean is now probably-"

"A drudge."

All heads spun towards the voice on the staircase.

The voice belonged to Jess, who came downstairs to join the conversation, as if on cue. "A drudge is more or less equivalent to a slave. A vampire tells his drudge to do something, telepathically or otherwise, and the human is compelled to comply. The practice dates back to 1500 B.C., I do believe, starting with one of the very first vampires named..."

As much as Cas wanted to listen to the intriguing vampiric history lesson that he never heard about before, Dean was more successful in grabbing his attention.

Oh? So I'm your slave now, huh Cas?

In a technical sense, yes I believe so. Although I would never abuse such power.

But you know what this means right? Anything you want me to do, and I do mean anything, and I'll do it.

Yes, I do believe that is how this situation works-

Anything, Cas. Anything at all. Can you think of anything, master? Anything from your wildest dreams that you've always wanted me to do?

I- nothing comes to mind presently-

Cas, are you picking up on my sexual innuendos or do I have to spell them out for you?

Cas felt his cheeks burn as he found himself at a loss for words. He would be forever grateful that this conversation was happening in the privacy of his own head.

"And so," concluded Jess, "You both will be able to read each other's minds for the time being, until you both learn to build up your mental walls, of course."

Still a bit too flustered to participate verbally, Cas went back to talking to Dean.

Dean.

Yeah, Cas?

This blood infusion won't be enough to save you.

Yeah, I kinda figured that.

Dean I-

I swear to God, Cas, if another apology comes out of your mouth I'm gonna lose it. None of this is you fault, ok? You've got to believe that. You tried your best, and it didn't work. But you tried and that's all I could ever ask for. So, if this is lookin' like the end of the line then-

No, Dean. You must learn to let me finish. Sam will most likely die if we continue this process, and so we are stopping. There is, however, an alternative.

Which would be? C'mon Cas the suspense would be killing me if I wasn't already a dead man.

Dean!

Sorry. What's Plan B, Cas?

I can give you some of my blood.

Several seconds passed while Dean contemplated.

This is the only route we have left, Dean. My blood cells reproduce three times faster than any human's, and so you would only need a small transfusion.

Alright, so I'll get a few pints of vampire blood in my veins? Sounds pretty sick, but what's the catch? If there wasn't a catch, this would've been Plan A. What aren't you telling me Cas?

Fear crept to the forefront of his mind. He knew Dean could see this, but he didn't care. He was fearful of telling Dean what the transfusion would entail, fearful that Dean would say no, and fearful of all the things that could go wrong were he to say yes.

The catch is, if I give you some of my blood, you would become a vampire.

Cas waited for the fireworks, but was instead met by silence.

Dean? Dean this is the only option we have-

No.

Dean, at least think about-

Cas, I said no. Now I know that you can just command me to go through with it, or start the process anyway with my comatose body, but just know that I, in full consciousness, do not give you my consent.

So you choose to die instead?

Cas, I can't become one of those things. Those monsters were put on this Earth to be hunted, and I happen to be one of those hunters.

The fear inside Cas switched to anger in half a second.

May I remind you that those "things" are my family. That I am one of those "things."

Yeah and your godforsaken family is the reason I'm dying as we speak!

So why didn't you kill me, Dean? You were hunting me, you had the tools you needed to kill me, but you didn't. That probably would've solved all of our problems too-

Cas-

What stopped you, Dean?

Cas wasn't sure how volume worked in the telepathic connection, but he hoped that he was screaming to get his point across. Silence filled the link once more, and Cas was very close to screaming in the physical sense.

"I- I dunno Cas. There was just something, something different and special about you. You didn't, you didn't feel like a monster."

Any remaining anger and fear melted into a warm feeling of contentment. All of these emotions coming and going were starting to give him whiplash.

Do you trust me, Dean?

Of course I do, Cas.

If you really do, then trust me when I tell you that you will not be the monster you fear you will become, not under my watch.

I-I trust you. Do what you gotta do, Cas.

Are you sure?

A moment's hesitation, and then a response.

I'm sure, Cas. I'm sure cause I trust you.

No one before had ever put such absolute faith in Castiel, and the thought that Dean was the first to do so made him smile.

Cas opened his eyes, not remembering when he had closed them in the first place, and tilted his head to look at both Jess and Sam. He raised an eyebrow and gave them his best smirk. From the concern on their faces he could tell that his sinister expression made him look very much like a real vampire, and this provided a confidence boost.

"You two might wanna stand back."