"You always get yourself steeped in trouble. I don't possibly see how I can keep this up, Cassy, especially considering you and your little public scandal." A slender-built, dusty-brunette male in his mid-twenties placed an ice pack into Castiel's hurt hand, which was missing the bloody tie and now neatly wrapped with bandages. He was handsome and walked with an edge to his step that was foreign for him. Usually he was so laid back. "It'll numb the pain. Don't be so cheeky." He said sharply, when Castiel gave him a look of irritation at the cold package.

"Balthazar," the blue eyed male said shakily, "Your fraternity is trying to string me up like a trophy." He sat slumped sideways in Balthazar's couch, in his run-down shanty of a house, which he shared with two other drunk college kids. It was empty at the moment except for them. But that was a comfort.

Balthazar sighed, and as he reached to put away the bandages in the cupboard, his thin v-neck t-shirt lifted to show a glimpse of his midriff. "They're your fraternity too. They're angry, Castiel. You've angered the entire family."

Glancing away, Castiel clenched his jaw. "I am not their family. That's why I left."

"You pledged," Balthazar snapped. "You are our brother. Not only do you abandon us for another school entirely, but now you've got a boyfriend you're fucking?"

"Dean is not just some boyfriend!" Castiel cried. "He is everything to me!" He shook his head slowly, face scrunching with emotion. "The things they did to those kids, I… I'm one of them. I was one of them and I just stood there and watched." He looked up. "I couldn't be a part of it then. And I can't stop being who I am. I'm trying to live my life around the fact that people think I'm an abomination."

Their eyes locked. A moment of silence stretched. The wind rattled the windows outside, and Cas pictured Dean road-raging all over town looking for him. But he stared through the other male. Guiltily, Balthazar looked away first, washing the blood off his hands at the sink. He strode to the counter by the fridge and got out a bottle of vodka, pushing it into Cas's good hand. "Take a swig. It'll help with the pain; I don't have any Advil."

Castiel still stared at him as he uncapped the bottle and walked away, throwing the bottle cap up and down in his hand. Blue eyes looked at the lip of the bottle before he took a hit, wincing and making a face as it went down burning. "Why are you helping me?" He asked moodily, scraping his tongue against his teeth to rid himself of that sensation.

"Because I know you're just some fairy with a bad rap," Balthazar sat on the counter, knees knocked open, and leaned his elbows on them. Having spotted him running away from the diner on a perimeter check – which all of the frat brothers were doing, apparently tonight was the night they chose to strike – he had decided to exercise mercy on Castiel. Instead of delivering him gift-wrapped to Uriel or Michael he had taken him home and wrapped his wounds and given him some company. "And because I don't want to see you strung up like a trophy. Not all of us agree with Uriel about this, but… everybody else is too scared to challenge him. They're just following orders. I was gung-ho for it too, you know, until I saw you so pathetic."

"Asshole," Castiel snapped, shifting to lean back wearily on the couch cushions as he took another swig of alcohol.

"Well you were face down in a couch. It didn't look like promising moment."

"What do we do now?"

Balthazar rubbed his hands along the tops of his thighs, giving his palms denim burn. "Nothing. They're going to come looking, and find you, and you'll have to get it over with, whatever they want to do. They won't kill you. Just maim you, maybe."

Cas looked at him. "I thought you wanted to help me?"

The soft brown eyes of the other were buried under artfully apathetic brows. "I can't hide you forever. I'll probably get some retribution myself for even hiding you from them this long. We've been on runs since you left work two hours ago, scouring the entire city area. Your lover is probably strung up already."

Paling considerably, Cas looked at the floor, his selfish thoughts evaporating. Dean. He might be hurt. "I shouldn't have left him," he said in a low, rasping tone. "I… I just didn't want to believe he was lying to me, I-"

"Lying to you?" Balthazar questioned.

Looking up, Cas nodded gently. "Samandriel. He supposedly transferred when I did, and lived beside me in our dorm building. I never saw him. He avoided me. But Dean was friends with him – or, he told me all this. But it was a lie. Samandriel went missing months ago. They… They found his body."

"Yeah, that was all over the news," Balthazar whispered. "Uriel decided to make this run early when he heard. It did something to him. Sam was a brother too. Even if he deserted."

Castiel nodded. "Dean told me he was living feet from us," he frowned worriedly. "I don't understand why he would lie to me, but he had to. I mean, how could he not be?" He shook his head. "Sam was innocent. And Dean dragged him through the mud and I figure out he's dead? What is that?" He looked up to see Balthazar giving him a dark look. It scared him. "What?"

The other male touched his rough hands together, bracelets dangling off them as he glanced from them, to Cas. His usually arrogant, casual demeanor was blackened by a storm cloud. "There's been some… weird stuff going on lately, Cas. You left before we could tell you anything about it; it began a while ago. We didn't know what to make of it, really. But some of our guys were going missing. Then they'd show up, acting all normal, for weeks. Then they would get all chummy with someone. And bam, both would go missing again. And this happened to three guys at least in the past few months. When did you say Dean and Samandriel really met?"

"Two weeks ago," Cas managed, shaken.

Balthazar nodded, turning his head to look at the counter. "That's when the last pair vanished."

Cas's eyes were round as dinner plates. "What the hell does that mean?" He demanded. "Are you telling me something is wearing people suits and kidnapping then, a-and their friends? And that that something is after Dean and me?" The look he got from the other male made him shake his head. "No, no that's insane, Balthazar. It's ridiculous! Besides, if it's after me and Dean, that means two victims. And you said it only takes one, right?"

Looking him in the eye cleared away Castiel's doubts and replaced them with a deep, electric fear that made his heart sweat. "I never said it was after both of you. You said you never saw him, right?" His voice was thick like tree sap and it oozed all over Cas's mind, making every thought slogged and languid. Dean… was…. in…. danger.

Castiel felt his panic flood every atom of his body. It vibrated him bolt-upright, then up off the couch at once, his head whirling. "Dean. It wants Dean," he gasped, looking at him with wide eyes. "We have to go and find him, right now. He's riding around looking for me. I know he is. I ditched him at the diner." He pushed the vodka bottle aside and grabbed Balthazar's arm wildly. "Please, please," He begged. "I can't lose him, Balthazar; I can't let it take him!" His voice broke, and that made Balthazar's stiff outer shell crack. Shaking his head, he pushed Cas off, leaving him panting, and got up and capped the vodka bottle with jerky motions.

"Cassy," he sighed angrily, "you are damn lucky I've already broken the pact. After tonight, I'm going to have to leave town for good." He grumbled, grabbing his keys and his jacket. He turned to Cas. "If we hurry, we may be able to save him," he whispered. Nodding endlessly, too stunned and panicked to express his gratitude, Castiel rushed out with him to his black convertible. Balthazar threw it into gear and they were flying down the driveway and out onto the road, peeling off towards town to save Dean from an unknown monster.