Sorry for the delays, I am once again dealing with computer issues and family medical issues . . . hope everyone is still enjoying...thanks for reading and for all the really great reviews... bambers;)
Chapter Forty-One
Dominic leaned in close, his breath warm and menacing against Dean's ear as he ordered, "Drop your gun."
Dean squeezed his eyelids closed and drew in a slow breath in an attempt to calm his rapidly beating heart. With Dominic's gun pressed firmly against his back, Dean knew he had no other option at the moment but to do as the older man had commanded. Yet, he also understood that even without his gun, he wasn't completely at Dominic's mercy. Somewhere just out of sight, Shannon was around, and every ingrained instinct honed from years of hunting told him that she was waiting to exact her revenge against her father.
He lowered his weapon and dropped it to the floor. "Did you kill Shannon yourself?" Dean asked as he cautiously slipped his hand inside his pocket to turn on the EVP recorder. "Or did you have someone else do it for you?"
"I loved Shannon more than anything, and I warned her not to ever think of leaving me. She chose not to listen." The smugness in Dominic's tone left little doubt in Dean's mind that the madman had killed his only real child and had felt no remorse for his actions.
"She was your daughter, the mother of your grandchild . . . how could you kill your own flesh an' blood an' not feel the slightest remorse?"
"Are you talking about Jared?" Dominic chuckled as he gripped hold of Dean's arm, swung him around and pushed him toward the front entrance to Pastor Jim's cabin. "He's not my grandchild, he's my son," he added as he opened the door and shoved Dean out into the yard.
Dean swallowed hard, cringing as horrible understanding dawned on him. "You . . . you slept with your own daughter?"
"She belonged to me, Dominic, an' I loved her," the Father casually replied as if there was nothing wrong with what he had just admitted. "You took her from me, so in turn, I took everything from you."
"You sick, twisted sonuvabitch," Dean hissed, anger now overriding any fear he might have felt at the moment. "How the hell could you do that to her?"
"You know, I watched you burn her body from over there," Dominic went on to say, completely ignoring Dean's question as he nudged his head toward an outcropping of trees. "Actually, I had planned on killing you, but then when I saw how meticulous you were in covering my trail, I realized how much we were alike, an' I knew you were meant to replace Shannon as my child."
"Then why didn't you jus' take me then?" Dean asked, purposely trying to steer the conversation toward what had happened to Sam. "Why the hell did you have to go after my brother as well?"
"Because your brother was a real pain in my ass." Dominic dug the barrel of the gun into Dean's back, forcing him to move toward where he had burned Shannon's body. "He actually had the nerve to come into my restaurant and threaten me. An' even after I had my children beat the living shit out of him, he got up an' came back for more." He paused for a moment and drew in a deep, staggered breath, and it seemed to Dean as if something bothered him about Sam, but when he spoke again, there was no hesitation or fear in his voice. "Then I realized that he was evil and needed to suffer. I marked him so everyone would know what he really is . . . so you would know what he truly is."
Dean's stomach began to churn as he recalled the crazed cult leader burning the word weak into his chest, and wondered exactly what Dominic had carved into his brother's chest. "How did you make him think it was me that was hurting him?"
Dominic laughed. "Enough drugs and just the right suggestion, and he believed anything I wanted him to. An' once he thought it was you that was hurting him instead of me, he just crumbled like a house of cards. He told me things . . . things I'm sure you don't even know . . . ." Dominic's voice trailed off, apparently reveling in the fact that he knew more about Sam than Dean did. "He's been keeping a huge secret from you, Dominic. Not a very brotherly thing to do, if you ask me."
"The name's Dean, you sonuvabitch. I think I know my brother well enough to know that when he feels the time is right, he'll tell me whatever it is that you're talkin' about." A brief smile lit across Dean's features, knowing that he now had the evidence he needed to prove to Sam that he hadn't been the one who hurt him. Not caring anymore that Dominic had a gun pointed directly at his back, Dean stopped walking and swung to glare at him. "An' for everything you did to him, I plan to make you suffer in ways you can't even possibly imagine."
"You?" Dominic smirked, clear disbelief written plainly across his features. "How could you possibly hope to hurt me? You're not even half the man you were when I found you."
"Maybe not," Dean conceded with a cocky grin, "but even at my worst, I'm still a hundred times more of a man than you'll ever be."
At Dean's taunt, Dominic's grin faltered for the briefest of moments. "You think they won't all leave you, Child?" he asked, reverting back to using the name he had called Dean when he had brainwashed him. "You think they don't know how truly pathetic and weak you are?"
"Your lies aren't gonna work this time." Dean defiantly met the older man's steely gaze. "My brother didn't leave me, an' my father came an' saved me from you."
"Huh, that may be true, but they're not here now, an' I'm the one holding the gun. So you see, in the end it really doesn't matter how much they care about you." His finger tensed on the trigger of his gun. "Cause you're gonna die, an' even if they search for you, they're never gonna be able to find your body."
Sweat beaded on Dean's brow and dripped from the nape of his neck as he eyed the gun in the older man's hand. Although he knew he had a knife stashed in his boot and another one sheathed at his side, Dominic was standing too close, and there was no way he would be able to reach either of them before the madman squeezed the trigger.
"Did you really think you had what it took to take the life of another man, Dean?" Dominic asked, the laughter clear in his tone as he used Dean's real name for the first time since he had abducted him. "Like I've said before, you're weak and pathetic. You just don't have what it takes to hold another person's life in your hands and decide whether they deserve to live or die."
"Like you did with Shannon?" Dean calmly replied as he felt a sudden coldness seep into the breeze as it kicked up abruptly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a dark wispy cloud hovering close by, and within it's depths he noticed a shadow forming. "You hated the idea that you just couldn't control her anymore, an' so you killed her in cold blood."
"No one defies me, Dean." Dominic shook his head as he reiterated, "No one. As I've told you before, my word is law, and those who even think to go against me have to suffer for it."
"An' it didn't even bother you when you stabbed your own child to death?" Dean prodded as he kept his sights trained on the shadowy figure who was slowly creeping toward Dominic.
"Did she happen to tell you her little secret?" Dominic asked, completely disregarding Dean's comment. Raising a quizzical brow, the madman waited for a response to his question, but when Dean failed to rise to the bait, he further added, "I told her if she came home I would forgive her for betraying me, an' the little bitch told me she was carrying your child. An' she actually had the nerve to smile when she said it like she really believed you could save her from me."
"Sh-she was . . . ." Dean's voice hitched in his throat and trailed off as his knees buckled. Hot tears stung at his eyes and slipped down his cheeks as he remembered how he had assured Shannon she would be safe from harm at Pastor Jim's cabin. He had seen the fear written so plainly on her face as she had begged him to stay, yet he had still left her to face Dominic on her own. Had he known she was carrying his baby, he would have never left her alone. "You killed my . . . my . . . you sonuvabitch. How could you do that?"
"Hmmm . . . I can see by your reaction that she never got the chance to tell you the good news." Dominic's features turned menacing, all traces of a smile disappearing as he drew in a breath and continued, "Tell me, how does it feel to know that you when you burned her body, you burned your own child's body as well?"
Something inside Dean snapped, rage now overriding any reason as he rushed the armed cult leader. As they both tumbled to the ground, Dominic's gun went off, the blast echoing through the trees as the bullet skimmed passed Dean's left bicep. Quickly pinning the older man to the ground, Dean went for the gun in Dominic's hand. With strength he didn't realize he possessed, Dean wrested it free from Dominic's hand and repeatedly slammed the barrel of the weapon into the murderer's face. Cocking back his arm, he smashed the gun down hard against Dominic's mouth. Blood spilled from the older man's lips as all his front teeth shattered.
Dominic bucked from beneath Dean, dislodging him. An evil glint filled the cult leader's eyes as he scampered to his feet, and spit out a mouthful of blood.
Dean rolled and hastily leapt to his feet. Leveling his weapon, Dean squeezed the trigger. A cry ripped from the cult leader lips as he jerked backward, the bullet tearing through his left bicep. Not giving the older man a chance to recover, Dean fired again, the bullet piercing through the muscles of Dominic's right arm.
Dominic wrapped his hands around the wounds, trying to staunch the flow of blood as he stumbled away from Dean. "If you're tr-tryin' to kill me, you're d-doin' a poor job of it," he taunted.
"Who said I was tryin' to kill you," Dean sneered, "I wanna see you suffer for what you did . . . I wanna see you on your knees begging me to stop." As he lowered his gun, his finger tensed on the trigger, and he fired again. Dominic dropped to his knees as the bullet lodged in his upper leg. "You hurt my brother." His booted foot abruptly shot outward and he kicked the madman in the chest, knocking him to the ground. "You broke his fingers," he hissed as he stomped on the cult leader's hand, and heard his bones snap. "You killed Shannon." Lowering his gun again, he aimed and fired, the bullet ripping through Dominic's other hand. "An' you killed my child," he uttered in a breathless whisper as he knelt beside his enemy and butted the barrel of the gun up against his forehead. "So you beg me to stop, like you made me beg, you fuckin' sonuvabitch."