I managed to write up another chapter! I figured I'd post it right away. Enjoy!

Blood trailed its way into my mouth—my own blood. I could taste it. The twang of copper pennies and iron made my lip curl, but the action made me wince in pain. If my nose wasn't broken already I had a feeling it would be soon.

"What I still don't understand," Abaddon said, her voice coming from some direction behind me, "is how Crowley managed to convince a hunter to work with him. What'd he promise you? Money? A weapon? World peace?"

I tried to open my eyes but I barely managed a squint. A blinding light was shining directly in my face making it impossible to see my surroundings. My hands and legs were bound tight to a table. After I had regained consciousness earlier, I had tried fighting against my restraints but eventually realized I was pinned down tight. And what was worse? One of the demons had managed to take my dagger from me and I had no idea where it was now. Or even where Crowley was. I had heard his faint scream a little before Abaddon had come back to interrogate me further, but I wasn't even sure if she had left him alive.

"Answer me!"

A sharp sting that gradually grew unbearable raced its way through my left arm and up to my shoulder. I bit my chapped lips to fight back the scream, but I couldn't stop the whimper of pain that escaped. I could feel her slowly pull out the object she had stabbed me with; the disgusting slide of it through muscle and flesh nearly caused me to retch. Warm blood was pooling under my arm now.

"What did he promise you!" she demanded again.

Sam's face appeared in my mind and I shut my eyes tighter trying to block out the pain and focus on him. He looked healthy, no longer sickly pale with dark bags under his eyes and he wasn't coughing up blood. A glow of happiness radiated from him; suddenly I thought I could feel the warmth of his arms around me. I could smell his cologne mixed with the cheap laundry detergent he used at the laundromats. His warm breath tickled my ear as he hugged me, happy to see that I was safe, and I buried my face into his plaid shirt-covered chest.

"I can keep this up for a long time," Abaddon growled out. "But it looks like I'll have to cauterize that wound if I don't want you to bleed out first. Oh but don't worry," she suddenly said as though soothing a child, "I know what I'm doing. I've done this plenty of times."

The word 'cauterize' melted away the image of Sam immediately. My heart began pounding in my chest in anticipation of a burning hot blade melting my flesh back together. She wasn't doing it solely for the purpose of stopping the bleeding, she was going to enjoy my agony as she did it.

I listened to the clicking of her heels as she walked about the room to find a knife. I tried to distract my racing heart on the sounds around me, but she was purposely being very vocal as she made a fire. I didn't dare try to open my eyes to see the burning tip of the knife, but as her steps grew closer, I could eventually feel a warmth near my left arm. I began struggling against my restraints now, my injured arm protesting in my own sticky puddle of blood.

"I don't recommend doing that," Abaddon stated amused. "If you keep moving around I might end up missing the wound and burning something else." She let out a soft, low chuckle. "On accident, of course."

I stilled myself as best as I could immediately, but I could feel my body shaking involuntarily all over. I clamped my jaw tight and tried to steady my heart.

The pain was excruciating. The moment the blade touched my skin I felt fire spread throughout my every limb. I couldn't stop the scream that erupted from my throat or the tears now running down my face. She let the blade linger on my skin for seconds longer than necessary, but the pain didn't stop when she finally pulled it away. My hands kept clenching and unclenching into fists and even though my eyes were pressed shut tight, everything was white. My breathing kept coming in labored, ragged gasps and I could feel perspiration gathering on my forehead.

"Just like breaking a horse," Abaddon whispered. "So you're with the Winchester? That's very interesting."

My mind was reeling suddenly. I hadn't said anything, how did she know?

"You shouted 'Sam' very loud," Abaddon said smugly, obviously having noticed the look of confusion on my face. "And I thought I'd make a wild guess, but judging by the look now on your face, I guessed right."

"Leave them out of this," I panted out, trying to sound as threatening as I could.

"So both Winchesters?"

Immediately I shut up before I could say anything else.

She let out a laugh. "You can only hold out for so long. The human body can only withstand so much pain. Tragedy your kind is so…weak."

In the distance I heard a faint shout echoing. Crowley must still be alive.

"So what is it that you three want that makes you so willing to work with Crowley?" Abaddon tried again.

"You're not going to get anything out of me," I answered her stiffly.

"You know, I was trying to do this the easy way."

I let out a humorless chuckle. "Because that's exactly what you were doing," I muttered under my breath.

Another scream caught my attention, except this time it was closer, as if it was just outside this room. It appeared to catch Abaddon's attention as well as I heard her curse under her breath.

Fighting against the blinding lights, I tried to open my eyes. My vision was blurry, but I could make out her red head as she made her way towards the scream that was quickly cut off. The sound of a door flinging wide open startled her and made her stop mid-step.

"You!" Abaddon shouted in a rage.

"I don't go down that easy," came Crowley's smooth voice.

I could make out the sound of a few hits and a body slumping to the floor and then suddenly I heard Crowley's voice right next to me. My eyes were still struggling to see him through the light, but he pushed it aside, and slowly my eyes began adjusting. I saw him cutting free my arms and legs in a hurry.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"We don't have much time now, take this," Crowley instructed, shoving something into my hand.

I glanced down and saw my dagger. Blood was still dried to the blade.

Abaddon was standing up from the floor slowly, her confidence nearly diminished now. If I could just stand up, I could finish this. Just one stab and she would be gone forever. I tried to get to my feet but I couldn't keep myself steady. I reached a hand out behind me to the table I had just been attached to in order to keep me from falling onto my knees. The weight of my body on my injured left arm caused extreme pain all over again, and for a moment I thought I would pass out.

"This isn't over, Crowley," Abaddon warned him before taking a few steps back out of the room and disappearing.

"We shouldn't linger," Crowley stated simply.

He reached a hand out, grasping my right shoulder, and suddenly we were somewhere else again. I slunk to the pavement we were now on, dropping the knife beside me.

"Where'd you take me now?" I asked him through my exhaustion.

"To that podunk grocery store you were shopping at when I took you earlier," he answered me.

"What about Abaddon? What about Sam?" I asked him, suddenly panicking. "I didn't kill her!"

"Relax, there will be another opportunity for that."

"I was doing it to help Sam!" I shot at him. "You said if I killed her you'd tell me where to look to find a way to cure Sam!"

"And I'm beginning to realize I might need those knuckleheads too," Crowley conceded, "so I'll tell you where to look for his cure if the three of you help me kill that bitch."

I eyed him up for a minute, not believing that he was altering his deal. "What's the catch?"

He rolled his eyes dramatically at me. "No catch other than I need the Winchesters and you next time. Which means Moose will be of more use to me if he's healthy. So do we have a new deal?"

I eyed him distrustfully for a bit longer before I finally agreed. "But if you screw me over somehow, I swear—"

"Yeah, yeah," Crowley cut me off, "Cut me up into a million little pieces, I've heard it all before."

I shot him a disapproving glare. "So where are we supposed to start looking for this cure?"

"You know those adorable little books Chuck Shurley wrote?" Crowley answered in his usual tone. "I've been hearing all sorts of things through the demon grapevine about some manuscripts of his that were never published. One of them happened to be about Sam being cured from something."

My eyes lit up as I remembered Charlie telling me about some unpublished manuscripts of his that she had found online. But then my heart sank when I had another realization. If there had been any mention of a cure for Sam she would be the one to have read about it.

"Except that's a lie, none of them mention that!"

That smug grin was on his face again. "None of the ones that were leaked onto the internet. But there are some that made their way into someone's hands."

"Whose?" I demanded.

Crowley's grin grew wider. "Just tell the Winchesters to find their biggest fan. They'll know exactly who."