"I do not require sustenance." Castiel said as he stood awkwardly by the kitchen table.
"Castiel, sit down and eat." Gabriel said as Dean frowned at the angel now riding his brother. "You may not require sustenance, but your vessel does. Being sustained by Grace does nothing to satisfy your vessel's hunger. Jimmy Novak was starved half to death when you left him that time." Gabriel lifted a bite of chicken to him mouth. "Besides, Delores worked very hard on this meal and refusing to eat is rude."
Castiel sat down and and Dean began loading his plate with fried chicken, mashed potatoes and peas. Gabriel glared at the younger angel until he began to eat. Everyone was enjoying the meal when there was a loud thump from the den followed by a yell of "Delores!" The cry brought everyone to their feet.
Castiel reached out and grabbed the woman's arm. "Gabriel?"
"I don't sense Dagon's presence at the moment." Gabriel answered. "That doesn't mean that he won't take him over as soon as he senses him again." Gabriel stood up and manifested a sword.
Castiel suddenly blinked and took a step back, looking fearfully at Sam. "Lucifer." He gasped.
A mischievous smile broke out on Sam's face. "Let's just hope if Dagon shows up he believes it. Come on Delores, lets check on your hubby."
Delores led the way to the converted den. The group entered to find Dan Weaver sprawled on the floor by the bed entangled in the sheets. As soon as he caught sight of Delores he seemed to relax.
"Delores, I think it happened again. It was bad this time." The man gave a shudder. "I remember I had ordered a witch to do a human sacrifice on a baby."
Delores gave a sigh. "Come on Dan, lets get you up off of the floor."
Castiel reached down and grabbed the man's arm lifting him to his feet. "It is better if you do not touch him."
"Are you sure that you had ordered an actual human sacrifice?" Gabriel asked.
"Yes in the dream I wanted her to summon someone. I think it was a god. I can't remember who." Dan's face screwed up into a frown.
"Was it maybe Loki?" Gabriel nudged.
"Yes! That's the one, Loki. I don't think I meant him any good." Dan said. "And I think that I had already killed a child before, but I can't remember why."
"Okay time to stash you somewhere safe. Castiel call Garth in here." Gabriel said.
Sam was tired of laying around. It's all he had been doing since he woke up. He was also tired of Balthazar's obviously evasive answers to a simple question, where's Dean.
Quite a few things had been running through Sam's mind. Dean was alive and the angel knew where, he just wasn't telling. If Balthazar wouldn't say, then Sam just had to find out on his own.
Sam stood up from the bed and went to his duffle bag. He began digging around inside. He pulled out a change of clothes and his shower kit along with a small pocketknife Dean had given to him a few years ago. Straightened up he made a show of gathering the item in his arms before heading to the bathroom.
Balthazar lifted his head from the newspaper he was reading to look at the young hunter.
"What? I'm just going to take a shower okay?" Sam snorted. "Some of us actually have to wash our bodies you know. We can't just mojo ourselves springtime fresh."
Sam went into the bathroom and closed the door. Working quickly he sliced into his forearm and began painting a sigil on the mirror over the sink. Once done he smiled and yelled. "Hey Balthazar could you give me a hand?"
As soon as the angel open the door, Sam slapped his bloody palm over the sigil banishing the angel. Moving quickly he grabbed what weapons he had and went to the door of the room and opened it. Slipping out into the parking lot. He quickly scanned the lot not seeing the Impala he noticed an older car from the 1950's. He tried the door which was unlocked and slid into the driver's side before reaching under the dash to hotwire the vehicle.
Sam put the car in gear and backed out of the parking spot turning onto the road with no idea of where he was going. But he was going to find his brother.
"That wasn't very nice." A small voice said from the passenger seat.
Sam slammed on the brakes and turned to the side seeing a little girl sitting there.
"No it wasn't." Sam looked up to see Balthazar lounging in the back seat. "If you wanted to get out for a while, all you had to do was ask."
"I want to find Dean." Sam said.
"Dean isn't here Sam. He's busy." the little girl said. "But obviously you are feeling better now so I guess you need to have a little freedom."
The child snapped her fingers and Sam found that they were now sitting in the car in front of a huge wrought iron gate that was slowing swinging open. The car began moving forward driving itself up to a huge mansion.
"Where?" Sam sputtered.
"Consider it your home for now." God said. "Plenty of room to move. You have the run of the estate."
"Ah this is more like it!" Balthazar said getting out of the car.
"Sam, I understand that you want to see Dean. When he is finished with his task you will." God said. "But do not try to leave the Estate and please refrain from banishing your bodyguard again." The little girl disappeared.
"So how about lunch? Dad's personal chef is Julia Child." Balthazar said making his way up the stairs to the front door.
"Where is Dan?" Delores asked as she entered the panic room.
"Somewhere safe." Gabriel said. "I sent him and Garth to one of my hideouts. He's hidden from every angel or demon who would try to use him."
Gabriel had a bowl on the table in front of him sprinkling herbs and other things into it. He hummed quietly to himself for a moment and then snapped his fingers producing a flower.
"Foxglove? What are you doing?" Delores asked her curiosity piqued.
"Trying to save the life of a child that Dagon is going to kill for no reason." Gabriel said.
"I don't understand. We don't even know where this child is?" Delores pointed out. "How is this going to save the child and what do you mean the child is going to die for no reason?"
"You're a magi. I know it's been a while since people practiced pagan magic but you should understand the power of a human sacrifice. The thing is in this case, it won't work."
"You're saying that this witch can't summon Loki?" Delores asked.
"That's exactly what I'm saying. It's impossible to compel Loki to do anything because Loki was never a Pagan god. He's always been an Archangel in hiding." Gabriel explained. "Whenever someone summoned Loki and I showed up it was my choice. I could have resisted every one of those human sacrifice summons, but I had to play by pagan rules."
"So you let people be sacrificed to you?" Delores was shocked.
"Human sacrifices to Loki didn't last very long. I would come, find out what they wanted and then the one who summoned me would get their just desserts. I was pretty brutal about it too." Gabriel said measuring a bit of powder into the bowl. "As a matter of fact there's a myth out there about Loki being bound with his son's entrails while acid drips down on him. Sigyn sits at his side with a bowl catching the acid before it hits him but when the bowl get's full, well you catch my drift."
"Yes I'm familiar with it." Delores said.
"Well let me tell you how that particular myth got started." Gabriel said. "It's how I stopped the human sacrifices. That was the just desserts those who summoned me with sacrifices got. "I would bind them to their own altars with the entrails of their victim. Then I would force their mouths open and bind their heads so they couldn't close their mouth and suspend their victim over them so that as the victims body decomposed it would drip down into their open mouths. A few times of doing that and the human sacrifices stopped."
Gabriel snapped his fingers and flames sprang up from the bowl. He snapped his fingers and the smoke seemed to take on a vaguely human shape. "Find the witch who would call Loki with human sacrifice, show him or her the vengeance of the Lord of Mischief for those who would paint my altar with the blood of human sacrifice."
Delores watched as the vaguely man shaped thing disappeared. "That seemed more dark magic than pagan magic."
"It is, Loki is one of the dark ones after all." Gabriel said.