Chapter 19
The plan was set. Dean and Cas would lead the Fist in to infiltrate the nest and eliminate as many vampires as they could, while Eros would lead the Chosen with Sam into the heart of the nest to eliminate the head vampire. With all these cronies that vamp is probably one ugly mean son of a bitch, but Dean was confident Sam would pull it off. He saw what his brother could do with that strange angel bow and it was downright scary. Not that forest animals could be compared to vampires, but he got the gist of it.
As the sun edged over the horizon, the band of hunters left Rexpoint to venture deeper into a neighboring forest. Cas led the way and Dean was right by his side which just felt right to him. He could think of no other save Sam that he would rather battle alongside.
They hiked for a little over an hour through tall oaks and dense hickory, and the whole lot of them were beginning to notice the thickening heat of another scorching day. Nothing like sweating up a storm before taking down some vampires. Dean had not brought the Colt for this hunt because of the enclosed spaces in the cave. Any gunfire would be deafening in the cave, and could potentially ricochet and hurt an ally. Instead, Dean fashioned a harness with wooden stakes that he slung across his back, and had two machetes one on each hip. Many others brought more, but Dean was always an opportunist, working with his environment, and he wanted to remain agile. The only other thing he brought was a flashlight. Miles into the wilderness, they reached a plateau that faced a crag of rocks.
"We're here," Castiel said softly, and Dean made practiced movements with his hands to alert the Fist to fall in around him. At the rear of the party, Sam and his three followed Eros in a different direction. Not for the first time Dean wondered if Eros could really be trusted, but Castiel insisted that he was on their side so Dean tried to let it be. There were too many people for him to worry about. He was used to it only being Sam and Cas. The added burden was exhausting.
Dean instructed his Fist to check weapons and tighten straps. He wanted no noise as they made their way into the cave, and was hoping they could go undetected for a little while at least. With everything in order, Dean made his way over to Sam and the two brothers faced each other. He hadn't seen much of Sam the past few days and he missed his younger brother's constant companionship.
"So... here we are," Sam said sheepishly and Dean nodded.
"You take care of yourself in there, ok?" Dean offered and Sam nodded as well. Dean reached out to his brother and the two shared a hug that conveyed so much of what neither of them were able to say. Then they moved apart and Dean motioned for his hunters to fall out.
Cas led them to a narrow entranceway only big enough to fit one at a time through and Dean eyed it warily.
"Cas..."
"It gets bigger on the other side," Cas assured him, "but beyond that, I don't know." Sam was the first to enter, Recurve stretched out before him, followed by the small group of Chosen. Dean noticed young Kim with such determination on her face and he smiled. The rest of them waited until a signal was sent, a small rock thrown through the opening, to know the coast was clear and they could go inside.
Cas's saying it got bigger on the inside was an understatement. The cavern stretched beyond sight, plunging into darkness beyond, and appeared entirely vacant. The cool damp chill of the cave was an amazing relief from the muggy day outside and Dean sighed in appreciation. Collecting themselves, they wordlessly formed ranks and dim flashlights went on. Sam and Eros took the lead followed by the Chosen and the rest of them. As the cave went on, it narrowed and appeared to take on a more structured appearance. It seemed as though much of it was man made, or maybe vampire made, which would indicate to Dean that a very old vampire has nested here for a very long time. It didn't seem rational for such an old vampire to get involved in petty squabbles against hunters if it could potentially place him in harm's way. Something wasn't quite right about this.
The hallway seemed to end in an archway and beyond that rested rows of occupied beds. Dean suspected there was at least 50 occupied beds in this room and started to seriously wonder what the fuck he was doing there. He made hand talk to hold the other hunters at bay as Dean edged up to where Sam stood.
"We should go nice and slow, the place might be booby trapped," Dean whispered barely above silence and Sam nodded. They edged into the room and Dean drew out his machete to start beheading him some vamps, when suddenly an alarm sounded engulfing the room in noise.
"Witchcraft!" Castiel shouted behind them and Dean cursed himself for not thinking of this sooner. All the monsters of the world were uniting so of course the vampires would be in cahoots with a witch. He didn't have time to think much more on the matter though as all the vampires seemed to be leaping out of their beds at a full run. They had expected an attack. Probably a witches doing as well, Dean assumed.
"Fist! Fall into position! Delta, alpha, divide and conquer, omega flank them!" All the hunters moved at once like a well-oiled machine. Dean hadn't spent all his time pining over Cas. His dad had taught him a few things about war tactics and Dean rehearsed strategies with his crew. The plan was to have the Fist infiltrate the initial wave allowing the Chosen to slip through them and move on to deeper quarters but very quickly Dean could tell something was wrong. He staked a young vampire who appeared newly turned and she just smiled at him. She pulled the stake out of her chest and buried it into an adjacent hunters shoulder. The man screamed as he fell and two vampires fell with him to lap in his blood like vultures.
"Holy shit!" Dean exclaimed, his eyes still locked with the vampire girls. Feeling the advantage, her smile broadened into razor edge teeth and she lunged for him. Dean stepped to the side and lopped her head cleanly off with a machete. He watched her for a moment to make sure she was in fact dead, and to his great relief she was.
"Dean!" Suddenly Cas was there clinging to his arm. Blood seeped from the angel's temple and Dean resisted the urge to tend to him. No time for that now. "The vampires have been warded. The witch who did this is very strong."
"Black Sabbath!" Dean shouted which was the Fist code for headshots. He looked around to see if his order had registered and was dismayed to see how many of the Fist had already fallen. Sam and the Chosen were only halfway through the throng, fighting without bows to fend off any errant assaults the Fist couldn't keep at bay.
Dean lunged forward, Cas at his side. He took out a vampire with a solid stroke of his one machete, and when the other machete lodged halfway into a second vampire's neck, Cas tore the head away cleanly to free the blade. Other hunters turned to beheading as well but still the number of vampires were overwhelming. More poured in from entrances on the side until the cave room filled with the coppery scent of blood. It was dark too, making it a struggle to see anything with little pockets of flashlight illumination. Dean took down another three vampires before it became apparent that the vampires would overtake them in a matter of minutes.
"Sam!" Dean cried out desperately and his brother looked over to him from across the room. "Sam help us! Please!"
Suddenly something blunt swung into the side of Dean's head, and his legs gave out beneath him. Struggling to stay conscious, another blow to his head turned the world on a tilt and everything spun away into blackness.
Sam watched as two vampires beat down his brother and then drop in for the kill, and all thoughts of strategy and plan escaped him.
"No!" He heard himself say but already his mind was entering the void that allowed him to sense the vampires around him, and he raised the Recurve to the direction of his brother. He could feel the two vampires, sense their unique thought patterns, and knew they were about to sink sharp fangs into Deans flesh. Sam released two of Eros's arrows into them and the room erupted in a flash of light. The other vampires recoiled, momentarily stunned, but Sam allowed them no chance to counter strike. He drew in the sense of every creature in the room the way one draws in a breath of air. Very quickly he was able to differentiate the living and the undead. Then he turned in towards the source, the beacon of light brought into clarity with the Angel fire."
"Sam!" He distantly heard Eros call to him, "don't!"
Closing his eyes, Sam pulled back on his bow, and released his arrows.
The first thing Dean noticed when his vision swam back into clarity was how quiet the word had become. He struggled to sit up but his legs responded like yesterday's spaghetti left out in the pot overnight. Then Castiel swam into view and Dean smiled up at him.
Hey, babe, he thought.
"Dean!" Castiel called out to him. His face was pale and stricken. Clarity quickly rushed back to Dean's awareness and he reached for Cas to help him to his feet.
"What's going on? What happened?"
"It's Sam," Cas said breathlessly, and Dean broke into a run the moment those words left the angel's mouth. The room was littered with wounded and fallen hunters, but it appeared more were standing than not, and all of them gathered around the center of the cavern. Dean burst through them, roughly pushing his friends aside, and dropped to his brother's side.
Dean had never seen Sam look like this. His brother was sitting with his knees to his chest and clutching his legs. His whole body shook and his breath came in short rapid spurts. His eyes were wide and stricken in a face so pale Dean thought maybe a vampire had reached him.
"What happened?" He said weakly, and when no response came his eyes sought out Eros. "What happened?" He repeated in a shout.
"I warned him of the risks, Dean. He took too many at once. Your brother Sam incinerated thirty eight vampires in the blink of an eye. He is tapping into things I didn't think possible." Dean stared at Eros amazed and then his eyes fell back on Sam.
"Cas," he whispered, "can you heal him?"
"Yes, Dean. But it will take all the Grace in me to do so. I will burn out"
"I don't understand, you healed me back at Roadhouse."
"That was different."
"How is that different?" Dean shouted at his friend and Cas recoiled a little. Dean hardly noticed as he watched Sam's vacant expression desperately.
"Maybe, he could just take the edge off," Eros offered, "Not enough to heal him, but enough to get him moving again"
"Would that work?" Dean asked turning to Cas.
"Dean...Sam's soul is in shreds. I can repair what little I'm able to do, but without an angel's true healing Grace, he will eventually be consumed from the loss." Dean didn't even want to know what that meant. He would worry about that later. He would find a way. He motioned for Cas to step in and the angel laid tender hands on his little brother. Sam cried out once, a terrified bitter sound, then slumped over and vomited bile across the cavern floor. Dean rushed to help him up, but noticed that Sam already seemed to be recovering.
"What happened?" He asked weakly and Dean helped him to his feet.
"You did, you idiot. Don't pull a stunt like that again, you hear me?"
"Really it was a remarkable thing to see," Dean heard Eros saying to Cas. "I never seen a Marksman dispel so many arrows at once before. Did you see the light? Do you think he was using-"
"Castiel!" Dean turned to face the two angels, "go with Sam. Make sure he makes it to the master vampire. We are ending this."
"Dean...no..." Castiel said urgently and closed the space between them. "I don't want to leave you."
"Do you lead or follow me, Cas," Dean asked, trying to sound firm.
"...I follow you, Dean. Always."
"Then follow me now. I am ordering you to go with Sam. Keep him alive." The two men's eyes met, green with blue, for an eternity of time. Dean tried not to let it show how much it hurt to see the look on Castiel's face. Finally the angel turned without word and went to Sam's side. Eros led them down the center path, toward where the master vampire surely dwelled. The small group fell into the darkness of the cave until Dean could only see the shadowy glow of Castiel's coat. The angel turned to look at him one more time, and then he was gone as well. Dean only could hope that he would see them both again.