Chapter 27

"Dean, we have to leave," Castiel said frantically. His hands pulled at the hunter's shirt, desperate for him to understand.

"Cas, how can Sam be touching angelic Grace? How is he not ripping a hole into his soul?"

"I...I don't know, " Cas admitted reluctantly. They were sitting on the familiar bed that they spent so many hours in over the past two days. Dean had finished packing the last of his things, and was preparing to load Baby up before the fight tomorrow. Outside hunters drank and shouted song lyrics at the night sky. Everything was happening so fast. Too fast.

Cas worried what would happen when Sam lifted his bow again. The destruction he could render… And the way he treated Cas. Like some sort of...pet...

"He had to have had help," Cas said, chewing at his lower lip, "I don't know how, I don't know when but someone has been training him, Dean."

"Yeah, it's pretty incredible what he did," chuckled Dean, while he scratched at his head.

"He took thousands of lives!" Castiel shouted, suddenly horrified at his lovers casual approach to the situation. "Thousands! And it only took an instant. A few seconds and then gone. No human is meant to carry that kind of power."

"Cas, he's my brother. He's your friend," Dean said calmly. Castiel could only stare at the beautiful hunter who refused to ever give up on his brother even when the man shot an arrow into his heart. Cas felt as though an arrow was lodged in his own heart as well.

"Dean..."

"I'm not leaving him, Cas. I'm not." Then, after a moment, "Will you stay here with me? Please?" Castiel closed his eyes as every hope inside him crumbled to dust.

"How could I possibly say no?" He admitted honestly, and looked again at Dean. The dread he was unable to keep off of his face; the pure terror of how much Sam was able to undo with what he knew, left Dean looking at Cas worried and confused.

With Sam's ability to use Grace, and to bend arrows in a way that challenged if not overruled the way angels used it, Castiel feared that with Sam's unyielding soul energy he could destroy entire cities. Kill thousands of species. He could even kill Castiel; permanently wipe him from the earth. And his sudden demeaning way of acting toward Cas made him wonder if Sam might actually do it.

"I am going to ask Eros to leave," Castiel said, turning away from Dean, "He is unsafe here. Sam might not want him around anymore and will look to have him removed from the playing field."

"Cas, you have to tell me what you're thinking here. Sam would never-"

"He has unlimited angel Grace now, Dean," Cas said, his voice quivering more than he would care to admit, "Channeled through a human with an infinite power resource of a soul. No one is safe anymore." Dean just stared at Cas blankly. He was either unwilling to argue the truth of it, or unwilling to believe his brother might have a different agenda than his own.

Dean didn't see the way Sam looked at Cas. He didn't see the coldness in his eyes. The calculated challenge set in his jaw. Something was making Sam turn on Castiel. He refused to believe that the true Sam, with his large heart, would suddenly treat Cas in such a way on his own accord.

"I will be back in just a moment," Castiel said. Dean opened his mouth to speak but Cas space shifted before he could to where his little brother sat by the outside fire. "Eros we must speak," Castiel offered. Eros got to his feet, confused, but Cas shifted them a mile away from the town and its hunters before he could respond.

"Isn't it more polite to ask before you jerked me all over the place?" Eros said flatly, and his eyes slid away from Castiel's face.

"Eros, Sam used angel Grace to eliminate over a thousand live beings only a few hours ago. I don't have time for pleasantries." Eros winced.

"Yea... I saw that," he said in a small voice and Castiel wondered where the angel was when the battle took place.

"So how is it even possible?" Cas asked through his teeth. He saw something in Eros's expression. The way he looked up at Cas momentarily and then dropped his gaze away as though he didn't want to meet the older angel's eyes. Cas grabbed the smaller angel and yanked him close, and Eros squawked in surprise. "He had to have gotten help, Eros. What do you know? Care to explain?"

"Wh-what do you think I did this?" Eros looked incredulous, but also uneasy. Slowly, Cas let the boy go.

"No, but I think you know something you're not excited to share." Eros took a step back, eyes shifting again, but Castiel's angel sword pressed against his throat before Eros had a chance to space shift away.

"Castiel...brother..."

"What do you know?" Castiel shouted in the boy's face and Eros cringed.

"Please brother...I didn't know this would happen. You have to believe me!"

"Tell me what you did!" Castiel demanded, his eyes a blaze of blue, and Eros started to cry.

"Castiel please...I was just so excited. To find a Marksman like our little sister...I had to make him a bow. A new bow, not that first model stuff. It had to be really special, brother."

"Why?" Cas growled.

"Because I wanted to see what would happen!" Eros cried, showing every bit his age. "Because this is the most fun I've had in a century. Look at all I have learned! Look at all the discovery!"

"And why is this bow so special? What has this Recurve done to Sam?"

"It's the making of the bow, you see. They are powerful angelic artifacts. Simple magic or human sacrifices just can't be enough to bend such power like this."

Eros...what did you do?"

"I used the spirits of slain angels, Castiel. Their energy would have been wasted off in some other way, so it didn't do much harm. They aren't conscious beings anymore."

"If that is the case, what is wrong? How is this different?" Castiel asked, and pulled his sword away for the angel's neck. Eros blinked at his tears, looking up at Castiel; eyes pleading.

"I used... an archangel."

"What?" Castiel exclaimed and stepped away from his brother shocked. He might as well have said he just decided to go grave robbing and ended up blowing up the cemetery instead.

"I didn't know this would happen!" Eros wailed. His small hands clamped into tiny fists that he wrung in front of him; begging Cas to understand. .

"Shit balls," Cas cursed, sampling Deans choice of expletives. "If anyone in heaven finds out about this..."

"I know, I know," Eros said miserably. "and…I think it gets worse."

"How could it possibly get worse?"

"I wasn't on the battle field because I was watching Sam. I saw when he got up and I followed him when he went out to fight. I watched Sam put his brother to sleep. He bent the arrow so intricately, it resembles the same magic weave we use with our Grace."

"I know that Eros-"

"Well he didn't learn it on his own, Castiel! The bow…they have to be communicating with each other!"

"No..." Castiel whispered.

"Castiel... brother...The angel spirits are not supposed to do that after I forge them into a weapon. They are lifeless. Dead. There has to be a connection far greater than what is normal. It's the only thing that makes sense. I didn't have any idea, I swear."

"Eros. Are you trying to tell me…"

"Brother, please forgive me!"

"…they are Soul-bound to each other?" Eros slumped, looking utterly defeated. There was no way of knowing without asking the angel in question. Only the angel themselves know the soul they are bound to, and being a very vulnerable disadvantage, most angels didn't share that information. Eros couldn't have known...could he?

"Who is the angel, Eros?" The boy angel scrubbed at the tears on his face.

"Castiel you must understand, I couldn't have predicted this. I can't believe how strong he has become! I just knew I needed an angel recently slain and because of you, there were so many to choose from. It was a random chance, an accident! I'm so sorry Castiel!"

Castiel pulled the boy into his arms and hugged him close. Gently he wrapped Eros in soft blankets of Grace. Yes. Eros could not have possibly known any of this would happen, but Cas wasn't so sure the Winchester's would agree. He was fond of his younger brother, which was more than he could say of most of the angels he knew, and he didn't want anything to happen to him. He would have to send the boy away to some place safe until he could deal with the situation at hand. Some place Sam would never find him. Some place far in case Sam destroyed half of the country on a whim.

"Eros," he said again as he held the stricken boy, "who is the angel you used?"

Eros sniffed and scrubbed at the last of his tears. "Gabriel," he whispered and Cas bit his lip to keep from crying himself. Oh, Eros. What have you done?

Sam pulled away from the group at the fire and said his good night's before finding his bed. He knew that Serrath was somewhere close, but suspected she was bringing the fight to him. That group of fairies was a test to see how resilient the hunters were. It was a shame that so many had to die to prove a point, but Sam did not place their blood on his hands. Sam thought about the information Ultrad, the master vampire, had revealed to him.

The scepter that Serrath carried was a fulcrum of its own. It influenced the mind, and forced these creatures to do as Serrath willed. If Sam could get his hands on such a weapon, he could force all monsters to stop taking human life. He could rally them against heaven and hell to get both angels and demons off this planet and away from humans. Sam could bring an end to all fighting with the supernatural and actually have a normal life for a change. At least, this was his plan to start. It was a work in progress.

Reaching his bedroom, Sam stripped off his clothing and ran a hot shower. He needed something that night, and he thought looking good would help him get it. It would do no good if he still looked like he hadn't showered all week.

Once he was clean and shaven, he slipped on fresh underwear and sat cross-legged in the middle of his bed. Sam closed his eyes and entered the void. Never before had his soul felt so strong and encompassing as he fell into it. He would have to thank Castiel for all the effort he put into the repair. Although the gratitude would be reluctant. He suspected the effort was to help burn off all the excess Grace he had cascading through his body after feeding on Sam's brother like the parasite he was. He could see the soul strands siphoning out of the one and into the other when they fought the fairies on the battlefield. The thought made Sam sick to his stomach.

"Sammy, boy. You made it back!" Sam opened his eyes and found he was in the familiar strip club that Gabriel liked to think of as his home away from home. "And looking quite stunning too, pretty boy," the angel said appreciatively. Sam looked down and noticed he was wearing nothing but his underwear and quickly set his mind to believe himself in clothing. Gabe would assume it was a slip up, but Sam was simply sweetening the pot. He realized now that, for whatever reason, being Soul-bound to a human can cause an angel to manifest… physical appreciations of their human companions. Sam was not so easily influenced to let these desires affect him the way they did Dean, but he was certainly not above using them as an advantage.

"Gabe, I need to track Serrath. Can you pinpoint her location for me?" The angel offered Sam a seat in the same corner booth and Sam obliged him. He waived for the waitress to bring Sam a drink as well which Sam accepted politely but did not sip. Then the angel gave him a warm smile and wordlessly held out his hand. Sam took it.

The contact between them allowed Grace to flood into him. Sam yearned to unleash its fury in mountains of scorching flame, but knew that any use of Grace on such a grand scale while submerged in his soul would be impossible to control and might even kill him. Carefully, he sent out tendrils of Grace in a probe of the area. His consciousness lifted into the clouds and Sam examined the radius around Rexpoint.

It took no time at all to locate the large black swath that made up the monster encampment. Sam examined the terrain leading up to the encampment and noticed that it nestled against a mountain summit that dropped directly into the throng. It could be used as a defense for flanking, but it also left the monsters at a disadvantage for surprise assaults.

The simple strategy for an attack left Sam uneasy. He wondered if this might be an elaborate trap, or Serrath was prideful and didn't expect him to come to her. Whatever the case, it wasn't going to change anything.

Sam noticed Gabe was lazily trailing his thumb over the back of Sam's hand, but he let it be. Let the angel pretend to be smitten, Sam only needed him lustful. He seemed to forget they shared the same mind and Sam was aware of everything the angel was thinking.

"I need to rest now, Gabriel. Our battle will be tomorrow," Sam said, satisfied with his inspection, and Gabriel withdrew his hand. Turning to face him, Gabe gave Sam a genuine smile.

"It was good to see you again," he said and Sam lifted his gaze to meet with his soul-bounds wide hazel eyes. How much of his words and actions were a game and how much of them were real? Sam was willing to play the game; beat the trickster at it if he could, but sometimes when Gabriel spoke to him, he sounded genuinely…fond. Hesitantly, Sam smiled as well. He would like to have an ally even if it was just an angel in his mind.

Getting to his feet, Sam left the place in his mind.