We walked back into the room where Sam and Castiel were sitting. Sam looked tense and uncomfortable and Cas looked…well, just like Cas.

"Hey guys," I said quietly in greeting.

They nodded to me, Sam not looking at me and Castiel looked to Dean. He opened his mouth to speak, but Dean cut him off.

"Don't, Cas. I don't want to hear anything from you unless it's about that bitch of a goddess."

Cas frowned. "But Dean, I-"

"Cas!"

They stared at each other for a moment before Cas turned his eyes away. Without saying another word to us, he vanished, leaving me with the Winchesters alone.

I went to sit down on a chair, but stopped mid-way. I was achy all over, but my lady bits hurt like hell. Shit, my entire bottom half hurt. I had finger print bruises all over my hips, little scratches all over the place, and a really nasty bite mark that I was hoping wouldn't get infected.

I was hoping that the boys wouldn't notice or say anything, but I saw the look in their eyes that they did. I tried to play it off by stretching my arms and yawning, but part of me didn't care. Actually, a pretty large part didn't care. They had done this to me. This wasn't my fault.

But it wasn't theirs either.

I pushed that annoying voice out of my head, annoyed that it would even suggest that it was okay. I was trying so hard to be good to them, but I was still so bitter about everything that had happened that I couldn't think on it long.

We all sat there awkwardly for a while before Sam announced that he was going out to get dinner and drinks. He didn't ask us what we wanted. I knew that he wanted to be gone and I couldn't blame him. I wouldn't want to be around either.

I tried to ignore the tension left in the room by drawing on a sketch pad that I had in my bag. I drew mindlessly, letting my thoughts drift. It wasn't until the bed sank beside me that my reverie broke.

"Hey," said Dean. "That's me!"

I looked closely at the drawing and saw that it was in fact Dean. To someone just peering at the page, it was just some guy sitting on his car looking out at the landscape, but the tell-tale sign was the car. I think I have a thing for that damned Impala.

"So it is," I murmured. "I think I have a crush on your car."

"Can't blame you," he replied. "If you didn't, I'd think that there was something seriously wrong with you."

I smiled a little, but before I could stop them, the words came spilling out of my mouth. "I can't stay in this room, Dean."

He stared at me, confusion all over his face. "Huh?"

"This room…and Sam." His face tightened at the mention of his brother and I felt my throat swell. "I'm just having a really hard time being around Sam right now."

When he still didn't say anything, I started to ramble. "You and me have this connection now and I know you still are upset, I mean, I am too, but Sam doesn't have any special connection to me. Really, all I feel right now about Sam is pissed off and hurt. He's the one who saw the bathroom door was open and went to go see what was wrong."

"He was just trying to make sure that you were okay!"

"He shouldn't have gone in there!" I yelled. "I told you guys that until I gave you the go ahead, you were not to come near that door, but he did it anyway. And now look where we are! Hating each other and yet feeling this pull that makes us want to jump on each other!"

It was true. The more upset I had gotten, the closer Dean and I came together. It was like a magnetic force pulling us inexplicably together. Our eyes locked as we came towards each other, falling under some sort of spell that neither of us could break.

Just as Dean's hand came to cradle my face, the door opened, Sam carrying a large pizza and three six packs of beer. It was the slap in the face we needed and we jumped away from each other, as if we burned each other with our presence.

I turned away, mumbling something about the car and walked out the door, leaving a confused Sam in my wake.

I opened the backseat door to the Impala and climbed in, slamming and locking it behind me. I leaned across the front seats and locked the two doors so I could be by myself. After I cracked the windows for a breeze, I took a jacket off the floor, rolled it up, and put it behind me, leaning back on it.

I needed to know what to do. I felt like an idiot. What kind of person lets emotions lead them so haphazardly? Crazy people, that's who! I couldn't keep letting this happen. I knew it wasn't fair to be so hot and cold with anyone, let alone Dean. If I was going to be anything, I should be completely cold. Right?

As I was thinking about what to do, a thought hit me. I grasped the pendent that I had been toying with and noticed that it no longer felt warm. If anything, it felt like any other piece of jewelry. What would happen if I took it off of me? I assumed nothing since it seemed so trivial, but at the same time, it was what bound me to the curse. Now that the curse had been fulfilled, could the pendent go?

I sat up and reached around to the clasp, touching it between my finger tips. I started to sweat slightly, suddenly very nervous. I had no idea what would happen if I took this off. Is it really something that I want to risk?

You know what? Yes, yes it is.

I held down the clasp and pulled with all my strength. Turns out, I didn't really need to. It came apart like a regular necklace, falling into my lap.

Suddenly, a presence filled the car, bright gold light emanating from every area. I covered my eyes, hoping that it wouldn't blind me.

When it final faded away, sitting next to me in the backseat was the most beautiful man that I had ever seen.

He was lithe but very muscular, with long arms and large hands. He had hands that should be used to play the piano. His face was chiseled from marble, with long wide cheek bones and thin pouty lips. His eyes were captivating, a bright light brown framed by thick black eyelashes. His hair was thick, black and curly, hanging down to his ears. He was perfection.

And yet he terrified me. I opened my mouth to scream but he leaned forward quickly, clamping a hand down on my mouth. I tried to get away but ended up cornered in the seat, leaning down trying to bring my knees up to separate us but he was having none of it. The stranger placed himself between my legs, leaning down towards me.

He was so close to me that the only place I could look was his eyes. They burned with intensity, and soon they were swimming before me in the tears that had taken place in them.

Please don't hurt me I wanted to beg. This can't happen to me again, please don't do this!

"Relax," he whispered. "I must speak to you, and I cannot do so if you aren't paying close attention."

I tried to ignore the way his words caressed me, sending shivers across my skin. I closed my eyes, counted to ten, and opened them again, nodding at him.

He leaned away from me, taking his hand and his body heat with him. He stared at me intently. "Do you know who I am?"

"Is that seriously your first question?"

He blinked. "You would not remember me, I suppose…"

"Dude, skip the bullshit and tell me who you are before I-"

"Before you what?" he interrupted. "Before you scream? Before you fight me off? Just like you did with those boys last night I assume."

My jaw dropped. How did he know that?

He smirked at my confusion. "Allow me to reintroduce myself, young Thea. My name is Pothos, and I am the god of sexual desire and longing."

I couldn't process this. He realized that and kept talking. "You must understand, I'm coming to you because you need to hear something and I must tell you-"

I flew across the seat at him, raining down as many blows as I could land. "How dare you come here, you fucking bastard!" I screamed at him. "How dare you show your pathetic fucking face anywhere near me!"

After a moment of struggle, he had managed to turn me so that I was facing forward, his arms wrapped around me like snakes, holding my own arms to my chest so that I couldn't hit or claw at him anymore. "Stop this, Thea," he hissed at me. "I don't have much time."

"What could you possibly have to say to me, you son of a bitch?" I asked coldly, trying to get out of his grip. It just made him tighten.

"I couldn't come to you until you took the eye off," he replied. "But you must know something, and it is imperative that you know this."

"What?"

"Your curse is very far from over. However, you do have a slight chance at being able to right whatever you can before everything else is set into motion."

I had ceased my struggles. He officially had my attention. "What are you talking about?"

"Through an amusing twist of fate, your curse has not had the desired affect that Aphrodite had hoped it would." The guy sounded weary, as if this was all he had heard all his life. Although, knowing what kind of a person Aphrodite was, he probably has. "The goal was to set you up with someone truly awful so that you would be miserable all your days, but, this doesn't seem to be the case."

When I opened my mouth to reply, he cut me off, not even needing to see me to know that I was going to talk. "I don't have enough time or power to stay and tell you everything, but what you need to know is in this place." He released me and spun me around. When I was facing him again, he was holding out a slip of paper.

I took it from him gingerly and looked at it.

Cassia Mappes

142 Staywood Dr

Cavaleir, ND

I looked back at him, but he held up a hand. "I promise you, Thea, I am not leading you into any sort of trap. My brothers and I are forced to work for that bitch and forced into cursing you. You don't trust me, I know, but when you go, make sure you take a strip of fresh rosemary and put it in your hair. It'll protect you against anything you face at this place."

And just as quickly as he had been there, he was gone.

That was completely vague, unhelpful, and generally useless information.

I stared at the spot where he had vanished from. What is this shit? You can't just pop in, give cryptic information and leave!

After I ran back in and told the boys the story and my thoughts on the matter, they shared a knowing look.

"Actually, cryptic is mostly how these douche bags function." Sam said, opening a beer. "Gotta torture them to get anything straight from them."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "So what do we do now?" I started pacing. "Last time we checked, the omens were pointing us in the direction of New York, but now one of her cronies comes in and says what we need to know is in this particular place." I looked at the boys. "What should we do?"

Dean inhaled deeply. "Well, I don't really think that listening to one of the guys who cursed you in the first place is really one of the best ideas ever."

"Yeah," said Sam. "But what if there is actually something there that we need?"

Shocked, I turned to Sam. "Excuse me?"

"Think about it. Aphrodite is powerful sure, but even in mythology, she's nothing without Eros and the people who work for her. She's almost completely powerless without them. What if they're tired of taking her abuse? What if they want even too?"

"But if they wanted even, why wouldn't they just take their revenge on her themselves?" asked Dean.

"Thea said that it wasn't until she took off the necklace that Pothos came to her. What if there are certain things they can't do?"

"You mean kill their boss." I said flatly.

"Yeah, maybe." Sam looked frustrated. "Look guys, I'm just trying to throw out suggestions here. I'm as blind on this as you are."

"It does sort of make a tiny bit of sense," replied Dean. "But I still don't really think we should trust this guy."

We were silent for a moment, trying to come up with some sort of plan. Then I had something.

"Guys, what if we sent Castiel?"

Dean gaped at me. "What?"

I was getting excited. "What if we sent Castiel? He can pop in and pop out, see what all is there if anything and tell us what we need to know!"

"But what if it's dangerous?" asked Dean. He didn't look nearly as happy about it as I had thought he would.

"He's an angel, Dean. I highly doubt anything will affect him too much."

"No, we aren't just sending Cas into a situation we know nothing about."

I faltered. "But Dean, if he can help us then-"

"I said no, Thea." His Adam's apple bobbed as he tried to find words. "I'm not gonna risk Cas going into a situation like that blind."

"Dean, he's a fucking angel." I replied. I was starting to get annoyed. "They overthrew the pagans for a reason. A goddess like Aphrodite-"

"But it isn't just her!" he thundered. "We discussed this before. She has her cronies with her, she's completely deadly."

"But I don't feel like it's that sort of situation, Dean." I was almost begging him now. "I really don't feel like we're being set up with this."

"Then you must not feel that great because that's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard."

I blinked. "Dean-"

"I said no, Thea. We aren't going to risk your or Cas. We're going to sit down and think this through for a little while."

"Dammit Dean!" I was trying to calm myself. I could feel my blood starting to boil.

"Hey, guys, we just need to calm down," Sam said soothingly.

I snapped my head to look at him. "Shut up Sam!" I turned my attention back to his brother. "When will you realize that this curse doesn't just affect me anymore?" I yelled.

"I realize it every fucking time I'm anywhere near your or apart from you!" Dean yelled back. "You aren't out of my mind for a god damn minute, ever! I'm reminded pretty much every second that I bear this curse right along with you, but guess what Thea? I'm bearing it with you. You aren't alone in this fight anymore."

He had calmed down and said the last part quietly, tenderly. So tender it brought tears to my eyes.

I wiped them away. "You're right." I told him. "And I'm sorry. I came to you in the first place, I shouldn't have gotten you all involved."

And I just broke. The tears just started to flow and I sank down to the floor, but before I hit, Dean's strong arms came around me, cradling me, taking the blow for me.

"This isn't right, Dean." I cried. "You've taken so many blows for so many people. You shouldn't have to do it for me either."

He didn't reply to me, just shushed me quietly while he smoothed my hair.

I cried for a long time. I hadn't truly sat and cried in a long time. I cried for the life that I had lost but never gained in the way I had hoped. I cried for the lives that I took away when I knocked on that chipped red door. I cried without shame and just buried my face in the comforting crook of Dean's neck, taking comfort in the warmth that his body gave and the pure, masculine smell of him. It was then that I made up my mind that if he was going to carry me, then I could do nothing but return the favor.

He stared at them in jealously from his corner by the door, completely forgotten. Always forgotten. He hated that jealousy he felt, but he didn't understand. Why does no one ever go to him? He was better in every way, but it was never him. But maybe, he thinks as he slips silently out the door, maybe this time it could be him. He would bide his time, and he would wait.