Chapter 33

"Crowley!" Sam said as he instinctually stepped in front of Amelia to shield her and reached behind him for the demon-killing knife, forgetting he just got out of the shower.

"Excuse me." The demon said, trying to peer around Sam. "Let me rephrase that; what is your girlfriend?"

"She's none of your business." Sam replies tersely.

"I beg to differ. I always want to meet your new, little friends." He said as he started taking a small step forward; but found himself unable to move. "What the hell?" He said looking to the ceiling for a Devil's trap.

"I don't need a trap to stop you." Amelia said as she stepped out from behind Sam. "This is Crowley?" She asked Sam as she came to stand next to him. Sam nodded.

"I see you've heard of me." He said trying to hide his fear. But Amelia saw the way his eyes darted about the room and the slight twitch in lip. "Sorry, I can't say the same about you. You are?"

"I'm none of your business; or didn't you hear Samuel?" She said while giving Sam a small, reassuring smile. "And you can quit trying to call for help. Your underlings can't hear you."

"Samuel? That's pretty formal for what I saw when I arrived." Crowley said, still trying to mask his fear.

"Again, none of your business." She said glaring at him. She turned away from the demon, towards Sam and winked at him. "May I destroy him for you now; or would you prefer to do it yourself?" Amelia pointed to the knife lying next to Sam's clothes on the bed.

"Now, hold on!" Crowley nearly yelped. "I just popped in for a friendly chat, and that's the way I'm treated?"

"Like hell, you did." Sam spat out as he stepped to the bed and picked up the knife. "Why shouldn't I? I'm tired of you screwing us over every chance you get."

"I never!" He tried cringing backwards, but still unable to move as Sam stepped forwards, knife in hand.

"You knew! You knew what would happen to Dean when he killed the Leviathan. You knew and said nothing!" Sam started to take another step forward but Amelia put her hand on his arm. The seething hatred coming from him had her worried he would lose control and take an unnecessary risk.

"Now hold on just a damn minute. You want to talk about keeping secrets." Crowley said, a little braver after seeing the woman could control the Hunter. "How about you; working with Meg? And let's not forget, failing to mention Castiel was alive!"

"Not to sound repetitive; but, again, none of your business." Sam said calmly. Amelia's touch had brought him back from the brink of that violent part of himself he didn't like to admit was there.

The man and the demon stood glaring at each other. Amelia wasn't actually sure she could kill the King of Hell; 10,000 years ago, sure. But now, she just hadn't had to deal with such a powerful demon in so long, she didn't know. Sure, she could destroy the body he was possessing, or she could immobilize him and Sam could use his knife. She wasn't afraid of him; she knew he couldn't touch her. Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't try. And he was still a threat to Sam and their plan to get Dean back.

"How about offering a chap a drink?" Crowley said, gaining confidence that neither was going to kill him. He still didn't know who or what the woman was, but she was, at least, more level headed Sam. Her power had taken him by surprise; and that she was able to hide from him perplexed him. Who or whatever she was explained what had happened to the missing demons he had assigned to keep an eye the last Winchester.

Sam just huffed in contempt. "I don't think so. How about you bring back Dean and Cas? And Kevin Tran, while you're at it."

"You're kidding, right?" Crowley stared at Sam. "If I could just waltz into Purgatory, I wouldn't have had to make a deal with that double-crossing Angel pal of yours in the first place."

Amelia was amazed at the brilliance of what Sam had just done. Not only had he made the demon admit he still wanted access to Purgatory; Sam had led him to believe they had no idea how or plan to get Dean back themselves. She resisted grinning at him, assuming the demon would pick up on it. But, the longer they stayed in this stalemate, the longer something could go wrong. "Okay. This has been fun, but we were kind of busy. You need to go now."

"What?" Both Sam and Crowley asked, one afraid he was going to be killed, the other afraid he wouldn't get to kill the demon.

She turned and spoke to Sam. "If we kill him, we will never find where he's taken the prophet."

"True. True." Crowley eagerly agreed.

"Shut up." Both Sam and Amelia yelled at the demon.

"We can't just let him leave."

"No, of course not." She smiled at him as an idea came to her. She reached up and touched the talisman hanging around Sam's neck, and it started vibrating wildly. "Apsu has been alone for a long time; he says he would love to meet Crowley." She said grinning at Sam.

"Who?" Crowley asked. Still holding the talisman, Amelia reached out and touched the demon. A blinding light flashed through her for a couple of seconds; and the demon's body collapsed into a pile of dust and expensive fabric.

"Wow. He must have been possessing that guy a really long time." Sam said. He looked down at Dean's amulet; now almost rocking it was humming so violently. "You sure this was a good idea? How long can he keep Crowley in there? Will Apsu still be able to help us save Dean?" He reached up and took the necklace off. "Geez, what are they doing in there? It's getting awfully hot."

Amelia tilted her head, listening to something. She smiled broadly. "I believe Apsu is getting Crowley settled in, you know, showing him around. He always was a very demonstrative host." Her smile waned as she added. "We can't leave him in there very long; he will be too distracting for Apsu to help us. But it buys us some time, to come up with a more permanent solution."

"As much as I want him dead, we can't kill him." Sam said very dejectedly. "He may be a lying sack-of-shit, but he does manage to keep a pretty tight leash on Hell and his demons. Without him they will be everywhere vying for power."

"Crap." Both Sam and Amelia said as they sat on the end of the bed. They sat there, both trying to think of a way out of their dilemma.

She turned back to the pile of dust and clothes. "Sam, if you open the door and make sure no one's watching, I'll clean up this mess. I think better when I'm not hungry." She grinned up at him. "And I worked up quite an appetite."