"Got anything Sammy?" His brother asked through a mouthful or burger, or pie. Sam Winchester wasn't sure, both foods were often shoved into Dean Winchesters mouth so who really knew at this point. Sam sighed and rubbed his eyes, they were on another hunt. Some boring salt and burn but they all required research. So he stayed up into the early morning light leaked into the cheap motel staring at a bright computer screen that dried up his eyes. Like always Dean refused to do any brain work and just provided muscle. Sometimes Sam wondered if Dean ever had a brain or if it was just a flexing bicep with a busty blonde perched on it up there. Honestly wouldn't surprise him. "Uh.." he cleared his throat and scanned the page for the hundredth time "Not really. Just the same stuff the family said." The laptop was shut with a snap and he slid it away, replacing the computer with a warm cup of coffee. The dinner was cheap with even cheaper food but at least the coffee was drinkable. Sam Winchester could not function without a good cup of coffee. It was room temperature with one too many packets of sugar but it woke him up so no complaining on his end.
"You awake Sammy?" Dean snapped a few times in front of his face startling the moose like man. Sam just hummed and filled his mouth with the bitter drink, his brother shrugged and didn't ask anything else. The brothers finished their breakfast quickly made their way out of the dinner. "Did you see the backside on that one?" Dean whistled and looked back at the young woman they just passed. She didn't seem to amazing, just plain brown hair and long legs. Sam ignored his brother like usual, they had a job to do and nap to take. So far this day was shaping up to be another normal, routine day. Cheap dinners, too loud rock music, angry ghosts and more cheap bars.
Sam nursed a luke warm beer and watched with dead eyes as his brother hit on girl after girl. For some reason he was hell bent on bedding a girl from every town they went too, and he was pretty good at it too. He raised the beer to his lips and took a small sip. The drink turned sour when it warmed and he pulled a face as the liquid went down. Sam craned his neck to try to locate his brother and found the man at the bar. He was locked in a fierce mouth battle with some slutty bar chick. Short blonde hair, large breasts and clothes from the childrens department. He sighed, and then groaned. He was tired but Dean had the keys and it was a little long of a walk home. So Sam threw down a wad of cash and took another swig of beer, the thought of telling Dean he was taking the walk home crossed his mind but then he shoved it down. The man would be busy and probably show up at the motel in a few hours, they'd talk then.
It was cool outside so Sam pulled his jacket closer to his body. The weather had taken a sharp turn a few days ago. Changing from the normal end of summer warmth to the harsh chill of fall. Personally Sam didn't like fall all that much, too cold and all the leaves. Yeah it was pretty but they just got in the way on hunts. He had too many memories of skidding because of the things and then Dean teasing him about it for hours upon end. Sam smiled at them anyways, in the moment he hated the teasing but later he loved it. Stupid brotherly thing really.
The streets of this little city were just about empty at this time of night. All the shops were closed and the windows were dark. The tall apartment buildings that stretched into the sky had alternating bright and dim windows. Some had curtains pulled shut and some showed the silhouettes of people inside. It was a nice little city, one of the better places they visited for a hunt. All the people were nice but easily scared and full of stories. Sam caught the tail end of one as he was leaving the bar earlier and thought back on it. The man was young, in his early twenties with a pretty young girl attached to his arm. He was talking loudly to his friends about some stranger that blew through town. From his description the stranger seemed pretty weird and could be chalked up to a bad trip from drugs or lack of sleep.
The guy said she had big golden horns that glowed even in the night sprouted from her head and these matching yellow eyes. Cat eyes the man had said, that seemed to look straight through him. She seemed to be in pain as she stumbled down the sidewalk. Said she was clawing at her ears, mouth and nose while her eyes darted everywhere. At that point his girlfriend swatted his arm and said he was working too much then he said it was true and blah, blah, blah. In the end he agreed to talk a day off but in his mind he knew it was real.
Sam shook his head, the guy was clearly seeing things. That or she was real and just a meth head and he was stretching the truth to seem interesting for friends. Whatever it was it did not concern Sam in any way, "Hey you're that FBI guy right?" Someone called behind him. Sam turned to see that same guy from the bar. Coat buttoned to his chin and half a cigarette in his hand. He shook his head and approached Sam "Sorry I just…you asked my friend a couple questions the other day and" he licked his lips and flicked away the cigarette. "He said you were part of the weird stuff right?' Sam shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded once "Yeah, you could say that."
"Cool uh...did you come here about that weird girl that stumbled through here?" He asked. The guy seemed really concerned, or interested about this little illusion he had. Sam shook his head "No, we never got word about a stranger like that." The man nodded "Look my place is just around the corner. Want to come in and I can tell you about her"
"No thanks, I really should get back. My er..partner and I have to work on the case we already have" Sam bullshited his way through that one and the guy narrowed his eyes. "Oh the partner back at the bar locking lips and bumping uglies with some girl." Sam sighed "Fine, lead the way" He gestured for the man to take the lead. He nodded and set up a fast pace to his apartment which was really, just around the corner. Sam put on hand on his back right where the handgun was just as a precaution when he was with this guy. He seemed normal enough and just focused on this stranger but in Sam's line of work, anything could happen.
The mans' apartment was not one to write home about. Plain cream walls, hand me down furniture, and a few pictures. It really was just like any old apartment for someone with a cheap job and still in college. There were a few books on the table and some shoes by the door but everything else was spotless. The man hung up his coat and smiled weakly "Sorry about it being so tidy. My parents are coming over tomorrow, have to be presentable and all that" The guy chuckled "Oh by the way the names Steven" He took a seat at the table then jumped back up "Sorry, uh...do you want anything to drink. Beer, water, juice, I can make up some coffee or…" he trailed off "Water's fine thanks" Sam said. He watched as Steven smiled and walked into the kitchen, telling Sam to make himself at home.
Sam took a few steps into the small apartment and kept his eye out for anything weird. Everything screamed that Steven was really just a regular old guy that saw some weird shit, maybe that's all he was too. When Steven came back and handed him the water Sam perched on the end of one of the table chairs. Steven gave him another small smile and looked around "So...yeah that girl. Want me to tell you about that?"
"Isn't that why you invited me over?" Sam asked taking a small sip. Steven shook his head "Yeah right sorry. It's been a long day and it's hard to find someone to tell the whole story to anyways. That and none of my friends believe me so it's kinda uh.." he cleared his throat and ran a hand through hins unruly hair. "Alright so the other night, like a week ago or something I was just walking home from work. You know that little bookstore a few blocks down, yeah from there. Walking home from there, just minding my own business when I see this little crowd of people. Naturally I went over to see what the fuss was about and there was this girl" Steven licked his lips again and glanced over at Sam to make sure he was still there. He motioned for Steven to continue
"Right so she was kinda tall, a few taller than me with stringy blonde hair and really pale skin. She was covered, like head to toe and it was dripping everywhere in blood. Well I think it was blood, smelled like it and looked like it but wrong color"
"What?" Sam asked coughing. It had surprised him when Steven said she was covered in blood, made him inhale a bit of water. Steven eyed him and waited patiently till he was done coughing to explain "Well like I said she was covered in this stuff. There was a lot so the air was thick with the smell and it had that metallic, sharp tang of blood ya know? Everything fit the bill for blood but it was gold. If the smell wasn't there I would've assumed someone dumped golden paint all over the poor girl." Sam chewed the inside of his lip, "Golden blood?" He repeated. Steven nodded "Yeah like the kind in Greek mythology. Blood of the gods" Sam hummed, he was familiar with that part. Supposedly the greek gods and other greek immortals bled Ichor, golden blood that flowed through them. That was the only way you could really tell the difference between and immortal and a mortal.
"Yeah so she was just covered in this stuff. She looked really upset, eyes squeezed shut and she was kinda moaning...in a distressed way. And she was stumbling on spot like a drunk and clawing at her ears like something was wrong." Steven imitated what he described and pawed at his ears. Sam raised an eyebrow, he looked ridiculous. "Oh and she had this two big horns sticking out of her head. Then kind curved downwards at the end and looked like the letter J..or maybe a L" he muttered and rubbed his chin "Anyways she looked really upset so I asked if she was ok and she just stared up at me with those big golden eyes of hers. It was amazing and for a second my heart seemed to stop. Then I'm not sure what happened really…" Steven pressed a hand to his forehead and looked upset "I keep telling myself that she spread wings and ran off but my mind just doesn't want to accept that fact. It;s like I did see it but someone meddled with my head so it looked different, but I know they're wings." he sighed "Well either way the whole thing was just weird. Right?"
Sam was lost in his own mind. Maybe this guy stumbled on an angel with fading grace or something. Cas told them that some humans have stronger senses and can see bits and pieces of their true forms so maybe that's what happened here. Steven didn't look like someone with senses strong enough to see parts of a true angel but his story says otherwise. Maybe when the angel thing spread it's wings and realized Steven could see them it altered his mind. Sam sighed and stood up, he'd just have to go ask Cas about this one. "Well thank you for that. It seems like a case I would take but I'll have to talk to my partner soon. Have a nice day and, thanks for the water" Sam said in a brisk official tone and shut the door behind him. He glanced at his watch, 10:36 blinked back at him. Sam hoped Dean would be done with his fling or out of the motel. He had more research to do.
Dean was done with his fling when Sam got back to the motel. He was shirtless and yawning, probably just sent the chick home. "And where have you been?" he asked when Sam shut the door with a snap, catching his attention. He threw off his coat and kicked off his shoes "Long story.' he sighed, he did a lot of that these days. Who could blame him, his life was very sigh worthy. The pages from this morning were still up when his laptop started up. "More research Sammy? Thought we were done?"
"Dean you didn't do anything and found a new case." He snapped and ran his fingers over the keyboard. How should he approach this? Just typing in 'angels true forms' would be too vague but it might work. "Hey does Cas ever talk about his true form?" Sam asked while waiting for the page to load. It always ran a little slower with a dying battery and the charger was somewhere in the depths of his bag. Which was all the way over there, so he'd have to deal. "No, why do you ask?" Dean looked at his brother curiously. They didn't just spring questions like that on each other unless it was important. "This guy from the bar earlier recognized me as the FBI agent that asked his friend some stuff, wanted to tell me about this stranger he found last week" Sam scanned the fully loaded google search page. Nothing really stood out, just a few dumb links that sprouted devotion to god crap.
"He got to talking and told me that said stranger had horns, yellow cat eyes and big old wings." Deans eyebrows scrunched together and he opened his mouth to say something "But get this, he said she was covered in gold colored blood" Sam said cutting his brother off. "Gold blood?" He repeated "That's what I said so then the guy said it was weird because that's in greek legends. It's called ichor, blood of the gods and immortals." Deans eyebrows were still raised a bit "Do you think this guy was really drunk, or high or something?"
"I don't think so. When he was telling me about the wings he had trouble believing it himself even though he knew he saw them." Sam scanned through a few pages then went back to the blank search page. "So what," Dean tugged a shirt over his head "You think some random guy saw part of an angels true form then got his brain scrambled or something?" Sam nodded "That's exactly what I think happened. Even if he was just really drunk or high it can't hurt to look into this just a little anyways"
"Yeah well whatever. I'm getting some sleep so you have fun with that Sammy" Dean flopped on the bed and killed the lights. Sam grunted and dimmed the brightness of the computer. He tapped a few keys slowly, not sure of even what to put in. His brothers soft snores filled the room and he frowned. Sam Winchester sure did love all night dead end research parties of one.
…..
He woke up with his face sticking to the keyboard of the cold, dead laptop. Dried drool on his cheek, chin and part of his mane of hair. "Good morning Princess" Dean chuckled tossing a towel at him. Sam wiped off his face and glared at his brother, "Find anything?" He asked catching the towel Sam threw back at him. "Nothing, just countless dead ends. Not one report of someone seeing an angels true form because according to the internet" He cleared his throat in a mocking fashion "An angels true form can only be seen once you've fully devoted yourself to the word of God" Dean groaned and rolled his eyes. "I'll just call up Cas, see if he can offer any sort of help" He pulled the phone out of his pocket and pressed a few buttons. Sam didn't pay attention to what was said after just stared at the blank screen.
"Well this seems like your sort of thing Cas, just get down here when you can alright?" Dean snapped and hung up. The older brother grumbled something about how Cas was always busy and stupid shit like that. "So now we just wait and see if he shows up." He said and started throwing things in his bag. Sam watched his brother for a moment then stretched like a cat, "I'm going to grab a shower then we can head out" he yawned and locked the door behind him. It was turning out to be a long day and he just woke up.
The impala provided a suitable napping place for Sam during the long drive back to the bunker. Dean even had the decency to keep the loud classic rock at a low level so it didn't disturb Sam. Dean chewed his lip and glanced over at his sleeping brother. Is this going to become a thing they'd have to hunt now? Normal people that can see an angels true form. Stuff like that shouldn't just be left alone to roam free. Those people could go insane or get caught by the wrong people. Use them to their advantage. Dean shuddered at the thought of Crowley getting his hands on someone like that. It was bad enough when he wanted a prophet but how would he react to some human able to see true forms. Cas needed to hurry up and get his feathery ass down here.
"Where are we?" Sam yawned not even bothering to open his eyes. Dean glanced over at his curled up form "Little ways away, should be about" he looked at the clock "40ish minutes till we get back. Want me to wake you up then?" Sam waved it off and uncurled himself, cracking his neck a few times "No no it's fine. Cas get back to you yet?"
"Not yet. I was going to call him again and tell him to just meet us at the bunker" Dean said. Sam hummed and tossed him a phone so he could call. Speed dial was a handy little invention that Dean loved. Just press one button and you fully made a call. Sam was number 1 and Cas was 2, very useful when driving. Dean pressed the phone to his ear and like usual it went to voicemail "Hey Cas, it's Dean. Just meet us at the bunker when you get this, found something sorta big you might want to know about." He rattled off then hung up. The brothers were silent for a while longer then Dean reached over and cranked up the music. Sam shot him an annoyed look but that was all. Happily Dean sang off key to the classic rock songs trying to get Sam to join in along the way.
"You need singing classes or something Dean." Sam laughed when they finally pulled into the bunker. "Oh c'mon Sammy, you love my singing!" the two chuckled and entered the bunker. Lights switched on and the threw their jackets over the railing, it was a fine coat rack alright? "Bunker sweet bunker" Dean ran a hand down a railing "What would we do without you?"
"Hop from motel to motel like always" Came Sams short reply. Dean rolled his eyes and groaned "You are not fun when tired." He called to his brother. Sam was already in the library scanning for just the right book. "Really Sammy? We just walked in the door"
"I know Dean but this is kind of a big thing. We need to know all there is about it"
"Yeah but can't you wait until Cas shows up?" Dean leaned against the nearest table and watched his brother flip through one book. When it held nothing he was looking for Sam scowled and shoved the book back in place "We don't know how long that will be and it doesn't hurt to get a head start on things" Sam said a pulled another book from the shelf but it also proved to be worthless on the matter. With a growl he continued down the shelf, then the next, the next and the next. Sam grew frustrated very quickly and slammed the final book back in the shelf. They could always find the information needed in the bunker so why not now? Yeah angel true forms were hard to come by but there had be a theory, a little note something. Hell Sam would take anything at this point. "Yo Sammy, Cas is here" Dean called dragging the angel into the library with him. Sam had sunk into a seat and stared angrily at the book he pulled on angels. It was thin, more like a pamphlet than a book. It said angels were servants of god and were very powerful. That was it, that was friggen it. Yes it said they had to take vessels demons but otherwise the pamphlet was useless. "Dean tells me you heard an interesting story Sam" Cas said sitting in a chair close to Dean.
Sam told him the whole story making sure not to leave out any details. "So do you think it could be an angels true form leaking through or someone with really sharp senses?" he asked the angel. Dean glanced over at him, Cas was wearing an interesting expression. He looked to be in deep thought and didn't answer him right away. "A little over a week ago I sensed a very powerful presence enter our world. I assumed it was just an angel falling from Heaven because it soon disappeared." He said, "And you never thought to tell us?" Dean snapped
"Angels come and go from Earth all the time. Would you like me to tell you everytime that happens?" Cas shot back and they glared at each other. Sam cleared his throat "So do you think this angel that you felt has a true form that can be seen by humans?" Cas shook his head "I don't think so. It is impossible for a human to see an angels true form, I don't think this was an angel. It felt...stronger, wiser, older" He muttered. That surprised the brothers, "Can there be a being stronger than an angel?"
"A god, or goddess" Cas answered "So that would explain the gold blood." Cas leaned forward onto his elbows. "You think we are actually dealing with a greek goddess Cas?" Dean asked, "Which one?" Cas had no answer this time he just gestured to the books "Let's find out" Dean groaned, Sam groaned along for once.