Chapter Eleven
"Dumbass," Charlie growled under her breath, stomping into the garage and throwing her jacket over a stepladder. "You try to be nice to him, and boom…"
The clouds had rolled in yet again and it looked like more rain was on its way, but Charlie was too worked up to care. Late nights in the garage were always her cure-all for any anxiety or stress, and these days it just seemed like there was too much of that going around.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much work to be done on any of the cars or bikes that the Griffins had in their personal garage. Ivy's deVille still needed some work under the hood but there was no way on Earth or in Hell that Charlie was going to touch Ivy's baby. They were the only family either of them had left in the world, but that wouldn't stop Ivy from throttling Charlie for fooling around with her car.
Of course, Charlie wouldn't stand for that either if Ivy did anything to hers.
Charlie kicked a stack of winter tires, letting out a frustrated bellow. She wished the Winchesters hadn't come their way. As much as she was getting used to Dean's deadpan snarker attitude and Sam's quiet broody manner, Charlie had never had to share her space with outsiders this way ever before in her life. She didn't begrudge Ivy's offering them a place to stay – though, granted, that had been before they'd known the Winchesters would be sticking around – because Ivy was like that. Ivy was the kind of person who would bring home wounded critters in the hopes that they would survive. And most of them did.
Charlie laughed, hardly believing she had just compared the Winchesters to injured woodland creatures.
"How good to hear you laughing again, Charlotte."
Charlie whirled around, grabbing her knife out of the top of her boot and sliding easily into a defensive position. Standing behind her was a slender, willowy woman, tall and seemingly radiant even in the darkened afternoon light. Her impossibly pale hair hung down her back in flowing curls past her waist, and her alabaster skin seemed to glow from a light emanating from within.
"You," Charlie said tersely.
"I do have a name, you know," the woman said curtly.
"Give me one good reason why I should respect you by calling you by it," Charlie snapped.
The woman raised a hand and made a backhanded motion in the air. Although Charlie was a few feet away, her head still snapped to the right and she could still feel the sting of the most god-awful bitch-slap she'd ever received.
Raising fiery, indignant blue eyes to her unwelcome guest, Charlie growled, "What do you want, Titania?"
"Listen to this."
Dean had barely set foot into the reading room and Sam was already coming at him with research. Then again, Dean mused, whatever "important news" Castiel needed to share with them had yet to actually make it into any conversation they'd all had so far. If Sam had made some kind of break on his own, then that would be a good way to get the hunt going.
"According to this," Sam continued as Dean came over to the table, "when there is a weakness in the veil, it's not just the Faeries and their creatures that can pass through. The magic on the other side of the veil leaks through, too – it already does, but not huge amounts. When the veil is torn, even just a bit, the magic from Fey pours out like a dam that's burst."
"What happens then?" Dean asked.
"Anything on our side of the veil that has any powers connected to Fey become more powerful," Sam replied.
"Powers? You mean like –"
" – like Charlie's mind reading. And Ivy's visions."
Dean scratched his head. "So the girls' powers are getting stronger," he said. "That's a good thing, though – right?"
"Well, yes and no," Sam said. "It's not just their powers getting stronger on this side of the veil. Any creature that slipped through before will be stronger too."
It was starting to come together in Dean's mind. "So the dire-creatures running around like crazy," he said.
Sam nodded, then suddenly rose from the table. "I'm going to go get Charlie," he explained. "I think she's down in the garage. We need to start figuring out how we're going to deal with this. Where's Ivy?"
The first thing Ivy noticed when she got home just after dusk was that the garage door was down and all the lights were out. She pulled up in front of the house instead, cutting the engine and trying to ignore the sense of foreboding growing in her gut.
Dean came out of the house almost instantly. "Where have you been?" he demanded.
"None of your business," Ivy retorted tartly.
Dean's entire demeanour became subdued, and Ivy was taken aback. "Sam went into the garage twenty minutes ago to get Charlie," he said. He looked over at the garage. "I don't know what happened between then and now."
"Charlotte, I'm sick of trying to bargain with you," Titania said, her voice dripping like honey and stinging like poison. "Clearly, I'm going to have to up the ante." She made another sweeping gesture in the air with her hand and Sam went flying into a rack of tools.
"Sam!" Charlie exclaimed as he collapsed onto the floor, groaning in pain.
"Now you listen to me," Titania continued, "I've not much patience anymore for Griffin antics. Your family has been jerking me around for more than a century. I've been waiting since your folk were still skulking around in Kerry and Clare for you to pay your dues."
"We've been keeping up our end of every bargain we've made with you," Charlie insisted.
"You call tearing the veil apart and striking new deals to cancel out old ones 'keeping up your end'?" Titania exploded, her rage starting to boil over.
"You have to play by the rules too, you know," Charlie tossed back, "and you lot do your fair share of bending the rules in your advantage."
More hand gestures, followed by Sam bellowing out in pain as Tatiana sent him hurtling across the room yet again.
"I'm warning you, Charlotte," the Faerie Queen said. "I have run very low on patience for you. It's time to pay your dues."
"Where's your shotgun?" Dean demanded.
Ivy glared at him. "The entire Griffin arsenal is locked in the garage with Charlie and Sam," she replied tersely. She held up the pistol she always carried. "This cricket's the only heat I'm packing right now."
"You're kidding me, right?"
"I'm not quite sure you understand. Every ounce of firepower we own is in that garage. They should be fine."
"And what if there are more of them out here?" Dean challenged.
Ivy checked the sights on her pistol. "Better start praying, then," she said flatly.
A second later, they heard a sound of rushing air and Castiel's voice behind hem. "You called?"
Charlie was so, so screwed.
If it was any other monster she'd stand a chance in here – behind one of the shelving systems was the Griffin armoury, which was stocked well enough to defend against just about any ghoulie, ghostie, or beastie. But Titania was a Faerie Queen, and she had the entire garage on lockdown, including both Charlie and Sam.
Sam was currently pinned up high on the far wall, and Charlie was frozen in place. They were defenseless.
Charlie tried to send out a thought-message to Dean or Ivy, but Titania crowed, her high-pitched laugh so eerie it made Ivy's blood run cold. "Do you really think I'd let you do that?" the Faerie Queen demanded. "No running to Ivy or Dean for either of you this time." She dragged a finger lazily through the air and a line of blood appeared on Sam's left forearm. "Start talking, Charlie," she warned.
"Any idea what's going on in there, Cas?" Dean asked.
Castiel's voice was grave. "It's not a dire-creature," he said, "otherwise they would have fired on it by now. No. It's definitely something of greater power…" His voice trailed off. "…it's…it's a Faerie."
"Maybe I'm not making myself clear enough," Titania mused. She let Sam slide down the wall to collapse in a heap on the floor. She'd managed to scrape his arms to shreds – not enough to scar him forever, thankfully, but enough to make him look like he'd gone through a wood chipper.
The Faerie Queen turned her attention to Charlie and focused on her. "How's your pain tolerance these days, Charlie?" she taunted. "High enough to hold out until your precious little cousin can come save you?"
Charlie cried out at the searing pain that ripped its way across her cheek.
At that moment, the garage door was torn off in a high-pitched metallic shriek. Titania whirled around, still keeping Charlie in the grip of her power.
Castiel strode into the garage, his face grave and his voice commanding. "Leave this place," he said simply. Ivy and Dean appeared behind him, firearms at the ready.
Titania visibly recoiled in horror, releasing Charlie unknowingly as her focus shifted to the Angel. "You," she gasped. "You're one of them. One of the ones who cast my kind out of Heaven."
"You threw yourselves to Hell with Lucifer," Castiel corrected. "You just didn't make it all the way to Hell. Leave this place willingly, and I will not harm you. Resist, and I will have to."
Titania narrowed her cold eyes, but she backed down. "You'll be seeing me again, Charlotte," she warned.
In a flash, she was gone, and Ivy and Dean ran into the garage to check on their kin.
"Sammy, you okay?" Dean asked, crouching by Sam and putting a hand on his brother's shoulder.
"It's Sam. And yes, I'm okay. Nothing broken," Sam wheezed, still unable to get his breath properly after being bashed around the garage.
"Save your breath, man," Dean said, inspecting his brother's wounds. "Yeah, you're going to be fine." He looked up. "Hey, Cas?"
Castiel wasn't paying attention to Dean, though. Charlie was on her knees on the other side of the room, hunched over and crying hysterically as Ivy tried to comfort her. Cas walked over to them, and Ivy looked up at him. After a moment she got up to her feet and stepped aside. Cas knelt down in front of Charlie, and cupped his hand under her chin to make her look at him. Out of nowhere, he gently kissed Charlie, and the long, oozing cut on her face disappeared.
Ivy stared, trying to wrap her head around what she was seeing.
Dean made a face. "I think I'm going to be sick," he muttered.