Many years ago…

Zoey walked casually as the man who she had refused in the bar walked behind her. He thought he was being silent, which would have amused her if she hadn't been so irritated.

Bloody men.

She turned down an alley, her ire growing. I do not have time for this… But the power does need to feed…

It was a dead end, and she smiled, then pulled her lips into a frightened frown and turned around. "Are… Are you following me?" She asked, letting her voice tremble. She let her voice stay in her American accent. I need to practice anyway.

He smiled ferally, and she restrained herself from rolling her eyes. Idiot. Her power snapped at her, wanting to kill the man who dare threaten her. Who thought he had the right to harm her.

"I just wanna show you a good time, doll," he said with a smile, holding his hands up. "You just need a little convincing."

Zoey's blood ran cold. He wants to rape me. She pitched her voice higher. "Pl… Please, I just want to go home."

"Hey, baby, you can do home as soon as we're done here."

Almost close enough. Come on, big boy.

"Please!"

He grabbed her arm and she dropped the act. She shoved her other hand into his stomach, then shifted up to his heart. She felt his pain and his fear, so much it made him unable to speak, and the demonic energy fed on it greedily. She grinned at the feeling.

Zoey tilted her head to the side. "What's wrong? You don't want to have fun anymore, dear?"

His eyes bugged out of his head when she squeezed his heart.

"Wha… Wha…" He choked, struggling feebly.

She smiled. "Why, I'm having a grand old time."

She crushed his heart in her fist, watched the life drain from his eyes, then dropped him. She wiped her hand on her coat, though there was no blood on it. The man didn't have a mark on him. Experience had told her that it would be ruled a "cardiac event."

"Bloody humans."

xxxxx

"Why in the fuck would we do that?!"

Zoey rolled her eyes as Dean shouted, getting irritated now. "Because, while you two want to tiptoe around the issue, we should be hunting the bloody devil." She looked over to Sam, hoping to appeal to his common sense before this became an actual argument. "Please, Sam, this is ridiculous. Why aren't we taking the fight to Lucifer? Why don't we just go kill him?"

"Don't try to get Sam to get you out of this," Dean snapped, bringing her attention back to him.

She stood, her temper snarling at her. "Look, Dean, I don't particularly want to shout at you." Because I might accidentally kill you. "Why don't we sit down and just talk to one another?"

She had been right. Dean was the alpha, and when he had dug his heels in, the entire process had come to a halt. Bloody men.

"No, let's just think for a second!"

She groaned and took a step forward, holding her hands up in surrender, ignoring the way the demonic energy howled at her for it. "What would you like to think about?"

"We can't summon a fucking archangel here!"

She ran her hands through her hair, knowing it was making it look crazy and not caring. "I'm not suggesting we summons Lucifer, idiot. Just Gabriel!"

"We just don't understand why," Sam said, hands held up and shooting Dean a look.

"Because he'll be able to give us a better idea of Lucifer's weaknesses. And I need to know for sure I can defeat an archangel. I've never gone up against anything with that much power, I'm almost certain I can defeat him, but it's still only almost."

Dean shook his head. "It's crazy, and it's stupid, and we're not doing it."

She glared at him, taking another step forward. "It don't need your permission, Winchester."

He stepped forward, too, until they were almost nose-to-nose. "You damn sure do."

Anger flared in her, and she controlled the power that wanted to lash out at him, but it was hard. She stared up into his stubborn eyes. "First of all, Dean, I'm not intimidated by you. Second, I'd advise that you take a step back." He glared down at her, not backing down, and she fought the power that wanted to hurt him, that wanted to hurt him for defying her.

"Dean," she said softly, letting her eyes fall closed. "Dean, my powers are much harder to rein in since Lucifer got out of the cage. I need you to back away, or I cannot promise you won't get hurt."

"What?" Sam's nervous voice had the power trying to turn to him, eager to feed on his fear. The power was like a rabid animal, feeding on weakness. Oh, Gods, this happened fast. I haven't fed it enough, fuck.

"The two of you need to leave. Now." Fuck. Too fast, too sudden.

"What? What do you need? What can we do?"

Dean was still close, and she felt her lip lift in a snarl. "Dean, go, I don't know if I can control it."

"What is happening?"

Castiel's abrupt voice made her heart flutter, and she felt her power pulse.

"What did you do to Zoey?"

"Castiel, get them out of here. I can't control it."

"Cass, what do we do?" Sam's fear made her power pulse and writhe again, and she really started to struggle.

"Castiel, please," she said softly.

She felt Dean retreat, and she felt grateful that he would be out of harm's way. Now I have to figure out how to get away from here. She wasn't sure transporting would be safe with her power while it was reacting with this level of volatility.

Then she felt a big, cold hand on her face. She opened her eyes to look up at him, wondering if the glamour she kept on her irises was still up. She gazed into Castiel's blue eyes, trying to let the serenity there soothe her racing heart.

"What can I do?" He asked, his gravelly voice going further to help her get a handle on her power. She was still fighting it hard, but he made her feel like she could do it.

"I don't know," she whispered. She was vaguely aware of the Winchesters still in the room, but they were in the background, unimportant.

"May I try something?" He asked softly.

She swallowed hard. "Can you guarantee the people around us will be safe?"

He thought for a moment, then looked at the Winchesters. "Pour a salt circle," he ordered sharply. "Around us, then another line around the room."

She closed her eyes and fought her power, which was battering at her defenses. The apprehension and fear in the room was driving it crazy.

His cold thumb running along her cheekbone had her leaning into his touch. "Stay with me, Zoey, a few more moments." She nodded, keeping her eyes closed.

"All right, Cass, we're done," Dean said gruffly. The nervous energy of his voice made her flare. She gasped and felt her back bend back with the effort it took to fight it back.

Castiel's cold, hard arm wrapped around her waist, then his other hand gently touched her face again and guided her up to him. "They're safe, Zoey. I'm going to try to wrap your energy in my grace. I don't know if this is going to work."

"Castiel," she said softly, "If it doesn't, get Sam and Dean out of here. Understand me? Because I can't control it, and it will need to kill someone soon." She opened her eyes to look up at him. "You, too. I can't imagine what it would do if it got hold of you." And, for some unfathomable reason, the thought of you dying upsets me greatly.

He nodded. "Very well."

His hand moved to cup her head with his fingers, his thumb resting under her jaw. He tilted her face up, looked into her eyes for a moment, then bent his head to kiss her softly. She sighed and leaned into him, bringing her hands up to rest on his chest. She kissed him back, letting him take the lead, concentrating on keeping her raging power at bay.

There were a few, lovely, long moments with his cool lips moving on hers. She felt his arm tighten around her, so she leaned into him and came up on her toes, just a bit, in response. She whimpered low in her throat, and the responding growl in his chest made her toes curl.

You're all right now, Zoey, he whispered in her mind. You can let go. I've got you.

Tears pricked her eyes. Are you sure? I don't want to hurt any of you.

Yes.

She hesitated for a moment, then let it go.

The demonic power raged and beat at the barrier of the angel's grace. It spun and speared and hammered at it all around them, but Castiel's embrace kept her safe from it. For the first time in possibly forever, Zoey felt protected.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and sighed into his mouth. He swept his tongue into hers, invading her mouth and lifting her off the ground just a little. She shivered and kissed him back, the soft slide of their tongues against one another enchanting her. Her world narrowed to where they were connected as she lifted her legs and wrapped them tight around his waist. His hands moved quickly to palm her ass, giving her freedom to run her fingers through his thick black hair.

She didn't even hear her power trail off to a whimper.

xxxxx

Dean raised his eyebrows, completely blown away.

Go Cass.

Zoey was hot, in a mean, "I can definitely kill you," British sort of way. And the way they were sucking face would have made Dean blush, if anything still had the power to make him blush. Good for Cass.

"Should we, uh, interrupt?" Sam asked, his eyes glued to the couple.

"I don't know," Dean whispered back. "How do we know when it's done?"

Sam shook his head. "I don't know."

xxxxx

Zoey felt like she was in Castiel's arms forever, but it was probably closer to just a few minutes.

When they broke apart, he pressed his forehead to hers. She was pleased to hear his ragged breathing, which matched hers. She smiled tremulously at him, and her heart warmed when he smiled a little back.

"Incidentally," he said softly, "You're right. We should summon Gabriel."

She outright grinned. "I knew it."

"Fuck." Dean's muttered curse made her laugh out loud.

Zoey decided not to mention to the Winchesters that, this time, the kiss had been completely unnecessary.

xxxxx

Hi, beautiful readers! Here are my notes:

I own only Zoey Crane, the original character. I don't own Supernatural or any of the characters. (heartbroken)

Reviews and comments give me life and keep me going.

And, as always, thank you for reading, you beautiful, beautiful people.

**Okay, so first of all, Zoey is hardcore speaking to me, which is why I have this update again so soon. I doubt that will keep up, lol.
**Second of all, APPARENTLY, all we're gonna do is MAKE OUT WITH CASTIEL RANDOMLY ALL THE TIME. Guys, I cannot impress how little control I have over what Zoey does. Jeeze.