Bobby looked at the two incredulous as the 'angel' who called himself Dark poked around his house.
"Explain this to me again, and this time make some damn sense!" he growled. He did not have enough coffee or liquor for this.
"What's to explain? My brother decided he had enough of me getting us into trouble and ditched me for our older brother. I figured I'd stick around these two (he looked at the Winchesters) if only to figure out why heaven and hell are so damn interested in them. To be honest, aside from the demon's blood in the Sasquatch nothing really screams interesting about you two," said Dark.
"Demon's blood?" said Dean in horror.
"Trace amounts of it. Anything that can read souls and knows what it is could pick up on it," said Dark.
"Is there any way to get rid of it?"
"None that I know of. I'm more like Loki than Raphael. Though for the last four hundred years I've been specializing in traps and runes," offered Dark.
"Runes?" said Bobby, now paying attention to the 'angel'.
"I can turn this place into a fortress and the demons wouldn't even know until they ran smack into it," confirmed Dark.
They would also end up completely humiliated in the process, but that was a moot point. Dark was a prankster, a womanizer and an unrepentant thief. Micheal would be appalled.
Gabriel loved it.
After demonstrating said runes for Bobby (who confirmed them to be real) the hunters more or less accepted Dark's presence. They still didn't believe he was an angel though. Even after seeing With turn into an impressive pair of pitch black wings.
The fact he actually knew how to hunt without being told was nice though.
"I can't believe Betzalel managed to worm his way in with the Winchesters without being shot," pouted Gabriel.
"I can. When he isn't being an idiot, he has the strangest ability to make friends with creatures no sane person would go near. I happen to know the origin of that annoying rabbit of his," said Arael flatly.
"This I have to hear!"
So Arael told him. With hadn't always been so cute and cuddly when Dark first got him. In fact the little fuzzball had damn near mauled him originally.
"Let me get this straight. That little fuzzball was some sort of hell-beast that had been causing trouble half a millennium ago, and when he went to put an end to it, he ended up falling in love with the beast and somehow managed to turn it into...that?" said Gabriel incredulous.
"The thing kept feeding off his Grace, and I think Dad thought it would be funny so he had it slowly altered until it turned into a rabbit of all things. Those wings he turns into are the closest it gets to it's original form. I still think it was a shifter-cambion crossbreed though," said Arael.
"How would that even work out?"
"No idea. All I know is that little fuzzball damn near bit one of my wings off before Betzalel finally dominated the thing," said Arael sourly.
There was a reason why Krad and 'With' had never gotten along. He had blasted the thing more than once. The only reason it wasn't dead was because Betzalel thought the pest was adorable and finally domesticated it.
Arael sometimes wondered how Dark's last "tamer" would have reacted if he had seen With's true form. As it was, he could sometimes entertain himself with the idea of how Micheal or the Host would react to Betzalel's pet.
"Can I have an image of this thing before it became so cute and cuddly?" asked Gabriel.
Arael shared a memory of the thing before it calmed down, then his private fantasies of Micheal's reaction.
Gabriel took one look at the hell beast, then at Arael's private musing before he started cracking up.
"Too bad cameras don't work in heaven. That would totally be worth a trip home, just to see his reaction to that rabbit!" cackled Gabriel, on the floor howling. Arael snorted in agreement.
Dean, Sam and Dark were in the bank, trying to kill a shifter. Dark's pet rabbit was sound asleep in his hood.
Ronald, the rather foolish civilian who had somehow caught the shifter on tape (Dark had cracked up when he heard the words man-droid), had decided holding up a bank until he killed the thing was a great idea.
Dark was just plain bored. So when he felt With stir in his hoodie, he grinned. Evilly.
"I don't like that look. What are you planning?" asked Dean quietly.
With's adorable furry face popped out of the hoodie, not that anyone but Sam and Dean noticed. Sam happened to like cute, furry things. More than once Dark had caught With curled up to the Sasquatch.
"With, seek and destroy. I don't care about the humans, but there's no way in hell I'm getting shot because some idiot caught one of your...cousins...on tape and decided to play hero," said Dark with a smirk.
"Cousins?" repeated the brothers in unison.
Black feathers obscured sight for a moment, before there was a shriek of surprise and pain from something decidedly not human. When they could see again, everyone stared at the large black thing with wings devouring something.
Dean and Sam reached for the weapons they no longer had in shock.
"With! What did I say about eating what you kill? Bad rabbit!" chastised Dark.
The thing lifted it's head, revealing a black muzzle and hellfire-red eyes. It crooned, blood dripping from it's mouth and razor-sharp teeth.
"Bad. You know this means I have to wash you later," said Dark.
The thing's ears drooped. With hated water, especially holy water.
"What...the...hell?" said Dean, voicing what everyone in the bank was thinking.
"What? He's cute!" said Dark defensively. He didn't even look remotely disgusted as he petting the thing's head.
Seeing it shrink into the 'cute and cuddly' With, Sam stared.
"What is he?"
"With? Let's just say my brother hates him for good reason. Took me two centuries to get him to quit tryin' to maul me," said Dark, scratching the 'rabbit' on the head.
"What is he?" asked Dean, more than mildly disturbed by the fact there was still blood dripping from the thing's mouth.
"As far as I've been able to tell, a shifter-cambion crossbreed. Basically a crime against nature and god. I originally took him in just to see the look on my brother's face if I ever went home with him. Then he went cute and cuddly for some reason," shrugged Dark.
After four hundred years of With acting as his wings, since his real ones were sealed in the mirror, there was no way he was giving up his pet. And With had learned the hard way years ago who the stronger one was.
There was a reason why Dark had bothered to visit the Niwa family once he had his own body. He wasn't letting that rabbit stay with an innocent family without him to keep the thing in line. That was just asking for trouble.
"He may look cute and cuddly, but when properly motivated he can rip your face off," said Dark proudly. The 'rabbit' crooned in it's language.
"He's not going to eat us in our sleep...is he?" asked Sam.
"Nah. He's gotten pretty lazy since I got him. So long as you bribe him with strawberries, he's pretty much easy to get along with. You're still getting a bath later though," said Dark sternly.
With pouted.
Sam had trouble believing the thing turned into such an evil crime against nature (and killed a shifter without hesitation when ordered) was the same rabbit currently curled up on his lap, having finally escaped the hated water.
According to Dark, the reason With hated getting wet was because it had been hit one too many times with holy water courtesy of some deluded priest. It only stung a little, but it had learned water was bad.
Dean still shot the fluffy rabbit wary looks from time to time.
"I have returned! And I come bearing pie!" said Dark proudly, having swiped one of the many illegal credit cards Dean carried. He was a thief after all.
"Pie!"
Dark handed Dean two of the boxes, and the third to Sam. A quick inspection revealed it to be strawberry. With perked up, having smelled the fruit before he dove in. Dark chuckled.
"How is it that the rat thing can get strawberries all over it's fur and you can care less, but when it gets blood on it you insist on giving it a bath?" asked Dean, hooking a fork at said furball.
"Blood is a bigger pain to get out. Especially when it's human," said Dark, before he added "Besides, I cast a spell on With centuries ago so that the berries just slide off his fur aside from the scent."
"HEY! That's my card!" said Dean, finally noticing the plastic in Dark's hand.
"Spoils of war," said Dark in a sing-song voice.
"Gimme!"
"Catch me if you can, Winchester!" laughed Dark. He was out the door before Dean could pounce on him. Dean growled.
"Remind me again why we put up with him?" asked Dean.
"Because demons are actually afraid of him, he hasn't tried to kill us yet, and owns a rather bizarre rabbit that turned out to be some sort of hellish crime against nature?" said Sam, listing the reasons.
"And because he is unfortunately more helpful than most when it comes to hunts," finished Dean with a growl.
Dark was a pain in the ass, but he was a useful pain in the ass. Even if his rabbit now officially worried Dean. He had thought the thing was an annoying pest that Dark kept around for company. He hadn't thought the furball was an actual threat.
When Sam was taken, he wasn't alone. For some reason only known to Dark, With had taken to sleeping in Sam's pocket.
Dark suspected With could smell the demonic taint, and the fact Sam wasn't above sharing any strawberries he happened to get in his meal with the 'rabbit' didn't hurt either. And Sam tended to get those quite often.
As Dean once commented, the rabbits were tag teaming against them both.
Dark immediately took the chance to put Sam into a pair of brown rabbit ears, to Dean's eternal amusement. Sam still hadn't gotten all the photos from that prank. Dean had it as his wallpaper!
(Sam finally had enough when Dark somehow set his ringtone to 'Here Comes Peter Cottontail' and made sure Bobby was within hearing distance when he set it off. Dean had never laughed so hard in his life.)
"Why aren't you freaking out?" asked Dean after calling Bobby with the news demons had taken Sam.
"With likes Sam, and he's bright enough to know how to bribe the rabbit," said Dark shrugging.
Dean paused in his freak-out.
"Sam had that homicidal rabbit?"
"Last I saw With, he was had somehow managed to convince Sam to let him sleep in his pocket," said Dark.
"There are so many things wrong with that statement, primarily the fact we've seen that thing at it's worst," said Dean.
"Or it could be that With thinks Sammy is a rabbit too, and wants a little brother to spoil," said Dark after a moment.
Dean couldn't help the snort of amusement, clearly remembering the rabbit ears.
The first thing Sam remembered, having gone in for pie and hopefully some more fruit for a certain rabbit, was the smell. For a few seconds he had thought it had come from a certain furball in his pocket, until he remembered With usually smelled like strawberries, his favorite treat.
Dark had been entirely unsurprised that With started hitting Sam up for food once he found out that Sam had a tendency to eat healthy. Dark was firmly on Dean's side when it came to food...the junkier the better.
The next thing he remembered was being hit with something...then waking up in this area.
He felt something squirm in his pocket, and pulled it open enough to see a pair of crimson red eyes looking at him reproachfully. Sam pulled out his hoodie (he had started to wear them when he realized the rabbit would curl up inside and stay out of the way) and the rabbit immediately went into the hood.
When he realized the trouble he was in, he was very glad With had a habit of snuggling up to him and stowing away in his clothes. Better to have dubious back up he knew was effective than none at all.
Plus it was kind of hilarious to see the look on the other psychic's faces when they saw how fast the Acheri demon ran from the tiny furball.
Eva, the psychic who had helped him out when Dean needed a break from dealing with Sam, seemed the most confused.
"Why was a demon freaking out over such a cute rabbit?" asked Eva.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said honestly.
"So where's Sam?" asked Bobby to Dark.
"Well... I can call With here if I need to, but since I know for a fact he likes Sam enough to defend him I doubt it's a good idea. If I had a visual of where he is I could bring Dean to him along with any ammo. It's been a while since I spread my real wings instead of relied on With," said Dark.
Bobby and Dean rolled their eyes. They were used to Dark's claims of being an angel. While they agreed he was something they had never hunted before, they were highly skeptical he was an angel.
Dean was about to reply to that when he had a sudden blinding headache. All he saw was a tree in what appeared to be iron or something on a bell. It ended just as quickly as it had come.
"What is it?" asked Dark immediately. He had felt that, and it was boosted by demon-taint to boot.
"If that was what Sammy kept getting, it's no wonder he never said anything," said Dean grimacing.
"It was a vision, wasn't it? That was directed specifically at you," said Dark.
"How can you tell?"
"Demon-taint was centered only on Dean."
"So what did you see?" asked Bobby.
"Hold up. I have a faster way," said Dark, "This might feel a little weird, but I promise it won't do anything but allow me to show what the vision gave you."
"Go for it," said Dean.
Dark put his hand on Dean's head, and snapped the fingers on his free hand.
A weird soap bubble appeared and it showed the images sent to Dean.
"That's the tree!"
"Cold Oak?" said Bobby.
"You know this place?" asked Dark.
"I've heard of it. Are you sure that's what you saw?"
"That's what I saw," said Dean. Dark let the weird soap bubble disappear.
"Thank you big brother Loki," he said pleased "Get your gear together and I can fly us straight to the area, provided this demon doesn't know about me. If he does we'll have to settle for walking."
