CHAPTER TEN

Sam

"Ugh." I rubbed my eyes and blinked a few times in an attempt to clear the fuzziness. After leaving the massacred gym, Zak had gotten to the Crow and Hammer in record time. Now, he and I were back at our little, corner table in the Crow & Hammer's library / work room, a table that had so many books on it I was seriously worried it was gonna buckle. And while with its good lighting and comfy chairs, it was a significant improvement over the skeezy motels with shit internet and questionable smells where I usually worked, I didn't really care because, after almost three hours of hardcore research, my energy level was dipping into the negatives. "I think that stuff you put in our coffee wore off." I shook my head again to try and wake up, then looked to my left at Zak, whose eyes were currently glazed over like he was sleeping with them open, and was leaning on the table with his head propped up on his fist. All while staring at the same book and same page of said book that he'd been staring at for the past fifteen minutes, so either it was really important, or he was definitely asleep. I was going with the latter.

"Hey." I yawned and stretched. No response. "Zak." I said louder. Nothin'. "Zak!" I shouted and swatted his fist out from under his head. His head shot up, and he straightened so fast he almost dropped the book in his lap. He looked at me, blinked a few times like he was trying to remember where he was, then took a deep breath and set the book on the table.

"Dude," I laughed, "you fell asleep."

He gave me a side eye, cleared his throat and rolled his neck, "I don't think so." then pulled his chair closer to the table.

"Tsst," I smirked, "you definitely did." I sighed. "So, whaddya got?"

He shook his head and yawned, "This." He tapped the page and slid the book over to me.

I canted my head and squinted at the array drawn in painstaking detail, at the, most likely blood spattered page, of the leather bound grimoire. "Huh. I've never seen a summoning circle like this one before…" "Not even in my Dad's journal. I mean," I pulled the book closer, "it looks kind of like a devil's trap, but I don't know most of these symbols."

"You don't recognize the runes because they're fae." He stated in a condescendingly polite way, if that could be a thing. "And, you're right, it is a kind of trap, we're going to have to modify it a bit to use it for summoning though." He splayed his fingers on the page and turned the book back to himself, studying it again.

"I take it that summoning Fae isn't something you do very often?"

"I try to avoid it."

I frowned and nodded, "That tracks. Well, if we need to modify it to make it a Fae trap slash summoning combo…" I scratched my head, "Why don't we use a basic demon summoning spell? I mean, you might have to change the language or something, but… It's a thought." I shrugged and aimlessly scrolled on my laptop.

He leaned back in his chair again and cocked his head, "Do you think that'll work?" He narrowed his eyes at me.

"You're asking me?" I looked up, genuinely surprised.

He arched an eyebrow, "Why wouldn't I?"

"But you're…"

"I'm aware." He put up his hand to stop me finishing my sentence "But, I've never combined magics like this before, and" his eyebrows lifted, "from what I've gleaned in the almost twenty four hours we've been in this room, this seems to be a pretty regular thing for you."

"Hmm." I frowned. "Well, you're not wrong… But I operate mostly on trial and error. Heavy focus on the 'error' part." I muttered, looking back down at my notes, "Hey, what about Ezra?"

"What about him?" he asked casually, not bothering to take his focus off the page.

"Well, didn't you say he was possessed by a demon for like, a decade?"

"Yes. And?" his lips thinned as he took his eyes off the page to look at me.

"Well, we have to try your world's magic first, right? So if he was possessed for that long, maybe he can help us?" I shrugged, unsure of my own suggestion. "I mean, he must remember something. And, I don't know about you, but demon summoning is definitely not my forte."

Zak was a pretty stoic dude so body language was about the only way I could guess what he was feeling, and as he raked his hair then gripped the back of his neck, he seemed like he was worried about something; I still didn't know exactly what had happened to Ezra, but I knew it was a touchy subject that no one wanted to talk about. After a minute, he pulled his chair closer and leaned in so that both his elbows were resting on the table, stared straight ahead, considering. Finally, he nodded at me, reached across the table and picked up his phone.

"Okay, I'll call him."

Looking down at our little table that was currently covered in draft paper, rulers, multiple pens and sticky notes, I couldn't help but be impressed with what we'd accomplished in a little over two and a half hours.

Unfortunately, Ezra had turned out to be less than helpful in the whole 'demonic magic' business… So, we gave up on that and switched to a devil's trap from my realm.

BUT, he did bring us lunch. And after practically inhaling the steak salads and "strongest coffee obtainable", we'd started drawing out the 'array'. Well, Zak did most of the drawing, and I was relegated to 'incantation writing', because, and I quote: "you suck at drawing and you're getting in my way." He only surrendered his pens when he needed me to draw in the runes for the trap.

"Sooo, do you think we got something?" I asked hopefully, looking across the table to Zak, who was standing in his usual 'cross armed' and thinking position, head cocked to the left while he surveyed our work.

He clicked his tongue and looked across to me, "I think we just might," he breathed, the corner of his mouth twitching up in a smile.

I grinned, feeling ridiculously proud, "Now, all we gotta do is go shopping."

After completing our grocery list, which I was given the privilege of writing down, Zak rolled up our drawings and grabbed our, very sophisticated spiral notebook, then headed downstairs to find Dean and Aaron.

"Alright," Zak rumbled as we came down the stairs, where Aaron and Ezra were chatting at the bar. It was still early, so the bar was still empty. But, shit, where was Dean?

Just as panic over Dean's location was about to set in, the doors to the kitchen flapped open, and Dean popped out with Tori, carrying three plates with giant burgers on them.

"And here you go! Three of my specialty bacon cheeseburgers, with everything." Dean beamed as he set the plates in front of Aaron and Ezra.

"And ketchup, mustard and mayo, just in case." Tori smiled and set the condiments on the bar. Then went back into the kitchen

re-appearing a few seconds later with two more plates loaded with burgers.

"Ahem," Zak cleared his throat and the four of them finally noticed us.

"Zak, Sam," Tori smiled and put the plates carefully on the bar, "perfect timing."

"Yeah, they are fresh off the grill. And don't worry, I made chicken burgers for you two health nerds." Dean said proudly and wiped his hands on the long, white kitchen apron.

"Are you wearing an apron, dude?"

"You can't cook burgers without an apron, Sammy. Everybody knows that." Dean replied seriously.

Zak stepped past me so he was standing right next to Aaron, "As I was saying, Idiots number one and three, here is a list of the shit we need, so you know, go get it." Then handed the list to Aaron.

"What about Ezra?" Aaron asked, setting down his burger and flipping the list right side up.

"He brought us food…" Zak took a bite of the chicken burger, and looked pleasantly surprised.

"Yeah," I looked at Dean, "he also helped us do research."

"He's excused from dumpster diving." Zak finished and smiled conspiratorially at Ezra, who gave Zak and I a salute with his soda.

"Dumpster diving?" Tori's nose wrinkled in disgust, "What the hell is on that list?" she leaned over the bar to get a better look at the list.

"Hold up," Dean looked at Zak then back to Aaron, "am I 'idiot number three' here?"

I snorted and took a bite of my chicken burger, "Obviously." While Zak, answered with a look that said 'well, duh'.

"Don't worry," Aaron chuckled, and dusted the burger crumbs off his fingers, "it's just how he expresses his love."

"Oh." Dean smiled proudly, and made a show of straightening his shirt. "I feel so special." Then tilted his head and gave a sideways grin, "See, Sammy? Your boyfriend likes me more than you."

I gave him a dirty look and caught a glance from Zak, who, in an impressive show of emotion, grimaced and gave me a 'no' headshake.

"Ugh, Sammy… This is gross. 'Fresh and rotten meat', 'rotten fruit and veggies' and… One live chicken." Dean grimaced as he read the list out loud, "this is gross."

"Ew." Tori grimaced.

"You forgot 'one vial of human blood'." Aaron's nose wrinkled in disgust as he looked over to Zak. "Human blood? Really man?"

"Really 'eww'." Tori mumbled.

"That's just in case the chicken doesn't work." Zak replied casually as he shoved the last bit of sandwich into his mouth.

"Oh, and make sure that whatever rotten food you get, the fresh ones are the same." I nodded at Dean and Aaron, who were still looking at us with disgust. "He's a fae god of life and death, guys. They were the best offerings we could come up with on short notice." I gestured to Zak, then let my arm drop hard to my side. "Plus, there's no record of this ever being done before."

"Exactly." Zak piped in, "Now, Sam and I need to get to the hardware store." He flipped his keys around his finger, took a quick glance at my half eaten burger and nodded to the door. "You can eat in the truck."

"That still doesn't make it any less gross." Dean muttered as I grabbed my sandwich and followed Zak to the door.

"Oh," Zak stopped at the door and did an about face back to the bar "Be at my place tomorrow an hour before sunset." He paused and pointed at Aaron and Tori, "Do NOT be late."

"Hey!" Tori glared.

Aaron rolled his eyes. "Don't worry Captain Punctuality, we'll be there on time." He sighed, sounding a bit offended.

"No worries, I'll make sure we're there on time." Ezra offered smiling.

"Good." Zak gave him a curt nod and headed out the door.

"Oh, Dean," I stopped just at the door, "apparently Zak lives pretty far out--"

"Understatement." Aaron mumbled under his breath.

"-- so I'm gonna stay at his place tonight, that way we can draw the circle properly."

"Sam!" Zak called from the parking lot, "it's gonna be dark soon and I'd like some daylight while we drive."

"Coming!" I yelled back and headed to his old truck. I was halfway there, when I heard Dean come out.

"Whoa, hey! Wait a minute you two." He shouted as he jogged to the center of the lot.

Zak stood in front of the open driver's side door lips pressed tight in annoyance and probably counting to ten.

"Before we go dumpster diving," he grimaced again, and gave the both of us a serious stare, "did you two, in your extensive research," I practically heard Zak roll his eyes at that one, "happen to figure out how to kill this thing?"

Zak and I exchanged guilty looks, because no, we had no idea how to kill this thing.

"Umm, heh," I scratched the back of my head and gave, a nervous smile, "brute force?" and shrugged.

"Ahh," Dean, tsked and nodded sarcastically, "my favorite."