Cold Waves- Chapter Fifteen
Title: Cold Waves- Chapter Fifteen
Pairing: Dean/Castiel
Warnings:
Summary: Dean had enough to worry about between hunting and Sam hallucinating about Hell. The last thing he needed was to be forced to put a certain angel back together.
The next few days passed mostly without incidence; eventually Bobby got tired of Castiel sneaking around the house trying to avoid him. One day he cornered Castiel in the kitchen, handed him a beer and told him he need help translating an old book. So for the time being everyone was managing to get along and there was no bitching or eye-gouging so Dean could actually leave Castiel alone for a few minutes without everything going to hell. Whatever was in the mysterious fire water Mastema had given Cas earlier that week seemed to work, he wasn't getting sick anymore and one of the smaller wounds on his back had finally healed, he could rotate his wrists a full 360 degrees without whimpering in pain. Of course the angel couldn't have spent the extra few seconds to re-work Sam's seal, so Satan was still popping up a lot but Sam found that as long as he focused on something else it wasn't so bad.
Castiel seemed to understand that he wasn't supposed to bring up the night that Dean showed up in his room. It wasn't even that it was Dean was still confused what team he was batting for, more like that Dean didn't cuddle especially when it wasn't even in exchange for sex. On his way to bed the next night he passed by Castiel's room, the door cracked open enough that he could see inside. He wasn't sure if that was Castiel's unspoken invitation to stop by whenever he wanted and that almost made Dean groan in frustration. Lately Castiel was always so unsure about everything, in stark contrast to how it was when he was an angel, but he never passed up a chance to show his near god-like devotion to Dean. Which was really just making Dean uncomfortable.
Sam had no idea how Dean did it, how he convinced both him and Castiel that they needed to go out drinking. He gave the half-asses excuse that there had to be some adverse effects to going a full week without alchole. Castiel followed Dean into the car because he always did what Dean said and Sam followed Cas because there was no way he'd be able to handle a drunk Dean on his own. The bar had more people then Sam was expecting there to be on a Monday evening, he recognized some faces from other times they'd drank there and the regulars still ignored the no smoking sign.
Dean was four beers in when Sam finally ordered something to drink while Castiel seemed content trying to figure out the rules of the sports game on the television. Eventually Dean realized that the other two didn't really plan on joining his drink fest but it still took him another two beers before he grudgingly agreed to go home. Of course he spent the whole walk back to the car bitching about having to leave just when the bar was starting to fill up.
"Come on Baby, don't do this to me now." A voice cooed on the other side of the lot, Sam barely heard it but Dean with his damsel in distress spidy senses instantly turned to look. If the car hadn't been bright cherry red it would have faded into the night like all the other cars and Dean's eyes lit up like a kid eying candy. He was already walking across the lot before Sam could say anything, looking at the car more then the woman bent under the hood.
"Charger." She jumped at his voice nearly slamming her head against the open hood. "67?"
"…68." She corrected, the beam of her flash light followed her eyes as she looked suspiciously at the stranger.
"Giving you trouble?"
"Nothing I can't handle." She snorted. Dean reached a hand over to the engine but she swatted his hand away. "Hands off."
"Hey just trying to help." Dean held his hands up and grinned, she looked at him like he was one of the drunken creeps from the bar. "See the beauty back there, that's mine."
The flashlight went back over to the impala then briefly flashed over the two man standing beside it. She still didn't look entirely convinced that he wasn't a rapist but she took a step aside to let him have a look. "I could drive you home and you can call a mechanic in the morning."
"Ya that's exactly what I need, then Daddy can spend all of Sunday bitching about how I don't know how to treat her."
"I got some tools in my trunk let me see what I can do." She mumbled something under her breath as he walked away and Sam gave him a sour look when he passed. Dean popped the trunk open and grabbed his small tool kit, he tossed his keys at Sam and gave him a thumbs up before heading back over to the lady.
"I can't believe him." Sam murmured, jingling the keys in his hand before turning to Castiel. "Come on, that's our cue to leave."
"But…" Castiel shot a glance over at Dean, who already had both hands covered in grease. "Shouldn't we stay incase she rejects his advances?"
Sam sat down in the front seat and stuck the keys in the ignition. "The jerk can walk home if that happens."
Castiel shifted from foot to foot and kept his gaze on Dean as he chatted up the girl next to him. He grimaced then nodded, walked to the other side of the car and climbed into the seat. The ride home was full of awkward silence and Sam could feel the bad mood radiating off Castiel. "I don't want you to think that I'm trying to interfere with Dean's conquests."
"I don't think that." Sam assured him.
"It's just that that woman gave me a bad feeling. What if she isn't human?"
"I'm sure Dean can take care of himself." Sam said and as if to prove him wrong his cell phone went off. It vibrated twice and lit up with Dean's number, Sam opened the text Sammy, bring condoms. Now. then listed off an address. Cursing his luck Sam u-turned and headed in the opposite direction, veering left at the next right and mentally chastised his brother for being so stupid. He pulled up to a run down motel, sleazy by even the Winchester's low standards, and reached over into the glove compartment grabbed a small black box out of it. "Uh wait here, I shouldn't be long."
Castiel shrugged and looked out the window turning his attention away from Sam and the motel room Dean had found himself in. The door clicked shut and Castiel rested his head against the cool glass, it was fairly late and Cas was usually asleep by now. Beside it was easier to slowly edge into sleep then to focus on the bitter realization that Dean didn't have to decency to wait till Castiel was out of eye shot to start hitting on women.
A high pitched ring jolted Castiel out of his sleep, bleary eyes looked around at the near blackness of the night lit up with only a few street lamps. When the ring sounded again Castiel realized his phone was going off, a device he hardly had a use for and was usually tossed in the back seat. It was difficult to find in the darkness but he grabbed it on the last ring, answering in a rough voice "Hello?"
"Where are you?"
"Bobby?" Castiel rubbed his eyes and yawned. "What's wrong?"
"You three were supposed to be back hours ago. Dean said he'd work that case in Colton tomorrow and you idjits can't spend all night drinking the night before a hunt."
"Dean found a woman at the bar." Castiel explained and Bobby snorted. "Sam went to give him protection…but that was…he has been gone quite awhile."
"They left you alone?" Castiel tensed at the question, why did every one think the world would some how end if Castiel was left to his own devices?
"He said he would return shortly."
"But he hasn't."
"Should I go check on him?"
"I think you should have done that if Sam was gone longer then five minutes." Bobby paused. "You have a gun?"
"You want me to shoot her?"
"…only if she's not human."
"I'm not incompetent Bobby." Castiel got out of the car and opened the trunk, grabbing the colt he said good bye to Bobby and headed over to the last room on the strip, sliding then gun into the back of his pants. He tried to discreetly peek through the window curtains but could only see the edge of the couch and not much else. He moved over to the door and strained to hear something on the other side but the whole building was cloaked in silence. Castiel held his hand up to the door, nearly knocking before thinking it was a stupid idea to announce his presence if something bad was going on. Taking a deep breath he grabbed the door knob and stepped in.
The room looked empty at first, extremely dirty but mostly empty, then Castiel heard a muffled cry and turned to see both Sam and Dean tucked away in the corner. He was almost relieved till he saw the duck tape across Dean's mouth, the rope that tied them both to a chair and the tiny trickle of blood on Sam's forehead. Dean tugged against the ropes keeping his hands on the chair's arms and jerks his neck, his muffled voice trying to speak to Castiel.
"Dean, what-" Castiel stopped when the door slammed shut, he tried to turn around but something slammed hard against his skull.
Castiel groaned, his head felt like it was on fire and everything was blurry. A noise kept ringing in his ears and he thought that Dean was going to strain his vocal cords if he kept trying to yell through his gag. Then the memories came flooding back and Castiel tried to move but found his body tied down just like Dean. The light was turned on now and the brightness hurt his eyes but at least her could see.
"Good to see you're awake." Castiel tried to look behind him at the voice, the quick movement sent a shrill pain through his head. "I was worried I might have hit you too hard."
A mess of red hair come into view, the girl from the parking lot, and if Sam wasn't still passed out Castiel would have said to him I told you so. She smiled sweetly and he saw the glint of a knife before he felt its cold tip bite against his jaw. Dean tried to yank the ropes loose again, pulling so hard the chair wobbled and could almost hear the swear words he was trying to yell out.
"Don't worry," She pressed the knife harder into his skin just short of breaking it "I'm not going to hurt him. I have orders." She stabbed the knife next to Castiel's head into the wall. Her eyes flashed black and she walked to the other side of the room, grabbed Sam by his hair and examined the gash on his forehead. "Sam on the other hand, I definitely hit him too hard."
At that point Dean's face was bright read and he continued to scream against the duck tape. The demon rolled her black eyes, reached over and ripped the tape off. "You bitch, when I get my hands on you-"
She laughed, bitter and angry, she let go of Sam and stood in front of Dean. "You really don't remember me, do you?"
"Should I?" He growled.
"My names Sophia. Sophia Martin." She paused waiting to see if Dean would react to the name. "Yeah I didn't expect you to remember."
"Who the hell are you?"
"Four years." She started, ignoring his question. "It's been less then four years, isn't that crazy? In Hell time goes by so slowly, it's been a couple hundred years down there and only four years up here, forty-eight months…since I ended up on your rack."
Castiel could see the fire in Dean's eyes die, his usually tanned skin seemed to pale and he breathed out a "what?"
"And usually it takes a long time before they let you come up top but I guess boss knew I had a standing grudge against you."
"Let them go," Dean said slowly "whatever I did to you they had nothing to do with it."
She reached into her coat pocket and pulled a small vile out then she chuckled and walked over to Castiel. "It was a killer deal really, I get to strap you down and cut you up and I'll gotta do is deliver Angelboy here."
She put a hand on the back of Castiel's chair and leaned in, holding up the vile and shaking the contents. Castiel's eyes widened at the nickname and his breath caught at objects in glass bottle. Three white teeth rattled against the side and it made every lesion on his body throb and ache. "Nikki."
"Seems like she's missing you something awful and just itching to get you back."
"Sophia listen," the demon didn't move away from Castiel but turned to look at Dean "you've been in Hell long enough to know that…to know how things work. Yeah I did horrible things in Hell but you've tortured souls to."
"Yeah I have." She stood up and Castiel caught a flash of a sneer before she turned to face Dean. "I rip them apart and every night I give them a chance to get off and if they say no I start all over again."
She grabbed the knife out of the way and cleared the distance between her and Dean in only a few strides. Sophia held the knife against Dean's throat and practically spit in the hunter's face. "And if they say yes, you let them off. Because that's how it works but that's not what you did."
"I-"
"Shut up!" She hissed and stabbed the knife into his shoulder. Castiel called out Dean's name and Sophia growled before twisting the knife. "I begged you to stop. I told you I'd do anything to get off that rack, that I'd butcher people if I had to."
She pulled the blade out and plunged it into his stomach, Castiel kept telling her to stop, the noise was starting to rouse Sam from his sleep and he groaned but Dean just clenched his jaw and swallowed any sign he was in pain.
"And you laughed. I didn't last long before you broke me and you told me, Hell needs hard demons not soft little girls. So you kept going, for six fucking months till you got bored and passed me on to someone else." Dean's breathing was growing heavy, he tried to keep his glare dark and heavy on her but his eyes were starting to droop.
"…Dean?...Cas?" Sam groggy voice stopped Sophia from cutting into Dean anymore. She watched him lift his head and the way his bleary eyes lit up when he realized what was going on.
"I'm going to kill your baby brother." Sophia leaned in and whispered into Dean's ear. "I'm going to bleed you dry, skin your brother and hand deliver your little boyfriend because we have big plans for him." She ripped the knife out again, pulled back Dean's head till his neck was stretched out, Castiel could see Sophia's fingers tighten around the knife before she raised it up.
"You're pathetic." The knife had barely grazed Dean's neck when Sophia jerked back at the sound of Castiel's voice. "You weren't good enough to be a real demon so they turned you into an errand girl."
"I'll get to you later." Sophia barked but Castiel kept going before she could turn back over to Dean.
"He never got bored with you, he just finally saw the weak child you were."
"Cas…stop talking." Dean wheezed.
"Four years on earth is almost five hundred years in Hell and you're still whining like a baby." Sophia's bravado melted away into shock staring at Castiel, eyes almost as wide as Sam who was just as surprised to see a glimpse of the Castiel he'd first met, not the meek man he'd been lately.
"Don't think I won't break every bone in your body."
"I'm sure that will go over well, bringing Nikki damaged goods. You don't even make a decent foot soldier." Sophia stepped away from Dean and Castiel spared him only half a glance before he continued. "
"Shut up!" She screeched and kicked at him, narrowly missing his knee and slamming into the seat of the chair instead. Castiel went flying backwards landing against the ground with a heavy thud, his head bounced against the sharp edge of the chair. A cough ripped out through his chest, a spray of liquid crimson erupting from between his lips. The next cough turned into a harsh gurgle, blood pooling out the sides of his mouth and blue eyes rolled up and disappeared. "What- what's going on? What wrong with him?"
"He's sick." Sam voice was still rough from sleep. "He's still torn up from last time."
Sophia dropped to her knees and when another shutter broke out through Castiel she lifted his head which only sent another puddle of blood out of his mouth and down his chest. "Shit."
"You need to put him of his front or he'd going to choke on his own blood." Sophia looked over at Sam, he could see the panic ebbing into her eyes and the way her hands were starting to shake. "You think your boss is going to be happy with a corpse?"
Sophia picked the knife back up and slashed the ropes tying Castiel's ankles then quickly went for the ones on his wrists. She reached out to move him but in a flash Castiel had lunged at her, knocking her away and reached for the gun still tucked under his shirt. He'd barely brushed the handle before Sophia pushed him back and her fist collided with his jaw. Castiel rolled away just in time to avoid another punch and sent a leg out to kick her on her back.
"You son of a bitch." She growled and lunged at him but Castiel was faster, he grabbed the colt out of his pants and shot. The bullet his with such force it snapped her head back, bone cracking around the hole, Sophia managed a soft gurgle before her body went limp. Castiel dropped the gun and took a heavy breath; he wiped the blood of his cheek, a mix of his own and splatter from bullet wound.
"Cas." Sam breathed, looking over at his brother whose breathing was heavy and shallow. Castiel stared blankly at the blooded coating his fingers and down to the dead demon on the ground. "Castiel, you okay?"
Castiel looked over at Sam and wiped the sticky substance onto his jeans. "Life would be much more simple if you two stopped coveting demons."