LEVIATHAN | Part 4
Title: LEVIATHAN
By: revenant_scribe
PART 4/4
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Rating: R | Word Count: 10,657
When he raises himself up the mighty are afraid; at the crashing
they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches him, it does
not avail; nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin. He counts
iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make
him flee; for him slingstones are turned to stubble. Clubs are
counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins.
Job 41:25-9
Ruby’s marigold 1970 Mustang was purring. It was pulled close to the curb, the tinted windows rolled up as Sam stepped out of the diner, a plastic bagged stuffed with lunch for him and Dean hanging from one hand.
They’d established a new status quo, not talking about what exactly it was they were doing with each other, asking for two queens instead of a single kind even if they invariably ended up sharing. Each time they tumbled into bed they acted like it was a surprise, a one-time thing. Sam didn’t talk about the flask he carried with him tucked in his coat, and Dean pretended he hadn’t noticed it.
Sam tolerated Castiel and tried not to hold his breath whenever Dean left to do whatever it was the angel sometimes he requested his help with. When Dean came back with bruises on his chest and a black eye and said only, “Uriel’s dead,” Sam didn’t ask why or how. He took one glance at Castiel, standing rigid and tight lipped, and nodded and went to the store to pick up some frozen peas.
So far it was working for them, but it felt like they were always on thin ice.
Sam pulled open the passenger door and slid into the familiar interior, setting his bag on the floor at his feet as he said, “Y’know, this isn’t an actual parking spot.”
“And the sign says ‘no idling’,” Ruby noted. “Sue me.” She shifted gears and pulled away from the curb. “You’re back with Dean,” she said after the silence had stretched.
Sam caught the glance she flashed his way and shrugged. “It wasn’t right. However awkward it’s been to have him around, acting like I haven’t managed to take care of myself just fine when he was …away.” He shrugged. “Being apart just wasn’t right. I shouldn’t have left him.”
“Technically speaking here, Sam, but didn’t he leave you?” Ruby corrected, her tone sharp.
Sam nodded. “Yeah, well, I found him again.” Eyebrows raised, he turned to face her, pointing-out, “The light’s green.”
She huffed and revved the car back into motion. “Look, he’s your brother and he’s important to you, I get that. But he doesn’t understand what you’re trying to do. We’re so close, Sam.”
“I know, Ruby.” Sighing, Sam rubbed a hand over his brow, wishing that everyone in his life could just understand what he was trying to do and who he was, and then just accept it, without giving him and each other so much shit. “This isn’t up for debate.”
She fell silent, and Sam was relieved. At least Ruby knew enough not to push at him. She listened and supported him, even when she thought he was making the wrong choice. It was one of the things Sam appreciated about her.
“Look,” he said, when she didn’t volunteer anything further. “I need you to do something for me.”
Her hands flexed on the steering wheel. “What?”
Sam shifted, considered briefly whether to voice his request or not. Then a memory of Dean sitting on the hood of the Impala, toying idly with a bear and saying, “They, sliced and carved, and tore at me in ways that you … until there was nothing left.”
That memory was quickly followed by a newer one, Dean sitting at the edge of the bed, his head in his hands as he said, “When I was there I just … it was like…he owned me.”
Sam said, “I need you to bring me Alistair.”
Ruby laughed. “That’s real funny, Sam.”
Sam clenched his jaw, and then reminded himself that there was no reason to get angry yet because she hadn’t said ‘no’, not exactly. “I’m serious.”
The car swerved to the right as she pulled suddenly to the side, bumping up over a curb as she took the turn too sharp, and then smoothing out as she came to a stop in the far corner of a gas station parking lot. “What are you thinking here, Sam?”
Sam kept his voice steady and firm as he said, “I’m thinking I want to talk to him.”
“You want me to just walk up to a high-ranking demon like Alistair and say, ‘Oh hey, Sam Winchester wants to chat with you. D’you mind coming with me?’ It doesn’t work like that.”
“You’ll come up with something.”
She huffed, slapped her hands against the steering wheel and jerked back into her seat. “Right, I’ll just come-up something out of the ether. Why, Sam? What’s the point?”
He considered explaining it to her; she’d been nothing if not loyal and understanding. Some of the things he’d told her, about himself and about Dean, were things he could never in a million years have considered repeating to another soul. Ruby, though, always seemed to just get it, and there had been nothing that he had to tell her that had made her act surprised.
Then again, this felt too personal. “That’s none of your business. Just do it.”
She grinned, a sultry little stretch of her lips as she flicked a sideways glance his way. “I like it when you’re bossy.” Then the moment passed and the flirtatious look disappeared as she said, “Even if I could come up with something, where Alistair is, there’s no coming back from that. Not for a good long while.”
That was not something Sam was expecting. He frowned. “Where is he?”
“Hell,” she said. Sam shrugged, like that shouldn’t matter, and she huffed. “He was sent there by a Leviathan, Sam. There’s no coming back from that. A Leviathan flicks you back into the pit and that’s all she wrote for at least a couple of centuries. He’s bound down there in the pit. Alistair is out of the game, he’s been sent to detention and he doesn’t even have any toys to play with.”
Sam mulled that over, the idea of a Leviathan out there making him anxious and impatient. Castiel had said there was one per continent, but North America was a pretty big place and it was entirely possible the Leviathan could have been on the other side of the border.
If it had targeted Alistair, though, that meant it was close. Alistair had been dogging his and Dean’s steps since he’d climbed out of the pit. Sam would know, he’d spent a solid portion of that time tracking Alistair. He’d had solid tabs on the demon right up to about a week ago, which meant the Leviathan had gotten pretty damned close, and Sam hadn’t even noticed.
It was no good getting distracted, though. “Just find a way.”
“No way, Sam. No freaking way! I am not going to cross a Leviathan, okay? Those things are mental.”
“Ruby!”
She jerked backward in her seat and tipped her head down, her brown hair slipping forward to obscure her face. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll find a way.”
He nodded, and resettled in his seat. “What do you know about the Leviathans, anyway?”
She tipped her head toward the roof of the car and shook her head. “I’ve already told you everything I know.”
Sam hm’ed thoughtfully and then said, “When I spoke to Castiel, he said none of the references in any of the books were reliable because no one had ever seen one before.”
Ruby shrugged. “Any demon that’s come up against one gets tossed back into the pit so deep they’re not exactly socializing. By the time they crawl out again, most of them don’t make much sense, and when they do all they can remember about what sent them down there is light.”
“If the demons knew how to track the Leviathan, first order of business would be to hunt it down and kill it.” Ruby nodded, her eyebrows raised and her whole expression reading clearly, ‘too right they would.’ “Would you?” Sam asked, and fixed her with a focused look.
She bit her lip and looked away out the front window. “So long as it doesn’t want to send me to the corner, then no.”
Sam nodded. “What Cas said, about no one having seen one, ever. I think it’s more likely that people just didn’t know what they were seeing.”
“What,” Ruby said, shifting forward, her attention focused and her eyes keen. “Like, they’re invisible?”
“No,” Sam said. “More like, they’re unremarkable.” He watched as a lithe blond girl hopped out of the cab of a black pick-up, her hair held back in a ponytail that swished back-and-forth as she walked round to the pump station. “If it were some kind of creature, and it’s been around as long as you and Cas say they have been, then someone would have noticed. Some hunter out there would have made Leviathans their specialty, especially given the lore that’s been circulating on them. They don’t come-off all that well in the stories.”
“You have no idea,” Ruby muttered.
“Right,” Sam continued. “So why haven’t they?” At Ruby’s look, he clarified. “As far as I know, no one has been hunting Leviathans. Castiel is certain that no one knows what they even look like, which to me, suggests that they don’t look like anything. Not anything you’d take note of.”
“So,” Ruby hedged.
“Think about it,” Sam said. “What do you see so often that you don’t pay any attention? What do you dismiss out of hand?” She blinked, and her utterly clueless expression made him grin, because when it came down to it, if he were right, then it was brilliant and he was brilliant for having figured it out. “Humans.”
She sat up sharply. “No way, Sam,” she said. “I mean, demons are one thing, but the kind of power a Leviathan has, you can’t just shove that into a human body. These things are gateways into Hell and Heaven. How are you supposed to walk through a person?”
“Seven humans just like any other human, scattered around the globe,” Sam insisted. “There’s nothing remarkable about them, they’re just normal people. Except they’re not.” He shrugged. “Angels can use their powers when they’re occupying a human vessel. Maybe the gateway thing is metaphorical?”
“Sam, that’s crazy.”
He shrugged. “It’s a theory.”
“These things, what they can do,” Ruby said. “They’re powerful. We don’t even know the full extent of their abilities because we’ve never hit the end of the world before, and really, that’s their forte. But even without that, they’re the only things a demon will really fear. Even more than angels, because they’re always walking the earth and they never die, and unlike angels who may or may not even care, a Leviathan always does. Even if you kill one, another just awakens to take its place. It’s like a law of the world that their numbers will never be depleted. No human can do what they can do.”
“Like I said, angels posses human bodies and can still wield their angelic powers,” Sam shrugged. “Same for demons. Why should they be any different?” He waved a hand. “Anyway, there’s no proof, it’s just an idea I’ve been toying with.”
He glanced down at his watch and raised his eyes. “I should get back to the motel before my brother starts to freak.”
She rolled her eyes, but settled her hands back on the wheel. They were silent for the rest of the drive, but when she pulled round to the back of the motel and Sam hopped out of the car, picking up his plastic bag filled with lunch, he leaned down into the cab. “Don’t forget,” he said, and then slammed the passenger door closed.
Dean groped blindly for the towel he had set on the counter, drying the water off his face and then roughly toweling his hair dry as he stepped out of the shower.
He heard the door to the motel open and then close again, the snick and rattle of the chain being slipped into place. “Sam? You back?”
“Yeah,” Sam said. “I got lunch.”
Dean smiled. “Perfect,” he said, too quiet for Sam to hear. He pulled his jeans on, fixing his belt in place, as he flexed his toes in the surprising thickness of the bathroom mat. His reflection in the mirror showed smudges under his eyes, but Dean wasn’t feeling worse for wear.
Maybe that had something to do with finally seeing an end in sight. It was hard to maneuver across the country and hunt demons while at the same time attempting to keep Sam in the dark about who he was and what he was doing. Still, Dean had been doing pretty good job and the last demon he had pushed back into the pit had been pretty high up in Lilith’s ranks, high enough, at least, to know where an even higher-ranking demon was heading.
There was no way he was going to lose the opportunity. If he reached the demon before it moved on, then the odds were pretty good he’d know where Lilith was, or at least, where she was planning to be. Then all he’d need to do was get there, and finish it.
“Hey,” Sam said, as Dean stepped out into the main room. Dean watched the way his brother’s eyes drifted down, surveyed the wet expanse of Dean’s chest with visible interest.
“Forgot a shirt,” Dean said, not at all embarrassed as he fished a T-shirt from his duffel.
“Uh,” Sam said. “Sure.”
They didn’t talk about it, but that didn’t stop it from happening, and it happened enough that Dean felt comfortable with flirting. Mostly he’d accepted it and moved on. Maybe Sam was suffering some residual angst, maybe not, if he was, it didn’t seem to slow him down at all.
“I got you extra cheese,” Sam said lamely as Dean tugged his T-shirt over his head.
“Sounds good.” He grabbed the bag and dropped onto the bed, the sheets pristine beneath him. Sam’s eyes drifted to the right, to the other bed that was in a state of hopeless disarray. “You gonna eat?”
Sam nodded. “Yeah,” he said, and settled on a chair, looking awkward.
“How’s Ruby?”
Sam’s eyes narrowed as he glanced up. “I wouldn’t know,” he said.
Dean took a bite of his burger. “Okay,” he said, easily, even if he knew the truth. The more he adjusted to and used his powers, the easier they came to him. Now, he could practically smell a demon from mile off. He knew Ruby’s smell.
He recognized the dark, bitter undercurrents of Sam’s own scent.
The final showdown couldn’t come soon enough, as far as he was concerned.
Sam had to wait five more days, but Ruby finally came through for him.
“Well, well, well,” Alistair said, preceding Ruby through the swinging metal door. “Nice place you got here, Sammy.” He sneered as he looked from the cement floor of the vacant factory to the metal shelves that reached up almost to the ceiling.
Sam didn’t pick the place because it was pretty; he picked it because it was deserted.
Ignoring the demon’s bitching, Sam flashed a look at Ruby who immediately stopped stepping forward and frowned at him. When he shook his head she huffed, tossed her hands in the air and then backed-off. Five steps backwards before she spun on her heel and pushed out through the door she’d just come through.
Alistair watched the exchange. “Power suits you.” The demon smirked as he added, “I can understand why you were Azazel’s favorite.” Sam watched the demon pace and let him rant. There were no Devil’s Traps in the factory. Sam didn’t need to use any tricks to make certain Alistair did what he wanted.
Sam was strong; he could feel his power thrumming through his veins.
“Of course,” Alistair continued, oblivious. “Azazel was an impetuous little fuck who ruined a thousand years worth of planning with one idiotic move.”
When he glanced over, Sam met the narrowed gaze with a cool one. In his mind, he was turning over ways to make the bastard beg, to make him bleed and then, ultimately, to kill him. “Don’t practice your inscrutable little superior gaze on me, boy,” Alistair cautioned. “I wrote the book on intimidation. It’s not going to work. You pulled me out of the pit for a reason … nice touch, by the way. What do you want?”
“What makes you think I want anything from you?”
Alistair sneered. “Ignorant little shit. I was down so deep in the depths that no one could find me. Where I was, you don’t just walk to. It takes a lot of juice to pull a demon out of a place like that. Or hasn’t your brother explained this to you? You didn’t go through all that effort just to have a little chat.”
Sam grit his teeth. “What does Dean have to do with this?”
“Oh please,” Alistair said. Then he took another look at Sam, and suddenly the demon was smiling. “You have no idea, do you? You don’t know what he is?” Sam shifted his weight, and then regretted it. His momentary weakness gave Alistair all he needed to know about what buttons to push.
“He’s something, isn’t he?” Alistair nodded, like no matter how Sam might try to deny it, they both knew the truth. “I mean, when he came down to me it was a no brainer. Your daddy? He was fun and all, but Dean. Well… Dean was sweet.” He smacked his lips like he was remembering tasting a particularly fine meal. Sam kept his expression flat. “Taking him apart was … mmm, it was a pleasure.”
“That’s my brother,” Sam said, his voice thick.
“Yes indeed,” Alistair said. “It’s share and share alike in Hell, Sammy. And believe me, we all shared. He begged so pretty. That boy bought me a lot of favors, you wouldn’t believe. Suddenly, I’m Mr. Popular. This body?” he held his arms out and glanced down at the man he was possessing, the same man Sam remembered from when he had first seen Alistair. “This was a ‘thank-you’ gift for sharing that fine piece of tail you call a brother.”
“Stop it,” Sam snarled
Alistair glanced up at him, his eyebrows raised, making a moue of contrition. “Did I say something to upset you?” Then he sneered. “I wouldn’t want to do that.”
“Talk all you want,” Sam said, finally resting control of the visceral reaction to having the demon talk about Dean. In his mind, he was peeling Alistair’s skin back piece by piece; was slicing him down the middle and letting his innards spill out onto the ground while he was still breathing. “You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know.”
“Oh really? Brother dearest whispered to you all his deepest darkest secrets?” he grinned. “Did hearing how he took it from one demon after another make you hot, Sammy?”
“I’m going to kill you,” Sam said. Took a steadying breath and repeated it again in his mind, consoled himself with the thought.
Alistair wasn’t smiling anymore; maybe he could finally feel the hold Sam had on him. The dark grip that kept him still. “You’re going to die, right here. That’s why I pulled you out of Hell, that’s the only reason why you’re here.”
“Revenge? For hurting brother dearest?”
“This isn’t revenge,” Sam said, feeling like himself again. Feeling power singing through him and reveling in it, Alistair’s vessel and the dark shade that was Alistair himself, both sitting pinned with the weight of Sam’s control. He could rip both apart within the blink of an eye, or he could make it slow. “This is just what happens when you touch something that’s mine.”
Alistair’s eyes were large and red, the pressure that Sam was exerting on him making his face flush a steadily darkening purple. “Dean?” he gasped, and Sam smiled.
‘Yes, Dean’ he thought, ‘Of course, Dean,’ because who else would Dean belong to if not Sam? No one.
“This is what’s going to happen,” Sam said, in his most reasonable tone. “You’re going to tell me everything you know Lilith’s plans, and then I’m going to kill you.” He leaned forward, so his breath puffed against the demon’s cheek as he said, “It’s gonna be slow. After all, you’re going to help me get ready to face her.”
“You're going to…” Alistair choked, and then gasped in another breath and finished, “Kill Lilith?”
“Yes.”
Alistair chuckled, the sound gagging and wet. “Better get there fast,” he said. “If the Leviathan beats you to it you’ll miss your one big chance.”
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “Who is the Leviathan?” he demanded. “They’re human, right? Tell me! I know you know!”
But Alistair only smirked, wide and reckless. Losing patience, Sam pulled the darkness from himself, pushed it forward into Alistair and wrapped it around the demon’s core like a fist, crushed him slow until he screamed and blood dripped down his chin.
“Tell me about Lilith,” Sam said.
“I’m not allied with that cunt,” Alistair snarled.
Carefully, Sam caught up the blood spilling down Alistair’s neck on his finger and licked it. Grinned as he said, “Who is?” Alistair screamed again as Sam tightened the grip of his power.
Distantly, Sam wondered what he was doing. How he could so casually be standing there and causing suffering, because Alistair wasn’t alone, he was occupying a host who was experiencing the pain right alongside the demon that was riding him.
Mostly, though, Sam wished that Dean were there. He’d push his brother back against the shelving units and work his mouth open, make him moan while Alistair watched, realized who Dean really belonged to. He wondered what that might feel like, crushing the demon in the fold of his own power while kissed Dean, while he worked Dean free of his jeans and jerked him off hard, while they fucked right there in the middle of a vacant factory.
All things considered, Ruby was feeling pretty good as she turned on her heel; stepped out of the abandoned warehouse and into the cool breeze and the night air, letting the door slam shut behind her. She tipped her head back and looked up into the clear dark sky, thin points of fragile light speckling the dark. She smiled.
Sometimes it felt like she was suckling some spoiled little kid, but every so often Sam made a demand that gave her shivers, that made her think of all the possibilities that the future held.
When she’d brought Alistair to him, she watched him stand there and thought, ‘yes’ with glee and pride. Thought, ‘I did this’ and wished she could turn to someone and say, ‘See? You all underestimated me, but look at what I have made. Isn’t he beautiful? Beautiful and mine.’ She wished he had let her stay, she wanted to revel in the blood he’d draw, in the screams he’d no doubt pull from Alistair before he put him out of his misery.
But orders were orders.
Stuffing her hands into her coat pocket she began to walk, pulled her keys from her jacket and flicked them up into the air, caught them on the way down with a clenched fist as she rounded the corner. “Another day, another dollar,” she said to herself and also to her car, because she was becoming inordinately fond of the thing. Couldn’t help reveling in the sensation of being topside, the wind and the smog and the stars, and her sweet, streamlined, rumbling beauty of a car.
“Ruby.”
The low roughness of the tone was so familiar that she almost discounted it out of hand. “Heya, Dean.” She leaned on the roof of her car, smiled at him from atop her crossed arms, and tipped her head to the side. He could say whatever he wanted, she’d already won, Sam was hers. “How are ya?”
She watched as the shadows shifted and then released him. He stepped out of the dark and into the circle of light offered by one of the round lamps clinging to the side of the adjacent building.
He was wearing the same leather jacket he always did, the same boots and the same torn jeans. Dean Winchester was damned pretty, but she wished he would wear fewer layers, and tighter clothes. Maybe when Sam finally put a leash on his big brother she could suggest it. Whisper it in his ear. Maybe in the future, Sam would invite her in on some of the action.
Who said hell on earth couldn’t offer up a little bit of heaven?
“You looking for Sam?” she wondered, when he didn’t speak or move, or offer any insight into his presence. “I think he said something about hitting a bar, you can probably still catch him. He just left.”
“Actually,” Dean said, his green eyes shifting away and then back again. “It’s you I wanted to talk to.”
She felt chills running through her, goose bumps pebbling her skin when he just kept watching her with a flat, lizard’s gaze. Cool and assessing. “Oh yeah?” she said, and licked her lips, pushed up from where she’d been resting her chin on her crossed arms and wandered round to settle on the front of her car. “Something up?”
“You could say that,” he said, raised a hand that she only just realized was holding the demon-killing knife that she had given to Sam. He scratched the back of his neck, the blade of the knife glinting in the light.
“Wow,” she said, glancing quickly toward the mouth of the alley they were standing in, estimating how quickly she could get there. “We’re cool here, right Dean? I mean, I looked out for Sam when you were doing your time in Hell. You said ‘thank-you’ and everything. I thought we established some kind of truce.”
“Is this making you nervous?” he asked, held the knife up.
She nodded. ‘Duh’ she thought. He shrugged and tossed it away, the blade landing somewhere in the darkness, skittering across the rough cement. She let her shoulders drop and felt a lot better. “I did mean it, when I said ‘thanks’,” he said. “For looking out for Sam.”
“Yeah,” she said, shrugged. “I know. I thought we were passed this.”
“There was no ‘truce’ though,” he continued.
She glanced over at him and realized for the first time that he wasn’t quite acting like himself, that they weren’t engaged in their usual banter. Some part of her was scratching at the walls of her body and saying ‘run run’ like it was a prayer.
“I’ve gotta head out. Good talking with you though.” She pushed up from the car and started to move, one eye focused on him to make sure he wasn’t stepping toward her.
He didn’t move, and that was a relief. But then she looked into his eyes, really looked, and found herself freezing. The old impulse to fight or run reared inside her body, but she knew better than to think that this was a fight she had a chance of winning, because suddenly she just knew who she was standing alone in an alley with.
What she was with.
She spun on her heel, her car keys dropping with a ‘clink’ onto the ground as she raced toward the mouth of the alley.
“Ruby,” he said, his voice just slightly raised, and lilting just a little, like he was exasperated by her actions. Suddenly she was standing back by the side of her car, her keys at her feet.
“How did you do that?” she cried, panic surging in her as she briefly wondered if she had hallucinated running. Maybe she was hallucinating this whole thing.
When it got down to it, though, there was only one question that was important. “What do you want?”
“I told you. I want to talk to you.” he said. “You might have Sam fooled, but I’m not suffering under any delusions. I know how you managed to drag Alistair up from Hell.”
She shrugged. “I called in a few favors.”
“Yeah, you did,” Dean said. She felt her throat constrict, panicked for a moment as wondered if it was something he was doing, like maybe he was choking her right then. But then realized that it was fear. “All the work you’ve been doing for her, I bet Lilith was only too happy to grant you a little something, for the sake of the plan. Am I right?”
“No,” she lied, cursing when her voice cracked on the word. “Of course not,” she said, with more confidence.
“Don’t lie, Ruby,” he said, still smiling a soft inscrutable smile. “Don’t bother. All of this with Sam, it’s been about bringing him into line, getting him so turned around he can’t tell up from down. What’s the plan? Have him kill Lilith? Break the seal?” She felt her eyes going round, and his grin stretched a little more, his teeth glinting. “Yeah, that’s right. I know about the seal. Does Sam?”
“I never lied to him,” she defended. “I told him, right from the start, that only Lilith can break it. That only she can break the final seal.”
“You just never told him how she would do that.”
“I’ll stop,” she pleaded. “I’ll leave, right now.” He nodded, like that was a foregone conclusion. “It can’t be you,” she whispered. “You’re not one of them.”
“Why not?” he asked. “Because poor pathetic Dean Winchester is still so broken from his time in the pit? Because someone can’t say they’re tired of something and still be a force to be reckoned with?”
“Because,” she said, stopped herself and then decided, fuck it, what did it matter? “Because how could Azazel make such a fucking mistake!”
“Oops,” he said, far too gleeful. Then, in a tone of feigned confusion so thick she almost rolled her eyes, he said, “Wait, you mean demons are overconfident little pricks? Really?”
“This plan,” she defended. “It would have worked.”
He nodded. “It might have. But it won’t now. I know where Lilith’s heading, and I’ll be waiting.”
He came forward then. Stepped out of the circle of light until he was right in front of her, taking up her space, so close she could feel the heat of his body.
“Let me go,” she said. “Don’t send me to Hell, not to that place. I kept Sam alive. Without me, you’re brother would have been dead a thousand times over before any angel dragged you topside.”
“I said thanks for that.” He tipped his head to the side, moved even closer so he could whisper in her ear. “I have a secret. I sent Alistair into the furthest corner of Hell because I wanted him there, stewing in black and going mad with it. Not even a single soul for him to crush to amuse himself. I knew when he crawled back out, he’d find another Leviathan and he could die then, but not until he suffered.”
He let out a breath that whooshed like licking flame against her cheek. “When I was in the pit, I discovered I don’t like destroying souls. Not even the really dark and nasty ones that can’t be anything else but evil. This, though,” he stepped back, out of her space so she could see the brightness of his eyes, the glowing light of him. He grinned.
She recoiled, but there was nowhere for her to go, he reached forward to her and she said “Please,” and he said, “No,” and then there was nothing but agony so fierce and sharp she couldn’t even make a sound.
Dean made it back to the motel room and found Sam packing his duffel bag.
“Are you going somewhere?” he asked his skin prickling as he breathed. Sam reeked of blood and darkness, it was dizzying and Dean was almost sick from it.
Sam rolled his eyes. “Enough with the melodrama,” he said, zipping his duffel closed before he faced Dean.
“Jesus,” Dean breathed when he saw the hard lines of his brother’s face, the blackness in his brother’s eyes. Unthinkingly, Dean moved forward, snatched the collar of Sam’s shirt and tugged it low; baring the dark, unbroken lines of the tattoo they shared.
Sam wasn’t possessed. It was all him.
Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, Sam snatched Dean’s wrist and twisted it. “What are you doing?” he demanded.
“Sammy,” he said.
Sam’s mouth quirked upward and jerked Dean forward, pressed their mouths together in a fierce, biting kiss that left Dean reeling. “It’s okay,” Sam said, sounding like he thought it actually would be. “I’m not going off with Ruby, if that makes you feel better. I’m not leaving you.”
He turned back to his bag like everything was normal. Like his hazel eyes hadn’t gone black. Dean growled. “Ruby’s dead.”
Sam didn’t even hesitate, just shouldered his bag and shrugged. “Yeah, I kinda figured.”
“You figured?” Dean asked, appalled by how casually his brother could dismiss someone who had apparently mattered to him.
“I asked her for a favor, one that she thought would be impossible.” He shrugged. “She came through, but I figured even if she did, it would attract the wrong kind of attention.”
Maybe it was reckless, but Dean didn’t care. He said, “I killed her.”
In a flash, Sam had dropped his bag and slammed Dean against the wall. Snarled, “Why’d did you do that?”
Dean sneered. “A minute ago you didn’t care.”
“A minute ago,” Sam said. “I thought a Leviathan had gotten to her. Not you. She was mine and you had no right.”
Dean shoved Sam away, but his brother grabbed hold of him, jerked him up so his back was pressed to Sam’s chest and his feet were barely touching the ground. “You’re mine, too. You will not disobey me again.”
“Disobey you?” Dean gasped. He jerked his elbow back hard, Sam’s grunt echoing in his ear as his brother staggered back. “Fuck you!” Dean snarled. “I’m not yours. I’m not anybody’s. Not ever again.”
Sam blinked wide eyes at him, said, “I’m sorry. God, Dean. I’m so sorry.”
Dean breathed a steady sigh as he saw the darkness of Sam’s eyes swirl lighter and the turn a clear and steady hazel. “What the hell is going on, Sam?”
“I love you,” Sam said. “Whatever you need from me, Dean. I mean it, I’m happy to give it. But this…” he trailed off, stared at his duffel bag lying on the floor. “I have to go and do this.”
When he’d made it to the door, Dean’s said, “You’ve made this whole apocalypse about you. You’re so determined to carry all of this yourself, you never once stopped to ask me. Never stopped to ask if I’d help.” Dean breathed out long and slow, and then snorted. He said, “You must think I’m really useless.”
“No!” Sam said, finally turning around. “I think you’re hurting, and I’m sorry you didn’t have any time to catch your breath. Maybe when it’s over…”
Dean stared at the determined jut of his brother’s jaw, the stubborn light in his eyes. “We’re not gonna win this one, Sammy,” he said. “It’s not gonna be over for us.”
Sam sighed. “Dean…”
“I’m asking you as your brother,” Dean said. “Don’t do this.”
Sam stepped forward and wrapped his free hand carefully around the back of Dean’s head, pulled him forward until they were kissing, this time a soft and gentle caress of lips and tongue. When Dean pulled back for air Sam stepped back, and then back once more.
Then he turned and walked out the door.
Dean stood there for three full minutes before it occurred to him that silently cursing out his brother wasn’t actually going to accomplish much of anything. “You’re a real friggin’ idiot, Sammy,” he said, just for good measure as he fished his cellphone out of his pocket and hit the correct speed dial without glancing down.
“He’s going after Lilith,” Dean said, when the call collected. He rattled off the address of his motel and then disconnected, pitching his phone to the bed, glaring darkly at the rumpled sheets.
He and Sam had rumpled those sheets the other night.
Really, there should be a manual for this sort of thing: ‘What to do when your brother is going irreparably darkside’.
“How much time do we have?” Castiel asked, from directly behind Dean.
Dean jerked up, his heart thumping in his chest as he spun around. “Geezes, Cas! I swear I’m gonna put a freakin’ bell on you!” Castiel blinked guileless and slightly confused eyes at him. Dean pinched the bridge of his nose and said, “I dunno. He’s got a solid head start but he’s driving.”
“We’re not driving?” Castiel asked.
“No,” Dean said. “You’re gonna do that thing you do and get us over there. With any luck we’ll get to Lilith before he does.” Castiel raised his hand and Dean stopped him. “Wait,” he said. “You should know, Sam’s pretty far gone.”
Castiel nodded. “I understand. It was a risk the more time it took to find Lilith.”
Dean sighed. “I know just …” he sighed. “I’m gonna need your help making sure he doesn’t end up somewhere he shouldn’t.”
Frowning, Castiel asked, “Somewhere he shouldn’t?”
Dean raised his eyebrows and said, very pointedly, “Like, the same place I intend to send Lilith.”
“Oh,” Castiel said, then nodded solemnly. “I will do my best.”
|<< PART FOUR CONT'D >>|
MASTERPOST
By: revenant_scribe
PART 4/4
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Rating: R | Word Count: 10,657
When he raises himself up the mighty are afraid; at the crashing
they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches him, it does
not avail; nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin. He counts
iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make
him flee; for him slingstones are turned to stubble. Clubs are
counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins.
Job 41:25-9
Ruby’s marigold 1970 Mustang was purring. It was pulled close to the curb, the tinted windows rolled up as Sam stepped out of the diner, a plastic bagged stuffed with lunch for him and Dean hanging from one hand.
They’d established a new status quo, not talking about what exactly it was they were doing with each other, asking for two queens instead of a single kind even if they invariably ended up sharing. Each time they tumbled into bed they acted like it was a surprise, a one-time thing. Sam didn’t talk about the flask he carried with him tucked in his coat, and Dean pretended he hadn’t noticed it.
Sam tolerated Castiel and tried not to hold his breath whenever Dean left to do whatever it was the angel sometimes he requested his help with. When Dean came back with bruises on his chest and a black eye and said only, “Uriel’s dead,” Sam didn’t ask why or how. He took one glance at Castiel, standing rigid and tight lipped, and nodded and went to the store to pick up some frozen peas.
So far it was working for them, but it felt like they were always on thin ice.
Sam pulled open the passenger door and slid into the familiar interior, setting his bag on the floor at his feet as he said, “Y’know, this isn’t an actual parking spot.”
“And the sign says ‘no idling’,” Ruby noted. “Sue me.” She shifted gears and pulled away from the curb. “You’re back with Dean,” she said after the silence had stretched.
Sam caught the glance she flashed his way and shrugged. “It wasn’t right. However awkward it’s been to have him around, acting like I haven’t managed to take care of myself just fine when he was …away.” He shrugged. “Being apart just wasn’t right. I shouldn’t have left him.”
“Technically speaking here, Sam, but didn’t he leave you?” Ruby corrected, her tone sharp.
Sam nodded. “Yeah, well, I found him again.” Eyebrows raised, he turned to face her, pointing-out, “The light’s green.”
She huffed and revved the car back into motion. “Look, he’s your brother and he’s important to you, I get that. But he doesn’t understand what you’re trying to do. We’re so close, Sam.”
“I know, Ruby.” Sighing, Sam rubbed a hand over his brow, wishing that everyone in his life could just understand what he was trying to do and who he was, and then just accept it, without giving him and each other so much shit. “This isn’t up for debate.”
She fell silent, and Sam was relieved. At least Ruby knew enough not to push at him. She listened and supported him, even when she thought he was making the wrong choice. It was one of the things Sam appreciated about her.
“Look,” he said, when she didn’t volunteer anything further. “I need you to do something for me.”
Her hands flexed on the steering wheel. “What?”
Sam shifted, considered briefly whether to voice his request or not. Then a memory of Dean sitting on the hood of the Impala, toying idly with a bear and saying, “They, sliced and carved, and tore at me in ways that you … until there was nothing left.”
That memory was quickly followed by a newer one, Dean sitting at the edge of the bed, his head in his hands as he said, “When I was there I just … it was like…he owned me.”
Sam said, “I need you to bring me Alistair.”
Ruby laughed. “That’s real funny, Sam.”
Sam clenched his jaw, and then reminded himself that there was no reason to get angry yet because she hadn’t said ‘no’, not exactly. “I’m serious.”
The car swerved to the right as she pulled suddenly to the side, bumping up over a curb as she took the turn too sharp, and then smoothing out as she came to a stop in the far corner of a gas station parking lot. “What are you thinking here, Sam?”
Sam kept his voice steady and firm as he said, “I’m thinking I want to talk to him.”
“You want me to just walk up to a high-ranking demon like Alistair and say, ‘Oh hey, Sam Winchester wants to chat with you. D’you mind coming with me?’ It doesn’t work like that.”
“You’ll come up with something.”
She huffed, slapped her hands against the steering wheel and jerked back into her seat. “Right, I’ll just come-up something out of the ether. Why, Sam? What’s the point?”
He considered explaining it to her; she’d been nothing if not loyal and understanding. Some of the things he’d told her, about himself and about Dean, were things he could never in a million years have considered repeating to another soul. Ruby, though, always seemed to just get it, and there had been nothing that he had to tell her that had made her act surprised.
Then again, this felt too personal. “That’s none of your business. Just do it.”
She grinned, a sultry little stretch of her lips as she flicked a sideways glance his way. “I like it when you’re bossy.” Then the moment passed and the flirtatious look disappeared as she said, “Even if I could come up with something, where Alistair is, there’s no coming back from that. Not for a good long while.”
That was not something Sam was expecting. He frowned. “Where is he?”
“Hell,” she said. Sam shrugged, like that shouldn’t matter, and she huffed. “He was sent there by a Leviathan, Sam. There’s no coming back from that. A Leviathan flicks you back into the pit and that’s all she wrote for at least a couple of centuries. He’s bound down there in the pit. Alistair is out of the game, he’s been sent to detention and he doesn’t even have any toys to play with.”
Sam mulled that over, the idea of a Leviathan out there making him anxious and impatient. Castiel had said there was one per continent, but North America was a pretty big place and it was entirely possible the Leviathan could have been on the other side of the border.
If it had targeted Alistair, though, that meant it was close. Alistair had been dogging his and Dean’s steps since he’d climbed out of the pit. Sam would know, he’d spent a solid portion of that time tracking Alistair. He’d had solid tabs on the demon right up to about a week ago, which meant the Leviathan had gotten pretty damned close, and Sam hadn’t even noticed.
It was no good getting distracted, though. “Just find a way.”
“No way, Sam. No freaking way! I am not going to cross a Leviathan, okay? Those things are mental.”
“Ruby!”
She jerked backward in her seat and tipped her head down, her brown hair slipping forward to obscure her face. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll find a way.”
He nodded, and resettled in his seat. “What do you know about the Leviathans, anyway?”
She tipped her head toward the roof of the car and shook her head. “I’ve already told you everything I know.”
Sam hm’ed thoughtfully and then said, “When I spoke to Castiel, he said none of the references in any of the books were reliable because no one had ever seen one before.”
Ruby shrugged. “Any demon that’s come up against one gets tossed back into the pit so deep they’re not exactly socializing. By the time they crawl out again, most of them don’t make much sense, and when they do all they can remember about what sent them down there is light.”
“If the demons knew how to track the Leviathan, first order of business would be to hunt it down and kill it.” Ruby nodded, her eyebrows raised and her whole expression reading clearly, ‘too right they would.’ “Would you?” Sam asked, and fixed her with a focused look.
She bit her lip and looked away out the front window. “So long as it doesn’t want to send me to the corner, then no.”
Sam nodded. “What Cas said, about no one having seen one, ever. I think it’s more likely that people just didn’t know what they were seeing.”
“What,” Ruby said, shifting forward, her attention focused and her eyes keen. “Like, they’re invisible?”
“No,” Sam said. “More like, they’re unremarkable.” He watched as a lithe blond girl hopped out of the cab of a black pick-up, her hair held back in a ponytail that swished back-and-forth as she walked round to the pump station. “If it were some kind of creature, and it’s been around as long as you and Cas say they have been, then someone would have noticed. Some hunter out there would have made Leviathans their specialty, especially given the lore that’s been circulating on them. They don’t come-off all that well in the stories.”
“You have no idea,” Ruby muttered.
“Right,” Sam continued. “So why haven’t they?” At Ruby’s look, he clarified. “As far as I know, no one has been hunting Leviathans. Castiel is certain that no one knows what they even look like, which to me, suggests that they don’t look like anything. Not anything you’d take note of.”
“So,” Ruby hedged.
“Think about it,” Sam said. “What do you see so often that you don’t pay any attention? What do you dismiss out of hand?” She blinked, and her utterly clueless expression made him grin, because when it came down to it, if he were right, then it was brilliant and he was brilliant for having figured it out. “Humans.”
She sat up sharply. “No way, Sam,” she said. “I mean, demons are one thing, but the kind of power a Leviathan has, you can’t just shove that into a human body. These things are gateways into Hell and Heaven. How are you supposed to walk through a person?”
“Seven humans just like any other human, scattered around the globe,” Sam insisted. “There’s nothing remarkable about them, they’re just normal people. Except they’re not.” He shrugged. “Angels can use their powers when they’re occupying a human vessel. Maybe the gateway thing is metaphorical?”
“Sam, that’s crazy.”
He shrugged. “It’s a theory.”
“These things, what they can do,” Ruby said. “They’re powerful. We don’t even know the full extent of their abilities because we’ve never hit the end of the world before, and really, that’s their forte. But even without that, they’re the only things a demon will really fear. Even more than angels, because they’re always walking the earth and they never die, and unlike angels who may or may not even care, a Leviathan always does. Even if you kill one, another just awakens to take its place. It’s like a law of the world that their numbers will never be depleted. No human can do what they can do.”
“Like I said, angels posses human bodies and can still wield their angelic powers,” Sam shrugged. “Same for demons. Why should they be any different?” He waved a hand. “Anyway, there’s no proof, it’s just an idea I’ve been toying with.”
He glanced down at his watch and raised his eyes. “I should get back to the motel before my brother starts to freak.”
She rolled her eyes, but settled her hands back on the wheel. They were silent for the rest of the drive, but when she pulled round to the back of the motel and Sam hopped out of the car, picking up his plastic bag filled with lunch, he leaned down into the cab. “Don’t forget,” he said, and then slammed the passenger door closed.
Dean groped blindly for the towel he had set on the counter, drying the water off his face and then roughly toweling his hair dry as he stepped out of the shower.
He heard the door to the motel open and then close again, the snick and rattle of the chain being slipped into place. “Sam? You back?”
“Yeah,” Sam said. “I got lunch.”
Dean smiled. “Perfect,” he said, too quiet for Sam to hear. He pulled his jeans on, fixing his belt in place, as he flexed his toes in the surprising thickness of the bathroom mat. His reflection in the mirror showed smudges under his eyes, but Dean wasn’t feeling worse for wear.
Maybe that had something to do with finally seeing an end in sight. It was hard to maneuver across the country and hunt demons while at the same time attempting to keep Sam in the dark about who he was and what he was doing. Still, Dean had been doing pretty good job and the last demon he had pushed back into the pit had been pretty high up in Lilith’s ranks, high enough, at least, to know where an even higher-ranking demon was heading.
There was no way he was going to lose the opportunity. If he reached the demon before it moved on, then the odds were pretty good he’d know where Lilith was, or at least, where she was planning to be. Then all he’d need to do was get there, and finish it.
“Hey,” Sam said, as Dean stepped out into the main room. Dean watched the way his brother’s eyes drifted down, surveyed the wet expanse of Dean’s chest with visible interest.
“Forgot a shirt,” Dean said, not at all embarrassed as he fished a T-shirt from his duffel.
“Uh,” Sam said. “Sure.”
They didn’t talk about it, but that didn’t stop it from happening, and it happened enough that Dean felt comfortable with flirting. Mostly he’d accepted it and moved on. Maybe Sam was suffering some residual angst, maybe not, if he was, it didn’t seem to slow him down at all.
“I got you extra cheese,” Sam said lamely as Dean tugged his T-shirt over his head.
“Sounds good.” He grabbed the bag and dropped onto the bed, the sheets pristine beneath him. Sam’s eyes drifted to the right, to the other bed that was in a state of hopeless disarray. “You gonna eat?”
Sam nodded. “Yeah,” he said, and settled on a chair, looking awkward.
“How’s Ruby?”
Sam’s eyes narrowed as he glanced up. “I wouldn’t know,” he said.
Dean took a bite of his burger. “Okay,” he said, easily, even if he knew the truth. The more he adjusted to and used his powers, the easier they came to him. Now, he could practically smell a demon from mile off. He knew Ruby’s smell.
He recognized the dark, bitter undercurrents of Sam’s own scent.
The final showdown couldn’t come soon enough, as far as he was concerned.
Sam had to wait five more days, but Ruby finally came through for him.
“Well, well, well,” Alistair said, preceding Ruby through the swinging metal door. “Nice place you got here, Sammy.” He sneered as he looked from the cement floor of the vacant factory to the metal shelves that reached up almost to the ceiling.
Sam didn’t pick the place because it was pretty; he picked it because it was deserted.
Ignoring the demon’s bitching, Sam flashed a look at Ruby who immediately stopped stepping forward and frowned at him. When he shook his head she huffed, tossed her hands in the air and then backed-off. Five steps backwards before she spun on her heel and pushed out through the door she’d just come through.
Alistair watched the exchange. “Power suits you.” The demon smirked as he added, “I can understand why you were Azazel’s favorite.” Sam watched the demon pace and let him rant. There were no Devil’s Traps in the factory. Sam didn’t need to use any tricks to make certain Alistair did what he wanted.
Sam was strong; he could feel his power thrumming through his veins.
“Of course,” Alistair continued, oblivious. “Azazel was an impetuous little fuck who ruined a thousand years worth of planning with one idiotic move.”
When he glanced over, Sam met the narrowed gaze with a cool one. In his mind, he was turning over ways to make the bastard beg, to make him bleed and then, ultimately, to kill him. “Don’t practice your inscrutable little superior gaze on me, boy,” Alistair cautioned. “I wrote the book on intimidation. It’s not going to work. You pulled me out of the pit for a reason … nice touch, by the way. What do you want?”
“What makes you think I want anything from you?”
Alistair sneered. “Ignorant little shit. I was down so deep in the depths that no one could find me. Where I was, you don’t just walk to. It takes a lot of juice to pull a demon out of a place like that. Or hasn’t your brother explained this to you? You didn’t go through all that effort just to have a little chat.”
Sam grit his teeth. “What does Dean have to do with this?”
“Oh please,” Alistair said. Then he took another look at Sam, and suddenly the demon was smiling. “You have no idea, do you? You don’t know what he is?” Sam shifted his weight, and then regretted it. His momentary weakness gave Alistair all he needed to know about what buttons to push.
“He’s something, isn’t he?” Alistair nodded, like no matter how Sam might try to deny it, they both knew the truth. “I mean, when he came down to me it was a no brainer. Your daddy? He was fun and all, but Dean. Well… Dean was sweet.” He smacked his lips like he was remembering tasting a particularly fine meal. Sam kept his expression flat. “Taking him apart was … mmm, it was a pleasure.”
“That’s my brother,” Sam said, his voice thick.
“Yes indeed,” Alistair said. “It’s share and share alike in Hell, Sammy. And believe me, we all shared. He begged so pretty. That boy bought me a lot of favors, you wouldn’t believe. Suddenly, I’m Mr. Popular. This body?” he held his arms out and glanced down at the man he was possessing, the same man Sam remembered from when he had first seen Alistair. “This was a ‘thank-you’ gift for sharing that fine piece of tail you call a brother.”
“Stop it,” Sam snarled
Alistair glanced up at him, his eyebrows raised, making a moue of contrition. “Did I say something to upset you?” Then he sneered. “I wouldn’t want to do that.”
“Talk all you want,” Sam said, finally resting control of the visceral reaction to having the demon talk about Dean. In his mind, he was peeling Alistair’s skin back piece by piece; was slicing him down the middle and letting his innards spill out onto the ground while he was still breathing. “You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know.”
“Oh really? Brother dearest whispered to you all his deepest darkest secrets?” he grinned. “Did hearing how he took it from one demon after another make you hot, Sammy?”
“I’m going to kill you,” Sam said. Took a steadying breath and repeated it again in his mind, consoled himself with the thought.
Alistair wasn’t smiling anymore; maybe he could finally feel the hold Sam had on him. The dark grip that kept him still. “You’re going to die, right here. That’s why I pulled you out of Hell, that’s the only reason why you’re here.”
“Revenge? For hurting brother dearest?”
“This isn’t revenge,” Sam said, feeling like himself again. Feeling power singing through him and reveling in it, Alistair’s vessel and the dark shade that was Alistair himself, both sitting pinned with the weight of Sam’s control. He could rip both apart within the blink of an eye, or he could make it slow. “This is just what happens when you touch something that’s mine.”
Alistair’s eyes were large and red, the pressure that Sam was exerting on him making his face flush a steadily darkening purple. “Dean?” he gasped, and Sam smiled.
‘Yes, Dean’ he thought, ‘Of course, Dean,’ because who else would Dean belong to if not Sam? No one.
“This is what’s going to happen,” Sam said, in his most reasonable tone. “You’re going to tell me everything you know Lilith’s plans, and then I’m going to kill you.” He leaned forward, so his breath puffed against the demon’s cheek as he said, “It’s gonna be slow. After all, you’re going to help me get ready to face her.”
“You're going to…” Alistair choked, and then gasped in another breath and finished, “Kill Lilith?”
“Yes.”
Alistair chuckled, the sound gagging and wet. “Better get there fast,” he said. “If the Leviathan beats you to it you’ll miss your one big chance.”
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “Who is the Leviathan?” he demanded. “They’re human, right? Tell me! I know you know!”
But Alistair only smirked, wide and reckless. Losing patience, Sam pulled the darkness from himself, pushed it forward into Alistair and wrapped it around the demon’s core like a fist, crushed him slow until he screamed and blood dripped down his chin.
“Tell me about Lilith,” Sam said.
“I’m not allied with that cunt,” Alistair snarled.
Carefully, Sam caught up the blood spilling down Alistair’s neck on his finger and licked it. Grinned as he said, “Who is?” Alistair screamed again as Sam tightened the grip of his power.
Distantly, Sam wondered what he was doing. How he could so casually be standing there and causing suffering, because Alistair wasn’t alone, he was occupying a host who was experiencing the pain right alongside the demon that was riding him.
Mostly, though, Sam wished that Dean were there. He’d push his brother back against the shelving units and work his mouth open, make him moan while Alistair watched, realized who Dean really belonged to. He wondered what that might feel like, crushing the demon in the fold of his own power while kissed Dean, while he worked Dean free of his jeans and jerked him off hard, while they fucked right there in the middle of a vacant factory.
All things considered, Ruby was feeling pretty good as she turned on her heel; stepped out of the abandoned warehouse and into the cool breeze and the night air, letting the door slam shut behind her. She tipped her head back and looked up into the clear dark sky, thin points of fragile light speckling the dark. She smiled.
Sometimes it felt like she was suckling some spoiled little kid, but every so often Sam made a demand that gave her shivers, that made her think of all the possibilities that the future held.
When she’d brought Alistair to him, she watched him stand there and thought, ‘yes’ with glee and pride. Thought, ‘I did this’ and wished she could turn to someone and say, ‘See? You all underestimated me, but look at what I have made. Isn’t he beautiful? Beautiful and mine.’ She wished he had let her stay, she wanted to revel in the blood he’d draw, in the screams he’d no doubt pull from Alistair before he put him out of his misery.
But orders were orders.
Stuffing her hands into her coat pocket she began to walk, pulled her keys from her jacket and flicked them up into the air, caught them on the way down with a clenched fist as she rounded the corner. “Another day, another dollar,” she said to herself and also to her car, because she was becoming inordinately fond of the thing. Couldn’t help reveling in the sensation of being topside, the wind and the smog and the stars, and her sweet, streamlined, rumbling beauty of a car.
“Ruby.”
The low roughness of the tone was so familiar that she almost discounted it out of hand. “Heya, Dean.” She leaned on the roof of her car, smiled at him from atop her crossed arms, and tipped her head to the side. He could say whatever he wanted, she’d already won, Sam was hers. “How are ya?”
She watched as the shadows shifted and then released him. He stepped out of the dark and into the circle of light offered by one of the round lamps clinging to the side of the adjacent building.
He was wearing the same leather jacket he always did, the same boots and the same torn jeans. Dean Winchester was damned pretty, but she wished he would wear fewer layers, and tighter clothes. Maybe when Sam finally put a leash on his big brother she could suggest it. Whisper it in his ear. Maybe in the future, Sam would invite her in on some of the action.
Who said hell on earth couldn’t offer up a little bit of heaven?
“You looking for Sam?” she wondered, when he didn’t speak or move, or offer any insight into his presence. “I think he said something about hitting a bar, you can probably still catch him. He just left.”
“Actually,” Dean said, his green eyes shifting away and then back again. “It’s you I wanted to talk to.”
She felt chills running through her, goose bumps pebbling her skin when he just kept watching her with a flat, lizard’s gaze. Cool and assessing. “Oh yeah?” she said, and licked her lips, pushed up from where she’d been resting her chin on her crossed arms and wandered round to settle on the front of her car. “Something up?”
“You could say that,” he said, raised a hand that she only just realized was holding the demon-killing knife that she had given to Sam. He scratched the back of his neck, the blade of the knife glinting in the light.
“Wow,” she said, glancing quickly toward the mouth of the alley they were standing in, estimating how quickly she could get there. “We’re cool here, right Dean? I mean, I looked out for Sam when you were doing your time in Hell. You said ‘thank-you’ and everything. I thought we established some kind of truce.”
“Is this making you nervous?” he asked, held the knife up.
She nodded. ‘Duh’ she thought. He shrugged and tossed it away, the blade landing somewhere in the darkness, skittering across the rough cement. She let her shoulders drop and felt a lot better. “I did mean it, when I said ‘thanks’,” he said. “For looking out for Sam.”
“Yeah,” she said, shrugged. “I know. I thought we were passed this.”
“There was no ‘truce’ though,” he continued.
She glanced over at him and realized for the first time that he wasn’t quite acting like himself, that they weren’t engaged in their usual banter. Some part of her was scratching at the walls of her body and saying ‘run run’ like it was a prayer.
“I’ve gotta head out. Good talking with you though.” She pushed up from the car and started to move, one eye focused on him to make sure he wasn’t stepping toward her.
He didn’t move, and that was a relief. But then she looked into his eyes, really looked, and found herself freezing. The old impulse to fight or run reared inside her body, but she knew better than to think that this was a fight she had a chance of winning, because suddenly she just knew who she was standing alone in an alley with.
What she was with.
She spun on her heel, her car keys dropping with a ‘clink’ onto the ground as she raced toward the mouth of the alley.
“Ruby,” he said, his voice just slightly raised, and lilting just a little, like he was exasperated by her actions. Suddenly she was standing back by the side of her car, her keys at her feet.
“How did you do that?” she cried, panic surging in her as she briefly wondered if she had hallucinated running. Maybe she was hallucinating this whole thing.
When it got down to it, though, there was only one question that was important. “What do you want?”
“I told you. I want to talk to you.” he said. “You might have Sam fooled, but I’m not suffering under any delusions. I know how you managed to drag Alistair up from Hell.”
She shrugged. “I called in a few favors.”
“Yeah, you did,” Dean said. She felt her throat constrict, panicked for a moment as wondered if it was something he was doing, like maybe he was choking her right then. But then realized that it was fear. “All the work you’ve been doing for her, I bet Lilith was only too happy to grant you a little something, for the sake of the plan. Am I right?”
“No,” she lied, cursing when her voice cracked on the word. “Of course not,” she said, with more confidence.
“Don’t lie, Ruby,” he said, still smiling a soft inscrutable smile. “Don’t bother. All of this with Sam, it’s been about bringing him into line, getting him so turned around he can’t tell up from down. What’s the plan? Have him kill Lilith? Break the seal?” She felt her eyes going round, and his grin stretched a little more, his teeth glinting. “Yeah, that’s right. I know about the seal. Does Sam?”
“I never lied to him,” she defended. “I told him, right from the start, that only Lilith can break it. That only she can break the final seal.”
“You just never told him how she would do that.”
“I’ll stop,” she pleaded. “I’ll leave, right now.” He nodded, like that was a foregone conclusion. “It can’t be you,” she whispered. “You’re not one of them.”
“Why not?” he asked. “Because poor pathetic Dean Winchester is still so broken from his time in the pit? Because someone can’t say they’re tired of something and still be a force to be reckoned with?”
“Because,” she said, stopped herself and then decided, fuck it, what did it matter? “Because how could Azazel make such a fucking mistake!”
“Oops,” he said, far too gleeful. Then, in a tone of feigned confusion so thick she almost rolled her eyes, he said, “Wait, you mean demons are overconfident little pricks? Really?”
“This plan,” she defended. “It would have worked.”
He nodded. “It might have. But it won’t now. I know where Lilith’s heading, and I’ll be waiting.”
He came forward then. Stepped out of the circle of light until he was right in front of her, taking up her space, so close she could feel the heat of his body.
“Let me go,” she said. “Don’t send me to Hell, not to that place. I kept Sam alive. Without me, you’re brother would have been dead a thousand times over before any angel dragged you topside.”
“I said thanks for that.” He tipped his head to the side, moved even closer so he could whisper in her ear. “I have a secret. I sent Alistair into the furthest corner of Hell because I wanted him there, stewing in black and going mad with it. Not even a single soul for him to crush to amuse himself. I knew when he crawled back out, he’d find another Leviathan and he could die then, but not until he suffered.”
He let out a breath that whooshed like licking flame against her cheek. “When I was in the pit, I discovered I don’t like destroying souls. Not even the really dark and nasty ones that can’t be anything else but evil. This, though,” he stepped back, out of her space so she could see the brightness of his eyes, the glowing light of him. He grinned.
She recoiled, but there was nowhere for her to go, he reached forward to her and she said “Please,” and he said, “No,” and then there was nothing but agony so fierce and sharp she couldn’t even make a sound.
Dean made it back to the motel room and found Sam packing his duffel bag.
“Are you going somewhere?” he asked his skin prickling as he breathed. Sam reeked of blood and darkness, it was dizzying and Dean was almost sick from it.
Sam rolled his eyes. “Enough with the melodrama,” he said, zipping his duffel closed before he faced Dean.
“Jesus,” Dean breathed when he saw the hard lines of his brother’s face, the blackness in his brother’s eyes. Unthinkingly, Dean moved forward, snatched the collar of Sam’s shirt and tugged it low; baring the dark, unbroken lines of the tattoo they shared.
Sam wasn’t possessed. It was all him.
Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, Sam snatched Dean’s wrist and twisted it. “What are you doing?” he demanded.
“Sammy,” he said.
Sam’s mouth quirked upward and jerked Dean forward, pressed their mouths together in a fierce, biting kiss that left Dean reeling. “It’s okay,” Sam said, sounding like he thought it actually would be. “I’m not going off with Ruby, if that makes you feel better. I’m not leaving you.”
He turned back to his bag like everything was normal. Like his hazel eyes hadn’t gone black. Dean growled. “Ruby’s dead.”
Sam didn’t even hesitate, just shouldered his bag and shrugged. “Yeah, I kinda figured.”
“You figured?” Dean asked, appalled by how casually his brother could dismiss someone who had apparently mattered to him.
“I asked her for a favor, one that she thought would be impossible.” He shrugged. “She came through, but I figured even if she did, it would attract the wrong kind of attention.”
Maybe it was reckless, but Dean didn’t care. He said, “I killed her.”
In a flash, Sam had dropped his bag and slammed Dean against the wall. Snarled, “Why’d did you do that?”
Dean sneered. “A minute ago you didn’t care.”
“A minute ago,” Sam said. “I thought a Leviathan had gotten to her. Not you. She was mine and you had no right.”
Dean shoved Sam away, but his brother grabbed hold of him, jerked him up so his back was pressed to Sam’s chest and his feet were barely touching the ground. “You’re mine, too. You will not disobey me again.”
“Disobey you?” Dean gasped. He jerked his elbow back hard, Sam’s grunt echoing in his ear as his brother staggered back. “Fuck you!” Dean snarled. “I’m not yours. I’m not anybody’s. Not ever again.”
Sam blinked wide eyes at him, said, “I’m sorry. God, Dean. I’m so sorry.”
Dean breathed a steady sigh as he saw the darkness of Sam’s eyes swirl lighter and the turn a clear and steady hazel. “What the hell is going on, Sam?”
“I love you,” Sam said. “Whatever you need from me, Dean. I mean it, I’m happy to give it. But this…” he trailed off, stared at his duffel bag lying on the floor. “I have to go and do this.”
When he’d made it to the door, Dean’s said, “You’ve made this whole apocalypse about you. You’re so determined to carry all of this yourself, you never once stopped to ask me. Never stopped to ask if I’d help.” Dean breathed out long and slow, and then snorted. He said, “You must think I’m really useless.”
“No!” Sam said, finally turning around. “I think you’re hurting, and I’m sorry you didn’t have any time to catch your breath. Maybe when it’s over…”
Dean stared at the determined jut of his brother’s jaw, the stubborn light in his eyes. “We’re not gonna win this one, Sammy,” he said. “It’s not gonna be over for us.”
Sam sighed. “Dean…”
“I’m asking you as your brother,” Dean said. “Don’t do this.”
Sam stepped forward and wrapped his free hand carefully around the back of Dean’s head, pulled him forward until they were kissing, this time a soft and gentle caress of lips and tongue. When Dean pulled back for air Sam stepped back, and then back once more.
Then he turned and walked out the door.
Dean stood there for three full minutes before it occurred to him that silently cursing out his brother wasn’t actually going to accomplish much of anything. “You’re a real friggin’ idiot, Sammy,” he said, just for good measure as he fished his cellphone out of his pocket and hit the correct speed dial without glancing down.
“He’s going after Lilith,” Dean said, when the call collected. He rattled off the address of his motel and then disconnected, pitching his phone to the bed, glaring darkly at the rumpled sheets.
He and Sam had rumpled those sheets the other night.
Really, there should be a manual for this sort of thing: ‘What to do when your brother is going irreparably darkside’.
“How much time do we have?” Castiel asked, from directly behind Dean.
Dean jerked up, his heart thumping in his chest as he spun around. “Geezes, Cas! I swear I’m gonna put a freakin’ bell on you!” Castiel blinked guileless and slightly confused eyes at him. Dean pinched the bridge of his nose and said, “I dunno. He’s got a solid head start but he’s driving.”
“We’re not driving?” Castiel asked.
“No,” Dean said. “You’re gonna do that thing you do and get us over there. With any luck we’ll get to Lilith before he does.” Castiel raised his hand and Dean stopped him. “Wait,” he said. “You should know, Sam’s pretty far gone.”
Castiel nodded. “I understand. It was a risk the more time it took to find Lilith.”
Dean sighed. “I know just …” he sighed. “I’m gonna need your help making sure he doesn’t end up somewhere he shouldn’t.”
Frowning, Castiel asked, “Somewhere he shouldn’t?”
Dean raised his eyebrows and said, very pointedly, “Like, the same place I intend to send Lilith.”
“Oh,” Castiel said, then nodded solemnly. “I will do my best.”
|<< PART FOUR CONT'D >>|
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