Dani has been captured by Crowley
“I’d tell you to go
to hell, but apparently we’re already here.”
“Oh, you are daddy’s little girl,” Crowley said, his
amusement only making her madder. “Such
fire. I see now why he’s in a tizzy
about getting you back.”
Dani set her jaw.
“What deal are you going to ask for?”
“I’m not,” Crowley answered. “I could, and he’d decline rather rudely, run
around for a few days trying to rescue you his way and once he fails at that
he’ll do whatever I want. Fun the first
few times certainly, but it really is taking on a whole, been there done that
sort of feel, you know what I mean?”
“Then what are you going to do with me that’s so much
more entertaining?”
“I’m going to let you go.”
Dani blinked, unprepared for that answer. “What?”
“You heard me darling.”
“You’re just going to let me go?”
“Mmhm.” Crowley
nodded.
Dani narrowed her eyes.
She’d heard enough about the demon king to know that was way too easy. “What’s the catch?”
“No catch,” Crowley answered, moving to place his hands
on the chair behind her. “You see, if
this game is going to be any fun, I’m going to need to shake up the
pieces. So,” Dani stiffened as he put
his hands on her shoulders. “I’m going
to send you back, free of charge.” He
moved his mouth close to her ear. “As
long as you promise to do something.”
“What’s that?”
“Sometime, ask Dean about Adam Milligan.”
.
. .
Sam jumped up at the sound of knocking. Reaching one hand behind him so that the gun
in his waistband was in easy reach, he partially opened the door.
“Dani,” he said surprised. He opened the door wider, letting her
in. “How did you get away?
“I didn’t,” she said “He just let me go.”
“What do you mean he just let you go?” Dean asked, standing.
“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “He said this game just wasn’t any fun
anymore and let me go.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Dean, I don’t know,” Dani insisted, frustrated. “I don’t get it either.”
“Turn around.”
Dean motioned for her to do so, and Sam stepped over to the bed,
reaching into his backpack.
Dani turned her back on Dean and he pulled down the neck
of her shirt until he could see the tattoo on her shoulder blade. “It’s still there.”
Dani looked warily over her shoulder at him. “Of course it is. Why wouldn’t it—“
She was cut off as Sam splashed holy water in her
face. She let out a breath. “Ok, it’s really me, see.”
The others relaxed a little and Dean moved to stand in
front of her.
“I told you, he just let me go. I don’t know why.”
“Well, it can’t be good,” Dean said. His expression darkened. “What did he do to you while you were there?”
“I’m fine,” she said with a dismissive gesture.
“That’s not what I asked.”
“Nothing,” she said.
“He’d heard I’d been turned into a werewolf and wanted to see if it was
true.” She held out her arm revealing a
thin cut halfway up her forearm. “Silver. But that’s it, no big deal.”
Dean studied her for a second, then nodded.
“So, if we’re good, I’m going to take a shower and wash
the creep off of me. If that’s ok.” She looked at them questioningly.
“Yeah.” Dean
nodded and waved her toward the bathroom.
“Ok.” Dani grabbed her bag and went into the bathroom,
closing the door behind her.
Once the water started running Sam looked at Dean. “Why do you think he let her go?”
“I don’t know,” Dean said, shaking his head. “But it wasn’t because he was bored. He’s got some kind of plan going here.”
“Do you think he did something to her?”
“If he hurt her she’s healed, and she passed the tests.”
“You don’t think they made a deal do you?” Sam
ventured.
“No, she’s smarter than that,” Dean said dismissively.
“But something’s up. We’ll have to keep
an eye on her.
.
. .
Inside the motel bathroom, Dani pulled her laptop out of
her bag and balanced it on the counter.
She pulled up the search engine and, with a glance over her shoulder,
started typing letters into the search bar until they spelled out Adam Milligan.
.
. .
A few days later, Dani sat in the back seat of the
impala, in the parking lot of a coffee shop.
Sam and Dean were inside getting breakfast, and she was trying to
utilize the shop’s wifi while it was available.
She had her knees pulled up near her chest, her laptop balanced on
them. Currently, she had several
different windows open, all showing different results from her latest Adam
Milligan search. What’s this Carver Edlud stuff? She
wondered, moving the cursor to the provided link to info on a book called Jump the Shark.
“What are you looking at?” Dean asked.
Dani started; she hadn’t heard them come out. “Nothing,” she answered, quickly shutting the
laptop, before either of them could look at it.
“I was just trying to catch a few minutes of Netflix while the wifi was
good.”
.
. .
Set up scene.
“Dani, are you
crying?”
“No.” She started,
hastily brushing tears off her cheek.
Sam craned his neck to look at the book in her
hands. “What are you reading?”
“Nothing.”
“Come on, what is it?” he asked, reaching for the book.
Dani moved it out of reach and muttered, “One of the
Supernatural books.”
“What?” Suddenly
Sam wasn’t teasing anymore. “Where did
you find that?”
She shrugged. “I
just kind of happened across them.”
“How many have you read?”
“Most of them,” she admitted, embarrassed. She felt like
she’d been caught snooping.
Sam sighed. “I
wish we could burn those, and wipe the internet clean of the rest.”
“Sam,” she started after a pause.
“What?”
“Did all that really happen?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, “all that really happened.”
Dani’s face darkened.
“Come on, give me that.”
Sam reached for the book. “You
don’t need to read that crap.”
“No.” Dani shook her head. “I want to.
I mean, yeah, the writing is bad but…”
“But what?”
“This is your story.
It’s who you guys are. I mean,
it’s not like you’re going to tell me most of this stuff.”
“Well, you don’t need to know everything.” Sam’s expression clouded too, as he thought
back to some of the things she would have read about.
“I know,” she said.
“I’m sorry, I won’t do it anymore. And I’m so sorry about all of this. I
can’t imagine.” She stood up and gave
him a tight hug. When she pulled away
she gave him half a smile. “I just hope
I don’t end up in any of them.”
. . .
Hunting Hell Hounds “Go!”
Dani yelled, pushing Sam toward the door.
“What?”
“Let the dog handle the dogs. You guys circle back
around. I’ll keep them busy.”
He looked like he wanted to argue, but she
turned around before either of them could say anything. The hounds were
closing in. She rolled her shoulders and snarled, baring her fangs and sprinted
towards them.
“You heard her,” she heard Sam say.
Then her body slammed into something big and
hairy. She dug her claws into the mass, hoping she was hitting something
important, as they both rolled to the ground. The hound was on top, and
Dani ripped her claws out of the body, trying to scramble to her feet.
She could feel its breath, hot on the back of her neck. Saliva dripped
onto her back and something collided into her shin, knocking her back
down. Dani slashed at the air in front of her, connecting with something
wet, maybe a nose. The hound yelped, then snarled. She had a pretty
good idea of where it was, and where its neck should be. She tightened
her muscles, ready to spring forward, but before she could a rumbling bark came
from her left, right by her ear and she felt teeth dig into her arm.
“Ah!” Dani gritted her teeth as blood
began to leak out from between teeth she couldn’t see. She snarled
and clawed at its head, but the first hound barreled into her, sending her
sprawling.
They both had a hold of her know. They
were dragging her off down the alley. Dani dug her nails into the
pavement, into the invisible bodies, trying to snap at them with her teeth, but
nothing slowed them. Where were Sam and Dean?
It’s all right.
Dani started at the voice in her mind.
“Mandriel?”
It’s all right, he said again. Don’t
worry, Dani. You’re going to be all right.
. . .
Sam and Dean sprinted back into the alley,
guns at the ready.
“Where are they?” Dean demanded, glancing
around. “I don’t hear anything, do you?”
“Dean I don’t think they’re here.”
“Well then where’d they go?
Dani!” He knelt, sweeping his gaze across the ground, only finding patches
of blood glistened on the pavement. “Dani!” Where was she?
“They got her.”
“No.” Sam shook his head. “No, there’s not
enough blood. And Dean,” he took a step closer to his brother, making him look
at him. “There’s no body. They didn’t kill her.”
“Then where is she?” Dean demanded.
“I don’t know. But she’s not
dead. We’ll find her.”
. . .
Sam fell into the passenger seat of the impala and sighed, running a hand
through his hair. He looked over at Dean, who was staring ahead of them
with his hands on the wheel but hadn’t even started the engine yet.
“We’ll find her,” Sam said.
“Yeah, that’s what you said two hours ago. We’ve been all over this area,
we should have found them. I mean, something that big should have left some
sort of trail, invisible or not.”
“Well it’s not like we’ve ever really tried to track a hell hound before,” Sam
said. “But I’m sure there’s a way to do it. We’ll figure this out, we’ll
get her back.” Honestly, Sam wasn’t so sure. They’d never seen hell
hounds behave like this before, they’d never taken someone alive. At
least he hoped she was still alive.
“I know where she is.”
Both Sam and Dean jumped. Samandriel stood beside the driver’s window,
looking in at them. He looked upset, almost like he’d been crying.
“How long have you been here?” Dean asked,
recovering himself.
“A few hours,” Samandriel answered.
“So you saw what happened?” Sam leaned over so he could see the angel
better.
Samandriel nodded. “Yes. There were three of them, too many for her
to handle by herself. They didn’t kill her, just dragged her off.”
“Where?” Sam asked, afraid he knew the answer.
“To their master.” He answered softly.
“And you just let them.” Dean set his jaw, shaking his head and threw open the
car door. “Why didn’t you help her?”
“I-“ Samandriel started.
Dean grabbed him by his jacket and slammed him against the nearest wall.
“You just stood there and watched while those mutts attacked her. You
didn’t think a little smiting might help? What’s the point of having that
angel mojo if you won’t use it?”
“Dean I-“
“You are one sorry excuse for an angel, you know that?” Sam felt
like he should say something, calm Dean down, but he decided
not too. Honestly, Dean was right, Alfie should have done
something if he was close enough to see everything. Might as well just let Dean do his thing. “You
were supposed to be her protector weren’t you? Is this what you call
protecting her? You let her die. Just like you let that kid who’s
meat suit you’re wearing die.”
Samandriel looked like Dean had hit him. “I wanted to help her. I was
going to.”
“Then why didn’t you?” Dean snapped. “Huh? You just chickened
out; those demon mutts bigger than you thought or something?”
“No.” Samandriel looked at the ground, hesitating, then back at
Dean. “I was stopped.”
“By who?”
He took a breath. “By my Father.”
Dean scoffed, taking a step away from the angel. “Are you telling me,
that you let my girl get mauled by hell hounds because God told you to?”
He laughed again, humorlessly, then grabbed Samandriel again. “Listen to
me you-“
“Dean.” Sam and never heard Samandriel’s voice sound that
assertive. His expression darkened and he straightened, no longer
cowering under Dean’s abuse. “I know that you have long lost your faith,
and that my reasoning can mean nothing to you. But do not make the
mistake of believing that you and Sam are the only ones who care about
Dani. I would have died before I let them take her if I wasn’t absolutely
certain that there was a purpose for this.”
“Purpose.” Dean shook his head, but he let Alfie go. “What
purpose?”
“I don’t know,” Samandriel admitted. “But there is something she’s
supposed to do down there.”
“Whatever Alfie.” Dean turned, refusing to look at the angel. “Get out of
here before I change my mind about killing you.”
.
. .
“Cas you’ve got to get her out of there,” Dean
insisted. They were back in their motel
room and Dean had not manage to stand still since they’d arrived. He’d only gotten more animated when Castiel
had answered their call.
“Dean,” Cas said gently.
“If I could, I would, but…It took a battalion of angels to rescue you
from hell. With the way things are now,
I don’t think I will be able to get anyone except Samandriel to help me.”
“Samandriel,” Dean said the name like a curse word, “is
the reason she’s down there.”
“He had his reasons for what he did.”
“Yeah,” Dean scoffed.
“The voice of God.”
“He is young for an angel,” Castiel explained. “He still believes in the old system, he
might have been confused. Or,” Castiel
sighed. “Perhaps God really does still
speak to the ones who are listening.”
.
. .
Castiel found Samandriel sitting on a park bench not far
from the Winchester’s motel. It was
still early in the morning, so the park was empty. As he approached, Samandriel glanced up at
him, but didn’t acknowledge him; just looked back down at his hands. Castiel sat down on the bench beside him and
neither said anything for a while.
“He’s angry with me,” Samandriel broke the silence. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes.” Castiel
nodded.
“Are you angry with me?”
“No. Do you think
I should be?”
“I am a sorry
excuse for an angel. I couldn’t protect
Dani, or Matt, or Kevin Tran and the demon tablet. I’ve failed every mission I’ve had since
coming to earth.”
“You didn’t fail Dani,” Castiel insisted. “You were there for her but you were told to
refrain.”
“What if Dean’s right?”
Samandriel ran both hands through his hair, making it stick up at odd
angels. “What if I really didn’t hear
anything? What if I was just
scared? I—“
“No.” Castiel said it like it really was impossible. “You love her, in every way we can. Believe me, I know what that kind of bond is,
and I know that fear would not have stopped you from helping her.”
Samandriel nodded, but seemed only very slightly
comforted.
Castiel took a breath and asked what he’d really found
the younger angel to find out. “You
really think it was the voice of our Father?”
An almost euphoric light sparked up in Samandriel’s
eyes. “Yes. Dean had me beginning to doubt but, I did
know better. It was Him. Castiel…”
He couldn’t seem to put whatever came next into words, but the sheer
wonder on his face conveyed it well enough.
“Strange,” muttered Castiel.
“You do believe me, don’t you?”
Castiel studied Samandriel for a minute. He’d given up years ago, but could he have
been wrong? Almost against his will, he
nodded. “Yes.” He paused, then, “What exactly did the voice
say?”
Samandriel didn’t even have to think about it. “He said, ‘No. This has to happen. You can’t save her, not
yet. It will be all right, trust me.’”
“Yet? You’re sure
He said that.”
Samandriel nodded fervently. “Yes.
He said I couldn’t save her yet.”
“But not that you couldn’t save her at all? That’s good.
That may just mean we have a chance.”
“You think we can get her back?”
“Maybe,” Castiel answered. “It will be almost impossible. But there may be a chance. You and I, we’ll try to find a way,
but…” He hesitated. “Don’t tell Sam or Dean. There’s a good chance we won’t succeed. There’s not need to give them false hope.”
.
. .
Dani
opened her eyes. It was lurid, dim, she
hadn’t been so unable to see since she’d been turned. A scream jumped from her throat. Pain, searing through her wrists and ankles,
her shoulders. She bit it back and
sucked in a panting breath. It smelled
like sulfur and fire and smoke. And
voices, yells and whimpers, echoing from she couldn’t tell where.
“Hello darling.”
“Crowley,” she spat through clenched teeth.
“Ah, you remember me.
That’s good.” He gently ran a
finger down the side of her face. She
forced out a breath through her nose, resisting the urge to bite it. “You never
have liked me, have you? Well no
matter. We are going to have so much fun
now that we’re in my world.”
“Don’t count on it,” she spat, flexing her muscles against
her bindings: shackles on her wrists and ankles. “You can’t keep me down here.”
“Oh, you’re very right,” Crowley said nodding. “As soon as you die your soul is bound
elsewhere. So we’ll just have to make
sure that doesn’t happen.” He smiled
smugly. “You’d be surprised how well we
can walk that line. And I think you’ll
find that it takes quite a lot to kill someone here.”
Dani felt panic rising up in her chest, setting her heart
off at a crazy pace and closing off her airways as her brain filled with images
of what all he might do to her. She
tried to force it down, to keep on a brave face. That’s what Dean would do. She shifted her focus to coming up with some
kind of comeback.
“Well, I guess we’ll see if you’re as good at that as you
think you are,” she said, hoping her voice didn’t sound as small to him as it
did to her. “When do we start?”
“Oh we won’t
start for a while. You see, there is a
whole boat load of people down here who have a beef with your family. The Winchesters. And they’re standing in line to get a crack
at you. I’ve got you booked up with play
dates for the next couple decades.” He
held her gaze for a minute then turned around.
“Are you ready? Here she is as
promised. A blue blooded Winchester.”
“Winchester?” came a hoarse, wild sounding voice. Then it
turned menacing. “Winchester.”
A dark formed loomed over her, brandishing some piece of
glinting metal. Dani gasped and
contorted her body, desperately fighting against the chains. Then she felt a hand, surprisingly cold and
strong, grip her forearm and the metal bit into it.
