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If Sam were given a choice to be anywhere in the world, this is probably the absolute last place he’d choose to be. It wasn’t the actual geographic location that was the problem, not that he knew where it was after they'd gotten lost in construction through Des Moines, or the car he was sitting in. It may not be the Impala, but he hadn’t hit his head while getting in and he didn’t feel cramped at all. It was the company.
Half the company. Rowena in the passenger seat, that was nice. She was good company, using the trip to tell all kinds of stories of her exploits in pursuit of power, or just shenanigans she got up to because she could. A lot of them came with some neat tips that Sam had every intention of pursuing when he got the chance, tricks to improve his witchcraft and let him get stronger and less reliant on books and recipes. Some of them were just funny. And some of them, well… Rowena had reformed, once she realized that no matter how powerful she got, it wasn’t going to make her happy.
The problem was the backseat passenger. The chains weren’t enough to make Sam comfortable in the enclosed space with Lucifer, not after the torture and the taunting. Even the gag Rowena had magicked up to keep him from talking wasn’t enough to take the edge off. Every time he caught sight of Lucifer in the rearview mirror, he could hear the taunting and the laughter.
Rowena reached over and put a hand on his thigh. “It’s safe, Samuel. There’s more protecting us than just the chains, you know.”
“There is?” Sam glanced over at her. Sure, Rowena was a powerful witch, but Lucifer was an archangel. Heaven’s most terrifying weapon. Even her spells might not hold up against his wrath, and if he managed to get free, there would be wrath against the people who dared to chain him in the first place. “What did you do?”
“Oh, the usual… spells to keep him from struggling and distracting you, protections on us to protect us from physical or grace attacks or possession attempts, that sort of thing.” That’s what Sam had figured. He hoped Rowena wouldn’t be too offended if he didn’t trust that to be enough. He wasn’t doubting her power or her skill. He just refused to underestimate Lucifer. “And then, of course, my dear son shared some research he’s been doing, and I got Castiel to look it over and see if we could improve it. Your standard angel wards will be irritating, maybe even painful, but they won’t keep an archangel out if they want to get in. With Lucifer free, Fergus wanted to find a way to create a safe base on Earth, and between the three of us, we did it. We found a way to make archangel warding sigils.”
“Really? Wow. Safe to assume you added them to the protection on the Bunker?” Which… might be a bad thing, since that’s where they were taking Lucifer while they figured out what to do with him. Still, he was impressed. That kind of magic wasn’t easy. Almost as difficult as getting Crowley and Castiel to work together in the first place, although they both hated and feared Lucifer, so there was a nice incentive.
“Of course, including the ability to lower them if we want an archangel to visit – like now.” Rowena glanced back at Lucifer. “More importantly, the front seat is warded. It may be slightly irritating him in the back seat, but he can’t get up here at all.”
“You can do that? Selectively ward part of a thing?” Sam glanced back at Lucifer again, who was now looking slightly sour. “You have to teach me this sigil and the selective warding. I was seriously worried about sleeping with him in the Bunker, but if I can ward my room…”
“What makes you think I haven’t done it already?” Rowena purred. “Of course I’ll teach you, I promised to teach you anything you wanted to know, but your bedroom is safe. After all, I’m planning on sleeping in there too!”
Sam could feel his face heating up. Of course, he should have realized Rowena wouldn’t leave herself unprotected in any way, not after what happened between her and Lucifer. “Sorry, you’re right, that was silly of me. I still may not get much sleep, but you keeping me up is a much more fun way to spend the night.”
“I should hope so.” Rowena smiled at the look on Lucifer’s face now. “Could we get Fergus and Dean to handle getting him settled in the dungeon and putting up the locking wards, do you think? For all his failings, my son has become a very powerful witch himself. I’m so proud of him.”
“No harm in asking, and Dean’s usually willing to do anything that keeps me from having to deal with Lucifer if I ask. Why, do you have something important we need to do?”
“Yes, I do. Fergus would probably disagree, but I suspect Dean won’t. I think we need to test the new spellwork on your room quite thoroughly.”
“You don’t…” Sam trailed off at the sparkle of mischief in Rowena’s eyes. Whatever she’d done to his room, he had no reason to think she hadn’t done it properly or that they would need to test it. He was a little surprised she was suggesting testing. Rowena’s hand squeezing his thigh made him realize what she meant. “OH! Yes. Yes, we really should test it. Very important. If Dean and Crowley can handle our prisoner, we should have as long as we need.”
Rowena gave his leg another squeeze. "In that case, I'm going to do a spell. The less time we spend sorting out our problem of being lost, the more time we have to test spellwork."