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A whimper cut through the silence, drifting out through the slightly opened door and into the hall, so quiet one would think it was just their imagination if not for the louder wordless cry that followed a few seconds later. It was coming from a room far down the hall away from Sam's room, even past Dean's. The young woman who occupied it wanted to be far away from the boys at night so they wouldn't hear her screams. Not that it always worked. Once in a while the sound proofing she installed on the door slid off its mark, other times the sticky latch she never seemed to get around to fixing freed the door, allowing it to swing silently open several inches unbeknownst to her. She tossed fitfully, getting more and more tangled in the sheets as the nightmare carried her further into its clutches.
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There were demons everywhere. Black eyed humans and black clouds whirling overhead had been chasing her at a flat out sprint for miles, if her rubbery legs and burning lungs were any evidence. She stumbled over a piece of twisted metal and hit the ground hard, sending her long empty flask skittering away. Ignoring the pain from the asphalt tearing into her hands and knees, she scrambled to her feet and kept going as the demons laughed at her, fueled by the adrenaline pumping furiously through her veins. "Getting tired there, sweetheart?" one called tauntingly. She didn't have the breath to answer.
Praying it wouldn't be a dead end, she ducked right into an alley and ten strides in immediately noticed something different. She slowed to a stop after tossing a glance over her shoulder to confirm it. Yep. The demons had disappeared. Rubbing the painful stitch in her side with one hand, she forced herself to keep walking at fast clip while getting her breathing under control, her head on a swivel waiting for them to reappear. Demons never just give up. With the stitch in her side dissipating, she dropped her hand and was startled to feel something warm and sticky instead of the reassuring bump of her ammo pouch. "Damn it," she muttered. There were scraps of leather hanging where the pouch was supposed to be, replaced by a long gash which was rapidly staining the blue fabric of her jeans a dull crimson. No time to deal with it now, it didn't hurt much anyways, for the moment. At least she still had her sawed-off. She frowned suddenly, remembering unloading it on the pack chasing her. "Damn it," she swore again after double checking and saw that the gun was in fact empty.
A sudden scream sent her heart beating wildly in her throat, the gun sliding through suddenly sweaty palms. She knew that voice. Castiel. Now she understood why the demons disappeared. They were leading her here. Gripping the shotgun tightly in one clenched fist, she took off at dead run, all pain forgotten and all thoughts but getting to him left her mind. Another cry reached her ears, long, broken, and filled with pain. Her heart skipped a beat at the sound. She ran faster, the thuds from her boots pounding into the pavement echoing along the walls. "Castiel?!" she yelled desperately, throwing all caution to the wind. The only reply she got was raucous laughter coming from behind her. Wait, behind?
As she whirled around to face them, her right boot slipped on a patch of water, sending her to the ground and landing with a thud onto her side before she had a chance to catch herself. Pain erupted from her hip like wildfire, racing eagerly along her leg and up her side, forcing her eyes closed with a groan. "Evelyn?" She opened her eyes again at the familiar voice whispering her name. Oh, Castiel...
Two demons held him firmly against the brick wall while a third stood before them wielding an angel blade dripping with blood. Castiel looked to be using all his willpower just keep his head up, his normally vibrant blue eyes clouded and dull as they met her searching ones, taking in the crisscrossed slices covering his chest, his blood stained shirt hanging in tattered ribbons off his lean frame, trench coat discarded on the ground beside them. A watery groan escaped his broken lips as the demons pushed him further up the wall, his booted feet no longer touching the ground. Evelyn pushed herself to her knees, preparing to launch herself at the nearest demon, thinking maybe she could get the blade from him and take a few out, when a hand clamped on her shoulder and shoved her back down.
"Hello, darling," a silky accented voice drawled in her ear. "Crowley," she spat, glaring daggers up at stocky man who only smiled down at her in return and walked toward Castiel, pausing when the angel's eyes widened imperceptibly and darted behind the king. "Stay," he commanded, stopping her silent charge with a lazy flick of his hand. She struggled against the sudden invisible force holding her in place when another flick ripped the shotgun out of her grasp and into his waiting hand. Crowley gave her an amused look after he opened the chamber and saw it was empty. "So you thought you'd club me with an empty shotgun?" He clicked his tongue disapprovingly and whisked the gun into the wall, the shattered pieces scattering like broken pottery on the ground.
Crowley sauntered over to Castiel and stopped before him, narrowing his eyes slightly at the angel's appearance. "Well, you look like hell,'' he stated. Castiel opened his mouth to respond but was swiftly reduced to hacking coughs by Crowley's fist slamming into his chest. Castiel groaned as blood poured out of his mouth, further decorating the already spotted ground. "I didn't give you permission to speak," Crowley admonished. He frowned suddenly, looking down at his shoes. Or rather, the speckles of red marring against the black leather. His brown eyes flashed dangerously in the dim light, all their intensity focused on the angel. "These are my favorite."
Evelyn watched helplessly as Crowley snatched Castiel's blade from his minion and buried it to the hilt in the angel's thigh. "You son of a bitch!" she shouted, her voice cracking as Castiel's scream reverberated off the walls. Crowley just smiled at her tone and beckoned with two fingers, sending her sliding forward on an invisible sheet of ice until he straightened the hand palm out, stopping her a few feet from the group. She was close enough now to see how parts of Castiel's black hair were matted with blood, how his leg twitched uncontrollably, causing his boot to tap an erratic tattoo against the wall.
Crowley studied Evelyn face, noticing the unshed tears shining brightly in eyes still fixed on Castiel, then looked back and forth between them and scoffed. "You have... feelings for this one?" he sneered. When Evelyn refused to met his gaze, he grabbed hold of Castiel's bloody chin, forcing the angel to look down at him. "And you, Castiel? Do you have feelings for her too?" he asked, spitting the word out like it was poison. Evelyn's heart lurched as Castiel didn't answer, only looked away from Crowley and met her eyes, suddenly feeling like she was sinking in the ocean and he was the only life raft. "My, my, he does," Crowley chuckled almost to himself.
Lightning flashed brightly overhead, and was quickly followed by an angry bellow of thunder. In moments the two danced in the night sky, releasing a steady stream of rain upon the earth as if to wash away the darkness below. The group was soaked to the bone in seconds. Crowley tilted Castiel's head to the side, watching diluted blood run out of his hair and down his face in tiny rivers. "Well, this is interesting. You see, I was going to kill you both, two birds with one stone, but now..." he trailed off, letting go of Castiel. "I think I'll just kill one. The angel," he started, glancing over at Evelyn. "...or his lady friend? Decisions, decisions."
Castiel opened his mouth but was interrupted again, this time by Evelyn. "Kill me!" she cried. The tears she'd been fighting finally spilled over, losing their warmth as they mingled with the cold rain. "Evelyn, no," Castiel murmured, meeting her eyes again. She could see the pain etched across his face, see the tears spilling over his own cheeks. Tearing her eyes away from his gaze, she turned to Crowley. "Leave him alone. Kill me," she whispered. Crowley cocked his head to one side, a thoughtful expression on his face. "I think I will." Reaching down, the king of hell yanked the blade out of Castiel's leg and held it in the air a moment while he waited for the angel to stop groaning and when he did, Crowley still didn't strike. Then he smirked at her and that's when she forgot to breathe. "By killing him," he finished simply, and with one smooth stroke buried the blade in Castiel's chest. Lighting flashed brilliantly across the sky and as its light disappeared, Evelyn found herself on the ground, alone in the alley with the gasping angel.
When her legs refused to work, she dragged herself the few feet to him. At the sight of all the blood and his rapidly paling face, she froze, not wanting to touch him for fear of making it worse only moving when he coughed weakly and reached for her. She took his hand and cradled his head gently in her lap, shielding his face from the rain. "Castiel..." She ran her fingers softly through his hair, her hand shaking from more than the cold. "Don't leave. Please." He smiled sadly up at her, blinking at her tears falling like warm rain upon his face, reaching up with the hand entwined with hers and brushed the back of it across her cheek. She choked back a sob, clutching his hand that felt both cold and warm tightly as he began to glow, refusing to look away. "I'm sorry," he whispered, his body tensing as the glow intensified until it was almost blinding and yet she still gazed at him. With one final breath, he arched off the ground, his light climaxing and going out with a whoosh like a lone candle in the dark. She clutched his now limp body to her, the stinging pain in her legs from his wings being branded into her an afterthought as she sobbed alone in the darkness.
Suddenly Evelyn found herself back in her room as the nightmare released her back to reality. The first thing she noticed was being completely swathed in soft, slippery material. The second thing was how warm it was. She pulled at the material as best she could, trying to pull it over her head, but that only made it worse, the blanket tightening it around her like a cocoon. Starting to hyperventilate because her sleep muddled brain refused to let her make enough sense of the mess to untangle herself, she finally tugged in the right place and was freed from the maze of sheets. Shooting upright, she gasped cool air into her burning lungs as if she hadn't breathed in a week, oblivious to the figure sitting silently on the other side of the bed in the dark. So oblivious in fact that she didn't see him until she flicked the bedside light on.
Jerking back so fast her elbow smacked into the headboard with a resounding crack, she clutched her other hand to her chest, her heart beating so fast it felt like it would burst right out of her. "I'm sorry," Castiel apologized, looking at her sheepishly. "I didn't mean to scare you." Evelyn met his eyes for a moment, reassured at the sight of their usual stormy blue with no sign of the dullness they held in her dream. "It's okay," she said softly, resisting the urge to fling her arms around him and never let go. "Why are.. uh... Why are you in here?" she asked, taking a deep breath and dropping his gaze. Castiel continued to look at her as she took great interest in a thread coming loose on her gray shorts. "You called out to me, so I came to see if you were alright. Are you?" he asked when she didn't respond. "I'm fine, Cas," she murmured, still picking at the thread.
Castiel frowned. Now he knew something was wrong for she never called him that, always preferring to use his full name. She tilted her head away from him as he moved closer to see her face. "But you're crying," he said softly, a confused expression working its way onto his handsome face. Evelyn sniffled and bit her bottom lip hard, her face burning with shame at the tears rolling unbidden down her cheeks. She was not the type of person who wore her emotions on her sleeve, in fact rarely crying at all and certainly never letting herself do so in front of anyone. "I... I just-" her voice cracked and she stopped, hanging her head down, her long brown hair hiding her face.
Castiel swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat. He'd never seen her look so small and lost. She never let them see that side of her. But he saw her once. She didn't know he was there and he walked in on her curled in a ball on the couch, sobbing her heart out. He specifically remembered how she didn't make a sound.
In what felt like the most natural thing in the world to do, he reached out and pulled her against him, wrapping his arms tightly around her. She froze, taken aback by the unexpected contact. "It's okay to feel," he said softly and with those words the dam broke. She clung to him, burying her face against his chest. She didn't know how long he held her like that, occasionally rubbing her back with one hand, not saying a word as she let herself break. After a time her sobs lessened and faded away, but still she stayed in his embrace, head tucked snugly under his chin, listening to his powerful heartbeat. Not that he minded. It was... strange, these feelings. Like the pang that shot deep within his chest when he saw the tears in her eyes. The realization that he was content to stay here and hold her safely in his arms for as long as she'd let him.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled against his shirt, breaking the silence. Castiel loosened his grip around her and pulled back, catching her eyes for only a moment before her gaze darted down and fixed on his tie. Catching her chin gently, he lifted her face to look at her, so close his breath was like a whisper on her skin. "You have nothing to be sorry for," he said firmly, meeting her green eyes which held an unreadable expression. They looked different, her tears making them sparkle, turning the irises a lighter green than they normally were. Castiel thought they were absolutely beautiful, like dew on a blade of grass in the morning sun. He unconsciously leaned closer, captivated by them when she leaned forward quickly, his eyes widening as she pressed a soft kiss to his lips.
It only lasted a few seconds before she pulled back, dislodging his grip on her chin. "I... I didn't mean... I don't... I'm sor-" Castiel ended her stream of half thoughts with a kiss of his own, capturing her face between his hands. It was gentle, but held a promise. Of safety, of patience, of something more if she so choose. She hesitated for scarcely a second before returning his kiss wholeheartedly, wrapping her arms around his neck, and tangling her fingers in his soft hair. Sliding one hand down her side to settle around her waist, he pulled her closer to him and started moving off her lips. He felt her shiver as he planted soft kisses along her jawline, making his way down her throat. She gasped softly when he reached the crook where her neck met her shoulder, letting her head fall to the side as he found just the right spot to send chills racing through her body. A tiny smile graced his face when her hand found its way under his coat to rest on his chest and she closed her eyes, lost in the moment.
They were both lost, so absorbed in each other they didn't hear Dean padding through the hall to stop at her door and push it open. "Hey, Evy, have you seen Cas, I need his help wit-" He stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth moving soundlessly like a fish out of water at the sight of them. Evelyn's head was thrown back, pure bliss written etched across her face as the angel slid her shirt off one shoulder, his mouth following its path before leaning back to shrug off his coat and in one fluid motion, flipped her around and lay them both against the rumpled sheets, his lips finding her neck again, both their hands wandering under each others shirts. "Something," Dean managed to finish. "I'll just uh... go... now..." he trailed off, walking slowly backwards as Cas' jacket joined his coat on the floor, shutting the door quietly on the way out, a smirk spreading across his face as he retraced his steps through the hall. "Atta boy, Cas."