Flame of Vengeance part 3

[caz2y5]

Dean woke slow, the late morning sun warming his feet just nicely. The fire had died down somewhat during the night while he slept but he could still feel the warmth wafting up from the coals behind him. He could definitely do with a coffee and he was fairly certain that there were a few more corn dodgers he could eat with it. Course that meant he had to get up.

He’d slept propped up against his saddle with only Impala’s horse blanket to cover him and his hat over his face to keep out the light. Dean’s back was to the fire and the angel who’d been unconscious for three days now was probably still dead to the world, splayed out on Dean’s bed roll on the opposite side of the fire. It wouldn’t surprise him if the angel was completely oblivious to the fact that Dean had barely slept as he watched over him. He’d almost buried him at one point till he realized that Cas was still breathing.

It occurred to Dean that he should probably get up. The day was wasting and he was also getting the world’s worst pain in the neck from laying there the way he was. He shifted over onto his back and lifted the edge of his hat with the tip of one finger, just enough to look out across the camp. He’d expected to see Cas still unconscious on the bed roll but Cas wasn’t there at all.

Dean shifted, pushing his hat all the way off his face as he looked around to see where the angel was. He didn’t have to look far. His eyes scanned the small open area of the clearing around the waterfall before he actually realized that the angel was standing under the waterfall. It wasn’t that his wings were out, Dean had seen them before. Well not all spread out to their full extent like they were. The water from the falls washed down over them. The feathers seemed less smoke like, appearing almost solid.

It wasn’t any of those things. It was the fact that Castiel was buck naked. Completely bare assed for anyone to see.

Castiel had his back to him and Dean couldn’t help the way his eyes strayed down the slight indented line of the angel’s spine. They followed the contours of the angel’s shape down to the just visible globes of his almost lily white ass cheeks. All the way down to where they became obscured by the waist deep water at the base of the waterfall. Castiel turns and glances over his shoulder, slightly looking up towards the campsite. Dean’s face is still mostly hidden by the brim of his hat so he keeps still even though he can’t tear his eyes from the angel.

“Are you planning on watching me all morning or do you wish to join me?”

Dean had been certain that the angel hadn’t noticed he was awake. He’d even held his breath. Castiel wasn’t even looking at him when he spoke. It stood to reason though that Cas being an angel and all was using his angel mojo to sense that Dean was perving on him or something. Castiel not only knew that Dean was awake but the angel probably also knew that he was pretending not to be staring at his bare ass.

“Uh… thanks for uh waking me Cas.”

It was meant to be a grumble of having just woken but it came out a little more high pitched than Dean had intended. He sat up pushing his hat back so that it was sitting correctly on the crown of his head. When he stood he dropped the horse blanket onto the saddle as a coughing fit hit him. It made him croak like he was an old timer and he had to spit to clear his throat. Apparently gracefully trying to avoid drawing more attention to himself was not on the cards this fine morning. Probably god or someone punishing him for thinking lewd thoughts about one of his naked fly boys.

Cas’ clothes were folded neatly on a large rock by the water’s edge and Dean meandered slowly down toward the water. His eyes glanced around warily as he looked for somewhere to stare at that wasn’t the angel tilting his head back and letting the water wash down over his face. Dean slowly started in on the buttons on his shirt.

It didn’t take long till Dean was stripped down to his union suit. The rest of his clothes placed haphazardly alongside the angel’s. Dean chewed his bottom lip, glancing from the pile of clothes to Castiel and back. The angel was definitely naked.

“I’ll be finished before you get naked at this rate.”

Dean was painfully aware that Cas still hadn’t turned around. He was grateful in a way because he doubted he could maintain any modicum of decency if the angel had turned to face him. He already felt heat prickling at the tips of his ears. He’d just have to get into the water fast to avoid revealing anything if the heat travelled lower. Shucking his long johns Dean placed his hat over his privates and stepped into the water.

The morning sun hadn’t had a chance to warm the cool water from the spring that fed the waterfall. Dean sunk himself low enough to cover his privates but the water and his delicate parts didn’t seem to agree with one another. He yelped at the cold and an icy chill sent shivers up his spine. He scrunched up his hat in his hands slightly then he threw the thing back onto the beach. It curved in its flight slightly and landed on the ground instead of the rock he’d aimed for but it was clear of the water.

“It is quite refreshing isn’t it.” Castiel chuckled slightly and when Dean turned his eyes to look at the angel there was a look on Cas’ face that could almost be called a smile.

There was definitely a challenge in that look. Dean smirked as he moved out closer to the waterfall. He skirted the deeper center of the pool and stayed in the waist deep water. The water got slightly deeper closer to the falls. Castiel was standing on a rock that was under the water to be at that height in the water. Dean was tempted to knock the angel off his perch into the chest deep water where Dean stood. Instead he cupped his hand and shoved it across the surface of the water causing a rather large wave to rise up and splash over the angel.

“Why did you do that?” Castiel asked, the angel even looked slightly shocked at what Dean had done.

“It’s meant to be fun Cas.”

“How is splashing me with cold water meant to be fun?” Castiel frowned and his wings lowered so the ends of them disappeared into the water. “I do not understand how such a thing is amusing.”

“Well,” Dean opened his mouth to explain but before he could Castiel moved his wings through the water and flicked way more water at him. It was like having a bucket of water dumped on your head. Cold water. Dean sputtered and glared at the angel and he was surprised to see the faintest hint of a smile on those pale lips.

He spat the water from his mouth and shook it from his hair. All thought of not pulling the angel off his little perch leaving his mind as he stepped closer. It didn’t take much to sink down as far as his shoulders, reach out under the water and pull at the angel’s knees. Only the angel didn’t budge. Not one inch. Castiel tilted his head to the side as he watched him. A curious expression on his face. Dean is fairly certain that the angel is using his mojo to stay in place on the rock.

“That’s cheating.”

“How can it be considered cheating?” Castiel straightened his head as he watched him. “I did not wish to be pulled into the cold water.”

“Well we can’t rightly have a water fight if you won’t let me pull you under the water Cas,”

“What have I done to warrant you fighting with me?”

“It’s not really fighting. It’s a game.” Dean sighed with exasperation. The angel obviously had never had a water fight to know what Dean was talking about.

“Oh.” Castiel frowned slightly and his wings folded away till they were the barely visible shadow behind his back. Castiel tilted his head to the side and if Dean had a word to describe the expression he’d say skeptical. “So this game involves being pushed under water and it is meant to be fun?”

“Yeah, that’s it. It’s fun.” Dean grinned. Glad that Cas seemed to be starting to catch on.

That glimmer of a smile spread across Castiel’s face again and Dean was pretty sure that the angel was capable of one of those smiles that would light up his whole face if he just let himself enjoy something fully instead of holding back. One of Castiel’s wings spread out wide and Dean could see the form of it solidify slightly. Gaps appearing slightly between the long light feathers as Cas stretched it out. Dean’s fairly certain that Cas’ wing is bigger than his horse.

What he didn’t see was the other wing dip low and slide under the water. It wasn’t until it brushed across the back of his calf that Dean realized that the angel was probably just showing him the wing to distract him and catch him off guard. Of course by that point Cas had swept his feet out from under him.

Dean fell backwards, splashing down into the deeper water. Gasping out in shock but not managing to catch a big enough breath before the water covered him and his mouth was filled with water. He was a fairly confident swimmer but the whole thing had caught him off guard. It didn’t help that Castiel’s wings were still there in the water and Dean found himself tangled in them. He couldn’t find the bottom with his feet to kick back to the surface. His lungs burned and he could feel his throat was full of water.

Then Cas was there. The angel leaning in close and pressing his lips to Dean’s. The panic of drowning subsiding as the angel’s hands pressed to his cheeks and held him close. The sensation of water in his lungs disappearing as the angel kisses him. Dean is remotely aware that he can breathe against Cas’ lips, like the angel is breathing air into his mouth. Cas pulls him up out of the water so that now the two of them are floating, treading water with their heads above it. Castiel breaks the kiss and Dean is fairly certain that the angel is grinning at him.

“You need to learn how to use the power that the rider gives you to your advantage.”

“What?” Dean isn’t exactly sure how his rider powers are relevant in any way to what just happened. The angel’s hands move from his face down to rest on his shoulders. It’s not until he feels solid ground beneath his feet that Dean realizes Cas was moving him to the shallows. “What does that have to do with the fact that you just kissed me?”

“The Rider is part of you, and you are part of him. You can both use the power inside of you. You only need to learn how to harness it to your needs,” Castiel tells him. Moving away slightly and then walking toward the shore. “You could use the power during the daytime. And that was by no means a kiss.”

Dean is fairly certain that Cas is just messing with him now. He knows that when he becomes the Rider he has no control over it. That was why he tried to avoid people or places where the rider could do any real damage. But him using the Rider’s ability, that wasn’t something he wanted to do let alone try and do. Castiel flicks his wings out and the feathers rustle and shake. It reminds Dean of a wet dog shaking the water out of its fur. Only this was far more impressive. He could see the feathers ruffle in a pattern. Like watching each individual muscle move the feathers attached to it.

“Wait, you’re saying I could be the rider all of the time?” Dean responds sarcastically. Being the Rider at all was bad enough, why on earth would he want to be the rider during the day time as well.

“If you learnt to control the power you would be in better control when the Rider takes you,” Castiel explains to him. Dean is impressed that the angel can keep his balance when his wings move like that. He moved to sit on a rock in the sun knowing that in the heat it will only take a few minutes to dry and he can put his clothes back on. Castiel sits next to him his expression back to serious.

“You could teach me how to do that?”

“It would require the ability of someone who can see the demon past the brightness of your soul,” Castiel explains. Dean remembered what it had felt like the last time Cas had tried to see the demon and that had definitely not been fun. “The demon is very good at hiding. And I am afraid that I would hurt you if I touched you with my grace.”

“There is one other option. I believe that one of the pagan gods could see the demon in you and teach you how to control it.” Castiel’s suggestion was just mind boggling. But given everything else that Dean had learnt walked the earth it made sense that there were pagan gods too. “Only I do not know of any that would come if I called them and we have nothing to offer them.”

“So how do we find a pagan god?”



There was a Cheyenne tribe two day’s ride north of the arroyo. Dean has, had dealings with the tribal chief Tah-me-la-pash-me but only in seeking a demon who had hidden in their midst. Castiel informs him that the name means Dull Knife. It’s certainly a lot easier to say. Dean had only ever dealt with the Indians when there had been a tribe member who spoke French or enough broken English that he could trade information with them. He’d even stayed a few rather pleasant nights with a widowed squaw in one of the Navajo tribes near the Rio Grande.

Castiel did all of the talking considering he spoke the language. Dean just felt awkward standing there listening to Castiel speak with Nahiossi, the tribal Medicine man. He’s old with long gray hair down his back. There are three black feathers tied in it behind his left ear, and colored beads sewn in patterns on his buck skin shirt. They talk for what feels like hours and Dean amuses himself by flirting with a pretty squaw who keeps smiling at him and tucking her hair behind her ear when she thinks he isn’t looking.

Eventually though, Castiel has explained what they wanted and why they wanted it to the medicine man. Cas tells Dean that his name is Three Fingers because he only has three fingers on his right hand. Then the angel reaches behind himself and tugs free a single long black feather from somewhere deep inside his wing. He hands it to Three Fingers, who for the price of the angel’s wing feather, had agreed to summon the god Coyote.

Dean watched as the Medicine Man chanted and drew an elaborate pattern on the ground with colored sand. There was a blazing fire and the rest of the tribe danced and chanted around that. The song was beautiful considering it was just the voice of the tribe. The Men, women, and children all danced in and out of the shadows of the flame. Dean may still not understand the Rider but he kind of understood the beauty of the flame.

The Medicine man stood, signaling for Dean and Castiel to stand. The rest of the tribe fell silent till it was just Three Finger’s voice echoing out into the night sky. He danced around the sand drawing slowly and purposefully as he brushed Castiel’s feather across his chest and down his arms over and over again. The song seemed to reach a crescendo and then all of the fires in the camp snuffed out as though blown out by a strong wind even though there was none.

Dean sat there in the darkness and he glanced at Castiel. He wondered if that was it. If perhaps it meant that the god wasn’t coming. It wouldn’t surprise him because he’d learnt not to rely on any god. Pagan or otherwise. Then suddenly a blinding flash of lightning sliced across the sky and a sound like a thousand swords being drawn at once and a coyote howl pierced the silence. Dean had to shield his eyes from the intensity of the light.

When it faded enough Coyote was standing in the center of the drawing. He stood easily at ten feet, strong and muscular like a giant. He was dressed in a breechclout with doe skin leggings and small beaded moccasins on his feet. A breastplate of bone beads covered his chest and his face was hidden behind a carved wooden mask. The likeness of which was that of a coyote. Its eyes flickered with blue flame as it looked around the assembled people who had summoned him.

“Hénáá'e onéstôhónéo’o vonôhóha'ósané nésemá O'kôhome?”[1] the god demanded, its voice deep and bellowing. Dean could feel the reverberation of the voice vibrate against his chest.

Castiel stepped forward to stand at the edge of the sand painting. He tilted his head to the side in that inquisitive way the angel had.

“Máse oh he'amátam O'kôhome!” [2] Three Fingers and Dull Knife bowed down before the trickster god. Bowing their heads low. Everyone in the tribe kept their heads down. Looking at the ground rather than laying eyes on the god that they revered. Dean wasn’t overly impressed. Sure the guy was tall. Markings of red and blue war paint covered the strong muscles of the Warrior’s arms. The god seemed to be going for intimidating and so far he was succeeding.

“Gabriel?” Castiel asked, stepping forward into the ring of sand that marked the summoning circle. The angel frowned and stared at the god who, if Dean hadn’t been sure it was a wooden mask and not the thing‘s actual face, he would say he was smiling.

“I am the great god Coyote!” The ground shook and the god‘s voice rumbled like thunder across the sky. The god was no longer speaking in Cheyenne. It was a bonus. It meant that Dean would be able to understand what was going on because right at this moment he was completely lost as to why Castiel was risking moving closer to the guy who looked like he might just be part bear.

That you may be,” Castiel tells the coyote god in that same calm voice that gave Dean chills because he had seen Cas fight and that voice really didn’t convey the angel’s strength. “But you are also the archangel Gabriel and my brother.”

Dean had learned to read from reading the Bible so he knew who the archangel Gabriel was. But the tall coyote god in front of them, Dean couldn’t reconcile the two with being one and the same. The god stared intently at Castiel, the flame in its eye sockets flickering. The god was still the only light source in the clearing.

Then Coyote threw his head back and laughed. Dean couldn’t be certain at first but as the god laughed he seemed to shrink in size. The clothes and mask shrinking with him until the archangel / god was shorter than Castiel. The flame was gone from the eyes of the mask when he looked back at them. The now human eyes shimmered like gold from behind the mask. Then Gabriel reached up and pulled the mask from his face revealing a very human looking angel.

“You’re the archangel Gabriel?” Dean asked, his voice edged with surprise. The great god Coyote looked more like a short and shifty eyed bank clerk now, rather than an all-powerful Indian god or even an archangel. The Indian get up looked completely out of place with what was obviously a white skin. Gabriel glared at him and Dean shook his head to keep from smirking. “Sorry I guess I thought you would have been taller.”

“Why are you here Castiel?” Gabriel asked stepping close to stand before the younger angel. “Why are you calling for help from pagan gods?”

“We need help brother.” Castiel’s blue eyes gazed intensely at golden ones. “We need your help.”

“No! He needs my help,” Gabriel spat. Casting a dark scowl in Dean’s direction. “Besides I’m not in the helping business any more Castiel.”

Gabriel sighed and looked back at Castiel. He stared intently at him for a moment and Castiel just stared right back. his blue eyes unblinking.

“Oh little brother, what have you done?” Gabriel sighed and shook his head. Dean could see the way that Cas’ wing’s rustled in response to the question. Gabriel reached out and placed a hand on Castiel’s shoulder. Then he drew the blade at his side and held it out to the angel. “You could still go home if you wanted Castiel. You know what you have to do.”

“Now hang on a minute,” Dean protested.

“Shut up, I didn’t come here for you,” Gabriel snapped at Dean. He still held the knife out for Castiel to take. It didn’t look like the angel blade that Cas had told him could kill him but Dean wasn’t about to take any chances. Only when he went to step back he couldn’t move.

“If you did not come to help us, then why did you come?” Castiel asked, head tilting to the side.

“The Shaman used an angel feather in the ritual to summon me. I only came to see who was foolish enough to give up such a thing.” Gabriel shook his head disappointedly. Dean got the impression that if Cas hadn’t been here Gabriel probably would have killed who ever had given over the feather. Gabriel pressed the knife into Castiel’s hand. “Carry out your orders and kill him so you can go home, Castiel.”

“No I cannot, I will not kill this righteous man.” Castiel bowed his head and shook it. He withdrew his hand from Gabriel’s grasp and away from the knife.

“Well look at you.” Gabriel’s scowl changed to a look of amusement. He put the knife back in the sheath at his side and stepped back from Castiel to look at both of them. Dean wasn’t exactly sure what was going on but he got the impression that maybe Gabriel was testing Castiel and Cas had passed somehow. Only Dean wasn’t sure what Cas had done to do so.

“What’s say we get some lights on here Castiel? And maybe a little privacy. Then maybe we can shed some light on your little problem,” Gabriel suggested. He raised his hand and with a slight flourish he clicked his fingers. All of the torches that had extinguished and even the bonfire all reignited, filling the area with light and warmth. Dean wasn’t sure if they were in the same place because Dull Knife and the rest of his people, even Three Fingers was gone.

“So you can help us?” Dean asked, a slither of help flaring inside him that it might just be possible for this to be finally over. He didn’t want to be the Rider and he sure as hell didn’t want to have a demon inside him.

“You do know that I can’t break the deal Deano. You’re stuck with Zarathos until your deal is done.”

“What?” Dean snapped. “I thought you said you would help?”

“No, I said I could shed some light on your problem,” Gabriel stated producing a carved wooden bowl from nowhere. There was a medicine pouch slung on Gabriel’s hip. It looked flat and empty but every time he reached into it he produced a handful of candy or herbs. The candy went in the angel’s mouth and the herbs went into the bowl.

“What do you know about Zarathos?” Gabriel asked as he worked on grinding the ingredients in the bowl with what looked like a cow’s leg bone.

“He’s the demon of vengeance,” Dean begun.

“Spirit,” Gabriel interjected.

“What?”

“Zarathos is the spirit of vengeance,” Gabriel clarified. “Zarathos used to be an angel.”

“How is that possible?” Castiel asked, surprised. Dean can remember the feel of Cas’ hand buried inside his soul. If Zarathos was an angel surely Cas would have seen the difference.

“Zarathos was our brother and he was in charge of protecting the innocent,” Gabriel explains. He pulls another handful of hard candy out of pouch. He offers it to both Dean and Cas who both decline. Gabriel drops the handful of candy into his mouth before continuing. The occasional crunch of candy audible between words. “It was a long time ago, just after Lucifer fell. Zarathos was dragged down into hell. They twisted him into the thing that’s inside your human there.”

“But the point is, if you want to learn how to control the thing inside you. You definitely need to know what it is,” Gabriel explains as he continued to work on the mixture in the bowl. He pulled a small vial of something out of his medicine bag and poured it over the mixture. Dean wasn’t sure but he thought that he may have seen Gabriel spit in the mixture too. Gabriel ground it again with the bone and then finished up by tapping the bone on the side of the bowl.

“Here you are then.” Gabriel smirked, holding the bowl out for Dean to take. “You want to figure this out, then drink this.”

The stuff in the bowl was black and foul looking. It smelt worse. Dean wasn’t sure if he could drink something like that. He hadn’t recognized more than half the stuff that the angel had put in it.

“What is this?”

“Peyote,” Gabriel tells him with a shrug. “Mostly.”

Both Gabriel and Castiel watched him intently and Dean knew he was probably going to have to drink it. What was the worst that could happen right? He doubted it could be poison. It wouldn’t have any effect on him anyway. He’d already learnt the hard way that he couldn’t die while he had the demon in him. It probably wasn’t good to think about what the stuff was or what it would do. So Dean just closed his eyes and knocked it back as fast as he could.

It tasted like ass.

“What is this stuff supposed to do exactly?” Dean asked wiping at his tongue in an attempt to get rid of the rancid taste.

“You should probably sit,” Castiel tells him and Dean groans at just how disgusting the crap tasted. He moved to sit and Castiel put a hand on back and before Dean even realized he was sitting on the ground. Gabriel smirked at him and then split into two people. Only there was still only the one smile that just got brighter and brighter until Dean couldn’t see any more.



When Dean opened his eyes it was pitch black. He blinked a few times in the hopes that his eyes would adjust and he could make out where he was, but no details came out of the darkness. He was lying on what felt like hard rough stone and when he sat up he got the impression that he was in some kind of cave or hole.

“Hello?” Dean called out. The sound almost nonexistent as the darkness swallowed it away. “Cas?”

“Anyone?”

Dean raised himself up to his feet. Hands held out against the encroaching blackness. He couldn’t see worth a damn and the feeling of the darkness, or something in the darkness closing in on him was almost claustrophobic. Dean refused to stumble around in the darkness. He felt around to see what he could reach but there was nothing there. Dean felt like he was being watched too. The entire thing was more than a little unnerving. He swore he would never drink black gunk offered to him by anyone let alone an angel or a demi god ever again.

He held up his hand and clicked his fingers, hoping to spark a flame. Of course nothing happened. Even the sound of the snap of his fingers sounded faint as it was swallowed by the darkness. Dean had a backup plan though. He patted his pockets and found his flint that he’d always carried to start camp fires. It didn’t take much to run the steel down the stone. Instead of the sparks that should have flared from it, a big blue flame erupted from it. Streaking through the darkness to land a few steps from Dean’s feet.

The flame writhed in front of him, snake-like as it reared up and curled in on itself. Dean made to step back but he couldn’t move. The light threw shadows that flickered in the darkness and Dean could feel his heart buck in his chest like a frightened filly. He’d been in this situation before. Crowley’s shadows crowding in on him before the ghost rider had burned its way through him.

Dean watched almost mesmerized as the flame flickered from blue to yellow. Something was growing inside the writhing light. Getting bigger and bigger. It pulsed and writhed like the glowing light and Dean could start to see it take shape. It was dressed the same as Dean. The same jeans and button down shirt with the leather vest buttoned over the top. It even had the same revolver at its side and rifle slung over its back. Every detail was the same all the way down to the ten gallon hat on his head.

There was only one clear difference between the two of them. The thing in front of him was a skeleton. The flame licked up and over its skeletal features. Dean had never really seen his own face when he was the rider. He was fairly certain that was what he was seeing now. There was only one possible explanation to explain what the thing standing in front of him was.

“You’re Zarathos?”

The ghost rider tilted his head to the side, bare teeth parting in a hiss. The flame around its skull flickered between being blue and yellow and Dean wondered what the blue flame was. He knew that when he burned it had always been a yellow flame. Dean blinked and before he could even open his mouth the rider was moving forward and burning through him. Like a ghost passing through his body.

Dean fell to his knees as fire burned through his insides. The feeling of it writhing its way through each vein and nerve ending painfully familiar. Only this time it was accompanied by flashes. Images that burned themselves across the inside of his skull.

He could see Zarathos. The way he must have appeared when he was still an angel. Still clean and handsome and righteous. He glowed with an inner light and carried a flaming sword. He went to save a child but it was a trap set for him by demons. They clawed at him and dragged him down into the earth all the way down to hell. Dean watched as they ripped at his wings. Tearing them away a feather at a time until there was nothing left. They stained him with blood and dirt and filth and Zarathos screamed and screamed until the sound of it echoed in Dean’s brain until he screamed too.



Dean felt like he was drowning, or floating. The sound of falling water echoed in his ears. It sounded far away though, drowned out like he was underwater. He thought he heard someone call his name but he wasn’t certain. The sound thick and sluggish to his ears. Somewhere in the distance Dean thought he heard the whicker of horses.

“Dean?”

Everything became clearer once Dean had opened his eyes. The earth became solid under his back. The sound of water resolved itself to the sound of the waterfall as it splashed down the nearby cliff face and tumbled into the pool below. They were back at the camp and Dean was lying on the bed roll under the alcove of the cliff. The inside of his mouth felt and tasted like he’d been eating dirt, or other unsavory substances that he would rather not figure out what it was.

“You are awake.” Castiel sat beside him and wiped a wet cloth over his brow. “I was beginning to think that you might not again.”

Dean sat up and looked around. Impala was down by the water’s edge where the grass was green and new. Dean wasn’t sure what had happened but he figured that Cas had brought him back here. He wondered why Gabriel wasn’t around, but he could recall that the angel had whispered something to him before the peyote had taken full affect.

Gabe had told him what Cas had done for him. How the angel had severed his ties to heaven. It meant that slowly Cas would lose his grace and become human. He’d even lose his wings. All because Castiel had chosen to protect Dean. The only way to stop it from happening was for Cas to carry out the orders he was given and kill Dean. Gabe had told him that it won’t happen and that was probably because Cas had gone and gotten himself lost and was experiencing human emotions.

Dean looked over at Castiel. Really looked and he was fairly certain that he was seeing Cas through new eyes. The angel looked different somehow. That was when Dean realized that Cas actually glowed slightly. A soft aura of light that seemed to seep from deep inside him. It didn’t take much for Dean to put two and two together and realize that the angel inside him, as insane as it was, was showing him what Castiel truly looked like.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” Cas asked, his brow furrowing and Dean was pretty sure he was probably staring and making Cas uncomfortable.

“You kissed me this morning,” Dean points out.

Castiel’s gaze lowers and Dean’s fairly certain if Cas was capable of it the angel would be blushing. He hadn’t been entirely sure that was what Cas was doing when he’d pressed his lips to his that morning in the water. But the way Cas responded to it being pointed out Dean was fairly certain of it now.

“Come with me,” Dean requests moving to get up. Cas shifts too, standing beside him. “I want to show you something,”



Dean’s father had brought him and Sam here occasionally when they were kids. It was a good spot to take shelter and hide out for a while. Whether they were hiding from the law or from bill collectors. Sam and he had kept coming back here even after their father had deserted them for something they had never really had.

He’d found a crack in the cave wall behind the water fall. It wasn’t much. A grown man could wedge himself inside it if he wanted but it didn’t go far back into the face of the cliff. But boys being boy’s Dean had found that once you were in there you could climb up between the two edges and make your way further up inside the rock face. The crack led up into a cave system. It wasn’t easy to get too but so long as you weren’t too big you could reach it. Dean led Castiel to the crack in the wall.

“You’re going to want to strip some of that off. Anything that can snag or catch on the rocks.” Dean pointed out as he took off his holster. He placed it and his gun inside his hat then placed them on a nearby rock ledge. His duster followed, folded in half and placed on top. Dean grinned at Castiel who still seemed puzzled at what Dean was doing. “Follow me,”

Dean wedged himself into the crevice. Breathing in as he did so. It was a tighter squeeze than he had recalled but he could do it. He worked his way up between the rocks. He took it slow because one time there had been a rattle snake on one of the ledges. Although mostly there was nothing in here that he was that scared of. When he reached the hole where the crevice opened up into an actual cave Dean wriggled free and turned around to offer Cas a hand. Only the angel wasn’t behind him.

“Cas?”

“I am here Dean,” Castiel was already in the cave, standing behind him. Dean turned and smirked at the angel. It made sense that Cas hadn’t squeezed through the crevice like that. Dean hadn’t thought about it but Cas’ probably would have snagged his wings on the rocks. There were a few shafts of light coming in from somewhere above but mostly it was dark.

“What is this place?”

“Me and Sam used to come here when we were kids,” Dean explains. There is a candle somewhere on one of the ledges and Dean feels around for it. It doesn’t take long to strike a match and get it lit. The light reveals the color of the rocks and even now after all these years it’s still a little breathtaking. The rocks are colored. Stripes of red and orange and yellow lining the wall in the most beautiful patterns. Dean had always kind of liked the way that the rocks were like that in here and just the one dull red color outside.

“Oh Dean, this is wonderful,” Cas tells him turning in a slow circle as he looks around the room. On one of the walls there is the scratched out and faded yellow. It marked out a DW and SW cutting across the color. They’d carved their initials there when Sam had still been young.

Dean makes his way further back into the cave. He doesn’t need the candle on the ledge to see what he’s doing here. He knows the place like the back of his hand. He hasn’t been here since Sam died and he’s never brought anyone here other than Sam. There’s a loose rock. It obviously doesn’t belong in the cave because it’s a dull red color and not painted in stripes like the rest of the rock walls here. Dean had carried it up here when they were kids.

He pulled the rock out of the way to reveal a little alcove. There’s an old metal tobacco tin hidden in the back of the recess. It’s yellow and looks new but it’s been hidden in the rock since Sam was five. Dean hesitates for a moment, glancing at Cas and then back at the tin. Then he pulls it free of its resting place and turns around to show this treasure to the angel.

It had been Sam’s idea. One of the ranch hand’s had a book about pirates and he’d read some of it to the boys. Sam had wanted to have buried treasure and since they always came here it had been the perfect place. Dean was fairly certain that he and Sam could have found their way to this arroyo on a moonless night while riding a horse backwards.

“Here,” Dean held the tin out to Cas to take. “I want to share this with you,”

Castiel frowned and looked at the box and then at Dean. Dean could see the question in the look but he just held the box further out from himself for the angel to take. When Castiel took it and Dean moved back slightly and sat on the floor of the cave, his back against the colored stone. Cas kept his eyes on the box but he moved and sat beside Dean.

“I didn’t think you chewed tobacco Dean?” Castiel pointed out. Dean had to laugh at that. He was fairly certain that Cas wasn’t joking with the fact he was puzzled by why Dean had given him a tin that said chewing tobacco on the side.

“Look inside Cas,”

Castiel frowned and then returned his attention to the box. He opened the lid and looked inside. Dean knew the contents of the box off by heart. He’d been the one to place each item in there. Well him or Sam, but he’d been here with his brother when he placed treasures in there. The last treasure he’d placed in the box he’d been alone.

“Every time we came here we’d place some kind of treasure in the box.” Dean explained reaching in and pulling out a silver locket. “This was the first treasure we ever put in there,”

The locket was old, and Dean rubbed his fingers across it the way his mother had done when she wore it. The piece of jewelry all he had left of a mother he barely remembered. He’d lost her so long ago. Dean opened the locket and held it up for Cas to see. It contained a portrait on each side. His mother on the left and his father on the right. Back before her loss had driven him to the drink and broken him. He’d been as handsome as she’d been beautiful. Dean had, had his hide tanned for losing it. He’d just not wanted his father to pawn it for another bottle of rot gut.

“You look like her,” Castiel tells him. Dean doesn’t really see it. She was way more beautiful than he was.

“Sam used to say that this belonged to Crow himself,” Dean explained, pulling a large black feather from the box. It was no longer as impressive as it had been when they’d found it. The spine broken in a few places and the soft parts bent and torn.

Dean went through each item, in the order they had been placed in the tin. Explaining to Cas what each thing was. Sam’s first tooth, the rattler tail he’d been given by a traveling snake oil sales man, a cat’s eye marble that was green instead of yellow in the middle, a piece of glass that had been worn smooth by sand, a piece of ribbon from a fair they’d attended once in Abilene. Each and every item had held some value at the time it had been placed in the box.

“What is the ring?” Castiel asked when Dean had gotten down to the last item but still hadn’t told Cas what it was.

“It’s an engagement ring,” Dean explained rubbing a hand through his hair and frowning slightly. “Sam brought it for Jo the day he died. I found it in the ashes after the fire.”

Dean picked up the ring and turned it over in his fingers. It was still charred with soot from the fire. Dean had rummaged through the ash and soot for most of the day. He’d started as soon as the fire had burned itself out, the ashes still scolding hot as he searched through them. It was the only proof he’d had that he’d failed to protect his baby brother. The one job he’d been in charge of since their mother died.

“I’m sharing these with you because you mean something to me too Cas,” Dean explained. Not that he wanted to put the angel in the tin with the rest of the things. “I wanted you to know how much I appreciate what you’re doing for me.”

His hand formed into a fist around the slim ring of metal. Then he dropped it back into the box. Castiel watched him silently and Dean wasn’t sure if that was a bad thing or a good thing. The lid of the box made a metallic clank that echoed slightly in the cave when Cas shifted. The angel’s hand coming up to curve against Dean’s cheek. Dean closed his eyes and leaned into the touch slightly appreciating the warmth and the gesture in the touch.

Then he felt Cas’ lips brush against his own.

Dean sighed softly and kissed the angel back. His own hands coming up to cup Castiel’s cheeks. It was different to the kiss Cas had given him in the water. The angel having grown bolder or Dean less resistant. But it deepened. The kiss drawing Dean’s thoughts from melancholy to something else entirely. Cas tasted like air and Dean wondered if maybe the angel was just trying to help him breathe again. But then Cas made a little sound like a mewl against his lips.

It was enough to set fire flaring through Dean’s insides. The heat of it making him want more. He trailed his hands down over the angel’s sides as he pressed closer to him. Cas hand moved from his cheek to slide across the nape of his neck. He couldn’t pull away if he tried. Not that he wanted to at all. Cas seemed to like the idea of moving closer and before Dean knew what was happening Cas had him pressed up against the wall.

Castiel took to making out like a bee to honey. He used his hips to pin Dean up against the wall of the cave and his hands on Dean’s shoulders to make sure he stayed put. Dean gasped because he’d kind of expecting for Castiel to be as uneducated about the ins and outs of human anatomy and sex as he seemed to be about most things. The angel though seemed to be certain of what he was doing.

“Dean?”

Castiel broke the kiss although he stayed pressed against Dean. Keeping him in place. It was a good thing because Dean’s knees might not have stood up to being able to keep him upright just at that second. Dean didn’t want to stop kissing Cas but when he leaned forward the angel’s hands on his shoulders stopped him from chasing the angel’s lips. It meant he had to open his eyes even though he was pretty sure it was going to mean it would be over.

When he opened his eyes though Dean was surprised to find that he was on fire. The only thing that stopped him from freaking out was the calm look on Castiel’s face. The angel staring intently with that almost smile on his face.

Dean brought his hands up to look at them. The flame that licked at his skin was blue and not yellow. And his skin was still there. It hadn’t burnt away like it always did when he became the rider. Not only that but being on fire, it didn’t hurt. Becoming the rider had always been excruciating. Always. But this time he was burning with a blue flame that flickered and licked over his intact skin and if anything, Dean felt content.

“You’re different somehow,” Castiel stated, his head tilting to the side as he looked at him. Dean knew that look. Cas was probably looking at Zarathos. Maybe even talking to him too. “Your soul is glowing Dean.”

“I, I feel different,” Dean admitted. It was so strange to be on fire and to not burn. But have his soul glow? That was news to Dean. “Maybe it’s Gabriel’s potion?” I saw Zarathos and he showed me what happened to him. How he became the spirit,”

“You saw the angel?” Castiel gasped. Dean could see the surprise on his face. He nodded because he had seen Zarathos as an angel. “You’re lucky most people who see our grace get their eyes burnt out by it.”

That was news to Dean too. He’d always been able to see Cas’ wings. Weren’t they part of the angels ‘true form. But since he’d been on his little vision quest with the help of Gabriel’s peyote juice, Dean had been able to see Cas glowing through his skin.

“Cas, I think,” Dean licked his lips not sure if he should tell the angel or not. He didn’t want Cas to leave or think he’d been spying or something. “I think I can see your true form.”

“You can?” Castiel frowned and the glow faded for a moment. Then Cas smiled and the glow grew even brighter.

“Yeah, I can,” Dean confessed. He smiled and reached out to brush his fingertips across Cas’ cheek again, “You’re beautiful Cas,”

Castiel bit his own bottom lip and then leaned in kissing Dean again even though he was still on fire. Dean kept his eyes open this time even though Castiel closed his. He raised his hand and glanced at it as he thought to himself how he shouldn’t be on fire while he was making out. It didn’t matter that Cas was an angel and not hurt by it. And slowly the fire faded from his skin till he was all back to normal. Well as normal as making out with an angel.

Dean wrapped his arms around Cas then pulled the angel close as he closed his eyes.

[1] What fool dares summon the great god Coyote?
[2] Welcome oh great Coyote!
part IV