Come Light of Day
Dean stared up at the sky as he rubbed at the innocuous bracelet around his wrist. It was nothing you’d notice in passing, nothing special that sang out ‘demonic tracking device’, but it did it’s job just as well. In fact it’d taken Dean a month to realize he had the thing on and another couple months to realize he couldn’t take it off. He’d fall asleep before he got to it, or he’d remember something really important to do, or when sheer determination got him through it and he was attempting to remove it, the pain grew so bad that he passed out. He’d gone straight to Bobby then, trying to get it removed because even if he didn’t know what it did, he was sure it wasn’t good. Bobby figured it out quick enough but the removal was another thing all together.
When the Underking came for them, Bobby was taken and Dean was left with a gaping hole in his chest where his heart had once been. Losing Bobby wasn’t the first mistake Dean made in the war and it wasn’t his last. When he looked back though, it was probably made the top two list. The first one… well… the bracelet got there somehow didn’t it?
Bobby was taken from them before he had been able to pass on half of what he knew, even if he had been smart enough to start moving his library away from one place. The hunters had begun to create other libraries, pulling resources when they realized the Apocalypse was coming. Not that Sam and Dean had known that at the time. Everyone seemed happy enough to leave them in the dark about it. Waiting to see what side Sam and Dean came out on.
Bobby’s loss was more than just the personal loss that Dean felt at losing the only family he had left. It was more than just the loss of his experience and his knowledge. It was giving the enemy everything he knew as well. The others swore that Bobby Singer would never break under torture. Dean gave them a glare and simply said “He’ll break. Everyone breaks in hell.”
No one questioned him. No one else had been to hell to compare. When Dean Winchester spoke about hell, it was truth and the bare bones that he spoke. No one was stupid enough to ask him directly about it. Not since the incident. And no one had ever been stupid enough to ask him what happened to his brother.
The sky was shining a bright red and the old sailor adage about red sky in morning popped into his head. Only this wasn’t a warning of a coming storm from the sea. The red sky was the burning of the world and hell was following close at their heels.
Not that Dean Winchester needed to be worried. Demons wouldn’t dare touch him. Demons wouldn’t dare mess with the Underking and what was his. And everyone, human, angel, and demon all knew that Dean Winchester was his. Castiel had tried to save him, he’d tried to help. He’d been the last. When the Underking had come for him, Castiel stood in the way. Dean could do nothing as both Castiel and his vessel Jimmy fell as ash before the king. His only joy in that moment was that it had been Jimmy and not his daughter who had fallen in the vain attempt to save him.
In the beginning the hunters tried to flock to him. He put out word after Bobby that they should stay away from him, that the Underking would kill any hunter close to him. They’d come in droves to try to kill the Underking. They died in droves until Dean finally broke. “Damn it! Just take me!” He’d yelled as he looked down at Ellen’s beautiful brown hair, trying not to see the blood seeping into the tips. It was too late, but he couldn’t let anyone else find him, not when it meant this.
The Underking had smiled at him, his eyes warm and affectionate. “I knew, eventually, you’d see things my way.” He was offered a hand and Dean took it. He wasn’t the last hunter alive, but there weren’t many left. Maybe they’d live long enough to train a new generation that would know how to beat this thing better. All Dean had learned to do was to fall before it.
Things were a little better after that at first. His own personal hell was worse, but at least less people were dieing. His guilt wasn’t as extreme though it never really went away. He’d started this after all. If he’d just accepted the pain the first time he wouldn’t have fallen and he might have averted the whole thing. At least in his lifetime. He could have kept his brother safe.
“You’re thinking of him again, aren’t you? Your little Sammy?”
Dean looked at the Underking and smirked. “Yeah I was. I was thinking of my kid brother and how he used to follow me around. Remember how he crawled into my bed when he was scared.”
“Remember how he left you Dean? Left you for Stanford? Left you for Jess? Remember how he left you tied to a rotting orchard? Remember how he let you go to hell for him Dean?” The Underking asked. “Remember how when the final battle began, how he left you, broken and bleeding on the battlefield?”
Dean closed his eyes against the rush of memories, each one staggering him with their weight. The Underking didn’t torture his body. He didn’t need to. He used Dean’s mind like a razor, stripping away his flesh and bones to get to the heart of it all. He could feel each moment as if it were happening to him.
“Where is your little Sammy now Dean?” The Underking whispered in his ear. “Where is little Sammy now?”
“He… he’s…” He sobbed with the pain of it, more intense than any of his memories, the admittance of his failure so thorough he couldn’t see clear of it anymore. “Sammy’s dead.”
The Underking held his hand out as the memories pulled back. Dean took it to keep from falling. “Wasn’t so hard to tell me, now was it?”
Dean wanted to spit the words back at him but he didn’t have the strength anymore. Sammy was gone and that was his fault too.
He learned that hell had it’s own rules and hierarchies far more elaborate than they’d ever known about, even from his own time in Hell. Challenge among them weren’t uncommon but they weren’t every day either. Demons didn’t want to fight fair and square so they rarely issued a challenge they couldn’t determine the outcome for.
No one dared to challenge Dean and though he’d like to say it was because he was a hunter and he still, ironically enough, had Ruby’s knife, he knew it was because everyone feared the Underking’s wrath. The demons liked to make comments though, continual comments about his family, his friends, the people he’d known and loved. When one mentioned Dean’s brother, Dean lashed out, catching it unaware and slashing it’s throat. The others began to move against him because when there was blood in the air the demons started circling. The Underking pressed up behind Dean suddenly, his eyes flashing white in anger as he looked at the demons around him.
“Challenge!” Someone called out and Dean looked up sharply at the black eyes demon that came forward. “He was mine and you killed him! I challenge you!”
He was shocked and he felt the Underking tense behind him; the Underking because someone dared endanger Dean and Dean because the demon actually seemed to care about the other.
All eyes were on the Underking though and when Dean looked back at him he nodded. “Tomorrow. You can have your duel tomorrow.”
The Underking grabbed him by the wrist, touching his skin for the first time and Dean didn’t understand his body’s knee jerk reaction, how he got blindingly hard and nearly lost his knees to it. He knew it had been a long time since he had been able to touch another person, but this? That was insane. He pushed the whole thing from his mind as the Underking pushed Dean into his room and down onto the bed.
He started pacing which might have made Dean laugh under other circumstances. “Shut up Dean! This is serious. He’ll kill you. He’ll kill you and then it will start a war with the demons Dean. I will have to kill them to honor you but it won’t stop there. How many of your innocent humans will survive if we start going after the non-hunters Dean? And if they kill me? Do you think they’ll try to keep the casualties low? I do that for you Dean.”
He saw the knife when it appeared and even with everything he knew, he had no fear that it would be used against him here. Instead, he watched in morbid fascination as the Underking drew a slit up his wrist. “This is the only way Dean.”
He held his hand out, watching the blood flow down his fingers. He couldn’t do it. He knew that. With everything they’d been through, everything that had happened… “No, I can’t.”
The Underking crawled onto the bed, straddling Dean as he did. “If you don’t he’ll kill you. Drink now and I can help you. Drink now and I can show you what to do. Die tomorrow though, and there will be so much blood shed neither side will be able to remember what started it all.”
Dean took a deep breath. He couldn’t handle the deaths anymore, the nameless people who had died for him, because of him. He took a shuddered breath, then opened his eyes and looked up at the demon. “Alright. But just this once. I won’t do this again.”
The Underking smiled and Dean shivered at it. “I will never ask you again Dean. My promise to you.”
When Dean grabbed his wrist he licked at the blood dripping there. It didn’t taste like the metallic blood he was used to. There was something… different about it. He didn’t know how much he needed to drink so he just pulled the wrist to his mouth, sucking as strongly as he could, trying to get this over with. Whatever it did to him, he guessed it wouldn’t be pleasant so he needed to deal with the consequences before the challenge the net day.
He heard the Underking moan above him and when he opened his eyes, jaws still working to swallow the blood from his wrists, he saw the darkness lurking in them, saw the darkness and wondered how much his own eyes hid of that same thing.
When the arm was pulled from his grasp he felt drunk with the blood, lethargic and warm. The Underking smiled down at him, licking at the wound and watching it heal. “Rest Dean. Your body is adjusting to the blood. Rest and I’ll show you what you can do with it.”
He fell asleep with the Underking lying beside him on the bed and for the first time since that battle, he slept with the knowledge that he was safe that night.
When the challenge came, it was over as soon as it had begun. He pinned the demon to the wall with his new strength. The demon looked at him in panic and then at the Underking. “You said we wouldn’t-”
Dean didn’t let him finish the sentence. He used Ruby’s knife to end it. He didn’t wonder about its words until it was much too late.
He was on edge and nothing seemed to be able to calm him. The Underking watched him closely and it made him itch under his skin. Ever since the challenge he’d been keeping him close, going so far as to move Dean into his own bed. Nothing happened there, Dean wasn’t so sick as to do that, but the insinuations that had once rolled off demon tongues became worse at what they thought was proof that Dean was nothing more than a sex toy for their king.
He was more careful of lashing out though after the challenge, more careful to make sure he never needed to turn to the Underking for help because the price was just too high. If he let one of them kill him he knew the Underlord would turn hell over and it would spill into the real world. He might be in hell and helpless in the war that surrounded him, but keeping himself alive meant the demons went after the hunters and soldiers, not the innocents. For now anyway. When that changed, he’d have to deal with it then.
He rolled his neck and tried to loosen the tension he felt there but finally gave up. His head was pounding and he felt queasy. He decided some sleep would make it all better, because really there was nothing else he wanted to do anyway.
When he entered Sam’s suite he heard the sounds from the first bedroom and walked forward, eyes wide and half afraid of what he’d find.
“Please…” She was begging as Dean watched through the slit of the open door.
Blond hair fanned out around her naked body. Her hands worked against the ropes that held them but she wasn’t trying to get away, she was trying to get to the Underking. When he lowered himself down, she licked at his lips, devouring them and writhing beneath him.
“Jo…” He didn’t mean to say anything, didn’t mean to open the door and step inside. When she looked up at him there was blood smeared on her mouth. His throat felt constricted and his chest compressed. She looked at the Underking and begged for more, but the Underking pulled his knife, slit across his palm, and smeared the welling blood across her naked torso. She moaned and the Underking licked across her nipple, lapping at the blood there. When the Underking pressed his lips to hers, she chased the blood from his mouth until there was nothing left.
He didn’t know when he’d come so close but suddenly he was at the foot of the bed, his eyes caught on Jo’s blood covered body and wanting so much to…
“Do you want to touch her Dean?” His voice was harsh and he knew the anger in it but he couldn’t think straight.
“Yes. Please…” He begged and his stomach rolled because he knew what he was begging for. There was no turning back from this and tears filled his eyes because now he understood what had happened to Sammy, what he’d tried to fight alone for so long.
The Underking shifted on the bed, lying next to Jo and Dean knew it was all the permission he was going to get. He looked up quickly to see the Underking’s face and then back down. He had expected the dark need that he had grown to know so well in his eyes. He had expected the lust and possessiveness that had been there from the beginning. He didn’t know what to do with the anger there though.
Instead, he focused on Jo. He leaned forward and licked a path across her stomach. She moaned underneath him and he saw the Underking kissing her again, blood fresh at the corner of her lips. He forced his eyes down to her pale skin and licked his way across her body, licked her clean until the Underking’s arm was hovering over her body, his wrist dripping onto her.
He licked the blood from her then followed it to it’s source, his hands coming up to the offered wrist and clamping his mouth over it as he took what he needed. He heard the Underking moan and felt himself harden in response to it. He let go of the wrist with one hand, then reached down and freed his cock from his pants. Jo reached for him as he pushed his pants off, mouth devouring the taste of blood in his mouth as he sunk inside her. When the blood was gone from his lips he felt a slick hand on his shoulder and didn’t hesitate to take blood-slick fingers into his mouth, tongue teasing every bit of it blood from flesh. When he came, it tasted like blood and when the Underking pulled Dean away from Jo she thrashed violently.
He knew the addiction when he saw it and wondered what the Underking had been keeping her for. He was just grateful that he’d never be like her. He knew the Underking would never allow him to become that needy. He understood that the first taste had been enough to create this addiction, knew that he was fucked seven ways from heaven, but at least he wouldn’t ever want for it. If he wanted the blood, all he’d have to do was ask.
When The Underking pulled him into another room, pushed him down onto another bed, he maneuvered himself until he could get his wrist again. He nuzzled at the pulse point, licked at it like he could still taste the blood that ran underneath. The Underking didn’t do anything, just let him. “More.” He finally ground out and the Underking let out a deep breath.
“That what you want Dean?”
“Please.” He said, hating the weakness in himself but he was too tired to fight everything that had happened to him anymore, too tired to be the man that could have stood against the onslaught. That wasn’t him anymore. It hadn’t been him since the day he’d lost Sammy. “I want more. Please?”
He watched the knife come from the other side and how it sliced cleanly through the flesh. A moment later he had a mouth full of blood and the Underking’s comforting body wrapped around him, feeding him with it’s every pulse. “Always give you want you need Dean. Always.”
“Do you remember the world, the way it was before this?”
Dean looked across the bed at the Underking, looking for a trap. He’d never hesitated to use Dean’s memories to hurt him but he never asked for them. He had his own way of getting them, of taking and twisting them. He looked interested though, looked curious, and almost sad.
“Do you remember when this…” He ran his hand across Dean’s cheek and he forced himself not to lean into it. It became harder and harder to ignore it. He’d accepted the blood, accepted what he needed to do to become strong enough to survive here, but he hadn’t crossed that line yet. It wasn’t something he could ever undo. He knew in the back of his head that once he did, Dean Winchester that he was would die. So did the Underking who waited with never ending patience. Like he knew it was only a matter of time. “… when all this started?”
He closed his eyes, trying not to, but it was there anyway. Sam was ten and still prone to fits of childish imagination between bouts of pre-teenage angst. The childish side only seemed to come out when they were alone though and when their Dad had left them for a week in some summer cabin, Dean had taken Sam to the lake. The lake had an old stone bridge that was covered in plants, showing how little it was used and Sam had loved it. They spent he day there, Dean watching as Sam explored the dark underside of the bridge while he enjoyed the feel of the sun and the lack of pressure to be anywhere but there with his little brother.
“Come on Sam, time to go home!” Dean finally called from the stone he’d been sunning on. He didn’t want to go but it was getting close to dinner time and they really should be going.
“Make me!” Sam had laughed and splashed water from under the bridge.
“You think I can’t?” And it was teasing because he had no real desire to force the issue. He was getting hungry but it could wait. He raised his head off the rock and perched up on his elbows.
“Nope. You’re the Overking and you can’t come down here!”
“If I’m the king don’t you have to do what I say?”
“Nope! I’m the Underking!”
“Really? And you don’t think I can come down there and make you come out?”
“Of course not. I have underlings.”
“Wow. That kinda sucks.”
“Why?”
“Well if I’m the Overking and you’re the Underking and your underslings won’t let me down there, I guess I can’t see you anymore. So how can I still be your brother?”
“Um…” Sam thought about it a minute and smiled. “I’ll bind you to me so none of the underlings will hurt you. And then I’ll take you somewhere safe. And I’ll take care of you instead of you taking care of me. I’ll feed you and give you everything you need Dean. I’ll be the best Underking ever!”
Dean laughed because Sam had a very active imagination that was all too often full of the stuff their family hunted. Like bindings. “Of course you will.”
“Course.” Sam agreed. “’Cause you’ll be by my side Dean! They’ll all be jealous of the Underking because he’ll have his brother looking after him and nothing will be able to separate them. Not ever!”
Dean nodded because it wasn’t a coincidence that they were in the boonies right now. After an incident with a teacher their father had pulled them from school and ran before social services could be called to investigate. “Nothin’s ever gonna take you away from me Sammy. I promise you that.”
Sam believed him. He always did.
When Dean opened his eyes he knew the Underking was seeing the memories too. “You promised.” He said softly.
He knew it was over. He knew the stupid cat and mouse game he’d been playing was finally done and tears filled his eyes because he was so fucking broken he couldn’t care to fight it anymore. “Yeah, I promised.”
“I don’t want to lose you Dean, but they see a slave, a toy, and sooner or later they’re going to come for you. You can’t let them take you away from me Dean, you promised. I need you at my side.”
He looked at the Underking, at Sam, at Sammy that was still somehow buried underneath it all. He might have been able to fight it if it’d been anyone else. He might have been stronger if he was completely different, if he didn’t have the same sense of humor or the same expressions, but going from hunter to the King of Hell didn’t change him all that much. He was more ruthless and all he cared about was keeping Dean safe, much like Dean in their earlier days, trying to protect his brother from the world around them. It was so much a reversal of fortune that the first time Dean had made that connection he’d tasted ash in his mouth for days.
“Say my name…”
“You forbid it.”
“Not for you…”
When Dean opened his eyes he could see the need there and he’d never been good at denying Sam the things he really needed. “Sammy…” His voice broke and then Sam was pressing his lips against Dean’s, his arms pulling Dean close. He clutched madly to Dean like he was going to leave, like he would reject this offer tonight like he had every night since he’d been brought to hell.
This wasn’t any night though and when Sam broke the kiss Dean followed his lips until his tongue was tangled with his brothers. “Jesus Dean. Finally…” Sam groaned into his mouth.
When he let Sam into his body he knew it was more than just sex, more than just the willingness to give Sam what he wanted. He was completely broken and all Sam had ever had to do was make him ask, every step of the way, for it. Slowly, little by little, Sam had made him become the thing he’d never wanted to be. Now, with Sam moaning over him and the light in his eyes that said he was, for the first time in years, happy, Dean couldn’t help but anticipate what would happen come light of day.
Because this? It was acceptance. There was no fight left in him when it came to Sam and he’d be whatever Sam needed him to be. Come light of day, there would be a new demon in town and God help the world because Dean Winchester was now truly at his brother’s side. The world would bend and break however Sam wanted it to. Dean would make sure of that.