Wrapped in Honey 14/?
Chapter 14
Dean wanted to believe Sam, he wanted to believe that nothing had changed.
Dean still wasn't sure how he felt about the fact that Sam had eaten outside, so to speak, but Sam had offered his bed and he had helped him through the night. As embarrassing as it was, Dean was grateful for that.
Then Sam had given him the car he'd bought for him and he had promised that Dean would get access to the basement again. After he'd found a way to prevent Dean from pulling something like that little stunt again.
Dean got that. He was Sam's prisoner, slave, and he understood that Sam had to keep him from calling out for help.
What he didn't understand was why Sam even bothered with the basement. It was a proven fact that Dean was safely locked up upstairs, so why would he risk it? Especially after what had happened yesterday?
"I know this is fucked up, believe me, I know." Sam said and wasn't that the understatement of the year? But he sounded sad saying it as if he felt truly sorry for Dean's situation. "But I want you to be happy, as happy as you can be in this situation, and for sure I don't want you to be afraid of me."
Dean wasn't afraid of Sam, that was the truth. Even facing that thing last night, the thing that wasn't human, hadn't changed that. Dean had been prepared to die by Sam's hands, yes, but he hadn't been afraid. He would have accepted his punishment.
But Sam didn't want to punish him. Instead he gave him a present. And Dean dared to hope.
Then Sam wanted to invite his vampire friend over. For a long moment Dean didn't say a word, his mind racing with possibilities. Why would Sam want to have his friend here? Why now?
Maybe he wanted to punish him after all? Or was he supposed to make amends by being nice to Sam's friend?
"What …" He needed to clear his throat and for some stupid reason they were still holding hands. Dean wanted to draw his hand back but didn't. "What do you expect from me?"
"Nothing." Sam hurried to say but then frowned at him. "Dean, whatever you're thinking. No." Sam's hands tightened around his but it wasn't painful, more on the reassuring side.
"You know … if you want me to … I would … you know … just tell me what to do …" Ashamed he lowered his gaze.
"Dean, I'm not pimping you out to my friend." Sam said in clear shock. "How can you even think that?"
"Why do you want him here, then?" Dean burst out, harsher than intended.
"I want you to realize how big our community really is." Sam said with a sigh. He did that a lot lately. "He comes over, we talk a little, he leaves, that's it. He's not going to feed off you and for sure you don't have to have sex with him." He sounded disgusted by the last part.
Dean wasn't quite convinced but he let it go for the moment. Not that he had a say in this anyway.
"Why don't you open it?" Sam nudged the box closer to him. "You can't really work on it just yet but I bet you'll get a few ideas while putting together the basic part."
Sam clearly had no idea what he was talking about and that coaxed a smile on Dean's lips.
"Why not." Now he drew his hand back and reached for the box. "Let's have a look."
The picture on the side showed a fictitious car, something that looked badass for kids, but like Sam had suggested he didn't have to use the plastic body. He wasn't a big fan of flames and eagles on a car anyway.
Turned out the only thing he could do right now was to put the wheels on the plastic board that held the motor.
The part he was supposed to build himself was the body. It came in sheets of molded plastic, the kind of break the piece out, hope it doesn't break and it still got a knob of plastic standing out where it doesn't belong.
Dean put the sheets aside and had a closer look at the rest. Sam was right, there were already ideas forming in his mind. He couldn't go too heavy, this was built for a fairly light body after all, but he could figure something out.
"Thank you." Dean said and this time he really meant it.
Sam called his friend who agreed to come over after work which would be in the late afternoon. Until then they had a lot of time to kill.
"What do you want to do?" Sam asked, gesturing around the living room.
Dean would have liked to start looking through the stuff in the basement to see what he could use for the new car, for some stupid reason he felt excited like a kid in a candy store, but that was out of option. According to Sam only temporarily but Dean would believe that when he actually was back in the basement.
"That friend of yours." Why not use the time to get some information? "How does an incubus end up with a vampire? Isn't that kind of an odd friendship?" Dean didn't know much about the supernatural community but this seemed kinda strange.
Now Sam made an amused sound.
"Work." He answered.
"He got in trouble with the law?" Dean shook his head with a smile.
"Not exactly." For some reason that seemed to amuse Sam even more. "His nest owns a blood bank, we handle their legal issues."
Dean had never quite figured out what Sam did for a living. He was some kind of lawyer but didn't have to go to court - where was the fun in that, then? - instead he had to check contracts and things like that. Or something. It sounded boring. Office work. But apparently it paid off.
"So he works at a blood bank?" Dean raised an eyebrow. It made sense, though.
"No, he does something else." Sam said but didn't elaborate. "But he's second in command of his nest and has to take care of his share of the nest's business."
Dean nodded to that but his mind was on something else.
"You, an Incubus, take care of the legal issues of a business run by vampires." He summed up the information, a picture starting to form in his mind.
Sam gave him a smile as if he was proud of Dean putting together the pieces.
"You're starting to see the bigger picture. That's the community, we look out for each other."
Apparently Sam hadn't been joking when he spoke about the community. A nauseous feeling settled in Dean's guts and he needed to swallow against the urge to throw up. Vampires running a blood bank, werewolves controlling the Food Market. And Sam.
"How many?"
"Of us?" Sam shrugged. "The community owns the city."
Dean had to excuse himself, this was too much. He locked the door of his room, something he hadn't done in a while, and dropped on his bed.
He saw the pattern clearly now. He didn't have numbers but thinking back to the dimensions of the Food Market, there had to be thousands of supernatural creatures living in this city. And just like Sam, they blended in. With normal lives, normal jobs, watching out for each other.
How far did it go? What did they own? What had they infiltrated?
His eyes fell on the car in the corner, the sign with the message to call 911 still on top.
What about the police? Hospitals? Banks? Everything?
His mind swirled and he closed his eyes.
The police question was answered later that day with the arrival of Benny, the vampire. Or rather Detective Benjamin Lafitte.
"You must be Dean." The man, vampire, held his hand out and reluctantly Dean shook it. "Nice to meet you."
Just like Sam he looked normal. Just a normal guy with a warm Cajun accent.
They sat down, Benny in one of the chairs and Dean on the couch as far away from him as possible with Sam a solid wall between him and the vampire.
Despite Sam's repeated affirmation that Benny wasn't here to harm him, Dean still felt uneasy in his presence.
Turned out that Benny in fact was only there to talk. However, what Dean learned in the next half an hour, was more disturbing than anything his mind had come up on its own.
Benny worked homicide. He covered it up when things went out of hand. For example if Sam's name or address came up, the case would get assigned to somebody from the community. So even if Dean had succeeded with his little plan and somebody would have called 911 it wouldn't have done him any good.
But there were others. They had people keeping the newspapers clean and people whose sole purpose was to protect the community, people who would kill to keep the community a secret.
What the community didn't own, they had infiltrated. And they were everywhere.
After they had dropped that bomb on Dean, Sam and Benny talked for a while, exchanging stories over a beer like good old friends, which left Dean out but he couldn't follow the conversation anyway. His mind was swirling, this was far worse than he'd feared.
"Excuse me." He mumbled and without looking at them he hurried upstairs. He felt their eyes on him and only breathed easier when he had his door between them and him.
"They own the whole fucking city." Dean fisted his hair with both hands. He didn't make it to his bed, instead he leaned against the wall right next to the door. He didn't even have the energy to close the door properly and so he could still hear their voices from downstairs.
"So that's the human you're making all the fuss about." He heard Benny saying and for some stupid reason it warmed his heart. Sam was making a fuss about him?
"He looks a little ragged." Benny continued. "You keeping him up all night?" He teased like a good friend would do.
"It's not that." Sam answered and his tone alone made Dean straighten up. "He has nightmares."
Dean bit his lip and closed his eyes to this betrayal. How could Sam just casually expose him like this? He had no right.
"Given his situation …"
"It's not that." Sam continued. Dean reached for the door but he knew he couldn't prevent Sam from saying what he was about to say. "Something happened to him. Before me."
With the knob of the door in hand Dean froze.
How could you?
He'd trusted Sam, dammit.
There was a pause before Benny spoke again.
"I could have a look." He offered and Dean's heart stopped. "See what I can find."
No!, he wanted to scream but his chest felt too tight and he couldn't get enough air into his lungs. If Benny ran his name he would find … and then Sam would know … and … and …
Black spots danced in his vision and for some reason he was on his knees now.
He only heard Sam's response from a distance, muffled and far away like he was under water.
"Thanks but I don't want to spy after him." Sam said. "If he wants to tell me he's going to do it on his own terms."
"You really have a thing for this one, haven't you?" Dean heard the words over the rushing of his own blood in his ears but they didn't make sense. "I should leave now. And you should go and check on him. He's freaking out up there."
A/N I'm crazy. I've decided to use NaNo to finish this story before I throw myself into the one I've planned for November. 150k is doable, right?
This means I have enough chapters to keep posting twice a week. I'm just not sure if I've the time for that during November. But we'll see.
Chapter 15
Masterpost