Tell me where we go from here 41/?
Chapter 41
When Dean woke up in the morning Cas was still watching him from the other bed. He doubted the angel had moved at all during the night, but this time it wasn't bothering him, quite the opposite, it was comforting.
"Morning." Dean greeted him and propped himself up on one elbow. "What time is it?"
"Almost nine." Cas answered without taking his eyes off Dean.
He accepted that as a fact, knowing the exact time was one of those weird angel powers Cas just had, and came up to a sitting position. Under the blanket he was still naked and for a moment he wasn't sure if it was okay to run around like that in front of Cas.
"I could get us some coffee and breakfast." Cas offered and threw the blanket off to sit on the edge of the bed. He too was still naked and that was kind of comforting. And a quite nice view.
"C'mere." Dean said with an inviting gesture. Cas came into his arms willingly and that loosened the knot in Dean's guts. They still had to figure this out but for now they had to focus on other things. They were still here on a case.
Keeping his morning breath in mind Dean didn't kiss Cas on the mouth but nuzzled and nibbled his way along his throat for a moment. Cas hummed under that attention and angled his head to give Dean better access.
You can never go wrong with this, Dean thought and grinned into the light stubble on Cas' throat. Cas may had his problems with sex but he was all for kissing and cuddling, Dean could work with that.
Way too soon they parted but they needed to get ready for the day. While Dean was in the bathroom, Cas went out to get them something for breakfast.
Dean's mind couldn't let go of Cas' weird behavior in bed and a small part of him insisted that they just hadn't found the right thing and suggested to watch some kinkier porn with the angel to find out what would get his attention. Strictly for science, of course.
When Sam came over for breakfast, Dean banned all those personal thoughts from his mind and focused on the case instead. The things Sam had found out gave them a motive but there was still the question of how to stop Steve. They agreed to figure that one out later.
Steve's place was small and it didn't take long to go through his stuff. Dean took the bedroom and after scooping around in the closet without finding anything he had a look under the bed.
"Bingo." He said and pulled the first box out. One quick glance and he knew Sam would cream his pants as soon as he got a closer look at this.
Turned out Steve had been in the game for at least thirty years probably longer and deep down Dean knew there was no talking him out of this.
Then Steve stood in the door, gun in hand and a triumphant grin on his face.
"Hands where I can see them." He demanded.
With his hands raised Dean came slowly up to a standing position. Sam and Cas didn't move but held their hands away from their bodies. With Steve in the door and them in the room Steve had the upper hand and he knew it. If they tried to come close they would run right into his line of fire.
"What now?" Sam had the nerve to ask. Dean groaned inwardly, usually it was his part to agitate their opponent.
"You think I'm that stupid?" Steve spat at them, ignoring Sam's question. "You were there last night and you didn't even bother to cover up your tracks. You arrogant ..." Lost at words he just fumed, the gun in his hand shaking dangerously.
They had put the hammers back but there had been nothing they could have done to repair the wall so they had left it like it was. Of course Steve had seen it and he had made the right conclusion.
"You know that you're playing a dangerous game here." Sam tried again to get his attention but there was just not enough room for Dean to sneak up behind Steve.
Instead Cas inched closer. Dean didn't know how the angel would take a gun shot with his damaged grace, he doubted he would just shrug it off like he'd used to, but it wouldn't really bother him, that Dean was sure of. So if anybody got shot today it would better be Cas.
Coming to the same conclusion Sam shifted a little to get slightly behind Cas. Dean standing in the third row was the least to get shot which was a thought he really didn't like.
"Who are you?" Steve asked. "You're no inspectors, I checked when I found the hole in the wall this morning."
"We're here because a man died." Sam answered truthfully without telling him anything. "And more are going to die with your little presents in the walls."
"Yeah." Dean jumped into the conversation. "How many are there anyway? One for each apartment?" That would be their worst case scenario and Dean would come back to the burn it down solution if that turned out to be the case. "Or is it like winning the lottery?"
"You don't understand." Steve had the nerve to whine.
"Oh, I understand." Dean answered. "You got kicked out of your home and that sucks, man, I get that. And now you want somebody to pay for that. Okay, I get that too. But you're targeting innocent people here. Andrew was in the same position as you. He was kicked out of his home just like you. And now he's dead."
"That was an accident." Steve yelled at him and now the gun was pointed directly at Dean. He just stared at Steve, unimpressed by the gun. There had been bigger and scarier things he'd faced down than this guy.
However, Cas didn't seem that unimpressed by someone pointing a gun at Dean. With one step he was between Steve and Dean and when Cas reached out Dean knew exactly what was about to happen.
Steve was too surprised to even fire and a second later he was out cold.
"Great." Dean stepped around Cas and picked up the gun. "What are we going to do with him now?"
Sam came closer from the other side, looking down at the man on the floor.
"We need to know how many there are." He said and with that it was set.
They carried Steve over to the kitchen and tied him to a chair. Dean didn't want to go too hard on the man but he had been willing to kill innocent people just to get his revenge and that was something Dean couldn't understand. He knew anger, he knew revenge. But not caring who else might get caught in the crossfire? Worse, targeting innocent people who had nothing to do with what had happened? No, he couldn't understand that.
While they waited for Steve to wake up Dean felt the Mark itching. It had been on the back of his mind for a while now but this was the first time he physically felt it again. Which wasn't a good sign at all.
He was looking forward to interrogating this man and that wasn't good either. He didn't tell the others but he hoped that Sam and Cas would hold him back before he could spin out of control.
Sam sat at the table with the one of the boxes with the occult stuff in front of him, wearing an expression as if he couldn't decide if Christmas came early this year or if he wanted to puke all over the box.
"Hey." Dean tapped Steve's face when the man started to stir. "Wake up."
It took him a second but when he realized where he was, the man was wide a wake in a heartbeat. He stared from on to the other but in the end he settled on glaring at Sam who was scooping through his most private stuff.
"Morning, sunshine." Dean snapped his fingers to get the man's attention. "You were about to tell us how many hexbags you hid in that building."
Steve frowned when he used the name of the bags, that was probably the moment when he finally realized that they knew exactly what they were talking about, but he kept his mouth shut.
"My friend here." Dean clapped Cas' shoulder. "Can find them, no problem. I just want to save him some time."
"I've nothing to say." Steve actually spat at Dean.
"He has nothing to say." Dean turned towards Sam in a can you believe he just said that manner. Then he turned back and used the momentum to ram his fist into Steve's face. Behind him Sam gasped in surprise but wasn't over him a second later. So Dean guessed he was still within the lines, it was hard to tell nowadays.
Steve shook his head but straightened up again. He would carry a nice shiner tomorrow but otherwise he was fine.
"That all you got?" The man grinned at him and Dean saw red. He wanted to ram his fist into that smug grin, again and again until there was only a bloody pulp left. But when he raised his fist to do just that, a hand on his arm held him back.
"There might be another way." Cas said, his blue eyes piercing through the red fog in Dean's mind. He let out a long breath and took a step back. Balling his fists to not show how much his hands were shaking Dean nodded, agreeing to whatever Cas had in mind.
With one last glance at Dean to make sure that he had himself under control again Cas turned towards Steve who had been watching the whole scene with that smug grin still firmly in place. If anything it had only grown wider and that alone sparked Dean's anger again.
"You have sought powers from a demon to fulfill your dirty little desires." Cas intoned rather dramatically and Dean wondered what else Steve had used witchcraft for.
Steve opened his mouth for a sassy counter, no doubt about that, but before he could bring the words out, the light flickered and the sound of thunder rolled in the distance. Knowing what was about to happen Dean slipped over to the other side of the room from where he would have a better view.
Cas stood there, in this cheap little kitchen, surrounded by thunder and lightning which casted the shadows of his wings behind him on the wall. His eyes glowed in eery blue and when he lowered his gaze on Steve the man shrieked back in his bindings, almost toppling over with his chair.
"Confess!" Cas demanded and Steve started talking. He admitted everything, stumbling over his own words in his haste to confess.
He talked for minutes and the whole time Steve almost got a heart attack every time Cas came in his line of view. At least there was no doubt that he was telling the truth now.
All together there were thirteen hexbags hidden in the building and he told them in detail where to find every single one of them. Sam was taking notes and with that it should be fairly easy to clear out the building.
Chapter 42
Masterpost