Chapter Text
Castiel looked up from his laptop across the gloom of the motel room, thinly veiled murder in his eyes.
“Gabriel,” he gritted, his voice growing even deeper than usual with irritation, “Would you mind not eating those on my bed?”
Gabriel grinned from where he was sprawled across the covers (brown and green checked? Really? Who designed this colour scheme) and lifted the sticky-sweet gummy worms of deliciousness up to his mouth. He dropped them in, making sure to smack his lips obnoxiously. “Sorry bro, not really.” He sucked the sugar off his thumb.
Cas’ fingers clenched tighter on the books, his knuckles going white with self-restraint. Gabriel ignored him.
“How’s the research going, honey bunch?”
“Slow.” Cas growled, slamming the book shut and glaring over at him. “Do you know how it would go faster, Gabriel? If I had my laptop!”
Gabriel hummed noncommittally, gracing Cas with a vacant smile designed specifically to infuriate him. Castiel tried valiantly to ignore it and turned back to his notes. He barely managed to stay focused for a moment before turning around again.
“Would you turn that music down?”
“Oh yeah, sure,” Gabriel leaned over and turned up the dial, making sure to maintain eye contact with his brother across the room as the song blared louder and louder from the speakers. Cas’ eyes narrowed, the muscles in his jaw ticking, and Gabriel grinned tightly in anticipation of the impending fight.
“You know what? Maybe you should get out of here for a while. Just go to the bar or something.”
Gabriel snapped his fingers. “That is a great idea. Really. Unfortunately, somebody has been screwing with the car!”
Castiel bristled, and maybe reminding him of the damage to his precious continental hadn’t been the best idea. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have messed with it then! I wouldn’t damage my own car!”
Gabriel instantly snapped a response. “Hey! I had nothing to do with-”
Their argument was cut off by a sharp rap at the door. Castiel eagerly abandoned his books to open it.
“Hello Josh. Thank god you’re here.”
“Hey, Josh!”
Joshua bustled into the room, looking them over with sharp eyes. “Hi boys. Good to see you again so soon.”
Gabriel slid off the bed to greet the older man. “Yeah, thanks for coming to help us out, ‘cos I gotta tell yah, we have no idea what we’re dealing with.”
Joshua settled himself on one of the rickety motel chairs. “So, what didn’t you want to talk to me on the phone about? Because there’s a ghoul on the east coast needs dealing with, I’ve given it to Balth for the time being, but it would be appreciated if we could get this wrapped up.”
Cas shifted sheepishly. “Sorry for calling you all the way out here, but we weren’t sure if you’d believe us.”
Joshua’s dark eyes locked onto Castiel’s. “Trust me, I think that there’s very little I won’t believe at this point.”
“Well, no, we know that,” Cas conceded.
“It’s just that we’ve never seen anything like this before. Not even close to this flavour of crazy. Thought a fresh pair of eyes might be useful, that’s all.” Gabriel put in, and Cas nodded.
“Well, why don’t you begin at the beginning, then?”
“Okay, well,” Cas started as they sat down, “It began when we heard that a man, a local professor, had committed suicide. Only there was also a local legend that the building is haunted. So, just like usual, we started to do some digging, went to a bar and met some reporters from the local paper…”
The bar was hot and the atmosphere unpleasantly stuffy, and the entire place smelt of stale body odour, but Castiel was willing to put up with it as long as the beer was good and the frat boy in front of him gave him the local gossip. Gabriel was usually better at the interviews, putting it down to his ‘natural charisma’ and Castiel’s lack of ‘people skills’, but he had nearly run to the bar as soon as they had walked in like a man dying of thirst to an oasis, and leaving all the hard work for Castiel, as usual. Because he was the only responsible sibling.
“So we both had the professor for ethics and morality.” By the slight swaying and the uncoordinated way that the boy was gesturing with his drink, Castiel would bet that wasn’t his first pint, which was perfect for him. Chatty drunks were the easiest to get information out of.
“Why do you think he did it?”
The blonde girl on his other side leaned forwards animatedly. “Who knows? He was tenured, wife and kids, his book was like a really big deal around here. Then again, who’s to say it was suicide?” She gave him what was probably meant to be a darkly significant look. Castiel pretended to look intrigued.
The frat boy scoffed. “Jen, come on.”
“Well, what else could it be?” She turned to Cas. “You know about Crawford Hall, right?”
“No, actually, I don’t believe I’ve heard that story.”
“It’s a bunch of crap, that’s what it is.”
“Shut up!” the girl protested, slapping the boy on the arm. “And anyway, it’s not a story, it’s real. Like thirty years ago, some girl was having an affair with this professor. He broke it off, she jumped out the window and killed herself. They say she jumped from room 669. Get it? You turn the nine upside down?” She related the story with an almost inappropriate amount of relish, raising her eyebrow to ensure that he had picked up on the obvious reference at the end.
Cas nodded seriously.
“So now she haunts the building. And anyone who sees her? They don’t live to tell the tale.”
The boy smirked from where he was slouched low in his seat. “So if no one lives to tell the tale, how does the tale get told?”
“Curtis! Shut up!”
Castiel stood before the conversation could dissolve into bickering. “Thank you both very much, that was extremely useful. I’ll be sure to mention your names in the article, if you’d like. Please excuse me, I need to find my partner.”
He left the girl scowling at the boy and made his way over to the bar, hoping that he could update his brother on the situation before he became too inebriated.
But it looked as though he was too late. By the time he found Gabriel he was downing some suspicious looking shots while bellowing along to the music pounding over the speakers.
“Gabriel. What in god’s name are you drinking?”
Gabriel turned and grinned up at him, weaving slightly where he stood, holding in a small belch.
“I dunno actually, I think they’re called purple nurples. Here, you should give it a try!”
“No.”
Gabriel pouted. “Aww, why not? What about having some fun for once, Cassie? Take a weight off, loosen your corset straps a little.”
Castiel gave a long-suffering sigh. “No thank you. Anyway, I think that maybe we should go and investigate the professor’s office-”
“No no no!” Gabe shook his head wildly, glancing around. “You can’t do that! I’ve got a feisty little wildcat on the hook, she’s a real fiery girl, I’m just about to-” he made a zipping noise, “Reel her in. Here, I’ll introduce her!”
“Wait, Gabe, no-” but it was too late. Gabriel was already turning around, dragging an obviously equally inebriated girl with him as though he had plucked her from mid-air.
“This is Scarlet. Hey, Scarlet, this is my shuttle co-pilot, Major Tom. Major Tom, Scarlet. Don’t mind him, he’s a little shy.”
Scarlet looped a clumsy arm around Gabriel’s shoulders to prop herself up as she wobbled on her heels, grinning up at him inanely, her hair framing her face in lank, greasy strands. There was a dark stain down the front of her revealing outfit where she must have spilled a drink at some point.
“Enchante!” she cheered him with another murky looking shot in what was possibly the worst French accent that he had ever heard.
Castiel tried to turn the corners of his mouth into a thin smile, but his face just wouldn’t quite hold the expression when he wanted to roll his eyes at his brother so badly. “Hello,” he managed tightly.
His opinion of Scarlet wasn’t improved when she belched and staggered back, gagging unattractively before she recovered. “Just tryin’ to keep my liquor down!” she giggled cheerfully at him. Gabriel grinned encouragingly at her before turning back to Castiel with a conspiratorial expression.
“So, good news bro, turns out she’s a triplet with two sisters! Two for me and one for you!” He stage whispered.
Out of the dense crowd two more giggling women appeared as if summoned. They tottered towards them, handbags swinging, and one of them placed a sticky, drunken kiss on Gabriel’s cheek.
Castiel was, frankly, appalled by this latest development. The fact that there was more than one Scarlet in this bar seemed like more horror than he was qualified to deal with as a hunter. Scarlet number one grinned at him, once more draped over Gabriel’s shoulder while number two dangled off his elbow, and Gabriel gave him a thumbs up as he dragged the third giggling woman over to-
“What?! That’s not how it happened!” Gabriel didn’t know whether to be outraged at the lies and exaggeration or envious of his little brother’s powers of imagination, because a good half of that had been bullshit. Obviously.
“No? So you never drank a ‘purple nurple’?” Cas challenged, enclosing his scepticism with sarcastic finger brackets.
“Okay, so maybe I had a few shots. But calling someone a ‘feisty little wildcat’?” he returned the finger brackets, “Not really my style. Never mind that shit you obviously made up about there being three of them. Not that I couldn’t handle that, of course. And besides, Scarlet was a classy chick. She was doing Folklore and mythology, and we were just getting into the local legends…”
The immaculately dressed vision of female beauty in front of him raised her glass to his and they toasted each other’s health.
“Here’s to us,” She said, her lashes fluttering alluringly over her eyes as she blinked lasciviously at him, obviously overcome with attraction.
“To us, gorgeous,” Gabriel agreed, and they delicately tipped back their shot glasses in one smooth motion.
After they had swallowed she looked him up and down appreciatively, her eyes lingering. “My god, you are so attractive.”
Gabriel slipped an arm around her waist. “Thank you, my love, but no time for that now. My beauty, you need to tell me everything about this urban legend. Please, lives are at stake.” He continued gravely.
“I’m sorry. It’s just… I can’t seem to concentrate,” she stared at him raptly, “Your eyes are so golden. It’s like… staring into the sun…”
Their mouths met in a passionate kiss that burnt with the light of a thousand stars. They were elegant, intertwined, fated, even. The universe held its breath for their kiss.
Then from behind him, he heard the siren call of the great cock-blocker himself.
“Gabriel, what do you think you’re doing?” Cas’ deep voice cut through the romantic atmosphere like grating, bitchy cheese wire.
Gabriel allowed his lips to linger for a second longer on his lovers’ before he had to pull himself away to deal with the unwelcome intruder.
“Cassie, please. Can’t you see that me and this lovely lady are rather busy at the moment? Could you please give us five minutes?” Why couldn’t his little brother go anywhere without that hideous stalker coat? He was in a bar, for fuck’s sake, not lurking in an alley outside some poor girl’s bedroom window.
Cas pursed his lips in a typical prissy expression. “Gabriel, this is a very serious investigation. We don’t have time for any of your blah blabla blah.” Cas’ voice droned into the background as Gabriel turned back to his one true love.
“Blah bla. Blabla blahbla blabla. BLAH!”
“Right, so that’s how it really happened, is it? I don’t sound like that, Gabriel! And what’s wrong with my coat?” Cas was losing his cool again, eyes narrowing, hands subconsciously clutching at the garment like it might get offended by hurtful words.
“Cassie, you always sound like that to me! And if you’re asking about the coat, I have a list.”
“Okay, what the hell is going on with you two?” Joshua butted in before they could goad each other further.
Cas shook his head and sent Gabriel a dark look. “Nothing, Josh. It’s nothing.”
Joshua narrowed his eyes at them disbelievingly. “Yeah? ‘Cos you two are bickering like an old married couple.”
Gabriel got up from the edge of the bed that he had been sitting on. “Oh no. It’s much worse than that. See, married couples can get divorced. Me and him, we’re like Siamese twins.”
“It’s conjoined twins!”
“Whatever.”
Gabriel headed for the kitchenette, leaving Cas to do the talking, because he didn’t know how much more of that conversation he could stand before he was going to try to kill his little brother. From behind him, he heard Cas continue talking as he opened the mini fridge, his voice tight and irritated.
“Seriously, it’s fine. Tight quarters, that’s all. Gabriel and I have been on the road for too long.”
Gabriel came back to sit with them, feeling more amicable with a beer in hand, unable to resist telling a good story. “So, we thought that this thing was probably some old girl’s ghost, so we went to scope out the scene of the crime…”
It was evening by the time they got around to visiting Crawford Hall. Gabriel whistled as they stood in front of the imposing stone arch of the front doors and looked up at the ornate stained glass window on the second floor.
“Wow. Nice place. No wonder it’s haunted. If I died here, I wouldn’t mind squatting for all eternity either.”
They were met in the hallway by the janitor. At first Gabriel thought, by the hulking silhouette, that someone had found a line-backer to show them around, but a second glance showed that the man was wearing dull work overalls. Damn, what Gabriel would give to peel those off, see if the rest of him was as buff as the muscled forearms that were showcased by his rolled-up sleeves. He’d always had a thing for big guys.
The man must have felt the eyes on him because he looked up from where he had been reading the paper and shot them a dimpled grin as he straightened to his full gigantic height. Woah.
“Hi. You guys must be the electricians.”
Gabriel beamed at him, holding out his hand. “That’s us! I’m Mike, this is Brad.”
“Call me Sam,” the giant said, slightly slanted eyes twinkling out at him from under a mop of messy brown hair as he engulfed Gabriel’s hand in a warm, firm handshake. Oh yeah, he was screwed. Hopefully literally.
Sam shook Cas’ hand as well, and he was probably imagining that the handshake was slightly less enthusiastic than his own, but then again Cas was doing his stiff and awkward ‘I might be an alien in human form’ impression that he did whenever he met new people, so he couldn’t really blame Sam for being a little put off. It looked like it was up to him and his sparkling conversation skills to save the day.
“So, Sam, how long have you been working here?” Smooth, Gabe, smooth.
Sam chuckled as he led them down the corridor. “I’ve been mopping these floors for six years. If I ever escape, I might need therapy to integrate back into society.”
“Six years, kiddo? You’ve gotta be only, what, twenty five?”
Cas threw him a frown telling him not to insult the possible lead’s life decisions, but Sam just laughed again. “I’m actually older than I look. Here you go, guys.” He let them into a spacious office and Gabriel reluctantly pulled the EMF meter from his pocket. They did still have work to do after all.
“What do you use that thing for?” Sam asked him, leaning casually against the desk with his hands in his pockets.
“Oh, this gizmo? Just to find the wires in the walls. Makes me feel like Indiana Jones looking for treasure,” He ran the device over the plaster as he talked, but the whine and the blinking lights that he was expecting never came. Odd.
Sam leaned back. “I’m not sure why you’re wiring up this office. It won’t do the professor much good.”
Cas got in before he could. “And why is that?”
“Because he’s dead,” Sam said bluntly. Gabriel and Cas made the appropriate noises of surprise.
“How did it happen?” Cas asked.
“He went out of the window,” Sam gestured with his thumb behind himself, his eyes still on Gabriel, and hello, was that interest he saw there?
“Were you working that night?”
Sam nodded. “I’m the one who found him.”
“So didja see it happen?” They were leaning towards one another now, and yes, that was a definite spark. He was in.
“No. But I saw him come up here beforehand and well…”
“What?” At this point he wasn’t really sure if he was questioning or flirting any more. Whatever, he could multitask.
Sam looked at him sideways through his lashes. “He wasn’t alone.”
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Cas, who had been sniffing along the books, lick a broad swipe across the shelf.
“Hmm. The flavour of this dust indicates that you are correct. I can detect that it was a young girl, a-”
“Gabriel! Don’t be ridiculous, I never licked the shelf!”
“Yeah well, you said that you could smell her perfume, same level of creepy! Just embellishing the story, bro, untwist you knickers.”
Josh gave them both an irritated look, then his eyes narrowed searchingly as he glanced between them. He gestured for Gabriel to continue.
Sam nodded. “Yeah, actually, it was a young lady. I told the police about her, but I guess they didn’t find her.”
Cas was in interrogation mode now. “Did you see the girl come out?”
Sam tilted his head to the side endearingly, his forehead wrinkling in thought. “No, actually, no I didn’t.”
“So did you recognise her? See her around before?”
“Not her. But… he brought a lot of girls up here.”
Gabriel grinned at him. “Not exactly Mr. Morality, then?”
“Not really, no. I almost told the administration a few times.”
“What? A guy can’t have a little fun?” He winked suggestively over at Sam, who gave him a small grin back, a slight flush on the top of his cheekbones.
“You’re right, nothing wrong with a little fun. But half of the girls I saw him lead in here? Barely legal. And those were only the ones I saw.” Something dark flashed behind Sam’s eyes for half a second before it was gone again.
Gabriel felt his expression drop into a grimace. Yeah, that wasn’t good. Maybe the spirit did them a favour and the guy got what was coming to him.
Cas walked over to them. “Just one more thing. This building only has four stories, doesn’t it?” Sam nodded. “So there is no room 669?”
The corner of Sam’s mouth turned up in a smirk and Gabriel had to restrain his laughter. Someone had to ask, but coming out in Cas’ most serious voice the stupid question just sounded hilarious.
“No, ‘course not.” Sam replied. Castiel nodded, his face like stone (he really was clueless) and asked Sam to lead them back out.
Sam gave them a wave as they reached the doors. “Maybe I’ll see you around?”
“Maybe, kiddo.” Gabriel threw Sam his most flirtatious wink over his shoulder, and could almost feel a pair of eyes glued to his ass as he walked back towards the continental.
“Boy, we don’t need your commentary every time you try to score.”
“Come on, Josh, I’m just telling it like it was!”
“Yeah, well, we want to finish this before I die of old age. Castiel, finish the story, kid.”
They got back to their motel room early, but for once Castiel wasn’t pleased. He had been hoping that visiting the office might take a little longer so that he wouldn’t have to spend any more time looking at the… unfortunate wallpaper in their room than necessary. He shrugged out of the electrician’s jacket gratefully, though.
“So there were no traces of EMF in the room.”
Gabriel sauntered in after him. “Yeah, so not a spirit. That thing about the girl sounded like it might be something. You gonna check out the history of the building?”
Castiel nodded and pulled out his laptop while Gabriel investigated whether there were any beers left in the grimy mini fridge. He flipped up the lid and frowned when he saw the colourful images frozen on the screen.
“Gabriel, have you been messing around on my computer again?” he growled. Gabriel turned around, chewing on something with his mouth open.
“No, why?”
Blatant lies. “Well, if you haven’t been on it, then why is it frozen on a site called ‘Busty Asian Beauties dot com?”
Gabriel winked at him as he wandered towards the bedroom. “If you have to ask why I was on that site, little bro, then you’re not using the internet right.”
Cas rolled his eyes in disgust and gritted his teeth. “Gabriel!” he snapped, then rubbed his forehead, trying to massage away the budding headache and to avoid retaliating. “Whatever. Just don’t touch my stuff anymore.”
Gabriel poked his head back around the door frame. “Maybe you should control your OCD!”
That was it. Castiel was going to kill his brother.
“So it wasn’t a haunting?” Joshua interrupted again.
Gabriel put his booted feet up on one of the chairs. “You know what, Josh, we don’t even know any more. This is where it gets really weird. We didn’t see it ourselves, exactly, but…”
It had surprised both of them to see the frat boy back in the bar that night, and this time he looked decidedly worse for wear. Gone was the smug little smirk and the arrogant, confident posture. His jacket was rumpled, and there was the haunted look in his eyes of someone who had recently been traumatised for life. Gabriel had been slightly disappointed that Sam the janitor wasn’t there, but he was sat next to his little brother rather than drowning his sorrows at the bar, because he wouldn’t have missed this story for the world.
God, this shouldn’t be so entertaining.
“They… probed you?” Even Cas was having a hard time keeping the incredulity off his face.
“Yeah. They probed me, and probed me, and probed me again… and then one more time.” The kid muttered, taking a fortifying gulp of his drink.
“You might want to give the purple nurples a shot,” Gabriel suggested.
The boy gave him a dark look. “That wasn’t even the worst of it,” he protested, and Gabriel raised a challenging eyebrow at him.
“And what was worse than an alien sticking it where the sun don’t shine?”
The boy shuddered and looked down in shame. “They made me… slow dance.”
That was it, he was done. Gabriel had to turn away so that the frat boy wouldn’t see the smile on his face or his shoulders shaking with laughter. When he turned back, Cas was somehow still wearing his poker face. That level of self-control wasn’t natural. If there were aliens on earth, they were probably wearing the form of his brother.
“So, The frat boy was nuts? Too many special brownies?”
Gabriel swallowed another mouthful of beer. “Yeah, we’re not so sure. We went to check out the place where it happened, giant crop circle right in the middle of the lawn. Looked like it was made by some kind of jet engine, Cassie reckons. And two bouts of freaky shit happening in the same town, one after the other? There has to be a connection. No idea what it is, but.”
Cas picked up the discussion. “We also talked to another boy, who didn’t have any more information on the possible alien abduction, but he did have a… less than positive opinion on the frat boy, Curtis. He said that whatever had happened, he must have deserved it. Apparently, he has a love for playing pranks on others.” Cas shot Gabriel a glare as he said that.
Gabriel ignored him. “Anyway…”
“So it looks like there is a connection between the frat guy and the professor.” Gabriel tipped his rickety motel chair back onto two legs.
Cas shot him a questioning glance. “What?”
“Well, they were both dicks.”
“That’s not a connection,” Cas snorted as he pulled the library books out of the duffel. He rooted to the bottom then frowned. “Have you seen my laptop?”
“Nope.” Gabriel leant back further. “I mean, think about it. The asshole who sleeps with undergrads gets a dead girl. The pledge master gets hazed. Really well hazed too, I gotta say. These punishments are almost, I don’t know, poetic. Especially the one with the alien. That one’s a masterpiece.” Hey, it might be killing people, but he couldn’t fault this monster on its sense of humour.
Castiel walked in front of him, now looking distinctly pissed. “This is not funny, Gabriel. Where did you hide it?”
“What?”
“My laptop! Where is it?”
“Why the hell do you think I would want to take your laptop?”
“Because no one else could have! We never let the maids in, the door was locked, and it was still locked when we got back!” Cas’ fists were clenched at his sides.
“Looks like you lost it.”
Castiel visibly restrained his wrath.
“Gabriel, I put up with a lot from you,” He growled, “leaving your filthy clothing everywhere, your food in the fridge-”
“What’s wrong with my food?”
“It’s not food any more, Gabriel! It’s Darwinism!” Well, yeah, maybe he did have a point about that pizza that had been in there since last week, but still. Low blow.
“The one thing that I ask is that you don’t mess with my stuff. How would you feel if I messed around with your jacket? The one dad gave you?”
Gabriel’s eyes darkened dangerously. “You wouldn’t dare, because it would be the last thing you ever did.”
“So did you take his computer?” Joshua had a stern I-don’t-have-time-for-this-shit look on his face as though he was dealing with five year olds rather than fully grown hunters.
“No, would have served him right, but I never touched the thing.”
Cas scoffed at him. “Well, I didn’t lose it. It hasn’t been out of this room since we got here and no one’s been in, we turned this place upside down. Or I did, anyway.” He shot Gabriel another dark look, which he ignored.
“Right. So what happened next?”
Cas sighed. “There was one more victim. We didn’t see that one ourselves either, but we saw the… aftermath.”
Gabriel put down his empty beer bottle, which he had been spinning between his hands. “Yeah. He was a research scientist, in animal testing. And, according to his colleagues, also an enormous bag of dicks, which fits the pattern. We went to check out the morgue. There wasn’t much left by the time the gator was done with him.”
Joshua did a double take. “What? A gator?”
Gabriel pulled a lollipop from his pocket and started peeling off the wrapper. “Yup. Found… what was it? A belly scale? In with the remains. Looks like that old urban legend, you know, the one about reptiles in the sewers. That was when we decided to call you, thought you might have a clue about what’s happening around here.”
Cas sighed, the story evidently not yet over. “And that was when the last thing happened.”
Castiel couldn’t believe his eyes. Horrified, he took a step closer, but he was right. The tires had been slashed! All of them!
He indulged in some of Gabriel’s favourite profanities as he inspected the damage, simmering with anger. Whoever had done this, they were going to pay. Big time. He patted the continental consolingly on the bonnet. “Don’t worry, baby, I’ll get them for you.”
That was when he saw it.
Just next to the front tire, two colourful, crinkly wrappers fluttered slightly as he picked them up then crushed them in his fist. Oh, Gabriel was in for it now.
………
Gabriel didn’t even look up as he stormed in.
“Oh hey bro, I was wondering-”
“Do you think this is funny?” Gabriel looked up in surprise at his fuming tone, then noticed the look on Cas’ face.
“What?” He sounded almost genuinely confused, but Gabriel was a master at lying.
“The car, obviously!”
“What about the car? I didn’t do anything!”
“Oh yeah? Well the tires didn’t deflate themselves! What about these?” He brandished the wrappers under Gabriel’s nose.
“Those are just candy wrappers! Anyone could have eaten them!”
Cas pointed accusingly a the large pile of wrappers on the bedside table, exactly the same as the ones clenched in his fist. “Coincidence? I think not.” He snatched Gabriel’s balled up jacket from the table. “Let’s see how you like it.”
Gabriel jumped up. “Give that back!” He reached out to snatch it, but Castiel held it up out of his reach. Gabriel stopped, then feinted to the left, then made another grab, but Cas lifted it higher still, glad to be the taller sibling.
Above his head, he felt the jacket snag on something. He looked up, and saw that the lining had somehow become stuck on the top of the door. As he looked away, Gabriel yanked on his elbow to bring the jacket back within his reach. There was a small ripping noise.
In the moment of still silence that followed, Castiel contemplated that it might not be monsters that sent him to an early grave after all.
With an enraged yell, Gabriel leapt at him. They toppled backwards onto the bed, grappling with each other for possession of the coat-
“Okay, I’ve heard enough.”
“But he ripped my jacket,” Gabriel whined sulkily.
Joshua scowled at both of them. “I’m shocked at you two. Were you both born this stupid, or have you been taking lessons? Cas, Gabriel didn’t mess with your car. And he never stole your laptop.”
“But-”
“Shh.” Joshua cut Cas off with a raised hand. “And Gabriel, it wasn’t your brother’s fault that your coat got ripped. If you two bothered to open your eyes and remove your heads from your asses, it would have been pretty obvious what’s going on.”
Cas shrugged, looking confused. He glanced at Gabriel, who shrugged back. “Nope. Not a clue.”
Joshua gave a long suffering sigh. “You boys have got a trickster on your hands. You two were the biggest clue. Those things create chaos and mischief as easy as anything, and it’s got you two so wound up and at each other’s throats that you can’t even think straight. It knows you’re here, and that you’re onto it, and it’s been playing the two of you like fiddles.”
“So what exactly is it? Some kind of spirit?” Cas frowned, thinking.
“More like a demigod. They’re immortal, create things out of thin air.”
Gabriel nodded, fitting the facts together. “Things like angry spirits, and aliens, and alligators in the sewer?”
“Exactly. The victims fit the pattern too. Tricksters tend to target the high and mighty, anybody getting too big for their boots, take them down a peg or two. Usually with a sense of humour.”
Cas narrowed his eyes, thinking. “What do they look like, these things?”
Joshua shrugged. “Whatever they want. Mostly they appear as humans.”
Cas turned to Gabriel. “And what human do we know who’s been at ground zero this whole time?”
Gabriel was confused for a second, then his eyes widened in realisation. “No fucking way.”
.o0o.
Sam sighed as he thumbed half-heartedly through the pages of the trashy magazines, looking for inspiration. The alien one had been good, he would give them that. Quite inventive, humans.
But what was he going to do about the vessels? He hadn’t been looking for them, hadn’t even realised that they were on earth yet, and it had been a shock when he saw them pulling into town. He had known that their souls would be bright, they would have to be to contain an archangel, but he hadn’t anticipated the intensity of the glare that came off the younger one. He burnt like magnesium and fiery determination, like Michael, and it was almost enough to make him homesick like he hadn’t been for thousands of years.
The older one, though. Gabriel. He burnt brightly too, but his soul-light was warmer, the kind of warmth that could either comfort or burn you alive. He was magma, fast and slow, changeable, just as likely to destroy a village as to create an island. Sam had only very rarely seen another soul like it and it was fascinating to watch. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off it when the brothers had come to investigate the professor. His soul did resemble what he remembered of Lucifer, or as he had been, anyway, but not as strongly as Castiel was a reflection of Michael’s Grace. If anything, Gabriel’s soul resembled his own Grace more than it resembled Lucifer’s.
He drummed his fingers and pursed his lips, considering. He could just… leave. But no. If he tried to just go then they would come after him, they were stubborn like that. But at the same time he couldn’t intervene; that would blow his cover, and he had no desire to see any of his siblings again. Except for one of them, and there was no guarantee that they would be pleased to see him.
Sam gritted his teeth in annoyance. This wasn’t supposed to happen, the vessels were just that; The Vessels. They weren’t meant to be fascinating and likeable and funny…
Bones, sensing his mood, whined and wandered over, thrusting his nose under Sam’s hand. Sam scratched him behind his shaggy ears as he continued to internally debate the problem.
Eventually, he made his mind up. He would wait for them to come to him. And hopefully, the whole pesky attraction to Gabriel’s soul would sort itself out.
.o0o.
Gabriel was still denying it to himself the next day as Sam let them into the locker room. He was trying to hide his troubled thoughts, but Sam seemed to see his conflicted expression and was looking at him with worried puppy eyes, and that just made it worse, dammit.
He tried to deflect Sam’s attention, slipping into his usual smirk. “Don’t mind me dragging a little ass today, Sammy. Busy night last night.” He winked.
Was he imagining the flash of a jealous expression as Sam turned around? Probably. But even the threat of possibly flirting with a supernatural creature couldn’t keep his eyes off Sam’s ass as he walked up the stairs in front of them. It couldn’t be Sam. No monster could have thighs that had obviously been designed by God himself.
“We won’t be long, we just need to check some of the offices.” Cas was his usual oblivious self, showing no sign that he realised there was any tension in the room.
Gabriel stopped when they got to the landing, as planned. “Damn it! Forgotten my bag, must have left it in the car. Don’t wait for me, guys, I’ll catch up!”
Waiting for a few seconds for Cas and Sam to move to the next floor, instead of exiting out of the doors he went down the steps to the lower floor and picked the lock on the janitor’s break room. Rifling through the lockers, he found several copies of the Weekly World News, and to his disappointment they were full of all-too-familiar stories. He found features on the slow dancing alien and the alligator in the sewer. Gabriel’s hands clenched in the glossy prints as he tried to find his way around the evidence, but unfortunately there it was, and he could swear that the alligator was grinning at him smugly. You really thought he was human, didn’t you? And you flirted with him! What a dumbass!
He thought back to what Sam had said when they first met, about being older than he looked. Yeah, maybe several millennia older. Well, they didn’t know that yet, he reasoned, well and truly in denial now. No need to go unnecessarily staking the hot guy without double checking the facts first.
He even made a point to tell that loudly to Cas later as they strode down the sidewalk. To be honest, the fake argument that they were supposed to be having to throw the trickster off wasn’t so much fake as it was unnecessarily loud so that any nearby monsters would be sure to get the message.
“I’m just telling you, we need some hard proof, that’s all, something better than a few old mags,” He told Cas as he trotted to keep up with his longer strides.
“Well, I’m pretty sure that he’s the man we’re after, even if you do have a crush on him. Did you find any candy down there? Bobby said they have a fast metabolism.”
“Not so much as a single bar of chocolate. Which was a pity, I was getting peckish.”
“Well, you must have missed something.”
Well, the argument might be fake but the irritation was real. “Pretty sure I didn’t.”
“You’re not perfect, Gabriel. Look, just stay here and stake him out. I’m going to find where he’s staying. Wait until I get back, okay?”
“Yeah? Well, make sure you find some solid evidence before we go staking the guy. I’ll wait.” He watched Cas get into the continental and settled in on the steps. The hunt was on, the bait was set. Now he just had to wait.
.o0o.
The street lights had come on several hours ago and the campus was deserted. Gabriel tucked his hands into his pockets as he leaned against one of the stone pillars outside the entrance. He might be obvious sitting out here, but that was kind of the point, wasn’t it? Lure him out. If he even was the trickster. Gabriel still wasn’t convinced.
Then, over the slow rumble of traffic from the distant road, there came the feint syrupy sound of music from inside the hall behind him. Gabriel pushed off the pillar and looked up at the stone edifice. There were no lights on still, but yep, that was definitely coming from the building. He sighed and trotted up the steps and into the foyer, footsteps echoing loudly off the tiles. Wandering down the corridor and up a flight of stairs, he followed the music as the adrenaline in his blood built, fingers itching for the stake under his spare jacket.
Taking a deep breath, he pushed open the door to the lecture theatre and walked in. Music poured out to greet him, and he hadn’t been prepared for the rather confusing sight of a pair of gorgeous women in skimpy porn getup sprawled across a ridiculously large, plush, scarlet bed. That and the glitter ball. He was fairly sure that wasn’t standard for lecture theatres.
He walked down the steps to the front, eyeing the rest of the room for the trickster as the women crawled towards him with intent smiles. He threw them his trademark smirk.
“Now, ladies, unfortunately for you I like my women natural. And by that, I mean real, rather than you know, imaginary.”
“Trust me, sugar, it’s gonna feel real.” The blonde said, peeking out from under her lashes with a look that could only be described as sinful.
Ohh, that was tempting. Really tempting. But…
“Well, if I’d known that this was what went on at college, I would have given it a shot. But I’m afraid that this time I’m gonna have to pass…”
“They’re a peace offering.”
Gabriel whirled around and felt his stomach drop in disappointment, even though he had known it was coming. Sam was sprawled on the fold-out seats as though he was a college student thinking of napping through a particularly boring lecture, but his eyes glinted sharply through his bangs, totally focused.
“I’m not stupid, I know what you and your brother are. I’ve run into your kind before.”
Gabriel stuck his hands into his pockets and shrugged his shoulders. “Well then, you know that we can’t just ignore you killing off the locals.”
Sam rolled his eyes but looked like he had expected it. “Trust me, those guys deserved it. You think I don’t choose my victims very, very carefully? I never kill anyone unless they’ve passed the point of no return.” He was looking almost beseechingly at Gabriel now, like he wanted him to understand. Gabriel hated that it actually had an effect on him. He bristled.
“That’s meant to make me, what, sympathise with you? So you only kill those going directly to hell, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred pounds. Cool motive, still murder. I mean yeah, the professor and the scientist were kind of assholes, but what could those people possibly have done that could possibly deserve getting ganked?”
Sam leaned forwards, and his eyes seemed to darken even as they gleamed brighter, the pressure in the room increasing dangerously like still air before a storm. “That professor was raping girls in his classes by blackmailing them with failure if they refused. Sometimes he also gave lectures at a few of the local high schools.” Gabriel shuddered slightly with horror at the implications of that. “No one ever said anything obviously, because he was a local celebrity. But people knew. And they didn’t do anything.” Sam’s voice was deeper than it had been, and it reverberated in the room in a way that sent electric shivers down Gabriel’s spine, the hair on his arms prickling to attention. He was suddenly very aware that the thing in front of him was definitely not human. They hadn’t expected something this powerful. He was seriously starting to debate whether it was a good idea to take him on.
“Then there’s the researcher. He took entirely too much pleasure in what he was doing, he didn’t need to go through half as many animals as he did to perform those experiments. He just liked the sounds he made as they were dying. And that isn’t all. He used to bribe broke students into testing possibly fatal experimental drugs. At least two of them had early stage liver cancer by the time I got here. They’re fine now, by the way.”
Then the atmosphere broke abruptly, the calm in the eye of the storm, and Sam grinned as he leaned back in his chair, just a man again. “I have to admit though, the frat boy was just for fun. Well, it put him back on the right track too. And you and Cas? I like you. So why don’t you just… wait around here? For a day or two. Just long enough for me to move on.”
Gabriel was almost tempted. “Come on, Sam! You know we can’t do that.”
“I don’t want to hurt you. And you know that I could.” Sam said it nonchalantly, like he would do it in a heartbeat, in a second. But Gabriel thought it said something about the trickster that he had known they were coming for him, and yet he hadn’t simply obliterated them the second they rolled into town. From what he had seen, he was certainly powerful enough. There was something holding Sam back…
Wait, no. Not Sam. Sam wasn’t even his name, he had to stop thinking about him like a person. He was just the trickster. Gabriel steeled himself.
“Look, kiddo, I’ve got to tell you, you’ve got style, all right? I mean, that thing with the slow dancing alien? Perfect!” He laughed and the thing that looked like a beautiful man shook his head and laughed with him, shaggy hair falling into his eyes. “But I can’t let you go. Sorry. Nothing personal.”
Sam looked up, face suddenly blank and dangerous. “Too bad. I liked you guys. Cas was right, you should have waited for him.”
Gabriel masked his nerves with a smirk, even as his heart started to dance the lambada against his ribs. “But I did!”
Cas and Joshua entered at the top of the stairs, stakes in hand. Sam twisted, spotted them, then turned again to look at Gabriel, the danger melting off his face and his mouth curling into a smile as though he was actually impressed.
“Wow! That fight you guys had outside, that was a trick?”
Gabriel shrugged, mock-modest. He could feel the attack building in the air. Any second now.
Sam nodded. “Not bad. But you want to see a real trick?”
There was the ripping roar of a chainsaw from the top of the stairs, but Gabriel didn’t even glance at it as he leapt towards the trickster, stake held high. Before he even got close a hand closed in the back of his jacket, yanking him backwards. The next thing he knew he was soaring through the air in the opposite direction, then his head smacked into the edge of the giant bed. His ears were still ringing dizzily when the women dragged him upright and started punching him with bony fists, tittering with girlish laughter. He supposed blearily that it was kind of fitting that Sam decided to beat him up with fake hookers. In the background he could still hear the chainsaw and loud thumps and crashes, but he didn’t even have a second to look and see if Cas was still occupied.
Another few rounds with the women (unfortunately not the fun kind) and he was flying again, this time landing on the lecture seats just the row in front of where Sam was sat still, watching the performance with dark amusement.
“I didn’t want to have to do this,” Sam said, starting to get up.
“Gabe!” He suddenly heard from behind him. He turned just in time to catch the stake that Cas tossed him, and he twisted his torso, carrying the momentum on to stab the trickster in the chest.
“Me neither,” he panted as he drove the stake deeper, Sam making a startled choking sound, “Sorry.”
As the stake pierced Sam’s ribcage their eyes met, brown hazel looking down into blue wrought through with green-gold filigree, and he could have sworn that there was a spark in there, something like surprise, followed by something like admiration.
Then it was gone, and those eyes rolled up as the large body dropped heavily back onto the seats, blood dripping from the slack mouth and soaking into the fabric. They all stood there panting for a second, trying to catch their breath with adrenaline still hammering through their veins. Gabriel tried not to feel the splinter of regret that was digging its way into his heart at the sight of Sam’s limp body.
He shook himself. Jesus, Gabriel, get a grip.
“Pity,” he commented, “He was kind of an okay guy. Apart from the whole murder thing.”
.o0o.
It wasn’t until after they were in the car again and roaring out of town, having made his apologies to Cas over the hood while Josh yelled at them to get their fool asses moving, that Gabriel realised what had been niggling at the back of his conscience.
The girls had vanished. The chainsaw-wielding maniac had vanished. The disco ball had vanished.
So why, when they left, had there been a giant sex bed still gracing the lecture theatre?
There was only one conclusion to come to, and it was only backed up when he found his jacket again later, neatly folded and rip free on the back seat of the Continental. Rubbing a thumb over the worn fabric he grinned, but didn’t mention it to Cas or Josh. He had a feeling they might meet the trickster again soon enough, no need to go gallivanting across the country after it when vampires were murdering people in the next town over. And he was surprised to find that he didn’t really mind that the trickster had survived. In fact, deep down he might have been a little relieved.
What could he say? The guy had style.