Saints or Sinners | {BOOK 3}

12| Cass Remembers

Maddie had blessedly fallen asleep, so I didn't have to worry so much about her accidentally letting slip about Emmanuel's real identity.

"So, your brother..." Emmanuel trailed off.

"Sam," Dean supplied.

I could tell his anger was spiking the longer we sat in the car with Emmanuel.

"Sam," Emmanuel repeated. "What's his diagnosis?"

"Well, it's not exactly medical," I piped up from the back.

"That should be fine. I can cure illness of a spiritual origin."

"Spiritual," Dean scoffed. "Okay. Someone did this to him."

"You're angry."

"Well, yeah. Dude broke my brother's head."

"He betrayed you, this dude," Emmanuel said slowly. "He was your friend?"

"Yeah, well, he's gone."

"Did you kill him? I sense that you kill a lot of people."

I bit my lip as Dean started stuttering.

"Honestly, I-I-I don't know if he's dead. I just know that this... whole thing couldn't be messier. You know, I used to be able to just shake this stuff off. You know, whatever it was. It might take me some time, but... I always could. What Cass did... I just can't- I don't know why."

"Well, it doesn't matter why," Emmanuel said.

"Of course it matters."

"No. You're not a machine, Dean. You're human."

There was a pause, and then Emmanuel looked out the window as he continued.

"Your friend's name was Cass? That's an odd name."

Dean looked over at him, then back at me in the rearview mirror. This was going to be a very long drive.

⁘

"Your husband doesn't like me very much."

"He's not my husband."

We'd stopped at a convenience store to fill up on gas and get some supplies and Dean had left me in the car with Emmanuel and the kids who were both still sleeping.

"Oh..."

An awkward silence fell in the car.

"You can barely look at me, too. Is it because I remind you and Dean of that Cass person? Because I'm not him, Ellie."

I winced at hearing him use my nickname. It sounded so unnatural coming from him. I was so used to him referring to me as Eleanor.

"Yeah, I guess that's part of it," I answered finally.

"What he did... it's a lot more than just breaking Sam's head, isn't it?"

"Look, Emmanuel, I don't really think we should be talking about that."

"Very well," he nodded. "Why do you keep looking over my shoulder?"

"How'd you figure out you could heal people?"

"Daphne and I were out on a walk one day and saw someone get hurt. When we went over to help, I touched him. This warm feeling flowed through me and it was like he had never been hurt. That was when I decided I had to help people."

"A warm feeling?"

Emmanuel nodded, but before we could continue talking, Dean came back- with Meg.

"Her face! She's one of-" Emmanuel started.