Saints or Sinners | {BOOK 3}

40| Cass is Back

"We're getting close," Benny said, glancing over his shoulder at us.

"Really?" I asked sarcastically. "I don't see crap. I mean, what the hell is this escape hatch supposed to look like?"

"He doesn't know," Cass said from the back of the group.

Dean looked back at him, then up at Benny.

"Hey, you just drug me through the fire," he said. "Please tell me you know."

"It's here," Benny assured him. "They promised."

"Oh, they?" I rolled my eyes. "Well, that's comforting."

"Well, even if it does exist-" Cass began.

"Broken record, Cass," Benny cut in.

"Dean, Eleanor, it's a human portal. There's still no proof that an angel could pass-"

"Stow it, Cass," I snapped, stopping in my tracks and turning to face him. "You're coming. That's final."

Beside me, Dean nodded his head. It was the one thing we'd been able to agree on since finding each other again. If we tried to talk about anything else, it always ended in a fight. I couldn't remember the last time anyone had called me Ellie.

"I'm just saying," Cass gave me a pointed look, "if it doesn't work... thank  you for everything... both of you."

"Save the Hallmark," Dean growled. "Okay? It's gonna work. Nobody gets left behind."

He shoved past Benny, starting to walk through the trees once more. Benny fell into step beside him and Cass and I just stared at each other for a minute before we finally followed behind them.

⁘

The next morning, I was sitting on the bed while Sam filled me and Dean in on more vanishing reports. Dean was in the bathroom with the door open so he could listen.

"Hey, so it's not just Americans who are vanishing," Sam said. "Uh, this guy, Luigi Ponzi disappeared walking between two subway cars in Rome. And right above ground, there was a freak hail storm."

"So, we going to Rome?" I asked. "Wouldn't be too shabby."

There was a tell tale flutter of wings and I gasped as Cass appeared in the bathroom doorway behind Dean.

"Hello, Dean," he greeted him, then looked over at me. "Eleanor."

I stood up as Cass moved over to the table with Sam and Dean came out to lean against the kitchenette counter.

"Unbelievable, man," Sam breathed. "I- I can't believe it. You're actually here."

"Yeah, I've been trying to reach out, but for whatever reason, I wasn't at full power," the angel replied. "So I couldn't connect with you."

"That must have been why you guys kept seeing him. I mean, you think?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Yeah, uh, I got to be honest. I-I-I'm thinking, how the hell did you make it out?"

"She's right," Dean jumped in. "I mean, we- we were there. We-we-we know that place. We know how we had to scratch and claw and kill and bleed to find that portal and make it through, and it almost finished us. So, uh... so how exactly are you sitting here with us right now?"

"Dean, Eleanor, everything you just said is completely true," Cass began. "And that's the strange part. I... I have no idea. I remember endlessly running and hiding from Leviathan, and then I was on the side of the road in Illinois. And... that was it."

"And that- that was it?" I repeated.

"Yes."

There was a long pause, and then Cass looked down at himself.

"Oh. I'm dirty," he stated, as if just realizing it.

"Yeah, well, Purgatory will do that to you," Dean replied.

Cass got up and slipped into the bathroom and Dean and I exchanged a look.

⁘

We were still making our way through the forest, no sign of the escape hatch in sight.

"Maybe you were lied to," Cass suggested to the vampire. "Maybe there is no seam."

"I lie. I don't get lied to," Benny snapped back. "Aren't you guys all about faith?"

"Not particularly," the angel muttered.

Suddenly, a leaf nearby lifted into the air as if caught in a current. At the top of a nearby cliff, we watched as a patch of blue light shimmered and changed shape.

"Oh ye of frigging little faith," Benny smirked.

"What the hell?" Dean asked.

"There it is," Cass said, looking at me and Dean. "It's reacting to the two of you."

"Alright, ready?" Benny asked, nodding at Dean.

"Just like we talked about," Dean nodded back.

We watched as he cut his own forearm with a large knife.

"Putting a lot of trust in you, brother," Benny told him.

I rolled my eyes, but only Cass noticed. He didn't call me out on it though.

"You earned it," Dean replied, also cutting Benny's forearm.

They gripped each other so the blood of their cuts mingled together.

"I'll see you on the other side," Benny said.

"Conjunti sumus, unum sumus," Dean recited the incantation.

I subconsciously reached out and grasped Cass's hand as Benny's arm clutching Dean's glowed with a red and white light. Within seconds, the light consumed him, and then suddenly he had vanished into Dean's arm. Dean grimaced, turning to face me and Cass.

"Let's go," he said.

I kept my grip on Cass's hand as we hurried along the cliff in the direction of the blue portal.

"Dean, Eleanor, wait," Cass stopped us.

A cloud of black smoke hit the ground in front of us and as it cleared, two balls of black goo became Leviathans.

⁘

"Dean? Ellie?"

I started a bit at the sound of Sam's voice.

"Huh?" Dean asked, also shaking himself out of the memory.

"You alright?" Sam asked us.

"You do see something severely wrong here, right?" Dean asked him, taking a seat at the table where Cass had just been. "Sammy, I remember every second of leaving that place. We both do. I mean, we remember the- the heat, the stink, the pain, the fear. We have that whole ugly mess..."

He tapped his temple.

"...right here, and he says he has no idea how he got out? I- I'm just not buying it."

"So, what, you think he's lying?" Sam asked, looking from Dean to me and back.

"He's right," I nodded. "Something else happened. We saw the shape that he was in. I mean, there was no way he was fighting his ass out alone. No way."

"Alright. So, who... or what got him out?"

"Exactly," Dean said.

Just then, Cass walked back out of the bathroom. He was wearing his old suit and tie under his trench coat, which was clean, and he was freshly shaved. My jaw dropped slightly and Sam and Dean both straightened up in their seats as Cass smiled around at us.

"Better?" he asked, spreading his arms wide.

"Yeah, Cass. Better," I nodded, giving a half smile back at him.