Saints or Sinners | {BOOK 3}

47| Finding Samandriel

When Sam opened the door of room 118 to see Dean and I, he partly closed it, then opened it fully again, a pissed off expression on his face.

"What did you expect?" Dean asked as we entered the room.

"Long drive," Sam growled.

"Well, we wouldn't have had to make it if you hadn't have hung up on me," I pointed out.

"Yeah, well, I heard all I needed to hear."

"No, you heard what you wanted to hear," I snapped back. "We told you Benny wasn't killing. Hell, we watched him end the fangbanger that was."

"How about Martin? How did he end that?"

"Stupid- just like we said it would. Crazy son of a bitch didn't give Benny a choice. It was self defense."

"Seriously, Ellie? That's the story you're going with? That the vampire was the real victim here?"

"Hey, like it or not, that's the truth, okay?" Dean jumped in. "There was a time that actually meant something."

"Yeah, yeah," Sam nodded. "No kidding."

"What does that mean?"

"You think this is just about Benny?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"What the hell do you think I'm talking about?"

Dean blinked as he stared at his brother.

"Amelia?" he scoffed. "Oh, come on, man. I had Ellie send you that text because I needed you to- to-"

"You needed me to what? To tear ass to Texas? To be afraid what happened to Jessica, what happened to... everybody that we care about might have happened to her?"

"You were gonna kill Benny. What was I supposed to do?"

"Is that what we are?" Sam demanded. "You save a vampire by making me believe that the woman I love might be dead?"

"What do you want to hear, Sam? That I was wrong? Fine. I was wrong. Okay? But if you'd just heard me and Ellie out, if you'd trusted us, all of this could have been avoided."

"You didn't want me to trust you. You wanted me to trust Benny, and I can't do that."

"Right. Okay, well, then, what the hell do we do now?"

"That depends. It depends on you. On whether or not you and Ellie are done with him."

"Well, honestly, I don't know," Dean admitted.

He and Sam stared at each other silently for a long moment.

"Glad we made the drive."

Dean walked past Sam and out of the room. Sam stared at me for a minute, and then I headed after Dean without saying anything else to him.

⁘

Dean and I had gone back to Rufus' cabin without Sam. I didn't know what Dean was up to, but I was currently out back shooting empty cans for target practice. It felt good to let off some steam given everything that had been going on lately. It didn't take long for all six cans to be mutilated by the round from my gun.

"Ellie?"

I rolled my eyes, lowering my gun as I turned to face Dean. Cass was standing with him on the porch.

"We got to go. Crowley kidnapped Alfie."

"What?"

"I'll explain on the way. Come on."

I tucked my gun away as I followed Dean and Cass back through the cabin and out front to get into Baby. We were heading to Nebraska, where apparently Crowley was having Samandriel tortured for information. Cass had only been able to get a general location for him, which was why he had asked for our help. When Dean had done a search, it turned out a man in Geneva had been talked to by a burning bush before it burned him.

"Mr. Hinkley?" Dean asked after knocking on the doorframe of the man's room. "Hi. Uh, we're from the, uh, Geneva Gazette. We wanted to ask you a few questions about your ambush."

He laughed and I shot him a look.

"Yeah, well... I'd laugh, too, if it didn't feel like the sun just ate my face," Mr. Hinkley replied.

"It's a metaphor," Cass leaned in to tell me.

I held up a hand, giving him a look to chill out before addressing the man in the hospital bed.

"Sorry. Uh, now the police report, it said that the, uh- the bush, it talked to you, right?"

"Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but, yeah."

"What did it say?" Cass asked.

"No clue. Sounded like Klingon to me."

"Gonna need exact words," Dean informed him.

"Are you serious?" Mr. Hinkley stared at us incredulously.

Cass looked over at Dean and then back at Mr. Hinkley.

"That's his serious face, yes."

I fought the urge to face palm as I gave the man a sympathetic look.

"As much as you can remember, Mr. Hinkley," I said gently.

"Sounded something like... sol-voch. Yeah. Sol-voch-tay."

After thanking Mr. Hinkley for his time, we went out in the hall to talk.

"Well, what do you think?" Dean addressed Cass. "Mean anything to you?"

"Yes. It's Enochian. It means-"

"Obey," I finished.

They both looked at me in surprise.

"What?"

"You understand Enochian?" Dean asked.

"I've done research," I shrugged.

"Alright... so obey. Obey what?"

"I don't know," Cass shook his head. "But the amount of pain an angel must be in not just to manifest through shrubbery, but to burn- Dean, Eleanor.... we have to find him before it's too late."

"Okay," I nodded. "Okay, well, look, a sign like that- Samandriel can't be too far, right? So we'll just start at the bush and work our way out."

"And look for what exactly? Crowley could have him anywhere."

"Well, if I know Crowley, the place will be swarming with demons," Dean pointed out, "so we'll just drive till we see ugly."

By the time we hit our ninth abandoned factory, Dean and I were both getting frustrated. However, Cass informed us that the three shabbily dressed men standing around a drum with a fire inside were demons, plus there was an extra one on a balcony above them.

"Crowley's got that many hell monkeys outside, he's got to have at least double inside," Dean noted.

"And angel warding," Cass added. "I can feel it."

"Well, even with the three of us and a demon knife, that ain't gonna cut it."

"Okay. I'll get Sam."

"No," I shook my head.

"We don't need Sam," Dean added.

"But you just said-" Cass started.

"Look, if Sam wanted in, he'd be here, okay? I got a better idea."