Lucifer In Lace

Part 11 Wolf

Dean blinked hard.  Chuck gave the air a weak fisted pump.  A few hours before they lost control of the prison, Mills had filed a missing persons report for Donna Hanscum.  They were about to launch an investigation but somehow Warden Knight was delaying the paperwork on the search for Donna through the premises.  Chuck then tried to contact Charlie for access to the electronic records of Hanscum's movement through the prison, but Charlie didn't answer.  That got Chuck spooked and he ended up alerting Bobby Singer the regional head for all FBI undercover ops.  Chuck's instinct had been spot on, as not long after that they lost Warden Knight.  For a while they figured she'd been taken hostage, turned out she was playing them all along. 

Hearing that Donna was alive and could be released gave whole command centre a little ray of hope. Dean watched the monitor showing the prison gates intently.

"How many hostages you got Cas?" Dean licked his lips. 

"Enough to be generous in these negotiations," Castiel smiled.  His eyes were still that lovely shade of cornflower blue, his skin summer golden. Dean shivered at the glow of light that poured from Castiel's beautiful face and wondered how afraid he should be, and wasn't. 

Dean's expression hardened when he saw two hostages emerge.  Mills was helping Hanscum walk.

"What did you do to her?" Dean growled.  "She has been nothing but kind to you."

"Indeed, she is merely dehydrated.   Refused to eat or drink since I placed her in isolation.  I needed her security pass to get into your cell.  I needed to see you and feel you.  I wanted to be with you before my ascension.  It's sappy I know, but I thought it would be nice to be with you just as Father Collins, just your Cas, no Lucifer in me."

Dean felt the weight of about a hundred pairs of eyes on him all of a sudden.  His cheeks continued to burn like he was about to go up in flames.

"Tell me about Lucifer, Cas."

Chuck nodded vigorously, he'd circled and underlined that questions about four times.  Dean kicked himself, this wasn't some sort of public flirtation kink party.  This was real life, real people, friends who he had to get out.  Dean schooled his face into something resembling blankness and lowered his eyes, because he knew somehow Castiel could already read too much from them.

"He's an idea, a nightmare, a brand," Castiel shrugged.  "Nick and I go a long way back, grew up in the same orphanage.  Do you really want me to do the super villain back story spiel right now?"

"Please Cas, I gotta know you a little better?" Dean could have congratulated himself on his acting skills making his voice come out so plaintive, but he'd be a self-deceiving asshole if he did.  He really did want to know.

"I had a brother, Mikael.  Nick killed him over a petty squabble.  I tried to stop him but I was too young."

"Is that why you executed Nick? Revenge?"

"I wish it was revenge," Castiel laughed, his eyes icy.  "I killed Nick because he asked me to.  I am his protege, his chosen.  From the day Mikael died, I was without protection.  Rather than eking out a miserable existence in that lawless prison for children, I decided to take a walk into the mountains.  I knew there were wolves out there you see and winter as well. Both were preferable to subservience.  I found the starved she-wolf before night fall but when she was upon me the urge to live and fight overcame my sorrow for Mikael and I fought as hard as I could.  She had me by the thigh and was about to begin her feast when Nick found me.  He said afterwards he was mesmerised by my stubbornness, that it shone brighter than my weakness.  He took me under his wing and taught me to kill and survive.   Brought me up like a prince and now he has bestowed his crown.  Is that enough of a back story for you Dean?"

Dean nodded mutely.  He shouldn't feel sorry for Castiel, he knew, but the the sight of those white lines scarring  Castiel's inner thighs flashed before his eyes.

"Now it's my turn to ask you a question," Castiel said.  "What sort of music do you enjoy?"

"Classic rock," was Dean's whispered reply.  "I want the next hostage released to be Sam.  I'll answer as many questions as you want, Cas.  Want my home address?  My social security number?"

"I can't give you Sam," Castiel sighed.  "Cain and Sam are together, hiding somewhere in the prison.  My followers are looking for them."

"You lying?"

"Upon my word no," Castiel said.  "Now, I want to talk forever with you Dean but Abbadon here is ready to stab me in the back if I use up more time.  I have certain ceremonies that I must perform and then the final show piece.  So, I'll give you all of the hostages for one last question."

Dean swallowed.  The screen showed Gabriel and Kevin leaving the prison. 

"What you wanna know Cas?"

For the first time, Castiel looked nervous.  He was biting his lips and blushing a little, his lashes lowered.  He looked positively coy as he peered up at Dean.

"I would like to know how you feel about me?"

Dean frowned.  "I thought that'd be obvious Cas, I mean now that the hostages are all out and you can't give me Sam or agent Cain anyway."

Castiel looked up at Dean, his eyes bright with expectation.

"I am completely creeped out by you and you are everything I despise," Dean said slow and cold.

Castiel's eyes flicked to meet Dean's, laser sharp.   The screen blanked out before another word was said. 

"Balls, we lost him, Dean that's not how we fucking negotiate!" Bobby shouted.  "String the fucker along!  Give him all the hearts and flowers if that's what he wants."

Dean's chest rose and fell.  "Last I checked, I'm still officially benched.  So I'm gonna go home now, Sammy'll take care of himself."

Bobby's cursing was truly eloquent but Dean didn't hang around to hear much of it.  Chuck was giving a Dean a wondering look even as Dean left the room.  He walked deliberately slowly for a few minutes, out into the open air.  When he got near the barrier that kept the press some three hundred meters away from the prison, he flashed his FBI badge. 

"You saw me on the monitors, I'm the negotiator and I have clearance from Commander Shurley to go in," he told the local police manning the barrier. 

As they called in to check Dean's authorisation, he flashed them a confident smile and began a brisk walk through the buffer zone.  By the time they were yelling at him to stop, he was only 100 meters from the prison gates.  Dean broke into a sprint.  He expected Castiel must have eyes on the gates, must see Dean coming.  Ten meters and the gate swung open just enough for him to dive through, straight into the mouth of hell.