Brown Mountain Lights

Research, Kidnappings, and Men Who Really Shouldn't Chat With Demons

The next morning, I woke up to find Dean already gone, his side of the bed cold. I frowned; that was very unusual. I almost always woke up before he did, now that my brain chemistry wasn't literally making me sleep all the time.

I got up, threw on some clothes, and padded quietly towards the main room. I could hear voices as I approached, and quickly realized that Sam and Dean were discussing something in the library. As I got closer, I was able to catch pieces of what they were saying.

"- black streaks -"

"- Leviathan?"

"- don't bleed black -"

"- mutation? Like Eve -"

"- alpha of -"

"- more creator maybe -"

I stuck my head around the door and said, "Wait, weren't the Leviathans supposed to be God's first creations?"

Sam and Dean both jumped about a foot out of their chairs, and Sam was the first to respond. "Yeah, but some of the characteristics of the Leviathans are showing up again in the Darkness infected people – the black veins, the wanton destruction. Not to mention the Darkness eats souls, the Leviathans eat flesh – it's like they're symbiotic, or connected some other way."

Dean chimed in, "The current theory is that the Darkness created the Leviathans, not God, and the lore is wrong – which has happened before. God also bound both of them due to their destructive tendencies, so there's that, too."

I walked into the library and sat down next to Dean. "Some of that makes sense, but it's kind of farfetched. I get the black veins part, cause when the Leviathans possessed Cas he did the whole black veins thing, but the Darkness rabids bleed red, right?"

"They do," Sam said, "but their blood is infectious, like it's black metaphorically or something. There's also the possibility that since the Leviathans were locked in Purgatory for so long, their attributes changed. They evolved, per se."

"Okay," I said, "Let's set aside the problems with the theory and focus on its implications. If the Darkness is, like, the leader of the Leviathans, She should have the same weaknesses, right?"

"Not necessarily," Dean said slowly. "Like, the alpha vampire, he was affected by dead man's blood, but not totally messed up by it like other vamps are."

"And we know She can't be killed," Sam added. "Our only real chance is to try to put Her back where She came from. The cage She's in now is strong, but Cas estimates we've only got about another month, maybe two, before She breaks out. Not to mention putting Her in there required some serious spellwork from Don Stark, that witch we dealt with once before. He was in bed for two weeks, his wife said, and she was pissed we got him to do it. Don't think there'll be any more help from that corner."

"And we know that the Mark of Cain was a key locking Her in, and of course there's no information on how that was made, cause God made it. Inconvenient," I groused.

"I wonder..." Sam started, then trailed off.

"What?" Dean said impatiently.

"I wonder if we could write our own spell? I mean, someone had to come up with these things, right?"

"That's a thought," I said slowly, "but we'd probably need a witch to help. Not necessarily a powerful one, just one who kind of knows how things work. Don't suppose y'all know any witches who don't want to kill you?"

"Well, I mean, Rowena probably doesn't want to kill us immediately," Dean started.

Sam interrupted his brother, saying, "James! James Frampton!" At Dean's baffled look, he rolled his eyes and said, "That cop turned witch?" Dean was obviously still drawing a blank. "The one with the hot familiar?"