[h3] Cason, Dean and Annabeth [/h3]

Annabeth took a deep breath, gasping for air after the outburst as the entire room seemed to be scolding her for something she didn’t even know she had the choice to say ‘no’ to. She closed her eyes, letting their voices wash over her, to get the brunt of it off their chests as she stood still.

Cason, on the other hand, crumpled to the floor beside Esme, pulling her to him and rubbing her back to try and get the worst of the shockwave out of her system, before a question burned his mind.  He let Natalia scold her, as Annabeth seemed to respect her, and he hoped maybe she could pressure some answers out of her.  But when no answers came, and Annabeth stayed silent after Sam finished speaking, he decided to ask the burning question.

“What did it cost?”, he asked her.  His voice exasperated and heartbroken.  She didn’t answer him at first, only keeping her eyes closed, “Tell me!  What did it cost…your soul?”

“I have to…”, she started, opening her eyes and peering up at Sam before letting out a small sigh of panic.

Dean had gathered himself by then, standing up straight and glaring at her.  He didn’t want to hear what was coming next, but he almost knew the answer.

“I have to go with him.  He gave me 24 hours.”, she whispered.  Cason’s gasp and groan pierced the near silence in the room as he ducked his head again, “He threatened horrible things.  There was nothing any of you could do.  Sam would have just broken into pieces in front of all of you, if I had said no.  This wasn’t a ‘go get the others and see what they can find’ situation.  He didn’t even explain why he needed me, only that my choices were stay here…and Sam dies horrifically.  Or I go with him, and you’re all safe, as long as you don’t come after me.”

She looked over at Natalia, her eyes heartbroken and red, “I didn’t make a deal for my eyes.  That was just his first good faith payment or something.  I made the deal because he could have snapped his fingers at any second…and blown any of you to pieces.”

Dean cleared his throat, “She’s probably right.  Alastair is someone I have heard of, recently…and lets just say he’s Lilith without the moral compass.  If she says he would have killed you, Sam…he would have, in a heartbeat.  He’s creative, too.”

Annabeth sighed with relief that Dean understood her motives, if nothing else.  She looked up at Sam, knowing that this news wouldn’t be what he wanted to hear, and brushed his hair behind his left ear, “You can’t come after me.  You hardly know me, right?  This way…you guys won’t have me to worry about.  I’ll be his problem.  And if I get the chance to run, I’ll run.”

Bobby took a deep breath, now that everyone was starting to simmer down and held his hand up, as if he was in class, “We can use my vault, to buy us time, but I can’t guarantee he won’t come and kill all of us anyway.  If we protect Sam and the girl, maybe we can find a way to kill Alastair?”

Dean raised his eyebrows, holding a hand out toward Bobby to see if the others agreed with him, as he did.