[h3] Anna [/h3] Anna looked up at Sam as they stepped out of the corridor and into the terminal of the airport. She had spent most of the flight curled up in her chair, hoping that no one would notice that she was high as kite. But Sam’s complaint about the leg room caused her to smirk. He had sat behind a particularly rude lady that took absolutely no hints at his need for leg room. Being well over six foot, he had to be sore. “I’m sorry. I should have switched seats with you. I just couldn’t…not sit next to the window.” She apologized with a wince. Feeling as uneasy as she had, the idea of sitting anywhere but the window seat would have sent her into a full blown panic attack on the plane. She placed a hand on his side, mostly to make sure they stuck together as they walked through the airport and out to the taxis. The second they were comfortable in their seats, she waited for Sam to give the address and leaned her head against the window, internally groaning at the idea of having to be near Cason, while very high. The last time she was in this situation, she almost drained Cason dry. “Maybe I’ll feel more excited when we get there…”, she muttered, flexing her right hand. [h3] Dean [/h3] Dean was enjoying the peace and quiet of having absolutely nothing to do, when suddenly, his phone vibrated. He groaned, and glanced down when Mika did. Pulling the phone from in between them, he held it up over his face and checked. “Yeah. The kids should be back in about ten minutes or so. That’s a Cason problem.” He huffed, but he knew that Sam would be coming to him. If Anna wanted to talk to Cason, Sam had news. He sat up reluctantly, and threw his legs over the side of the bed, standing with a soft groan. “Sam’s going to come through that door. Something happened while they were gone. And I would assume…” He stopped and sighed, throwing his hands up in annoyance, “I would assume that something ahs to do with demons.” [h3] Cason (and Anna) [/h3] Cason paced in the room, glancing toward the window every now and again. The feeling he had in the pit of his stomach told him that they were probably being watched, which meant that Anna had run into some serious trouble. It was the whole reason he wanted to keep her under his thumb. Letting her have all that freedom, and just leaving her to her own with Sam was the worst idea he had possibly ever had. As he disassociated and stared out the window, a yellow cab pulled up behind the cars in the parking lot. He didn’t bother to go to the door, he already knew what was coming next. He turned and paced back to the back of the room, and like clockwork, a knock at the door came. “I got it.”, he grumbled, quickly marching to the door. As the door swung open, a very keyed up, very shaky Anna stood there, without Sam. “Where’s your boyfriend?” He looked around the parking lot, scanning with his eyes, ears and nose for demons or anyone that might be trailing them. Luckily, nothing was out of the ordinary, not even the smell of sulfur. Anna didn’t speak at first, seemingly allowing Cason to make sure she was alone, and then she crossed her arms nervously. “He went to fill Dean in. Can I come in? It’s getting dark and I’m…I’m not doing good.” She explained with a shaky voice. Anna could barely hear her own voice over Cason’s heartbeat raging in her ears. She was afraid that if she looked at him too hard, she would be able to see the blood pumping through his veins. Cason stepped to the side and held the door open, waving Anna in, and toward Nat at the table. Anna stepped in and Cason closed the door, locking both locks and turning to stand against it. He then sighed, and ripped the bandaid off. “You drank demon blood.” Anna’s head snapped to look at him, her eyes filling with tears immediately. In that instant, Cason regretted ripping that bandaid off. He softened his expression as she tried to find her words and finally, she choked out “Yeah. But it’s complicated! I will get there but first I need to know about something that happened at the motel.” “Alright. Alright…let’s start with one question at a time.” Cason cooed to her, stepping forward, but Anna held up both her hands and shook her head, telling him to stay where he was. Holding up his own hands, he leaned against the door once again, and urged her to continue. “What happened first?” “Um…Nat’s here.” “It’s okay. She’s with me and she’s only here to help. She won’t say anything to the others unless you’re cool with it. Right Nat?” Cason encouraged Anna, who seemed reluctant but finally decided to continue. “When we left this morning, there was this old lady. She was just standing there and she was speaking Latin…but on the outside, from the look on Sam’s face, she was just being a nice old lady.” Anna paused for a moment and Cason tilted his head. “You said she was speaking Latin. Do you remember any of what she said?” “I only remember hearing my name and one single line…’Nexis ad luciferum luciferum primo rumpitur.’ I think that’s how it went.” She explained and Cason brought his hand up to his chin, rubbing it as he thought about the translation for a moment. He began to mumble the words outloud and furrowed his brow. “The intertwined shall be broken at the first light of the morning star…” He murmured, repeating himself a few times. On the surface it made no sense, but the longer he washed over it, the more obvious the message came. Without allowing Anna to go much further, he looked over at Nat and his expression was stern. “Your brother cannot know about any of this. I mean it.” “What does that mean, Cason? What is the morning star?” Anna asked frantically. Cason turned and looked at her. His expression showed fear, and he only uttered one word. “Lucifer.” [h3] Duke [/h3] Duke’s smile only grew as Esme teased him back. All the relief in the world washed over him to feel something other than stress, considering how he thought this night would go. He was about to make that first move, when Esme climbed onto his lap, eliciting a surprised chuckle out of him. He wrapped his arm around her, keeping his hold against her jaw as she leaned in to touch noses. The smile on his face was nearly hurting his cheeks by that point. He stopped the urge to go ahead and kiss her, but when she made her intentions clear, he gave into her completely, kissing her deeply, while pulling her impossibly close to him. For now, this was all they needed…each other. ——-TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER——- Duke drew little circles on Esme’s shoulder as he stared at the ceiling. He wasn’t thinking. He was simply staring. After a few moments, however, the thoughts of needing to tell the others the truth came flooding into his brain. He pushed them aside quickly, and nuzzled Esme’s forehead with his cheek, trying his best to keep what little rest they had intact. The sun had began to set outside and the light that peeked through the window was dim and almost seemed ominous, like an hourglass, counting down the time they all had to just exist. As if right on cue, a car pulled up outside the rooms down the way, and a door slammed. Not too long after, two separate knocks at two separate doors rang out, and Duke involuntarily groaned. “The gang is back together at last…”, he grumbled, bringing his free arm up to place it over his eyes in annoyance. This is why he wanted to run away. This was the feeling he was trying to avoid…the feeling of helplessness, and inevitablity. He wondered if they should give them space, or go and rip the bandaid off, the second they got back. The faster they took care of whatever the mysterious case was that would end up with Dean flat on his ass, the faster that they could stop it and move on. “Should we go over there, or warn them we’re comin’, eh?”