29. Valentine's Day

"So...you were the one who found the bodies?" I probed the woman gently.

I was finally given clearance to get back out with the brothers. It took me a bit longer than I would have liked since the wedge was driven between Sam and me. At first I thought it would go undetected, but I had a feeling Bobby and Dean picked up on it after a while. Neither of them were saying anything about it. I hoped they never did.

Unfortunately, this case we were working on, I got the short straw. In this case, it was tagging along with Sam to interview the dead girl's roommate. You could only imagine how intense the awkward silence was in the car. The radio didn't even get turned on. It was like we were total strangers.

I wasn't mad at Sam, really. I wasn't. I just wasn't sure how to approach this silence. A case was just the thing to pull me away from life.

"There was blood everywhere," said the roommate. "And...other stuff...I think Alice was already dead."

"But Russell wasn't?" Sam asked.

"I think he was, mostly, except...he was still sort of...chewing a little."

"Oh," I said. I kept the bile down in my throat. "Uh-huh." This was our sort of case. It wasn't common for two people to feast on each other and eat the other to death. Yes, I couldn't lie about something so...intensely ridiculous.

"How do two people even do that—eat each other to death?" the woman asked in disbelief.

"That's a really good question," Sam told her. "Now, the last few days, did you notice her acting erratically?"

"How do you mean?"

"I mean, did she seem...unusually hostile, aggressive?"

"No way. Alice never drank, never even swore. She was a nice girl. And I'm talking, like, a nice girl—like she still had her promise ring, if you know what I mean."

"She was a virgin?" I blurted.

"No premarital," said Alice's roommate. "I used to wonder how she did it. I mean, you know, didn't do it. It was her first date in months. She was so excited."

"Apparently, they were both excited."

We didn't linger long with Alice's roommate afterwards. I rolled the window down once Sam got the car moving. I needed the fresh air to keep me from barfing at such a gory image. I could only imagine what Dean was seeing right now; he had the wonderful duty of looking at the bodies.

I wrinkled my nose.

"So, is this how it's gonna be?" Sam broke the silence. "The silent treatment?"

"It's been this way for a few months now," I said steely, looking out the window. "Why should anything change?"

"We need to talk it out, Kota."

"Not while on a case, Sam." I put my head in my hand. "When we get a chance to, maybe we can talk it out."

"Maybe?" He snorted. "We've been avoiding each other long enough."

"I'm not avoiding you, Sam."

"Oh, please, I saw how upset you looked when Dean said you should come with me. I can't believe you almost tried to persuade him to let you go look at bodies with him."

"The key word being almost. If it were a normal death, I would have tried harder. I'm not sure I'd want to see what he's seeing now. Which reminds me, he'll never forgive us if we don't come back with some food."

"I don't know, I feel like just hearing about it makes me want to not eat anything."

"I know, but if we don't pick up something, we'll never hear the end of it."

* * *

"How'd it go?" Dean asked the moment we stepped foot in the motel room. I was the one carrying the fast food in my arms. The smell dominated my nose.

"Um...no EMF, no sulfur," Sam reported. "Ghost possession and demonic possession are both probably out."

"Hmm. That's where I was puttin' my money."

"Nope."

Dean rubbed his eyes. "Well, then what, then? Oh, dude! At the coroner's—you didn't see these bodies. I mean, these two started and a-and they just...kept going. I mean, their stomachs were full. Like—like...Thanksgiving-dinner full. Talk about co-dependent."

"Talk about disgusting." I put the food on the table. I could feel my appetite wavering now thanks to Dean. "So glad I didn't end up there with you."

"Well...I mean, we got our feelers out," Sam said. "Not much more we can do tonight. All right. I'm just gonna go through some files. You can go ahead and get going."

"Sorry?" Dean asked as I looked at Sam questioningly.

"Go ahead. Unleash the kraken. See you tomorrow morning."

"Where am I going?"

"Dean, it's Valentine's day. Your favorite holiday, remember? I mean, what do you always call it—Uh, unattached drifter Christmas?"

"Oh, you're one of those types," I mumbled.

Shit, today's that day of all days? Time had been so mashed together that I couldn't tell you what day it was, or day of the week. I could at least tell you the month. Great. The worst freaking holiday of the year, and here I am spending it on a case, with Sam and I on ice. My mind jumped to what could have happened had I just given it a try, if I had kissed back like I had wanted to.

"Oh, like you don't have your own thing, Dak." Dean lumbered to the fridge. "What's yours? Sitting around with a tub of ice-cream and watching sappy chick flicks?"

I scowled, crossing my arms. "Bite me, Dean."

"Well...be that as it may...I don't know. Guess I'm not feeling it this year." He opened the fridge door, rummaging around. I sighed through my nose as, shocker, he pulled out a beer bottle.

"So you're not into bars full of lonely women?" Sam pressed.

"Nah, I guess not." Dean took a swig of beer. "Ahh. What?"

"That's like when a dog doesn't eat—That's when you know something's really wrong."

"Remarkably patronizing concern duly noted. Nothing's wrong." He took his place at the table across from Sam. "We gonna work or what?"

Our working didn't last very long. We all managed to eat something before heading back out, back to St. James' Medical Center, the very place Dean had been earlier today. There'd been another murder.

The three of us took up much of the hallway as we walked alongside one another. Like any hospital, it was buzzing with action. Right now, it looked very quiet. That could easily change.

I moved in closer to Sam to make room for a bald man dressed in a suit. At one point, Sam turned to look over his shoulder. I swore I heard him sniff the air too.

"You okay?" I whispered, nudging him in the ribs.

He turned back around. "Yeah, I'm fine."

My stomach dropped the moment I knew where we were going. I wasn't one for morgues. I'd never been in one. I hadn't been when my family had been slaughtered. I hadn't brought myself to see their cadavers, the horrible night had traumatized me so badly. If I had gone to see them, God only knew what my mind would have tricked me into seeing.

I was the last one to file into the morgue. I was glad the doctor was throwing the sheet back over the body. It was the only thing keeping me from bolting out the door and back into the Impala.

"Agent Marley." I instantly took this man to be one of the doctors Dean had met with earlier today. He was a portly man with whiting hair and glasses. "You just can't stay away."

"Heard you tagged another double suicide," Dean noted.

"Well, I just finished closing them up."

"Doctor Corman, these are my partners, special agents Cliff and Potter."

"Agent Cliff, Agent Potter. I've finished my perlims. I pulled the organ sets and sent off the tox samples." The doctor was shedding himself of his white lab coat.

"Great," said Sam. "You mind if we take a look at the bodies?" It was only a matter of time before that question got brought up.

"Not at all," the doctor complied. "But like I said—their"—he opened a fridge—"good-and-plenties are already tupperwared."

"Super," I mumbled, feeling a bit ill already. Why did I drag myself into this?

"Leave the keys with Marty up front." The doctor tossed the keys to Dean, who caught them. "And please, gentlemen, and lady...refrigerate after opening." With his coat and hat in hands, the doctor left us to our work.

Wordlessly, the boys pried out what organs of the victims they needed and began examining them. I wanted no part of touching any sort of body part. I was fine with keeping my distance, holding down the vomit that wanted to leap out of my mouth. Sam was looking at something that looked to be an intestine whereas Dean had just opened a container with a heart.

"You can leave, Dak, if this is bothering you," Dean told me. "Still can't understand why you wanted to come in the first place."

"You and me both," I grumbled.

"Hey." Dean looked at his brother and proceeded to push the heart towards him. "Be my Valentine?"

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. At least he didn't pull that on me.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," Sam said suddenly. "Wait a second. These hearts both have identical marks. Check this out." This somehow got me interested enough to sneak closer and peek at the hearts. I noticed the marking too, completely befuddled. "It looks like some kind of letter. Oh, no."

"What?" I asked, feeling a bit afraid.

"I think it's Enochian."

"You mean like angel scratches?" Dean butted in. "So you think it's like the tagging on our ribs?"

"Dean, I don't know."

"Ah, hell." Dean got up off his seat and I replaced him as he pulled out his phone. "Cas, it's Dean. Yeah, room thirty-one-c, basement level...St. James Medical Center."

"I'm there now."

Sam and I looked up to see Cas had appeared in what seemed like less than a second. Damn, I wish I could get around that fast. But does he not understand the concept of personal space? If Cas had arrived any closer to Dean, they might as well have kissed.

"Yeah, I get that," Dean said.

"I'm gonna hang up now."

"Right."

Dean and Cas both put away their phones. I nodded to Cas as a greeting, he returned the favor. I scooted away slightly as he picked up one of the hearts. Apparently I was the only one who didn't want to touch any organs in here.

"So, Sam believes it's Enochian," I told Cas. "Is he right?"

"He is," Cas confirmed. "These are angelic marks. I imagine you'll find similar marks on the other couples' hearts as well—"

"So, what are they?" I suddenly got very interested in the markings. "I mean, what do they mean?"

"It's a mark of union. This man and woman were intended to mate."

"Okay, but who put them there?" Dean asked.

"Well, your people call them 'Cupid.'"

"A what?" Sam asked.

"What human myth has mistaken for 'Cupid' is actually a lower order of angel. Technically it's a cherub, third-class."

"Cherub?"

"Yeah, they're all over the world. There are dozens of them."

"You mean the little flying fat kid in diapers?" Dean said.

"They're not incontinent." Cas made it sound like we were the idiots in this conversation. Clearly he knows nothing about our culture.

"Okay, anyway," Sam got us back on track. "So, what you're saying—"

"What I'm saying is a Cupid has gone rogue and we have to stop him—before he kills again."

"Naturally."

"Of course we do," Dean sighed.

"And do we have any idea as to where this cherub likes to be?" I probed Cas.

Cas's eyes went to me. "There is one place."

**And now we have officially begun Part 2 of this story! Unfortunately, since the end of Part 1, things are a little choppy between our Sakota. Think things will change?**