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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴

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Delaney had seen plenty of death since she'd joined Sam and Dean on the road and found out this whole other side to life. She's had to watch not only her boyfriend and brother die right before her eyes, but she's had to see innocent lives lose their lives. Innocent lives who didn't know this side of life existed and, most of the time, Delaney wished she had that luxury back. The luxury where she didn't have to worry about Lucifer being let out of his cage. The luxury where Dean hadn't been dragged to Hell where he was all but forced into torturing souls so he wouldn't be. The luxury where her boyfriend wasn't using her and lying to her.

Pamela's funeral had just been Delaney, Sam and Dean since Bobby was off on a hunt and he couldn't get out of it since he was already so far deep into it. Delaney had promised Bobby to say a few words for him to Pamela, which she did. They had given her a proper hunter's burial and the fire that took over Pamela's body reflected in the three Winchesters' eyes as they watched her body burn until it was nothing more than ash. 

The sucker punch of guilt, betrayal and sadness hit Delaney like a ton of bricks as she drove down the empty, dark road to find a motel for the boys and her to sleep in until they had to go meet Randy. He had been tracking down Lilith and found some information that could potentially help them find her. Of course, the whole time Delaney talked to him on the phone, she had to act like she didn't want to take his knife and stab it right through him. He didn't know she was onto him about being suspicious and Dean and Sam had no idea she was planning something.

If Randy was going to use her, then she was going to use him right back and find Lilith. Even if that meant having to act like everything was fine when it was the furthest thing from being fine. It sucked because she still found herself loving Randy, but she had already been through this once before. Feelings don't just go away for someone and Delaney knew it would take her some time to work her emotions away for Randy. Didn't help that the demon blood still coursed hotly through her veins and it took every ounce of power in Delaney not to let it effect her the way it wanted to.

"Randy will meet us outside of Cheyenne. He's been tracking some leads," Delaney announced to her brothers, breaking the tense silence that had filled the car since they left Pamela's funeral. The only sound that filled the car the past few minutes was the pounding of the rain on the Impala, rain droplets racing each other down the sides of the window and windshield. It was almost a perfect representation of how Delaney currently felt.  "I know Randy isn't on your Christmas lists, but if he can help us get to Lilith ━ "

"Della, work with Randy, don't. I don't really give a rat's ass," Dean grumbled, pressing his forehead to the cold glass of the window. "Pamela didn't want anything to do with this, and we dragged her back into it. I am tired of burying friends, Delaney."

"Me, too. I'm also tired of being expected to save the world when it's starting to look like we can't," Sam chimed in from the back where he laid out across the seats with his arm over his eyes.

Delaney puffed out her cheeks and leant her elbow on the windowsill, pressing her cheek to her open palm while her other hand stayed firmly on the steering wheel. She knew her brothers were tired because she was even tired at this point. Tired of losing people. Tired of being used and betrayed. Tired of the darkness that pumped through her veins every single day. Tired of this life. She was just tired. "Look, if we catch a fresh trail ━ "

"Then we follow it. We know," Dean replied, exhaustion evident in his tone as it came out raspy and gravely. "Like I said, baby girl . . . Sammy and I are just ━ we're just getting tired."

"Tell me about it."

Delaney had eventually pulled up to the motel and Dean booked the trio a room so they could sleep before meeting up with Randy. She could practically hear the bed call her name as she approached the motel room door. Almost like it was a Siren and it was calling her towards her few hours of not having to worry about anything since she'd be asleep. 

"Home, crappy home," Dean remarked, flipping on the light switch.

"Winchester, Winchester and Winchester."

Delaney squeaked and stumbled back at the sight of Uriel stood directly in front of her and Castiel stood off to the side of the room near the divider between the living room and kitchenette area and the two beds. Sam and Dean both placed their hands on Delaney's arm to keep her from falling on her ass as the trio tried to work their brains up to what was happening.

"You two are needed," Uriel said to Dean and Sam, his hands stuffed deep into the pant pockets of his suit pants.

"Needed? We just got back from needed!" Dean snapped at Uriel, annoyed by the angel's presence much like Sam and Delaney were.

Uriel didn't appear to be the least bit pleased with Dean's tone, as if Dean actually cared what the angel thought. He stood up straighter than he already was ━ if that were even possible ━ and narrowed his eyes slightly at Dean. "Now, you mind your tone with me, boy."

Dean growled lowly in his throat and took a slow, threatening step toward Uriel with a face filled with red and rage. "No, you mind your tone with us."

Sam quickly stepped forward and placed his hand on Dean's shoulder to keep him from advancing further on the angel stood before them. "We just got back from Pamela's funeral."

"Pamela ━ you know, psychic Pamela? You remember her?" Dean quipped, his eyes flickering over to Castiel who still stood silent with his hands dug into his trench coat pockets. "Cas, you remember her. You burned her eyes out. Remember that? Good times! Yeah, then she died saving one of your precious seals. So, maybe you can stop pushing my siblings and I around like chess pieces for five freakin' minutes!"

Delaney tentatively reached her hand out to tug Dean back when he took another step forward again. She clutched onto his hand so he wouldn't do anything drastic and she could feel him relax the tiniest bit in her hold. Dean and Sam never verbally said it, but their baby sister had always brought the both of them comfort. She didn't know what it was, but unless they were mad at her specifically, Delaney could get her brothers to calm down fairly okay depending on the situation.

"We raised you out of Hell for our purposes," Uriel reminded.

"Yeah, and what were those again? What exactly do you want from me or even Sammy who you seem to keep dragging into your problems also?"

"You can start with gratitude."

Castiel huffed out a breath and turned his attention towards the three siblings with his usual straight face. "Dean, we know this is difficult to understand."

"And we . . . " Uriel cut Castiel off before he could say more, shooting the blue eyed angel a stern look to keep his trap shut. ". . . don't . . . care. Now, seven angels have been murdered ━ all of them from our garrison. The last one was killed tonight."

"Demons?" Sam inquired and received a nod in response from Uriel. "How they doing it?"

"We don't know."

"And what exactly do you want us to do about it? I mean, a demon with the juice to ice angels has to be out of our league, right?"

Uriel gave Sam a deadpan expression and Delaney had half a mind to punch it off the angel's face. She'd only met two angels so far ━ three if you counted Anna ━ and Delaney could definitely say Uriel was her least favorite with his bad attitude. "We can handle the demons, thank you very much."

"Once we find whoever it is," Castiel added.

Dean eyed Uriel and Castiel for a long moment, his brain working at warped speed to try and figure out just what the hell the two were asking of him and Sam. "So, you need our help . . . hunting a demon?"

"Not quite," Castiel responded, stepping forward so he was now stood next to Uriel and closer to the three siblings. "We have Alastair, but he won't talk. Alastair's will is very strong. We've arrived at an impasse."

"Yeah, well, he's like a black belt in torture. I mean, you guys are out of your league," Dean commented, flashing a fake smile at the two angels.

"That's why we've come to his student. You happen to be the most qualified interrogator we've got and we could use Sam to help aid in the torture."

"You're both our best hope."

Dean bowed his head for a moment, chuckling humorlessly to himself as he raised it again to show off the annoyed expression that graced his face. "No. No way. You can't ask me to this, Cas ━ not this. I won't let you drag Sam into this, either."

Uriel smiled the type of smile that showed he had Dean and Sam right where he wanted him and Delaney had subconsciously gripped onto both of her brothers' jacket sleeves. She definitely did not like the cocky and all-knowing look on Uriel's face. "Who said anything . . . about asking."

Delaney barely had a moment to blink before the sound of angel wings could be heard and Dean and Sam were gone from her sight, her tightly balled fists that had been in Dean and Sam's sleeves now dropping to her sides like heavy rocks. 

Now what was she going to do?

After all of five minutes, Delaney knew that she had to call Randy and get him to come to the motel she was at instead of outside of Cheyenne like they originally planned. He was the only one that Delaney knew that could help her find Sam and Dean and get them out. Dean couldn't handle torturing Alastair, not with how he's been since he's come back from Hell. Dean hadn't been as strong as he usually was and Delaney knew that torturing Alastair wasn't something that Dean would be able to get through, especially not with Sam there to watch and help.

Delaney also knew deep down that she had to be the one to save her brothers and if that meant actually taking more demon blood so she could be strong enough to exorcise Alastair, then so be it. If it meant saving her brothers, Delaney would do just about anything to save them. Dean had given up his soul to save her and spent four months in Hell where he had to torture other souls. Sam was always there to make sure his baby sister was okay and Delaney owed her life to both Sam and Dean. No matter how many times Dean and Sam told her they did it because they loved her and she was their sister. 

It was just a Winchester trait to give up everything to save the ones you loved. 

Randy had showed up all but an hour later with a soft kiss pressed to Delaney's lips. It took everything in Delaney not to push him off and she had to give in to the kiss. She hated that the kiss still sent her heart fluttering as if Randy hadn't been using her this whole time and deceiving her. She just had to fake it till she made it at this point.

Thankfully, Delaney had told Randy everything on the phone when she had called him so the demon had instantly got to work on setting up the map in the middle of the table and lighting four candles to sit at each corner of the small square map. Another candle was used with a crushed up items sprinkled into it as the flame burned a bright yellowy-white color as Randy began to chant something in Latin, his eyes switching from the beautiful brown color of his meat suit's eyes to the black of a demon's.

Delaney gasped when the map suddenly erupted into flames that raged along the thin map, but not burning anything else on the table or anything else in the room.

"Relax, princess, the fire is your friend," Randy assured Delaney, placing the candle in his hand back onto the table with a satisfied smile. "Besides, the only part of the map we need is the where's Dean and Sammy Boy part. Out."

Suddenly, the flames on the map curled in on themselves and left behind a severely burned, crumpled mess of a map with a tiny part left untouched in the middle. Little flames continued to lick the edges of the map and the rest just looked like a black, sooty mess on the table. 

"There. Your brothers are there," Randy informed, pointing to the untouched part of the map. He retracted his hand and shook out the soot that stuck to his finger when it accidentally brushed apart one of the burnt parts of the map. Walking over to the divider in the room, he leant against the side of it and peered over at Delaney who followed him with her eyes. "You know, it's a good thing that the angels aren't concerned with hiding their dirty business. Not used to being spied on. I mean, who would be stupid enough to try? Guess you're lucky your boyfriend likes to live life on the edge, princess."

Delaney licked her lips as she glanced from Randy and back over to the tiny circle piece of map left that showed where Dean and Sam had been teleported to by Castiel and Uriel. Her heart raced rapidly in her chest as she realized now she had to ask Randy for more demon blood. It had only been a week since the last time he'd given it to her and was probably the worst idea to get more at the moment, but Delaney needed to be her strongest if Delaney was going to save Dean and Sam. She just hated that it meant going against everything she promised herself she wouldn't do.

"Randy, it's been a week. I need it," Delaney mumbled, tearing her gaze from the map to finally focus on Randy once again. 

"You don't seem too happy about it, princess," Randy noted, noticing the way Delaney's eyebrows creased in conflict. Almost like she was battling a raging war in her mind . . . which she was. However, the safety and protection of Dean and Sam heavily beat out that war and made her decide what she needed to do.

Delaney scoffed and slapped her hands to her sides, causing Randy to raise his eyebrows in anticipation of whatever was to come out of Delaney's mouth. "Well . . . yeah, Ran. I mean, you think I want to do any of this? That I want to go against Dean and Sam's wishes like this? This is the last thing I ━ " She broke off, shaking her head and leaning against the divider across from the one that Randy leant against. "But I need to be strong enough to help my brothers."

The side of Randy's mouth twitched and he pushed off the divider and crossed the way so he was stood before Delaney, his hands gently resting on Delaney's hips. His thumbs stroked soothingly on her sides, knowing that the motion always helped Delaney stay calm. He could see the anxiety battling itself out of her and he didn't want the girl to spike into an attack. "Babe, you can have the blood. It's okay."

Delaney ticked an eyebrow when she noticed Randy brandish his knife and pulled away slightly from him when she watched him go to cut his forearm. "What am I? A freakin' vampire?"

Randy let out a laugh and stared at his girlfriend in amusement, not moving the knife from his forearm. "What, princess? You want me to put it in a sippy cup for you or something?"

Delaney poked her tongue into her cheek and narrowed her eyes at Randy to show she wasn't laughing at his joke. She did know, however, there was no other option at this point. Either she took it straight from Randy like she was a blood sucking leech or she didn't get it at all. She sighed and held out her hand for Randy to place his forearm into her hand so she could get it over with already. 

She just hoped the boys would forgive her for this one.

As much as Delaney hated to admit, the demon blood really did make her feel more powerful than ever. She could feel it hotly coursing through her as she sped the car towards the old building that Randy had found for Delaney that the boys were in with Castiel, Uriel and Alastair. She had even tested it out on Randy and was able to pin up against the wall with her mind with such ease it was almost scary. He had tried to make a light hearted joke about liking when Delaney got rough with him, but it fell flat when he realized Delaney wasn't in the mood for jokes.

Randy had mumbled encouraging words into her ear when he hugged her goodbye before she left, pressing a kiss to the side of her head. He had even mumbled i love you, princess to her before he pulled away and it took everything in Delaney not to go off on him right then and there. She knew he didn't love her, but he couldn't know she didn't know that. So with a mumbled i love you back, Delaney had gotten into the car and sped off to the abandoned building.

When Delaney arrived in front of the slowly deteriorating building, with its chipping bricks and graying outer structure, she could see no lights turned on inside the building and Delaney wanted to assume there was a basement to the building that the angels had kept Alastair. She barely had put the Impala into park before she was rushing out of it and into the building to look for Sam and Dean. 

The inside of the building was layered in dust and cobwebs with littered furniture left behind when the building must have gotten shut down. She avoided any debris that scattered the floors and burst through the massive, steel door that she assumed led down to the basement. As she descended the stairs, Delaney could hear the sounds of struggle and fighting in the distance and that only pushed her to move her legs faster before the sounds lead to the sound of someone dying.

Delaney rounded a corner in the basement to see Alastair holding Castiel up against a wooden beam with Sam and Dean knocked out on the floor in the middle of the scraped devil's trap in the middle of the floor. She wasted no time in raising her hand palm up and shoving Alastair up against the gray brick wall behind him, causing Castiel to drop to the ground with blood dripping down the right side of his face. She shot him a devious smirk when he saw that it was her and he rolled his eyes at the sight of the youngest Winchester. "Hanging out, Allie?"

"Ugh, stupid pet tricks," Alastair complained quietly, but not quietly enough for Delaney not to hear it.

"Who's murdering the angels, Alastair?" Delaney demanded, glowering darkly at the demon to show that she wasn't here to play games. She'd get him to talk one way or another. "How are they doing it?"

Alastair chuckled to himself and leant his head back against the wall behind him. His beard was coated in dark crimson, no doubt from his own mouth when Dean and Sam had been torturing him. The front of his shirt was stained darkly in multiple spots, almost fully turning the light blue button up he wore into a maroon-ish colored one. His hands were even stained in his own blood and yet he still had the will to act tougher than everyone else in the room. "You think I'm gonna tell you, Baby Winchester?"

Delaney raised a shoulder in a lazy shrug and slowly twisted her wrist, causing Alastair's eyes two switch over to full white. She felt satisfaction course through her veins as Alastair began to choke and gasp for air, on the brink of being exorcised and sent back to Hell for good. "How are the demons killing angels?!"

"I . . . " Alastair choked out, shaking his head from side to side robotically. " . . . don't . . . know! It's . . . not . . . us! We're . . . not doing it!"

Delaney's had fully formed a fist by this point and Alastair only began to thrash more and more against the pressure Delaney held around his body. He struggled hard to keep himself from being expelled from the body he currently possessed and veins began to pop up in his forehead from the strain. "Too bad I don't believe you!"

Alastair grunted and panted as he struggled more against Delaney's ever growing pressure. "Lilith . . . is not behind this. She wouldn't kill seven angels. She'd kill a hundred . . . a thousand!"

Delaney growled as she dropped her hand back to her side, not releasing the invisible force keeping Alastair to the wall but did drop the growing effort to exorcise him from his body.

"Oh, go ahead. Send me back . . . if you can."

Delaney's face morphed into one of dark taunting and she barely noticed the panicked look on Castiel's face at the sight of it. "I'm much stronger than that now, Allie. I can kill now." She raised her hand with her palm flat and closed her eyes, focusing her energy on killing Alastair right where he stood. His pained screams could be heard in her ears like a beautiful symphony and she had a flash of bright white light flash across her closed eyelids before the sound of Alastair's dead body dropping to the ground followed.

Delaney slowly blinked open her eyes to see Alastair's meat suit laid out on the ground and Castiel stared at her with wide eyes. She avoided his gaze and turned to go check on Dean and Sam who looked beaten and bloodied to hell. She could see both of their chests still barely raising with falling with their breaths and Delaney pressed her forehead to Sam's shoulder with a shuttering breath.

Thank God something went right that night.

Delaney hadn't gotten much sleep that night as she sat in the uncomfortable hospital chair between both of her brothers' beds. The beeping from their heart rate monitors was the only sound in the room as Delaney sat with her knees pulled to her chest as she prayed silently for anyone to come save her brothers. They had been beaten pretty badly and they both needed breathing tubes to help them breathe since they had been struggling on their own when Delaney got them to the hospital. She didn't know what she'd do if the boys took a turn for the worse.

Just when she thought everything had worked out. Nothing ever worked out for the Winchesters.

Castiel appeared in the doorway and snapped Delaney out of her dark thoughts. He jerked his head subtly to signal for her to come out into the hallway and talk to him. She hadn't seen him since the night before and she could only imagine how he felt around her now that he'd seen her do her psychic thing. However, now that Castiel was there, Delaney would be able to get him to work his own angel thing and save Dean and Sam.

"Cas, get in that room and save my brothers," Delaney said the instant she was in the hallway and in front of Castiel. Her face contorted in anger and her face flushed a dark red when Castiel didn't move to answer. "Miracle . . . now."

"I can't," Castiel replied in his usual deep, gravely tone.

"You and Uriel put them in there because you can't keep a simple devil's trap together!" Delaney seethed, stepping closer to the angel. Normally Delaney wouldn't react so hotly and she knew it was the demon blood driving her. Though,, in the moment, Delaney didn't care because she only cared about saving Dean and Sam from their possible death. 

Castiel motioned for Delaney to lower her voice down, eyeing the few nurses and doctors that loitered around in the hallway doing their jobs. He stepped closer to her so they both could keep their voices down. "I don't know what happened. That trap ━ it shouldn't have broken. I am sorry, Delaney."

"This whole thing was pointless. You understand that, Cas? The demons aren't doing the hits. Something else is killing your soldiers," Delaney ranted, tugging her hands through her hair exasperatedly. "You got my brothers put in danger's way for no reason!"

Castiel's eyebrows furrowed as he was quiet in thought for a long moment. "Perhaps Alastair was lying."

Delaney scoffed out a humorless laugh and crossed her arms across her chest, resisting the urge to strangle Castiel where he stood. "No, Cas, he wasn't. So either come in and save my brothers or go away."

Not giving Castiel a chance to respond, Delaney stormed back into the boys' room and shut the door behind her. She leant against the door with a heavy exhale, staring at her two brothers and reminding herself that they were still alive when she saw their chests rising and falling in sync. The beeping from the heart machine was the only thing keeping her anchored to the floor at this point. It being a constant reminder that Dean and Sam were still both here with her.

Delaney slowly pushed herself off the door and puffed out a long breath, walking back over to her brothers' bed sides. Seeing both Dean and Sam like this only made her think of when Dean was on his death bed and John had given up his soul to save him. It was a thought that Delaney tried to shove the dark depths of her mind because she didn't want to think about that right then. She needed to focus on getting her brothers back. 

A few hours later, Delaney had stepped away from the room to give herself a bit of a breather and get herself something to eat. She knew the boys weren't aware of what was happening around them, but they would be able to tell if she'd eaten or not. She'd already theoretically disappointed them by taking more of the demon blood and she didn't want to make them any more upset because she didn't take care of herself. That she couldn't necessarily do anything for them at the moment and so she had to at least put food in her system and drink some water.

Delaney moved almost robotically as she paid for her horrible cafeteria food in the hospital and plopped herself down into an empty table in the semi-empty cafeteria. Only three other tables were filled and the families sat at those tables were already practically done with their food so Delaney figured she'd be alone in no time. Her phone had buzzed a few times with texts from Randy to ask her about Dean and Sam's well-being since he'd been the first person she called once the boys were in the hospital. He had no one that she could use and Delaney had to turn the angels. Clearly, the angels had no intent of helping out the Winchesters even though they claimed to need both Dean and Sam in the current moment. 

Angels really fucking sucked.

Delaney finished her food in the midst of being swallowed up by her thoughts and she had to force herself to the eat the other half of her food so she wouldn't starve. She had been so deep in her thoughts that she barely even tasted the hospital food, which was probably better off for her since hospital food usually was pretty bland in the first place. Her food had been finished, though, and Delaney dumped her garbage into the bin and made her way back up to the boys' room that rested on the third floor.

When Delaney arrived back to the boys' room, they were both up in their beds. Neither one looked like they were ready to get out of the bed, but they were both alive and up. A stark contrast to when she left about a half hour ago when she went down to get herself dinner. She released a heavy of sigh of relief and ran over to Sam's bed side first since it was closest to the door and wrapped her arms around him the best she could over his many wires and IVs. She sniffled quietly when she felt Sam gently place his hand on her back, rubbing it awkwardly so it hurt him to move from the beating he'd gotten from Alastair.

"I'm okay, little one," Sam promised, his voice sounding heavily strained and pain filled. "I'm okay."

Delaney pressed her ear to Sam's chest and relaxed visibly when it was steady once again and pulled away from him gently so she wouldn't hurt him more. She brushed some of Sam's brown hair away from his forehead that was beginning to blossom with black and blues. "How did you guys ━ "

"Cas," Dean grunted out, his voice sounding just as strained and pain filled as Sam's. He tried to smile at Delaney, but it came out more as a grimace and yet, still welcomed Delaney into his embrace when she ran over to him next. He coughed weakly when Delaney put the slightest bit of pressure on his chest and rubbed her back much like Sam had. "Easy, baby girl."

"I'm just glad you guys are okay," Delaney mumbled into her eldest brother's chest, squeezing her eyes shut to prevent the tears from leaking out of her eyes. She didn't pull away from Dean and he ran his hands through her brown curls comfortingly to remind her that he was still alive. "I'm so sorry I couldn't get to you guys before Alastair nearly killed you both. If I would have gotten there sooner I ━ "

"Hey, Delly, there was nothing you could have done," Sam cut across Delaney gently, gaining her attention and she raised herself to stand up properly once again to look over at her brother. "Uriel got out of his chains ━ who is now also dead, by the way. Castiel couldn't even get to us soon enough. It's not your fault."

Delaney nodded slowly and fiddled with the ring on Dean's hand that was closest to her, not being able to look Dean or Sam in the eye when she said the next words out of her mouth. "Well, Alastair's dead now. So . . . that's all that matters."

Dean stared up at Delaney with a calculating expression, as if trying to figure out what was going on in her head. "You look like you've got your thinking face on . . . what's up?"

"Um, nothing," Delaney swiftly lied, squeezing Dean's hand with a small smile. "Just happy my boys are alive is all."

Looks like Delaney wasn't done lying to her brothers just yet and, at this point, Delaney wasn't sure when she could stop the lies.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hi hey hello

So . . . Delaney did that. Not exactly sure how I feel about this chapter because it's really not much besides the Alastair thing, but I still wanted to add this filler-ish chapter in here because Alastair's death is WHEW. Delaney is a bad bitch with a powerful side, which she is trying so desperately to use for good.

There are just FIVE chapter left for this book! I am skipping the IT'S A TERRIBLE LIFE episode since that one is more of a Dean episode and his whole meeting with Zachariah. So we'll be moving on to the Chuck episode next! So . . . in short . . . the rest of this book is about to be ANGSTY! Buckle up, folks. We goin DOWN!