She Talks to Angels | {BOOK 2}

70|Rogue Cupid

Our next case, we dealt with a wraith terrorizing a psych hospital. The ironic thing was, we didn't even have to lie to get admitted so we could investigate. Everything we told the orderlies was one hundred percent true. After that, we had an interesting ordeal where some kids were messing around with a spell book and one of them switched bodies with Sam. Then we got to go back in time again because Anna was trying to kill Mary and John so Sam and Dean would never be born.

Throughout it all, I was retreating further and further into my mind, refusing to open up to Dean about it no matter how many times he begged me to talk to him. Between the residual pain from losing Maddie with the added knowledge that it couldn't have been stopped, and the fresh pain of losing Jo and Ellen who had been like a mother and sister to me, I just couldn't take it much longer. Plus, the little excursion with Lucifer in Carthage just made the whole 'apocalypse nigh' thing all the more real to me. No longer were Lucifer and Michael just voices taunting me in my head. Now, they were real, breathing, physical beings that at least one of was close to claiming his vessel and setting off the final showdown.

It was now Valentine's Day, and we were looking into a couple who had eaten each other to death. Sam went to interrogate the girl's roommate while Dean and I went to check out the bodies at the coroner's. 

"Ellie," he began as we drove back to the motel after. "I know I should stop pushing-"

"So why don't you?" I snapped. "You know I'm not going to say anything you want me to, so why don't you do us both a favor and shut the hell up, Winchester?"

Silence overtook the Impala the rest of the drive. Dean didn't even bother turning on the radio to fill the quiet. This time last year, I was just over four months pregnant and there were three months left on Dean's clock. It was crazy how much could change over the course of a year. At the motel, I plopped down on the couch with the comforter from one of the beds, curling up in a tight ball in its depths and blocking out the rest of the world.

"How'd it go?" I heard Dean ask about twenty minutes later.

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

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

"Nope."

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

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

"Sorry?" Dean asked, confused.

"Go ahead. I'm sure you and Ellie have something planned. See you tomorrow morning."

"What?"

"Dean, it's Valentine's Day. Your favorite holiday, remember? Aren't you and Ellie going to go out? Enjoy yourselves?"

"Oh, yeah," Dean said slowly, and I could practically sense his eyes on the bundle of blankets on the couch that I was cocooned in. "Well... be that as it may... I don't know.  Guess neither of us are feeling it this year."

"Okay, I get that she's been off lately, but you're telling me you don't even want to ditch to scope the bars full of lonely women?"

I curled into myself even more at the idea of Dean leaving me here to go hook up with some random girl at some bar.

"Nah, I guess not," Dean paused, then let out a breath. "Ahh. What?"

"That's when a dog doesn't eat- That's when you know something's really wrong," Sam muttered.

"Duly noted. Nothing's wrong. We gonna work or what?"

⁘

There was another double suicide, this time the couple shot themselves so they wouldn't have to part with each other. Hearing about that made me think about how I'd wanted to shoot myself with the Colt not too long ago, which then made me think of Lucifer, which in turn made me think about him summoning Death which then made me think even more about killing myself and...

"Hey," Dean's voice pulled me out of the vicious cycle in my head.

He held out one of the hearts of the victims in my direction, a cocky grin on his face.

"Be my Valentine?"

I rolled my eyes, Sam looking over at the heart in Dean's hand.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, taking the heart from Dean. "Wait a second. These hearts both have identical marks. Check this out. It looks like some kind of letter... Oh no."

"What?" I asked.

"I think it's Enochian," Sam replied.

"What, like angel scratches?" Dean inquired. "So you think it's like the tagging on our ribs?"

"Your ribs," I muttered.

"You're still upset about that?"

"Angels can sense where I am, Dean. Which means Lucifer can sense where I am. Which means-"

"You called?" a gruff voice cut me off.

I turned to see Castiel standing behind me. Before I could get a word in, Sam was showing Cass the markings he'd found on the hearts.

"You're right, Sam," the angel nodded. "These are angelic markings. I imagine you'll find similar markings on the other couples' hearts as well-"

"So, what are they? I mean, what do they mean?"

"It's a mark of union. Dean and Eleanor have them as well. This man and woman were intended to mate."

"Hold up, Dean and I-"

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

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

"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?" Dean repeated.

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

"Okay, but Dean and I have-"

"You mean the little flying fat kid in diapers?"

I glared at Dean as he spoke over me once more.

"They're not incontinent," Castiel stated in his matter-of-fact voice.

"Okay, anyway," Sam said. "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," Sam nodded.

"Of course we do," Dean added.