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Hunting Humanity IX	By : greenwizard11 Category: Supernatural > Slash - Male/Male Views: 1362 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Supernatural universe. No monetary gain is coming from this story.

Chapter List
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Liam woke to Dean lying next to him and watching him. “Morning,” the blond stretched and tried to gather his wits. “Am I really so entertaining when I’m asleep?”

Dean shrugged. “You look peaceful. Honestly, I’m just glad you haven’t moved to another room yet.”

“You haven’t tried to strangle me yet.” Liam rubbed his eyes and sat up.

“Yet is what worries me,” Dean sighed as he brushed his fingertips down his partner’s bare back.

Liam arched his back and whimpered softly at the touch. “You’re doing much better than last time. Probably helps that the blade is not in your possession.”

“Oh, that definitely helps. It’s just… You and Sam keep saying we’re gonna find something because we always do. But usually after this long we have some kind of lead, even if it is a slim one. Still nada.”

Liam got out of bed and started grabbing some clothes. “I really don’t know what to tell you. We’re trying everything we can think of.”

“I know,” Dean smiled a little before getting out of bed as well. “And it means a lot to me.”

Once they were dressed they headed down to the library where Sam was already up and working. He was on the phone, but hung up quickly when he saw them coming. “So, I’ve been checking through everything again, double checking and triple checking, and...”

“The mark is a curse,” Dean blurted out.

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

“No, Sam, it’s an actual curse.”

Sam was confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Crowley told me. Or rather, Rowena told him after she tried and failed to kill me.”

“What the hell happened, and when?” Liam raised an eyebrow, not happy about not being told sooner.

“When you got dizzy and passed out the other day, I went out. The mark protected me. Rowena doesn’t really have a beef with me. She was pissed at Crowley because she thinks he’s going soft.”

Sam shrugged. “She’s not wrong.”

“Yeah, well, after he and Mommy Dearest got into a fight...”

“Mommy Dearest?” Sam repeated the words in surprise.

“Rowena is Crowley’s mother. More about that later. So, then he came and told me what she had said. The mark is an actual curse. So, anyway, I’m sorry. I probably should’ve told you that.”

Liam slapped Dean’s shoulder. “You should have told us the day it happened. God, haven’t we learned anything from the past several years?”

Sam gave Liam a look to remind him that they had pulled a little deception themselves. Sam’s phone started ringing and Dean grabbed it from him to answer it. “Winchester Accounting. How may I help you?”

“Dean?” Charlie’s voice came over the line.

“Charlie? What’s going on? Where are you?”

“Uh, I’m exhausted and I’m bleeding. And I’m in a phone booth. A phone booth. I didn’t know these things existed outside of Bill and Ted’s-”

Dean turned the phone on speaker. “Okay. Hey, take a deep breath, kiddo. Uh, we’re all sitting here. Tell me what happened. Why are you bleeding?”

“I got shot. Did you know dental floss works great on stitches? I only passed out twice, and I’m pretty sure my wound is now minty fresh.”

“Charlie, you probably need to go to a hospital,” Sam sounded concerned.

“No, I’m fine. I just got to get someplace safe. These guys are still after me.”

“What guys? Who?”

“Some southern fried d-bags. They’ve been after me since I dug up The Book of the Damned.”

“You found it? Where?” Sam was happy to hear that.

“After some near misses and some broken into museums, I found historical documents that led to a monastery in Spain. It burned down years ago, left for dead, but, uh, I had this hunch about it. Turned out I was right.”

“Okay, Charlie, what does it say about the mark?” Dean asked, both looking and sounding a little more hopeful.

“I have no fracking idea. The language it’s written in, I’ve never seen anything like it. I, uh, found some research notes in the monastery crypt though, by the friar that buried it. The Book of the Damned is a spell book for creating or undoing any kind of damnation there is. We translate this thing, I think we can get the Mark of Cain off you, Dean.”

“Charlie, you’re a genius.”

“A genius fugitive. I... these dudes following me, they are well trained. One of them keeps talking about his family.”

“Family? Did you get a name?”

“No clue. I spotted a tattoo on one of them. Might be a family crest. It seemed occult like. Soon as the book was out of the ground, they were all over me. I, uh, I don’t know how much more running I got left in me. They’re tracking the book somehow.”

“Alright, then we need to get you off the grid, Charlie. Where are you right now?” Sam asked.

“Uh, just south of Des Moines.”

“Uh, okay, you know what? Our friend Bobby has a whole bunch of cabins scattered all around, places for hunters to crash,” Dean told her. “You know, it’s not much, but there’s some gear and lore books, stuff to keep you busy til we get there.”

“Okay, bring snacks. And every Men of Letters decoder ring there is. This book is old and scary, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Sam and Liam were gathering everything they thought they might need. Dean came in with a box that had sigils all over it. “Hey, check it out. I found this in the storage room. It’s lead lined and warded. If those guys are tracking this book, pretty sure this bad boy will take it off the radar. You ready?”

“Almost,” Liam threw a book in his bag.

As soon as they had everything packed they piled themselves into the car and took off. Dean had his music up loud and he was singing along. “What?” he said when he caught Sam watching him.

“Nothing, I just haven’t seen you like this in a while, that’s all.”

“It’s a good song, man. Shut up. Look, man, it has been one crap sandwich after another for the past few weeks, okay? You heard Charlie. We got a shot at fixing this thing, so if that don’t put gas in your tank, well...”

“If by shot you mean a spell in a book that we can’t read that’s currently being tracked...”

“We’re due for a win, okay? Overdue. I’ll tell you another thing, if this actually does work, we’re gonna take some time off.”

“You take time off?” Liam was a little skeptical.

“And I’m not talking just like a weekend in Vegas or sitting in some crap motel. No, I’m talking about a beach. Drinking cervezas, go for a swim. When was the last time any of us was on a beach?”

“I can’t speak for Liam, but I don’t think we’ve ever been on a beach.”

“Sand between our toes, Sammy. Sand between our toes.”

They reached the cabin and found Charlie inside slumped over a desk. “Charlie?” Sam called out her name.

She bolted up. “Merry Christmas!” she cried before she saw them. “Were you followed?”

“No. How are you feeling?”

“Um… I may have just passed out, but better.”

“Where’s the book?” Dean asked.

“Okay, here’s what I’ve learned so far. About seven hundred years ago, a nun locked herself away after having visions of darkness. After a few decades squirreled away by herself, she emerged with this.” She pulled the book from her backpack. “Each page is made out of slices of her own skin written in her blood. I told you, it’s eekish.” She handed it to Sam so he could take a look. “According to the notes I found, it’s been owned and used by cults, covens, and the Vatican had it for a while. There’s a spell inside that thing for everything. Talking some black mass, dark magic, end of times nastiness. As far as what language it’s written in, I’m thinking it’s some kind of, uh...”

“Dean!” Sam called out when he saw his brother looking a little funny at the book.

Dean blinked a few times. “I don’t think it’s a good idea that I touch that. I’ll go get the rest of our crap.” He went back out to the car.

“What the hell was that?” Charlie asked with concern.

“He’s not getting better. He’s trying to cover, but... We need to find that cure, fast.”

Charlie drew a picture of what the tattoo on the guy chasing her looked like, and she handed it to Dean. “Okay, I got a pretty good look at his tattoo. It’s something like this.”

Dean studied it a moment. “The douche clan. Got it. Well this is everything the Men of Letters had on occult families, so there should be something in here.” He started trying to figure out what family was after the book.

“Sam, got anything?” Charlie turned to Sam who had the book.

“Maybe. Uh, yeah, it’s all in an obscure Sumerian dialect. Actually found a rough match for it in this book.”

“Great.”

“I thought so too. But I’ve been translating, and none of the translated words make any sense. It’s all just gibberish. I mean, maybe it’s in a different dialect?”

Liam took a peek at the book. “Nope, just made up gibberish. What?” he asked when Charlie gave him a funny look. “Sometimes I know things. I don’t know how I know them… Like this one here,” he pointed to the page Sam was on. “Something about a goat balancing a pearl in the light of shade. Makes no fucking sense.”

“Okay then,” Charlie looked a little unsettled by that. “I think this is in code.”

Sam shook his head. “An entire book of unreadable text that’s also in code. Great.”

“Not unreadable, it just doesn’t make any sense,” Liam mumbled, looking to the floor.

“Unreadable for normal people,” Sam corrected his statement. “I’m sorry, hobbit. You’re not normal, but that’s usually helpful. Just in this case we’re screwed.”

“And you call yourselves nerds. Come on. You got this,” Dean looked up from his work to encourage them.

“He’s right. Let’s get our Alan Turing on. Decript this bitch,” Charlie got a little bit of her resolve back.

Sam caught Dean staring at the book again. “You know what, Charlie? Why don’t we stick with my notes for a little bit? This book is literally making my eyes hurt.” He stashed the book in the warded box Dean had found.

A while later Charlie sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Okay, even the Bletchley Circle couldn’t crack this thing. I’ve tried every cryptographic algorithm there is. Goose egg.”

Dean looked up from the files he was looking at. “Well maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Those people following you, all kinds of wrong. Talking multi-generational, centuries old wrong. The Styne family. Men of Letters’ files have them dated back to the early eighteen hundreds. They used spells to create disease, to destabilize markets. Hell, they even helped the Nazis before they came into power, and they profited from all of it.”

“So, they’re like the supernatural Du Ponts?” Charlie glanced at the file.

“Basically. All the spells they used came from a book of unspeakable evil which they lost nearly a hundred years ago.”

Sam gave a little shrug. “Okay, so they’re bad. So what. We faced worse.”

Dean looked at his brother like he was crazy. “Sam, read the file. The way the book works is when you use it there is a negative reaction. I’m talking biblical negative. Dark magic always comes with a price. We know that. We’ve been down that road before.”

“Well, let’s at least translate it, see what it says,” Charlie insisted.

“You guys don’t understand. The book’s been calling out to me ever since I laid eyes on it, okay? Calling out to the mark. I can hear it like it’s alive. It wants me to use it, but not for good. Look, I wanted it to be the answer too, okay? I really did. But we have got to get rid of that. Burn it, bury it, I don’t give a damn. We’ll just have to find another way to fix the mark.”

“There doesn’t seem to be another way,” Liam pointed out. “This is the best shot we’ve come across, we can’t turn back now because something bad might happen. First we figure out what needs to happen, and then see what we can do.”

“Liam, this could be like boarding up hell. We didn’t know it was gonna kill Sam until it was almost too late. You really wanna have that happen again?”

“So you’re giving up?” Charlie was upset.

“No, I’m not giving up. Charlie, I don’t have a death wish. Okay, even if I did, I can’t die, not with this thing on my arm. What I can do is I can fight it as long as I can until...”

“Until what?” Sam asked. “Tell me. Until what, Dean? Until I watch you become a demon again? Until then? I can’t do that. I won’t do that.”

“Well, then you’ll just have to lock me up. Bind me to the bunker like you did last time.”

“So you can try to kill me and Liam again? Hey, maybe this time you’ll succeed. Maybe you’ll just all of a sudden kill Liam in his sleep.”

“Hey!” Dean cried as Sam struck a nerve. “I… Don’t make him any more skittish to be near me than he already is.”

“Look, just let us translate the book, okay?” Sam held his ground. “If there’s a cure, we’ll do it and deal with the consequences later. I can’t lose you.”

“Really?” Dean gave his brother a stern look. “You changed your mind on that, because that’s not what you said last time.”

“Oh, come on, man. You know I didn’t mean that. Have you forgotten that Liam called bullshit on me? He was right, though I wouldn’t admit it at the time.”

“This is my cross to bear, Sam! Mine! And that book is not the answer! Now we got to destroy it before it falls into the wrong hands, and that includes me! I’m gonna go for a drive. Uh, Charlie, we forgot to pick up your snacks.”

“Dean!” Sam called out as Dean got up to leave.

Dean turned for a moment. “We’ll figure out another way. And Sam, I’ll get my vacation. But not today. Not like this.” He left.

“Sam, maybe he’s right,” Charlie hated to admit it.

Sam shook his head. “No, there’s a way to fix it. There has to be.”

“What did Dean mean when he said you changed your mind?” Charlie asked curiously.

“So, awhile back, we had a chance to, um, close the gates of hell. And in order to do that, I would’ve had to die. And, I was okay with that, and I am okay with that, but Dean was not. And so, he uh...”

“He saved you.”

“Yeah, he saved me. They both did,” he glanced at Liam who was just staring out the window.

“And let me guess, in doing so he did something you didn’t want, and that pissed you off. And you said something that hurt him?”

“Yeah, that sounds about right.”

Charlie shook her head. “Brothers. You know, I haven’t been a hunter for very long, but it feels like this is the life. Mostly ends in Sophie’s choices, death, or tears. Usually all of the above, huh? How did this become my life? I mean, I was gonna own my own start up, marry ScarJo, invent something cool. Now I’m just, I’m just happy to be alive.”

“You know, when Dean came to get me at school, I told myself one last job, you know? One more job. And then when I, um... When I lost Jess, I again, told myself one more job. There’s always one more job, you know? And one more job, and one more job, and then I was gonna go back to law and to my life.”

“You were the Dread Pirate Roberts of hunting.”

“Yeah. I guess I really understand now that this is my life. I love it. But I can’t do it without my brother. I don’t want to do it without my brother. And if he’s gone, then I don’t...”

“Dean is what draws us in,” Liam said softly. “I promised myself that when I finally had a life again, it was gonna be everything I never had. I wanted normal. And then I fell in love. I can’t have Dean and normal at the same time, so I sacrificed normal. If you’ll recall, we didn’t hunt when he was in purgatory.”

“That’s true,” Sam nodded in agreement.

“Wait, what?” Charlie was lost.

Sam let out a little sigh. “It was a little while after we met you with the whole leviathan thing. We killed Dick Roman with a special weapon. Well, Dean killed him, and then disappeared. We had no idea where to even start looking. I mean, we tried a few things, but… So we went home and played house as Dean put it when he finally came back a year later. Turns out he was in purgatory, basically the place where monster souls go.”

“Oh,” Charlie nodded in understanding. “I get it, I do.”

Dean came bursting in a little while later. “The Styne’s, they found me. Those douches are all jacked up too.”

“What are you talking about?” Sam asked.

Dean threw a cup of liquid into the fire. “I emptied a full clip into one of them before the son of a bitch went down.”

“Dean, what are you doing with the holy oil?”

Dean glanced out the window at the men following him outside. “There is a cure for the mark in the book. But it comes at a price. We got to destroy it.”

“Are you sure about this?” Sam still didn’t want to give up so easily.

“It’s calling to me, Sam, okay? I can hear it. It’s calling to the mark. It wants me to take the book and run away with it. Burn it now.” He drew his gun, and Charlie and Liam both grabbed one as well. “Sam, burn it now!”

Two men crashed through the window. One grabbed Dean, and the other attacked Charlie. Sam quickly grabbed the box the book was in. The leader broke in through the door and started heading toward Sam. Sam grabbed a random book and wrapped it up, throwing it into the fire. The leader grabbed Sam by the throat and pushed him against the wall. “You silly boy. My family will never stop looking for that book.”

Liam, who was trying to help Dean, raced over to Sam and pulled the man off him. His eyes went red as he grabbed the man’s throat tight. “Then it’s a good thing I’m stronger than you,” he mumbled as the air around them started shimmering and there was a bright flash of red light.

All three men instantly fell dead, blood dripping from their noses. Liam swooned before falling backward. Dean raced to catch him so he didn’t get hurt. “Still breathing?” Sam asked in a worried tone.

“Yeah,” Dean nodded after checking. “Damn it, why does he keep doing that?”

“To protect us,” Sam answered the question. “You said yourself they were jacked up. We didn’t have the juice.”

“Neither does he,” Dean sighed.

“Am I missing something?” Charlie asked. “Liam just… And then...”

“It’s another long story,” Sam answered. “One that I’ll tell you on the car ride back to the bunker. I don’t think he’ll be waking up any time soon.”

The next day after Dean and Charlie left on a supply run Castiel showed up. He told Sam and Liam all about his little adventure with Metatron. As it turned out, Metatron had tried something slick. Castiel had been able to get his grace back, but Metatron had made off with the demon tablet. The angel shook his head. “I was foolish, selfish. Should’ve just killed him. Who knows what he’ll do with that tablet.”

“Well, you know what, Cas? You got your grace back. You’re back. You did the right thing,” Sam tried to cheer him up.

“You did the right thing. That book needed to be destroyed. We will find another way, Sam.”

Just then Charlie came in carrying plastic bags. “We’re back, bitches!” She paused when she saw Castiel. “Whoa! Is that who I think it is?”

“Charlie, Cas. Cas, Charlie,” Sam introduced them.

“I thought you’d be shorter.” Charlie put the bags on the table and Sam picked them up to take them to the kitchen. “Heard you got your mojo back.”

The angel nodded. “Yes, my grace, it’s been restored.”

“So, can’t you just, you know, cure Dean?”

“Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.”

“Oh. Never is, is it? Do you think you could do anything about my carpal tunnel?” Castiel touched two of his fingers to her forehead. “Is that it?”

“Your carpal tunnel and your bullet wound are now healed. You may want to continue wearing your wrist brace at night though.”

“Did we just become best friends?”

Dean then came in carrying pizza boxes. “Hey, look who decided to show. So? You’re back? One hundred percent? How did that happen?”

“Um, it was Hannah,” Castiel lied. “She managed to get the location of the remainder of my grace out of Metatron.”

“Awesome. I told you we were due for a win. Good to have you back, pal.”

Not long after Dean was asleep Liam got an urgent text from Sam asking him to come alone. “What is so urgent?” the blond asked when he got to Sam’s room.

“I didn’t burn the book,” Sam blurted out. “I just made it look like I did.”

“You what?” Liam’s knees about gave out on him. “I thought we agreed that it wasn’t the way.”

“It’s the best we’ve got!” Sam snapped. “Sorry, I just needed to tell someone. I know you don’t like keeping secrets from Dean, but as long as he thinks the book is gone, it won’t be an issue, right?”

“Until he finds out that the book isn’t gone. You know I can manipulate, but not outright lie to him, right?”

“I don’t think he’ll ask you about it since he thinks it’s done with. Liam, I can’t lose him like that again, and I know you can’t either.”

Liam sighed. “Secrets like this are what cause problems. We lied to you about Gadreel, and when you found out you and Dean split up because of how pissed you were.”

“True, but I slowly got over it. And now I get it. He was desperate, and now, so am I. I know we couldn’t make heads or tails of that book, but I’m thinking maybe Rowena can.”

“Are you fucking serious?” Liam’s eyes about popped out of his head. “You would give a book full of seriously evil spells to an evil witch?”

“I don’t know what else to do! Dean said that she didn’t have a beef with us, she just tried to kill him because of his influence on Crowley. And we deal with Crowley, the King of Hell, so why not?”

“Because she could use that book to wipe us off the map instead of help.”

“Do you have any better ideas? I sure as hell don’t. Look, I’m meeting with her tomorrow. I’ll be as careful as I can. And like I said before, we’ll deal with any negative consequences if they happen. I just need you to keep Dean occupied again.”

Liam shook his head and leaned against the door frame. “Fine. Yes, I’m as desperate as you are. But I better get back to bed before he wakes up.”
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Hunting Humanity IX