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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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Dean came from the kitchen with two plates of scrambled eggs and toast. He set one plate in front of Liam, and put a hand on his shoulder. It didn't escape his notice that the blond tensed slightly at his touch. With a soft sigh he sat down at the computer with his own plate. “You find any more about the Styne family in the files?”

“No,” Liam answered softly as he started to eat. “What you read at the cabin is all the Men of Letters knew.”

“Okay. Do you know where Sam went? He's been gone all night.”

“No,” Liam answered again. He could guess, but Sam hadn't said anything to him directly.

Sam returned a few hours later. “Well, you look like crap on toast,” Dean commented when his brother walked in.

“I just haven't really been sleeping well,” Sam made an excuse.

“Is there a woman you haven't mentioned?”

“A woman?” Sam raised an eyebrow at that. “Why would you think I'd do that?”

“Well, I'm just saying. You weren't here when I went to bed last night. You've been running off on your own a lot these past couple weeks.”

“I do that,” Sam tried to make it seem normal.

“You actually don't.”

“Dean, we don't always do the exact same thing at the exact same time. Remember when you went off and snuffed that vampire nest by yourself?”

“Have you been snuffing vamp nests?”

“No, I... What is that? What are you doing?” Sam changed the subject.

“So, those goons that were after the book, the, uh, Stynes. Well, the one that we killed said that he had a big family. So if there's more out there, I figure we should probably get to know as much as we can about them.”

“And?”

“Well, that’s pretty much what we do know, that they screwed with financial markets, they helped Hitler get started, along with god knows what else. Probably disco. But you go back to the eighteen hundreds and the trail goes dead. There's nothing in the research, there's nothing online. It's like the family just popped up one day.”

“Families don't usually do that.”

“No, they do not. Hasn't been a total waste of time though. I think I caught us a case. There's a mention online of a murder in Omaha. Victim's eyes were cut out. Janitor runs in just as the killer jumps out the window.”

“That's it?”

“Well, the window was on the third story. Look, man, I'm just trying to stay busy here, okay? Unless you have bigger fish to fry.”

Sam and Liam exchanged a quick look. “No, I'm sold,” Sam answered. “I'm in.”

“Alright, well, I'm gonna grab a shower and then gather everything up before we leave. You coming, babe?” he looked to Liam.

“Yeah,” Liam answered, not looking thrilled as he got up from the table.

The reaction obviously hurt Dean. “I get it, I just wish you wouldn't be so scared of me,” he finally said what he'd been thinking.

Liam sighed. “It's affecting you more and more. Don't offend me by trying to lie again.”

“Okay, I won't lie, you're right. But what do I keep telling you?” he asked as he ran a hand through Liam's hair. “When I look at you I calm down. It's gotta be just like Cain giving up everything for the love of a woman. Well, except that you're not-”

“A woman,” the blond finished the sentence. “But can you blame me for being a little nervous?”

“No,” Dean answered honestly. “But hurting you is the last thing I wanna do, so if I have any self control at all... Let's just go take that shower and have some quality time, okay?”

“Okay,” Liam took Dean's hand and let him lead the way.

A little while later Liam and Dean were getting ready to leave. “Sam seems to be gone again,” Dean commented. “Think he left without us?”

“Doubt it,” Liam answered. “You're the one who wants to work the case.”

“Oh, so you think it's a waste of time too?” Dean accused.

“I didn't say that. I get that you want to keep busy as much as possible. And yeah, someone jumping out of a third story window after stealing some eyes is a little weird. I just... Well, you know my feelings.”

“I do, and I wish things were different. You wouldn't happen to have any idea what Sam is up to, would you?”

Liam looked at his feet and swallowed hard before answering. “No.”

“Uh huh,” Dean knew he was lying, but decided not to say anything just then.

Dean didn't say anything when Sam returned either. They just left to work the case, entering the office where it happened several hours later with the office manager. “Police told me no one was allowed in. That didn't mean the FBI, right?” the manager asked as he opened the door for them.

“And the janitor came in right after the killing?” Dean asked.

“Yeah, he heard screaming, maybe when her eyeballs were scooped out? Janitor saw a man jump out the window, run down the alley.”

“Running? After, uh, falling three stories?” Sam asked.

“That's what it looked like.”

“Security footage?”

“Yeah, sure,” the manager pulled out a tablet. “Uh, but just one of them caught any action. Out in the alley. That's the guy who rented the office,” he pointed to the man who dropped into the alley on the screen.

“That's pretty slick for a three story drop,” Dean commented.

“Wait a second. Can you, uh, play it again?” Sam asked. “Yeah. Keep going. Okay, freeze there. Zoom in,” Sam zoomed in on the man's wrist to reveal the same tattoo on the guy that had been chasing Charlie.

“Same ink as the Stynes,” Dean noticed.

“How long was he renting here?” Sam asked the manager.

“Uh, just a month. But I only saw him a day or so. Some sort of clinical trial using student volunteers. He didn't mention eyeballs.”

“Well, I guess you're gonna ask about that from now on, huh?” Dean said. Sam's phone started vibrating and he reached to silence it. “Listen, you, uh, remember anything else, give us a call.”

“Telemarketer,” Sam said before Dean could ask who called.

They got in the car and started driving back to the bunker. “What in the hell would the Stynes want with eyeballs?” Liam wondered out loud from the backseat.

Dean shrugged. “Well, when you take a few Stynes down, more pop up. I mean, how many are there? All I can say is I'm glad we burned that damn book. At least they can't get their mitts on that.”

“Yeah. Uh, what about you? How you doing?” Sam changed the subject.

“Oh, you mean the thing? You know, some dark thoughts, creepy visions, violent urges. Fighting not to lose control. Same old same old. I'm happy I got a murder to focus on though.”

A little while later Sam walked into the library and saw Dean with his phone. Liam was at the table looking very much like a kid who didn't want the teacher to call on him. “The fridge is picked clean,” Sam tried to remain calm. “Your turn to fly.”

“Hey, uh, you talk to Cas recently?” Dean asked curiously.

“No. Um, not for a while. Why?” Sam lied.

“I was just wondering what he's up to. He's got to be up to something right?”

“Yeah. Angel stuff or... something... Um, I vote for pizza tonight. We can send Liam to the store tomorrow maybe.”

“Sure.” Dean looked back and forth between Sam and Liam for a moment, but still didn't say anything.

Liam rode with Dean to get the pizza they ordered. “You sure you're okay?” Liam asked. “I mean, as okay as you can be anyway.”

“I'm as okay as I can be,” Dean assured his mate. “And I'd really rather not talk about it right now.”

They were on their way out of the restaurant with the pizza when two cars pulled up, one behind and one in front. “Not a good sign when you're being blocked off,” Liam mumbled.

Two men got out and closed in on them. One jumped Dean, and the other threw Liam into the wall. There was a short struggle, and the man had Liam pinned, choking him. Liam hit him in the chest hard, and there was a flash of purple light before the guy fell dead. The man fighting with Dean saw it and paused. “What the...”

Dean seized the opportunity and grabbed his attacker, holding a knife to his throat. “Word to the wise, don't underestimate the short guy.” Liam moved to kill the second guy as well. “Wait!” Dean stopped him and motioned to the Styne family tattoo on his wrist. “We're taking this one alive. He's gonna answer some questions. Get some rope from the trunk.”

They got him back to the bunker and took him down to the dungeon. Dean handcuffed his one wrist to the ceiling. “Here's how this works. You're strong. I'll give you that. But you can bleed and hurt just like the next guy, so I'm gonna ask questions, you're gonna give answers, or it's gonna get crazy real quick.”

The guy just smirked at them. “Well, I hope you got some time. I'm not the usual breed of cat.”

“Neither are we. Did you kill that girl in Omaha?”

“Yeah,” the man answered with no hesitation. Then he noticed the Mark of Cain peeking out from under Dean's sleeve. “So, it's true. You have the Mark of Cain. My sympathies. That’s why you wanted the book, to remove it.”

“We wanted the book because that's where your power comes from. See, our family business is putting guys like you out of business,” Sam said.

“Oh. It's impressive. Let me tell you about my family business. You're in way over your heads. The family is vast, spread over the world. And that power that you mentioned doesn't come from the book. It comes from intelligence and will. The book facilitates. Stock market dive, recession, 9/11, any of them ring a bell? Arab spring. Didn't even break a sweat.”

“Okay. Why?” Sam asked.

“Well, you got to be in it to win it, boys. You see, chaos breeds fear. Fear breeds panic, and panic breeds desperation, and there's always profit to be made from desperation. You make a big enough mess, has to get cleaned up. And we've been in the fix it business for a thousand years, and business has never been better.” Sam's phone started vibrating again. “Now, for the last eighty years, we haven't had the book. With the book, we're unstoppable.”

Sam left to answer his phone in the hallway. “The girl you killed, why take her eyes?” Dean asked.

“That whole situation was unfortunate. We normally never leave a body when we harvest.”

“When you what?” Dean didn't follow.

“It's a family specialty; bio engineering. Surgical enhancement. And I'm not talking about nose jobs. See?” He pulled up his shirt with his free hand to reveal a surgical scar on his chest. “Two hearts in here. Bunch of extra muscle, especially in the legs. Every man in the family's had a little something. Pretty much what you'd expect though, given the family tree.”

“The Stynes?”

“The real family tree. The name was altered out of necessity. You have chanced upon a lineage with a long and proud tradition, and some unwanted notoriety. One of Europe's oldest families. The house of Frankenstein.”

Dean scoffed at that. “Frankensteins aren't real. They're made up.”

“Yeah, of course. And we never had a family acquaintance named Mary Shelley who spent a few nights in castle Frankenstein and stumbled upon our secrets, and forced us to change our name and go underground.”

“So, why didn't Shelley go public?”

“She wrote a book. Doesn't get more public than that. But no one believed it to be true, just like no one's gonna believe you.”

“As long as we believe, that's enough.”

“Yeah, well, as mighty as I'm sure your little family is, mine is a juggernaut. We're not ordinary men. We're Spartans.”

“But you aren't immortal.”

“What we are is expendable. I go down, there's an army of replacements behind me.”

“And where does this army call home? Who's big daddy Frankenstein?”

“Were you here when I mentioned that we're underground? There are secrets.”

“Well, I'm swell at uncovering secrets.”

“You give me the book, and it's conceivable that we could have a conversation. There's one thing I wanna know. How did that blond kill my companion with just a touch? Never seen anything like it.”

“That's because he's one of a kind,” Dean sounded proud of that. “And the book... Dude, we don't have the book. The book was burned.”

“The book is protected by a spell. It's eternal. It cannot be destroyed.”

Dean gave Liam and odd look before leaving the room and going after Sam. “Why did you have to be so chatty?” Liam grumbled. “Forget the stupid book. There are forces in this world that can give even your family hell.” With that he turned and chased after Dean.

Dean walked up to Sam who had just hung up his phone. “What are you doing?” Dean demanded.

“Something came up.”

“What?”

“It's handled. Uh, what's going on in there? Get any more out of him?”

“Yeah, an earful, truly. Let me ask you something.” Before Dean could get out his question they heard a door slam. They ran back into the dungeon to find an arm hanging from the chain with a trail of blood leading out the door. “Oh my god, he ripped it off,” Dean couldn't believe it.

They started searching the whole place for the guy. “Any sign of him?” Sam asked his brother when they all met back in the library.

“Lot of signs, just no him. I followed the blood trail, which, by the way, was like the Mississippi till it ran dry.”

“Meaning what? He bled out?”

“Meaning that the trail stopped. Vanished. Nada. He sure must have thought he was gonna win that one, because was he gabby.”

“Well, I've been going through everything we have on the Frankensteins, and it's just like he said. I mean, a thousand years of nasty. They made a ton mopping up the black plague. They started the hundred years war.”

“You know, I thought, man, there's a lot of them Stynes. You know, it's like, uh, alpha male central.” Dean started pacing behind Sam and Liam like he wanted to say something. “And then I thought, and this is key, I thought, this is bad, but it would really blow if these guys had the book. At least they don't have the damn book.”

“No argument here,” Liam tensed a little, which made Sam tense as well.

“At least the damn book burned. Right, Sam? But then our guest, he hits me with this little fun fact. He says that the book can't be destroyed. Says that it can't be sliced, diced, shredded, burned, drowned. Cannot be destroyed. Ain't that crazy? Because I know I saw something burn.” Sam's phone started buzzing again on the table. “Sam, you answer that, so help me...”

Sam picked it up. “Hey. Who's gone? Okay, got it.” He seemed a little panicked as he set the phone back down.

“And what is it with all these phone calls?” Dean continued. “I know you tried to lie to me,” he pointed to Liam. “When I asked you if you had any idea what was going on with Sam. You suck at trying to lie to me. And Sam, I know Cas has been calling you. I answered your phone when you weren't around. It was Cas, and he sounded weird. Now, will someone tell me what the hell is going on around here?”

“Tell him,” Liam urged Sam.

“I kinda have to now,” Sam sighed. “Just don't get too mad. And Liam knew what I told him, but he didn't really have anything to do with it.”

Dean crossed his arms and braced himself. “Oh, I can tell I'm not gonna like this.”

“I didn't burn the book,” Sam confessed. “I did burn a book, but it wasn't the one you told me to burn.”

“You what?” Dean was angry.

“I couldn't do it, okay. I know you don't think it's the way to help you, but it's the best we've found. You may be ready to just give up, but Liam and I, we're not.”

“We couldn't even read the damn thing,” Dean growled.

“I know, and that leads us to our current problem. I thought maybe Rowena could crack it.”

“Oh, this just keeps getting better and better.”

“She agreed to look at it on the terms that I killed Crowley for her. That box, the codex, she said she needed it. Don't worry, I chained her up in a brewery basement. But she hasn't been making any progress, so I thought... Well, I called Charlie because I thought maybe the two of them together... And Cas keeps calling because I put him with them to keep Charlie safe. But that was Cas who just called. Charlie's gone.”

“I don't freaking believe it!” Dean shouted. “You got Charlie involved with this again, and now she's missing?”

They were interrupted by Sam's phone again. This time it was Charlie. Sam quickly answered and put it on speaker. “Charlie, where are you?”

“A motel,” she answered. “The Blackbird. Sam, someone is here. They think I have the book.”

“If you have the book, give it to them,” Sam urged.

“I don't have it, just my notes.”

“Then give them your notes, Charlie! Give them the code, whatever they want!”

Dean grabbed the phone. “Charlie, I don't know what the hell is going on, but you need to listen to me. Give whoever that is whatever they want. You understand? Charlie?”

“I can't do that, Dean.” She hung up.

They raced to the car, hoping they could get to Charlie fast enough to help her. “So, you had the book the whole time?” Dean was still angry. “Lied right to my face. The other person I trusted kept the secret from me.”

“I told him not to lie to you,” Liam defended himself.

“Don't start yelling at him,” Sam came to his friend's defense. “It's like I said. I thought it was our only chance to get you free of the mark, so I grabbed it.”

“I made it real clear how I felt. You ever consider that? And then you pulled Cas into it. And Charlie.”

“Charlie loves you, Dean. We all love you.”

They pulled up to the motel and got out quickly. They figured Charlie's room was the one with the busted in door, so they went in with guns drawn. Whoever had broken in was gone, and they found Charlie's body in the bathtub. “Oh god,” Sam could hardly look at her.
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Hunting Humanity IX