Grace of the Hunter Betrayal

The three men sat in a circle. Their Sunday best becoming ragged and slowly shedding as several bottles of whiskey were passed between them. They each had big goofy grins and even Dean could find the happiness in his day. They drank to Cas's memory and then drank to each other's health. Every time they finished a bottle Crowley will make a new one appear out of thin air.

"Hold on hold on!!" Dean shouted, forcing himself to stand up and stumble to the radio, "We...umm...we need to play...Cas's song!"

Sam stayed in his seat, laughing at his older brother. Crowley stood and huddled over Dean, watching him attempt to read all of the records and CD's.

"Which one?" he asked, hand hovering over the shelf.

"Its the uhh...That one!!" Dean pointed at the bright blue CD case.

Crowley pulled it from the shelf and realized that it was a home-made burned disk that read 'My Little Angel' on the side. He carefully put the CD in the player and listened. The music that began to play was soft, like feathers. It began as a simple tune on a piano that grew into a beautiful string ensemble. Crowley stared into the CD as it played, letting the music wash over him, feeling the innocence and happiness, then crashing into a climax of great terror and drums...then slowly curling back to that single sad piano. The demon smiled and wiped a tear from his eye. He looked down at Dean to see that the older hunter had closed his eyes, fully enveloping himself in the music.

Sam tried as best as he could to stand up, and after failing miserably several times, crawled his way over to the other guys.

"Hey...Dean," Sam spoke, his slur worse off than his hair, "I'm..*belch*...oh shit excuse me...I'm gonna...go to bed."

Dean didn't speak, he simply nodded and patted his brother's hand. Sam slowly crawled across the floor towards his room. Crowley snickered and walked over to lift the boy up and walk him to his room, singing something about corona or some other horrible beer. Dean opened his eyes when the room became silent. He stood on his knees and fumbled with the CD player until it began to play the next song: "Let Her Go." Normally, this song would do nothing but make Dean change the station; but this time, hearing every word being sung, drumming his finger to the slow piano playing, it moved him. He could feel Cas's grace within him, reacting to it. He smiled and held his torso tightly, imagining that he's holding Castiel while the music played. He let a tear fall to his lap and began to sing along to it.

"Only need the light when its burning low ..."

"Only miss the sun when it starts to snow."

Dean jumped and saw Crowley walking back into the room, suddenly a lot more sober than he was before. He pulled up a chair and sat on it backwards in front of Dean.

"That song always gets me Dean...but what I don't get is you."

He sat up and perched himself on the seat. Dean's eyes darted from Crowley to the door to Sam's room.

"Ohhh don't worry about dear old Samantha," Crowley played, bringing Dean's attention back to him. "He's tucked in nice and tight. So now the grown ups can talk."

The demon stood up, straightening his suit, and walked over to the table where Dean left the knife.

"You see this blade," he continued, holding the knife like a display piece, "was made by ol' Lucifer himself. He made this when he rebelled against the great God and was cast out."

As he spoke his story, he twirled the knife in his fingers. Dean watched every step he made, every twitch of movement in his fingers, ready.

"Now what it can do is a nice piece of information. You see not only can it kill angels, but it can completely dissipate their powers by simply being in the same vicinity. Basically, they turn human."

With this last statement, Crowley came very close to Dean. His eyes hot with amusement  and his tongue curling around his lips.

"With this blade dear boy, I have done what no demon has been able to do for the past decade." He pointed to knife right to Dean's throat and the older Winchester looked at it with disgust. Instead of fear, temptation and hatred flooded his face, daring Crowley to thrust.

"I've destroyed the Winchester's guardian...and now I will finally get you boys out of my way!"