Chapter Seventeen

They couldn't stay watching the horizon for long, not when faced with the reality that fear lived here and it would find them eventually. They were its meat; the soft flesh to be gnawed between its teeth to keep them sharp. Dean imagined that he and Buffy were little more than unexpected gristle but like everything that was to be devoured, they too would eventually break down. He hoped to hell that Sammy was doing everything he could to get them out of here because he didn't know how much longer they could stay ahead of the monsters in this place.

Descending from the wall, neither spoke but the air was heavy with sinister foreboding. Maybe it was understanding what this place was that made it worse, made it seem so much more hopeless. Whatever the reason; they were both on their guard as they walked down the corridor that had no end, trying to hide their despair from each other. Dean was clinging steadfastly to the belief that Sam would get them out of here because Buffy needed to believe it. He could see in her eyes, the fear that in the end, this place would defeat them. It was built to win and even if you could stay alive for a long time, it wasn't the kind of living you wanted. If Sam couldn't get them out, then perhaps dying wasn't the worst thing that could happen to them.

"I've been thinking," Dean spoke, breaking the silence because it was starting to drive him a little crazy especially when they were waiting for the next horrible thing to jump out at them, “Maybe we can do the long distance thing."

Of all the things she had expected him to say; this was not it.

Buffy shot him a look of surprise, her eyes widening slightly because this was not the place she expected to have this conversation and more astonishingly, he was not the one she figured would initiate it.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Dean said defensively catching the look she was giving him, “I mean we might as well talk about it right?”

Suppressing the urge to smile, Buffy swore she could see him turning red. However, their situation made her question his motives and she asked suspiciously, “You're not doing this because you think we're going to die in here and you won't have to make good on any promises made right?"

"No!" Dean declared automatically and then paused to consider if that was exactly what was going on in his head when he rebounded, "No goddamn it!" He exclaimed with a hint of indignation because for once, he only had the purest intentions in mind. What did she take him for? Okay may be he might have done that in the past one or twice, taken the easy route to speed out of situations or a bedroom for that matter but this was different.

"Okay! Okay!" she declared, throwing her hand up in apology for questioning his motives. "So you want to do the long distance thing?"

Dean shrugged and started talking again, not meeting her gaze as they continued walking. "Well me and Sam are mostly based in Lebanon these days," he explained, trying to sound casual about this even though there were big neon letters flashing 'BIG RELATIONSHIP TALK' in his head. This wasn’t something he was at all comfortable doing and on the one occasion he had the experience, it was Lisa who had made the overture even if it had proved ultimately untenable. "It’s about three hours from Lawrence. I mean I can do those miles in my sleep or we could meet half way, or I could come and hang out between jobs..." he suggested before clearing his throat, trying not to sound like some sensitive new age pussy who couldn't make a decision on anything important.

Buffy was smiling, despite the mess they were in, despite the possibility they may never get out of this place, she was smiling at him. Watching Dean stumbling over his words, trying to maintain his veneer of cool while talking about their relationship beyond the present moment was almost precious. "Or I could drive up," she offered instead. "Maybe even join you on a job sometime. Not all the time of course but once in a while." She looked at him coyly from under long lashes. "You gotta admit, you could use me a in a tight spot."

“Darlin, you got lots of tight spots I can use,” he grinned, unable to keep himself from taking the easy route to innuendo she’d given him.

For his trouble, she swatted him over his arm. “Dork!” She cursed and then fell suddenly silent. Her spine straightened and she was reaching for the blade across her back.

Dean had only to look at expression, hardening like granite to guess that the next wave of monster was about to come their way.

“What is it?” He asked her, reaching over his shoulder like she had. The gun he was carrying was out of bullets after killing the giant snake and was now useless to them.

“Listen,” she ordered, her eyes narrowing in concentration.

Dean obeyed, opening his ears to the sound of everything. It took him a second to detect what she had.

The sound was still soft because it was distant but what he could make of it was sharp. Like someone was stabbing at the marble floor with the point of a knife, multiplied a dozen times over. Whatever was coming at them was not alone. The approach he could hear bearing down on them told him that much. Suddenly, Dean was filled with a heightened sense of alarm, even more so than when the demon snake had first come at them. His fight or flight instincts were tugging at the edge of his consciousness, trying to goad him into making the sensible decision for once.

“Come on!” He motioned her to follow, the ghost of a plan forming in his brain, “we need to take this to higher ground.”

“Higher ground?” She exclaimed before she caught onto to what he intended. Dean was retreating the way they had come and she followed him, breaking into a run to keep up, she knew where he was going. The only high ground available to them was the section of wall ruined by the Olvikan demon. The debris from that collapsed section allowed them to get to the top and gave them the view of the landscape. Right now however, it would give them a slight advantage over multiple attackers.

*****

“Sam,” Faith nudged the younger Winchester brother who was lying face down against the dark, marble floor. “Come on Winchester, on your feet. Got to go rescue big brother and Queen B.”

Faith had come to first and was able to shake off the disorientation from their journey through the portal much faster than Sam. The bright light had overloaded all her sensory receptors, causing her to black out long enough for them to be transported to this place. When she regained consciousness, she found Sam and had to admit that having never been teleported before, Willow’s description of the experience of being snatched up by a hurricane, tracking with what they’d just gone through.

She could feel the lingering charge of the energy from the portal still cackling through the air. It reminded her of a blown fuse or the fumes exuding from an electrical fire. They didn’t have much time to use its power to perform the locator spell and the realisation prompted Faith into action. However, first things first, she needed to get Sam Winchester on his feet. He had landed face down but unlike her, had not gotten up again and she felt a surge of panic at the thought that he might have gotten himself hurt on the way through.

“Sammy!” She knelt own and shook him. She saw that the cube was still clenched tightly in his fist, along with all the other crap he’d brought with him. Men and their guns, she mused.

It took a couple of shakes before Sam jerked back to consciousness with a sudden start. Lifting his head which felt a lot heavier than it should, he turned his head left, right and then raised his eyes to look at Faith, unaware that was a smear of blood running down his nose. “I’m up…I’m up,” he replied slowly lumbering to his feet.

Not for the first time, Faith noticed the state of him. She hadn’t missed the fact that for a guy his height and size, he’d looked frail. The circles under his eyes and the hollowness of his cheeks indicated that he was less than a hundred percent but until she saw the blood, Faith had not realised just how bad he was. He’d saved her life when they were fighting Scheckly, Faith thought, he’d done it while he was in this shape? Knowing that made her angry that she hadn’t been the one protecting him. She was the Slayer after all and he was the normal human.

Still, after working with him, Faith had to admit there was little about Sam that was ordinary.

“We gotta do this spell before the juice disappears,” she reminded him, her voice somewhat sedate as she tried to hide her concern and maintain her flippant persona. “You up for it or do you need me to?”

“I can do it,” Sam assured her, shaking off the last of the fugue caused by the teleportation. Reaching for the phone that Faith handed to him, he reread the instructions in Willow Rosenberg’s text message.

“You good to go?” She asked.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I’m not sure about the language but your Willow translated the words phonetically so I should be able to say the chant. According to this we needed fragments from the crushed rock of Baba Yaga’s pestle. An old friend of ours used to collect all kind of mystic stuff so I actually found this in the trunk of the car. It’s not a tough spell to do.” He explained before producing a small baggie from inside his coat. The plastic bag contained a fine, grey powder. “Just make sure you hold my hand,” he said, “don’t want to leave you behind.” He added with an almost embarrassed smile.

Faith shook her head, trying not to laugh as she wrapped an arm around his waist. “Okay Sammy, take me on this hayride.”

Sam gave her another shy glance before he emptied the contents of the plastic bag into his palm, careful not to spill any before taking a deep breath. Exhaling it as hard as he could, he blew the powder from his palm, dispersing it into the air in a thick cloud that rapidly began to thin, before he started reciting the spell.

“Shuunati Fuug Ghallgah der Shtuul, Shuunati Fuug Ghallgah der Shtuul. Shuunati Fuug Ghallgah der Shtuul.”

Sam chanted the phrase over and over again but started to see results almost immediately after he’d completed the second attempt. The residual energy of their teleportation into this place began to react to the mystical powder Sam had introduced into the air. He could see the tiny embers coming alive, like fireflies swarming in the dark. It was almost beautiful as they drifted aimlessly at first. However as he continued to chant, the momentum of the glittering mist became more pronounced and directed, swirling in place in front of them.

“I think it’s working,” Faith declared, her dark eyes wide with wonder, “Now we need something of your brother’s right?”

Faith supposed she could have lifted something from Buffy’s place before they set the spell into motion but Sam claimed he had it covered. He didn’t answer her but dug his hand into the pocket of his coat to pull out something that was dangling from his hand. It was a small gold pendant hanging off a piece of chord.

“What is that?” Faith asked curious. The pendant was a little strange looking thing, a brass face with horns pointing upwards.

“It’s Dean’s,” Sam said quietly, not wanting to explain how he’d retrieved it from the bin when Dean tossed it out three years ago because he’d been hurt that Dean had discarded it. Of course, Dean had done that because he himself had been hurt by the discovery during their trip to heaven, Sam’s most pleasant memories involved time away from his family. Shame at the unintentional slight had kept Sam from telling Dean that he still had the amulet and maybe, maybe when he finished these trials and proved to his brother that he could be counted on, Sam might try giving it back to Dean.

For now, he needed it for the final part of the spell.

The embers had now swirled into a large vortex that Sam and Faith found themselves staring into. It faced them like the open maw of energy conduit. Sam glanced at Faith and flung the amulet into the opening. It disappeared into the shifting whorls of mystic power with a spike of blue energy. Once it vanished, Sam saw a growing dark centre that expanded wide enough for them to enter. The bigger it got, the more recognisable it became. Sam caught sight of another corridor, much like this one waiting for them to cross into it.

“This is it!” Sam exclaimed and ran forward, Faith’s arm around his as he jumped into its open mouth.

******

Taking the high ground was a temporary measure at best.

There were so many of them that Dean couldn’t count them all and from what Buffy told him, even one could kill them both easily. They were swarming at the base of the wall and judging by the way they moved, Dean suspected that they weren’t going to have any trouble climbing up marble to reach their prey. Buffy called these things demons but to Dean, they were monsters, pure and simple. When this was over, assuming they survived the next ten minutes, he’d have to pick her brain on how many different types of supposed demons she’d fought as the slayer.

“I don’t know about you,” Buffy remarked assuming a defensive position, the long blade held tightly in her hands as she watched the creatures approaching the dead Olvikan demon that lay across the partially crumbled wall. “But I’m thinking our safest bet is to keep them from getting to the top of the wall.”

“I’m with you on that,” Dean agreed, “gonna be a bitch with just these weapons though.”

“You’re just missing your guns,” she retorted as she saw the first of them climb up the wall, followed by another and then another. “Here they come,” she said not looking at him.

“You want a pep talk or are we good to go?” He joked, trying to make light of a situation that had none at all. He watched them scurry over the dead snake demon, a tide of dark green bodies with too many legs, covering its large bulk.

“We’re good,” Buffy answered tonelessly and didn’t comment that they were both remarkably calm considering what they were facing. “Remember, they got a second set of jaws on their bellies.”

“Nice,” Dean retorted, “what are they called again?”

Buffy didn’t meet his gaze as she answered, “Grimslaw demons.”

They were sharing a sense of calm that was in itself morbid when they should have been alarmed. Buffy saw the same thing he did, a swarm of grimslaw demons all hungry for their hearts and more than ready to tear it right out of their chests. Buffy knew Dean would die fighting. It was no more in his nature to surrender than it was in hers but the odds arrayed against them were overwhelming. She suspected that he might have resigned himself to the reality that while they’d put up a good fight, this was the one fight they wouldn’t walk away from.

She didn’t tell him she thought he was right.

The first grimslaw that scaled the wall was met by Dean. Maintaining his balance as they stood atop the narrow width of the wall, Dean took two steps to his side and drop down long enough to plunge his blade through the grimslaw’s open mandible. Dark blood spurted out of the wound as the creature let out an agonized screech that seemed to provoke the others into lunging against the wall and scaling its length.

Buffy ran forward, swinging her blade and sending one of the creatures off the wall, flicking it away like she was wielding a giant fly swatter instead of a sword like weapon. It fell away from the wall, landing on its back on top of another creature. Their dark coloured carapace crunched like fortune cookies and Buffy immediately winced at the comparison. She’d never be able to eat Chinese again.

“Watch out!” He shouted a warning before turning back to deal with another attempt by one of the creatures to kill him.

Buffy glanced over her shoulder and saw two more of the grimslaws climbing over the edge near her. She ran forward, careful not to fall over because that would be the last fall of her life and kicked one of the beasts hard enough to dislodge it from the wall. She looked up just in time to see the other one pounce and Buffy swung the blade in a wide arc, severing it in mid torso. Half the remains landed on the edge while the other half tumbled over the side. Wincing at the grisly sight, she had just enough time to shove the dead carcass over the edge before she saw another of the creatures emerging to her left. Buffy swung around, catching a glimpse of Dean who was shoving the grimslaw he’d just decapitated off the wall.

The creatures were continuing to swarm, he didn’t know how many he’d killed but he also knew that there were more of them. Buffy was holding up her end of the fight and once again, he marvelled at her speed and agility, even when fighting creepy sons of bitches like these. However, Dean was a realist. Even she wasn’t inexhaustible and he was pushing himself to all limits to keep up with her, to not let these critters get the better of him. He’d gotten used to fighting without guns while in Purgatory but he honestly didn’t know how much longer the two of them could continue battling these creatures or something even worse, if they survived this.

“DEAN!” Dean heard Buffy scream and turned around to see a grimslaw leap at him, like one of those jumping spiders in that movie with the giant tarantula terrorising people at the mall.

It landed on him, its spindly legs immediately latching onto his back. Dean stumbled backward, almost toppling over because the creature had landed on him with so much momentum behind it. Somehow he managed to stay on his feet, trying to shove the thing off, barely avoiding its snapping mandibles. Suddenly, white hot pain lanced through him as he felt something take a bite out of his side. The pain overloaded his senses, took him by surprise and forced a guttural cry out of his mouth. He had just enough time to register that the grimslaw’s second set of mandibles had bitten him before he was driving his blade through its thorax and shoving the creature off him.

“DEAN!” Buffy cried out again, her expression was one of pure panic as Dean was driven to his knees, the pain coursing through him so blinding he had trouble focussing his thoughts for a second. Fuck that hurt, he cursed silently to himself.

She started to take a step towards him when he halted her with one hand, “STOP!” He barked. “I’m fine,” he lied even though the wound he was clutching beneath his ribs was pulsing blood over his fingers.

Dean could already see another grimslaw behind her, crawling over the wall, just as he could see one in front of him. They couldn’t afford to stop, they had to keep fighting. Dean knew of no other way to proceed. Clamping his eyes shut for a second, he fought off the urge to puke and tried to ignore his body’s demand to cease any strenuous activity. Dean forced himself to regain his composure and opened his eyes to see the grimslaw skittering towards him. He swung his blade out, his instincts switching from flight to fight mode and he grit his teeth against the pain to split its skull apart. Forcing himself upright, he brought the weapon down on the grimslaw’s back as it flattened against the floor, mortally wounded.

Buffy was continuing to fight, landing both feet on a grimslaw’s back and forcing its spindling legs to jerk as she stabbed it through the thorax. She looked up to see Dean getting back on his feet, watching his normally upright posture hunch as he struggled against the pain. The wound was bad, she could tell by how he was moving. Even worse than when the razor armed girl had slashed at him.

He’s normal, she kept telling herself, he can’t take much more of this.

She saw him fend off another grimslaw and turned back to the one approaching her. Throwing a powerful front kick, she flung it off the wall, the creature flying off with its legs flailing in outrage. Running forward, she hardly paused when she swung at a grimslaw in her way, wielding her blade like a golf club and tossing it off the wall. Buffy needed to get to Dean, needed to get him away from her or come up with a different plan because staying to fight was no longer an option.

Dean was starting to get woozy. The bleeding wasn’t stopping and he could feel the slick damp against his clothes. Worse than that, the thick scent of fresh blood was whipping the other grimslaws into a frenzy because they seemed to be coming at Buffy and him even faster than before. Or perhaps it seemed that way because he was slowing down in his response time. Another stab, kick and shove and he was driving another monster away, until it felt like he was in constant motion, with no rest in sight. The more he moved, the faster his heart pumped and the more blood he was losing.

It wouldn’t be long now. He was losing too much blood to stay on his feet and then it would be over.

“We’ve got to run!” Buffy declared reaching him, slashing at another grimslaw. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

“No,” he said and thrust the point of blade into a pouncing grimslaw. The creature was impaled on the length of the weapon and Dean had to shake it off like some trash he’d picked up. “You need to make a run for it. I’ll hold them off.”

Buffy stopped short and stared at him, uncomprehending at first. When what he was asking her settled over her brain, her expression turned pale. “NO!” She exclaimed aghast. “I am not leaving you!”

“Counsellor,” he grabbed her arm so that she’d understand that this wasn’t some macho attempt at posturing. “You need to go! I’m not going to last much longer and if you try to keep me alive, you’ll die too. Sammy is coming! He’ll find you and get out of here but you need to leave, right now!”

“I AM NOT GOING TO LEAVE YOU!” She practically screamed at him and a grimslaw that chose to lunge at that point bore the brunt of her fury. “I can’t leave you!” She almost wailed, her heart close to breaking. She’d made that choice once before with Angel and it had almost destroyed her, she couldn’t go through that again. Not twice in one lifetime.

Her pain at the suggestion was so profound that it hurt as much the wound on his side but Dean couldn’t give in to her demand. He loved her, he knew that now and he couldn’t let her die here. Not when there was a chance for her to live, not when it was stopping her from doing what needed to be done. “Buffy, I’m not going to make it! I can’t keep this up and I’m going to slow you down if we try to make a break for it. So you need to go and I’ll hold them back. I don’t want you to die here because of me!”

“I CAN’T!” She burst out, her face contorted in anguish and exasperation. “I won’t leave you behind!”

She grabbed his hand and ran a few steps along the wall, away from the current cluster of grimslaws even though it would give them a pause of seconds only.

“We can make it!” Buffy insisted, catching his face in her hands and was about to say something else when she looked into his eyes and saw the pain there, the pain that was not because he was afraid to die but because he was afraid to leave her this way.

Dean blinked, seeing the grimslaws over her shoulder, skittering quickly towards them. “You’re a pain in the ass and you drive me crazy with your pink Barbie crap and Hello Kitty socks but I don’t want you to die, I want you to live, I want you hunt down monsters and kick demon asses like you were meant to do, I want you to do that because I love you and it would be worse, if I die knowing I couldn’t save you.”

Buffy let out strangled cry that was fast becoming a sob when she saw Dean’s eyes widen over her shoulder. Turning around, she saw that the grimslaws had caught up to them. They were inching closer and closer, dark bodies along the top of the wall, prepared to run them down or off, whichever came first.

“Get behind me,” Dean ordered preparing to hold them off. “When I say run, you run!”

Buffy was about to protest but somehow he’d moved with surprising speed for someone in his condition. “Dean!” She shouted but it was too late, he was already standing between her and the approaching grimslaws.

He knew at some point, she’d realise it was too late for him and get moving. Maybe she needed to see him die, maybe that would make her understand. “Come on you bastards,” he said waving the blade in front of him to see which one of the sons of bitches would make a run at him. “Come on!”

One of the grimslaws edged out ahead of the others, its legs bowing in preparation to jump. It sprung into the air with a screech, mandibles widening when suddenly something loud and thunderous shattered its cry with a powerful roar and tore the grimslaw apart. Its body exploded, splattering dark blood across the floor.

Dean recognised the sound immediately, it was a shotgun blast.

Reinforcing that thought was another explosion of noise as a second shot was fired, one after the other. The grimslaws reacted immediately, the sound scattering them as they cleared the wall in momentary surprise.

“DEAN!” He heard Sam’s voice calling him from the other side of the wall.

Dean turned to see Sam standing next to a girl he didn’t recognise. The chick was fighting off grimslaws while Sam was taking a more satisfying approach. They were standing next to the dead snake demon, trying to get to Buffy and him. Dean had never thought he’d ever be more relieved to see his brother and closed his eyes to let out of sigh of relief at the salvation that had come for them just in time.

“Cover us!” Buffy shouted at Sam over his shoulder. “We’re coming to you!”

Buffy grabbed Dean, put his arm over her shoulder and started running, ignoring his protestations as Sam’s fired at anything that got in their way. The second front created by Faith and Sam had given them some space to move and they were soon running the debris pile that would lead to the ground. However, before she reached the edge, Buffy jumped, using her slayer strength to take him with her as she launched herself off the edge to land on top of the Olvikan demon.

“I can still walk!” He grumbled as they landed on the turgid flesh of the slowly ripening monster.

“Shut it Winchester!” She ordered, letting him go only when a she could deal with the grimslaw lunging at them. She swung the blade wildly and cut the thing in half.

Dean took the opportunity to break free so that he could help. Now that Sam was here and there was an end in sight, his survival instincts returned with a vengeance and though he knew he couldn’t keep it up for long, he could help her get to Sam.

“Take that you son of a bitch!” Dean brought his boot down on the grimslaw that skittered towards him. Holding it down with his weight, he stabbed it through the back just as another shotgun blast was heard nearby. Another grimslaw exploded, blood and entrails rupturing from broken flesh.

“Come on!” Buffy exclaimed, tugging him along as they descended the snake demon’s scaly hide. She heard Dean curse as they lost their footing, sliding the rest of the way to the ground and landing on their asses. Buffy even managed to land a kick on a grimslaw during their trip down, causing the critter to tumble unceremoniously aside in a tangle of spindly limbs. Buffy jumped a little when she was startled by another shotgun blast that splattered a grimslaw to smithereens.

As soon as Sam had called out to Dean and saw his brother and Buffy coming towards them, Faith had rushed into engage the grimslaw demons. She’d never encountered the critters herself but she’d knew how damn lethal they were. Judging by the red smear on big brother’s shirt, Faith judged that she and Sam had arrived just in time. With Sam blasting away at the creatures swarming around Buffy and Dean, Faith’s attack also drew more of the swarm away from the duo. She was more than adept at cutting a swathe through the critters with the long bladed knife she was carrying.

Another shotgun blast cleared the space between the two sets of hunters and slayers enough for them to finally meet up.

“B!” Faith called out to the blond slayer while she hacked away the grimslaw in her path.

“Faith!” Buffy exclaimed in shock to see the dark hair slayer who had become friend and ally in recent years. It had only taken nine years for them to reach this place in their relationship where Buffy was relieved to see Faith aiding in her rescue. “What are you doing here?”

“G-Man was a little worried about you and your new boyfriend,” Faith winked as she glanced in the direction of the older Winchester. “Asked me to check on you in case your new hottie was evil.”

“Oh he did not!” Buffy’s jaw dropped open in outrage but had little time to comment when she saw Sam running towards his brother.

“Dean!” Sam shouted, tossing his brother the other shotgun he’d brought with him.

“Thank Christ!” Dean exclaimed, catching the weapon with one hand and risked taking his other hand off his oozing wound to catch the box of shells Sam shoved his way when he was close enough. This time, when the pain surged through him, Dean didn’t feel weakened, he just felt pissed. Riding that oh so sweet rage, he loaded the weapon and growled, “Oh you sons of bitches are so going to get paid!” With that, he aimed and fired at the grimslaws behind them, scattering the ugly critters for the moment.

“Come on!” Sam exclaimed, “I know the spell to get us out of here! Let’s go!”

“Give me your gun Sam!” Faith interjected running up to him. “You need to do the spell! You can’t shoot and do that at the same time.”

“I thought you didn’t know how to use a gun!” Sam said hesitant to give the weapon to someone who wasn’t schooled in using one, even if she was right about him needing to concentrate on the spell to get them out of here.

“I said I didn’t like using them, didn’t say I didn't know how!” Faith declared. “Give it up!”

Sam saw Dean and Buffy trying to keep the grimslaws back and realised he didn’t have a choice. “Here.” He handed her the gun and ammunition. “Don’t shoot anything off.”

“Oh Sammy,” Faith laughed as she pocketed the ammunition and then cocked the shotgun with a forceful one handed pump before blasting away at one of the monsters.

That was so damn sexy, he was at a loss for words until he heard Dean barking at him. “Sammy close your mouth and work the spell!”

“Right,” he shook his head. “Buffy come on!” Sam urged the slayer to keep up with him.

Buffy was reluctant to leave Dean but he seemed to have caught a second wind as he and Faith lay waste to the grimslaws with gunfire and decided that covering Sam while he performed his spell might be the most prudent thing to do.

“Alright, alright!” Buffy conceded reluctantly. “Faith….” She tossed a brief glance at Faith.

“Don’t worry B,” Faith assured her getting what the look meant, “gotta make sure Big Brother is safe for Sammy.”

Buffy glanced at Sam and thought she might have seen the younger Winchester blush. For her part, she was more interested in Faith ensuring that Dean didn’t go kamikaze like he wanted to earlier. She hadn’t forgotten how he’d been willing to die for her to be safe and she didn’t want him falling prey to that logic now that they were so close to escape.

“Get us out of here Sam!” She declared as she joined him, leaving behind the dead Olvikan and hordes of grimslaw demons.

Sam had already retrieved the cube from his pocket and was hoping to put more space between them and the grimslaws before attempting to open the portal again. However, he saw that even though Dean and Faith were keeping the creatures at bay, the truth was, Sam hadn’t brought an inexhaustible supply of ammunition and eventually, the shotguns would become useless. There was no time to do this safe, it had to be done right now. They’d deal with the consequences on the other side.

Holding out the cube in his hand, Sam started reciting, “Karahnia Stahs ohla varayna discara unas celea mokturna…Karahnia Stahs ohla varayna discara unas celea mokturna!”

Once again, the same light poured out of the cube’s ornate design, the cryptic mechanism unlocking to reveal the figure inside. The same white brilliance illuminated the darkened realm like a mini sun, forcing Sam to look away. Beneath his feet, he could feel the seismic tremors that felt like mini quakes under the cold marble floor. The shuddering effect of the tremors travelled along the floor because when Sam stopped running to let Dean and Faith catch up, he could see the grimslaws had stopped following them. The quakes had unsettled the creatures enough for the swarm to halt its advance and then begin a hasty retreat.

Instead of holding on to the cube like he had before, Sam let it drop to the floor. Once again its impact shuddered through his bones like he’d dropped a safe onto a concrete floor from ten storeys up.

“Hang on!” Sam ordered and extended his hand towards Faith. More bright light continued to pour out of the cube corresponding with the tremors growing more violent. As soon as Faith was in reach, Sam pulled her to him, wrapping his arm around her waist as if holding her close was to only way to ensure that she went with him when the portal opened. It wasn’t but the action seemed so natural to both of them that Sam didn’t question it.

Dean had lowered the gun, grateful to be able to stop shooting because what scant reserves he had used to get to this point was almost gone. The pain had come back in full force, slamming into him like he’d run straight into a brick wall. The shotgun wavered in his grip and though the grimslaws were no longer in pursuit, Dean was reluctant to let it go. Unfortunately, maintaining his grip on the weapon was no longer an option as his hand clutched his side again and he felt more blood pulsing out of his torn flesh. Dean was having trouble keeping steady and thought his legs might give out.

Drawn to the light like a moth to the flame, Dean staggered forward and almost fell when he felt Buffy’s arm coiling around his body.

“It’s okay, I got you.” She said looking up at him.

“Yeah you do Counsellor,” he nodded meeting her gaze with warm affection. “You damn well do.”

Dean was still mesmerized by that smile of hers, the one that hit him like a bullet to the brain and the proverbial arrow to the heart when the cube’s radiating energy exploded and enveloped them all.

TO BE CONTINUED