Tag: And With Great Power

The room was empty. The pentagram was on my floor. The blood pooled in a slick puddle of red. I had no idea if everyone was okay. I wasn’t likely to ever find out. It was a dream after all. A dream where I wasn’t even me. I was Nox. I had Nox’s power. I had his gift, his job. I saw what he dealt with daily. It was a lesson.

And one I think I learned.

I killed a man with my power – his power. Nox had to be careful every moment of his life. He had fine control on everything. He needed that release. Needed someone to tell him what to do on occasion. It wasn’t about a kink. It was a release. I thought I’d understood before.

I thought I knew what made him happy. This had been fun. Scary, but fun. I had killed saving someone. I cared what happened. Nox cared more than I did. His power was draining. I could feel it eating at me when I’d killed that little girl. I sank to the floor and then flopped to my back to stare at the ceiling. “Dev. I’m done. I got it now. Nox needs the hunt as I need my computer. It’s life. It’s death without it.”

I closed my eyes and I hoped to wake up. I hoped to wake up to a world where my lovers were wrapped around me. But I knew one would be missing. I knew Nox would be doing what he needed to do. And if he ever spoke to me again I would be lucky. I thought I knew him. Thought I understood, but I was wrong.

Thankfully Dean and Cass managed to catch the four-legged garbage disposals before they ruined my basement. And that’s when things go weird. Magnus had finished his drawing. Dean chanted words. And slit the goats throats letting them bleed all over the pentagram. No one else wanted to do it. Dean was the only one “man enough” he said to do it. So he did it.

Magnus didn’t want to touch blood magic. Cass said he couldn’t and Alec looked at Dean like you do it. Me I wanted nothing to do with it. I had wished them dead but I couldn’t do it. I mean really do it. I could kill a bug or a spider, but a goat? Maybe a mouse, but a goat? A thing the size of a dog? Maybe kinda cute.

But I also didn’t want to get blood on my clothes. There might be something to do with a phobia. But I wasn’t man enough to admit I might be afraid of blood. But i didn’t watch the summoning. I had gone upstairs to make sure the entrance had been salted? What the fuck? I thought that was a ghost thing. Hell hounds? I don’t know but Dean said it had to be done to keep it inside, so I made sure our salt barrier was in place while the blood poured from the goats I hated before.

As i was coming back down the stairs I felt a wind swirling in my basement. It got dark, and then there was the words Azazel and I felt a surge of power. It nipped at my senses and when I reached the last step inside the pentagram stood Sam Winchester with yellow eyes.

Fuck! We’d summoned a demon to my basement. Alec and Magnus started the second spell the moment that Sam had shown up. He started speaking in a voice that was not his own. “Who dares…” he was going to finish summon me but he started cackling madly. It might have been more comical if he’d said, “maniacal laughter, maniacal laughter.” Instead the sound coming from his voice sounded more like a series of clicks.

It wasn’t laughter, it was demon speech, Sam slit his wrists and I felt the darkness grow. We watched as tiny little demons form once they hit the ground and grow. They started small like insects, then scorpions, and larger until they were the size of cats and dogs, and still bigger yet. They filed the pentagram like an hourglass. We were going to get overrun.

Alec and Magnus were working the exorcism as fast as possible and the demon screamed. He shuddered and split. It was like I was watching the world split in two in that moment. Or thirds. Everything splintered. The world shifted. The demon’s energy was the only thing combining worlds. The spell was shattering the power.

Dean and Cass and Sam flickered in and out of phase.

Magnus and Alec and the scorpion like creatures flickered. If they disappeared into their own world they’d be overrun. But if I sent a fireball now, Sam might die. Fuck!

I had a decision to make. I didn’t send a fireball. But I started to target individual demons in their trapped environment with Nox’s power. Fire a pin prick. Each one that grew hotter and hotter as seconds passed.

Flicker!

Flicker!

The demon screamed, “No!” It echoed in my basement office until it was cut off. Not a death cry, just gone.

Sam, Dean and Cass were gone.

Alec, Magnus and the demons were gone.

There was nothing in my basement except me and the remnants of demon smoke as it fled this world back to it’s own.

Dean and Castiel weren’t gone for long. Just long enough to take the Impala to some place out in Queens that sold goats. They weren’t skinny little things like I expected. No they were fat and well feed and looked as healthy as ever. And they were raised for the sole purpose of sacrifice. How many fucking goat sacrifices are there that there is an entire business that caters to selling goats for sacrifice. WHAT the fuck!

Dean carried one goat. Cass the other and it looked liked some farm hands I’d seen out in the Hamptons when I was a kid. God we hadn’t been out there in years. Carla and I had out grown the family trips in our teenage years and now Danny and Rosie didn’t take any trips that weren’t pack related. I sighed at the memories as Dean and Cass set down the bleating goats in my spare room in the basement. “They’ll be fine for a little while.” Dean had said when I protested they were going to ruin things.

Dean and Alec moved the furniture of my basement to make room for the summoning spell. I was thinking the whole time why are we summoning a demon to my basement? Why can’t we go someplace else? Then I asked like where? I didn’t even think to watch Alec or Dean or both as they lifted heavy objects. I was so lost in my thoughts and when Magnus pointed out Alec’s buldging muscles as he lifted the couch I chided myself. Magnus chuckled. “Pay attention to the finer things. Don’t worry about the mess. There will always be a mess.”

I wasn’t sure Magnus was talking about the mess that was about to become my basement floor. I think he meant my life. Or Nox’s life. Was that how it was with every hero. And I thought about it knew it was the case. Lois Lane always sacrificed her love of superman for his love of saving people. MJ for Spider-man. Every superhero ever sucked at relationships. Even Harry Potter did. That wasn’t why my boyfriend sucked at relationships, but it didn’t help matters any. And all in all Nox was a great partner. He was loving and kind he understood me. He let me get away with things others had looked down on me about. He was not perfect. I was far from it myself. Why should I expect him to change? He never asked me to…

I sighed as Dean rolled up the carpet on my floor. All bent over like that I was glad this was a dream and no one noticed how fucking hot for him I was. I had to turn away and decided to go get the stupid ass goats in the spare room. And I was right. The fucking goats trashed the room. They ate the bed spread and the carpet. There were bear spots on the floor, holes in the blankets and one of the video games that had gotten left in her was devoured. I picked up the mangled box and stomped out of the room and tossed it at Dean. “They’ll be fine you said!” I growled.

Dean reached for his gun like I was a threat. But he didn’t draw it. “I’m not a fucking werewolf.”

Dean shook himself and put his hands back in front of him and nodded. “Coulda fooled me.”

I grinned at him. “Years of standing up to them. What can I say.” I wasn’t very good at standing up to the other kids in the pack when I was younger, it wasn’t until Nox that I had that courage. I was still only human, but when you have a partner like Nox you have so much more power. No one would mess with me now.

The goats were running around my office space now. Not running, they were grazing – eating the fucking carpet! I was almost thankful they were going to die right now.

Magnus grumbled as he drew a pentagram on the ground with chalk. “Blood magic…” He shuddered but kept drawing.

Alec watched. Dean and Cass were chasing the goats and I was going to be pissed if they ate my computer cables or worse yet broke one. Dream or no dream I would fireball his ass if it happened.

The problem was who was going to be the bait. Or what would lure the demon Azazel to them. So back to the internet looking up lore about Azazel was next on the agenda. Dean and Cass came down stairs with me while Alec and Magnus finished the spell, potion, whatever the hell you wanted to call it. I really didn’t know it was kinda all those things.

I liked Dean and Cass. But there were two very men oriented men in Nox’s kitchen and I would have rather looked at them then hid my feelings in front of two very straight characters. Dean watched me as I did the normal search thing. It was like someone burrowing a hole in the back of my head. His green gaze like a laser. I shivered a time or two and had to focus on my work. But searching the internet didn’t take any skill, Dean or Cass could have done it – well maybe not Cass. But certainly Dean.

I eventually found a little lore on the demon. And a quick search through the dark web I found a place that sold goats for sacrifice. What the fuck, we were going to summon a demon with two fucking goats to my house. Black magic, voodoo. I didn’t believe any of it but Dean had pushed me out of the way when he saw the ritual. He said they’d done similar things.

I was more than willing to let him do his thing. I wasn’t a demon hunter. I wasn’t any kinda hunter. The worse I ever did was shoot some stupid kid with a paint ball gun. Or Dev! I liked playing with Dev it was a challenge.

So Dean and Cass left again, this time to get goats. Goat! What the fuck.

The shop Dean and Cass went to was in China town. Which was probably par for course since every movie ever send you to Chinatown to get exotic herbs and remedies of the homeopathic variety. It was classic movie and since this was my dream – it was perfect. And having trouble in China town was all that more funny since there was a movie called “Big Trouble in Little China”. It was an old flick, but one my dad had watched with me as a kid. Kurt Russel was young then. I still preferred him as Snake Pliskin in the Escape movies. Or in Over Board – that was a cute movie. I need to make Nox watch several of my favorites. We were just finishing Star Wars up. We had a billion and one more to go – between Dev and me Nox was going to get a pop culture education in a short time span.

Dean was regaling us the tale of his epic fight with a thing he said. It wasn’t a monster, it wasn’t a person. But it wasn’t human either. The man in the show had challenged Dean to a duel. But he hadn’t said with what. Very archaic. But Dean won with a little bit of salt and a whole lot of blood. Not his own thankfully. Dean only had a split lip which he hadn’t even gotten in the duel. Cass was very animated when he told us all about Dean falling flat on his face. Funny thing though, Cass wasn’t smiling. He wasn’t trying to keep a straight face. While Alec and I were trying our best not to laugh at the story. Dean glared at us the whole time, but he didn’t silence Cass anymore than Magnus tried to make us behave ourselves. It was comical watching Cass telling a funny story with that dead pan straight face and never once even slightly cracking a smile.

But Dean had come out a head. He had earned the rest of the ingredients. And we all got a good laugh out of it. Magnus took the bag from Dean while Cass was telling his side of the story. Alec and I tried to listen, but we were more interested in what Magnus was doing. Dean was also watching the warlock with his black painted nails and blue tipped hair tossing ingredients into his boiling pot. Nox would be so pissed that someone was using his good stock pot for magical purposes. It was a good thing this really was a dream. I’d be reamed for letting it happen. Or worse he’d make me clean it with a toothbrush or something. He was very creative with his punishments for the boys.

The last time Drake trashed his kitchen with flour Nox made him do just that clean the whole kitchen floor with a toothbrush. His toothbrush. Nox threatened to make him use it that night, but he had replaced it already with a new one. But in Drake’s defense it had been Dee’s fault there was flour all over the kitchen. She’d baked last, left it out and Drake only wanted to make pancakes for Nox.

But after the floor was cleaned. I think Nox used a little bit of magic to help Drake finish. But I couldn’t swear to it. All I know is the little dragon was done with in the hour and Nox had stood vigilantly over the boy doing the work to make sure he hadn’t used any magic. Drake’s magic lessons were suspended for three weeks. But Nox helped Drake make pancakes after he took a bath to clean himself of the floury mess.

Nox was a push over when it came to the boys. But he was a strict man. Not because he wanted to be but because for his own health he needed to be. I still got annoyed when I’d put something down and he’d pick it up and put it where it belonged. Or worse yet he’d move it a few inches away. He never said anything to me about it. Or to the boys, except when it was like shoes or clothes or things that were clearly theirs and in the wrong room all together.

I rearranged the living room on a regular basis just to see what Nox would do. He really would try to stick it out, but he had to put it back. It was a fun game at first, but then it really did become annoying. It was my house I should be able to rearrange things. But I knew that if I told Nox I needed to move something and gave him a reason he’d leave it be. He’d adapt. He hated change. But he adapted to it. You just had to deal with that process in the mean time. Chairs and things moving were big deals. Moving the figurines around those were little nuisances that Nox fixed without thinking about it.

We watched as Magnus finished the concoction. He looked up at me. “So how do we deliver this?”

I pulled out my phone and read the instructions. “Put it in a bowl. Chant some words I can’t pronounce. Oh, there’s some symbol on the ground.” I started to summarize, “Drawn in blood.” I shuddered. “It says ‘for best effect the chanter should use their own blood.”

Alec moved behind me and was peering over my shoulder. I could feel his warm breath on my neck and I had to close my eyes and control my raging hormones. There was way too much hottness in this room.

Alec moved away and the loss of heat from his body made me shiver. “I think we can manage this. We just need to find Azazel.”

Dean said, “Or lure him here.”

I watched Alec and Magnus a little while longer before I stomped up the stairs so they’d hear me coming. They weren’t my lovers and they’d probably be pretty pissed off if they knew what I’d been doing. I was used to covering my tracks. I shut down everything on my computer before leaving it out of habit. I didn’t want my dad seeing some of the things I did. And I didn’t want Nox to see it. It wasn’t that he didn’t know. It’s just out of sight out of mind. And I definitely didn’t want Drake to walk in and see it. Or Matt and Fae, but they already knew about a few kinks.

We were careful to make sure the boys weren’t around, but once and a while they were.

I sighed as I pushed open the basement door and headed for the kitchen. The door swung open and Magnus was chuckling. “Something upsetting? Or were you letting us know you were coming.”

I could feel the heat rising at the back of my neck. “Both.” I muttered.

“Alec does the same thing when he nears Jace’s or Izzy’s room.” Magnus grinned at his boyfriend, “It’s rather endearing.”

Alec defended himself, “I’ve walked in on them one too many times.”

“Normally I don’t mind walking in on things.” I said as I opened the fridge to get a bottle of water.

Magnus’ chuckling grew louder. “I thought there was a camera in here.”

I bit back the groan of disapproval and I knew that I was a pretty shade of red. I cracked the lid on my water bottle and was pulling a long swig from it. Alec was blushing furiously too. Magnus was laughing.

Alec grumbled, “It’s not funny.”

I sat down at the island and knew I was still blushing. “It was hot.” I said without skipping a beat and Alec’s blush grew deeper. But he looked proud.

Magnus asked, “Do your partners know?”

I nodded quickly. “Yes. I’m not allowed to record without their knowledge.” I could see Alec fidgeting more than before so I added, “I didn’t record you guys either.” It was a dream I couldn’t anyway but I didn’t say that out loud.

Magnus elbowed Alec, “See not everyone is just plain vanilla.”

“I don’t want to talk about this.” Alec muttered as he walked across the room to fiddle with something on the counter.

I chuckled. “It’s a good thing Nox isn’t here, or Dev. They’d tease you until you caved and were spilling your kinks to them.”

“I don’t have any kinks.” Alec spit out.

Magnus was laughing. “That’s a lie, Alexander.” Magnus said, which earned him a sharp glare from his blue-eyed beau.

“We don’t have to talk about it. I’d rather not too.” I said and watched Alec visibly relax. I changed the subject, “How’s your end of things going?”

Magnus smiled. “Waiting on Dean and Castiel to bring the other ingredients.”

The kitchen door swung open. “We got the ingredients,” Castiel intoned.

But when Dean walked through he had a split lip. Cass added, “There was a little trouble.”