Part 3: Never How You Planned

Sleeping was not something Dean usually had trouble with. He was a hunter. He was used to grabbing whatever meager hours of rest were allotted him, and making those hours count. But tonight was a different story. Tonight his dreams were filled with seven faceless demons banging on the walls of the motel room, closing in on them, and leaving them nowhere to run but right into the demons' clutches. If the real life demons really did come for them in a rush, Dean doubted they would make it. Sure they had salted the entrances, the windows, and thrown up a few devil's traps to catch the demons off guard, but there was always a chance, and that chance kept Dean half awake the entire night.

He distinctly remembered Sasha passing by his cot at one point, probably when Sasha switched out for Sam as lookout, and grabbing onto the incubus' pant leg. Groggily, he had asked just what the hell were Manolos anyway. It had been bothering him since that afternoon.

With his usual smirk, Sasha had leaned in close to Dean and whispered beside his ear, "Shoes worth more than your car, Dean."

Now, Dean wasn't entirely sure if any of that had been real, or if his half-conscious mind had made him imagine it all. Judging by Sasha's answer, Dean hoped to God it had been a dream. No pair of heels were worth more than his baby.

A few hours of being right on the edge of real sleep passed, and just when Dean thought he was finally going to drift into the sweet reaches of REM, a knock sounded at their motel door. It was the kind of motel that had its rooms completely separate, so the door led straight outside, not into a hallway.

Dean was immediately up, taking stock of Bobby being the lookout again, which meant it couldn't be much after six AM. The knock was way too early to be a wake up call.

By the time Bobby had peered outside to check out the person at the door and deemed whoever it was safe enough to open it, Sam and Sasha were up too. All three sleepyheads were busy grabbing for clean shirts when the woman at the door started poking her head in.

"I'm sorry, but it is not allowed for more than three guests to stay in one of these rooms. Two beds and a cot, if all the beds are single. I would have been in here right away last night if it had been my shift. I'm just glad Steven mentioned something to me when I replaced him this morning. It really is against motel policy…"

Recognizing that this was no more a demon attack than a social call, Dean started to tune the conversation out. The sun was just starting to come up outside, and if this woman was the reason Dean was going to miss out on the last few precious hours of sleep he might have gotten, then he was not going to give her the benefit of having him pay her much attention.

Bobby argued with her for a little bit and finally explained their arrangement as being a byproduct of their research.

"Research?" the woman pressed. She was tall and thin, and couldn't have been older than early-thirties. She had dark hair tied up in a ponytail and bangs that wisped around her face. Dean thought she would actually be kind of cute if she wasn't yelling at them.

"Yeah…" Bobby said, thinking fast, "We've been following the cicada migrations. Right. There happens to be quite a few of them around these parts, if you hadn't noticed."

Points to Bobby, Dean thought. Once in a while the truth really did make the best lie.

The woman stared at Bobby blankly for a minute before responding. She glanced in past him again and took note of the three young men sitting on various beds with disarrayed hair and crumpled T-shirts.

"You're entomologists?" She said.

Dean felt a swell of pride that he actually knew entomologist meant bug scientist.

"And…you sleep in one room," the woman finished. There was no doubt a large amount of misunderstanding was going through her head right now, and Dean was not about to let her think like that.

"Hey," he said, rising from his cot to move closer to the door, "It's not what you think."

"It's just…easier for our research if we're all together," Bobby finished.

Personally, Dean didn't think either of them sounded at all convincing, and that thought was mirrored quite openly in Sam and Sasha since they were both giving Bobby and Dean incredulous looks.

Which is why Dean found it surprising that the woman took them at their word so readily after that.

"Oh," she said, accepting Bobby and Dean's jumbled and defensive explanations, "Well, if you're really interested in the cicada migrations, I heard that there are swarms of them right now in the Chicago area. You know…" Her eyes turned to stare more fully at Bobby again, and she reached out a hand to gently touch his arm, "If you want them so badly…you must want all of them."

Bobby's posture straightened so quickly, Dean almost thought for a second that the older hunter had jumped out of his skin.

Dean was the only one who could really see Bobby and the woman clearly, since Sam and Sasha were still sitting on their respective beds, and from Dean's point of view he was almost positive that something was very, very wrong.

"Yeah…" came Bobby's reply, softer of voice and sounding suddenly very determined. "I need to track them all down. All of them."

"Better get going then," the woman said, and her hand slipped from Bobby's arm as she moved out of the way to give him space to leave the room.

Bobby was already dressed, his vest on, his hat on his head, and a gun tucked into the back of his pants where he had been trying to keep it hidden from the woman at the door. Until now, that is. Now, he grabbed the gun and brought it fearlessly into the open, cocking it as if he already had sights on something to shoot, and walked right past the woman out of the motel room.

"Bobby!" Dean called, rushing for the door. In his periphery, he saw Sam and Sasha rise from their beds to follow suit, but before even Dean could exit the room after Bobby, the woman took her place again in front of it to block him.

Dean gave a sharp gasp and almost started back-peddling immediately, soon finding himself flush with the tall form of his brother behind him.

Black eyes stared back at them from the face of the woman at the door. They had been tricked. And it had been only too easy.

"I think he wants to find those cicadas so badly…he won't want to share," she grinned. Laughter fell from her lips like acrid smoke and in the next moment she had slammed the door shut in Dean's face.

All three of them made an instinctive rush for the door, but none of them reached for the knob. Running out there was exactly what the demons wanted. The demons…

Damn it. Dean felt like such an idiot. They were all idiots. It shouldn't have been that easy. And yet the sound of Bobby starting his car and driving off in a mad rush was only too audible.

"Greed," Sam said in an angry hiss, one of his large hands turning into a fist as it came down heavily on the door, "She knew Bobby would do anything to track down as many demons as possible. And cicadas equal demons. Damn it!" he slammed his fist on the door again, "All she did wastouch him!"

"I can't believe we're this stupid," Dean voiced aloud, since it was the most prominent thought on his mind right now, "We should have gone after them last night."

"We were dead on our feet," Sasha reminded him, peering out through the curtains to check the parking lot for signs of their she-demon, "A lot of good it would have done us."

"Maybe, but we're still dead on our feet," said Sam, "And now we're one less."

"But I don't get it," Dean started, turning back to the room to begin gathering up whatever supplies he could think to grab, "Why get Bobby to just drive off like that? What good does that do?"

Sasha's voice filtered over to Dean from where he was still leaning by the window, "Divide and conquer. Just like we were thinking."

"We're wasting time. We can't afford to get boxed in here," Sam said anxiously, taking Dean's cue and starting to gather up as many things as he thought he would need and could most easily carry. Sasha did the same, and after they were armed and their pockets were filled with charms and various items, they started to look around the motel room for the best way out.

Again, it was Sam who made the suggestion, peering inside the bathroom and indicating the inevitably tiny bathroom window.

"Come on," he said.

They didn't have much choice. The front door was too risky. All seven demons could be out there somewhere waiting for them. Their chances weren't much better with the bathroom window if the demons had any sense, but it was the best plan they had right now.

They had stopped expecting an ambush somewhere around three AM, when they were too drowsy to imagine any kind of battle. And that was their mistake.

Dean was the first one out the window, being the smallest, then Sasha, and finally Sam, whose shoulders almost got stuck halfway through though he managed to maneuver around his broader frame eventually. Once all three of them were on the ground, and sights were clear, they made a sprint for the nearest cover: behind the main office of the motel. From there they had a clear view of their own building and of the Impala, which for now looked completely untouched. Dean thanked whatever gods existed for that small miracle.

A few minutes of watching produced several people who at first could be harmless enough, just people innocently mulling about. But when the hunters spotted Envy who they knew on sight more easily than the others, they knew the group of people they watched were demons. All seven of them were indeed there, appearing from different places around the grounds, even to the point where the boys had to duck and cover when a man with curly hair and a well-tailored suit almost stumbled upon their hiding place.

The seven demons gathered, discussed, and eventually dispersed. It seemed too easy. They had snuck around the Impala a bit, but called it quits after only a few minutes, taking off in two separate groups in two separate cars that ended up going in opposite directions.

Sam, Dean, and Sasha stared at each other, waited an appropriate amount of time, and then made a break for the Impala. Sam had his cell phone out, which he had been fiddling with since they first left their motel room. He was trying to get a hold of Bobby, but when Dean and Sasha looked to him for some sort of report, he just shook his head. No answer.

They reached the Impala and Dean unlocked the doors for them to all get inside, Sasha in back again behind Dean. Dean was already shifting into gear and heading after the car carrying the fewer amount of demons—three instead of four—when Sasha's dissenting voice drifted up from the backseat.

"They're setting us up. Have to be."

"Yeah, no shit," Dean said through clenched teeth, "But we have no idea which direction Bobby went, and catching up to at least one group of those bastards is the best bet we got. We can't afford to lose them only to have them track us down again later."

Sam was still trying Bobby's cell and still getting nothing for his troubles. Bobby's phone was working, he just wasn't picking up. "At least he's safe," Sam said after the tenth or more try.

"Safer than us," Dean grumbled. He didn't like the idea of going after the demons either, but they couldn't risk hanging around the motel when the demons knew they were staying there. "Look, I say we just keep tracking this one car, and if we're lucky we'll figure out some way of getting rid of a few. After that, then we can worry about the rest of the demons and how to get Bobby back to his senses."

"We'll be on their turf," Sasha said, as much of a voice of reason and discouragement as Sam was most of the time, "I don't like it. I don't like any of this."

Dean clenched the wheel a little tighter. He could see the smaller group of demons' car ahead of them now, but was careful not to get too close. Much as he loved his baby, she wasn't exactly inconspicuous. "Who knows," Dean said, trying to find some kind of bright side if Sam and Sasha weren't going to offer any, "They're trying to divide us, right? Maybe they'll think we sent some of us after each car."

"I don't know," said Sam, his tone sounding so much in synch with Sasha on this matter that it made Dean sick, "Sounds too easy."

Dean clutched the wheel even tighter. "Well, I'm sorry Mr. Negative and Even More Negative in the backseat, but this is the best plan we've got right now. If either of you have any suggestions…" Dean trailed off to give his companions the chance to voice any. None came. "Then shut your cakeholes," he spat out, "You're not helping. We're all tired and edgy, and Bobby's off headed to Chicago or some shit, and we have no idea what we're doing. Things are bad enough without you two yapping at my ideas. So unless you're going to come up with some of your own, shut up and let me drive."

Needless to say, everything was much quieter after that, and Dean, being Dean, had to admit that he felt pretty damn good about things from that point on.

Dean could have sworn he had declared his eternal hatred for stakeouts last night, but apparently that wasn't enough to free him from the burden of sitting through one again today.

They had followed the car to a house in the suburbs of Lincoln, where all three demons had gone inside and since then hadn't come back out. Dean had maintained an almost laughable distance while tailing the car, since the demons had spotted them so easily the night before, but still managed not to lose them. When he finally had the Impala parked within spying distance of the demons' house, he was pretty sure they hadn't been seen this time.

Unless of course the two negative people in the car with him were right about this all being an elaborate setup. But Dean didn't want to think about that right now. Now they had to come up with a plan to take care of these three seven deadly sins, hopefully sending all of them back to Hell where they belonged, and then figure out some way to get Bobby back on their side before they headed after the rest of the sins. Sam still wasn't having any luck getting Bobby to answer his phone.

The better part of an hour passed before they agreed it was safe to try and make a move on the house. The question was, what move should they make, and how to execute it.

"Hey," came Sasha's voice from between the seats, since he was leaning forward to better get Sam and Dean's attention. He pointed an outstretched hand not at the house with the demons, but at the house next door with the prominent FOR SALE sign. Sasha grinned. "I have an idea."

Dean was grinning like mad by the time he went over and gave the doorbell a ring. "Hey there," he said, aiming his grin at Envy who had answered the door, "I was wondering if I might interest you in a set of encyclopedias."

Envy grinned back at him, his eyes shimmering into their true black pitch as Greed and the other demon appeared behind him in the doorway.

"No?" Dean said, holding his ground, "I just figured you'd need one later when you wanted to look up the term sucker-punched." To which Dean accompanied his words with a sharp, hard punch to Envy's nose just before turning on his heels and sprinting across the lawn back towards the house with the FOR SALE sign.

Dean Winchester had done many stupid things in his life, but as far as he was concerned punching a demon wasn't one of them.

It was no surprise that the demons gave chase, and they moved fast, faster than any normal human should be able to. But these weren't humans, not at the moment, and they didn't care if they pushed the bodies they had stolen to the very brink of human capability. Their demon power made them stronger and more resilient, but it didn't make them invincible. And that was one of the things Dean and the others were counting on.

Dean flew through the already open kitchen door of the neighboring empty house, bypassing Sasha and Sam as he skidded to a halt on the other side of the room. His breaths came heavy but he was smiling as he looked back and saw that Sasha and his brother had him book-ended, weapons ready even if they wouldn't do much good against demons.

A moment later their guests arrived.

Unlike Dean, the three demons slowed down before even reaching the house, having clear sights on the three hunters that were waiting for them. They were walking calmly by the time they entered the kitchen, staying just inside its doorway.

The unidentified deadly sin stood in between Envy and Greed, taking on what appeared to be an instinctive leadership role. His smile was smug as he nodded at the floor in the middle of the kitchen and said, "Just how stupid do you think we are?"

A devil's trap was prominent on the kitchen linoleum, acting as temporary barrier between the three demons and the three hunters. The demon in the suit took another step forward, the others following, and came to a stop with the toes of his expensive shoes just barely touching the edge of the trap.

Dean couldn't help but grin. He had caught his breath by now, and came forward to stand more even with Sasha and his brother. With an expression surely as smug as the demon's, Dean gave a little nod to the ceiling above the demons' heads where a second devil's trap had been drawn closer to the door.

"Pretty damn stupid," Dean said. There was really no other way to say it.

The three demons all looked up, seeing that they had been caught anyway, and turned back to the hunters with black eyes blazing and howls on their lips.

The hunters were all smiling now, but Dean's smirk took the cake. He pat his brother on the back and said, "Let her rip, Sammy," to which Sam nodded, handed Dean his shotgun, and took out their dad's journal with the page already marked and ready for an exorcism.

Steady Latin began to fall from Sam's lips, but the demons did not react with words of compromise or threats. All they did was stare back at the hunters and start to laugh.

The sound got on Dean's nerves quicker than Sammy with a hangover.

"Something funny?" Dean sneered.

"Or did you fail to notice you've been beaten?" Sasha added, his gun having never once wavered as he kept his watch on the demons.

The demon in the middle laughed loudest of all and when he spoke again the boys started wondering if maybe they did know which of the seven deadly sins he was supposed to be after all. "You?" he said, "You think an aged and experienced demon like me could fall to someone like you?" He laughed again. "Please. I've cleaned my teeth on the bones of better, braver men than the likes of you."

Pride. It clicked in all of their heads in rancorous unison, Dean was sure of it. If his words didn't give him away then that holier-than-thou tone of voice sure as hell did.

But what Dean didn't like about this was that it didn't seem to be just Pride's pride that was making him so sure of himself. Envy and Greed looked just as confident, even as Sam's voice continued to ring out loudly in the kitchen in Latin.

And then the ambush struck.

First, it was a rumble as the floor began to shake and a crack appeared in the devil's trap in the ceiling and in the one on the floor. So much for having a backup. Then, before the three sins they had so recently held captive could begin to move forward, the other four sins appeared, two from the side staircase and two from behind them, blocking their escape.

Shit.

"Slick trick, salting all those ways in and out of here," said the silken voice of a busty blonde that just screamed Lust.

A guy that looked very much like a biker, bald with piercings and a leather vest, came from that side staircase, his fists already clenched in hopes for a brawl. "That wouldn't make much of a fair fight, now would it?"

The hunters had already started huddling together, Sasha and Dean each armed with a shotgun they knew wouldn't help all that much, and Sam holding a book that wouldn't be much help anymore either. Generally speaking, demons didn't just sit back and let you exorcize them, even if you did ask nicely.

Dean thought about what the biker, whom he had to assume was Wrath, had said, and gave a loud snort.

"Fair? Since when is seven on three fair, cue ball?"

An instant snarl took over Wrath's face at being challenged, but another demon, balding by fate not by choice and wearing a flannel shirt, held him back. Apparently, the sins had a greater plan for their cornered hunters and Dean decided that was a good thing. It meant they still had a chance to get out of this.

One thing didn't add up though, and Sam, being the logical one, had to ask.

"But we did salt all the ways in and out of here. So then…how did the rest of you get in?"

"Maybe you should have checked the attic, big boy," Lust said, leering openly and practically licking her lips at Sammy in a way that made Dean's stomach turn. His brother had safe, normal, boring sex, damn it. Lust looked like she wanted to get nasty.

In another circumstance, Dean might have enjoyed that thought.

"Attic?" Sasha questioned. They hadn't found any attic.

The one demon they had not yet heard speak or been properly introduced to, gave a half-hearted gesture with his hand like grabbing something out of the air. "Pull down. Kinda hidden," he said, and it was not a hard guess to deem him Sloth, overweight and tired looking.

A pull down attic door. They hadn't thought of that. Damn it.

The demons started moving in closer to their captive prey then, all grins and black eyes. The hunters had walked right into this trap, even thinking they had found a way to get one step ahead only to be proven very, very wrong.

They had to get out of the kitchen. They were too closed in and there were too many demons for them to take on their own. But they had thought of this too, just in case everything went to Hell—literally.

Since Sasha and Dean had their guns, it had to be Sam, and so the others watched for him to make his move. His hands became free as he slipped John's journal back into his jacket, but the demons, to their discredit, didn't seem to notice that he also pulled something out. It was already clear to Sasha and Dean which direction they had to go. There were three demons in one direction: not that way. There were two in a direction that led up stairs where they would become even more trapped than they already were: not that way. And then there were two blocking the way out of the kitchen and into the rest of the house: bingo.

Before the demons could close in any tighter, Sam gave a shout of, "Now!", and with a flick of his wrist sent a spray of holy water from his canteen to descend on Lust and Sloth. The demons each gave a scream, and Sam, Sasha, and Dean pushed past them out of the kitchen into the narrow hallway beyond.

Sam was in the lead and they followed him down the hallway at a mad run. There were too many enemies and no time. They had to get out of the house. Taking a sharp turn at the next doorway, knowing it would be the quickest route to the front door, Sam led them into the living room.

Wrath, knuckles cracking as he flexed his fingers in and out of fists, stood at the front entryway to meet them, as if having just come in from outside. So much for that idea.

They turned back on their heels into the hallway and continued down it. Dean was at the end of the line, and just as they came to an opening with the main staircase in front of them and several doors into various rooms on all sides, Dean heard the too close sound of running footsteps behind him. He turned, prepared to fire if he had to even if there was an innocent person buried somewhere inside the bodies chasing them, but…there wasn't anyone there. Worst of all, when Dean swung back around Sasha and Sam were gone.

Shit. Don't get split up, they had said. The last thing we can afford to do is to get split up. It made Dean want to scream. Whatever he thought he heard a moment ago must have just been one of the demons messing with him.

"Dean!"

Senses alerted, Dean turned towards the sound of Sam's voice. He couldn't see him but there was only one door that direction. Dean ran for it immediately. Once inside he could see that another door on the other side of the room led directly out again. That door was swinging slightly as it stood open, but no one was in the room. Had Sam and Sasha ran on?

Dean looked to his left. He could see the can of paint they had found in the garage and used to make all of the devil's traps. He looked right…and saw the black eyes of the balding man in the flannel shirt.

Dean flinched back but the demon was too close. It grabbed Dean's wrist, not forcefully but enough to touch him, and began to speak, "Aren't you tired, Dean?" he said, "Aren't you hungry? You must be hungry after working so hard. You must be starving. And would you look at that," the demon said, nodding down to the can of paint on the floor, "There's a tasty treat for you right…there."

There was no way to describe it. The feeling that rushed into Dean's body when the demon touched him, it was just…need. Dean turned to look down at the can of paint, and what he saw wasn't something that looked like paint at all really, just like something he…had to have. He needed it. He needed it now. He was so…damn…hungry.

Everything started to slow. The demon's hand left Dean's wrist and Dean turned, crouching down beside the can of paint and dropping his gun so he could grab the can on either side with both hands. Something in the back of his head was trying to tell him something, something was screaming at him, and then Dean realized…it was Sam.

"Dean!"

Sam appeared from the other doorway and Sasha was right behind him. While Sam ran at the demon Dean knew now had to be Gluttony even as he was bringing the can of paint up to his mouth, Sasha came straight for him. Sam splashed Gluttony with his flask of holy water and Sasha, his incubus grip grabbing hold of Dean's hand almost painfully to get Dean to drop the can of paint—which he immediately did—started pulling Dean towards the way he and Sam had come from. The spell or whatever it was immediately broke once Dean started moving, the influence flooding out of his body and leaving him with a sense of just how stupid it would have been to guzzle paint.

He thanked his lucky stars for Sammy and Sasha. Much as half of him wished they had just run and gotten out of the house, the other half didn't want to leave them.

Ever.

They made a break from the room, leaving Gluttony to howl in agony behind them. Sam came forward eventually to lead them again, waving them on towards the downstairs bedrooms where they had left one of the windows open despite being salted just in case something like this happened.

At every curve and turn they expected to see another sin waiting for them, but the way remained clear as they made their way into that bedroom and ran for the window. The window that was no longer open.

"Shit!" Sasha yelled, dropping his gun and releasing the grip he had maintained on Dean's wrist so he could grab onto the bottom of the window with both hands. He pulled, and Dean could tell by looking at the strain on Sasha's face that he was using every bit of incubus strength he could summon.

The window didn't budge.

Dean and Sam both came closer to the window to study it. Something had melted the plastic, fusing the window to the sill. Sasha might be able to move it given time, but time was something they didn't have.

"Why is it humans always underestimate us?"

The three hunters turned back to the door, knowing already what they would find. They had trapped themselves after all, having planned and double planned to avoid it, and yet they were still trapped. Sasha couldn't even think to reach down and retrieve his gun before five of the seven demons were already in the room, with the other two close behind.

While Dean and Sam stood frozen at first, not sure what to do, Sasha gave a growl-like cry and rushed forward into the nearest demon. Dean instinctively called out, thinking in terms of human versus demon for a moment and forgetting that Sasha didn't exactly fit into that. He should have known better, because a single punch from Sasha sent Wrath flying back into one of the walls.

Greed and Lust were on Sasha a second later though, so Dean had no problem with reaching down to retrieve Sasha's gun and then using it to smack Greed upside the head. After all, she had been the beginning of all this mess. If not for her, Bobby might still be with them.

Instead of knocking the demon down as Sasha had managed to do with his blow at Wrath, Greed's head simply gave a sharp turn as it was struck and then she rebounded, turning back slowly to look at Dean with a grin. By then Sam had made his try against Pride and had come up equally defeated, caught now in Pride and Gluttony's hold, each having an arm. Dean soon found himself in the same way, caught by Greed and Sloth, while Wrath stepped in to fill Greed's lost place holding Sasha. Wrath was soon joined by Lust, but it also took the last sin, Envy, before they could take control of Sasha completely. Those three sins had to force Sasha down onto his knees before the incubus stopped thrashing, putting up much more of a fight than either Winchester could hope to give. Still, in the end all three hunters came up the same.

Royally screwed.

"Now, now, enough of that," Envy hissed, seeming to enjoy his hold on Sasha as one hand held Sasha's arm and the other pressed hard on his shoulder to keep him down, "Impressive though, I gotta say. Wish I knew how to put up a fight like that."

Dean was doing his best to keep his head clear and his pulse steady. They had been in tight situations before, after all. Maybe not this tight…

Looking to his right, Dean saw the still smug smile on Pride's face as he held onto Sam with the help of Gluttony, who Dean now also hated on a personal level for that damn paint incident. The sinful influence, or whatever it was, left a shuddery feeling inside of Dean that he did not like.

"So, we actually have our hands on the Winchesters," Gluttony grinned.

"Including dear Sammy, the dark savior himself," echoed Pride.

"Shut up," Dean spat before he could help himself; he didn't like anyone giving any mention to his brother being dark. There was no part of Sam that was evil, Dean had to believe that, so much so that he even turned to Sam and added, "Break out that super strength any time, Sammy. I am perfectly fine with you ripping off every last one of these assholes' heads."

For a moment it almost looked as if Sam was indeed trying to do that, at least to summon the great strength that should reside in him as it resided in Jake, but nothing happened.

Pride and the other demons laughed.

"What's wrong, Sam," Pride taunted, "Having trouble summoning those powers without Azazel around to favor you?"

Sam's head jerked at the sound of that name. Dean recognized it, though he didn't know from what, but he assumed the demon must be talking about old yellow-eyes.

Dean was feeling pretty low seeing as how he was being overpowered by a chick and a fat guy, but he didn't suppose he would want to change positions with either of the others, especially since Wrath looked about ready to start taking shots at Sasha's face.

"What's with this one?" Wrath said in frustration as he glowered down at Sasha, "I can't get any read on him."

"Yeah, who is your friend over there?" Greed joined in, "It really isn't nice of you not to share."

Sasha's teeth were clenched tight, and it looked as if he was still struggling despite the firm hold the three demons had on him. Envy was staring as hard at Sasha as Wrath was now, as if he too was trying to read Sasha's mind the way they seemed to be able to read humans, but with Sasha they couldn't get through.

Then, Lust, who stood directly behind Sasha's back to add a little extra pressure in holding him down, started to get the most pleased look on her face. She suddenly grabbed Sasha by the hair and yanked his head back.

"Well, well. Would you look at that," she said, crouching so she could pull herself up close against Sasha from behind. Her eyes batted playfully up at her fellow demons. "We got ourselves an incubus."

It actually made a lot of sense to Dean that Lust understood the truth when none of the others could, but it didn't make him feel any better. He didn't like how pleased all of the demons started to look after discovering Sasha's secret, Lust especially.

"A real live incubus," Lust cooed, one hand tangled in his hair and pulling tight while the other slipped around his waist from behind, "Me and you, we're practically cousins. And you are just too hot for words."

Dean had never seen Sasha looks so angry. When they were fighting his aunt sure the guy looked a little vicious and into the fight, but there was all that remorse and sympathy mixed in too that Dean couldn't really say Sasha looked angry. Now, however, he looked absolutely livid.

Then Dean remembered; the last thing Sasha ever wanted was to be likened to a demon.

"I have an idea," said Pride, his grin widening as he looked from Sasha…to Dean, "A brilliant one too, if I do say so myself."

"And you always do," Envy added.

Pride gave a shrug, unable to deny that. "How about," he began then, his black eyes almost glittering, "We take Sammy here outside for a little chat…and leave the incubus to handle Dean."

Handle Dean? That didn't sound good.

Dean looked back at Lust who was pressing her face close to Sasha's now and still looking pleased as all Hell. Dean wasn't an idiot. All Envy did was touch that girl in the clothing store. Gluttony had simply touched Dean to make feel starved for a fucking can of paint. Greed touched Bobby. Their greatest power was just at the end of their fingertips.

And Lust was all over Sasha.

"You'd like that…wouldn't you?" Lust whispered, her lips so close they touched the skin of Sasha's ear, while her eyes locked right on Dean, "Sasha," she said, the only demon to know his name, "Wouldn't you like that?" The hand that had been holding Sasha's hair slowly let go and came down to rest gently on Sasha's shoulder.

Something shimmered in Sasha's eyes then, not changing them to their true red, but making the blue almost glow. Sasha wasn't struggling against his captors anymore, he was just staring. Staring at Dean. While his breathing came in short, heavy gasps.

"Sasha…" Lust whispered again.

Dean swallowed. OhHell no.

And then Sasha pulled his eyes away, forcing himself to stare down at the hard wood floors. His breathing was even more labored, as if his struggling had continued after all, just in a different way.

"That…won't work on me…" the incubus gasped. He risked a glance up at Dean and said it again, "Your powers…won't work on me."

Now it was Lust who looked angry. "Oh really?" she said, grabbing a handful of Sasha's hair again to snap his head back as she stood up straight, "Maybe they will. Maybe all you need is…motivation." Her grin returned. She passed a glance to her companions, licked her lips, and said, "Maybe what you need…is to be starving."

Lust's free hand rose into the air for a moment, forming a loose first, and then suddenly she was holding a syringe that appeared from nothing. Viciously, she stabbed the needle into the back of Sasha's neck, released his hair, and began to extract what looked very much like the green liquid Sasha kept in his vials as an antidote.

Concentrated sexual energy, that's what Sasha had called it. Mystical and very powerful. It was the very makeup of an incubus. Without it...they frenzied, needed sex so bad they would do anything to get it. Whatever power Lust was using to extract that from Sasha like a nurse taking a blood sample, it was not helping their odds right now.

From the moment the needle struck, Sasha had begun to howl, drowning out every other sound in the room. His angered face was anguished now and he stared out imploring at Dean, always at Dean. Why the hell did he have to look to Dean? Dean couldn't do anything, not even run if that's what Sasha was hoping for—and the damn martyr could be so much like Sam sometimes that Dean believed Sasha was hoping for that, at least more than he was hoping for help.

When Lust pulled the syringe away, filled to the brim finally, Wrath and Envy let go of Sasha's shoulders. Dean prayed the incubus would get up then and run, attack, something. But he just fell forward onto his hands and knees, shaking, as the sound died from his throat.

"Come on," Greed said to the others, "I want that heart to heart with baby Winchester."

"Our leader," Wrath added with a laugh.

The others laughed with him, and since they were in agreement, Pride and Gluttony started to pull Sam towards the door.

"Dean!" Sam yelled, panicked again as he started to thrash.

But Dean barely had the chance to yell in kind. Greed and Sloth had a strong hold on him and with a great heave they threw him into the wall on the opposite side of the room, effectively silencing anything he might have said.

Dean felt the hard impact, felt the pain, but he couldn't allow himself to dwell on it. The demons had Sam, and there were fucking seven of them. Who knows what they were planning on doing to his brother. So Dean recovered as quickly as he could, scrambling to his feet and rushing for the door just as Sloth, the last of the demons to leave, closed that door behind them.

"Sammy!" Dean called through the door, trying the knob but finding it useless, as if the demons had fused the door closed the way they had fused the window before. "Sammy!" Dean yelled again. He could hear the demons laughing, hear Sammy calling for him. Damn this was bad.

And then Dean remembered why it was much, much worse.

At first he just sensed it, movement out of the corner of his eye. Then he heard it, the heavy, harsh breathing. And when he turned…he saw it. Sasha. Sasha the incubus rather—large and monstrous and growling with desire…towards Dean.

Oh, fuck.

tbc...

A/N: For those of you who do not know me well, my nickname over the years has become The Queen of Cliffhangers. Now you see why. :-) I am thrilled at the response I have been getting, especially since I am new to this particular fandom. I just fell in love with those Winchesters so quickly, what can I say. Yay for a new ep tomorrow night! Thanks all for your reviews, and please, I always love to hear what you thought so feel free to give more.

Crim