(no subject)

[always_enduphere]

It'd taken him less than five minutes to lose Cas.

They'll have to work on that when Dean gets back. Cas is more vulnerable than ever, newly human and frankly, pretty fucking terrible at it. Given their lives to date, Dean has no reason to believe that every evil creature in Darrow won't be gunning for them both, and if Castiel is going to survive this place, he needs to shape up, and fast.

Doing a final weapons check outside the dilapidated building, Dean makes a mental note to start Castiel's training, and then he breathes out and steels himself.

There are, at minimum, twelve vampires inside. For a nest, it's huge, but it's also high noon, and Dean has it on good authority that a few of them haven't eaten in days. They'll be desperate, but stupid, too, and if it turns into a rough fight, well...these days, Dean will welcome that.

Squaring his shoulders, Dean lets himself in quietly through the rotted door. The first kill is swift and silent, as is the second, but the third...

Dean flies through the wall as easily as a hammer through wet cardboard, but he keeps a hand on his machete, up on his feet and ready for the fourth vampire when it comes for him. His expression doesn't change as he parts another head from its body, but the other vamps are up and closing in, snarling as they form a half circle around him.

Hesitating. Dean quirks a grin he almost feels and wipes his blade on the untorn leg of his jeans. "Did you need an invitation?" he asks, dragging the edge of the blade against his forearm. It's a narrow cut, but the blood weals up, rich and red, and the nest goes mad.

With the sounds pouring out the broken windows, anyone would be insane to come inside.

Comments

[triskehale]

Dean has committed the scents of the people that matter to him here to memory. Stiles, Dean, Hayley, Castiel. He can sniff out any of them if he tries hard enough.

He's out running through the outskirts of the industrial district, weaving in and out of buildings both functional and abandoned, when he hears it. It's an odd snarling scream, neither werewolf nor human, and he stops to whip his head in its direction.

There's a scent that's entirely new to him, something dank and musty, dead but not, and underneath that there's Dean. Derek's eyes widen and he listens for his heart. There's a slight uptick to it. He isn't scared, maybe a little stressed, but Dean doesn't really seem the type to be much afraid of anything.

He's just in shorts and the worn white tank he arrived in, the one stained from the coffee Dean dumped on him, and Derek doesn't give it a second thought before he's running in his direction.

The door folds like wet cardboard when Derek kicks it open, barreling in with his eyes red and fangs extended. He lets out a loud roar and the creatures Dean's taking on ten to one all stop to whip their heads around. A few of them snarl back and Derek heaves in a breath and turns to face Dean, talking around his fangs as he flicks his fingers out to let his claws extend, ready for a fight. "This your idea of a pleasant afternoon?"

[always_enduphere]

It's Derek bursting through the door that has Dean's heartrate kicking up, the man himself not unwelcome, but certainly a variable Dean hadn't planned for, and these days Dean lives or dies by his plans. But those fangs and claws can be put to good use here, and Dean cocks his head in welcome.

"My idea of a productive one," he replies, using the distraction to slide his blade through the throat of the vampire nearest him. "Don't get any blood in your mouth."

[triskehale]

Derek doesn't react when Dean slices clean through the neck of the creature nearest him. Once you slice through your uncle's throat with your own claws, that kind of shit doesn't really faze you anymore.

One of them screeches and throws herself at Derek, but he reaches out to grab her by the throat, claws digging in. She's much stronger than a human, but no match for Derek. He holds her at bay easily, not even flinching when she tears at the skin of his forearm with her nails and hisses at him. He looks at her odd fangs curiously before casting his gaze back to Dean, who seems to be holding his own for now. "What are these and we are we killing them?"

[always_enduphere]

"Vampires," says Dean, machete up and at the ready. He's killed five of them now, but with Derek's flashing eyes and long nails, he's apparently the bigger threat, because most of the nest is rounding on him.

"The one you're holding fed on a teen yesterday," he says, ignoring her shriek of, "We were hungry!"

"That good enough reason for you?"

[triskehale]

"Vampires? No shit." He looks at her again, almost smirking. The others are rounding on him, but he's not worried. "Huh."

But then Dean speaks again and Derek's eyes narrow. Feeding on a local teen is bad enough, but Derek only needs a quick flash of it could have been Stiles for him to make his decision.

"Yeah, definitely." He snarls and digs his claws in around her throat, ripping it out easily. There's a wet tearing sound and he curls his lip as her body drops, flicking blood and muscle off of his claws.

There's a gleam in his red eyes when he turns to face the rest of them. "Who's next?"

[always_enduphere]

The remaining vampires seem torn - caught between a werewolf who just pulled one of their own apart with his own hands, and a hunter who hadn't so much as batted an eye at the whole display. One starts edging for the door, and Dean launches him forward with a well placed boot, turning to catch the one sneaking up on him with an elbow to the side of the head. The vamp goes down, but another takes its place, and Dean grunts in irritation as a set of jagged fangs closes around his forearm.

Bracing the machete between his knees, Dean smacks at his sleeve, loosing a spray of carefully pressurized Dead Man's Blood. The vampire biting him goes down with a groan, but in those few seconds another has pulled the machete away, clamping vise like hands around Dean's thigh to hold him for teeth aimed at his femoral artery. Cursing, Dean gets his good arm between the thing's fangs and his leg, but in his distraction, misses the one that appears behind him, pulling his head back with a rough yank of Dean's hair.

[triskehale]

Derek takes down another one of the vampires and turns when he smells Dean's blood, snarling angrily and launching forward. He grabs the arm of the one that's holding Dean by the air and snaps it easily, leaving that one for Dean as it staggers backwards with a cry of pain.

The vampire with its teeth near Dean's thigh looks crazed and lunges for it as Derek roars. That's one of the most vulnerable spots on Dean, on any human, and it's heading straight for it without a second thought.

It makes it easy for Derek to surge forward, dashing up behind it and planting his foot at the small of its back as he grabs it by both sides of its head. He twists hard, snapping its neck instantly, and he's in the process of ripping its head right off of its shoulders when a vamp Derek thought he'd taken are of comes up behind him and brings a friend. The finally pops off, completely separated, and Derek takes a startled second to think about how that's the most vicious thing he's ever done.

That second is all it takes for a set of jagged fangs to sink into the juncture of his neck and shoulder. He howls out, more in anger in pain, and tries to twist away. The second vampire lands another bite on his chest, nails slicing thin red ribbons across his torso.

He pushes the one in front of him back hard enough to kick him across the room and grits his teeth and he twists to grab at the one taking bites out of his shoulder, clawing at its face and snarling as he tries to get his hands on its throat.

[always_enduphere]

They're swarming Derek like locusts, and Dean has a moment to think, of course, there's power in an alpha's blood before his thoughts turn to wondering how much Derek can take. He's strong, no question, but not even a werewolf can heal from exsanguination.

The guy needs help, because he came when he thought Dean needed help, and that goes a long way in Dean's book. Retrieving his sword, Dean begins the long process of cutting his way to him, anger giving him the focus he needs to slice through vampire after vampire.

[triskehale]

The vampire gnawing on his throat gets distracted by Dean long enough for Derek to flip it over his shoulder and get his claws into its throat. He tears through it viciously because fuck, that stung.

There are two left by the time he's back on his feet and they take care of them at the same time, machete and claws, and Derek huffs a growl as the bodies drop to the ground.

His gums itch as his fangs retract and his eyes flicker back to their normal color as he looks at dean. His tank is ruined, covered in blood and shredded, and Derek picks at it where the coffee stain seems to remain intact. "What do you and everyone else have against this shirt?"

Adrenaline is pumping through him and he smirks, but it fades when he sees the bite on Dean's arm. He's covered in them himself, and a quick look down at his side shows that it isn't healing yet. That's a bit alarming.

"So uh, what's the deal with bites?" He jerks his chin towards Dean's arms. "You gonna go darkside?"

[always_enduphere]

"I'd have to drink a vampire's blood," says Dean, looking Derek over with a clinical eye as he catches his breath. "Then drink from a human before I fully turned. With this brand of vampires, at least, there's more than one in Darrow."

Stepping forward, he steadies Derek with a hand to his shoulder, brows drawing together. "I thought you healed."

[triskehale]

"Yeah, me too." He doesn't realize how unsteady on his feet he is until Dean's there to steady him. He's kind of drenched in blood and he pokes at one of the bites. "Wounds caused by an alpha take longer to heal. Maybe it's similar for ones caused by other supernaturals."

At least, shit, he hopes so.

His heart pounds for a bit, legitimately worried, but he wipes the blood away from one of the smaller surface bites. It's just starting to turn pink at the edges, skin knitting together slowly but surely. "Ah, there we go."

He shows his arm to Dean, not even bothering to try and keep the relief out of his voice. "I should get back."

He takes a few steps towards the door and wobbles a little, blinking rapidly. Wow, blood loss sucks.