Exactly one year ago, I posted the first chapter of a story that was supposed to be an epic but singular story. Three stories and 70 updates later, I am posting the last chapter of the current installment. I hope you enjoy.

This chapter is for roguishfeathers in thanks for the prompt that started it all, for Jenjoremy for every fixed comma and inserted line, for SandraEngstrom and Gredelina1 for everything they do and finally you all for reading this far. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Chapter Twenty-One

Sam's phone beeped with an incoming message and he snatched it from the table before Dean could get a look at it even though he leaned over the table to look.

Sam frowned at him. "Do you want to read my diary, too?"

His eyes skimmed over the message and then he slid the phone over the table to Dean. Dean couldn't resist; he read the message—Provost Rd. Rm 25. 18052. Have something for you.—and sighed. More blood. More demons. More risk.

"What's with the face?" Sam asked.

"Blood."

Sam scowled at him. "Do you really want to do this again?"

"We haven't done it once yet. Every time I bring the subject up, you duck out on it."

When Dean had calmed himself after Sam had woken, he'd told him almost everything about what had happened with The Trickster. The only thing he'd withheld was just how much of a sucker punch it had been to see how Sam had lived without him, because he'd known Sam wouldn't want to hear it. Sam hadn't wanted to discuss it though, and he'd just walked away every other time Dean tried to talk it out. They needed to talk about it though. Dean was afraid.

"Fine," Sam said, leaning back in his seat, "let's talk."

"The angel, the Trickster, whatever, told me it will end badly."

"And that's the first problem," Sam said calmly. "The 'whatever'. Things will end badly if it's telling the truth. It's either a monster or an angel, and I don't trust either. The second problem is the unreality of it. If I don't kill Lilith, she's going to break the last seal and unleash Lucifer on the world. Personally, I can't think of anything worse than an apocalypse, but maybe you have some insight I don't."

Dean shook his head. "It said there were rules. It couldn't tell me more."

"Convenient," Sam said dryly. "My point is how can me on the blood be any worse than Lucifer loose in the world?"

Dean didn't know. That was the problem. The Trickster had seemed so sure though.

"The last problem," Sam said, "is that it didn't give us an alternative. If it knows so much, it has to know what the stakes are. If there were some other way to end this without blood, it would have told us, right? There was no other way. There is no other way. I have to kill Lilith to save the world. To do that I need blood."

"Sam, please don't do this. Let's just wait a while. Find the Trickster again and find out what it knows."

"No can do. There's no way to track a Trickster, and with every day that passes, Lilith could be breaking another seal. We don't know how many she's done already. Bobby said there were three more recently, right?" He checked his watch. "Now, I've got to go."

He picked up his jacket and left. He didn't slam the door shut behind him. He clicked it closed quietly. There was quiet for a moment and then Dean heard the sounds of the Impala starting and driving away. Again, there was no extraordinary speed or noise behind the actions; he didn't rev the engine hard. He drove away and Dean was left on his feet, staring at the door with his heart sinking to his boots. Sam made it all seem so logical and right, and Dean would have agreed with him if not for the Trickster's warning. 'If you lose him to the blood, and you are bound on course to this time, the world will suffer.'

Was Sam's logic because he truly believed he was right or because he just couldn't give up the blood? Had Dean already lost him?

The motel Ruby had holed up in was a few towns over, and Sam made the drive a leisurely one. He was in no hurry to get to Ruby and was in even less of a hurry to get back to Dean after. Ever since that damn Trickster had shown him Sam's life—and he would kill him for that as soon as he found him again—Dean had been a man possessed. He had actually listened to the thing. He believed what it said. Sam thought he would have known better. He may have been out of the life a while, but John Winchester had taught them both better than that. Falling for a demon was one thing; he hadn't known. Kissing the demon even after her true nature had been revealed; it was a moment of weakness. Trusting a douchebag Trickster/Angel—Sam didn't know which was worse—was stupid and they both knew it.

When he came to the motel, he pulled to a stop beside Ruby's Mustang and took a moment to brace himself to deal with her before getting out. The door to her room opened and she was revealed on the threshold. "Took you long enough," she griped.

"Had a family drama to deal with," he said.

She stepped back to let him into the room and closed the door behind him. "I thought Dean was on board with all this."

"So did I." He wasn't going to bring her in on Dean's nighttime escapades. She didn't need to know about that.

"Then what's the problem?"

Sam shrugged. "No idea. Anyway, let's get this done."

"No foreplay?" she said. "Not even going to chat first?"

"Wrong brother. I need the blood from you, Ruby. I don't need anything else."

She rolled her eyes. "You know if stopping the apocalypse didn't depend on this relationship…."

"I'd have killed you months ago," Sam said.

"You'd have tried," she corrected.

"I'd have succeeded. I will succeed."

Ruby laughed lightly. "This is more like it. It's all I want, Sam. It's a little lonely being me, you know. Every demon out there wants my head. You don't like me being near Dean. Conversation is hard to come by."

Sam just stared at her. She sighed and rolled up her sleeve. Sam drew the short silver knife from his pocket and walked toward her. She held out her wrist and Sam cut made a shallow cut in the vein. The blood pooled and trickled down her arm.

Sam wasted no time. He drank.

Sam was halfway back to Dean when his phone rang at his side. He answered without checking the caller ID.

"Sam, it's me," Ash said. "I have news. Big news. Good. Or maybe not. I don't know."

"Want to try English this time?" Sam asked. "What's going on?"

"Demon signs. Huge ones. It can't be Alastair, since you zapped him like a microwave dinner, so it's got to be…"

"Lilith," Sam breathed.

"Yeah. Look, man, I haven't told anyone else. I don't want to freak them out. But I'm thinking you've got a plan for this, so I figured you should know."

"You're right. I do have a plan. Look, Ash, you've got to keep this from Ellen and Jo, okay? I don't want them worried. And Dean. Whatever you do, don't tell him where she is."

"Okay," Ash said doubtfully. "But Dean…"

"I don't want him anywhere near her," Sam said. "Not after last time."

"I won't tell him where. But you should tell him what."

"I will," Sam lied. "No problem. Now, where is she?"

"Place called Ilchester in Maryland. I can't narrow it down any more than that right now, but I'll keep working on it. If I can get a little more specific, I'll text you coordinates."

"Thanks, Ash."

"Be careful, Sam."

"I will. Goodbye." He ended the call and looked down at the phone in his hand. He hadn't done it consciously, but he'd ended the call with a goodbye. "It's not goodbye," he muttered to himself. He was going to do this. He was going to kill Lilith. He was going to collect Dean from the motel. He was going back to The Roadhouse and he was going to get blind drunk with his family to celebrate. That was the only outcome he'd accept.

He did a u-turn, ignoring the blaring horns and squealing brakes and hit speed dial on his phone. It took only a moment for Ruby to answer. "That was quick."

"Ash found her."

"Lilith?"

"Who else? She's in Maryland."

He heard her suck in a breath over the line. "Ilchester?"

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"Sam, we have to move fast. There's not much time," shesaid fervently.

"What's happening, Ruby?"

"Ilchester, Maryland. It's the only place Lilith can do it."

"Do what?"

"Break the last seal."

Dean was sitting on the edge of the bed, chewing his thumbnail. It was a nervous habit he rarely allowed himself to indulge in, but he was anxious as all hell. Sam had been gone too long – it shouldn't have taken him this long to make it to the address Ruby had given him and back, even accounting for the time it would take him to spend there to do what he needed. Something else was going on. Sam wouldn't answer his phone though, nor would Ruby. They were leaving Dean in the dark and the reason couldn't be anything good.

He got to his feet and made for the door. He had seen the address on Sam's phone; he would go to the motel Ruby had directed Sam to and find out what was going on.

He had barely taken two steps when there was the sound of an angel's arrival and a voice spoke behind him.

"Dean Winchester."

Dean spun around to the voice. There were two angels standing behind him. One man, one woman. The man was huge and baldheaded, and even though he was dressed in a smart black suit, he put Dean in mind of a hell's angel. The woman was mocha skinned and attractive, with full lips that were almost smiling.

"I am Camael," the man said, "and this is Berieah."

"Uh, hi," Dean said awkwardly.

The man smiled slightly. "We have need of you."

Dean frowned. "For what?"

"Our orders are just to collect you," the woman said.

"Not much for asking questions, are you?" Dean asked.

The man smiled slightly. "We are angels." He said it like it explained everything, which Dean supposed it did to them.

"Okay," he said. "Where are we going?"

They didn't answer. They just exchanged a glance and the man stepped forward, saying, "This will not hurt," as he raised a hand with two fingers extended to Dean's forehead. They made contact and Dean felt himself falling forward and strong arms catching him.

Awareness returned to Dean in a rush and his head snapped from the table where it had been resting.

"Sam?" he called automatically, lurching to his feet.

"He's not here," a serene voice said.

Dean looked into the eyes of a heavyset angel with sparse graying hair and a smug smile. "Where is he?" He looked around. "Where am I?"

It was like the most sumptuous hotel Dean had ever seen. The kind of place he would walk past in the city, admiring the façade in a distracted, never-going-in-there way. The pale, gold trimmed walls were adorned with paintings he would have bet were originals and priceless. There were porcelain vases on antique looking tables. Statues stood in the corners and the table Dean was sitting at was marble topped.

"This is what we call the green room, and my name is Zachariah. Your brother is fine; he is doing exactly what he is supposed to be doing."

"And that is?"

Zachariah smiled. "He is fulfilling the first part of his destiny."

"Which is?"

"Killing Lilith of course."

Dean sucked in a breath. "He can't be."

"Well, perhaps I preempted a little. He is on the path to his destiny at least. He and the abomination Ruby are currently kidnapping a demon with the intention of Sam draining it of its blood. It's going to take lot of blood to kill Lilith. You know, I don't think he will ever be the same again," he finished conversationally.

"No, I mean he can't be," Dean said. "If he was, I'd know about it. He wouldn't hide something this big from me."

"Do you truly think so? It's not possible that he could be hiding something? He has answered your calls, has he?"

Dean bit down on his tongue to stop himself answering. The pain grounded him, made him think clearly through his certainty that Sam not hide this from him.

"You see now," Zachariah said, satisfied. "You know I am telling you the truth."

"Why am I here?" Dean asked in lieu of an admission.

"Because we're coming down to it now, the crux of it, and we need you safe."

"Safe from what?"

"Lucifer."

Dean just looked at him blankly.

"Sam is, or rather will be, cracking the last seal like an egg."

"No," Dean snapped. "He is saving the world. He is doing what you couldn't. He is killing Lilith."

"Absolutely. He is doing what we couldn't. He is killing the first demon. It is the only way after all. He is the last of the special children. He is the only one left with the power to do it. Unfortunately for him, killing Lilith also happens to be the final seal."

Dean shook his head. The angel was wrong. He had to be wrong. How could he say it with such satisfaction, such pleasure, when the angels had spent months trying to protect the seals? There was no way, unless…

"So you're Team Uriel. I wondered how many of you there were."

Zachariah shook his head, amused. "There is no Team Uriel. There is only the will of Heaven. Some know the truth, some know the lie, but the end result is the same. When the time comes, they will obey and they will be rewarded with Paradise."

"Not all will obey," Dean said, thinking of how Castiel had fought Uriel. How he had fought for the right side.

Zachariah laughed. "I know who you are thinking of, and I have a surprise for you." He raised his voice. "You can come in now."

The door opened at the end of the room and Castiel walked in. He looked into Dean's eyes and said with what seemed like sincerity. "I am sorry, Dean."

Sam had felt no regret when they trapped the demon, not even for the meat suit that would soon be dead. It wasn't the first time he'd killed after all. In the months without Dean he had done it countless times.

It wasn't until Ruby told him what they needed the demon for that he began to feel something. He had killed with the knife and with his powers. He had never killed a demon specifically to drink its blood in its entirety. He told himself it was one life for the sake of the world, and that assuaged his guilt somewhat, but when Ruby stalked toward the screaming demon with the Sam's knife in her hand, he turned away. There was a cry of pain that became a gurgle and then silence for a moment before the sound of streaming liquid hitting the plastic bucket came.

The scent of copper permeated the room and the faintest trace of sulfur. Against his will, Sam clenched his fists. The need for the blood was strong. He wanted it. He wanted to feel it rushing through his veins, suffusing him with power. Strengthening him to kill. To end. To save. To win.

The flow of blood lessened to a trickle and then drips, and Ruby said, "Come and get it."

Sam turned, trying not to see the man with his gaping throat and wide, dead, eyes. He looked down at the bucket—So much blood. So much power—and swallowed hard.

"You have to, Sam," Ruby said, misreading the hesitation in his eyes.

"I know," Sam said. He wasn't reluctant to drink to kill. It was for a purpose. It was to save. It was what came after that worried him. How inhuman would he be after this? Would he ever be able to see Dean again?

"Then what's the holdup?" she asked.

Sam shook his head. "Nothing."

He had to do it. He had no choice.

"How can you do this?" Dean asked.

Castiel frowned. "I told you once I was a soldier. Soldiers follow orders."

"Not when their orders are this!" Dean shouted.

"You two need time to talk," Zachariah said. "I'll leave you to it."

He marched across the room, head held high, and left through a door Dean was sure hadn't been there a second ago. He followed and reached for the handle, determined to get out of there, to Sam, before it was too late. Before his fingers could close around the handle, though, the door disappeared.

"You cannot leave," Castiel said.

"Please," Dean pleaded. "Help me stop this."

"I cannot. You need to stay here."

"Why?" Dean asked. "Because of Sam? If this is his destiny, there's no changing it, right? So why can't I at least be with him while he does it? He needs me there."

Castiel shook his head. "You are needed here."

Dean laughed harshly. "You think I will do anything for any of you after this? Cas, you have to help me. You're not Uriel. You're not a machine."

Castiel looked around the room, his eyes dark, and Dean knew he was right. Castiel didn't want this. Dean just needed to find the right words to make him fight. "Please, Cas, I am begging you. Just let me go to Sam. I have to be there. He nearly died when he took on Samhain. What if it happens again? I have to at least speak to him."

Castiel's eyes widened minutely and he said in a disinterested tone, "Your phone is ringing."

Dean frowned for a moment—it wasn't ringing—and then understanding dawned. He couldn't leave, but he could still reach Sam. He nodded. "I better answer then."

He turned away from Castiel and hit speed dial as he brought the phone to his ear. It rang and Dean was talking even before he realized it was Sam's prerecorded voicemail that he'd connected to. "Sam! Don't' do it!" he said desperately. "Don't kill Lilith! It's the last seal! You kill her and it all ends! Please listen to me, Sam—" Strong fingers wrapped around his wrist and twisted his arm behind his back in a half nelson.

"I think that's enough, don't you, Castiel," Zachariah said pointedly.

Castiel bowed his head. "Yes. That is enough."

The fingers released his wrist and Dean staggered forward.

Zachariah spun him by the shoulders and leaned forward so his hot breath brushed Dean's face as he said, "You think that will actually work? Your brother is already too deep in the blood to be stopped now. He will kill Lilith. The end will come, and you will give yourself to the cause. Do you understand?"

Dean looked past him to Castiel, wanting to speak to them both, a warning to one and a reassurance to the other, as he said, "That will never…" But then he took in Castiel's pose. He was standing by the wall, long silver blade in hand and bleeding palm raised to the blood painted sigil on the wall. As Dean watched, he slammed his hand down in the center of the sigil and a force ripped through the room. Zachariah was yanked away from him and into nothing.

Castiel rushed across the room and grabbed Dean's arm. "We have to hurry."

"Where to?" Dean asked. "Where is Sam?"

"I don't know," Castiel said. "But I am hoping your friend Ash will."

"You going to listen to that message or not?" Ruby asked.

Sam sighed. He had ignored the call when it came in because he knew it was Dean and there was nothing to say. He would be pissed at Sam's prolonged absence. Sam couldn't talk to him though. He would argue and demand that he be there, and Sam wasn't letting him anywhere near Lilith. There was nothing to be lost by listening to the message though. He dialed up his voicemail and listened to the automated voice telling him he had one message waiting. "Sam! You have to do it! Kill Lilith. She's breaking the last seal! You have to kill her to save us all! You're the only one that can."

The message ended and Sam sucked in a breath. He didn't know how Dean had found out about Lilith breaking the last seal, but he guessed the angels were involved. That was good. If they knew enough to warn him, they knew enough to keep Dean safe, too.

Confidence surging along with the heat in his veins, Sam climbed out of the car and made for the doors of the chapel.

"You can do this, Sam," Ruby was saying at his side. "Just let the power work and you'll kill her. You've done it before. You will do it again."

"I know."

They strode together along the long passage to the doors at the end. There were half a dozen black-eyed demons coming toward them, and Sam killed then as easily as drawing a breath. There was no need to raise a hand, to take them one by one; with a thought and push of his mind, they fell down dead.

Ruby threw the doors open, and Sam entered the room. Lilith stood alone. Sam flung out a hand and she was flung back against the stone altar.

"I've been waiting for this for a very long time," Sam said.

Lilith leered at him. "Then give me your best shot."

Sam smiled.

Castiel's hand fell from Sam's shoulder and he said, "They are in there."

Dean ran at the doors and raced in to a long passage. There were dead bodies lining the walls at the end. "Sam!" he shouted. "Sammy, stop!"

There was no answering voice, no reassuring shout from Sam. Dean felt sick. There was a set of doors at the end of the passage that Dean pounded on, bellowing his brother's name, but they wouldn't budge. Castiel shoved him aside and threw them open. Dean raced inside, going straight to his brother's side, chanting his name. Sam was on his knees, looking at Ruby who was kneeling in front of him. He didn't even seem to notice Dean's arrival.

"You don't even know how hard this was," she said. "All the demons out for my head. No one knew. I was the best of those sons of bitches! The most loyal! Not even Alastair knew! Only Lilith! Yeah, I'm sure you're a little angry right now, but, I mean, come on, Sam! Even you have to admit—" Her words cut off abruptly and Dean looked up to see the tip of Castiel's blade through the front of her chest, right above her heart. Castiel withdrew the sword and Ruby's body flopped to the floor.

"Dean," Sam said, sounding dazed.

"I'm here, Sammy."

Sam got to his feet and turned around. Dean followed his gaze and saw the blood that had flowed into a spiral on the stone floor. Light was starting to stream from the center.

"Oh, God," he breathed, his hand coming up to rest on Sam's chest, to push him back, away from the light, away from Lucifer perhaps.

"He's coming," Sam said, his voice wrecked. "Dean, he's coming."

So… There it is. The end of Bound By Blood.

I never imagined when I sat down to write the first chapter of Bond of Brotherhood that I would still be working with this version of Sam and Dean a year later. I love them though. I have never bonded with any character I've worked on like them and through these stories they have given me so much joy. I hope you've enjoyed them, too.

There is a fourth story to come. I have some chapters already written and a comprehensive outline of what will follow. It's just the ending that's kicking my ass right now.

Thank you for every single review, fave, follow and PM. I have loved talking to you all and getting to know some of you as friends. The story may be complete but the series isn't, so if you have thoughts, comments, ideas or you just want to chat, my inbox is always open.

Until the next story…

Clowns or Midgets xxx