I'll Tell You My Sins so You Can Sharpen Your Knife

For the record, Sarah didn’t really want to go out that day. She wanted to lounge around and do nothing.

But Dean wanted to play pool. So she agreed to go out.

They had fun. Had a couple of drinks. By now, everyone there knew Sarah so she spent half the time talking to the locals, which allowed Dean to hustle her friends unencumbered.

The point was, their time wasn’t ruined until they were leaving.

Sarah sighed and stuffed her hands into her pockets. The street was relatively quiet. Everything was dark. A stray cat watched them from inside a dumpster.

“What’s the sigh about?” Dean asked.

She shrugged and smiled. “No reason. Just sighing. People do that, you know.”

“Uhuh. Sure it wasn’t because so-and-so’s chicken was sick?”

She laughed. “This town isn’t that rural.”

“For you it probably is. How many cities did you hit last year?”

“I was homeless, Dean. Besides, I’m not a huge fan of the cities. Smells like iron.”

“Really? Didn’t know you were that sensitive to it.”

“Why do you think most of the really bad things happen in the countryside?” She noticed him looking over his shoulder. “What’s up?”

“Someone’s following us.” He put an arm around her shoulders. “Keep walking.”

“It’s probably just a drunk.”

“Sarah. Keep walking.”

They reached the center of the town. The church and the courthouse on opposite sides of the street. Three people were approaching from the other direction.

“Can you tell what they are?” he asked quietly as they walked.

“Shit, Dean, it’s too dark. They’re probably just human.”

A vein pulsed in his temple.

“Calm down.” She said softly. "It's just the mark hyping up your nerves."

But it wasn't the mark. Something whistled through the air and hit Sarah on the back of the head. She gasped and half fell forward, catching herself with her next step. Dean pulled his gun and fired at the one behind them, and Sarah threw up her hands to push back the ones in front of her. One kept coming.

“You alright?” he asked.

“Yes!”

The one that Sarah couldn’t stop walked under a streetlight, and Sarah saw the black aura and black pupils.

“Demons.” Sarah called.

“I know.”

Sarah pushed harder with her magic, feeling the power rush through her veins.

“Can’t touch me.” the demon cackled, walking within arm’s reach of Sarah. “Got witch warding.”

Sarah threw a punch, which landed on hard jawbone. Dean wasn’t near her anymore.

“Dean!” she called. “Knife!”

“One minute.” He grunted, as his own demon pinned him to the ground.

Sarah started to recite an exorcism, but the demon kicked her kneecap and she was down, gasping for breath.

“Abbadon wanted Crowley’s pets for herself.” The demon hissed, pinning her down and pulling out a knife. The two Sarah had originally thrown back were up and running to put Dean down. “But I can say you were just too much trouble.”

The knife was so cold on Sarah’s throat. In her head she screamed for Castiel. The church was right there.

“I wonder if your heart is black like your mother’s. Want to find out?”

A gun shot, and the demon rolled off. Sarah rolled the opposite way, on her feet before the demon could stand. Something snatched at her hair as she ran.

“Sarah!”

“Distract them!” she shouted back.

“Oh, fuck.” Dean grumbled, raising the gun and his knife again.

One.

Two.

Out.

Dean threw the gun at the nearest demon’s head, and ran.

“Sarah!”

Sarah ran up the steps of the church and pulled the small gun out of the waistband of her jeans, and dunked it in the holy water outside the doors. As she whipped around, she saw one demon bound outside the church perimeter.

“Fucking witch warding.” She muttered, taking aim and shooting.

Two on Dean, one dead. She walked down the steps of the church and fired, emptying the clip.

Dean looked down at the smoking bullet hole. “Holy water. Nice touch.” He knelt and quietly knifed the two demons that were still breathing.

She viciously kicked the one she had been fighting, and it howled. Not dead yet. “Witch warding, huh? I’ll take Abbadon on myself after this. I was having a nice date night.” She looked up and around. “Where’s Cass? I was calling him.”

“Cass isn’t the most reliable, lately.”

“He’s reliable to me.”

Dean approached and looked at her demon. “Would you like to do the honors?”

She smiled and knelt. “Oh, no. This one is going back to his mistress. He’s going to tell her not to touch the white witch unless she wants a world of trouble and more demons in hell than she knows what to do with.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Oh, yes. Obviously she doesn’t know about the agreement I had with the last two regimes.” She gave the demon one last kick for good measure. “Tell her to look through the paperwork.”

The demon disappeared, and Sarah let her body go limp as the adrenaline and power faded. Dean put an arm around her waist and helped her back to her house.

~*~

The next day, after Dean left, Sarah called a meeting. Crowley appeared almost immediately, and they sat down for a game of chess while they waited for Castiel.

“What’s this about?” Crowley asked for the hundredth time.

Sarah shook her head. A rush of wings, and Castiel appeared next to her.

“Sarah. I’m sorry about last night.” He said immediately. “I was busy and – “

“Sit.” Sarah said in a deadly soft voice.

He sat in the kitchen chair she had arranged on a third side of the chess board.

She studied the board, and moved her rook. “I have a policy of not getting involved. You both know this. I stay out of your business, and you keep your business away from me. And when your business does get in my way, you come and I help you fix it and we go our seperate ways. It’s that easy.”

“Sarah – “ Castiel started.

“We were attacked, Castiel.” She said calmly. “And you didn’t help.”

“Well, if Dean – “

“Don’t you dare put this on Dean!” Sarah snapped. “You weren’t there. We called and you didn’t come.”

“I am not your lap dog!” Castiel thundered. “I was busy!”

“Doing what?” she screamed back. “Playing soldiers? Lining up the troops? Your war and your fights are getting out of control, Cass. Not to mention the fact that Metatron was here, trying to get to me!”

“What?”

“Stop this nonsense, before you take the rest of us down with you! Again!”

“Who are you to tell me I’m out of control?”

“I am Sarah Murphy.” She said in a low, dangerous voice. “I am a white witch and the ONLY human you swore to watch over. So as your friend, and the only person who gives a damn, you are out of control!”

Castiel looked hurt.

Sarah sighed. “I’m sorry Cass. It’s been a rough month. I love you.”

He looked at his hands.

“Any thrashing for me?” Crowley asked loftily.

Sarah gave him a fake smile. “Seeing as you’ll like it too much, no. I’m going to be perfectly nice to you.”

“Boring.”

“You need to get your shit in order and stop Abbadon. She sent those demons specifically to test out me and Dean.”

Crowley crossed his arms. “Well, I am – “

“Oh, yes. The Mark of Cain was a brilliant idea. Creating our own enemies now, are we?”

“You’re just unhappy because the sex is getting too kinky for your tastes.”

Her hand darted across the chess board and grabbed his ear, twisting and piercing with her nails.

“Ow! Ow! Ow!”

“Fix your kingdom.” She snarled. “You lousy excuse for a despot. And you better bring my boyfriend back in one piece!”

She released him and looked at the angel and the demon.

“Well.” She said pleasantly. “Now that the motivational speech is over, who wants tea?”