Supernatural: The Unholy Cause (29 page)
“I’ve made other arrangements.”
“So you just dropped by to bum us out?” Dean asked. “Make us feel bad for surviving another go-round with evil incarnate? You want me to buy you a balloon or something? How about a beer?”
“A beer?”
“You’ve heard of that—I bought you one before. And there’s a place not far from here. I’m ready for a brewskie myself.” Dean looked at Sam. “Come on, what do you say? I bet they have Bad Company on the jukebox.”
Castiel faced them gravely.
“Those demons were organized. They had a plan, and access to a relic against which we had almost no defense, and they fully expected to force Sam into becoming Lucifer’s vessel. These days are darker than ever.” His gaze was dark, galvanic with foreboding. “What happened in Mission’s Ridge was more than some freak incident. With the Apocalypse imminent, it was indication of things to come.”
“Look, Cass...” Dean started, and the rest of the words trailed away.
I might as well be talking to empty space.
He shook his head. “Great.”
“Come on,” Sam said to his brother. “Get in.”
They got in the Impala and Dean started the engine, pulling out of the parking lot and driving toward town. The bar they ended up at was called the Stars and Bars, and although there was indeed beer and Bad Company on the jukebox, they didn’t stay long—they drank their drinks and moved on.
By seven o’clock in the evening they were back on the highway, heading north. Sam was still thinking about Sarah, but he left the great state of Georgia with few regrets.
Sheriff Daniels was right
, he realized.
There is a time for headlights and a time for rearview mirrors.
Tonight, that was good enough for him.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Although this manuscript was edited on a book tour in hotel rooms and airports across the country, I wrote the first draft in my basement, under the tightest deadline of my life—a little over three weeks. It simply couldn’t have happened without Christopher Cerasi at DC Comics and Cath Trechman at Titan Books, two terrific individuals and tireless, top-notch editors who gave me great notes and encouragement along the way. And thanks, of course, to Eric Kripke, Rebecca Dessertine and all the creative staff of
Supernatural
for creating a universe worth falling in love with in the first place.
I’m also grateful to my coworkers at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, particularly Senior Technologist Dana Fortney, whose creative scheduling allowed me to somehow keep my full-time status while I was doing all this.
Finally, as always, I must reserve my greatest thanks for my wife Christina and my kids. They walked the battlefields of Gettysburg with me, and far more important, they continue to tolerate my antics in the basement, way past any logical reason.
Joe Schreiber
is the author of three original horror novels:
Chasing the Dead
,
Eat the Dark
, and
No Doors, No Windows
, as well as the standalone
Star Wars novel Death Troopers.
He was born in Michigan but spent his formative years in Alaska, Wyoming, and Northern California. He lives in central Pennsylvania with his wife and two young children. When he is not writing, he passes the extra hours working the midnight shift as an MRI tech in Hershey, PA.
To find out more about Joe log on and visit his blog:
scaryparent.blogspot.com
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