Dean opened his eyes the moment the sun touched the Western horizon. Peering over the tops of his sunglasses he took a long, hard look at the orange, red and violet streaks reaching out across the sky. He yawned as he pulled off the ball cap he'd been wearing to shade his face from the sun. His hair stuck up in weird spikes. He styled it quickly by passing his fingers through once or twice. After tossing both hat and classes up onto the dashboard, he gave one last stretch, burped, and casually reached over to turn on the radio.

Sam's hand shot out and flipped it off again with a quick snap of his wrist.

Dean glared at him. "You're still pissed at me?"

"Shouldn't I be?"

"You're not dead," Dean pointed out.

"Gee, Dean, thanks for that anyway." Sam snorted. He drove for another half mile before he added: "You could have warned me."

"I thought you knew? Maria bit you."

"Maria bit me. She didn't turn me into an all-you-can-eat buffet."

"Not for lack of trying," Dean recalled. "Come on, Sam. It would have been even more awkward if I'd told you..."

"Awkward?" Sam jerked his head around to stare at him. "Awkward, Dean?"

The Impala wobbled across the road into the opposite lane.

"Road, Sammy."

Sam pulled the car back into line. "Awkward," he muttered.

"Bad word choice?"

"There is no good word choice!"

He was probably right, Dean thought. There simply were no words to describe the pseudo-sexual feelings sometimes created between predator and prey when a vampire fed. The closest he could get would be to liken it to some sort of heavy petting; a bloody bump and grind that in the end created an utterly amazing semi-orgasmic sensation followed closely by the overwhelming need to get laid for real.

Right.

Now.

With anyone readily available, usually the one that bit you.

If, that is, the one that bit you didn't render you unconscious directly after the urge struck.

Or kill you.

Sam was actually very lucky.

Dean twisted his arm around and rolled up the sleeve of his t-shirt. The bruises Lenore had left when she'd pulled him off were already gone. "Are we stopping for lunch any time soon?" he asked archly."I'm feeling a little horn – I mean - hungry."

"Christ..."

"Heh, heh. Just kidding, Sammy."

"You better be."

"Man, at least with Maria I knew I'd get some. You...you get a little horny and flip out completely."

"Dean!" There was a rather frantic edge to Sam's voice as the Impala started drifting again. "You aren't supposed to make me horny!"

"I can make anybody horny, and if you wreck my car, I'm gonna eat you."

"You are such a perv." Sam quickly straightened the car out again

Dean chuckled as he used Sam's cell to call up their current location on the GPS. "Don't worry, I've met plenty of chicks who like getting nibbled on. I'm not gonna go hungry or horny for long. In any case, you're just not my type." He grinned. "Get it, type? Like blood type..."

"Lame."

"Whatever, dude." Pulling the rear-view mirror around so he could see himself, Dean carefully examined his rapidly improving, but still rather gaunt, profile. "Maybe I should do the whole vampire Goth thing. You know - layer on the eyeliner, paint my nails black..."

Sam rolled his eyes.

"What's the matter? Jealous?"

"Jealous? Of what?!?"

"Well, you know, chicks really dig the danger vibe..."

Shooting him a look out of the corner of his eye, Sam snorted. "Is that it, Dean? You turned blood-sucker so you could pick up women?"

A smart-ass comment was on the tip of his tongue. It was there, and then it was gone, falling to dust under a sudden onslaught of emotion.

"No," was all he said. "That's not why I did it."

It didn't matter if he said anything else. Sam knew why he'd done it. Sam knew Dean as well as Dean knew himself these days, if not better. The "deal" they'd struck sometimes worked both ways.

"You," Lenore told him afterward. "I don't know whether to call you a genius or an idiot."

Sam must have picked up on the thought. "I still don't know how you did it."

"What, splice the two rituals together?"

"Yeah."

Dean shrugged. "Does it matter beyond the fact that I did do it?"

There was a small hesitation. "No. Not really. It's just...weird."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. If you think about it, you freakin' married me, Dean."

Dean hadn't thought of it that way, actually. He'd known using the ungrounded scrying spell to trigger the change would have Sam essentially playing Maria's role in the ritual, but he hadn't been sure it would work nearly as well as it did.

As for being hooked up to Sam for the rest of his life...

It wasn't as if he and Sam were going to be lovers or anything like that, although that would have been the likely result of lifebonding with Maria. No, this was different. Sam not being a vampire probably had a lot to do with it, not to mention the fact they were both male and related. The bond had simply brought them closer as siblings, as friends and confidants. And as far as the other perks were concerned - well - Dean couldn't have asked for anything better.

He had found out rather quickly that what he'd hoped might happen, did. He could now run interference between Sam and the demon. By virtue of the bastardized vampire mating bond, he had gained access to Sam's head. The first thing Dean did was clamp down on Sam's abilities, rendering them inaccessible. After that, once he figured out how it all worked, he'd swept in and taken Sam off the demon's radar entirely.

It could no longer find him.

I did it, Dad.

Not only that, but with a little help from Dean, Sam had recently experienced a night in which he got eight hours of deep, dreamless, sleep. It had been the first time such a thing had happened in nearly two years. Dean remained at his bedside the whole night too, making damn sure nothing disturbed him. He swore he'd do it every night for the rest of their lives if it meant Sam could finally find peace.

Of course their immediate concern was how they were going deal with the conflict of interest between Dean's new nature and his current profession. Sam's suggestion: "Don't ask, don't tell."

"Marriage, huh," Dean murmured, after a moment of consideration. "So what are you trying to tell me here, Sammy? You want a ring or somethin?"

"Dean..."

"A honeymoon in Vegas? That would be kind of – awkward – ya think?"

Sam groaned. "God, I hate you."

Dean grinned as he sensed the underlying echo of what Sam really thought of him. With a sigh of contentment he leaned back in his seat, raised his arms, and laced his fingers together behind his head. There was a honky-tonk bar not far from where they traveled. Dean knew a girl who often hung out there. He'd make Sam pull in for a nightcap.

His mouth watered in anticipation.

Life was good, wasn't it?

FIN

Musical Inspiration:

Building a Mystery, Sarah McLachlin:

"You come out at night

That's when the energy comes

And the dark side's light

And the vampires roam...

You're so beautiful,

A beautiful fucked up man..."

Norwegian Wood, The Beatles:

"I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me...

I sat on the rug, biding my time, drinking her wine.

We talked until two, and then she said, 'it's time for bed..'"