Sam took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Okay. This was okay. They could deal with this. After all, this was what they had been aiming for. Sort of. Well, in truth, the idea had been that whatever was stealing men would approach Dean, Dean would lure it out of sight of the public, and Sam and Cas would follow them and deal with it. But they could work with this. Dean could look after himself, and he'd probably left a trail for them. They just had to find him in time to give him back up if he needed it.

"How did you lose him?" He couldn't help asking Cas in annoyance.

Cas glared right back at him. "I was doing what you told me to do."

"What are you talking about?" Sam looked back at Cas blankly.

"Now is not the time for this," Cas growled at him. "We need to find Dean."

They made their way back across to where Dean and Cas had been dancing. Sam tapped one of the women dancing nearby on the shoulder. "Have you seen the guy who was dancing here?" He asked, just as the song changed to something loud and electronic.

"What?" she shouted back.

Sam gestured to Cas. "Her boyfriend, have you seen him?" He shouted.

The woman looked at Cas with some sort of vindictive smugness. "Not so perfect, after all," she shouted.

Cas took a step forward, glowering dangerously.

The woman pointed in the direction of the bar and the dark corridor beside it that led to the bathrooms. "He went that way," she smirked, "With a guy. They looked pretty friendly."

What the hell? Sam thought as he and Cas pushed through the crowd to the corridor. Dean and Cas had practically been confessing their undying love for each other one second, then Sam had got distracted for a minute, and now Dean had gone off down a dark corridor looking cosy with a guy? "What were you doing while this was happening?" he asked Cas.

"Making him jealous," said Cas. "You give very bad advice, Sam."

Come on. It hadn't been that bad. There had been no reason to think Dean would disappear with someone else while Cas had his back turned. Cas just had to pick his moments better. Making Dean jealous would totally work in the right situation. Cas just hadn't worked out that at that moment she hadn't needed any tricks to get Dean to realise his feelings.

He stopped a man who was coming out of the men's bathroom, asking him, "Have you seen a guy in there? Six one, extremely handsome, green shirt? Maybe with another guy?"

The man shook his head, but one of the women waiting in line for the Ladies spoke up. "I think I saw them. Did the other guy have black hair? I saw two guys go into the storage closet down the hall. The guy in the green shirt looked really drunk. You should probably go find him. But maybe give them a few minutes first, if you know what I mean."

Sam glanced at Cas, who had visibly flinched at the suggestion. Yeah, waiting probably wasn't happening. They carried on in the direction she was gesturing. The corridor got darker and less populated as it turned a corner, leading to the bowels of the building. They passed a Staff Only door, a couple making out on a corner, and then saw the unmarked door that must be the closet the woman had mentioned.

Sam looked around, making sure the making-out couple wasn't looking, and pulled out his gun. He put his back to the wall beside the door and quickly flung it open.

"This is not a storage closet," said Cas, who hadn't bothered to move to one side in case of gunfire.

Sam moved off the wall and followed Cas in. It wasn't a storage closet. It was stairs.

It was dark at the top off the stairs, with the uneven stone steps curving downwards. A strange green light was emanating from something Sam couldn't see at the bottom. They were exactly the kind of steps that, in Sam's experience, always had something unpleasant at the bottom.

"We should-" Sam began. Make a plan, he'd been going to say, but Cas had already vanished. Presumably walking down the steps was too time-consuming. Couldn't waste twenty seconds making a plan and another fifteen walking down some stairs when Dean was in trouble.

A loud crashing sounded at the bottom of the stairs, and the green light flickered. Something roared, harsh and fierce. Sam cocked his gun. Time to lend a hand.

There was something slimy and green on the walls, and it wasn't moss or mould or any of the usual suspects in a basement.

The sound of a commotion coming from the base of the stairs was getting louder. Sam concentrated on not slipping on the goo that was now not only on the walls, but also covering the worn-down stone of the steps. At the bottom, the hallway widened into a small chamber. The green slime was almost knee-deep throughout it, clinging to the walls and making strings like thick spider webs across the roof. It glowed with its own light. Sam had never seen anything like it. A deep sense of foreboding filled him. He didn't like going into situations not knowing what he was facing. He especially didn't like going in not knowing how to kill it.

A blob of goo the size of his head came flying through the rough archway to his left and landed on the floor, squelching into the already thick layer of green slime. Sam shuddered and squelched across to peer through the hole in the wall.

In the attached chamber, a fight was going on. It was a little difficult to tell what was happening, considering the sheer amount of green goo that was flying around. Dean would probably be making jello-wrestling jokes right now, but Sam liked to think he was too mature for that. Also, jello-wrestling jokes were only funny when Dean was there to react.

Cas was there, long hair darkened and stringy with goo, blue dress no longer blue, plastered to his body with slime. His angel blade was in his hand, looking larger in the smaller, more delicate fingers of his new vessel. "Where's Dean?" He threatened, blade at the throat of the man he was fighting with.

Nicholas was miraculously clean, seemingly entirely unbothered by the slime. He laughed, and the sound was almost as slimy as the substance Sam was currently wading through. "You should be honoured," he told Cas, "His love for you was strong enough to make him worthy of my queen."

"Dean is not interested in your queen," Cas jabbed his angel blade into Nicholas's shoulder and twisted.

Sam took the opportunity to edge his way into the room, moving behind Nicholas, out of view. He aimed his gun at Nicholas, firing one silver bullet directly at his heart.

Nicholas moved. It was like he knew it was coming. He dived forward, tackling Cas down into the glowing goo, and held him there. Sam's bullet slammed harmlessly into the wall, sending up a splash of green and making a thin spiderweb of cracks in the stone. He tucked the gun away and pulled out the demon-killing knife; sure that Nicholas would turn and attack him.

Cas struggled as Nicholas held him under the lime jello, kicking up splashes that somehow slid off Nicholas without leaving a mark, but clung tenaciously to Sam and left snail-trails as they slowly slid down his body. It was strangely warm.

Sam struggled across to help Cas, the substance preventing any sudden or quiet movements. He went to stab Ruby's knife into the man's back, but suddenly he released Cas and turned, shoving Sam down into the goo, before turning back to where Cas had been a second before.

"I'm going to get Dean," Cas informed Sam from somewhere behind him. "Do not think about your actions before attempting anything, and do not look him in the eye."

Then Cas was gone, stalking through the rough doorway into the next cavern, looking no less dangerous for the way his skirt clung to his thighs and the bare skin of his arms and shoulders was covered in a thin green sheen.

Sam floundered to his feet, sending up a spray of green. He shoved his now stringy hair out of his eyes, slicking it back with the green goo. He focussed determinedly on Nicholas's spotless left foot, where he stood lightly on top of the slime.

"Oh Sam," said Nicholas, "Do you really think you can get past me? I'm a psychic. I know every move you're going to make. That's how I know these men truly love their women, and are worthy of the queen."

Sam didn't look up from the man's shiny black shoe. "How do you get them to come with you?"

Maybe if he kept Nicholas talking long enough, Cas could get Dean out of there.

"That's not going to work, Sam. I know what you're doing," Nicholas turned to walk through the door Cas had just gone through.

Keep him talking, keep him talking, Sam chanted in his head. He dived forward suddenly and grabbed Nicholas around the knees, sending him stumbling down into the goo with Sam.

But Sam's hands were slippery and Nicholas's legs soon slipped out of his grip. The man was up again in no time, while Sam was still slipping around as he tried to get to his feet.

Nicholas laughed again, the goo slipping off him to leave him perfectly clean. "Oh, very good, Sam. But I'm done playing, now. You won't do for the Queen's consort. She's got your brother for that, and you have yet to demonstrate your ability to give a woman love worthy of the queen. But she can always do with feeding. And you'll make a good meal. Come with me," he commanded, beckoning towards the door.

"Um, how about no," Sam said.

"Come with me," Nicholas commanded again. Sam watched his feet turn and walk over to him.

"Why the hell would I do that?" Sam asked.

Nicholas reached down and grabbed Sam's chin in a surprisingly hard grip for such a perfectly manicured hand. He wrenched Sam's head up. Sam squeezed his eyes shut.

"Look at me," Nicholas ordered. The words reverberated in Sam's head. It reminded him of something he'd felt before. Oh, right. Andy. The jedi mind control guy with the evil twin. He'd been nice. But Andy hadn't been able to compel Sam to anything, and neither could this guy.

Sam opened his eyes. But it was his choice, not Nicholas's. "Sorry, your thing doesn't work on me," he said. "Tell me, how come you weren't at Cold Oak? Already committed yourself to evil?"

"My Queen is not evil," Nicholas ground out between clenched teeth. "She's just misunderstood."

"Oh, sure. Misunderstood," said Sam. His hand was touching something smooth and hard and cylindrical. He was pretty sure it was a human femur. It scared him a little that he could identify that by touch. "She takes happy men in love to be her mate and then eats them."

"People are too focussed on looks, these days," Nicholas said, "They see a woman like the Queen, and don't even give her a chance, simply because they don't like the way she looks. Everyone deserves a chance at love."

Nicholas's eyes took on a faraway look as he thought about his queen. Sam took the opportunity to sweep his leg and roll him face-down in the slime. He planted his knee in the middle of the Nicholas's back and twisted his arms behind his back, zip-tying them in place.

Nicholas kept the fight up for a few minutes, doing pretty well for himself despite not having the use of his hands, but eventually Sam managed to get him against the wall, cracking the guy's skull against it hard enough to send him crumpling to the floor. Sam left him on the floor and went after Dean and Cas.