A/N: Hey guys, so Ryn is back in a sequel to "A Fire Shall Be Woken"! I just have to say thanks again to everyone who cheered on this OC; otherwise I might not have continued the series. And I am very excited about where it's going. So without further ado, let's kick off this fic!

Disclaimer: The guys and Charlie aren't mine. Some lines from 10x18 "Book of the Damned," and 10x21 "Dark Dynasty" are in this fic. They're not mine either. Thanks to 29Pieces for brainstorming and beta reading!

PS: I have joined tumblr. Still not entirely sure what I'm doing there, lol. But come say hi if you want to connect. Name is aini-nufire.

Chapter 1

Dean clicked through a couple of links on his laptop's browser page, scanning the latest uploads of animated Japanese erotica episodes. He was mostly caught up, as being a demon hadn't squelched his enjoyment of the genre, though he had to admit there was a different note to the recreation when he'd been, well, evil.

But now that the Mark was gone and things were calm, he could sit back with a burger and HD streaming and just…relax. The world wasn't in peril, neither were he, Sam, or Cas. Things were finally good.

Heavy footsteps came into the library. "Dude, can't you watch that in your room?"

"Don't be a hater, Sammy."

He heard his brother let out a soft snort. "Have you heard from Cas?" Sam asked.

Dean hit pause. "Yeah. He and Ryn finally picked up his car and are on their way back." He shook his head. "I can't believe they friggin' walked to Ohio."

Dean knew those two wanted to take some time to work things out now that Cas had gotten his memories back and wasn't dying from stolen grace, and a road trip to retrieve his car had seemed like a good way to do it. But seriously, walking across several states? Who did that?

An angel and a phoenix, apparently.

Sam dropped himself into the chair across from Dean. "He say how things were going?"

Dean shrugged. "He didn't go into detail, though it sounded like he was enjoying it. Said something about how the stars here are different than in Egypt."

Sam's lips twitched. "They're stargazing?" He quirked a dubious brow. "How…romantic."

Yeah, and wasn't that just weird to think about. Cas had a girlfriend. Or, well, he and Ryn had something. They'd gone on this little trip to figure out exactly what that might be, given they hadn't seen each other in five thousand years and Cas's memories of her had been erased by that bitch Naomi. Not only was it strange to think of Cas in a relationship, but with the Alpha phoenix, no less.

Ryn was cool, though. She'd helped them remove the Mark from Dean, risking herself to do it. Had helped them find Cas's grace and save him. She loved Cas. And Dean was pretty sure Cas loved her, even if the angel didn't fully understand it yet. Human emotions were still somewhat of an enigma to him.

But Cas deserved to be happy, and Dean wanted this for him, if it was what Cas wanted. It'd just mean their family unit would have to grow.

His phone rang, and Dean glanced at the unknown number. "Winchester Accounting," he answered. "How may I help you?"

"Dean?" a small, tremulous voice replied.

He straightened. "Charlie? What's going on? Where are you?"

"Uh, uh, I'm exhausted and…and I'm bleeding."

What?

"And I'm in a phone booth. A phone booth. I didn't know these things existed outside of Bill and Ted's…"

Dean hit the speaker button and set the phone on the table. "Okay, hey, hey," he said, cutting off her rambling. "Take a deep breath, kiddo. Uh, we're both sitting here. Tell me what happened. Why are you bleeding?"

Sam's brows flew upward, and he leaned forward over the phone.

"I, uh, I got shot," Charlie stammered. "Did you know dental floss works great on stitches? I only passed out twice, and I'm pretty sure my wound is now minty fresh."

Dean and Sam exchanged a horrified look. How the hell had Charlie gotten shot? Dean's mind started racing with possibilities—where had she been shot? Was it a graze, a through-and-through? Or was she walking around with a bullet inside her?

"Charlie," Sam said earnestly, "you probably need to go to a hospital."

"No, no, I-I'm fine. I just got to get someplace safe. These guys are still after me."

Dean felt a new thrill of fear.

"What guys?" Sam pressed. "Who?"

"Some southern fried d-bags," she bit out. "They've been after me since I dug up The Book of the Damned."

Sam sputtered. "You were still looking for it? But we cured Dean of the Mark."

"Yeah, well, it didn't seem like the type of thing that should be left for other unsavory people to find, you know?" Charlie replied shakily. "After some near misses and some broken into museums, I found historical documents that led to a monastery in Spain. It burned down years ago, left for dead, but, uh, I had this hunch about it. Turned out I was right."

Dean shook his head in awe. "Charlie, you're a genius."

"A genius fugitive," she said, a tremor of fear seeping through. "I…these dudes following me, they are well trained. One of them keeps talking about his family."

"Family?" Dean repeated. "Did you get a name?" Whoever these SOBs were, Dean was going to find them and stop them.

Charlie made a pained noise, like sucking air through her teeth. "No clue. I- I spotted a tattoo on one of them. Might be a family crest. It seemed occulty. Soon as the book was out of the ground, they were all over me. I, uh…I don't know how much more running I got left in me. Th-they're tracking the book somehow."

Shit, that wasn't good.

"Alright, then we need to get you off the grid, Charlie," Sam said. "Where are you right now?"

"Uh, just south of Des Moines."

Dean immediately started processing that, running through his mental files of the area. "Uh, okay, you know what? Our- our friend, Bobby, has a whole bunch of cabins scattered all around, places for hunters to crash. You know, it's not much, but there's some gear and lore books, stuff to keep you busy till we get there."

"Okay," Charlie breathed. "Bring snacks," she added. "And some heavy duty Men of Letters artillery would be good, too. This book is old and scary, and I've never seen anything like it."

Dean's stomach clenched. "Just get safe. We'll be there soon." He waited for the click of Charlie hanging up, fear spiking once the connection was gone. He had to hope she'd make it to the cabin, that these mooks wouldn't catch up to her before he and Sam could.

Dean snatched up his phone and pulled up his contacts.

"Dean?" Sam queried.

"Cas and Ryn are closer," he replied, punching the angel's number.

Castiel leaned against the hood of his Continental, head craned back to look at the night sky. Out on a back road, miles from the nearest town, the light pollution was minimal, and the black canvas was bespeckled with hundreds of glittering shards ranging across the light spectrum like shattered prisms to an angel's eye.

When he and Ryn had first set out on this trip, they had stopped at night to sit and gaze at the stars. Neither needed sleep the same way humans did, and they could have walked straight through to Ohio from Kansas if they'd wanted, but it was nice to stop, to take a moment out of time, away from everything, and just…be. Like they had done all those centuries ago in Ancient Egypt.

Castiel needed these moments of stillness to process everything that had happened recently—getting his grace back, getting the memories Naomi had taken from him back. Seeing Ryn again, after all this time. Every night they stopped to look at the stars, and Castiel marveled. Because he was alive. Because Dean was cured of the Mark. Because every time Castiel looked at Ryn, he was filled with overwhelming emotion. Not unlike what he felt for Sam and Dean—fondness, loyalty…love.

Yes, he would call it that. Hesitantly. Angels were not meant to feel love in that way. But Castiel had been human for a time, and the depth and breadth of emotions he'd felt then had only amplified what was buried deep down under the surface. Looking back with his memories intact of those first few years of a blossoming friendship with Ryn, Castiel now saw how something else had been growing between them. He just hadn't understood what it was at the time. Now he did. And regardless of getting his grace back, he could never go back to the way he was before.

…he didn't want to.

Castiel flicked his gaze to the side, and started at finding Ryn watching him instead of the heavens. "What?" he asked, suddenly self-conscious. Ryn had a way of seeing past his defenses.

She just shook her head, mouth quirked upward. "It's nice to see you smiling."

Was he smiling? Yes, now that his mouth turned down in a thoughtful moue, he realized he had been.

"Our time together these past several days…" he began tentatively. "I've enjoyed it."

Ryn nodded slowly in agreement, but didn't say anything. Her eyes were full of compassion and patience, waiting.

Castiel cleared his throat. "We'll be back in Lebanon soon."

She was quiet for another moment, gaze drifting back up to the stars before back to his. "I should check on things at my cabin."

Castiel nodded. He wasn't sure what he'd been hoping she'd say. He didn't even know what he wanted to ask.

"Cas, what do you want?"

He frowned. "I don't know," he replied honestly. "Everything is…it's so new, yet so familiar at the same time." It was frankly confusing.

She nodded as though she understood. "That's okay."

"I feel as though it's not fair to you."

The corners of her mouth tugged upward again. "You know, one thing about being immortal—you know patience. I'm not going to ask anything of you before you're ready." She sighed. "I don't even know what this—" she gestured between them, "—would look like. The world isn't the same as it was in Egypt. It's smaller, and in some ways more dangerous."

Castiel dropped his gaze. That was true. And the two of them weren't the same, either. "I- I don't want to walk away."

Ryn gave him a warm smile and reached out to take his hand. The contact sent a spark of energy all the way down to his grace. "Neither do I."

Castiel sighed. "The truth is, without an Apocalypse, war, or the fate of the world hanging in the balance…I don't actually know what to do with myself. I- I have no mission."

"Except to look after Sam and Dean," she suggested neutrally.

"Well, they do often find trouble," Castiel admitted. "And I want to be there to help them, if I can."

Ryn pursed her lips thoughtfully for a prolonged moment. "I know it's a strange concept for angels," she started slowly, "but you can have both."

Castiel pressed his mouth into a contemplative line. Dean had told him the same, but it was a strange concept for him. He also thought about what Dean had said, about 'taking things slow' with Ryn. About Castiel taking a weekend to go visit her in Montana…of her coming down to visit him in the bunker. Not unlike how their friendship had developed all those years ago in Egypt—stolen moments between Castiel's missions for Heaven. It seemed a good starting place, to pick up where they'd left off in some ways.

"I'll give you a ride back to Montana," Castiel said. "And, well, I didn't get a chance to see much of your home when I was there last."

Because he'd been caught in some angel warding and Ryn had pointed a crossbow at him for trespassing.

A smirk tugged at her lips, likely remembering as well. "I don't have any goats this time."

Castiel felt his cheeks flush hotly. "I'm not as…awkward, as I used to be." After his time spent as a human, there was little about their ways that Castiel felt embarrassed by. Though, the idea of attempting to milk a goat again was not very appealing.

She grinned, and Castiel couldn't decide whether to feel indignant or to simply revel in the way it made her eyes dance with reflected starlight.

His phone rang, disrupting the moment. Castiel gave Ryn an apologetic look as he dug his cell out and answered. "Hello."

"Hey, Cas," Dean said. "Sorry to interrupt the honeymoon, but we need your help."

Castiel frowned, and was about to point out that he and Ryn had not gotten married, but instead latched onto the latter phrase and thread of borderline panic in Dean's voice. "What's wrong?"

"We told you about our friend Charlie? Well, she's in trouble, and if you're still in Missouri, then you're closer to where she is."

Castiel sifted through his memories to draw up an old conversation with Sam and Dean about a 'computer geek' and a case involving something called 'LARPing.' Little of it had made sense to Castiel, except the obvious fondness the Winchesters held toward this Charlie Bradbury.

"What kind of trouble?" he asked, flicking a look at Ryn, who was watching intently and likely listening in.

"She said she found this thing called the Book of the Damned," Dean replied. "And now some crazy guys are after her. She's hurt, too. We told her to get to one of Bobby's cabins, but me 'n Sam are at least six hours away. Please tell me you're still near Iowa."

"Yes, we're right along the border," Castiel said, head reeling at the mention of the Book of the Damned. That was not a trifle object to be carrying around.

Dean let out a breath of obvious relief. "Okay. Okay, good. You can help, right?"

"Of course," Castiel responded automatically.

Dean relayed the location of the cabin Charlie was headed to. "I don't know who's after her, so watch your back, okay? Sam and me will be there as soon as we can."

"I've got this, Dean," Castiel assured him with the hunter's colloquialism. Then he disconnected and gave Ryn a rueful look. "I promise I don't mean to be making a habit of this."

The lines of Ryn's face were tense, but instead of expressing doubt or regret, she simply straightened and went around to the trunk where she pulled out the katana Dean had let her have from the Men of Letters' armory. She'd apparently inscribed runes into the blade to make it more powerful against supernatural entities.

"The Book of the Dead is not something I thought I'd hear again," she said gravely.

Nor had Castiel. Last he'd heard, it had been lost. And good riddance. For it to be unearthed…

"Seems we have a mission now," Ryn continued, meeting his gaze with staunch resolve.

Castiel was momentarily taken aback by the inclusive pronoun and how readily it was used. It shouldn't have surprised him, though, given what they'd been through together recently.

He nodded in return, and they climbed back into his vehicle in order to set off and rendezvous with this Charlie. Before whoever was hunting the human tracked her down first.