A/N: Based on a prompt from Miyth "where Sam and Dean have to rescue Cas from…innocent civilians."

Disclaimer: Not mine. Also, some set up and dialogue will be similar to 12x15 "Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell" but this is not related to that episode in any other way. Thanks to Miyth and 29Pieces for beta reading!

Chapter 1

It had been a long time since Castiel had ridden in the back of the Impala. Between his relentless search for Lucifer, and then subsequent attempts to find Kelly Kline, Castiel had been out on his own a good portion of this past year.

But he wasn't having any luck finding the woman currently carrying Lucifer's unborn child, and so he had decided to accompany the Winchesters on a hunt instead. It would be nice to 'get a win,' as Dean would say. And though the case of a werewolf killing a human was rather small scale in the scope of Castiel's present burdens, part of him was glad to simply be with Sam and Dean again. There were few places he felt a modicum of home and belonging.

They arrived at the state park where a sheriff's SUV was already waiting, and a woman wearing a thick uniformed jacket with long sandy hair in a ponytail stood leaning against the door. Dean pulled up behind the vehicle and shut off the engine, and then the three of them exited the car and made their way over.

"Sheriff Tanner," Dean greeted. "Thanks for meeting us."

She straightened in order to shake his hand, though her expression looked as if it were an inconvenience to be out here. But what she said was, "Anything for the feds. This way."

She turned and started into the woods. Castiel exchanged looks with Sam and Dean before they followed. It wasn't too far of a hike before they reached a small clearing that could have served as a campsite.

"You ask me, a bear got this guy. Maybe a cougar," Sheriff Tanner said. "Found a fair amount of blood over here, and some there." She pointed the rust colored spots out. "But no body. Whatever did it must have dragged him off. So unless you guys are lookin' to make a federal case on some critters…"

"There was a survivor, right?" Sam interjected.

Tanner nodded. "Victim's girlfriend. She's pretty shaken up."

"What did she say happened?" Dean asked.

The sheriff shook her head. "Well, she's saying some pretty strange things."

Castiel furrowed his brow. "Like what?"

"Like they were attacked by a wolf—an invisible wolf."

Castiel's frown deepened, and both Sam and Dean straightened sharply at the news. Well, that changed things.

"Look," the sheriff went on. "Girl's traumatized. And while it's tragic, this kind of thing isn't unheard of. Nature is full of predators, and with the way civilization has encroached on their territory, reducing their food supply, sometimes those predators get a taste for human blood. We had a hiker go missing yesterday and there were animal tracks on the trail. But it's not a federal case. We'll organize a manhunt to put the animal down."

Dean blinked at the abrupt news, but quickly recovered and nodded. "Thank you, Sheriff."

She gave a clipped nod in return and started back down the trail. She paused at the tree line. "Don't stay out here too long. I don't need more missing folks to worry about." Then she left.

Dean turned back to Sam and Castiel. "Invisible dog, huh? Sounds like a hellhound to me."

"It is unusual for the body to be dragged off," Castiel brought up.

"Maybe another animal came and grabbed it," Dean replied. "You heard the Sheriff; sometimes they do that."

"But what about the missing hiker?" Sam put in. "I mean, it's a pretty thin coincidence, but a coincidence all the same, don't you think?"

Dean shrugged. "Two demon deals came due in the same town. It could happen. But there's no case here. Hellhound collected some souls and that's it."

"But what if it's not?" Sam pressed. "What if more people go missing in these woods?"

"So, what, you want to go hunting a bear?" Dean scoffed. "A bear. Really?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "It's not like that's any more dangerous than the monsters we normally hunt."

Castiel waited for them to decide. If Dean was right and there was no case here, they'd be wasting time they could be devoting to finding Kelly if they stayed. On the other hand, something was killing humans in these woods, and stopping it, be it monster or beast, would have the same result of saving lives.

Dean finally let out a resigned sigh. "Fine, okay. We go bear hunting."

They returned to the motel first so Dean and Sam could change out of their suits and into more hunting appropriate attire, and then so they could grab a meal before the hunt. Castiel, of course, didn't need to do either.

It was late evening by the time they returned to the woods, but since hellhounds usually roamed at night, that was the best time to hunt them anyway. Although, the attack on the camper had happened during the day, and that hiker had gone missing in the morning. Yet another unusual piece to this puzzle.

The trio ventured cautiously into the forest, retracing their way back to the campsite where they would start their search. Sam's and Dean's flashlights skewered Castiel's night vision slightly, but not enough that he wasn't able to pick up the dried blood on the ground.

"This way," he said after determining the direction the trail led.

The Winchesters fell into step behind him, their soft footfalls barely crinkling the pine needles of the forest floor. They all kept their eyes peeled for signs of where the body had ended up. Whatever had dragged it off had taken it a significant distance from the campsite. Castiel tried to see if he could catch a whiff of sulfur in the vicinity to confirm hellhound, but the trail wasn't that fresh.

Until several minutes later when the odious stench of decay started to permeate the air. Castiel drew up short, focusing his senses.

"You got something?" Dean asked, looking a bit odd in the pair of glasses that gave him the ability to see hellhounds.

"Yes." Castiel veered to the right, weaving through trees and foliage until the fetor became nearly overwhelming and the buzzing of flies could be heard. He stepped around a fallen log and found what appeared to be a den made of dried grass and branches tucked underneath two large bushes.

Dean made a sound of disgust as he aimed his flashlight beam at the nest. Laid out at the periphery was a body, mangled to pieces. "Is that our vic or the missing hiker?"

"Both," Castiel said grimly, and pointed to a third hand that was protruding from the mass of twisted limbs.

"Great," Dean muttered. "Well, doesn't look like Yogi's at home."

"Cas," Sam spoke up. "Can you tell if it's a hellhound or a bear?"

Castiel furrowed his brow in concentration as he surveyed the den. The claw marks in the bodies were inconclusive, but there were some tracks around the outside. "It doesn't look like a bear," he commented. The paw prints, while large, weren't wide enough.

Dean swung his flashlight around the area. "So, what, are we supposed to wait for this thing to come back? What if it's out hunting somebody right now?"

Castiel felt something prickle the back of his neck, and he stiffened instinctively. Slowly craning his head, he narrowed his eyes at the dark foliage and pitch black trees surrounding them. He raised his angel blade.

"It is," he said in a low voice. "It's hunting us."

Dean and Sam immediately whipped their flashlight beams around, but they illuminated nothing amidst the blending shadows. Something rustled in the bushes that had them all whirling on the spot, but whatever was stalking them was remaining hidden—for the moment. A snarl and sound of gnashing teeth sounded from Castiel's right, and he moved quickly, trying to keep the creature from circling around behind him. He still couldn't identify it definitively, but he thought there was now a hint of brimstone on the air. Along with something else, something…sickly.

Sam and Dean had shifted to press their backs up against each other, covering themselves from all sides as they waited for the beast to show itself. Castiel caught a flash of red eyes a split second before the hellhound attacked. Like liquid shadow, it came barreling through some bushes and leaped straight at Castiel. He sidestepped and spun, slashing out with his angel blade. Celestial steel cut through air.

The hellhound's claws scraped through the dirt as it scrambled to correct its trajectory. Dean lunged at it, his own weapon raised for a strike, but the hellhound leaped aside and launched itself at Castiel again, wholly intent on snuffing out the beacon of angelic light its otherworldly eyes would have been able to detect from a mile away. It was too fast, and its hulking weight slammed into Castiel, driving him to the ground.

He threw his arm up to block the strike aimed at his jugular, and screamed as teeth sank into the flesh of his forearm instead, piercing down to bone and grace. Claws scrabbled against his chest and legs, sundering muscle and splattering hot blood into the air. His vision went white, and he couldn't manage to get his blade up to strike back.

But then the hellhound let out a sharp yelp, and abruptly fell right on top of Castiel, pushing the last of the oxygen from his lungs with a whoosh and billowing putrid breath in his face. The steel-like jaws loosened their hold, though Castiel's arm was still trapped in the beast's maw.

He heard muffled shouting, and then the massive weight was pushed off him and shoved away. It almost took his arm with it before someone grabbed him and carefully extricated his tattered sleeve from the fangs.

"Cas!"

"Shit."

He had his eyes squeezed shut against the pain, but now tried to pry them open. Sam's and Dean's faces looming over him were blurred, the rims of their special glasses splitting into four different pairs. A soft blue light seemed to reflect off their worried gazes, and it took Castiel a moment to realize grace was oozing from his wounds. Fire burned in his arm, chest, and one leg.

"Cas, hey, look at me."

Firm hands took hold of the sides of his head, and he blinked dazedly at Dean. "Hellhound?" he grunted.

"It's dead," Sam assured him. "Oh god, are you…you can heal this, right?"

Castiel closed his eyes again as nausea sloshed in his stomach. The situation had quickly turned bad. As denizens of Hell, hellhounds were one of the few creatures that could cause actual harm to an angel. Castiel would not be healing these wounds easily.

"I'm…afraid…not," he managed to get out, gasping for breath.

"Shit," Dean muttered. He moved his hands from Castiel's face and bunched up the bottom of the trench coat, which he then pressed against the slashes in Castiel's chest. His back arched as he let out a cry of pain.

"Sorry, sorry. We have to stop the bleeding."

Castiel knew that, but it didn't make the pain any easier to bear.

"Can you walk?" Dean asked.

Castiel clenched his jaw and readied himself to sit up. He almost passed out pushing himself upright, but gritted his teeth determinedly. Dean and Sam grabbed his arms to help haul him to his feet, but the moment he put weight on his leg, it buckled.

Their hands on his chest prevented him from face planting in the dirt, but that only caused pain to rocket through those wounds.

Sam used one hand to pull a map from his pocket and hastily unfolded it. "Okay, okay," he said after a moment. "There's a cabin nearby. And a road." He angled the map toward Dean. "You can go get the car and meet us there."

"What if- there's more than- one hellhound?" Castiel said haltingly.

"I've got the glasses and an angel blade," Dean replied, but he did shoot a worried look at Sam. "You gonna make it?"

Sam nodded shakily, and unceremoniously stuffed the map back in his pocket before taking the majority of Castiel's weight. "It's not far."

Castiel wasn't sure whether that was for Dean's benefit or his. He sagged against Sam, who hiked his arm higher over his shoulder. Castiel bit down hard to keep from groaning as it pulled at his wounds.

Dean's expression was grim. "Okay. Be careful."

"You too."

And with that, Dean turned and sprinted off into the woods, his flashlight beam bobbing before it was swallowed by the darkness.

Castiel stumbled as Sam turned him the other direction and they set off at a straggling hobble. Castiel tried to focus on just putting one shaky foot in front of the other, but with his one leg practically useless and dragging behind him, it was nearly impossible. His shoes scuffed through the uneven dirt, snagging on ruts and roots. His head was pounding and his wounds throbbed. Even his grace felt raw and split open, though it had stopped glowing in the night.

"Almost there, Cas. Just a little further."

Castiel wanted to snap that all he saw were trees and more trees, but he didn't have the breath to do so. He felt himself slipping.

Sam snaked an arm around his waist and pulled him closer, and was basically the only thing keeping Castiel upright anymore. If there was more than one hellhound in these woods, the two of them were currently easy prey.

But nothing attacked them, and eventually Castiel caught the faint outlines of a symmetrical structure in the middle of the gnarled trees.

And then he was the one repeating the mantra in his head—just a little further, almost there.

He made it two steps from the door before collapsing.