Trails To Happiness

Yellow Eyes

(Narrator POV)
Dean and the others had headed to an abandoned warehouse in the middle of the night, 3 days after arriving in Nazareth.

They had gotten a sudden lead on the demon-brand Bobby had spoken about, and it turned out that the last owner kept all his old hunting stuff in a warehouse storage unit.

All they had to do was break in and steal it.

The men made their way there and worked out a plan since they were all in the same vehicle for this. Sam and Adam would handle the security system remotely from the car, while John and Dean went in to pull off the actual heist.

None of the brothers were too stoked about Dean being alone with John, but they were the most experienced and least likely to screw it up.

They parked the truck outside (Dean didn't want the Impala tied to any crimes), and went about executing the plan.

Sam and Adam put their hacker brains together (they may have also called Charlie and Ash, but that was besides the point) and knocked out the system quickly.

Dean and John headed in, located the proper storage unit, and then Dean picked the lock on the door. After he finished, he opted to be the one going inside while John watched guard.

Frankly, he didn't trust the man not to take more than what was needed or get distracted by all the shiny hunter artifacts.

Dean got inside and started scouting the shelves and bins for what he was searching for. It was a simple branding iron with a devil's trap as the part you heat up, but this one had magical properties that would actually bind the demon.

He finally found the demon-brand, but it was broken so that there was no handle (just the magic symbol part). Dean couldn't really find it in him to care too much, he just hoped that it worked and he could figure out a handle later.

Just then, he heard John shout and looked up to see him get thrown by a demon nearly twice his size.

Dean took a step forward as two more demons went toward John, but his path was cut off as a man with light brown hair came in the door. His face was shrouded in darkness, and yet Dean could still see his yellow eyes.

"Dean, how lovely to see you again." Yellow Eyes grinned at the hunter as he came closer and Dean backed up. "I don't believe we've ever been properly introduced, I'm Azazel."

"I don't give a singular fu-."

"Now Dean, let's not be hasty." Azazel smirked. "We could be friends. Maybe make a little bargain that would be mutually beneficial."

Dean paused to survey the demon for a moment before speaking again.

"What kind of bargain?" He asked hesitantly and the man's smirk widened unpleasantly.

"You give me that little branding iron, and I will not hurt your family again." The demon said with a smarmy look on his face that made Dean want to punch him even more.

It was a tempting offer, but Dean knew demons well enough to recognize a half-truth from one's mouth.

He may not hurt Dean's family, but he could still painlessly kill them or take them. The information that the hunters had found suggested that he was collecting people like Sam for a trial, not killing them.

It was too good to be true.

"I think I'll pass." Dean declined and Azazel instantly frowned. He didn't like it when he was turned down.

He flung his hand in the air and sent Dean crashing down to slide across the floor, knocking over a couple shelves as he went.

His back slammed into the shelving against the wall, and he quickly moved to sit back up as the demon made steps toward him again.

Azazel grabbed Dean by the neck and dragged him up the shelf to be eye-level with the man that killed his mother.

"You know, it's really such a shame that the one chosen for this wasn't you." The man pondered while trying to get in Dean's head. "I mean, you're so protective of everyone in that family, but...who's protective of you?"

Dean stared straight into those sickly orbs while slowly moving the branding mark out of his pocket and into the box behind him without the demon noticing.

"Nobody, that's who." Yellow Eyes went on. "It'd be so easy to take you away, because in the end, who would care?"

The demon was playing on Dean's deepest insecurities, which he had tried so hard to move past over the years.

He mostly had, but hearing the words still hurt.

"Everyone else is so difficult to get my hands on. Because every time I try, you're right there in the way." The demon continued, and Dean got the distinct impression that Yellow Eyes had been trying to get to them for a lot longer than they knew of.

Ignoring that for now, Dean grabbed two other things from the box behind him.

"But it's fine, because I will soon succeed in my plans." Azazel said, but before he could go on, Dean lifted his hand and stabbed him in the shoulder with a silver blade.

Not truly hurt, but very surprised, the demon dropped Dean to the ground.

He rolled away from the shelf and then kicked the side to send it crashing down onto Yellow Eyes.

Everything came down in a loud clatter and Dean had to roll a bit again to avoid getting hit.

Then there was nothing except silence for a few moments.

Azazel groaned in frustration and shoved the piece of furniture off of himself and to the other side.

Standing, his vessel looked slightly injured and he was overall disgruntled, but he still made his way over to Dean who was laying on his back.

The demon bent down to pick something up that had fallen out next to Dean. He stood up straight again with a grin on his face as he put the symbol in his pocket smugly and without even looking at it.

"Y'know, you and I could have worked wonders together." He said sarcastically. "It's really too bad that I'll have to kill you the next time you get between me and what I want."

Dean knew that he was talking about Sam.

Azazel smirked down at the older brother and left the storage unit leisurely, sending a whistle out to call off his demons attacking John.

A few moments passed before Dean sat up with a groan and John hobbled his way to lean against the door. "Did he get it?"

Dean slowly walked over to the ruins of shelf, and rifled around for a couple seconds before pulling out a symbol of his own.

"The only thing he's got is a talisman to ward off Hellhounds." He smirked widely and headed for the door as well, demon-brand securely carried in his pocket again.

Dean and John both started to make their way back to the truck, and Dean could only hope that Azazel wouldn't be too mad, but he wasn't so worried.

After all, demons loved irony.

A/N Heyo! This chapter went by pretty quickly, but that's probably because I'm really excited to be done.

So, I totally made up everything with the demon-brand. I wanted to add in my own hunter tool, and I thought that'd be cool.

Hope you're enjoying and keep reading.