Losing Hope | {BOOK 4}

40| Cursed Cass

"Mommy!"

Beside me, Dean groaned as another little body joined us in the bed.

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

"Too. Early," Dean grumbled.

I giggled, kissing him on the tip of his nose as I sat up in bed to hug Zep.

"Hey, bud," I grinned.

"No leaving again, okay?" Zep told me seriously.

"I'll try not to, buddy."

"Seriously. Too. Early," Dean grumbled again.

"Come on, Zep. Let's let Daddy sleep."

"Okay."

The four-year-old clambered out of the bed, waiting for me to follow him out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen where Maddie was sitting at the table eating cereal.

"Good morning, darling," I greeted her, pressing my lips to the top of her head.

"Hi, Mama."

I helped Zep get situated at the table with his sister, pouring him his own bowl of cereal. Sam came in a moment later, making his way over to the coffee pot.

"Morning," he greeted me.

"Morning. Where's Cass?"

"Resting in the med bay for now. Dean still asleep?"

"Yep."

"Have you told him?"

"Not yet."

"Told him what?" Maddie piped up from the table.

"Nothing, sweetheart," I told her. "Don't worry about it."

"Is it about why it took you so long to get home?"

"Yes, it is, Maddie. Now drop it, please."

⁘

I had gone to drop the kids off at school, coming back to find Dean, Sam and Cass in the library. As I walked in, I was thinking back to seeing the Darkness for the first time again.

"So that was the rest of the neighbors, just like the rest," Sam was finishing filling Dean and Cass in, then looked over at me. "Ellie? Ellie!"

I shook my head, looking over at him and Dean in shock.

"Yeah."

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

"Just saying we got nothing," Sam continued. "No one saw anything unusual going on at the house the day the baby disappeared."

"If this is truly the Darkness we're talking about, it's more of a time bomb than a baby," Cass admitted.

"But it is still a baby, right?" I asked. "I mean, the Darkness I saw was an adult. So it still has to, uh, grow up."

"The Darkness is almost infinite power," the angel shrugged. "I'm not sure what 'growing up' means in this case."

"Well, God kicked this thing's ass before, right?" Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, it'd be nice if he put the Mai Tai down and showed up for work," Dean rolled his eyes.

"I wouldn't count on it," Cass said.

"It's possible he's still around," Sam suggested. "Closer than we think, you know?"

"What makes you say that?" I inquired.