Broken and Burned

35. Example

"You should be more careful."

"Or you should have kicked those vampires asses with your awesome demon skills."

Ruby broke her concentration with the chess game and glared at Dean. "If you want to see some 'awesome skills' perhaps you should find an angel to accompany you." 

"Why would I do that? Angels are dicks." Ruby was in no rush to defend them. 

"Demons may be powerful, but we're not as powerful as angels so don't go expecting any flashing lights or fists of God."

"Fists of God? Not with a demon, I wouldn't think." Dean moved a knight. 

Ruby eyes shifted between her rook and queen. "When was the last time you even went to an auction?"

Dean watched her move her queen before responding. "Alastair." 

"That was a long time ago."

"I guess." He moved a bishop.

"Ever considered getting an angel?"

Dean didn't look up from the board but visually tensed. "No."

"Well, maybe now's the time." She moved a knight and took his bishop.

He reached forward quickly as if scared the pieces would move before he got a chance to make his  move. "I got you right where I want you!" All tension from her earlier question seemed to disappear. He moved his queen that took her knight. "Check."

Ruby sighed. "Oh, Dean. A little more practice and you just might beat me." She moved her rook and took his queen.

"Wha...but... How?"

Ruby laughed, "I play with Sam, a lot."

"He has no life," Dean grumbled as he moved a pawn forward.

 "I don't know about that. He's getting more than you are."

Dean frowned, "are you seriously talking about his sex life to me?"

"You have to admit. Those wings are sexy!"

"No. No. Don't do that. No." He waited for her to move her queen to move his rook.

"Don't tell me you haven't thought about it."

"I haven't because I'm straight and he's my brother's boyfriend."

"Hmmmm, sure." She moved her queen. "Check mate."

~~~~

"It's about a horse that is bought and set to work during a war and follows its journey to return to its previous owner." Sam was about to go into a more elaborate description but saw that Gabriel's eyes had glassed over in boredom. "Gabriel. Are you still with me?"

Gabriel shifted in the chair and blinked a couple times. "Yeah, something about... about..." He glanced at the book title. "A war horse...?"

Sam sighed, "it's a good book. I was just telling you that you should read it."

"Does it have an excessive amount of porn?"

"Gabe!"

"Alright, alright. Give it here."

Sam tossed him the book. "It feels wordy."

Wordy?" Sam asked. "At least I'm not asking you to read War and Peace." 

Gabriel opened the book and started on the first page.

Feeling satisfied, Sam turned back to the bookshelf in Adam's study and continued looking through the books. There were just so many. He took a deep breath through his nose and sighed as the unmistakable smell of leather bound books filled his nostrils. He ran his fingers across the book spines. There were so many so his fingers never felt an open space except for when they went over where War Horse had been. He turned and looked at Gabriel and sighed. The archangel had fallen asleep on what appeared to be the third page which was open in his hands. "Gabe!"