023. burning the wrong book

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"Crowley told me. Or rather Rowena told him after she tried and failed to kill me." Dean says as Larissa walks into the library with Athena.

"What the hell happened?" Sam asks.

"The Mark protected me. Rowena doesn't really have a beef with me. She was pissed at Crowley because she thinks he's going soft." Dean says.

"She's not wrong." Sam says.

"Yeah, well, after he and mommy dearest got into a fight--"

"Mommy dearest?"

"Rowena is Crowley's mother." Dean informs, Larissa and Sam sharing shocked looks. "More about that later. So, then he came and told me what she had said. The Mark is an actual curse. So, anyway, I'm sorry. I probably should've told you that."

"Yeah."

"Yeah." Sam's phone rings and Dean picks it up.

"Winchester Accounting. How may I help you?" He asks. "Charlie? What's going on? Where are you?" He puts the phone on speaker after a moment. "Okay. Hey, hey. Take a deep breath, kiddo. Uh, we're all sitting here. Tell me what happened. Why are you bleeding?"

"I, uh-- I got shot. 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." Charlie says.

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

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

"What guys? Who?" Sam asks.

"Some southern fried d-bags. They've been after me since I dug up "The Book of the Damned."" Charlie says.

"You found it? Where?" Sam asks.

"After some near misses and some broke into museums, I found historical documents that led to a monastery in Spain.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. Turns out I was right."

"Okay, Charlie, what does it say about the mark?" Dean asks.

"I have no fracking idea. The language it's written in, I've never seen anything like it. I, uh, I found some research notes in the monastery crypt, though, by the Friar that buried it. "The Book of the Damn" is a spell book for creating or undoing any kind of damnation there is. We translate this thing, I think we can get the Mark of Cain off you, Dean."

"Charlie, you're a genius." Dean says.

"A genius fugitive. I-- these dudes following me, they are well trained. One of them keeps talking about his family." Charlie says.

"Family? Did you get a name?"

"No clue. I-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. They're tracking the book somehow."

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

"Uh, just south of Des Moines." She says.

"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." Dean says.

"Okay, bring snacks. And every Men of Letters decoder ring there is. This book is old and scary and I've never seen anything like it." Charlie says.

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