Castiel hits every corner of the country that next week. He's always sent to check out cases that seem to be the work of everyone's favorite serial killer. Unfortunately, with the Bloody Valentine's infamy comes a lot of copycats, and Castiel has always been good at figuring out if it's the real deal or not.

None of these were.

Which makes walking into his ninth crime scene in seven days incredibly exhausting, and he's already prepared to tell them that the Bloody Valentine decided to take a vacation after their close encounter.

But writing messages with bloody toothpicks is one detail that never made the press, and the message is unmistakably his.

"I take it back. Gold star for you. Unfortunately, you didn't surround the house quickly enough, and breaking a back window is far too easy. But hey, you can't catch 'em all. I have to admit, though. If someone does find me, I do hope it's you, Castiel. You've earned it.

Castiel feels the blood drain from his face. The Bloody Valentine knows his name. That was never part of the plan. This is about as far from the plan as one could get. This is bad. This is really, really bad.

"Michael's not gonna be happy about this," his partner, Hannah, murmurs.

"Michael's not gonna find out," Castiel says, surprising both Hannah and himself. Michael likes to know as much about the bureau as he can, but he's made it very clear that Castiel is supposed to tell him everything. And usually, he wouldn't think twice.

"He has to," Hannah insists. "He's our superior."

"Yeah, and he's my brother," Castiel reminds her. "He sees this, he's gonna pull me from the case before he even knows whether it'll affect anything."

"So? Maybe he should," Hannah says. "He knows you. He knows your name, and he probably knows your face. This is the first note he's ever addressed to anyone —"

"Exactly," Castiel interrupts. "The first, and probably the last. It shook him up when we almost caught him; we were closer than ever before. He just wanted to shake us up right back. That's it."

"And if it's not?"

"Doesn't matter," he says. "I know this case inside and out. I'm the only one who's been following it since the beginning. There's no one out there who could do half as good a job as I do — as we do. I'm not letting Michael take that away because the guy dropped my name."

"He's going to find out eventually," Hannah warns him.

"I don't care," Castiel says. "As long as it's after we caught the guy, or we've proved that nothing's changed."

"Michael's not gonna be happy."

"And the families of the next murder victims aren't gonna be happy, either," Castiel says. "Right now, that's where my priorities lie. If you can't say the same, maybe it's time I get a new partner."

Hannah sighs. "Fine. Michael doesn't have to know. But if it happens again, we're telling him."

Castiel crosses his arms, but he doesn't argue. He knows Hannah just wants what's best for him. Michael's the same way. But right now, he should be the last of their concerns.

It's time to catch a serial killer.