Author's Note: I very much enjoyed writing this chapter. I haven't done (and probably won't do) a lot of chapters that delve into the friendship dynamic between Sam and Ember, but this ended up being a really good chapter for that. They are, and will remain, only friends... sorry, it's just the demon blood making it seem otherwise. By the way, I've got a whole bunch of twists up ahead, the "Alastair" twist being the first of many. Hope you enjoy, please review. I don't own Supernatural.

***Sam POV***

March 17, Late evening

(One month later)

"He's in love with her, isn't he?" Bobby asked Sam. Sam and Dean had come back to Bobby's for the first time in a month. Ember had gone off with Dean (somewhere), and Sam and Bobby were poring over lore books about Lucifer and Lilith in the cramped library room.

Sam looked up, shaking his head. "I'm not gonna lie, Bobby, I've never seen him like this." Laughter danced in his eyes. "You should've seen him when he left your house a month back. I've seen him get laid and be less happy about it."

Bobby frowned.

"They've gone back to texting on and off again, like they did last fall," Sam continued. "And then, two nights ago, there was this blond in a bar, definitely Dean's usual type," Sam continued. "I thought he was going to chat her up, but then she came and told me he had ducked out and said he'd had to head back to the motel."

Bobby raised his eyebrow. "And what did you do?"

Sam gave Bobby a shy smile, remembering the feel of the blond girl as she squirmed below him.

"Idgits," Bobby groaned.

The next day, Ember asked Sam and Dean if she could hunt with them, just for awhile. "I'm not getting any younger," she told them. "There aren't any good therapist jobs here. And maybe if I help you with the whole Lilith thing, it'll go faster."

Dean looked like Christmas had come early.

***Ember POV***

March 18, Evening

The next day, as luck would have it, a case fell into their hands. Bobby called them during their morning run to a café for food. By evening, Ember, Dean, and Sam were trying to track down a ghost – not to kill it, but to talk to it.

The first step was a séance in a graveyard.

"This job is jacked," said Dean, who looked irritated beyond belief.

"How so?"

"You want me to gank a monster or torch a corpse, hey, let's light it up, right? But this? If we fix whatever this is, people are gonna start dropping dead. Good people."

"Look, I don't want them to die either, Dean," said Sam. "But there's a… natural order."

"You're kidding, right?" Dean asked.

"What?"

"You don't see the irony in that? I mean, you and me, we're like the poster boys of the unnatural order. All we do is ditch death," Dean responded. Ember's head moved back and forth, staring at both brothers in the light from the candles.

"Yeah, but the normal rules don't really apply to us, do they?" Sam asked.

Dean laughed. "We're no different than anybody else!"

"I'm infected with demon blood," Sam said. "You've been to Hell. Look, I know you want to think of yourself as Joe the plumber, Dean, but you're not. Neither am I. The sooner you accept that, the better off you're gonna be."

"Ah, Joe the plumber was a douche," Dean said, looking at Ember for support.

"He's right, Dean," she said softly.

"You too?" Dean said irritably. "Really?"

Ember shrugged.

"No offense," said Dean, whose tone had become lighter, "but isn't the whole half-demon, 'you still being an upstanding citizen' thing… I don't know, fighting against that natural order?"

Ember glared at him. She knew he hadn't meant it as an insult, but she was still slightly irked at the question. "No… that's more like me having a choice about what I decide to do with my life, and making the correct one. Speaking of which… if we save people that are bound for heaven – people that are supposed to die, as a fact of life… I mean, I can't think of a quicker way to piss off heaven than that. I'm not a fan of killing innocent people, but I, for one, am entirely in favor of finding the reaper and restoring things to their natural order."

Dean pouted, and Sam glared at him. "Are you gonna help me finish this?" he asked, gesturing to the array of candles.

Suddenly, from nowhere, a man yelled, "Hey!"

Ember froze. Stepping out from the shadows was the demon who had come for her at her home. He was in a different meat suit, but she would recognize him anywhere by the power that emanated from him. "Demon," she said immediately to Sam and Dean. Dean pulled out his knife, and Sam his shot-gun.

"Don't waste your time," the demon said, and his eyes rolled back in his head, turning them white.

"Alastair," Dean said immediately.

"You know him?" Ember said, surprised out of her fear.

Dean ignored her. "I thought you got deep-fried, extra crispy." And with trepidation, Ember noted that there was just a tinge of fear behind Dean's eyes.

"Nah," the demon said. "Just the pediatrician I was riding. His wife's still looking for him. It's hilarious. Anyway… no time to chat. Got a hot date with death."

Two things happened then, simultaneously. First, Alastair raised his hand and sent Dean flying backward into a gravestone. Second, Ember used her powers with all her might, and Alastair went flying back into a second gravestone. Alastair recovered himself quickly, and Sam started chanting an exorcism as quickly as he could, running forward to punch Alastair while he did so. Alastair dove backward and, holding out his hand, used his own immense powers against Ember and Sam.

Ember knew immediately that she was going to lose. She could feel that Alastair was far more powerful than she was, though she could put up a good fight. This was it. She had never even kissed Dean Winchester. And she couldn't even be sure she'd get into Heaven… "I can see why Lilith is so interested in you," Alastair said suddenly, looking her straight in the eye. Ember lost her concentration for a split second, a distraction which cost her dearly. She slid backward a few paces, now backed against a large headstone with Alastair towering over her.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the pressure lifted, and Ember saw (to her immense relief), a billowing black cloud erupt from Alastair's mouth. Her relief turned to horror as she realized that Sam had used his own powers to exorcise the demon.

"Sam…" Ember said to him. That word was full of emotion: relief, disappointment, gratefulness, and fury. And for a second, Sam looked at her with the most twisted, lustful smile she had ever seen on any demon.

Then the moment passed, and Sam's face tensed into one of worried relief. He ran quickly over to Dean. "Dean! Ember, he's out cold."

Ember rushed over to Dean as well, putting her hand on his neck. "Just unconscious," she confirmed.

Sam rushed over to Dean and propped him up gingerly, then smacked him lightly on the face. Dean's eyes popped open suddenly, and he scrambled to sit up, but Sam held him down. "Sit a second," he told Dean. "You were knocked out."

"Fuck!" Dean screamed into the night air, recovering his faculties quickly. "I hate that bastard! How did you get rid of him?"

Sam and Ember looked at each other. "Ember's and my powers combined," Sam said. It was mostly the truth.

"How do you know him?" Ember asked Dean.

"It's a long story," Dean answered grudgingly, sagging in a sitting position against a headstone. "But he's the worst of the worst."

Ember nodded. "He was the other demon who came to my house that night," Ember said.

She had expected some sort of reaction to this, but not the one Dean gave. "He was – what?!" Dean scrambled to his feet. "I swear to God, next time I see that mother fucker, I'll kill him. I'll – I'll fucking - …"

"Dean!" both Sam and Ember screamed at the same time, and Dean whirled around, his eyes blazing with fury.

"He can't go around-…" Dean started.

Sam cut him off. "Dean, he obviously finds ways to keep popping back up. And I, for one, am not going to wait on it to happen again. Let's get the hell out of here."

-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-

Half an hour later, Dean finally exited the small motel room into the bathroom to take a shower. Sam immediately stated that he was going to go out and grab some food, but Ember used her powers to shut the door in front of him. "We're going to talk first," she said. She knew Sam wouldn't dare use his own powers to exit the room, not now when his actions were so crucial to their friendship.

She was right, and Sam gave an irritated sigh, but his shoulders sagged. "We can't talk here," he said. "You could come with me, though."

Ember narrowed her eyes, suspicious of him, but he said, by way of explanation, "I'm hungry. And Dean will be out of the shower soon, and he's not as clueless as he acts."

Ember nodded finally, and Sam walked over to the bathroom door. "Ember and I are going for food!" he yelled through the door.

"Okay, get me pie!" Dean yelled back, and Ember saw Sam smile softly.

For the first two minutes of the ride to the nearest fast-food joint, both Sam and Ember were silent. Ember's jaw was working, and Sam kept shooting her looks that were a mixture of ashamed and defiant. Finally, she said, "I thought you promised to tell me when you were back on demon blood?"

"I was going to, I promise I was," Sam said. "I'm not stupid. I know you need to know. The first time I had an opportunity to do so without Dean, I was going to tell you."

"So you're still not planning on telling him where you're getting your powers."

Sam sighed. "Look. I know you don't approve, and I understand-…" Ember gave him a scathing look, but he continued. "No, really. I know why you don't approve. And I'm not going to lie, I can definitely feel the effects of the blood when I'm around you."

Ember was pretty sure he wasn't coming onto her, but she hadn't expected him to be that blunt about his reaction to her "demon attraction issues", either. This threw her off guard.

"Look, Ember, I'm not stupid, okay?" Sam continued. "You're my brother's girl. Maybe you don't know this, but you always have been, from day one. Maybe you always will be, because I've never seen him act around a girl the way he acts around you."

If Sam was trying to throw her even further off-balance, he was doing a very good job.

"This whole thing is temporary, and of the two of us, Dean is the one that thinks with his downstairs brain," Sam said. "I promise – I swear on everything I have ever loved – that I will never hurt you. Just please, please don't tell Dean. At least until we figure out this apocalypse thing. I mean… you owe me that much. I did just save you and Dean."

Ember sighed. He had a point, though she wanted to argue it. But she had conditions. "Fine," she said. "Look, I'm not your keeper. I don't have any control over your life. It's a stupid idea, but it's nothing on me. I have one condition."

"What's that?"

"That you fight me."

"What?" Sam said, clearly alarmed. "Ember, I'm not going to-…"

"No, hear me out," Ember said as they pulled into the fast food drive-through. "No playing dirty. No hurting, no maiming, no sending each other flying into things. Not that kind of fighting. Just like… air tug of war."

They pulled up to the window at that point, and it was another five minutes before they picked up the conversation again.

"What would be the point of me fighting you?" Sam asked. "I'm on a steady diet. I'm taking the same amount each time, and I haven't lost control yet."

Ember turned to face him. "I'm pretty sure I'm stronger than you. Your power only works on demons, and I'm only half demon, so they shouldn't have the same effect on me that they would on full demons. But I need to know for sure."

"Ember, if I was going to hurt you, I would have done it already," Sam protested.

Ember glared. "If you want to keep your brother in the dark, even for another hour, this is what I'm asking. I need to know that if you lose control, I can still keep you away. I don't want to have to kill you, and I don't want Dean or Bobby to have to kill you later."

"I'm not going to-…" Sam muttered, but he broke off at Ember's glare. "Fine," he said softly, twisting his hands irritably on the wheel. "But if you get hurt, you get to answer to Dean."

Ten minutes later, they were in a very large open field, which was slightly lit up by two streetlights.

"Okay, first thing's first," Ember said. "And you have to be totally, completely honest. Okay? I'm giving you one last chance here, Sam Winchester."

"Shoot," he said irritably.

Ember went invisible. "Can you see me?" she asked.

Sam's head whipped around, realizing that her voice was traveling behind him. "Hold on, stay still for a second, I think I see…" Ember stopped.

"Just vaguely, I think I see… it's like, a glimmer, I guess. Are you… there?" he held up his hand, and touched soft clothing.

"Yup. You can see me then."

"Not really," Sam said. "It's more like… like when you look at something through a shimmery fog."

"You're not supposed to see even that," Ember said, frowning.

"Walk around me for a second," Sam said, ignoring her. "And don't just walk… run and duck and bend and wiggle a bit. Let me see if I can touch you." He couldn't, for the most part. He got her a few times out of sheer, dumb luck, but for the most part she may as well have been invisible.

"You better be being honest with me," she growled at him, becoming visible to him once again.

"Ember, the biggest tip I have is if you're worried about demons, mask your scent."

"When I'm hunting demons, I will," she said. "I just didn't realize I'd be hanging out with demons tonight." Sam shot her a hurt glare. "Oh, don't get all offended, I wasn't talking about you," she snapped. "Although, I wasn't not talking about you," she grumbled, and Sam sent her a scathing look. "I just don't fancy dousing myself in pig swilt or whatever unless there's a good reason," she explained.

He stopped, looking surprised. "You don't have to douse yourself in pig swilt," he said. "Man-made products would be much better." He smiled at her. "Dean's cologne might hide you entirely." They both laughed for a second, and she realized she was becoming comfortable around him again.

"Okay, now for the fight."

"I'm not fighting you."

"Whatever. Okay, here's what I want you to do. Walk about… I don't know, maybe 12 steps away from me." Sam did. "Okay, now hit me. Try to force me back a few feet, like Alastair did."

"I'm not going to do that. I don't want to throw you across the football field."

"Think you're stronger than me?" she challenged.

"I have no idea how strong you actually are," he confessed.

"Fine," she said. "Use low-level powers, and then work your way up. See how much it takes to move me."

Sam sighed. "Okay," he said, and used his mind to push at her feet.

Ember didn't move. "Looking good so far," she said. "Take it up a notch."

Sam did. Ember dug her heels into the ground and braced herself, but otherwise still didn't move.

"Still looking good, weakling," she taunted him, "Take it up another notch."

He laughed. "Okay, fine, Ember. You win. I'm going full power. Are you sure you're ready?"

"Yeah, hit me!" she said. She didn't feel anything at first, and she could tell that Sam was turning up his power gradually, instead of hitting her with it all at once. A few seconds later, however, it was taking her a colossal effort to resist against his force. She could feel the wind whistling past her head from his wall of force, and twigs and branches moved around her at high speed. She leaned over and used all fours to brace herself, but her feet still didn't move.

"Okay," she said, and he stopped. "This time, hit me with everything at once."

"You sure?" he asked.

"I'm braced," she answered.

"Okay," he said, and hit her hard, with all of his power. She dug her heals into the ground again, and slid back a full two feet.

Sam stopped immediately, shame peppering his face in the streetlamp. "I'm sorry," he said.

Ember smiled. At some point, she realized, this had become more a friendly test of power than a practice for how safe she was around him. "No worries, I haven't gone on the offensive yet," she said. "Okay, this time, I'm going to count to three. When I say 'Go', hit me with your full power."

"And what are you going to do?" Sam asked.

"I'm gonna send you flying," she said honestly. "Not very far, though."

"You're sure about this?" he asked. He had begun to stretch his legs, like a runner warming up.

"Yeah," said Ember. "I've got a pretty good idea where your force powers are at. I shouldn't send you too far."

Sam nodded. "One… two… three… GO!" Ember yelled. At the same time, both of them held up their hands and pushed against each other. The force of it sent Ember backward onto her behind. Sam, however, went skidding a full ten feet backward, ultimately landing on his behind as well.

Together, they both started laughing. Sam recovered first, and hurried to help Ember up. "So… can I keep my secret for a little while longer?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes. "I still think you're an idiot," she said. "But I guess the apocalypse brings out the demon in all of us."

On the way back, Ember had a few more questions for Sam. "So… what you said about pig swilt and cologne… how do you know?"

He looked at her in the light of the Impala, and she could tell that his face was red again, and that he didn't want to answer. "It's a…" he wrestled uncomfortably with the words. "It's not that your scent has to be masked by a… another natural scent. You're not deer hunting. You're… your scent has to be masked by any other scent. I mean, it feels like it's partially pheromones, and partially smell. Or maybe the smell triggering pheromones. Or, in my case, the smell triggering the blood."

Ember thought about this for a second. "Thanks," she said. "I suppose that makes things a lot easier. And… it'll probably make things smell better, too." She thought for a second longer, then asked, "Sam… what do I smell like, to demons?"

Sam took awhile to answer. Just when Ember was sure he was going to ignore her and had decided to let the subject die, he said, "Sex on a stick."

Ember's head whipped around. She hadn't expected this.

He shrugged. "You asked me to be totally honest. I'm being totally honest. But Ember, I've never really thought about…"

"I know," she said, cutting him off.

"To me… you're just Ember," he said. "I can separate…" he paused. "What has to do with the demon blood, and what doesn't. For example, this feeling was least strong during our time with Anna, when I had been off the blood for awhile. It was somewhat stronger when I first met you I think, though I wasn't really thinking about it, what with Dean getting back from Hell and all. And it's strongest now. But… until I get a whiff, you're… you're just Ember. You're my brother's girl."

There it was again. "I don't recall him agreeing to that," Ember said.

"I don't think he can help it," Sam said. "Give him time."

Ember sighed, and took a sip of the smoothie she'd just bought from the drive-through. "Last question," she said.

"Yeah?" Sam asked.

"What do you think that… that Alastair demon meant? About Lilith wanting me?"

"No idea," Sam said after a long pause. "But I wasn't going to wait around to find out."