Author's Note: Screw it. I'm saving Charlie. I've been good and haven't saved anyone since Jo and Ellen. Happy Valentine's Day! I don't own Supernatural.

***Ember POV***

April

When Ember told Dean about Metatron, he was only mad for a short period of time. He did admit, ultimately, that it was what he would've done, had the situation been reversed. To Ember's surprise, Dean also had news of his own. While Sam, Ember, and Castiel had broken Metatron out of Heaven's prison, Dean had met up with Crowley. He had learned that the Mark of Cain was a curse. He had also learned that Rowena, a witch who had given Sam and Dean trouble in the past, was actually Crowley's mother!

Together, the two of them enjoyed reading Ember's letter from Bobby:

Ember,

Cas says you're engaged to Dean now, and that you've got kids, like you always wanted. I'm so happy to hear it! It's strange, to think I'm a Grandpa. And if Dean hurts you, I'll come down there and kill him myself, and this time he won't find his way out of Hell.

I told Sam, too: Cas told me what you're doing for Dean. And I'm not asking you to stop, but maybe going behind his back ain't the best idea. He can be stubborn. But I think he'd understand. And I know it's the life . . . doing a little bad so you can do a lot of good. But sometimes the bad's real bad and the good . . . it can come at one hell of a price. I ain't there on the ground, and whatever you do, I know you'll make the right choice. I couldn't be more proud of you both. It's not the life I would've chosen for you, but it sounds like you're happy. I was content up here. But getting the call from you, it's the happiest I've been in forever, no matter what it costs. So stay safe, keep fighting, and kick it in the ass.

-Bobby

After reading Bobby's later, Dean was a bit more open than he'd been previously to the idea that Ember wasn't willing to give up on researching the Mark of Cain. Finally, in mid-April, Ember and the Winchesters caught another break. Charlie had managed to find the Book of the Damned, an ancient book describing how to get rid of the Mark, along with other curses.

Unfortunately, this was not without complications. The Book was coded in a dead language which was difficult to translate. In addition, an ancient family called the Styne family, the books' most recent owners, were hot on Charlie's tail.

"Those people following you… All kinds of wrong," Dean said. "We're talking multi-generational, centuries old wrong. The Styne family. Men of Letters' files have them dated back to the early 1800s. They used spells to create disease, to destabilize markets. Hell, they even helped the Nazis before they came into power, and they profited from all of it… All the spells they used came from a book of "unspeakable evil".

"Okay, so they're bad," Sam said. "So what. We've faced worse."

"Sam, read the file," Dean said. "The way the book works, is when you use it, there is a negative reaction. I'm talking biblical negative. Dark magic always comes with a price. We know that. We've been down that road before."

"Well, let's at least translate it, see what it says," said Charlie.

"You guys don't understand," said Dean. "The book's been calling out to me ever since I laid eyes on it. It's calling out to the Mark. I can hear it like it's alive. It wants me to use it, but not for good. Look, I wanted it to be the answer too, okay? I really did. But we have got to get rid of that. Burn it, bury it, I don't give a damn. We'll just have to find another way to fix the Mark."

"Like what?" asked Charlie.

"I don't know," Dean admitted.

"Dean, that's not fair," Ember protested. "We won't do anything the book suggests until we know what we're dealing with, but it's too important to-…"

"Ember, this book is unspeakable evil. I'm tired of trying to make something right and making a thousand more wrongs instead!" Dean exploded.

"So you're giving up?"

Dean sighed. "No, I'm not giving up. I don't have a death wish. Okay, even if I did, I can't die, not with this thing on my arm. What I can do is I can fight it as long as I can until…."

"Until what?" Sam exploded. "Tell me. Until what, Dean? Until I watch you become a demon again? Until then? I can't do that. I won't do that."

"Well, then you'll just have to lock me up. Bind me to the bunker like you did last time."

"That doesn't solve anything," protested Charlie.

"Look, just let us translate the book, okay? If there's a cure, we'll do it and deal with the consequences later. I can't lose you."

But, as usual with the Winchesters, that wasn't how it played out. When the Stynes caught up with the Winchesters, Sam threw the book in the fire to keep them at bay, at Dean's command.

And so, with Metatron unable to help them and the Book of the Damned burnt to a crisp, they were back to square one.

That day after the Book of the Damned was burned, however, Ember got another shock.

"Cas!" she said, answering the door to the bunker upon her return. "You… you got your Grace back!" She could tell immediately, because the shine of Castiel's own Grace was different than when he was using a borrowed one. She was so happy and surprised that she hugged him.

Castiel looked down at her in surprise. "You noticed that quickly?"

Ember blushed, backing up immediately, embarrassed. "I just meant… You're not… we don't have to be scared, anymore." But when she looked up into Castiel's eyes, a very different look passed between them. He hadn't looked at her like that since the last night they had been together, before she had become a demon. All of the reasons we broke up no longer exist…

As quickly as the look had passed across Castiel's face, it was gone, replaced with calm, and Ember's heart plummeted. Surely she had imagined it…

Castiel came inside and told Dean, Sam, and Ember all about what had happened with Metatron, who had escaped with the demon tablet. Ember was agitated about this, but it helped to know that Metatron was now human. If he really wanted to, it wouldn't be too hard for the angels up in Heaven to find him.

Still, Castiel was worried. "I was foolish, selfish," Castiel said. "I should've just killed him. Who knows what he'll do with that tablet."

"Well, you know what, Cas? You got your Grace back. You're back. You did the right thing."

"And you're stuck with us for good now," Dean added, with a short glance at Ember. She understood what his glance meant. Castiel's not dying now… but my fate is uncertain. You should leave me, now. Don't be stupid enough to stay.

Despite her earlier interlude with Castiel, however, Ember gave Dean a hard look in return. I love you. I'm not giving up. It was too late now, she thought, calming her beating heart and avoiding Castiel's eye. She was engaged to Dean. She was trying to keep him from going "dark side", which was becoming more of a challenge by the day.

"You did the right thing," Castiel was saying. "That book needed to be destroyed. We will find another way, Sam."

It was a good evening, overall. Charlie met Castiel for the first time, and Castiel healed her carpal tunnel and a bullet wound she had obtained from the Styne's. The five of them spent the evening eating pizza and joking around, for what all of them knew might very well be the last time.

***Ember POV***

July 5, Afternoon

TWO MONTHS LATER

May went by quickly. Dean cleared out a vampire next in Tulsa, and a few stragglers in surrounding areas. He helped his brother crack open a Werther box that housed a mysterious Codex. He even helped Castiel and Sam track down Claire's mother Amelia, who, it transpired, had been kidnapped by an angel a few years before. Amelia died, but at least Claire got to have closure and reunite with her before she passed.

And still, the Mark got worse. By the end of May, Dean had to make a kill approximately every week to quell the shaking and the urges. It was too much even for Dean to keep up with.

Ember and Sam continued to research the Mark of Cain, but with no results. They were getting desperate now. Ember was working less, sleeping less, eating less, and researching more. It was all she could do to hide from Dean how worried she actually was, though she was fairly certain he knew. Even Krissy had been helping with the research, but had also turned up nothing. Finally, on July 5th, Sam showed up, unannounced, at Ember's house in Conway Springs.

"Ember, we need to talk."

Ember sighed. She knew this was serious – Sam didn't take four hour detours without Dean for no reason.

"What would you do to help Dean get rid of the Mark of Cain?"

Ember's face darkened. This was not the conversation she had been expecting. She had been expecting a conversation about how to kill Dean once he lost control, but this appeared to be a different conversation entirely.

"I assume you have a plan?" she asked.

"Yeah, but you're not gonna like it." He explained how he hadn't actually burned the Book of the Damned, and that Charlie and Rowena were both trying to decode it. He explained that the Codex that he and Dean had found in the Werther box a month prior was actually a Codex created for the Book of the Damned. He explained that Dean didn't know about any of this.

Sam had been right – she didn't like didn't like this idea. "Why did you even tell me about this?" she asked. "It sounds like you've got everything under control."

"On the contrary," Sam said, "We need you. Rowena and Charlie don't get along, at the best of times, and I don't trust Rowena."

"With good reason," Ember said.

"Yeah," Sam agreed. "So Cas is babysitting them-…"

Ember's head jerked toward Sam far too quickly. "Cas is in on this too?"

Sam shot Ember a guilty look that had more than a little suspicion attached. "Yeah, it's all hands on deck," he admitted. "But Cas isn't any more thrilled about it than you are. And Dean's already starting to suspect something is going on, with as often as I'm disappearing-…"

"I wondered about that," Ember said. "He said you've been gone a lot. I just figured you were doing more research."

"I have been," Sam agreed. "It's just been more of a hands-on sort of situation."

"So what do you need me for?" Ember asked.

"Relief for Cas and I, as often as you can manage it," said Sam. "Just make sure Charlie's okay and happy, and that Rowena is… well, that she's working, anyway."

Ember sighed. "I hate this, Sam. You know that, don't you?"

Sam looked at her. "I know, Ember. I hate it too. But I don't know what else to do. I know what you're thinking. It's what we're both thinking. I know Dean wouldn't like it, and I know we've been in this situation before…" Sam sighed. "But this is different than with Gadreel, where the only thing at stake was whether I would die, and if I had I would've gone to Heaven. This is so much worse, you know that. You'll never forgive yourself if you don't try, and neither will I. It won't be long, either way…." His voice trailed off, and Ember moved closer to him and hugged him.

"He's my brother, Ember," Sam whispered. "There's nothing I won't do."

"I know, Sam, I know," Ember said.

***Ember POV***

July 13, Evening

Spending more time with Charlie and Sam, as well as doing something to save Dean, almost made up for not telling Dean anything going on.

In only a week, though, things had gotten even worse. Charlie and Rowena still hadn't cracked the code, but that was possibly because they spent most of their time fighting. Even Castiel was having a hard time keeping things under control. Ember often had to chaperone Charlie so that she could get a break from Rowena. The Stynes were still hot on the trail of the Book of the Damned, and it was unsafe for Charlie to be anywhere alone.

The night of July 13th was one of these nights. Charlie and Ember were spending time at Charlie's motel room, the Blackbird Motel, in order for her to get a much-needed break from Rowena. Charlie was huddled in the corner with her computer, and Ember was watching a Doctor Who marathon on TV. "Ember!" Charlie said suddenly. "I think I cracked the code!" She had a big smile on her face. "Come see! I'm emailing it to Sam now."

"Yeah?" Ember exclaimed, rising to look over Charlie's shoulder. She was distracted, however, by her cell phone, which began to vibrate.

Sam Winchester Phone: Heads up. Styne on loose. Chopped arm off, escaped from bunker. Dean knows.

"Charlie, we've gotta leave, now!" said Ember.

Just as she said this, however, someone started knocking on the door. "I know you're in here, Miss Asimov! You have it! I want it!"

"Hide!" Ember hissed to Charlie. Charlie picked up her computer and ran into the bathroom, and Ember turned invisible and threw open the door. She recognized the man immediately as a Styne from the security footage Dean had shown her. Without hesitation, she took an angel blade and ran it through his heart. He staggered backwards, then keeled over.

"Charlie, run!" Ember screamed. Together, the two girls made a beeline for Ember's car. When Ember opened the door and looked backward, however, she saw a man raising a knife over Charlie, who was running away from him and didn't see him. "Charlie!" she screamed.

Charlie dodged to the side, and the man's knife, rather than hitting her in the back, made contact with her upper shoulder. She keeled over onto the ground.

Ember used her force powers and threw the man backward into a building. She turned invisible and, raising her angel blade again, dodged his wild blow, and stabbed him once more, straight through the heart.

Ember hated killing people… but these were not people… these were Frankenstein monsters.

"Charlie!" Ember screamed. Charlie was unconscious, and losing a lot of blood, but she still had a pulse. Thinking fast, Ember took off her jacket and tied it tight around the wound, as tightly as she could. Using her force powers, she guided Charlie into the front seat of her small car, in a way that she could put pressure on the wound as much as possible.

With one hand, she dialed Castiel. She wasn't entirely sure if he would pick up, as he had refused to return calls or texts from her since the previous August. She knew he had been attempting to put some distance between them. Over the past week, however, coordinating the effort to decode the Book of the Damned meant that he seemed to have re-discovered her phone number.

"Cas!" she exclaimed when she heard his usual "hello." She used force powers to start the car, and force powers to steer the wheel, until the phone was safely lodged between her shoulder and her ear. "Cas, Charlie's been stabbed. I've got her with me, but you've got to heal her, and I don't know how long she's got. I'm a good hour away from you, I think. Meet me at Shep's Lodge, okay?"

"I'm on my way," said Castiel.

Next, Ember got a call from Dean. "Ember! Where's Charlie?" he asked immediately.

"I've got her, Dean," she said. "She's been stabbed. I took out two of the Styne's but I didn't stick around to see if they're still dead. I'm on the way to Shep's Diner to meet Cas so he can heal her."

"On the way," Dean said, and hung up.

***Sam POV***

July 13, Late Night

Charlie was going to be okay. Castiel had healed her, and put her to sleep. She was currently sleeping in the front seat of Ember's Cruize.

It was pouring down rain in the parking lot of Shep's, but no one seemed to care.

"I'm sorry," Sam said to Dean, who was looking murderous.

"You could've gotten her killed! You don't get to apologize. I'm sick and tired of Ember needing to clean up all of our damn messes!"

"Excuse me?" Ember yelled.

"We were trying to help you," said Sam.

"I didn't need help," said Dean. "I told you to leave it alone."

"What was I supposed to do, just – watch you die?" asked Sam.

"The Mark isn't gonna kill me," said Dean.

"Maybe not, but – when it's done with you, you won't be you anymore. Dean, you're all I've got. So of course, I was gonna fight for you because that's what we do."

"Not anymore," Dean said. "This thing, with Cas, and Ember, and the book, ends now. Shut it down before somebody else gets hurt. You understand me?"

"No," said Sam and Ember at once.

Dean stared at them, and it looked like he was warring within himself. Sam saw, with horror, Dean's hands move toward where he knew he kept his demon knife. Then he stopped, turned, and headed back toward his Impala.

"Where are you going?" asked Ember.

"I'm gonna find the Stynes," Dean said over his shoulder. "And I'm gonna rip apart everything and everyone that they ever loved. And then I'm gonna tear out their hearts." And then Dean peeled out of the parking lot.

The group was silent for a moment. "Well, what now?" asked Castiel finally.

"Charlie thinks she cracked the code," Ember said.

The group stared at her. "What? Really?"

"Yeah," Ember said. "She told me, right before she was stabbed. She said she was emailing it to you."

Sam got out his phone and checked it. "Yeah, there's something from her here," he said excitedly. He put his phone back in his pocket, and looked at Charlie, who was still sleeping in the front seat of Ember's car. "You'd better head back to the bunker with her," Sam said. "It's safest for her there, until we know what's going on with the Stynes. I'll head back to Rowena, and see about the code."

"What about Dean?" Ember asked.

"We uh... we should be able to track him," said Sam. "I lowjacked the Impala a few weeks back just in case. Cas, would you be willing?"

"Yes," Castiel said. "I'll head there now."

***Ember POV***

July 14, Morning

Early the next morning, Ember awakened to a phone call from Castiel. "Cas? What's going on?" Ember asked. "Did you find Dean?"

"No," said Castiel. "I'm at the Styne's place, in Shreveport. And… it's awful, Ember. He's killed them all."

"…Them … all?" Ember said, wide awake now.

"There's three in here, and at least a dozen upstairs."

"Jesus," Ember said on a gasp. "I should've teleported – do you want me to teleport?"

"I wouldn't bother," Castiel said. "I already told Sam… his GPS says he's heading north. He's coming home."

-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-

Charlie left the bunker around noon to meet up with Rowena and Sam, while Ember remained to wait for Dean and Castiel. Finally, late in the evening, she heard a BUMP. It wasn't from the direction that Dean would come in, which scared her. She went invisible, and began exploring.

The robbers weren't hard to find. There were three of them, one of which she recognized as a Styne. She had been sure she had killed him… she had stabbed him right through the heart! Still, she decided, he couldn't survive a beheading, not if Dean had managed to kill his entire family.

After she had beheaded the man she recognized, the bigger man in the group began to shoot randomly at the air. A bullet would have hit the younger man if Ember hadn't stopped the bullet in mid-air. Seeing this, the burly man backed up against the wall and yelled, "Ghost, show yourself!"

"Bite me," Ember said, and forced both men against the wall. "Why are you here?"

"Please don't kill me," the younger one said.

Ember hadn't paid much attention to him before, but when she looked at him closely, she realized that he couldn't be much older than high school. "How old are you?" she asked him.

"I'm 16," he said.

"Christ," said Ember. She loosened her hold on him, but didn't let him go too far from the wall. "Why are you here?" she asked the men again, louder this time.

Still neither man answered Ember. She couldn't hold them much longer, so she let them both go just a few seconds before she knew her power would give out. As she had suspected, the bigger man went for his gun again. Ember was ready, and shot him in the head.

"I'll ask you one more time," she asked the final intruder, the young boy. "Why are you here?"

"I promise, I'll leave, just please let me go. I won't hurt you."

"Yeah, I got that," Ember said. "But why are you here? What's your name?"

"C-cyrus," the boy said. "Cyrus Styne."

"And why are you here?"

"We – we were going to – to look for the s-secrets in the bunker, but I didn't want to go, I ss-wear I didn't…" The boy was crying now, and shaking. "Just let me go and I'll – I'll leave, I'll -…"

Ember became visible. "You have nowhere to go, child," she said, sighing. "Your family's dead."
Ember watched the emotions on Cyrus' face. Horror… relief… disbelief. "That's impossible," he said.

"Trust me," Ember said. "It's possible."

At that exact moment, Dean's shadow framed the doorway. Ember was horrified by what she saw. He was covered in blood, and his eyes were cold. He looked first at the dead Stynes on the floor, then raised his gun and pointed it at Cyrus.

"No no no no no, don't!" Cyrus screamed. "Don't!"

"Why not?" Dean asked. "You're one of them."

Cyrus was terrified, and Ember wondered if she should intervene. Ultimately, she knew, if Dean shot, she would have to rely on her ability to control bullets. "No. No, I'm not!" Cyrus yelled. "Okay, I hate my family! See, look!" He pulled up his shirt. "No stitches! I'm not like them, I promise."

"Oh, you are like them," said Dean. "There's bad in you. It's in your blood. Now you can deny it and you can run from it all you want, but that bad... will always win."

"Dean, that's not how it works!" said Ember.

Cyrus shook his head, close to tears. "I'll do anything you want. Okay, please. You don't need to do this. Please."

Dean hesitated, finally putting down the gun. Then, in one fluid motion, he shot Cyrus squarely in the forehead. "Yeah," he said. I do."

Ember stood there in shock as the boy fell in front of her, as if in slow motion. It had been quicker than she could've reacted. When he put the gun down, she'd thought for a second that he had control… now, she realized that he had done this on purpose, expecting her to stop his bullets otherwise. She couldn't move. She couldn't even breathe… she just simply stood there.

"Dean!" Ember heard a voice to her left, and saw Castiel striding in. "What have you done? You killed him."

"I took down a monster.," Dean said. "Because that's what I do. And I'll continue to do that until.."

"Until you become the monster," said Castiel.

"You can leave now, Cas," said Dean.

Ember was in agreement with this option, but Castiel said, "No. I can't, because I'm your friend."

"Really?" Dean asked. "Well let me ask you something. Do you screw over all your friends?"

"We were trying to cure you! We still are!" shouted Castiel.

"Like hell," said Dean.

"We can read the Book now," offered Castiel.

"Oh so what? So you might find a spell that might take this crap off my arm? But even if you do, what's it gonna cost? ' 'Cause magic like that does not come free. No, it comes with a price that you pay in blood. So thanks, but I'm good."

"Dean, at least give it a chance!" Ember burst out. "We're trying to-…"

"We?" said Dean. "We? Here's a thought. Why don't both of you go live happily ever after together and leave me the hell alone! You never would've broken up if Castiel hadn't been dying, and he isn't now. So go away."

A silence fell over the room. Ember looked at Castiel for his reaction, horrified. Castiel, it seemed, had been looking at her, and now looked away. Dean smirked, knowing that he'd struck a nerve with everyone.

"That's not fair Dean," Castiel said finally. "I know it's just the Mark talking right now. It's changing you." Ember nodded.

"You're wrong," said Dean.

"Am I?" challenged Castiel. "Because the Dean Winchester I know would never have murdered that kid."

"Yeah well, that Dean's always been kind of a dick," Dean said flippantly. He made to leave, but Ember and Castiel both stopped him.

"Get out of my way," said Dean.

"Dean, it's not safe for you to leave right now," said Castiel. "You're not in your right mind. I don't wanna have to hurt you."

"I don't think that's gonna be a problem," said Dean. And he picked Castiel up by his lapels and began punching him. "No!" screamed Ember. She joined the fray, but Dean was strong, too strong.

When had he become stronger than Ember? He hadn't had force powers since he had lost the black eyes, but in melee combat, he had been getting so strong lately… And blood was running down Castiel's face… And then Ember felt herself flying through the air, and everything went black.