EPOV

I was currently sitting on Dean's bed while hanging out in the brothers' room. Flicking through some witch books, I was trying to find some kind of spell that might have helped Jay out with his performance, because despite the fact that it had been entertaining to watch, Sam was right, what Jay had done was impossible.

"Looks like this guy, Jay, was a pretty big deal in the '70s," Sam noted as he read from his computer where he sat at the table.

"Which in magician land means what, exactly?" Dean asked as he read from some book as well, sitting at the foot of his bed next to me.

"Big enough to play radio city music hall," Sam answered.

"So, what happened?" I flicked a page over, keeping my eyes on the book as I spoke to Sam. "How'd he go from hot, to flop?"

"He got old."

Looking away from his, Dean shrugged. "Okay, so maybe incredible Jay is using real magic to stage a comeback."

"It's possible," Sam agreed. "Some kind of spell that works a death transference."

"How does the tarot card mix into it?"

"I don't know."

"It's a symbol. A connection. A link," I answered. "Not entirely sure how, but it links the victim to the spell. Like a hex bag." When the room fell silent, I looked up to see both brothers staring at me. "What?"

"How do you know so much?" Dean asked.

A grin found its way onto my lips. "I'm a walking encyclopedia of weird, remember?"

The room fell silent for a moment as we all got back to our work before Dean shook his head and got up to look at the tarot card as it sat on the table. "Man... hope I die before I get old. Whole thing seems brutal, don't it?"

Sam looked up at his brother. "You think we will?"

"What?"

"Die before we get old," Sam explained.

Dean grinned. "Haven't we both already?"

"If you're talking about being old, then I gotta say no there. I'm still as young as ever." I shifted so I was kneeling on the bed. "The hottest chick you know." I gave Dean a wink.

He turned his grin to me. "And I won't forget it.

Rolling his eyes, Sam got back to his question. "Do you guys think we'll still be chasing demons when we're sixty?"

Dean didn't even hesitate when he answered. "No, I think we'll be dead. For good." Sam scoffed at the response. "What? You want to end up like- like Travis? Huh? Or Gordon, maybe?"

"There's Bobby," Sam noted.

Dean chuckled lightly, coming back to the bed. "Oh, yeah, there's a poster child for growing old gracefully."

I frowned a little, kinda sad. "Things could be different, Dean..."

He paused as he looked at me, his brows furrowing in confusion. He didn't realise the reason why I was so upset. No one really talked about it, and no one had really said it out loud before, but it had become clear. Every time I died… I came back.

We didn't know what that meant. We didn't know if that meant I would live forever, or if I could only die of natural causes. No one really knew the full extent of whatever my situation was.

So, the idea of Sam and Dean dying. Of Bobby, Ellen, Jo, Tristan. The idea of all my friends and family and the people I cared about dying... it scared me. I hated being alone. Sure, sometimes I needed space, but I always knew there was someone I could turn to when I needed it. If everyone died, then I'd be all by myself.

"She's right, Dean. Maybe we'll be different."

Taking a seat on the bed again, Dean turned his confusion to his brother. "What kind of Kool-Aid are you two drinking, man? Sammy, it ends bloody or sad. That's just the life."

"What if we could win?" Sam asked, his question even confusing me.

"'Win'?" Dean and I said at the same time.

"If there was a way we could just... put an end to all of it."

Dean sat up a little straighter. "Is there something going on you're not telling us?"

"No," Sam answered in an instant.

"Sammy," Dean pressed.

"No," Sam insisted as he stood up. "Look, I'm just saying... I just wish there was a way we could... go after the source. That's all. Cut the head off the snake."

"Well, the problem with the snake is that it has a thousand heads," Dean argued. "Evil bitches just keep piling out of the Volkswagen."

Looking down at the ground, Sam nodded. "Yeah. Guess you're right."

Dean sighed. "Why don't you go see if you can track down Jay? I'll see what I can dig up on this tarot card."

DPOV

I'd left Liz up in the room while I went to go get food. But on my way through the lobby, I ran into the coroner as they collected Jeb's dead body from his room.

"Hey." Sam came up to me, coming back from following Jay.

"Maid found Jeb hanging from the ceiling fan. Police think it was a suicide." reaching into my pocket, I pulled out another tarot card, this one called The Hanged Man. "I beg to differ. Pulled a little sleight of hand myself."

Sam took the card. "On Dexter's body?"

"Yeah, so I'm thinking if this spell is a death transference, then these cards work like black-Magic targets."

"Any connection between the victims?"

I gave a sharp nod. "Jeb was a total douche bag to Jay yesterday."

"What about the first vic? Uh, Vance?"

"Asked around. Apparently, Vance was heckling Jay at the bar the day he was killed."

Giving a short scoff, Sam started to walk off, me beside him as we left the scene. "Okay, so Jay sneaks a card into Vance's pocket, does the table of death..."

"And Vance takes ten swords to the chest," I added.

"Then Jay slips a noose and Jeb doesn't," he finished. "Hell of a trick."

"Yeah, I think it's time we had a little chat with Jay. Any luck tailing him?"

He looked away, a little guilty, and embarrassed. "He slipped me."

"He's a sixty-year-old."

"He's a magician," was his only argument.

EPOV

I'd searched my room up and down. Now I was in the brothers' room, turning it upside down as I looked in every nook and cranny, desperate and worried. The door opened as both Dean and Sam stepped in before they came to a stop at the sight of me leaning over, my arm reaching into the crack of the couch.

"Ah... Lizzie," Sam took a step forward, scanning the room that was now a mess, "everything okay?"

"No," I answered shortly, moving away from the couch and over to the bed where I got to my hands and knees to look under the bed.

"You wanna tells us what you're doing?" Dean asked as he manoeuvred through the mess and over to me.

"Have you seen them?" I asked, still looking under the bed, getting more and more frantic.

"Seen what?"

"My pills!" I snapped, getting to my feet, about to grab the bed that was already a mess and look through it again.

Dean grabbed and stopped me, turning me so I face him. "Liz, calm down. Take a deep breath." Sighing, I did as he said and took a deep breath. "All right, now tells us what's wrong."

"My pills are missing!" I snapped again. When I saw the pointed look he gave me, I took another breath and tried to calm myself so I could explain the situation. "My pills, the little red ones that keep me focused. They're gone."

"Well, did you take them all?" Sam asked.

I gave a sharp shake of my head. "No. I had enough for at least a few more weeks."

"Okay then." Dean shrugged. "We'll just go get some more."

Sighing again, I shook my head once more. "We can't. I didn't get them. Tristan did."

That put a frown on Dean's face. "Wait... your boyfriend you hardly know, gave you some pills, and you just took them?"

"I know my boyfriend, Dean," I argued, ready to snap at him again. "And it's not like they're drugs."

"How do you know?"

"Because he wouldn't do something like that!" Shrugging his hands of me, I pushed past him.

Sam quickly stepped in, seeing the hostility growing between Dean and I. "Look, why don't we just deal with Jay and then we'll figure out what to do next, okay? We'll call Tristan and-"

"I haven't heard from Tristan in a month. No calls. No texts," I sighed, anger deflated as the loneliness I'd been trying to suppress, started to poke at me. "He went to Canada to help a friend with a hunt, and I haven't heard from him, and I'm really worried that something might have happened. I mean, what if he got hurt? What if he's dead? He could be lying in a ditch-"

Sam quickly cut me off, seeing me growing hysterical, "You know if something happened, someone would find a way to tell you." Putting a comforting hand on my shoulder, he looked down at me. "So, until you know for sure, don't worry about it. As for your pills, we'll look for them after the case is finished, and if we can't find them we'll just have to deal with it later. Okay?"

I gave a small nod, knowing there was nothing else we could do. "Okay."

"Good. Now, we gotta go find Jay and follow him. Jeb Dexter was found dead, noose around his neck and a Hanged Man tarot card lying close by."

I looked up at the youngest Winchester then. "Jay's show last night," I noted, connecting the dots.

"Exactly. So, let's go," Dean spoke up as he walked past us and to the door.

I could still feel tension between us, but now it was more numb than anger like we were pushing away from each other. He knew better than to comment, I knew better than to argue.

SPOV

If you think following a magician is hard, try doing it with two people who clearly do and don't want to talk to each other at the same time. I could cut the tension between Lizzie and Dean, with a knife. It was really starting to get on my nerves.

Walking around a corner, we hurried over to Jay's room the moment he was behind the door. Guns in hand, we let Lizzie lead as she opened the door- with her mind of course- and barged in, Dean and I right behind her.

"Up against the wall!" Dean ordered, gun aimed at Jay.

Jay spun around to face us, a look of shock and fear in his eyes, hands in the air. "God, who are you? What do you want?"

"Now!" Dean yelled.

"We know what you've been up to," I told Jay, letting him know that there was no point in trying to trick us. We knew what he was.

"You been working some real bad mojo to jump-Start your act," Dean elaborated.

Jay looked at each of us, the confusion on his face growing. "What? I don't know what you're talking about."

It was a nice act, but it wasn't fooling me- or any of us. "Look, we know you put a spell on those tarot cards."

"Playing with real magic," Lizzie added.

Jay frowned. "'Real magic'? Come on, there's no such thing as real magic."

"Oh, is that so?" Dean asked, clearly not believing him, none of us were.

"Yeah, believe me," Jay insisted. "I've been around this stuff my whole life. It's all just- it's- it's illusions. It's tricks." He took a step closer to us, but the three of us just lifted our guns a little higher. "It's all fake."

Dean shook his head. "Jeb Dexter strung up. Was that just an illusion?"

Jay's confusion went back to shock as his hands lowered to his sides. "What? Something happened to Jeb?"

"He was found hanged in his room," I answered, but he already knew that. "Right after you slipped the noose last night."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Jay shook his head. "Please... just let me go."

Dean frowned. "Something's not right." He was right...

"Usually they're whipping some badass hoodoo at us by now," I noted.

"What do you wanna do?"

...

The answer to Dean's question was to tie Jay up to a chair. While Dean, Lizzie and I stood on the other side of the room, talking amongst ourselves, trying to figure out what we were gonna do next.

I sighed. "All right, so, if it's not him, who is it?"

It had become clear, that we'd been wrong. If Jay really was the bad guy, he would have whooped our asses, or at least tried. But seeing as he hadn't done anything, we'd come to the conclusion that we had the wrong guy. Now we just had to find the right on.

"Even if Jay's not working the magic, he's still getting the reward. His shows are selling out," Dean noted.

"So, it has to be someone close to him. Maybe Vernon? Or their other friend... Charlie I think his name was," Lizzie suggested.

"Is there anyone else?" Dean asked.

I shrugged. "Uh... we could always ask him."

The three of us turned to Jay, only to find his chair empty. He'd escaped...

"Guess we should have seen that one coming," Dean muttered.

"Come on. He couldn't have gotten that far," I noted as we started for the door, leaving the room.

EPOV

In the lobby, Sam sighed as we came to a stop, having not found Jay. "No way he could outrun us."

Dean shrugged. "Maybe he vanished. I mean, he really is good."

I rolled my eyes but didn't respond, though Sam did.

"Or he found a back door."

Suddenly the police pulled up outside the motel.

Dean grabbed my arm and turned us to the reception desk, the three of us trying to look inconspicuous. But there was no use.

Jay came rushing down the stairs, gesturing to us. "That's them! Those are the three nut jobs that just broke into my room!"

I let out a groan. "Crap."

...

I was in the cell next to the brothers, pacing while Sam and Dean sat on the long bench in their cell. We weren't alone. There was another man in with the brothers, while I was the only woman.

"Hey, baby." The man leaned against the bars, looking over at me, watching as I paced. "You need me to work out some of that stress?"

I saw Sam and Dean shift, getting ready to knock this guy on his ass, but before they could do anything, I walked over to him, a flirty smile slipping onto my lips.

"Oh, yeah? You think you can?"

His grin widened. "Baby you ain't ever been with a man like me."

Biting my lip, looking the large, bearded, bald, almost-biker-looking guy up and down, I took the last step towards the bars and ran my hand up and down one in a suggestive manner. "You'd work me hard, and fast. Give it to me good?"

"Yeah, baby. Any way you want."

"Would it be hot?"

"It'll be smoking."

My hand that was rubbing the bar had been heating up gradually, to the point where the bar was almost red hot now. I could feel it, but it didn't hurt me. Then again, I could make a fireball in my hand. The man, though? Oh, he felt it.

His hand gripped the bar, without really paying attention.

He let out a yell, scurrying back with fear, confusion and pain in his eyes. As he tried to back away, I didn't even bat an eye as I made him trip over so he hit his head on the ground hard enough to knock him out.

Dean and Sam were watching me with wide eyes. Sam a little impressed, Dean more concerned.

We hadn't spoken since being locked up, but that doesn't mean they didn't know how bitter I was about the situation. As far as I was concerned, this was their fault. They wanted to go after Jay. They tied him up. They thought he was the bad guy.

They were wrong, now we were locked up, and I still didn't have my pills.

DPOV

I'm not exactly sure why, or how, or of anything at this point, but Jay had dropped the charges and let Liz, Sam and I go. When we got back to the bar, we'd found him in the lobby, waiting for us. Now we were at the bar, having just heard about Charlie. He was dead, just like Vance had died.

"I was just a kid when we first met. All I knew was how to cheat at cards. Charlie got me out of more scrapes than I can count. Hell, I would have been dead by the age of twenty if it hadn't been for him..." Jay sighed. "He was more than my friend. He was my brother."

"I'm sorry, Jay." Sam meant it, too.

"Look," Jay looked to each of us, "I should have listened to you guys when you told me that my show was killing people."

"Well, you weren't the one pulling the trigger," I tried to assure him.

"Yeah, but someone did, and I want to find out who did this to Charlie, so I'll do whatever you guys say. Just tell me what to do."

"Jay, whoever's doing this... they like you. They're probably close to you." Sam tried to say the next part as gently as possible, "Did Charlie and Vernon get along?"

"No." Jay shook his head. "No, it's not Vernon."

"Who else could it be, Jay?" Liz asked.

I shrugged. "He's the only one that makes sense."

"Charlie and Vernon were your family, Jay," Sam noted.

"And now Charlie's gone," I added.

But Jay just didn't seem to believe it. "Yeah, but... they butted heads sometimes, but Vernon could never do something like this."

"See, the thing about real magic is it's a whole lot like crack. People do surprising things once they get a taste of it." In the corner of my eye, I looked over at Liz, who was staring down at the table now.

What she did in lock-up... I wasn't too sure how to feel about it. I know she's going through some stuff. But it doesn't make using her powers like that okay. Even if the guy had crossed a line, it still didn't make what she did okay.

Pulling me back to the situation at hand, Jay spoke again, "You better be damn sure about this. Vernon's all I got left."

EPOV

Jay had called Vernon from the theatre and had asked him if they could meet there. The moment Vernon left his room, Dean, Sam and I were right there, sneaking in.

There were articles, posters, little souvenirs laying all over the place, everything associated with magic in one way or another.

"Wow." Sam stood there, scanning the room. "It's like a... magic museum."

"You must be in heaven," Dean muttered.

I rolled my eyes. "Let's just get to work."

Moving to search the place, Dean was the first to speak again. "This guy doesn't travel light."

"He's been on the road his whole life," Sam noted. "Probably everything he owns is in this room."

...

Dean sighed. "This is just a bunch of old-Timey magic stuff. None of it magic."

"No herbs, no candles, and no tarot cards," Sam noted.

Going through some posters on the bed, Dean paused at one. "I'll be damned."

"What?" Sam and I asked.

"Look like anyone we know?" Dean lifted the poster.

My eyes landed on the scar on the man painted on the poster. I'd seen it before, only on a much older man. "Charlie."

...

Hurrying into the theatre, we found Jay, Vernon and a young Charlie standing on the stage. We'd only just caught the end of the conversation, but it was clear what was happening. Charlie was offering his friends immortality.

"Not so fast!" Dean called out, getting the men's attention. "I ain't Guttenberg, and this ain't Cocoon." The three of us climbed up the stairs of the stage, Vernon and Jay stepping back at the sight of weapons in our hands. "Immortality." Dean stepped up to Charlie. "That's a neat trick."

Charlie grinned. "It's not a trick." Suddenly a noose came down, wrapping around Dean's neck, lifting him off the ground. "It's magic."

Sam raised his gun without warning and shot at Charlie. But Charlie caught the bullet with his teeth. His teeth.

Charlie grinned again, so smug a cocky as he spat the bullet out. "Hey, bullet catch. Been working on that." He threw the bullet into the air and then disappeared.

"Get him!" Dean yelled struggled against the noose.

The moment Charlie appeared again, standing by the sword table, Sam raised his gun at him once more. "Let him go!

"Now!" I demanded, raising my own gun.

Charlie sighed at us. "Just leave me and my friends alone."

"I said now!" Sam ordered.

"All right, I will give it up. The spells, the hexes. This is the last time. I promise," Charlie swore.

I frowned at Sam as he slowly lowered his gun, I couldn't believe he was buying this crap. That he was letting this asshole go after everything he'd done, after all the lives he must have taken over the decades he'd been alive.

But then Sam suddenly lunged at Charlie.

Unfortunately, Charlie disappeared right before Sam could get him. Then just as suddenly as Sam had moved, Charlie appeared and pushed Sam onto the sword table, where the binds quickly locked Sam into place.

Having had enough, I dropped my gun, and lifted my hand, letting a fireball grow in my palm. "I suggest you cut the crap, asshole, and let my friends go."

Charlie looked at my hand, amazed. "You have got to teach me-" Before he could finish, he stopped as his hand clutch at his stomach. Blood began to seep from a wound that had magically appeared.

As Charlie fell to his knees, I turned to see Jay standing a few feet behind me, knife sliding out of his uninjured stomach.

"Jay..." Charlie reached into his pocket, finding a single tarot card sitting there. "You picked these strangers over me?" Before an answer could be giving, he felt forward, dead.

The moment Charlie died, the binds let Sam go, and the noose around Dean's neck released him. I hurried over to Dean as Sam scurried off the table seconds before the swords fell, barely missing him.

"Dean." Falling to kneel beside him, I reached out as he coughed, trying to get his breathing back to normal.

Dean nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm all right," he assured me. "Wanna get out of here?"

A small smile tugged on my lips. "Yes, please."

...

Back in the bar, we walked over to the table were Jay sat by himself, fiddling with a deck of cards, drink in front of him, a sad look on his face. We all knew that despite the fact he didn't like what Charlie had been doing, they'd still been friends.

"Hey, Jay." Dean nodded to Jay as the three of us came to stand by his table. "We wanted to thank you for what you did yesterday."

"I killed my best friend yesterday, and you want to thank me?"

Avoiding the question, Sam asked one of his own. "Where's Vernon?"

"Oh, he's gone. He said he didn't want to speak to me again after what I did to Charlie."

Dean sighed. "Listen, Jay... you know Charlie was never gonna give up what he was doing. Ever. You did the right thing," he assured him.

Jay looked up at him then. "Are you sure about that? You know, Charlie was like my brother. And now he's dead... because I did 'the right thing'. He offered me a gift, and I just threw it back in his face. So now I have to spend the rest of my life old and alone." Standing up, he laid his cards down on the table and downed the rest of his drink. "What's so right about that?" he asked before walking off.

A bartender came over to clean the table, grabbing the cards. "Jay... your cards."

He paused and turned to her for a moment, just to say, "Throw them away," and then he left.

Sighing again, Dean shoved his hands into his pockets. "Well, I don't know about you two, but... I could go for a beer."

Sam shook his head. "I'm gonna take a walk."

We didn't question him as he walked out. Dean and I just moved to the bar, and took a seat, calling out to the bartender and asking for two beers. We sat in silence for a moment longer, taking a sip of our beers. I was the one to break the silence.

"I know you don't like it. I know what I do scares you... it scares me too."

Without looking at me, he spoke. "Then, why do it? I mean, the moving stuff is fine. But the fire? And the exorcism?"

"It's too much, I know. In the cell, I was pissed. Emotional. Then with Charlie... you and Sam were in danger."

Taking another drink, he then put the bottle down on the bar and finally turned to look at me. "I don't like what you did. But I appreciate the fact that you were willing to do whatever it takes to save Sammy and me."

"You're family. I'd do anything for the two of you."

"I know." He nodded. "We'd do anything for you, too."

"I know."

We fell into silence again, the two of us finishing our beers. I had pulled out my phone and sent Tristan yet another message, following the other three dozen that had gone unanswered.

Dean glanced down at my phone as he put his finished beer down on the bar. "You really haven't heard from him?"

"Nope."

"You deserve better, Liz."

My eyes fell to my lap then. I didn't want to admit it, but the longer it took for Tristan to get in contact with me, the more it made me think. Maybe I'd been right in the first place? Maybe the dating scene wasn't my thing? Or maybe, I just wasn't dating the right person?

SPOV

I crossed the road and headed into the ally way, walking up to the lone car, waiting a few feet away, it's engine rumbling.

Opening the door, I slid into the passenger seat. "Okay. I'm in."

Ruby looked at me from behind the wheel. "What changed your mind?"

"I don't want to be doing this when I'm an old man."

Bamby