Dean and Cas struck out looking for the first few names on their list. Two students had gone home to visit family and the third was an army reservist who was at her monthly training and service.

"We should check out the local bars," Dean decided and Cas' shoulders stiffened.

"Shouldn't we try to find at least one student who was at that party before we do that?" he asked. Dean glared at him.

"Are you accusing me of slacking off?" he asked incredulously. "I'm just sayin' that at this time, on a Friday night, most of them are probably out drinking. Come on." He dragged the angel towards the nearest bar, Cool Beans.

"Strange name," Cas observed sourly. Dean laughed at him. The inside was a typical sports bar, and quite busy. Dean spotted a morose young African-American man talking to the bartender and nudged Cas.

"That's where we need to start," he said and squeezed through the crowd to stand beside him.

"Hey," Dean said. The student looked up with a snarl.

"Fuck off," he growled. Dean looked down his nose at him and shoved his ID in his face.

"Special Agent Anderson, this is Special Agent Wakeman." The young man's face fell.

"Uh. Sorry, man. It's been a bad week. What do you want?"

"What's your name?" Dean asked him.

"Shaun Jacobs."

"Do you know about what happened to Reed Blake?" Dean noticed Cas scanning the bar as he spoke. Had he seen that guy again?

"Uh, yeah. I mean, everyone knows. It was on TV." Shaun said, twitching nervously.

"And did you know him?" Dean pressed. Shaun looked around before leaning forward.

"Yeah. And he was an asshole. But you shouldn't speak ill of the dead, I guess."

"Kyle Leonard said Reed was a great guy, that nobody would have any reason to kill him. But you say he was an asshole." Dean folded his arms and stared at Shaun.

"Reed was a sociopath. You know, superficially charming but fundamentally lacking in empathy."

"Psych major?" Dean asked him. Shaun nodded.

"It's that obvious?" He bit his lip. "Look, OK. I was at the party. There were a lot of people in the house that night. I never saw anyone go upstairs other than Reed." Dean straightened.

"You saw him go upstairs to the bathroom?" he said. "What time was that?"

"I dunno, 8pm maybe. I got there around 7:30, it was about half an hour after I arrived." Dean gripped Shaun's shoulder.

"You're certain about the time?" he asked urgently and Shaun gulped.

"Not exactly. It could have been five or ten minutes either way. But no more than that."

"Kyle told us Meghan found Reed at 9:30pm," Dean said. "It's important that we get this timeline right." Shaun shifted uncomfortably.

"He can't have been in that tub for an hour and a half," Shaun said. "Meghan was able to get him breathing again. She couldn't have done that if he'd been dead for that long."

"He's right," Cas observed, still warily scanning the crowd. "Humans can't be revived after so long without oxygen, the brain damage is quite irrevocable by that point." Shaun gave him a curious look.

"You were there when she found him?" Dean asked. Shaun shook his head.

"No. Kyle kicked everyone out at 9, said he had a test the next day. So why he was hosting a party, I've no idea."

"OK," Dean said, giving Shaun a slight smile. "Thanks. You've been very helpful."

"You should really talk to Meghan," Shaun told him. "But good luck with that." Dean frowned at him.

"What do you mean?" he demanded.

"Are you kidding? She killed Reed. It's obvious. She's probably halfway to Mexico by now."

Nobody else on Sam's list had anything useful to add to Dylan and Yi's account. He tried Meghan's cell again but hung up when it went straight to voicemail. He looked around to see the tall man Cas had been talking to, leaning nonchalantly against a tree. Sam's mouth twisted for a moment and then strode over.

"Are you following me?" he asked angrily.

"What if I was?" the man replied coyly. "What would you do about it?" Sam ignored the question.

"What do you want?"

"Me? Nothing. Not right now. I was just… curious. I told you, I'd heard a lot about you." His voice was deep and smooth, with a soft Irish lilt. Sam's fists clenched.

"Not from Cas. So who was it who told you about me. About us." The man smiled, and Sam felt a tingling feeling in his chest. He swallowed.

"A mutual friend," he said easily. "I have a proposition for you." He looked Sam slowly up and down, and Sam's mouth went dry. There was no question that this man, or whatever he was, was flirting with him.

"I'm not interested," Sam said. He wished he sounded like he meant it.

"You don't even know what it is yet," the man said reasonably and Sam found himself feeling guilty for being so rude. "It's a small favor. Tiny. And I'll owe you." His gaze was openly admiring now and Sam had to remind himself to breathe.

"I suppose it can't hurt to listen," he said despite himself. Cas was going to be pissed that he was even speaking to him. "Who are you?"

"Call me… Lucien," the man said. "It's not my name, but it will do. What I want is very simple. I want you to leave. Drop this case, and take your brother and the angel far away from here."

"Why?" Sam demanded. "What is it to you?" Lucien gave a careless gesture.

"You're in my way." Lucien slid his fingers into the top buttons of his shirt and they parted easily at his touch, exposing the skin of his neck and collar. Sam felt dizzy. This man was trying to seduce him, and Sam wasn't sure he didn't want to be seduced.

"I… What are you? Cas said you weren't an angel," he said breathlessly. Lucien gave a bark of derisive laughter.

"No, I'm not. Does it matter?" Two more buttons gave way and Sam could see the sprinkling of reddish hair on Lucien's chest. Oh, God.

"Look, I uh, would like to help you," Sam managed, fighting against the steady pulse of attraction that was draining the blood from his brain. "But I won't be able to stop Dean or Cas if they're determined." Lucien gave him a sultry look and Sam had to resist the urge to just fall to his knees in front of this beautiful, incredible creature.

"Sam," he said in a disappointed tone. "I really bear no ill will towards any of you. But I am not used to being thwarted." Sam clenched his fists tightly, focusing on the pain of his nails digging into his palms. The desire to submit to Lucien's demands was now so strong, he couldn't withstand it any longer. Suddenly, Cas was standing right next to him, one hand on his shoulder and Sam wasn't sure if he was relieved or annoyed.

"Castiel," Lucien said smoothly. "I was just introducing myself to Sam. I told him to call me Lucien." Cas narrowed his eyes at him.

"He's not for you," the angel told him. "He's off-limits, as you know all too well." Lucien huffed in irritation.

"I do as I please," he said angrily. "Your brother doesn't get to tell me what to do. And neither do you. Leave this place. I have the matter well in hand." Dean appeared at Cas' shoulder.

"We don't take orders from monsters," he said gruffly. Sam sucked in a breath as Lucien's eyes flashed.

"You have no idea what I am." He grabbed Sam and pulled him in close to his body, slanting his mouth over the hunter's and kissing him with a fiery passion that set all of Sam's senses alight.

Sam groaned and parted his lips beneath Lucien's, their tongues entwining in a sensuous rhythm.

"Sam!" Dean yelled and Cas grabbed Sam's arm and pulled him away from Lucien. Sam staggered backwards, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth and staring at Lucien with shock and undisguised desire. Lucien gave him a wicked grin and then glared at Cas.

"I will not ask again. Leave this alone." He vanished and Dean let out an explosive breath.

"Jesus, Sammy. What is it with you? Why did you let him kiss you like that?" he cried. Sam couldn't look at him.

"Don't be too hard on Sam," Cas defended. "Lucien was using his influence on him. He can be very persuasive."

"So what does he want?" Dean asked and Cas sighed.

"I don't know. Lucien's motives are always hard to fathom."

"Funny thing is, until now I wasn't even convinced this was our thing. But this guy showing up and trying to get us to leave, changed my mind," Dean stated. Sam looked at him in surprise.

He checked his watch. "Let's go get something to eat and compare notes."

The diner was quiet, not close enough to the university campus to attract student business. Two waitresses, who looked so similar Sam wondered if they were twins, slouched around the few customers. Dean gave Sam a wink.

"Twins, Sam." Sam rolled his eyes.

"What'll it be?" the waitress asked. Her name-tag said Kayla.

"Coffee, and the cheeseburger, with fries and onion rings." Dean told her with a flirtatious smile.

She ignored him as she wrote down his order and coolly turned her attention to Sam.

"I'll have coffee too, and the Greek salad with grilled chicken." She nodded at him and made notes then moved her gaze to Cas.

"I'm fine," Cas told her. She shrugged.

"Let me know if you change your mind," she said, gracing the angel with a twinkling smile. Dean gave her a hard stare as she sauntered away.

"OK, what have we got?" Sam asked, hiding his amusement. Dean described his conversation with Shaun in the bar and Sam filled his brother and Cas in on what he'd learned in the biology lab.

"I figured it was a prank gone wrong," Sam said. "But it doesn't explain what happened to Hugh and Lon. Maybe it's just a stupid coincidence." Dean narrowed his eyes.

"That's it? You're ready to throw in the towel on this one?" Sam shrugged.

"Not every lead pans out, right?" Dean looked at Cas.

"Sam, do you feel like you need to leave this place? Like you're being pushed away?" Cas asked urgently.

"No!" Sam said immediately. "I really don't think there's anything here."

"I see," the angel said. "Dean?"

"Hell, no!" Dean exclaimed. "This stinks. Come on, Sam. You were the one who was so desperate to check this out. This Lucien asshole tells you to leave and you're just gonna do it?" The waitress came over with their coffee and tossed a number of little containers of cream on the table.

"You're G-men?" she asked. Dean gave her a somber look.

"Yeah. We're investigating the deaths of three students from the university." Her eyes went round.

"My roommate's boyfriend's a nurse, he was working in the ER that night," she said. "He says the whole deal was hella suspicious." Dean straightened and exchanged a glance with Sam.

"What do you mean?" he asked. She cocked a hand on one hip.

"I don't know. I'm not a doctor. All I know is, he said that they were all lying about what had happened. That nothing they said made sense." She scribbled a number on her notepad and handed it to Cas. "Talk to Mike, he'll explain." The angel accepted the paper warily and jumped when her fingers brushed his. Dean's mouth tightened and Sam bit the inside of his cheek to prevent a smile as Kayla shuffled away. Dean snatched the number out of Cas' hand, the angel giving him a startled look. He pulled out his phone and dialed the number. Sam listened to his short conversation and when Dean hung up his eyes were bright.

"He's coming here to talk to us," Dean told them and Sam sighed.

"Does he really have anything to say?" he asked and Dean glared at him.

"It's a lead, Sam." he insisted. Kayla brought over their food and a few minutes later a short, Hispanic man dressed in surgical scrubs entered the diner and joined them in their booth.

"You must be the FBI," he laughed. "You're the only ones here in suits." Dean gave him a solemn nod. "I'm Miguel Macias. But everyone calls me Mike. I've been a nurse for fifteen years."

"Our waitress told us you were on duty the night Reed Blake, Hugh Nelson and Lon Brock died."

Sam said and Mike nodded.

"Yeah. It was a slow night, for a Friday. Couple DUI's, some kids with fevers, an old lady who fell and broke her hip. That's it. Until the ambulance brought Reed Blake in. His friends claimed he'd drowned in the tub, but that they'd revived him and called the ambulance. But there's no way what they're saying can be true. They said they found him at 9pm but they didn't call the ambulance for half an hour. The girlfriend, I think her name was Maggie, was pre-med and she knew what they were saying was nonsense. I could see it in her eyes."

"Was her name perhaps Meghan?" Sam prompted. Mike nodded.

"Yeah, that's right. Meghan, not Maggie. Anyway, there were other strange things. We couldn't intubate him, no matter what we did. It was bizarre. His pulse was thready and we were losing him, but his blood pressure was sky-rocketing. He bit one of the nurses on the hand, and started frothing at the mouth like he had rabies or something. Then, all of a sudden he slips into a coma. His pulse and breathing stabilize, and we get him hooked up in ICU.

"An hour later, it happens again. I figure it's some kind of seizure, and might not be related to the drowning. I asked his friends if he was epileptic or diabetic or something like that, but they denied it. The third time he seizes, we tried everything, but we couldn't save him." Mike shook his head.

"Do you have any idea what happened?" Dean asked. Mike shrugged.

"Best I can figure, the kid had some neurological condition that nobody knew about. Something triggered it and it killed him. The official cause of death was recorded as secondary death by drowning. But the pathologist told me if he hadn't known about the drowning, he'd never have guessed. There was no water in the lungs. Blake's father is on the board of trustees for the hospital and I think there was some pressure to wrap this up neatly."

"Wouldn't his father have an interest in finding out how his son died?" Sam asked. Mike gave a humorless laugh.

"Malone Blake is a cold son of a bitch. He'd be far more worried about being embarrassed than caring about another human being, even his own son. Maybe he thought it was a drug overdose and just wanted it all hushed up."

"Could it have been a drug overdose?" Dean asked. Mike shrugged.

"Maybe. His tox screen was negative, but that doesn't mean anything. Those tox panels only screen for the common things. Heroin, cocaine, meth. That kind of thing. If this was something exotic that the screens weren't designed to detect it could slip through."

"You mean like peyote?" Sam asked. Mike shook his head.

"Nah, we can detect that. I mean really exotic, like not usually seen in the US. There are some plants from Asia for example, that are so rarely used here they're not routinely screened for. Something like that could have caused a bad reaction. It's the only explanation I can come up with."

"What about Lon Brock and Hugh Nelson?" Dean asked. Mike shuddered and his face became drawn.

"Lon Brock was in a car wreck, hanged by his own seatbelt. You knew that? The fire department had to cut him out of his vehicle. He was pronounced at the scene, so I never saw him. And the kid who got decapitated, ugh. Again, already dead so they took him straight to the morgue." Sam offered his hand.

"Thank you, Mike," he said. "You've been a big help." Mike shook all of their hands and got up to leave.

"The only other thing I can tell you which is a little odd is this. The rumor going around the hospital is that they all died at almost exactly the same time. Just a spooky coincidence, no doubt. But it creeps me out."

Back at the motel, Dean lounged on his bed sucking on a beer and watching Sam pace up and down. He frowned to himself, Sam was really agitated and there really wasn't any reason for him to be.

"It's still really thin, Dean," Sam insisted. "Maybe Mike's right, this was some kids experimenting with some exotic drug. Reed Blake has a bad trip and it kills him. Hugh was high too, and it caused him to crash."

"And the other guy, y'know, the one who got his head chopped off in a freak accident?" Dean argued. Sam rolled his shoulders in irritation.

"Maybe it really was just that, a freak accident. They do happen." he said reasonably. "Why are you so determined to make this our thing?"

"Why are you so determined to make it not our thing?" Dean demanded. "That Lucien guy crooked his finger at you and suddenly you're his bitch?"

"Fuck you," Sam spat. "I don't have to listen to this!" He grabbed his jacket and stalked to the door.

"Where are you going?" Dean yelled. Sam snarled at him.

"Out." He yanked the door open and slammed it behind him.

"Dean," Cas rumbled. Dean wiped a hand over his face.

"I don't know what's gotten into him tonight," Dean told the angel.

"Leave him be. Let him calm down," Cas suggested. "He'll come back once he's cleared his head."

Sam leaned against the Impala, breathing heavily. Of course, Dean had the keys and there was no way he was going back for them.

"Rough night?" a familiar voice asked and Sam looked up to see Lucien sauntering towards him.

"Oh, no," he said without thinking. "Not you." Lucien looked amused.

"You've had a fight with your brother," he said. It was not a question. Sam looked at him suspiciously.

"Are you spying on us?" he demanded. Lucien threw back his head and laughed, a deep rich sound that vibrated deep inside Sam.

"No. I don't need to spy on you to guess what's happened." he explained. He moved closer to Sam and stared at him intently.

"How did you know I was here?" Sam asked. Lucien shrugged easily.

"There are only a few motels around here that take cash and no questions asked. Then I just had to look for your rather distinctive car." Sam patted the Impala.

"She's Dean's," he said unnecessarily. "You were looking for us?"

"Looking for you," Lucien corrected. "I wanted to pick up where we left off earlier." His gaze dropped to Sam's mouth and all the air rushed out of the younger Winchester's lungs. Sam's hands shook and he looked around desperately for an escape route. Lucien frowned at him and stepped back.

"This isn't a trap, Sam," he said unhappily, his accent coming in stronger. "If you don't want this, you just have to say." Sam looked at him with pleading eyes.

"It's not that simple," he sighed. "It isn't just about me." Lucien moved closer again and dragged his fingers across Sam's arm. Even through his jacket Sam felt it as if Lucien's fingers were on his skin and he wanted. Lucien smiled at him.

"But you do want it," he said. Sam stared at him for a moment.

"Yes," he whispered. "God help me, but yes." Lucien trailed his fingers up Sam's arm, across his shoulder and then slid his hand around the back of his neck and tugged him closer. He crushed Sam's mouth to his and Sam gasped as his arousal spiked and his nerve endings seemed to spark.

Lucien pressed Sam against the car, the door handle poking Sam awkwardly in the kidney, but he didn't care. All he wanted to concentrate on was the feel of the redhead's mouth on his and the insistent pressure of his arousal against Sam's hip. A few clever flicks of Lucien's hand and Sam's jeans were undone. He groaned into Lucien's mouth and then pulled back.

"No. I'm sorry, but I can't," Sam forced out, against the relentless beat of desire that was singing through him. To his surprise, Lucien stepped away and smiled at him, his gaze warm. Sam looked down and refastened his pants.

"Perhaps another time," Lucien said easily. "Let's talk instead." Sam quirked an eyebrow at him and then pulled himself onto the hood of the Impala.

"OK," he said, curious to know what Lucien would find interesting. "What did you want to talk about?" Lucien perched on the edge of the hood and stared up at the stars.

"You're not the first hunters I've met," he said after a long pause. "But, I've never met a hunter like you before."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked warily. There were lots of ways he was different to most of the other hunters out there, some mundane and some freaky. He didn't want to give anything away, not when he didn't even know what Lucien was.

"Well, hunters are mostly solitary," Lucien said. "But that's not all that interesting, since you and Dean are brothers. And you seem a little saner than the average hunter, which given your history is nothing short of astonishing. But there's something fascinating about you. Any number of incredibly powerful beings have taken a personal interest in you over the years. I want to know why." Sam shuffled uncomfortably.

"I guess you're talking about Lucifer," he surmised. "Or Azazel?"

"Yes, yes." Lucien said impatiently. "But not just them. Angels, demons, a smorgasbord of monsters, even Gods. So, what is it about you that attracts the supernatural?" Sam shrugged at him, unsure how to answer. Lucien just gazed at the sky, waiting.

"I was born to be Lucifer's vessel," Sam mused. "I imagine that made me interesting to any number of creatures. Do you think I wanted any of this? I was going to school, I was going to be a lawyer." Lucien snorted and Sam poked him with the toe of his boot.

"A lawyer!" Lucien laughed. "You ended up with the lesser evil then?" Sam ignored him.

"I just wanted to be normal," he continued. "I was going to marry Jess, and settle down. A normal life." Lucien turned around and looked him directly in the eye.

"Do you still want that?" he asked. Sam looked away, unable to hold his gaze.

"No," he admitted. "Even if I could wave a magic wand and bring Jess back, I suppose I've changed too much to go back to that now."

"What if you could go back to how you were?" Lucien pressed, leaning forward and Sam couldn't help but look at him.

"It's not possible," he breathed. "I can't even consider the idea." Lucien gave him a mysterious smile.

"What if it was possible?" he suggested. "What would you give to do that? Start again, do things differently. What would you be willing to sacrifice in order to get your life back?" Sam didn't care for where this conversation was going and pushed himself off the hood.

"It's impossible," he said firmly. "This is my life now, and I accept it. It's pointless to waste time wishing things were different." He turned to walk away and Lucien caught his arm.

"Many things are possible," he told Sam. "I can make the world bend to my will as I choose." Sam pulled his arm away in alarm.

"Good for you," he said idiotically. "But I'm happy as I am." Lucien gave him a sorrowful look.

"Are you?" he asked. "I wonder." Sam gritted his teeth and walked away.