Ending your suffering at long last! Well, not really. But don't worry; there is a method to my madness. I have a plan, so don't stop shipping a very tall hunter and a dark haired witch my cupcakes! ;)

Sorry. I've been up for 36 hours straight.

I should get some sleep...Yup...

~Christianne

Nikki POV

I was laughing with Kory, who was sitting shotgun, as we drove down some highway.

After Yellow-Eyes was killed, I hung around Bobby's with the boys for a few weeks and tried to put a plan together, but it got a little awkward.

It was all Dean's fault.

Six Days Ago

I woke up slowly. I let out a content sigh, but it turned into a groan when I heard a persistent tapping noise. I sat up, pushing my hair out of my eyes. I was laying on the sofa at Bobby's, and Dean was sitting across from me on the coffee table, his fingers tapping on the table. Normally, I wouldn't be this annoyed, but in the three days since the cemetery, this was the first time I was getting some good sleep.

"What?" I croaked, squirming under his intense glare. He threw the jar at me. I barely caught it. "Hey!" I yelped.

"What the Hell?" He asked me, looking like he was irritated and pissed off.

"What? I just woke up! I couldn't have pissed you off so bad yet!" I complained, sitting up and pulling my curls into a ponytail.

Dean shoved a notebook paper in my face. I frowned, and looked at it. "Gwendolyn's fall-out-of-love cocktail." I said, then shrugged. "So?" I asked, crumpling the paper up into a ball. Dean just raised an eyebrow at me.

"So, did you make it?" Dean asked simply.

I shrugged. "You do realize, that if I did, I'd have no idea, right?" I said as I got up.

"What?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, that's how it works. If erases all feelings you had for someone, you'd only take that if you had feelings for someone, thus, you wouldn't remember taking it." I explained, then stopped and turned towards him.

"Who do you think I kicked out of my heart?" I asked curiously.

"Sam." Dean answered automatically.

I blinked for a second, then snorted. "Really? Sam?" Dean looked confused, very confused. "C'mon, the guy is like a brother to me!" I kept giggling, shaking my head. "I'm gonna shower." I said, leaving the living room.

I was still chuckling.

Sam. The guy was my best friend!

Why would I have those kinds of feelings for him?

After that, every time Sam, Dean and I were in the same room Dean kept staring at me. The few times I started to ask him what was up with him, he abruptly cut me off by claiming to need a beer or take a leak.

I was almost glad when Kory called me, saying she was in over her head with a vampire, I ditched them and put the pedal to the metal until I got to Minnesota. We got it sorted out pretty easily, and we'd been doing some low-grade hunts ever since.

"You know, you really should get an anti-possession tattoo." I told her once we stopped laughing. "If you're serious about doing this, you should have one."

"Do you have one?" Kory asked curiously.

"Yeah, that burn on my shoulder." I explained vaguely.

"The one I saw when I met you?" She asked curiously. I nodded. "That's gone."

I slammed on the breaks. "What?" I asked her, eye wide.

"Yeah, you were wearing a tank top a few days ago, it's gone. I thought it just…healed, or something." Kory explained. I hastily pulled off the highway, yanked off my jacket and turned around to look in the rear view mirror.

"Son of a bitch." I breathed, running my fingers over the now smooth, slightly olive toned, skin of my shoulder.

I fell back into my seat, and sighed, pulling my jacket back on as I did so.

I put my hands on the steering wheel, and tapped my thumbs on it. "Where's the next town?" I asked, pulling back onto the highway.

"Like…15 miles north of here." Kory said, glancing at the road map in her lap briefly. "Why?"

"We're gonna get tattoos." I said, a nervous smile on my face. Kory grinned.

"So, it's kinda…like…this." I said as I pushed the post-it towards the ink-covered tattoo artist. Kory was gnawing on her lip and wringing her hands as she stood behind me in the smoky tattoo shop.

The guy took the post-it, nodded once and stood up. "Ok, brunette, you're with Caleb." He said, looking at me, and pointing to a blonde guy behind him. "Not so brunette, you're with me." Kory sent me an apprehensive look, and shed her jean jacket.

"You know, you don't have to do this." I told her.

She shook her head. "No, I'm serious about this, I'm gonna get one." She said, nodding her head once, taking a deep breath and heading towards the massive tattooed man. He told her to sit down, and he'd be back; he had to make the stencils and a phone call.

I sighed and went to Caleb's chair. "You're buddy is getting the stencil." I said, shrugging out of my jacket, and pulling off my over shirt so I was just in my tank top. "I was thinking of getting it on my left shoulder, or maybe on my hip. Thoughts?"

"You know, I don't actually know if I can do this." Caleb said, his back still towards me as I sat down.

"What do you mean?" I asked cautiously.

When Caleb spun around in his chair, I tensed imminently. My hands curled into fists, and I was kicking myself in the butt for leaving my knife and gun in my car.

"Zack." I said lowly.

"Hey Nikki." He said with a casual smile. "So…How have you been?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" I hissed at him, sitting in the chair so Kory wouldn't hear us.

"Well, after waiting in that trap for three days until it rained, I found out that your buddy Dean killed my boss." He explained, pulling on a pair of black latex gloves.

"If you're hoping for an apology, you're not getting one." I snapped.

"Oh, no. I actually want to buy him a drink." He said, taking the stencil from the massive tattooed guy. "Ya see, I wasn't really working for him voluntarily. It was either him, or a boss who was literally the devil. You said you wanted this on your shoulder?" Zack asked, holding the stencil.

I glared at him and he rolled his eyes.

I glared at him, and he rolled his eyes. "Look, I get that you don't trust me. Fine, I don't really trust you. But I think we can help each other." He said, readying the tattoo gun.

"Oh really?" I said skeptically.

"See, despite my charming personality, a lot of the demons that you and your boyfriends let loose don't really like me. So, here's my offer." Zack said, looking me dead in the face, his knees almost touching mine. "Every now and then, I give you the names of the real baddies; the ones I won't even touch with a ten foot pole and you take them out. Two birds; I get to keep this nice ass I worked so hard to get and you get to do what you do -" He paused and poked the center of my chest, just under my collarbones. "One stone."

"Save people." I put in.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Zack rolled his eyes. "Do we have a deal?"

I clenched my jaw and snapped my head to the other side of the shop when I heard the buzz of a tattoo gun and a few whimpers from Kory.

"Deal." I said firmly.

"Wanna make it official?" Zack said flirtatiously, leaning forward even more and smirking.

I leaned forward as well, and smirked bigger. "Eat dirt and die." I said sweetly.

Zack rolled his eyes and leaned back. "Top of my to-do list. Not strip down sugar-pants—you wanted thing on your shoulder?" He asked, holding up the tattoo gun.

I rolled my eyes and pulled my shirt up, and pulled one arm out. "No, here." I said, gesturing to my ribs on my left side. I watched apprehensively as the tattoo gun got closer to my skin. "One wrong move with that thing, I swear to God, I will stab you."

"You and I both knew it wouldn't do much good, princess." He chuckled. I rolled my eyes and leaned on my side in the chair so Zack could get to work.

An hour later, I had my shirt pulled up, and looked at the, slightly red, skin around the black tattoo. I tilted my head to one side, and sighed.

"What is it?" Kory asked, frowning at my expression. She's opted to get her tattoo between her shoulder blades; it would be covered by her hair so she could still wear a bikini and people wouldn't think she was a Satanist or something.

I shrugged. "Nothing…Just…I dunno, I'm a real hunter now." I said with a wry smile, pulling my tank down and putting my cargo jacket back on and heading to the door.

"Me too!" Kory said with a grin, wincing as she put her own jacket on.

"Feels…Feels a little weird, right?" I asked, but stopped dead when I saw my car; doors and trunk open.

"Son of a bitch!" I hissed under my breath, jogging to my car, Kory followed me. "See if anything is missing!" I said loudly, going straight for my backpack. All my money was still there, so were my clothes and herbs.

"Nothing missing from the trunk." Kory told me, then opened the glove compartment.

I reached under my seat, and gasped. "Oh no."

"What? What is it?" Kory asked.

"My grimoire." I breathed, feeling the empty space under my seat. "Someone stole my fucking grimoire."

I was pacing, my hands in my hair, linked over my head as I paced around. "Holy crap…What do I do what do I do what do I do what do I do?" I breathed, closing my eyes.

"Is it really that big a deal? I mean, it's not like normal people can read it anyway." Kory commented. She'd been trying to calm me down for an hour or so, ever since we got to our motel.

"Yeah, but other witches can, it's them I'm worried about." I groaned. "There…Oh God the spells and potions in there? There's one that lets you have complete control of a person, another makes their blood boil inside them—I can't believe I was so stupid!"

"Can't you...track it, or, something?" Kory asked, watching me pace around. I shook my head. "Or…"

I stopped, and looked at my friend. "Kor, you're a genius."

Kory was standing nervously behind me as I lit a match and dropped it in the bowl on the hood of my car. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Too late now," I heard a voice say. I groaned and turned around to see Zack leaning on the wall of the building behind us. He'd changed out of the all-black garb he'd been in when I got my tattoo. He was in a white button up, suit and slacks, and a long gray coat that went to the back of his knees.

"What the hell are you wearing?" I chuckled, Zack rolled his eyes.

"This is my preferred way to dress, dumpy-frump." He snapped, eyeing my canvas cargo jacket, thread-bare tank and jeans with a look of distaste. "I've had to dress the part when I've met with you in the past." His gaze flickered to Kory and a predatory grin spread out on his face.

"I don't believe we've met." He said with a charming smile and black eyes as he walked towards her. Kory took a cautious step back, eyes wide, and kept doing so until I rolled my eyes and grabbed the back of Zack's collar to yank him back.

"That's Kory. She's new. Don't scare her." I snapped at him. He chuckled and rolled his eyes, sending Kory a wink

"So, what'd'ya need?" he asked eventually.

"Someone stole my grimoire." I told him. "I need you to find it."

Zack seemed to ponder this, even put his hand under his chin in thought. "No."

"No." I repeated him.

"Yup. No."

"Why not?" I asked him.

"I don't get anything out of it."

"Well, what do you want out of it?" I asked him. He seemed to actually think for a moment.

"I want the Epiphany Spell." He finally said, looking me dead in the eye.

"I'm sorry, I think I misheard you; you want the what?"

"I. Want. The, Epiphany Spell." Zack said slowly, his face completely serious. "I can't read it, I want you to translate it, write down everything about it and give it to me."

Shocked, I put a hand on my hip. "The Epiphany Spell." I said one more time, getting a nod.

"Well, uh, sure. If that's what you want." I agreed.

Zack smiled a little. "I'll contact you tomorrow, should have something by then." With that, he disappeared.

I laughed once, then headed for my car.

"What's the Epiphany Spell?" Kory asked eagerly, getting in the passenger seat.

"It's…" I trailed off, trying to think of a way to describe it. "In the Bible, the Epiphany is January sixth, twelve days after Christmas. It's when the Wise Men first saw Jesus, and when he revealed himself to the gentiles. There was something about when Christ baptized John in there somewhere…Jeez, it's been a long time since I was in Sunday school." I trailed off.

"The Epiphany Spell is supposed to induce an intense spiritual experience, communing with God sorta thing. Anyone who uses it only has a three in ten chance of surviving it, it's usually for people who are literally on their death bed." I explained.

"Why would a demon want that?" Kory asked. I shook my head and shrugged, starting my Mustang.

"Hey."

I gasped as I sat up, and fired a round from the pistol on my side table.

I heard a groan, and quickly turned on the lights.

"Really? This was new!" I heard Zack complain, looking down at the bloody hole in his chest, soaking through the dark, almost black, blue sweater he was wearing. "This-This was next season Armani!"

Kory had woken up when I shot Zack and had her knife in her hand.

"Aren't you worried about people hearing a gun shot?" Zack asked, looking down at his bloody hands before wiping the on my quilt.

"In this motel?" I snorted. "No, not really."

Zack, still pouting about his sweater, spoke up after a few more moments. "I found your book."

"You did?" I asked, eagerly getting out of bed. I'd slept in my jeans for this exact reason. I grabbed a t-shirt and pulled it over my tank-top. "Where is it? You grabbed it right?"

"Whoever took it isn't as stupid as you think." Zack said. "Had the thing in an iron, salt lined safe in a devil's trap, I couldn't get it. Here's the address." He pulled a Post-it from his pocket and handed it to me. "I'll contact you in a few days for the spell." Zack finished, then disappeared.

I looked at the Post-it; it was the presidential suite at the most expensive hotel in this town. I grabbed my jacket and checked the clip in my gun. "You're staying here." I told Kory. She pouted briefly, and was about to protest, but I started talking again.

"This dumbass broke into my car and stole my grimoire; this is my issue, not yours." I told her, grabbing my keys before I walked to my car.

I was walking down the hallway of the top floor of the hotel, I didn't even pause at the door; I just grabbed the handle and pushed the double doors open.

I loved my magic.

I could be as dramatic as I wanted.

I left the lights off, and closed the doors behind me before I put a hand on my hip, my pinky finger tapping on my belt as I tried to think of where to begin, looking around the massive suite.

I got a little grin on my face as I saw a wardrobe across the room.

I walked over, flicked out my pocket knife and used the blade to open the door from arm's length. After the door was opened all the way, I saw the safe and devil's trap Zack was talking about. Just to piss this person off, I used the blade of my knife to gouge a deep gash through the pencil-drawn devil's trap on the top of the wardrobe. They were probably going to erase it later.

I hoped they had to pay for the expensive mahogany wardrobe I just defaced.

I turned my attention to the safe. I tried putting my ear to the safe and turning the dial, like in the movies, but I didn't hear anything.

Still squatted down by the floor of the wardrobe, I took a slow, deep breath and positioned my hand three inches from the dial, and curled my fingers in slightly, like I was holding an invisible dial.

I turned it to the left first, eyes still shut. Each click echoed in my mind, and when I heard a louder one, I started turning to the right. I didn't stop until the safe was opened. I didn't have much time to celebrate my little victory; I heard someone at the hotel door.

Thinking fast, I reached under my cargo jacket and hoodie and ripped a good sized strip from the bottom of my tank top. My heart was pounding as I reached into the safe, the tank-top material around my fingers as I grabbed my grimoire. The door opened just as I lifted it from the safe.

I whipped my head over my shoulder, eager to see who was dumb enough to steal a grimoire.

A woman my age-ish with brown hair was standing at the door. She was wearing an expensive cocktail dress and spike heels, hair up in an elegant twist and had a glittery bag in her hand. In about six seconds the bag was on the floor and she was holding a gun up.

In the same amount of time, I grabbed the pistol from my waistband. I wasn't planning on guns; had to admire her effort.

But she still brought a gun to a Wicca fight, so she's still a dumbass.

"Who are you?" She asked, closing the door. Huh. British. "What are you doing?"

"If you need an explanation, you need a new line of work." I told her.

"If you think you're walking out of here with that, you're mistaken." She said, kicking off her heels as she walked closer to me, gun still up.

"I'm sorry, is that supposed to intimidate me?" I asked in an innocent tone with a face to match.

"I could shoot you, you know. Say it was self-defense, a young, attractive single woman like myself should always carry a firearm for protection. It's not my fault if I have to use it." She explained smugly.

"Might wanna tone down the ego." I snapped at her.

"I have a buyer willing to pay me twice what the thing is worth—and its original price is more than enough to satisfy me." She said.

She wasn't a Wiccan. I could tell. So, that meant she wasn't able to read the book. Just like I'd hoped.

"Are you insane?" I laughed. "On the very first page it specifically states that you can't exchange this thing for money!"

Her smug smirk faltered for a moment.

"You did read the code of conduct, right?" I asked, faking concern, and lowering my gun a little. She wasn't smirking anymore.

"Good Lord—you touched it, didn't you?" I asked accusingly, lowering my gun more.

"So what if I did?" She snapped at me.

I put my gun down (keeping the safety off and finger on my trigger) and rested the hand on my hip as I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Please tell me you're blessed."

Silence.

I sighed and dropped the grimoire on the bed, stuffing the tank-top scrap in my pocket. "You can keep it, then. I'll be back in a few days." I told her as I walked towards the door.

"Wait." The dumbass said, making me look over my shoulder. "Why-Why does it matter if I touched it?" She had more panic in her voice than I expected.

"Well, you're not blessed." I shrugged. "Grimoires are storta charmed, you know? Unless you're blessed by the Wiccan who possesses it, you touch it, you're dead by the next full moon, which is in about five days. I'll be back then to get it."

"How do you know?" She asked in a hard voice, moving towards the door, gun up, blocking my exit. "I've never heard of any of this."

"Well, yeah. Wiccan's don't want normal people knowing all their secrets. And all the ones that did know are dead." I shrugged, spinning my lie. "I knew one a few years ago. They blessed me and let me take a look at their grimoire."

The woman hesitated, then put her gun down before walking closer to me. "There has to be a way to stop it. Tell me."

I sighed and pretended to think about it. "Put your gun away first." I said as I put the safety on my own and put back in my waist band. She hesitated, but dropped the small pistol on her bed.

"First, you have to save a black cat." I started, the woman nodded. "Then you have to take that black cat to a home with three daughters and a mother and give it to them. Second you have to—why aren't you writing this down?" I stopped to ask. She quickly grabbed the hotel issued pad and a pen, scribbling down the cat thing.

"You have to drink holy water from a church dedicated to St. Christopher. Help five warriors-"

"Warriors?"

"Veterans. Take a scoop of dirt from behind the oldest grave in a grave yard, boil it in holy oil and…uh…and eat it. Turn a doorknob twice before opening it—you have to do that one for the next three months. Earn three gold coins, and give then to six needy people…" I went on, giving ridiculous task after ridiculous task and the girl wrote them all down.

"And…" I trailed off, trying to think of one more. "And you have to make a bonfire out of cedar, have the flames blessed by a priest, then wait for it to burn out naturally and used a charred branch to write out all apologies for everything you've ever done to every single person, on the roof of a barn home to 44 lambs, wait for it to rain, collect the water from the roof and bathe in it."

She looked at me, then the list (it was seven pages long). "You're kidding me!"

"Hey, I thought it was ridiculous too, but I didn't make the rules." I shrugged. "Well, what are you waiting for?" I asked. "You have to do all of that by the next new moon! Go! Go! Go!" I said, waving her towards the door. She grabbed a bag (I saw it when I came in, it had street clothes and some other stuff in it) by the door and ran out of the hotel room.

I sighed happily when she left, and grabbed my grimoire, tucking it under my arm. I was about to leave when I noticed she left her gun on a table. I shrugged, then grabbed that too.

I took another look around the suite. If she could afford this, she had to have some cash around here somewhere.

I started digging through drawers, going through the two closest and looking underthings. I found a few talismans, Ouija boards, spell books and other stuff like that. I threw them all in a suitcase I dumped out on the floor, planning to burn them. Accept a few of the talismans, I'm keepin' a couple of those.

"Whoa." I breathed as I lifted up the lid on the trashcan in the bathroom.

Money. Lots of money.

Mostly 50s and 20s, all wrapped up in neat stacks held together with rubber bands. I laughed once, then dumped all the cash into an expensive looking purse (albeit not ugly; how I usually found expensive bags) I grabbed from the floor. At the bottom, I found an envelope. I leaned on the granite counter as I opened it.

My eyebrows rose.

IDs. Lots of IDs.

All different names, but all the same picture; the Brit chick.

There was one passport. It actually seemed real; had stamps and everything.

"Well, Isobel Talbot," I sighed, laying out eh IDs on the counter. "You are going to need some new names." I used my phone to take pictures of all the IDs, planning to make some fake calls to the police later.

I took my loot and headed to my car.

The sun was coming up as I drove out of the parking lot. A sign in the window of a store caught my eye.

It was for a formal wear store, there were suits and women's dress skirts in the window.

Clearance! Everything must go! Whole store 80% off!

I could use some fed-wear. And now I had the cash to get some.