The next morning Dean came into the motel room with coffee, "What do you guys got?"

Sam answered first, "Looks like this guy Jay was a pretty big deal in the '70s."

"Which in magician land means what, exactly?"

"Big enough to play Radio City Music Hall."

"What got him stuck in their 'where are they now?' File?"

"He, uh…" Sam shrugged, "He got old."

"The Incredible Jay is probably using real magic to stage his comeback." Angel mused, "Explains the weird death."

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

"But, uh…" Angel sighed, "One thing it doesn't explain is the tarot card. Just a weird signature or does it mean something more?"

"I don't know."

"Man…" Dean shivered as he took a seat on one of the beds, "Hope I die before I get old. Whole thing seems brutal, don't it?"

Sam's eyes flashed to him at that comment, "You think we will?"

"What?"

"Die before we get old."

"Uh…" Angel smirked, "Sammy I think all three of us have bit that bullet already."

"You know what I mean." He rolled his eyes, "I mean, do you guys think we'll still be chasing demons when we're 60?"

"No, I think we'll be dead. For good." Dean answered, catching his brothers scoff and eyeroll, "What? You want to end up like- like Travis? Huh? Or Gordon, maybe?"

"There's Bobby."

"Bobby?" Angel repeated crossing her arms from across the table, "Sam, don't get me wrong, we've all got love for Bobby. He's been like a second father to us, he's far from the poster child for graceful aging."

"Okay, well… Maybe we'll be different."

"What kind of Kool-Aid you drinking, man?" Dean scoffed as he sat on the end of the bed, "Sammy, it ends bloody or sad. That's just the life."

Sam quickly closed his laptop so his full attention was on Dean and Angel, "What if we could win?"

"Win?"

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

"What the hell are you talkin about, Sam?" Angel studied his tense features closely, "Are you… Is there something going on that we need to talk about?"

"No."

Yet he looked away from her and said it way too fast for her liking, "Sammy."

"No. 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."

"Cut the head off the snake?" Angel repeated before biting her lip, "We could do that, we are doing that. The problem is Sam, that there's about a million more snakes with a million more heads. It just doesn't work that way."

Dean agreed, "Evil bitches just keep piling out of the Volkswagen."

"Yeah." Sadness and disappointment filled Sam's face, "Guess you're right."

Angel sighed, "Why don't you go see if you can track down Jay?" She offered before motioning to her and Dean, "Dean can try to dig up some information on this tarot card thing and I'll go talk to the other acts again. See if we missed something."

Later on in the hotel lobby…

Not long after they split, Angel got word of Jebs death and called the boys to the lobby. Sam was the last to join them.

"Maid found Jeb hanging from the ceiling fan. Police think it was a suicide." Angel explained before pulling out another tarot card, this time of the hanged man, "Not likely."

Sam took it, "On Dexter's body?"

"Yup."

"I'm thinking if this spell is a death transference…" Dean mused, "Then these cards work like black-Magic targets."

"Any connection between the victims?"

Dean nodded, "Jeb was a total douchebag to Jay yesterday."

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

"He was a grade a douche rocket, too." Angel answered, "I asked around, and apparently, Vance was heckling Jay at the bar the day he was killed."

"Okay, so Jay sneaks a card into Vance's pocket, does the table of death…"

"And Vance takes 10 swords to the chest."

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

"Yeah, I think it's time we had a little chat with Jay." Dean agreed before turning to Sam, "Any luck tailing him?"

"Uh…" Sam fidgeted, "He slipped me."

Dean bulked at that, "He's a 60-Year-Old."

"He's a magician."

"Sam." Angel rolled her eyes before leading them out, "Come on."

Once they found Jay they quickly followed him back to his hotel room. After he went inside the boys kicked down the door and the three of them trained their guns on him.

Dean immediately barked orders at him, "Up against the wall!"

"God, who are you?" Jay backed up in shock and fear, "What do you want?"

"You're not as slick as you think, old man." Angel glared, "We know what you've been up to."

"You've been working some real bad mojo to jump-Start your act."

"What? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Look." Sam stared him down, "We know you put a spell on those tarot cards."

Dean's voice raised again, "Messing with real magic?"

"'Real magic'?" Jay repeated with a nervous laugh as his hands shook, "Come on, there's no such thing as real magic."

"Oh, is that so?"

"Yeah, believe me. I've been around this stuff my whole life. It's all just- It's- It's illusions. It's tricks. It- It's all fake!"

"Okay, so what…" Angel glared, "Jeb Dexter hanging from the ceiling fan, that was just an illusion?"

"What?" Jay bulked, "Something happened to Jeb?"

"He was found hanged in his room." Sam explained, "Right after you slipped the noose last night.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Tears filled the older man's eyes, confusing the Winchesters, "Please… Just let me go."

Dean studied him closely, "Something's not right…"

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

Angel sighed, "Let's tie him up." After they tied Jay up the three of them came together again, "So? What do you guys think?"

"If it's not him…" Sam mused, "Who is it?"

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

"Whoever it is, they're close with Jay." Angel crossed her arms, "Which puts Vernon and Charlie smack dab in the hot seat. Do we know of anyone else?"

"Uh…" Sam shrugged, "We could always ask him."

When they turned around to do just that Jay wasn't sitting in the chair. His ropes were all untied, signalling he had escaped.

Dean rolled his eyes in annoyance, "Guess we should have seen that one coming."

"Come on." Sam quickly led them out of the room after Jay, "He couldn't have gotten that far." Running down the hall and all the way to the lobby Sam scoffed, "No way he could outrun us."

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

Angel groaned when a thought popped into her head, "Or he never even left the room."

"That's them!" Jay's voice sounded from the stairs as he pointed the police to the Winchesters, "Those are the three nut jobs that just broke into my room!"