The next day I went into the common room. Dean sat in his wheelchair by the window. For a brief moment, my heart skipped a beat. Would Luke's dark eyes greet me?

When Dean turned and faced me, a pair of deep blue eyes met mine. That's not Luke. He rose slowly from the chair and slowly walked to stand in front of me.

He smiled. "Hello."

I wasn't sure what to say, so I went with, "Hi." His stride was so sure. He seemed stronger than I would have expected. How was this even possible?

He reached out and stopped just short of touching my arm. "The orderly bruised you the other night. When he forced you into the ice bath."

His words stunned me. Luke wasn't aware of anything when he wasn't in control. He'd told me as much last night. But Dean somehow knew about the orderlies torturing me, which meant Dean must have been able to hear things when Luke was in control.

"You know about my ice bath?"

Dean nodded. He put his hand on the back of a nearby chair and leaned on it heavily but made no move to sit down.

It was weird, looking into his familiar face and seeing a stranger staring out of those eyes. I knew almost nothing about Dean except that he'd been lost during the second ritual. If he's been aware this whole time, then he knew I'd used his body to bring Luke back.

I suddenly couldn't meet his eyes. "I didn't know you were still around. I mean, I thought you were lost. I thought your body was an empty—"

"Vessel. I don't blame you for what you tried to do. Even my family didn't know I was still here. They have powerful magic. The spells they tried couldn't release me, but somehow you did."

I whispered, "I didn't do anything."

"When you were trying to save my body from drowning, I heard you crying out Luke's name. Then I saw a bright orange flash, and suddenly I could rise up from my prison. I could move again. It was you, Colina. You did something that set me free."

It was weird. His expressions, his gestures, the way he held himself was so different from Luke. My gaze lingered a moment on his lips. I kissed those lips. A blush spread across my cheeks at the thought. Dean had listened in on the things happening around him. Did that mean he also heard Luke and me when we were together?

Dean started to speak again. His voice was not as deep and growly as Luke's. "During the second trial, I remember the spirit taking me over. I remember trying to free myself, and then I was lost. I could hear things, sense things around me, but I was somewhere else. I was trapped, unable to communicate or get out."

I nodded. I remembered the place I'd been forced into when Wanda took me over—a small, gray piece of oblivion. I had felt helpless. Dean had been lost for a year. How had he not lost touch with reality, cut off from the world like that?

And now he was back. He had woken up and found himself imprisoned in the hospital, surrounded by strangers trying to use his body for their own means. For the first time since I started down the path of saving Luke, I felt ashamed of what I had tried to do. But the shame didn't last more than a heartbeat. I would do it all over again, go to the depths of hell and back to have Luke with me.

I forced my shoulders back and looked Dean straight in the eye. "Now you're back."

His expression turned watchful. "I am."

"And you know Luke is inside you."

He nodded.

I cleared my throat. "Do you plan to force him out?"

"What's the alternative? We live together in perfect harmony?" He scoffed.

"You might not be able to force him out even if you want to. Luke's a powerful death dealer."

Dean's eyes narrowed, but he didn't respond. This conversation was not going the way I'd hoped.

I added, "You never finished your training."

He laughed. "Neither did you."

"I made it through the three rituals." I couldn't help sounding defensive.

He stood there silently, watching me. When he finally spoke, all the humor had left his voice. "You can help people cross over. The easiest solution is for you to help Luke cross over into the light. It would solve all of our problems."

I looked at him, stunned. "I won't do it."

"Even if it's the right thing to do? The moral thing to do?"

I clenched my hands into fists. "I won't lose him again. I know I can bring him back."

"You're prepared to break all the laws of man—of nature—to keep your boyfriend with you?"

We were now standing toe-to-toe, and our voices had risen a few octaves. One of the orderlies headed toward us.

I unclenched my fists, relaxed my body, and took a few steps back. "I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to keep Luke with me."

The orderly stopped mid-room and stood there, watching us.

Dean took a deep breath and slumped back to lean on the chair. He looked over at the orderly and then back at me. "It wouldn't be smart to start a scene in here. Not unless you want back in that straitjacket and isolation."

This time I gave him a cold stare. Is that a threat?

He raised his hands, as if in surrender. "Hey, I'm just trying to be helpful here. I'm the one who told them you tried to save me. I'm the one who got you out of that hellhole."

I stared at him in silence. When I spoke again, I tried to keep my voice low and casual. "You were unaware of your surroundings until I did CPR on you. Until I laid hands on you. Dean, you didn't fall into that tub. Someone tried to kill you. Did you see the person who tried to drown you?"

"It doesn't work like that. When I was inside myself, I didn't see anything. I had impressions of things going on. I could hear conversations around me." He shrugged and seemed to struggle for words. "I had a sense of someone coming up behind me. And then the wheelchair started rolling. There was a loud splash of water...chanting... Someone definitely chanted or maybe sang."

Dean was, at the moment, the only one alive who had been in contact with the killer. He hadn't seen anything, but he'd heard something. Maybe it was something that could help us track down the serial killer.

"What kind of chanting? Could you make out any words?"

"It wasn't Latin. It wasn't in a language I recognized."

Death dealers use Latin to power their spells. Whoever tried to kill Dean is not one of us. I stopped cold at the thought.

One of us.

It was the first time I'd ever thought of myself as a death dealer. Most of the time I considered myself some kind of abomination, a mythical monster created by revenge and rituals gone awry. "You know about the killings?"

"I've heard you talk about them," he answered.

"It's almost the end of the month." I looked around the room. "Someone is going to be killed in the next few days."

He followed my gaze around the room and then looked back at me. "Someone already almost died. If you hadn't come along and saved me, I would have been the next victim."

"That's what I'm worried about. What's to stop the killer from going after you again?"

He narrowed his eyes. "You aren't worried about me. You're worried about Luke."

I didn't avert my eyes this time. Instead, I stared at him in silence.

"I guess there's no point in thanking you for saving my life." His expression softened. He touched my arm. "Colina, this is an awkward position we find ourselves in. There's no point in us being enemies."

I pulled my arm away. "You want to be friends?"

"Why not? Whatever happens, however this plays out, we're going to find ourselves thrown together." He gestured to his body with one hand. "I'm awake now. I'm not going to be forced back again." He said it with a smile on his face, but there was a veiled threat behind his words. "Maybe I'm strong enough to force Luke out." I started to say something, but he lifted his hand and stopped me. "Or maybe he's strong enough to stay put. Either way, who knows how long we'll find ourselves entwined in each other's lives?"

What he said was true. Now that Dean was back, any hope of finding a spell to give Luke full possession of the body was futile. An empty vessel was what I needed, but instead I was standing there confronting a guy in full possession of his faculties. Luke could come out at night, but Dean seemed here to stay during the day.

I gave Dean a long look. He was taking this whole situation surprisingly well. A little too well. Why hadn't he turned me in to the staff? Why was he going along with this whole impossible scenario? I didn't know his reasons, but I was thankful, nonetheless.

Could I somehow convince Dean not to force Luke out? Dean would probably never go for that, letting another person stay inside him. It was a wild notion. But honestly, what other option was there? If Dean forced Luke out and sent him back to the in between, and I then tried to bring Luke back again, I was tempting fate a second time. It was guaranteed to go wrong.

Luke had to stay inside Dean.

Setting my jaw, I said, "You're right. This is an impossible situation. No use making it harder on ourselves." I stuck out my hand. "Friends?"

He reached out and clasped mine. Those blue eyes watched me, and somehow, I got the impression he knew I wasn't being sincere.

Whatever it takes, I reminded myself. I tightened my grip and gave Dean a wide smile.

Dean looked over my shoulder suddenly, and an odd expression flashed across his face. He slowly moved away from me and sat down in a nearby chair.

I turned and watched his mother, Rachel, rushing across the room.

She stretched her arms as she reached us. "My boy! You're back with us!"

I expected Dean to greet her, to embrace her. Instead, he just stared back at her in silence.

She kneeled down until her face was level with his. "Dean? Dean, can you hear me?" When he didn't reply, she looked over at me. "They said he was talking. I just saw him standing with you. Did he speak to you?"

I nodded. Dean sat in the chair, looking off into space, completely ignoring the fact his mother knelt in front of him. Was Dean gone? Did he somehow slip away again?

She turned to her son and pleaded, "Say something. Please say something, honey."

Dean slowly reached out a hand and touched hers.

Rachel cried out and made a grab for it, clutching it to her chest. "It's true! You're back!" With her free hand, she grazed his cheek, tears brimming in her eyes. "You've finally come back to us." After a few moments, she let go of him and stood up. Tears fell freely down her face. "I'm going to find the doctor. Can you keep an eye on him? I'll be right back."

Only when she was out of earshot did Dean finally speak, answering my unspoken question. "If she thinks I'm completely better, she'll try to get me out of this place."

I jumped at the sound of his voice. He was still here. I looked down at him. He was right. If Rachel thought her son was back, she would quickly whisk him away. It was my biggest fear—one he'd no doubt heard me tell Luke the other night. But why did he care?

"I thought you'd want to get out of here as fast as you could."

"A better idea might be for me to stick around a bit. The killer will be looking for another target. Maybe if I'm around, I can help keep that from happening."

I sat down next to him. I can't believe what I'm hearing. "Your plan is to let them think you're slowly coming back? That you need the doctor's help for full recovery?"

He shrugged. "I honestly don't have a plan. I'm just winging it at the moment." He watched his mother talking to the nurse over at the window. "What about you? You and Luke were planning on escaping this place."

"We were. As soon as Luke got stronger."

"I can walk now, but I don't know if I'm up to running or sprinting yet. It shouldn't take too long until I can. Stick to the plan. When I'm well enough, we'll escape."

Was he serious? He wanted to escape with me? "But you can walk out right now with your mom!"

"I can, but you can't. You've been admitted. It would take a doctor's clearance to get you out of here. And from what I've overheard nurses saying, your sessions haven't been going well with Dr. Barton. I don't think he'll be signing your release papers anytime soon."

I pressed my lips together and looked away. He wasn't wrong. Barton was not my biggest fan. If the doctor had his way, I would probably grow old in this place.

But I couldn't fathom why Dean cared. I simply asked him outright. "Why do you care what happens to me?"

"I've gotten used to having you around." When he realized I was watching him, he shrugged. "I'm not leaving you alone in this place with a lunatic killing people." He gave me a half smile. "I don't want to see you get hurt."

There was something odd about the way he said it. The way his eyes suddenly avoided mine. Since I'd first set eyes on him, I'd done everything I could to try and help Luke take him over. If we had been successful, Dean would have been completely forced out.

I asked, "You want to escape together? Even though I've been trying to help Luke possess your body?"

"Unless you have a better idea. I'm not leaving here without you." He suddenly sounded so earnest, and I didn't know how to respond. Here was a death dealer that wanted to protect me when the rest of his kind wanted me dead. The fact that he cared about what happened to me was surprising. I felt my heart flutter when his eyes met mine.

He said quietly, "Luke is still with me. Until I force him out or he leaves, I'm stuck with your boyfriend. My mom is mage-born, but her power isn't particularly strong. She can't sense Luke's presence inside me. But if I go back home to the rest of the family and the guild, they'll know I'm possessed."

I remembered asking Luke once, "How can you tell if you meet someone who's possessed, someone who has a spirit commanding them?"

The shape of his jaw and his blond hair had been outlined in the glow from the fireplace inside his cousin's renovated barn as he answered, "You can tell sometimes, but not always. You can feel the wrongness inside them. You feel it in your gut."

If Dean's guild felt the "wrongness" inside him, that would be a disaster. I grew cold at the thought.

"If they sense Luke..." I stopped, unable to actually say the words out loud.

"They would force him out. They would banish him to the in between. Colina, I don't want us to be enemies. I know you care about this guy. I mean, look at the lengths you've gone to bring him back. I've heard the two of you talking. I know if you try to bring him back in another body that you risk losing him. He may come back wrong, different. I was thinking... Maybe there's another solution."

I looked down at his hands, which were now wrapped around my arm, warm against my skin. I couldn't help it. My body began to respond. I felt my skin tingle, a feeling of desire spreading over me. For weeks, I'd been with Luke in this body. I'd been held in those arms, kissed by those lips.

Embarrassed at my feelings, I took a deep breath and forced my thoughts back to what Dean was saying. "What other solution?"

"Find some kind of spell that could transfer Luke from me to someone else. Some spell that would allow him to move effortlessly from me to another without first banishing him into the ether sea. I know it's a long shot, but this can't be the first time someone's tried it."

Was it possible? Was there a spell out there that would keep Luke safe as he jumped bodies? "And you're willing to escape with me and help me try to find such a spell?"

"I'm not saying that I'm going to let Luke stay inside me forever. But I'm willing, for a short time, to let him be. I'm willing to give you some time to try and find a solution before he has to go."

I thought I'd have to butter him up to the idea or con him into it. But here he was, offering to let Luke stay on his own.

He seemed to take my silence as an agreement. "It's a plan. I let my mom think my recovery is happening slowly. You do as much research as you can with those books in Barton's office. I'll build up my strength as best I can. In a few days, a week tops, we make a run for it. If you can't find what you're looking for in the doctor's library, I know other places on the outside we can look." He suddenly seemed to realize his hand was still on my arm and quickly pulled away. "What do you have to lose? I help you escape, and you get to spend more time with your boyfriend."

What he said made sense, but there was something about his body language—the way his eyes kept shifting away from mine. I suddenly didn't trust him. I couldn't help but wonder if he had an ulterior motive.

But a small voice in my mind whispered, Does it really matter?

He was granting me mywish. Luke would still be with me, and we would get out of this hellhole in onepiece.

***