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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐄𝐍

𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘤𝘵

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"This is a demonstration about demons and angels, love and lust..."

"What a douchebag," Dean mumbled to Delaney and Sam as they made their way across the street towards a man in a leather jacket and chains. He was surrounded by a small crowd of people - two of them being a camera crew with a boom mic and camera -with a deck of cards in his hands.

Sam chuckled softly and stuffed his hands into his suit pant pockets. "That's Jeb Dexter."

Dean blinked in shock at Sam that the middle Winchester even knew who this random guy on the sidewalk was. "I don't even want to know how you know that."

"He's famous... kind of."

"For what... douchebaggery?"

"...no matter how bad it gets, do not touch me, okay? For your own safety," Jeb said to the crowd, closing his eyes and breathing in deeply. He began to gasp and grunt as if suddenly being possessed by something. That something more than likely being crazy, Delaney thought. He shifted the deck of cards into his other hand and flicked the cards at the glass store window behind him, the ace of diamonds stuck to the window. One swipe of a hand across the glass proved it to be inside the store and not on the outside. "Is this your card?"

Delaney snorted and crossed her arms, staring in amusement at the magician. "This guy fake a demon possession? I think he's possessed by something else and it isn't a demon."

Dean tugged Sam and Delaney down the opposite direction of the sidewalk so they could get to the motel just down the block. A magician had died suddenly on the sidewalk the night before when ten random holes appeared in his chest and stomach, blood staining the stark white shirt of his magician's costume. It was just weird enough for Dean to drive over and check it out. "I can't believe people actually for this crap."

"It's not all crap," Sam defended.

"What part of that was not a steaming pile of B.S?" Dean challenged, gesturing behind him to Jeb who started up yet another card trick to show the people before him.

"Okay, that was crap, but that's not all magicians. It takes skill."

Dean barked out a laugh and stopped Sam and Delaney from continuing towards the motel. "Oh, that's right. I forgot. You were actually into this stuff, weren't you, Sammy? I mean, you had - you had, like, a deck of cards and a wand."

"Dean, I was thirteen and it was a phase. Besides, Delly is the one who kept begging me to do a trick for her," Sam argued, motioning to Delaney who looked offended she was dragged into it.

"You know, the both of you can't keep using me as a defense just because I'm the baby," Delaney huffed and slapped Sam's hand away when he went to jokingly ruffle her hair.

"Just - it bugs me," Dean said before Sam or Delaney could snap at each other's necks. "Actually, it offends me. You know, playing at demons and magic, when the real thing will kill you bloody."

"Like a guy who drops dead of ten stab wounds without a single tear in his shirt?" Delaney asked.

"That's what I'm talking about."

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After the talk with the magician's, Vance, assistant the three siblings found out Vance had stolen from other magicians. It could have gotten him an endless number of enemies because many of the magicians took the gig as seriously as a damn heart attack. When the assistant found Vance on the sidewalk, she had found a tarot card on the inside of his cape. A tarot card of a dead man with ten swords stabbed into his body in a straight line. The assistant said it was odd because Vance never used cards in his act because he hated them and never wanted them around him.

So while Sam and Dean went to speak to the magicians at the theater, Delaney went back to the motel to do research on anything that could help them. She had to see if anything else like this happened in this time or if odd deaths only just started to happen when the magicians showed up in the area. They were all here for some sort of showcase and Delaney needed to find out if one of the magicians were dealing with dark magic or if it was something else entirely.

A knock on the motel room door snapped Delaney out of her concentration on Sam's laptop and one check on her watch showed it was nearly eleven o'clock at night. If it was Sam or Dean, they wouldn't have knocked on the door since they both had keys to the motel room. She grabbed her gun that sat on the table next to her, gripping it in her hand as she cautiously and quietly walked over to the motel room door. She peered through the peep hole to see it was just Randy and sighed.

"What are you doing here, Randy?" Delaney asked, opening the door to reveal her boyfriend.

"Were you going to shoot me, princess?" Randy mused, nudging the gun in Delaney's hand as he passed her to get into the motel room. He turned to face Delaney who shut the motel room door and joined him over by the beds where he stood. "I could ask what you're doing here."

Delaney tossed the now unneeded gun onto her and Dean's bed, crossing her arms. "I'm working a job, Randy. I already told you that when Dean found the case."

Randy scoffed and narrowed his eyes at Delaney. "So the whole world is about to be engulfed in hellfire and you're in Magictown, USA."

"You got something against magic?" Delaney teased, playing with the front of Randy's leather jacket. 

"You know, that would almost be funny if thirty-four seals hadn't been broken already. Thirty-four, Laney. That's over halfway.  The angels are losing this war. Every day is one day closer and if someone doesn't do something soon - "

"And that someone is me?" Delaney snapped, letting go of Randy's jacket and gesturing to herself. 

"Who else would it be, Delaney?"

Delaney could feel her annoyance and anger course through her veins as a dark look took over her face. Did Randy really just come all this way to lecture her and yell at her for something she couldn't control? She didn't even know where Lilith was anymore, that was Randy's job to look for her and find her while Delaney stayed with Dean and Sam and made sure other seals weren't broken. Seals that she couldn't even begin to pinpoint.

"I don't know where these seals are, Randy. I don't know squat. So why don't you tell me where you'd like me to start instead of barking orders at me like I'm your pet and not your girlfriend?"

"Well, you can quit dicking around with Dean and Sam, for one. Bigger fish are out there. If the seals are being broken, you might want to go after the one doing the breaking," Randy remarked and slapped a hand to his side. "Babe, you're the only one who can stop her. So step up and kill the little bitch."

Delaney laughed bitterly and her eyes followed Randy as he circled her to stand on the other side closer to the door. "Oh, I'm game, believe me I am. She deserves it for what she did to my brother. It's not the psychic thing I got a problem with and you know that."

Randy rolled his eyes, huffing in annoyance. "I know what you got a problem with, Laney, but tough. It's the only way. You are weak without the demon blood and you won't stand a chance against Lilith unless you start using it again."

Delaney furrowed her eyebrows as she stared at Randy. He hadn't laid into her about the demon blood in months. Told her that he wouldn't force her to do anything she didn't want to do. That if she worked hard enough to perfect her abilities then maybe she wouldn't even need the demon blood after all. So why was he drilling her about the demon blood after all this time? It was like a total shift of mindset and Delaney couldn't pinpoint why. Especially not when they just expressed their feelings for each other and were on a good path.

Was that why Randy suddenly had the courage to bring the demon blood back up? Because Delaney loved him and would just suddenly change her mind for him? She loved him, but she wouldn't change her belief for him just like that. Not when the demon blood changed her as a person and she didn't like the person she became even with just using it for the one week she had.

"No, Randy. I am not having this argument with you again."

"This would all be so much easier if you would just admit to yourself that you actually kind of like it. That you like the power the demon blood gives you."

Sure, the demon blood made her stronger and she was able to exorcise demons with her mind in a few seconds flat without so much as a headache. It made her feel stronger and more powerful than she had ever felt in her life. Made her feel like she finally had this psychic thing under control, but none of that mattered when her personality shifted. She could just feel herself becoming the person Dean raised her not to be. Delaney wasn't going to make the mistake again.

Ever.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Delaney denied.

"Oh, I don't, huh?" Randy mocked and he gave Delaney a look of disbelief. A flash of hurt even appeared on his face which Delaney ignored. If anyone should be hurt, it should be her. She hadn't seen Randy since the Anna thing and he just shows up to chastise her like she was a small child. "Fine. It's simple - Lucifer rises, the apocalypse starts. You think that you have demons on your hands now? People are gonna die, princess. Oceans of people. People I know you want to make sure stay alive and innocent because that's the kind of person you are. So when you're ready to put on your brave pants, you just let me know."

Delaney flinched when Randy slammed the door behind him on his way out, dropping down onto the edge of her and Dean's bed. She buried her face into her hands with a heavy exhale, her brain pounding inside her skull. 

Was she doing the right thing?

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Once Delaney had given up on research for the night, Sam and Dean had texted her to meet them at the theater where the magicians were doing their shows. She had gotten to the theater a bit before Dean and Sam and perched herself by the bar in the top row until Sam and Dean showed up around five minutes later. She still felt the annoyance from Randy's little visit and she tried to keep her face straight so Dean and Sam wouldn't notice anything off. However, Delaney should have known better because Dean always knew when she was anything but happy.

"Hey, baby girl," Dean greeted, stopping next to her near the bar and eyeing her worriedly. "You okay?"

"Oh, um, yeah. Just tired from staring at the screen of Sam's laptop for three hours," Delaney waved off, smiling as best she could to ease Dean's worry. "Um, did you guys find anything?"

"Nothing I want to talk about or think about ever again," Dean replied, shuddering at the memories from just a bit ago. Memories he would never speak about ever again, especially not to his baby sister.

Delaney rose her eyebrows as Dean and Sam began to make their way down the steps towards two older men that stood at the bottom near the stage. One was short with white hair and in a full on tuxedo while the other one had salt and pepper hair and matching beard and wore glasses. Sam and Dean looked anything but pleased with the two older men who smirked at the sight of the two boys.

What the hell happened?

"The Chief, huh?" Sam snapped, stopping just before the two men with Dean on his left and Delaney on his right.

"What's the matter? The Chief not your type?" the smaller one mocked, body shaking with laughter.

Dean chuckled darkly and swept a dark gaze between the two men. "You know, I could have you both arrested for obstruction of justice?"

"How? You're no fed," the salt and pepper haired man accused, throwing the three siblings off since the man sounded so sure about it. He was right, but the fact he was right scared Delaney.

"We con people for a living, boys. Takes more than a fake badge to get past us," the shorter one added.

"You got us," Delaney laughed nervously, deciding to just roll with the cards placed before her. They already knew they weren't the feds so might as well roll with that and see where it took them. "Yeah, we - we are actually... the boys are aspiring magicians. We came to the convention cause they wanted to learn something from you professionals."

Dean shot Delaney a look that he was gonna kill her for putting him and Sam on the spot like that, especially when Dean hated magic and anything to do with it. "Yeah, get some ideas for our new show."

This sparked the interest of the salt and pepper haired one. Clearly, these two men weren't so good at seeing cons as they claimed. "Oh, what kind of show are you boys planning?"

"Well, it's - it's a - "

"It's a family act," Sam cut in and wrapped an arm around Delaney's shoulders with a broad grin. "Our baby sister is our assistant."

"Yeah, you know with the rings and doves and... rings," Dean sheepishly added and was thankfully saved from anything else when the audience around them began to applaud.

"Ladies and gentleman, I give you the Incredible Jay!"

"You want to learn something? Stick around."

The three siblings exchanged a glance with each other, deciding to stay and see what the show was about. They had nothing else to do and since their current cover was an aspiring family magician act, they had to stay and watch. Just to keep covers up and not because the three of them were curious as to what this Incredible Jay had to offer and if he were anything like Jeb.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what you're about to witness is a feat so daring, so dangerous, even the great Houdini dared not attempt it," Incredible Jay said to the crowd. He was an older man with white hair, wrinkly face and a suit with a shiny bronze shirt beneath the jacket. "I give to you... The Executioner!" He swung his hand and a noose fell from the ceiling and hung just above where a wooden stool that Jay would more than likely stand on.

The crowd erupted into a mix of excited and nervous murmurs over the trick that Jay wanted to attempt. It looked like the kind of trick no sane person would try. Even crazier was when Jay asked an audience member to come up and help him into the straitjacket and put his head through the noose while stood on the wooden stool. All the bad scenarios of this trick raced through Delaney's mind and she felt anxiety for Jay. 

"Now, sir, as you can see, this jacket is the real article. You may now take your seat. Thank you," Jay said to the man who nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Now, I will have one minute - sixty seconds - to escape certain death. Let's see if I can do it."

The stage hand closed the two white sheets over Jay so all that could be seen was the silhouette of Jay thanks to the spotlights shining down on the sheet. The clock above Jay began to tick like a kitchen timer. Silence fell over the room as everyone watched Jay struggle behind the white sheet to get himself out of the straitjacket and out of the noose. 

Delaney nervously bit her thumbnail as she watched Jay struggle. She never understood why these magicians did such dangerous stunts that could kill them. Couldn't they just stick to the card tricks and sawing people in half? Why put their lives on the line for the entertainment of other people? She just didn't see the hype in it and was just glad Sam gave up on the dream of being a magician. 

"He's not gonna make it," Dean gasped as the clock went down to five seconds remaining.

The clock timed out and a drop was heard, followed by a chorus of gasps from the crowd. The short white haired man pulled back the white sheets to reveal Jay stood out of the straitjacket and was perfectly fine. He threw his hands out to the sides as the crowd cheered and applauded for him, bowing for the loving and adoring crowd. Even Dean had a big grin on his face as he clapped for the magician.

Delaney stared wide eyed at Jay in astonishment and one glance at Sam showed he didn't believe it either. How was it possible for Jay to get out within a millisecond? When that clock timed out, Jay still struggled heavily to get out of the straitjacket. There was no way that he should have survived that trick. He should be hanging by the neck and on his way to Heaven or Hell.

"That was... not humanly possible."

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"Looks like Jay was a pretty big deal in the 70's," Sam informed Dean and Delaney.

The three siblings sat in the motel room the next day while they did some research. Delaney and Sam both felt weird over Jay's act while Dean just thought it was another cool trick that Jay had done. A trick that no human should have been able to do without at least a little... help. From what? Delaney and Sam weren't sure, but they were going to figure it out.

"Which in Magician Land means what, exactly?" Dean asked, looking up from his spot on the bed where he was surrounded by lore books.

"Big enough to play Radio City Music Hall."

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

Sam shrugged lamely and leaned back in his chair. "He got old."

Dean ran a hand over his face and closed his eyes in thought. It seemed the more research they did on Jay, the more Dean started to side with his siblings. Though, Delaney and Sam both knew they would solid evidence before they could all go after Jay. "Okay, so maybe Incredible Jay is using real magic to stage a comeback."

Delaney nodded and fiddled with the book that sat on her lap while she lounged back in the chair at the table. "It could be possible. Some kind of spell that works a death transference."

"How does the tarot card mix into it?"

"I don't know," Sam replied, typing away at his laptop to look up information on the tarot card that had been used.

"Man... hope I die before I get old," Dean commented and walked over to his siblings who both sat at the table against the wall near the window of the motel room.

"You're already old, Dee," Delaney teased, giggling when Dean playfully pushed her and told her to shut up before he kicked her ass.

Sam chuckled in amusement at his two siblings, shaking his head fondly. "I swear you two are children."

"I know you are, but what am I?" Dean and Delaney replied in unison, high-fiving at their synchronization. 

"Do you think we will?" Sam suddenly questioned, gaining Dean and Delaney's attention. "Die before we get old."

Dean ran a hand over Delaney's hair and shot Sam an odd look. "Pretty sure Della and I already did that."

Sam shot Dean a deadpan look. "I'm being serious here, Dean. I mean, do you think we'll still be chasing demons when we're sixty?"

"No, I think we'll all be dead... for good. What? You want to end up like - like Travis? Huh? Or Gordon, maybe?" Dean remarked, patting Delaney on the shoulder when she flinched at the mention of Gordon.

"There's Bobby," Sam offered.

"Oh, yeah, there's a poster child for growing old gracefully. Look, this ends bloody or sad and we all know that."

Delaney tilted her head as she stared at Sam. She had no idea where this sudden question about their future came from. Were all the boys in her life suddenly flinging stuff at her for jokes? First Randy fighting her on using demon blood again and now Sam worrying about their future when Delaney was barely even sure she would make it to hers. 

Randy was just so sure that the demon blood can save everyone in the end, especially if it meant getting rid of Lilith. It was beginning to seem like the only thing Randy cared about was Delaney using the demon blood and killing off Lilith. Almost like he was using her love for him against her and trying to wear her down and get her to follow him down a path she didn't think she could follow. 

Millions of warning signs popped up in her head whenever she thought about Randy and his constant suggestion for demon blood. Was Randy hiding something from her or did she really not know Randy as well as she thought she did?

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A few hours later, Jeb was found dead by the maid of the hotel he had been staying in. He was hung from a noose on the ceiling fan and Dean had swiped yet another tarot card off Jeb. This tarot card having the title THE HANGING MAN with a man hung upside down with a straitjacket covering his torso much like Jay had. Both victims had apparently been real douches to Jay on the days of their murder. Vance heckled Jay in a bar when he tried to do a trick for the bartender and Jeb had just been nasty to him during his interview for the show.

The siblings had tracked Jay down to the motel he chose for the time he'd be staying in town for the convention. They followed him up to the fourth floor where his room was and down the hall, waiting behind a jutted out piece of wall for the man enter to his room before they attacked. The trio took out their guns while Dean kicked open Jay's door, the older man whirring around to face the three with a startled look.

"Up against the wall! Now!" Dean ordered sternly, keeping his gun aimed at Jay.

"God, who are you? What do you want?" Jay asked, holding his hands up but not making a move to stand by the wall like Dean ordered.

"We know what you been up to. You been working some real bad mojo to jump-start your act," Delaney accused, standing between her brothers with her own gun aimed at Jay.

Jay's face scrunched up in confusion, not knowing what the siblings were talking about. Yeah, right. "What? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Look, we know you put a spell on those tarot cards," Sam said.

"Messing with real magic?" Dean tacked on, glaring hard at the white haired man before him.

"Real magic? Come on, there's no such thing as real magic. I've been around this stuff my whole life. It's all just - it's - it's illusions. It's tricks. It's - it's all fake," Jay informed the three who only stepped closer with their guns still pointed straight at him. 

Delaney didn't waver and kept her gun up, having a real hard time with trusting anyone at the moment. "Oh, and Jeb Dexter being strung up - was that just an illusion?"

Jay's face fell at the mention of Jeb's death, almost like he didn't even know the guy was dead. His genuine concern wasn't enough to sway Delaney or her brothers. "What? Something happened to Jeb?"

"He was found hanged in his room."

"Right after you slipped the noose last night," Dean added for Sam.

Jay continued to hold the confusion on his face that was now fixed up with the concern over Jeb's sudden death. "I don't know what you're talking about. Please... just let me go."

Dean's gun lowered slightly as he eyed the old magician in front of the siblings. He took a step away from the siblings and held his hands up in front of him to show he wasn't going to harm them in any way. Something that wouldn't be a thing by this point if they dealt with someone who tried to hide they were evil. Their facade would have dropped and they would have tried to attack the siblings by then. "Something's not right here... he's not attacking us with some bad ass hoodoo."

"What do you guys want to do?"

The boys decided it would be a good idea to tie up Jay to a chair in his hotel room. An action that really shouldn't have surprised or shocked Delaney in any way. Jay didn't fight with them, though, and allowed them to tie him up. Probably just glad that the siblings didn't put a bullet through his skull like they planned to. The three Winchesters had stepped over to stand behind the dividers in the room to give them a bit of privacy to talk about Jay.

"So if it's not Jay, then who is it?" Sam asked quietly.

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

Delaney chewed on her lower lip as her mind tried to work through who could be the one behind the attacks on Jeb and Vance. It had to be someone else from the convention that was doing it. Someone that had at least spoken to both of the magicians before their untimely deaths. "So, whoever it is, they are obviously in Jay's corner. They have to be if they knew that Vance and Jeb were both rude to the poor guy."

"Alright, so we got Vernon and Charlie on the list," Dean listed the two men from the night before and ran a hand over his hair with a sigh. "Anyone else?"

"We could just ask him," Sam offered and when the three turned to do just that, they saw Jay no longer in the chair and the rope that tied him laying on the seat. "Should have seen that one coming."

"He couldn't have gotten that far, right?"

Delaney ran out of the motel room after Sam and Dean and down to the main lobby where people bustled about. Not one person was Jay. How the hell did a sixty year old man out run three people in their twenties? "Okay, seriously, he could not have outrun us. Man, we suck."

Dean stopped near the entrance to the hotel and scanned the area outside, but still no sign of Jay anywhere. Maybe this guy really was the next Houdini. "Either he really is that good or he found a back exit."

A cop car squealed to a stop just outside the hotel and the two officers hopped out of the car, rushing into the hotel like the car was on fire. They stopped near Delaney, Sam and Dean just as Jay ran down the stairs and pointed at them, saying they were the three psychos that just broke into his room. 

"Man, I hate magic," Delaney grumbled.

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Luckily for the Winchesters, Jay had decided to drop the charges on them and let them go off with a warning. They were let out only to find out that another magician had bit the dust just after Jay's performance. This time it was Charlie - the shorter man with the white hair - and he was found just like Vance had been. Holes in his chest that didn't appear in his shirt aside from the pools of blood on the stark white shirt where the holes appeared.

The siblings first stop after being released from the precinct was to visit Jay and see if he knew of anything that could help them find who did it. Now that was Charlie was off the list, that only left Vernon and they needed any and all information they could get before they even thought about labeling Vernon as a suspect. The last time they did that, they were arrested for breaking and entering a room.

"Jay," Sam called, entering the hotel with Delaney and Dean behind. "We really appreciate you dropping the charges. Thank you."

"You mind telling us why you did it?" Delaney asked, placing her hands on her hips. "Not that we aren't grateful because we are. We just need to know what's going on."

"We have to talk."

Next thing the siblings knew, they were in the hotel's bar and sharing a drink with Jay who seemed extremely upset over Charlie's death. The two men had clearly been extremely close and Delaney felt bad that another innocent died, especially one that meant so much to Jay. It just wasn't fair and she quickly shoved Randy's words about the demon blood to back of her mind.

"I knew him since I was a kid. All I knew was how to cheat at cards. Charlie got me out of more scrapes than I can count," Jay informed, taking a long sip from his scotch glass. "Hell, I would have been dead by the age of twenty if it hadn't been for him. He was more than my friend. He was my brother."

"We are so sorry, Jay," Delaney said, reaching across the table and squeezing the man's hand comfortingly. 

Jay squeezed her hand back for a moment before he retracted his hand and lifted his scotch glass again. "Look, 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," Dean reminded Jay, guilt evident in his tone over nearly killing Jay for something he didn't even do.

"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 are probably close to you. Did Charlie and Vernon get along?" Sam inquired, needing information on Vernon if they were to get rid of him in the suspects list or not.

Jay hesitated for a minute, not wanting to put any of his friends on the chopping block. He looked conflicted and as if he didn't even want to begin to put Vernon on the suspect's list. "No. No, it's not Vernon."

Delaney leant forward with her elbows on the table and gave Jay a sorrowful smile. She knew it must be hard for Jay to ever think one of his friends would be out there killing innocent people for him. Especially with this kind of black magic at play. "He is the only one that makes sense right now, Jay. Charlie and Vernon were your family and now Charlie's gone."

"Yeah, but they... butted heads sometimes, but Vernon could never do something like this," Jay denied, not wanting to believe Vernon would be this evil.

"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."

Delaney shifted uncomfortably on her stool as her mind flashed to her long week on demon blood. She hadn't even thought twice about the innocent people she might have hurt when trying to get to Lilith. Not with the demon blood that coursed through her veins and made her the strongest she'd ever been since Will's death at Stanford. She had never been more powerful and she thrived off it. No matter how different and dark it had made her. 

That's what had scared Delaney the most and why she had stopped using it in the first place. Even one day on it made her feel a different type of way than she had the day before when she wasn't using it. A fact that Randy knew and yet he still threw it in her face that she needed the blood to get to Lilith. If he had loved her the way he said he did, wouldn't he just let her be and figure out a different way to kill Lilith?

"You better be damn sure about this," Jay said, snapping Delaney out of her thoughts and back into the real world. "Vernon is all I have left."

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Jay had offered to call Vernon down to the theater while Dean, Delaney and Sam snuck into Vernon's room to see if they could find anything that would place him in the wrong. Any evidence that could end this case once and for all and no more innocent people would have to lose their lives. He even had a spare key to Vernon's room and vice versa so the three siblings didn't even need to pick the lock to the room and just walked their way right in.

"Wow. It's like... a magic museum," Sam commented, stepping into the room and looking around at all the magic merchandise that littered the furniture and chairs of the small hotel room. Even books and magazines about magic laid on Vernon's bed.

"You must be in Heaven then, Sammy," Dean retorted, patting Sam on the back while he scanned the room. "He doesn't travel light it seems."

Delaney stepped further into the room and lifted a random magazine with a magician and magic bunny on the front. "Well, he was on the road his whole life. Probably everything he owns is in this room. Start looking, boys. This could take a while."

The boys set to work on the other side of the room and rummaged through Vernon's things. However, nothing lead to any evidence they could use on Vernon for the deaths of Vance, Jeb and Charlie. It was all just magic merchandise that Vernon had collected over the years along with his clothes that he had placed neatly inside of the drawers to the side of the room.

"This is just a bunch of old-timey magic stuff - none of it magic."

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

Dean walked over to a pile of posters from magic shows and paused when one stood out to him in particular. He scoffed to himself and held it up for his siblings to see. It was a poster of a man with a brown mark on the side of his forehead, brown hair and he was surrounded by little demons, a human skull held in his hands. "Look like anyone we know?"

"Charlie."

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Delaney and the boys rushed their way from the hotel and over to the theater where they knew Vernon and Jay to be. It would only make sense for Charlie to be there also and gearing for another attack soon since Jay had another show coming up. Charlie had to have used an immortality spell and allowed himself to bounce between being old and being a young guy that looked to be around Dean's age.

When they arrived to the theater, Charlie was stood before the two older magicians while he tried to persuade them to join him. Join him in living together, even if it meant taking a few lives. Jay voiced his dislike for the idea, not liking that innocent people would have to die just so they could live forever while Vernon appeared like he wanted to go with Charlie. Live forever regardless of who had to die for him to do so.

"Not so fast!" Dean yelled, running down the steps with Delaney and Sam that lead down to the stage area. He jerked his handgun in both directions, directing Jay and Vernon to step away from Charlie. Thankfully, both men obliged and they took a few steps away from the rogue magician. "Immortality. That's a nice trick, Charlie."

"It's not a trick," Charlie smirked and stepped back from the three siblings, a noose falling down out of nowhere and wrapping itself around Dean's neck as it raised him in the air. "It's magic."

Delaney growled as she shot two bullets at Charlie who caught them in his mouth instead of it puncturing his heart like Delaney had aimed for. She stared in horror as Charlie spit the two bullets into his hand with a grin."

"Hey, bullet catch - been working on that one," Charlie tossed the bullets into the air and vanished from sight.

"Get him!" Dean ordered his siblings, struggling with the noose around his neck to try and get it off his throat.

Charlie reappeared next to the little wooden set up that Jay had been using at his shows that would hide him behind the two white sheets. He wiggled his fingers mockingly at Sam and Delaney who held their guns up to him, stalking closer to him.

"You let our brother go - now!" Sam bellowed, glaring darkly at the magician. If looks could kill, even Charlie's immortality would not have been enough to save him.

"Just leave me and my friends alone."

"He said now!" Delaney barked, now stood just a few feet from Charlie. Her gun nearly pressing into the immortal magician's chest.

Charlie held his hands up to show he wouldn't hurt either one of the siblings that stood before him, wearing matching glares. "Alright, I will give it up - the hexes, the spells. This is the last time. I promise."

Delaney felt her anxiety spike as Dean's rapid pants while he tried to struggle to breathe and struggle to get the rope from around his neck, sent her into a rage. She charged forward and went to slam her gun into the side of Charlie's head when her hand went through him as if he were ghost and he disappeared.

Charlie reappeared behind her and pushed her onto her back underneath the spikes that had killed both Vance and "Charlie". Her arms were locked into the cuffs on either side and when Sam went to help Delaney, he was pushed back and held up against the wall by an invisible force. 

Delaney gasped when the rope that kept her alive slowly began to snap piece by piece. She tried to pry her wrists out of the cuffs while she panted and wheezed, her anxiety clutching her lungs into an iron grip. Her head spun as the fear for her life slapped her in the face any time a piece of the rope snapped. Dean's grunts and pants didn't help her anxiety at all, if anything, it made it worse.

However, just before the final piece of rope could snap off and kill Delaney, Charlie gasped in pain. Delaney lifted her head the best she could to see blood pooling into Charlie's button up shirt underneath his jacket. He pressed a hand to his wound and blinked at the crimson that now coated his palm. 

Jay had stabbed a small sword into his stomach and slowly pulled it out of his stomach as Charlie dropped to his knees. He pulled his hand out from his suit pocket to show Charlie that he had snatched the pack of tarot cards from his pocket without him even realizing it. A trick that Delaney knew Jay had perfected himself and not with the use of dark magic.

"Jay..." Charlie trailed off, stuffing his hand into his own jacket pocket and pulling out a singular tarot card. He looked back over to his long time best friend in disbelief and hurt. "You chose these strangers over me?" 

Before Jay could respond, Charlie fell over and onto his back dead. Ironically, the card that Charlie clutched in his hand was a yellow card with a man in a toga and red cape with the title THE MAGICIAN. Now that Charlie was dead along with the black magic, the cuffs around Delaney's wrists were released and Dean fell from above, taking in a lungful of air now that the noose wasn't choking his air ways. Sam crashed to the floor from where he had been held up and grunted.

Delaney hopped off the death trap just as the rope finally gave out and the spikes fell down, landing where she had just been laying. She squeaked and scrambled away from the trap, stopping next to Dean whose breathing was still a bit wheezy, but it was normal enough to ease Delaney's anxiety. "Dee and Sammy, you guys okay?"

The two boys wordlessly nodded and they all glanced over to Jay who looked about two seconds from crying over the loss of his long time best friend.

⊶⊶⊶⊶⊶✞⊷⊷⊷⊷⊷

The next morning before the Winchesters left the town, they wanted to stop by and say their goodbyes to Jay. They hadn't seen him since Charlie's death and just wanted to make sure he was holding up okay before they got back into the Impala. He was sat at a table in the bar alone, flicking through his deck of cards with a pained expression on his face. His eyes were a bit red from the tears that Delaney was sure had been shed when Jay was finally alone.

"Hey, Jay. We just wanted to thank you for what you did last night," Dean greeted, stopping on the other side of Jay's table so he, Delaney and Sam were stood across from Jay.

Jay's eyes flickered over to the three siblings and they were so glassed over and dull that it broke Delaney's heart. She knew what Jay had done to save the siblings yesterday wasn't easy in the slightest and she owed Jay her life for saving her before his best friend. "I killed my best friend yesterday and you want to thank me?"

Delaney exchanged an awkward look with her siblings before she turned back to Jay. "Where's Vernon?"

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

"Listen, Jay, you know Charlie was never gonna give up what he was doing. Ever. You did the right thing," Sam assured Jay, even though it seemed to fall upon deaf ears.

"Are you sure about that? You know, Charlie was like my brother. Now he's dead... because I did the right thing. He offered me a gift and I just threw it back in his face," Jay said, pushing himself away from the table and rounding it so he was stood next to the siblings, looking anything but happy with them. "So now I have to spend the rest of my life old and alone. What's so right about that?"

Delaney frowned as Jay brushed past the Winchesters to leave the bar, a forlorn look on his face. A look she knew all too well after the loss of someone so important to you. That, even though they weren't a blood relative, that person was still like family and you would never imagine losing them. Even though you knew it was inevitable and they would die one day. It was the same expression she wore for a month after Will died.

"Jay... your cards," the waitress called gently, holding up the stack of cards he had left on the table. 

"Throw them away," Jay waved off and pushed out of the bar without a look back. 

"Well... I don't know about you guys, but I could use a beer," Dean noted and went to make his way over to the bar with Sam at his side.

Delaney didn't let either Dean or Sam stop her and she walked out of the bar, her brain pounding with too much at once. Randy snapping at her for the demon blood. Multiple people losing their lives to Charlie that didn't deserve it. The constant threat of the sixty-seals being broken and Lucifer's eventual resurrection. How she was weak because she didn't use the demon blood that Randy heckled her about.

However, Delaney didn't want to use the demon blood to take on Lilith. Randy had to be up to something if he suddenly brought it back up again. She knew that she couldn't find out what it was unless she made Randy believe she was in it. That she wanted the demon blood again and finally take down Lilith. That Delaney was willing to become this strong warrior again. How she'd get him to believe she was down for the demon blood, Delaney wasn't sure but she would find a way.

Delaney would have to come up with a plan quick because when she turned the corner from the bar and was in an empty, dark street... she noticed Randy parked in a car as if he knew she'd come out. She wasn't even aware that Randy was still in the area and left after their little spat. She needed to convince him she was on his side and would just make it up as she went along. Delaney didn't want to think the worst of her boyfriend, but something just did not sit right with her and she needed to find out what it was. The only way to do that was make Randy believe, which meant she couldn't tell Dean or Sam what she was doing. The less people who knew her plans the better.

That shouldn't be too hard... right?

"Okay," Delaney said, opening up the passenger side door and sitting in the seat. "I'm in. I'll do it."

"What changed your mind, princess?" Randy asked, rolling his head on the back of the driver's seat to look at Delaney. She hated that he looked so good and perfect right then because it was hard to be suspicious of him. However, she knew she had to ignore the feelings she held for Randy and figure out why he was acting weird.

Delaney sighed and stared out the windshield, looking into the darkness that stretched ahead of her and Randy. Not a single soul around, almost like Randy and Delaney were the last people in the town. "Innocent people keep dying, Ran. I mean, three innocents died the past three days alone. What is that number going to be like if Lucifer dies? I'm sick and tired of innocent victims dying at the hands of demons." Her eyes flickered over to Randy and she sheepishly smiled at him when he sent her a look. "No offense."

Randy brushed a piece of hair behind Delaney's ear and the act so gentle and loving it almost made Delaney think she thought too much into Randy's sudden behavior. She knew better than to let her emotions get in the way. With her track record of boyfriends, Delaney seriously needed to keep her head straight. "What about Dean and Sam? I can assure you they'll be pissed if they find out what you're doing."

"What they don't know won't hurt them, right?" Delaney responded, hoping to all Hell that them not knowing really won't hurt them in the end. "I don't plan on them finding out. Not until this whole mess is cleared. Wouldn't be the first thing I hid from them and probably won't be the last with how the Earth is going."

"As long as you're sure," Randy whispered and leant in to press a soft kiss to Delaney's lip, stroking her cheeks as his hands cupped her face.

Delaney let herself get lost in the kiss, needing just one night of pretending that Randy was more than likely hiding something and acting like she wasn't about the most dangerous thing she'd ever done in her life.

Trick a demon.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hi hey hello

This took me all day to write and I honestly hate it. It's fine though because WHOA IS THIS BOUT TO GET REAL SPICY, WHEW! Randy is making Delaney hella suspicious and we all know how perceptive our queen is. This operation is gonna be.. um... well you see woops bye!