Cause of Death: Unnatural

The next twenty four hours were hell.

Nick called it in - it was his research that had found them the crime scene after all. Em stood with her back to the carnage and listened to him speak.

"It's a warehouse. Back of Darkes Lane, the northern end," he said into the phone.

There was a silence then which stretched out for longer than Em thought was normal. She looked at him. He had stepped out of the warehouse door to make the call, but was now staring in at the bodies with his eyes a little wider than usual and his expression blank.

"I don't know how many," he said. "No," he was shaking his head, "no, I don't know how many, okay? We're going to need a few teams..." He trailed off. "Sorry, Robert. I haven't seen anything like this before. It's big. It's a mess. You'll see what I mean."

Em felt sorry for him. She guessed this evening hadn't turned out the way he'd expected. He'd had a little triumph at the research, called Em and expected to have a fun-filled evening with a tinge of adrenaline as their little excursion confirmed his theories. Em hadn't expected this either. She'd thought they'd end up having some drinks together and moving onto bed and a different kind of adrenaline. The remains of the psycho killing spree spread out on the warehouse floor in front of them was not on either of their wishlists for the evening, she thought dryly.

They waited outside the crime scene and watched for the first of the professionals to arrive. Nick paced back and forward across the narrow alley way. Em sat on the edge of the gutter tucking her coat up behind her knees. Her head was pounding. It was the same headache of old, but it seemed brighter here. The bodies in the warehouse were amplifying it. Like a heady perfume that sets off a migraine, the bodies carried the scent of whatever it was that was causing Em's pain. Now there were so many bodies, the pain was all the stronger.

She sighed and pressed both her palms into the side of her head.

Nick saw her and came to sit next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close.

"You okay?" he asked.

His voice was gentle and caring and all of a sudden Em wanted to dive into it. She didn't care any more about anything. Let Jarek take Alina back to the Family, let her father descend in all his fiery rage, let whoever was draining the city's most gorgeous young men dry drink their fill. She didn't care, so long as she had Nick's arms around her and the warmth of his chest to lean against.

She wanted to run away with him and spend the rest of her life in bed with him. She wanted to take his hand and fly like fury through the dimensions and show him the chaos and wonder of the universe. She wanted to wake up every morning to coffee and bagels and him. She wanted the both of them to live together. Forever.

"I'm okay," she said, slipping her arm around his waist and smiling up at him. "I'm fine."

And then the first of the squad cars arrived.

Things got busy after that. The entire scene, the warehouse, the alleyway, all the approaches, had to be researched, sketched, photographed, tagged and bagged. There were thirty seven bodies altogether. Robert had to assign three pathology teams to the job, never his favourite way of doing things, but they needed to get these bodies to a morgue as soon as possible. Some of them had been there for quite a while.

When Robert arrived he saw Em and Nick working side by side as two professionals should, but when Em looked up to greet him, she saw that Robert had noticed something else as well. His eyes flicked from one to the other and he frowned slightly. Em couldn't help being impressed. She'd hidden her relationships with both the men from the other, and she'd always thought she'd done a good job of that. But something had just given her away. She wondered what it was.

They worked through the rest of that night and most of the next day as well. By lunchtime the last of the bodies had left the scene and Robert looked at his watch.

"Okay," he said, calling the teams around him. "We still have a lot to do here, but I need some of you back at the lab to start processing what's back there. You, Nick, and you, Em - you're out. Go home." He looked down at his notepad and turned to some of the others.

"I don't need a break," said Em, interrupting him. "I'm fine. I can keep going here..."

Robert stepped closer to her, gestured for Nick to come over and lowered his voice. Em thought he'd been annoyed at them - his tone had certainly been curt - but now she could see he was concerned for them.

"You've both been here since midnight last night. And you pulled long shifts the day before."

"So?" said Nick. "It's not like we haven't worked long hours before."

Robert put a hand on his arm. "I mean it, Nick. This scene hasn't been easy on any of us today. We're all going to need a break at some point, and you two have been here the longest. We've got a long way to go on it still, and they'll be plenty to do back here tomorrow in the light." He nodded quickly as Nick began to interrupt again. "Go home and get some rest, both of you. I'll need you refreshed and on the ball tomorrow."

"Come on, Nick," said Em, looking closely at Robert. Robert looked back at her, his face inscrutable. Em had the strangest feeling Robert was letting her know he was okay with her and Nick. Em let one of her eyebrows twitch a question at Robert, and in return Robert gave the smallest of nods. Interesting, thought Em.

Robert turned back to the rest of the pathology team and Em took Nick by the hand and lead him out of the warehouse.

Naturally, they were late to Nick's family barbecue.

The event was a tentative celebration. Nick's sister Lucy's youngest son had passed some milestone in his treatment. With luck it meant fewer long-term hospital stays in the future - and that meant everyone in the family could relax a little. It also meant Nick had more time to spend with Em, he had whispered to her in the car on the way. No more taking the other kids to little league on a Saturday morning for Lucy when she was stuck in hospital.

"So, little Jack being home from hospital means I get to spend more time in bed with you?" said Em as Nick grinned at her. "Well then, this really is a celebration, isn't it?"

But Em found the atmosphere at the gathering a little curious. Most human parties she'd attended had been wild celebrations of life. There'd been alcohol, party drugs, laugher, loud music, the usual. Here there was an almost melancholy tone. This was a family celebrating one small life that clung on precariously. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and kids all smiled and laughed but with a certain wariness, and weariness, the adults in particular not sure if they should relax completely. Em was intrigued, and the slight tiredness about the mood suited her current state of mind completely.

Lucy came by with a small boy in her arms and a careful smile on her face. She kissed Nick on the cheek and turned her smile to Em. Em could see she looked older than her years with an age old fear dancing close behind her eyes.

"Nick, I'm so glad you could come," she said. "Jack was asking after his 'Nunkle Nick'. Busy day?"

Em raised her eyebrows at Nick over Lucy's shoulder as the woman leant close to her brother to allow the kid in her arms to kiss his uncle. 'Nunkle Nick?' she mouthed with a grin.

"I wouldn't have missed it," said Nick, taking Jack out of Lucy's arms and tossing the boy high in the air.

Jack squealed, but Em noticed it was a subdued little squeal. She looked at the boy again. He was about three, bald as a button, with eyes older than time. Em looked deeper and saw the death lurking inside the child's blood. She realized in a second how pointless this celebration was. No, not pointless, she corrected herself, there was love here and that should always be celebrated. She sighed. She was surrounded by death today. Thirty seven pointless deaths in the warehouse, and one sweet little death still to come in front of her now. How did humans cope with this?

“And you must be Em," Lucy was saying. "I'm so pleased to finally meet you. Nick's told me so much about you." The smile Lucy gave Em was warm and genuinely happy. Em's insides twisted as she thought of how that smile would shrivel and die when the death in Jack's blood finally won the battle. Lucy seemed like such a nice person, Em thought. She doesn't deserve this.

Em allowed herself to be introduced to the whole family. She was a little surprised at the generous welcome she received - what had Nick been telling them all - but she was touched as well. Of course they would greet her so kindly. If this was the family that had produced Nick then of course they were good people. The comparison between this beautiful kind-hearted group of humans and the cut-throat competition of her own Family didn't even bear thinking about.

Em watched Nick. He'd dived in to play a complicated game of tag with his nieces and nephews in the back garden, and the kids yelled and laughed around him. The smaller ones simply climbed him like a tree and at one point she noticed four children hanging off him, from his arms, from his shoulders, wrapped around his legs. He looked like a boy himself. Em could feel his happiness from where she watched inside the house with a gaggle of sisters and aunts who scoffed thick slices of desserts and sweet tea.

“So, how long have you been going out with my goofy brother?" said a voice behind her. Lucy was there, pressing another glass of champagne into Em's hand.

Em smiled politely. She didn't really want the champagne. Damn it, she didn't know what she wanted. She was feeling almost overwhelmed by a whole range of feelings that had her confused and anxious. She was scared, she realized. Scared of whatever had caused the mess in the warehouse, whatever was causing her headaches. She was scared that Jarek's tempting darkness might lead her home. She was scared that she'd somehow ruined whatever was between Robert and her, and she was scared that if she didn't grab Nick and hold him tight to her right now that she might lose him forever.

She looked at Lucy, and realized most of the other women were waiting on her response. So, this was a test, she thought.

"We've been working with each other for a few years now," she said smiling and sending out a whisper of dark energy through the window and out into the garden. She was searching for one of the children. "But I guess we started seeing each other, you know, properly, about two years ago."

There he was. Jack. Her dark energy found him where he was sitting to one side of the group of older children and Nick still playing wildly together.

"Though I must say I had no idea how good he was with children," she said. "Hardened crims and drug dealers, sure, but who'd have thought he'd be such a pushover with kids."

The women laughed, and Em's dark energy flowed inside the boy, through his blood, around his heart, into every cell.

Lucy gave Em a sly look. 'It's attractive, isn't it? A bloke who's so good with kids..."

The other women groaned. "Oh, for heaven's sake Lucy," one of them said. "Give the girl a break. Your matchmaking pitch needs a little work!" They were all laughing again.

Inside Jack's blood Em found what she was looking for. The blood was thin and boiling with chemicals, but there it was. One cancerous cell that had found a way to survive the drugs. One cell with the potential to start the cycle of the death all over again. Just one little cell.

Em met Lucy's eyes and smiled. She raised her champagne glass.

"Yes," she said, meaningfully. "Very attractive."

She clinked her glass against Lucy's and inside Jack that one little cell turned to ash.

Later she found Nick and leant up against him.

"Remember how you asked me if I was okay?" she said.

He nodded.

"I'm not."

Nick's face softened and his hands took her by the shoulders and turned her around to face him.

"The warehouse?" he asked. "Or do you still have that headache? How thoughtless of me. I can't believe I've made you suffer through my whole family when you're still feeling so bad." He shushed her as she tried to defend his family. "No, my fault, I'm sorry sweetheart." He hugged her. "How about we just get you home, ok?"



* * *



Nick was a good guy, Em thought, but not so good he wouldn't fall for her big eyes, a few well timed sighs and her fluttering lashes. She didn't even have tug at his hand all that hard when she dragged him over her doorstep and into her bedroom.

Her dress was off before either of them knew it, and soon Nick was in nothing but his socks too. He kissed her hungrily, she pulled him down onto the bed and they wrapped themselves around each other.

Em was close to tears. Everything that had been going on recently had upset her more than she liked to admit. She wasn't used to feeling so out of control and she certainly hadn't liked Jarek turning up to remind of her the contrasts between this life and her old one. A beautiful afternoon watching Nick play with his family had just about topped it off. She was a wreck. She felt a little guilty using Nick for sex just to cheer herself up, but...

That thought made her feel even sadder. As their bodies writhed around each other Em discovered she'd opened up her heart and was leaving little whispers of dark energy all over the place. Small clouds of energy clung to their skin, to the sheets. Em pulled Nick into her and held on to him fiercely.

"Em, babe," Nick whispered. "I've never felt this close to you before."

And finally, there it was. Laid bare willingly in front of her. Nick's soul.

Em was astonished. Nick's soul was beautiful. In all her nine hundred years, she thought, she'd never seen a soul so beautiful. Then she realized why. All the souls she'd drained up til now had been taken forcibly from their owners, ripped apart in Em's hunger. She ate their fear, their despair and their horror. The only flavours she'd ever known.

You're a monster, Emilia, she told herself.

Nick's hands were on her face, brushing away her tears.

'What's the matter, babe?"

She kissed him and nuzzled into his neck. His throat. She realized she was lost. She was a creature of the dark, a member of the Family above and beyond everything else. How could she possibly have even dreamed of a normal life with Nick? How could she have imagined a life with children and laughter, and Sunday barbecues? And what the hell was she doing today, saving the life of his nephew like some guardian angel or a fairy-godmother? She was a monster - the daughter of one of the oldest and cruellest monsters alive.

Who had himself loved a human woman.

Em sighed. Life was never easy, even for the immortal. Is this what being human was all about? Doubt and confusion.

"Babe?" said Nick.

Em reached out for Nick's soul. She wrapped it slowly and carefully in a thin veil of her own dark energy. Nick shivered a moment.

"Nothing," she said soothingly. "Nothing's the matter. Everything's fine."

Nick stared at her and smiled, and Em looked deep into his eyes and loved his simplicity. How trusting he was, how confident, how ... loving. Feeling like a bitch she allowed the veil of energy to become thicker, stronger. She felt Nick's soul begin to flutter against the edges of the embrace she'd wrapped it in and she tilted her head back as the feeling spread like butterflies through her chest and down into her belly.

Nick cuddled her closer and shivered again.

She wasn't sure why she was doing this. When she'd chosen to live amongst humans she'd also realized she didn't have to take souls to sustain her own life. She did though, from murderers, drug dealers, pimps and rapists, the lowlifes she met around the city who had never deserved a soul in the first place. Had she drunk too much hatred and filth lately? Was it rubbing off on her?

But here was Nick's soul still open and trusting, and pulsing gently against the walls of dark energy she'd built around it. She was so, so tempted to tear that soul away and gorge herself on it and enjoy the goodness she knew she'd find in it. Could she do that? Could she do that to Nick?

She looked at his face and the kindness that glowed out of it. No, she decided, of course she wouldn't do that to Nick. She loved him. What a mess she was in. She was more rattled by this headache and Alina's mystery killer than she thought. She was losing her grip.

She smiled at him and he kissed her, and she couldn't help herself. She slipped.

It was divine. Nick's soul was a million times deeper than fear, sweet in a way that revenge could never be, richer and fuller than hatred, more luscious than any horror she'd ever known. So this was what love tasted like. She couldn't stop herself. She drank and tugged hard at Nick's soul, pulling it into her.

Suddenly Nick stiffened in her arms. His body straightened out in a rictus of pain, he moaned low and frightened, and in her mind his soul suddenly screamed in fear.

The sudden taste of fear in her mouth was hideous. That old flavour she'd grown up with suddenly tasted like ash. What had she done?

She sprang away from Nick, letting both his mind and his soul fall back into his body.

'I'm sorry," she said, without thinking. "I'm sorry, babe. I was never going to hurt you. Are you okay?"

His body relaxed, and he sucked in a lungful of air, then curled onto his side like a baby. When he looked at her, it was with fear still in his eyes.

"What was that?" he said, his voice hoarse and low. And then a horrified realisation dawned in his eyes. "You're sorry? What does that mean... You did that?" He sucked in the air in big petrified gulps. His fear was physical, heaving at his chest. "What did you do?" He looked at her like he didn't know her. He looked at her like she was a monster.

Em hated herself.

She reached out a hand to touch his arm and he jerked his body away retreating to his side of the bed in a panic of movement.

She stretched out her mind again, letting her dark energy uncoil a little less subtly than before. She could clean this up, she thought. She jumped into people's minds all the time and rewired things to suit her. She could do it now. She could make Nick forget this.

He was rolling over to get away from her and swung his legs over the side of the bed. Her mental energy hit him like a wall and he stopped moving and sat staring at the window on the opposite side of the room.

Inside his mind she smoothed out some memories. She gathered up the fierce bundle of anger, fear and disgust that had formed at the front of his thoughts and gently massaged them until they subsided into confusion.

"Honey," she said softly, projecting all the calmness should could into her voice. "Everything's fine. Come back to bed."

She could feel his emotions beginning to yield, his mind beginning to listen to hers again. Now he was open to her once more she could rewrite the story the way she wanted it to go. His mind became easier to shape.

The tension went out of his back. His shoulders slumped and his breathing slowed. With a sigh he turned his head back to her and slowly laid back down on the bed.

She reached out to touch him, and with a few more mental nudges she made him want her again. He grabbed for her and began kissing her greedily, almost violently. She decided she didn't mind at all. She had him now.

She relaxed her hold on his mind just a little and stretched out in the bed, her arms above her head, her body rising to his heat.

She let go.

He kissed her for a moment longer and then she felt something snap back into place inside his mind.

Shit.

"Em," he said, his voice low with horror again. "What are you?"