Eliza Ford - Cause of Death - Unnatural

"No one?" said Em. "Not even Alina?"

"No one," said Jarek, sighing suddenly and leaning back in the chair again. "In fact, there wasn't even the scent of anyone, other than humans, of course. And you say this 'bigger fish' you think is out there is not human? Not Family?"

"Of course it's not human. And it's definitely not Family. I'd know if it were Family," said Em.

"Yes." Jarek seemed to be considering the problem. "So what is it?"

Em ran a hand through her hair in exasperation. "I don't know, Jarek." She was aware she was wailing slightly. This problem, and the headaches that went with it, had been bugging her for too long. She wasn't used to this level of helplessness. "Don't you feel it?" she asked. "I've had the same headache for weeks now. It just doesn't go away. And I'm sure it's connected."

Jarek frowned.

"I don't feel it, Em," he said. His voice sounded flat, but his eyes glittered at her. He didn't believe her.

"It's real, Jarek. And it's ... strong." Em wondered how much to say. "I think it's pretty powerful, I mean, if you can't feel it..."

Jarek let out an explosive breath and turned his face to one side. The scar on his cheek pulsed as he clenched his jaw. "Well, it must be a human thing then," he said derisively. He sneered. "My energy is pure, yours is mingled with the human blood of your filthy whoring human mother. Maybe you can only feel it because you're weak, a halfling, tainted..."

Em unleashed a burst of energy that picked up Jarek's human body and the chair he was sitting on and threw them both against the wall. Jarek didn't even have time to assemble his thoughts and spin his body into smoke. His head connected with the corner of the door frame and split crazily spilling dark energy into the room in a messy cascade of black mist, stars and swirling nebulae. As he recovered from the shock of the attack and collected his thoughts, Em spun into smoke and flew across the room to engulf him in her fury.

Not even caring, or even noticing, the barriers he'd suddenly erected around his own mind she pushed through his defences and howled inside his very being.

"How dare you?" she screamed. "How dare you?"

She gathered up every tendril of the headache that had been plaguing her for weeks and bundled it into a tightly wound ball of energy. Then she pushed it with all her strength into the deepest part of Jarek's being that she could reach. And when it was there, she kicked it.

"A human thing, is it?" she spat. "Is that human, Jarek? Is it?"

Jarek was barely holding on to his human form. He'd tried to spin out into dark energy to avoid the worst of Em's attack, but she'd held him in the material dimension. His form was splitting and cracking and dark boiling tempests of blackness were spilling out of him, laced with stars, crackling with electricity. He threw his head back and choked out a cry as his human form screamed in pain and his vampire self howled in outrage at being overpowered.

"Is this filthy tainted human hurting you, Jarek? Am I, Jarek?" Em's being seethed through a handful of dimensions at once, and coiled around the writhing man contorted on the floor of her lounge room.

She pulled her human form back together and stood before him. He wrapped his arms around his head and knelt at her feet.

She let him go. Her anger faded as quickly as it had arisen. She pulled the pain out of his being and drew back entirely. She sighed. And watched him.

Jarek staggered to his feet. In a blink his form was perfect again. His ripped silk shirt was repaired, the rents in his skin were healed, the chair was back in its place in the middle of the room. His chest rose and fell as he sucked in air and his black eyes regarded her coldly as she walked back around the coffee table to sit again in the sofa.

She picked up her bowl of pasta, refilled her wine glass and went back to her dinner.

Jarek slowly returned to his seat.

"There is no one in all of creation that I would tolerate that sort of treatment from but you, Emilia," he said darkly.

Em sniffed. "I don't think 'tolerate' is the right word," she said. "You didn't 'tolerate' that. You suffered it, because you had no choice but to endure it. And that is because you don't have the power to stop me." She picked up her wine glass and held it with her lips just brushing the glass. "You know that, lover."

Jarek stared a few moments longer, and then smiled.

"Come home with me, Emilia," he said. "You and I are meant to be together. We are powerful, ruthless, lethal together." His eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. His voice was deep and seductive. "We are perfect..."

"I know," said Em, simply. "And I miss that, Jarek, I really do. But I'm here now. And I like it."

"But..."

"And that's it, Jarek. That's it."

They stared at each other. Em found she was the first to drop her gaze. She was tired.

"Do you want some wine?" she said, standing up to grab another glass from the kitchen. "And I have chocolate...?"

Jarek followed her into the kitchen and took the glass from her hand. He laid it on the counter and stepped close to Em until they were almost touching. With a finger, he brushed a strand of hair from her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. His eyes travelled over her face, and the finger traced a line down her cheek, his thumb brushing the corner of her mouth, the rest of his hand curling around her neck. His other arm reached around her waist and pulled her into him.

He sighed, and she rested her head on his chest while his hand stroked her hair.

"If you ever change your mind," he said.

They stood there in silence for a long moment. Em felt the coldness of his body, the lack of heartbeat in his chest. She thought about Nick.

"It wasn't human, was it?" she asked.

"No," said Jarek. "You were right. But I ..."

In her handbag on the counter, Em's cell phone rang. Neither of them moved for a moment and then Em dragged herself out of Jarek's embrace.

"I have to get that," she muttered, allowing her hair to fall across her face again, not wanting to meet his eyes.

It was Nick.

"What's up?" she said. "It's late. You're not still at the office are you?"

"I was thinking about what that dealer said." Nick sounded wired. He usually got this way when he thought he'd cracked something - when a case started coming together. Em felt the little flutter of excitement she usually got in the middle of her chest when this happened. Nick's enthusiasm was infectious.

"This warehouse with a history he was going on about," he went on, talking at top speed. "I was googling stuff about... Forget it, doesn't matter. And then I realized I was being too literal about it. He didn't mean ancient history, just a history . So I hit the crime maps, and the one place kept coming up. It's a pretty random history - all sorts of jobs there over the last couple of decades, almost like the place has some kind of criminal attracting vibe..."

"Nick," Em broke in. "What are you talking about?"

"I think I've found it. The warehouse. Well, I've found something we should look at. Shit, I've been drinking coffee out of that crummy machine for hours. Em, do you want to go and check it out?"

He sounded so eager. Like a puppy with a stick.

Em looked at Jarek. He had a resigned expression on his face. He shrugged.

"Yeah, I've got time," she said into the phone. "Meet you at the lab?"

Em made Nick stop for pizza before they headed off to the warehouse. She knew what that coffee machine in the office was capable of, and if Nick hadn't eaten he'd be strung out for hours.

She also knew, thanks to Jarek's little re-con mission, that they were unlikely to find anything usable at the warehouse, even if Nick had found the right one. If she thought about it, she had to admit she'd chosen to come along on Nick's little adventure at such a crazy hour of the night because she wanted his company.