Eliza Ford: Cause of Death: Unnatural

Raeisa was standing in front of her now, a look of triumph on her face, her hand raised, claws outstretched. This was it, thought Em.

Em drew in every atom of strength she possessed and threw the tightly wound ball of Jennifer's pain at Raeisa. She staggered as it left her. She stumbled forward, held out a hand to catch herself and with the other hand still clamped to her forehead could only hope that it had worked.

Above her Raeisa groaned, and a second later the pain in Em's head flickered out like a candle.

Em's eyes snapped open. It was like drinking in pure oxygen, ice cold water flowing through her veins, white hot power cursing up her spine. Instantly, Em's dark energy pulsed out like an explosion and sucked in power from every solid thing around her. Utterly recharged and rippling with energy, Em grinned.

Slowly, Em stood up straight and raised her eyes to meet Raeisa's.

The lizard girl stared back for a moment, her green eyes still defiant. Then way, way too late, Raeisa read the dangerous message written in Em's eyes. Her face changed as is someone had slapped her. The smugness fell away and was replaced by an empty kind of horror. She whimpered.

"Bites, doesn't it?" said Em, softly.

The girl took a few steps backwards, panic beginning to build in her body. She stumbled, her hands flapped at her sides, her head shook from side to side as if she didn't want to believe what she was seeing.

"Run," breathed Em.

Raeisa lunged away from Em in terror, but Em slipped into dark matter and encircled the lizard girl in exactly the same moment. It was like squashing a bug, thought Em, as she wrapped her dark energy tighter and tighter around the squealing girl.

Part of Em watched Raeisa's struggles dispassionately. She intensified the layer of dark energy around the lizard girl, pushing all the fear and pain she could into the net that entrapped her. Raeisa was howling, spinning and twisting in agonized horror, her own supernatural energy beginning to glow under the torture that Em was forcing on her. Em dragged her energy deep into Raeisa's being and ripped and tore her way through to the girl's core. There was her soul at last, an ugly black thing pulsing at the center of Raeisa's existence. Em gathered her power and sharpened it ready to attack. She wanted Raeisa to feel every single one of the gashes that had rent her friend Jennifer's body.

Jennifer.

Suddenly Em stopped. She looked at the being that twisted in pain in front of her, and she looked at the body of her friend lying in the damp blackness of the road.

Em sighed, then snorted wryly. Look what you've done to me, Jennifer, she thought. You, and Nick, and Robert. Humans, in general. What am I doing? I'm a monster.

In a moment, all the lethal, vicious revenge dissolved inside Em. Sure, the hatred was still there, and she was still going to waste this psychopathic lizard hybrid in front of her, but the fun suddenly went out of it. Em realized she was tired. Tired of all the death she'd seen lately, all the pointless, stupid deaths. She'd been dealing in death for nearly a thousand years, and it had taken a bunch of mortal human friends to teach her that life was more important. More ... enjoyable. More ... meaningful.

Did that make her human? Em wondered. Is this what my mother felt? Is this why her father had loved her human mother? Is this why Em was even alive in the first place? Em stopped at that thought. That was way too much to deal with right now. But the thought warmed her. I'm becoming more human, she thought. I like it.

Em dropped Raeisa onto the road, reached into her chest and pulled her heart out.

Em watched Raeisa's blood ooze slowly down the road tracing a crack in the old bitumen. She drew in a long, slow breath, shut her eyes and tilted her head back. Raeisa's life force, or what passed for her soul, was still hanging around her flesh. Em's dark energy sniffed at it. It really was as hideous as Raeisa had been in life. She thought about devouring it, and then found she couldn't. She didn't eat junk food.

She had a better idea.

Em spread out a net of dark energy, a web of black smoke and snagged the monster's soul as it tried to pass. Raeisa's essence rippled and fought against the net, but Em hauled it tighter and tighter until the thrashing soul was compacted down to a sphere about the size of Em's fist.

Em held out her hand and the soul sphere dropped into it. Green and silver streaks of color swirled around inside it. There was a malevolence about it still, but Em frowned at it and the sphere hardened into a shining ball of black glass.

She tossed it once into the air and caught it lightly. She'd give it to Jarek. Let him take it home to the Family and see what they made of it. Let Jarek prize the soul back out again and tease Raeisa's secrets from her. Perhaps she'd give away her masters then. Em knew Jarek and her father could be very persuasive.

Footsteps suddenly echoed further up the alleyway. Em sent out a flicker of energy to see who was coming, then sighed and began drawing in the rest of her dark matter.

Robert and Nick both exploded around the corner of the alleyway, and skidded to a stop a few meters from Em. Both men had worn expressions of intense concern on their faces as they turned the corner, but Em found herself almost amused by the speed at which those expressions spun through concern, confusion, alarm, surprise, disbelief and bewilderment as they took in Em and the body on the ground in front of her.

She smiled at them. "Hi boys," she said lightly. She knew she was still trailing bits of dark energy, and she knew she was covered in blood, but what did that matter when there was a dead lizard-woman at her feet?

Nick's eyes were flicking from Raeisa to Em and back down again, the frown on his face growing deeper and deeper.

"You're covered in blood," he said.

"Yeah. I know."

"What happened?"

"I stopped the killer," Em said simply.

Nick's eyes went back down to the lizard at her feet, and she saw his face crumple as his mind tried to accept what he saw there. Poor Nick. This was a long way from his comfort zone, further even than his girlfriend trying to drink his soul. It had been a rough few days for Nick. She kind of felt sorry for him.

She turned her eyes to Robert. For some reason Em found she was worried about what Robert might think. He'd managed to get his expressions under control, and was looking at Em carefully, studying her face, his eyes moving out to gaze at the air beside her head.

"You're ... bleeding," he said, gesturing at the side of Em's head, though his eyes were focused on something in the space next to her face.

"No, I'm not," said Em. "All this blood is from her." She nudged the body with her toe.

"I don't mean blood," Robert said, pointing again. "You're ... leaking."

Em put a hand up to the side of her face and realized she'd been scratched. Not her physical body, but her dark matter had been ripped. She could feel it now - a rent in her matter and form that she hadn't noticed in the heat of the fight. She smothered a sudden giggle. The gash in the side of her face was probably spilling black smoke and the stars and darkness of the void. No wonder the two men looked so freaked out.

Her hand cupped the side of her face and healed the wound. When she pulled her hand down the gash was gone. She saw the surprise in both men’s expressions.

'It's fine," she said.

Robert took a step toward Raeisa. He was bending down as he moved. Em could tell he was busting to examine the creature and smiled to herself.

"No," she said, quietly. "Sorry Robert." And with another nudge of her toe she disintegrated Raeisa's body and scattered her atoms with a little kick. "Can you imagine the paperwork?" she said.

Neither man returned her smile. Em sighed. She didn't want to leave this little life she'd made for herself, she'd been so comfortable here, but this was looking like a total disaster. Even if she hadn't thoroughly offended both men this week, this scene was likely to make them both run screaming. She ran a hand through her hair and began gathering her energy. She'd have to re-write a few things in their minds...