Eliza Ford: Cause of Death: Unnatural

"So, what's a bit of paperwork?" said Nick slowly. He was looking at Robert with one eyebrow raised. "We do paperwork all the time. Paperwork for this, paperwork for that. We could do a little more, couldn't we, Robert?"

Robert was still staring at Em, but he had tilted his head toward Nick as he listened to him. There was the glimmer of a smile around the corners of his lips. It was a wry smile, Em noticed, but it was a start.

"My speciality, actually," said Robert. "Though I'm not entirely sure any paperwork would be needed in a situation like this."

"No paperwork?" asked Nick.

"Well, there's no body, is there? There's a fair amount of blood of course, but if Em..."

He glanced down at the blood and then meaningfully up at Em. She stared for a moment and then smiled broadly. With a whisper of dark energy the blood on the road was gone. So was the blood on Em's clothes.

"Oh, l must have been seeing things. There's no blood after all." Robert paused for a moment and then took a step closer to Em. "You have a bit of explaining to do Em, but maybe that can wait for a while. That was your friend over there, wasn't it?" He nodded toward Jennifer's body where it lay just outside the warehouse door.

Em felt a huge rush of emotion well up somewhere between her throat and the back of her eyes. Yes, Jennifer had been her friend. And Em was thoroughly ashamed of herself for underestimating Robert and Nick. They had both just shown themselves to be stronger and truer than she had imagined. This was the side of humanity Em found so difficult, but so desirable. Friendship and loyalty. She'd worked hard to earn both, trashed them in selfish moments of her own stupidity, and then somehow won them back again by revealing her true self. It made no sense to her. Humans! This was why she loved them. Perhaps she did have a home here after all.

Robert put a hand on her shoulder.

"Go home, Em. Get some rest. Let Nick and me do this. We'll talk about it all later." He paused. "If you want to."

Em nodded. Wonderful Robert, she thought, ever the gentleman. I don't deserve this.

"How did you find me?" she asked.

"You left your phone on in the lab," said Nick gently. "We traced your last call. When it pointed here we knew something was wrong."

"Thanks," said Em.

"Now go!" Robert ordered.

Em grinned, spun herself into smoke and laughed at the boys' expressions as she flew down the lane.

* * *

Jarek was waiting for her in the darkness above the city.

"You could come back with me, you know," he said with a tone that seemed to indicate he knew she wouldn't.

She didn't answer him. She took the black glass sphere out of a pocket of time and space and gave it to Jarek. "Have fun with that," she said. "When you find out where she came from, I want to know."

Jarek purred. "My pleasure," he said. "You'll be waiting for me when I return?"

Em laughed and threw a punch of energy at Jarek that sent him spinning backwards through the blackness. She laughed again as he recovered himself and sped back to her, encircling her completely in his energy, whirling her around then gripping her tight.

"We're meant for each other, Emilia," he growled. "You and me for eternity."

She shrugged. "Maybe." She smiled to soften the blow. "Now get out of here."

Note from the Author

Thanks for reading Cause of Death: Unnatural. I hope you enjoyed it!

About the Author

Eliza Ford lives in Sydney, Australia with her daughter and a cat called Kwazee.

With a gaggle of non-fiction books under her belt (under a different pen-name), this is Eliza's first foray into fiction since her high school days.

She's currently busy writing the next book in this series – Cause of Death: Supernatural. It's coming soon.

If you are interested in receiving emails when she releases new books, please sign up for her mailing list by visiting www.elizaford.com and leave a note on the 'contact' page.

Copyright 2013 – Eliza Ford

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.