Free Cause of Death: Unnatural (The Cause of Death Series) by Eliza Ford Page A

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