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‘The detective. The partner of the cop Blake kidnapped.’

Morty snorted. ‘That’s always how it ends. The cops catch the scent, dig a little deeper, and the killer starts to make mistakes. He’s a fucking idiot for kidnapping a cop. He should’ve just accepted that his run was over.’

‘Seen a lot of serial killers, have you?’ Rhodes asked, half joking, half not.

Morty shrugged off the question, focusing his attention back on the gathering of living people milling about in front of us.

‘Okay, then,’ Rhodes trailed off, shifting to put me between him and my most surly boyfriend.

That seemed like the wrong word for what this was between us. Boyfriends were for the living, for those dating around with the intent to settle down and start a family. These three men surrounding me surpassed that. They meant more from the very beginning. Chance and I had been building towards this for so long, it was a wonder we hadn’t given in before now. Morty and I were kindred spirits, choosing one another because there really wasn’t any other choice. We were inevitable. And Rhodes? Fuck, he was just a ray of sunshine that balanced us out. With my thirst for vengeance, Morty’s obsessive tendencies, and Chance’s possessive overprotectiveness, we all needed someone likeRhodes. He rounded us out, turning us from a chaotic mishmash of lust and violence into something beautiful, something in tune. With him, we made sense. He was the reminder we needed that there was more to exist for once this was all over.

‘What can this detective do to help us?’ I asked, unsure where he was going with this.

‘We can head on over to the station and enlist his help, or something. Right?’

‘Um…’

‘I already did that,’ Morty stated, stunning me so much that I actually took a step back.

‘What?’

‘I was the one who left the note.’

‘No way. Really?’ Rhodes bounced excitedly on the tips of his toes. ‘That’s so cool! You’ll have to teach me how that works. I haven’t figured out how to not fall through things yet.’

‘You are not like us. You will have to find your own way,’ Morty told him so bluntly that Rhodes flinched like he’d been slapped.

‘What the fuck is that supposed to mean?’ he demanded, clearly hurt by Morty’s dismissal of him. In fact, I was about to lay into him myself, but then he explained.

‘You weren’t murdered. Your death was a natural consequence of your illness, and it was your time. Our deaths were abrupt, violent, and an act of betrayal. We were not meant to die, which is why we are stuck here in Limbo.’

‘Limbo,’ Chance repeated, the epiphany hitting us probably harder than it should have.

‘So… how am I here, if I’m not supposed to be?’ Rhodes asked, and it was a valid question that I wanted the answer to, as well.

‘I don’t know. By all rights, you should have passed on to a different realm, further away from the living,’ Morty answered,but he seemed to be getting bored with this line of questioning, because he stalked away to the other side of the room.

‘Well, damn. That just gave me more questions than answers,’ Rhodes mumbled with a pout.

I placed a hand on his arm in an attempt to comfort him, but he grabbed me and pulled me into yet another one of his bear hugs instead.

‘I don’t care why I’m here, because I’m here with you,’ he murmured softly against my hair.

‘I’m glad you’re here, too, Rhodes. I had hoped you would stick around.’

‘Like I could ever leave you. I was yours from the moment I first saw you,’ he said, and I melted into him, winding my arms around his trim waist to squeeze him back.

‘Let’s focus on what we do know,’ Chance said as he slung an arm over both of us, tugging us both into his side. ‘Blake needs to be taken care of, and Dakota needs to be removed somewhere safe so she doesn’t get caught in the crossfire. We can talk to the detective if we need backup from the living, and we can interact with the living realm now that our power has grown.’

‘How’d you grow it?’ Rhodes asked, ever curious.

‘By consuming the souls of the damned,’ Morty answered from across the room, and I snorted at his dramatic response.

‘Wait, really?’

‘Kind of, but it’s a little more complicated than that,’ I told him.

‘Okay. There’s a lot I need to figure out, apparently, but I’m here for it.’