Page 41 of Nightshades

A thunderous growl reverberates when she falls so far, I’m unable to see her through the onyx depths. Her scream fades, traveling so far down, her noise is muted.

I imagine Lula screaming for me like that, begging me to set her free, to let her live. Not that I would ever kill my mate, but perhaps she would like it if I tried.

The thought alone has me coming, my orgasm mixing with Fireopal’s blood.

Bones breaking, a body becoming demolished, has fear ceasing to exist.

Opening my eyes, I stare at the broken, bleeding body of Fireopal. Her neck is snapped, her brain scattered along the wall, and her blood drips from nearly every orifice.

My black come paints her shirt, and I frown, not liking that my come was wasted on someone who wasn’t my mate.

It wasn’t her that got me off, Lula. It was her fear.

I hope Lula understands.

“CPD!” is yelled through the front door.

Using Fireopal’s blood, I speed write a message for her.

She will know it’s from me.

Smirking at my destruction, I blur out of the window.

Lula-lala-la-la-laaa.

“Feels good to be out in the field again, doesn’t it?” Jake asks as I stand in the only taxidermist shop in town.

I pat my badge proudly. I know it’s only been a day, but being cooped up in the house always puts me on edge. It felt more like a month. “It does. Thanks for believing that I had nothing to do with that man’s death. Did they ever figure out what was wrong with my blood?”

“No. It didn’t even show up in testing.”

Then, I’m not going to worry about it.

I walk around the body, wondering what the hell happened to him. “This is disgusting. Do we know the cause of death?”

“You’re looking at it.” A woman’s voice comes from behind me.

I spin around to see a woman I’ve never met before. She has short, brown hair and big glasses that take up the majority of her face.

“I’m Devi. Forensic Pathologist.” She grabs the tweezers, collecting evidence from the body.

“I’m not following, Devi.”

“He was killed by flesh-eating beetles. I don’t know where the beetles are. It was like the murderer collected them all, but that would take hours, and by how warm the body still is, that’s impossible. This is recent.”

“But how?” I ask more to myself than anyone else.

“That’s for you to figure out. I’m only here for the cause of death. See these tiny markings along his body? His organs?” She points with tweezers, showing me how the beetles took small bites out of him. “This wasn’t instant, but the cause of death was when the beetles bit into his aorta. He bled to death. Horrible way to go.” She clicks her tongue as if this is just another day at the office.

“And no beetles were found on his body?”

“Not a one, but I only know one kind of beetle that can do this. It’s the flesh-eating beetle. A taxidermist would have access to insects like that to help him clean bones if needed.”

I inspect the shelves, a light layer of dust sticking to the wood. He only replaced the boxes from the looks of the dust gathering between them. The shelves line the entire wall, and by the tags on the side of the box, this is where the insects were.

My brow lifts when I see an empty space. “Hey, Sheriff?”

Jake turns around, hands hooked on his belt buckle. “Detective.”