S and Murder (Hannah Graves Spin-off One)

Four

Four:

Morbid was the world in which I stood above a murdered human who had only recently been a lover of mine. Something visceral inside me seemed to be shattering repeatedly, breaking me wide apart inside at the sight of her violently pain-wracked form.

“You thought I did this?!”

I flashed a look of twin emotions of rage and pain at Ren. He seemed somehow uncomfortable for the first time since I had known him. If I did not know him better, I might even believe he was experiencing shame or guilt.

There was clearly some level of internal reflection present in his expression. He was usually a master of masking his emotions behind layers and layers of masks. However, I could usually still feel people’s emotions or read their auras. While I might not be a telepath, like some high-powered girl who I have heard about—mainly the Shade, Hannah Graves. I can still feel impressions and read the subtle ebbs and flows of their aura.

Sara’s chakra was almost completely sundered from her body. A meta-physical attack so visceral and damaging, it left visible evidence of the deed. The air was foul with some pungent malice and the last agonizing seconds of Sara’s life.

Her once beautiful features were marred by an ashy color and her skin seemed almost as if it were charred in several areas.

I waved around her thankfully clothed midsection and said, “I usually feed during oral s*x. I suck out chi right when I taste them going into a full orgasm, to allow the human to believe they are merely experiencing brain-lag post-s*x. Whatever this is, it tore the chakras, and the chi from her chest, where it is most heavily anchored to the physical form with the expression energies that even humans are capable of.”

I explained to Ren, who seemed to be taking notes on his pad, making questions of some sort to himself it appeared. He appeared to be at a real loss, that was when I realized something about his perception.

“You cannot see the extent of the chakra damage superimposed over the body? I thought that was just a standard immortal thing.”

I said and he flashed something very dark for a moment, then he seemed still himself and think deeply about what he was going to disclose to me now.

“Almost nothing, besides your kind, and shades can see into the spectral realm, which is where the chakra and the life-force reside. All beings are of twin worlds combined intricately.”

Ren said, and I nodded in agreement, and I waved downward to Sara’s corpse and animated as I said, “Yes, which is why she died of shock, having all of her essence ripped from the spectral world, as you call it.”

Ren licked his pen tip and he scribbled some more notes, and I managed not to remind him he could merely type all of this into his holo handheld unit, which I knew he carried, but he probably wanted the physical copy, like every of dinosaur roaming the fields at his age.

“What can even cause such extensive chakra damage?”

Ren asked me, and my eyes widened, and I shook my head and my tone raised a few octaves in surprise at the question directed my way.

“Hey, I barely know half or less of what my people are capable of, but for the record, I don’t think this is even remotely normal or natural. The way the chakra was sundered from her, it is very crude, not something that is accustomed to removing life energy with any level of finesse. If I were to kill someone, they would be lulled to death in orgasm and bliss, as you have witnessed before.”

I explained in a very grim tone. It was hardly something I was proud of achieving. I had been younger, and I was completely over-the-line with my early teenage feeding patterns. I took too much, too often, and one of my humans died. If I live ten-thousand-years, I will always remember every single detail of his life.

Ren made a face that looked almost a touch concerned. He knew how much I hated to relive the details of that night. I had thought he was sent to kill me, not to clean up my crime. It was my greatest shame, and Ren had not only been present for it, he had been instrumental in ensuring it never came to light with the mortals. Like him or hate him, he had done me a solid, even if he now policed me like, well a murderess on the loose.

“Yes, I feel rather unsettled now, having been so quick to accuse you.”

Ren admitted, and my eyes felt almost like they were stretching the very limits of what was physically possible for a succubus as my shock was made manifest. He was not normally one to dull out apologies, even if veiled and unbidden.

“We need to go to the precinct and get the formal interview completed. I will do my best to steer my partner away from pursuing you as a suspect. Be warned, he is a good detective, even by my standards, and he has instincts that are very well in service of his deductive process.”

I hid the smirk forming on my face and I said, “You could have just said, ‘be careful, he is dogged.’ And I would have been gucci.”

My tone was pure smart-ass, and he rolled his eyes and seemed to appeal to whatever higher power dragons and Nix in general, prayed to in time of need.

“Just don’t do anything to further land us in the soup, kid.”

Ren said, warningly, and I huffed at him and gave him a mock-annoyed look.

“You know, we were vibing just now, for the first time ever, then you have to go and ruin it!”

He looked not at all unsettled by my annoyance or the loss of our momentary vibe. It anything, he seemed unsettled at the mere thought of being on the same wavelength as any woman, not his eternal-mate. Part of what I was fundamentally seemed to oppose his mental and cultural outlook on life.

“Is there anything else relevant that you're able to tell me involving her chakra or her death?”

Ren implored me and arched his brow quizzically and he waited in silence for my answer. I shrugged slightly and gestured back to her mid and said, “No one’s fed from her s****l chakra-point since me? Nothing else seems out of place, just the whole torn from her chest chakra death.”

I snapped my fingers and said, “Voodoo, that is what this reminds me of!”

Ren glared at me and said, “Magic and hexes do not exist, only expression and chi energies. What is called magic, is merely the human limitations of perception.”

I huffed and rolled my eyes at him and said, “I know! Hello, succubus here, I feed on it like every damn day!”

Here is the thing, humans think they can cast spells or make magic. The reality is that metaphysics is all regulated via the expressions of our power in practical application. We do not create magic, we shape and express powers, or alter perceptions, or bend chakras. Some beings can express flames, and create storms, but the way this is accomplished is through weaving the natural expressive powers with the alchemical and elemental natures available to the individual.

That is a very long-winded explanation for the act of expressing power, but the practical difference between our expression and the human concepts and failings about magic is very pointed. There is no magic, only power expressed, alchemy transmuted, distilled, and reconstituted to a new form. There are also those with kinetic abilities and telepathic abilities. These are all things our immortal races have evolved into over an exceptionally long period. Humanity is just extremely far behind us in terms of evolution.

I am certain there is a simpler explanation and I am failing to lay that out now.

“I just mean, like humans depict voodoo priest as ripping the life energy from the chest of someone they are angry with or have decided to kill. Or, if they are planning to resurrect them as a zombie.”

I explained, and Ren gave me an acrid look. Then I spread my hands wide and said, “Dude, you just need to go download the whole Mythica series, that will summarize some basic human concepts about necromancy and voodoo.”

Ren snorted and said, “That is utter nonsense! There is absolutely nothing of truth in those silly human creations of fiction! There has never been a single case of any known species resurrecting the dead! Necromancy is not a real art and it should remain on moving pictures alone, and far from our society.”

That awarded him a confused shrug and I said, “Whatever dude, I am just calling it as I see it. You should think a little more broadly. I mean, the simplest answer is most often the truth.”

I said, girl-splainin Occam’s razor for him.

“Then would you care to be my suspect once more?”

Ren challenged that assertion and I gave him a tolerant look, but there was true hostility beneath the surface, and my expression of energy rose and soared around us. I did not release the power on him, but Ren felt it hovering about me like a barely contained explosion of pure force, waiting for shape and whim to make them manifest and to cause him harm or utter destruction, depending on how much of my power I thrust at him as I shaped it into reality.

“Girl, calm yourself now.”

He warned me, and I glared up at him as we stood over my dead ex-girlfriend. I was about a micro-second from flipping my b***h-switch on him and going full cra-cra mode. He was invoking the succubus wrath constantly. Ren had this way of pissing me off in a tangent. He could make me mad, then re-anger me atop the previous anger already in play. This is not healthy, certainly! I am sure it is going to ruin my skin or something equally as bad!

“You ask for calm, and yet you are constantly pissing me off, Ren! Take me to the f*****g cop-shop, before I break off a foot in your hidey-hole!”

I instructed him, and he looked at me, almost shocked by the descriptive wording as much as the threat it only mildly veiled. After a moment more of stormy energies and shifting metaphysical powers, we both seemed to calm down enough to interact on a basic level. One day, I wondered if Ren was going to push me beyond the threshold. His alpha-male nature constantly threatened me, and I pushed back with what I felt to be measured force. This seemed to be a common occurrence around me, hence why the King of Hidden had decided it best for me not to reside in their city proper. I was allowed into the city all I wanted, just not to reside in it. Like part-time membership. All the suck with none of the perks.

I had to secure my own territory and fend for myself. Anything human or immortal could decide to attack me, and I would only have myself to protect what was mine. My world always felt as if on a knife’s edge, forever on the verge of collapse or assault. Everything was an unknown quantity to me, and a girl could be forgiven for becoming hyper-alert and defensive.

“The sooner we get there, the sooner we can finish and report our findings to the King.”

I deadpanned, “Sure, keen, God save the king!”

I said, allowing my faux-English accent to thicken and ripen to a more dated sound than it normally did. Usually, it was light and just slightly noticeable. Right now, I was making it majestically spectacle and prominent.