“Yer right, Peach. This is weird,” Darcy agrees.
26
Darcy opens his mouth and breathes in loudly, tasting the air. He smacks his lips, considering whatever he’s tasting. I don’t smell anything, and the room we’re in isn’t exactly a clean room. It’s Stalker Steve’s bedroom, and the sheets on it still have the same cumstains that they had the last time we had sex on that bed.
“Gross.”
“What?” Darcy asks, following my gaze.
“He hasn’t washed his sheets since the last time we had sex on that bed,” I explain, pointing to the cumstains.
“How do you know they’re yours?” he asks, leaning over to smell the sheets. “They are, but how do you know?”
“I stared at them for an hour while he yelled at me when I broke up with him.” I watched them dry while he yelled at me. It was annoying, but, “He needed to get his big emotions out, and I didn’t mind letting him vent since I was breaking up with him out of nowhere. I thought sex would help make it less of a blow, but I think I timed it wrong. Anyway, dude hasn’t washed his sheets since then. That’s a pretty bad sign.”
Darcy looks back at the guy with his chest cavity open. “There’s a lot of bad signs in here. I’m not getting anythingfrom him. The stasis magic keeping his insides inside him is preventing me from getting any scent off him. There isn’t even a signature on the spell for me to track, which is annoying, but not impossible to get around.” He’s just thinking out loud, really.
“Are we going to find out what happened to him?” I ask, wondering if that’s something we do. I mean, the dude has already been something like eviscerated, so there’s not a lot we can do about him wrecking my apartment.
Darcy eyes me. “Do you want the person who thought it was ok to do this out there walking around free?”
I laugh at my man. “You killed my neighbor with one punch for threatening me. I don’t think I’m the person we want making decisions about whether we pursue murderers.”
Darcy’s phone chimes, and mine follows suit the next moment, but it just vibrates in my pocket.
I pull it out to a message from Romily.
Romily:Where are you? (Bellamy is worried.)
Bellamy:I’m not.
Me:My ex’s house. He’s dead.
Romily:Woah. How are his organs still inside him?
Me:According to Darcy: stasis spell.
Romily:Weird way to kill a guy.
Me:He was like that when we found him.
Darcy:We’re going to go find out who did this to him. Anyone want to join?
Bellamy:Bring me over.
Darcy smiles at Bellamy’s offer.
Darcy:Sure, Red.
Bellamy:I don’t think I can let you call me that anymore.
Darcy:I can’t promise not to, since I’ve been calling you that for a decade, but I will try.
I reach over and rub his back, leaning down to kiss his cheek. “You’re a good man.”
He snorts. “Neutral at best. But I’m loyal to Bellamy.”
Romily:Keep us updated.
