"oh! oh!" he clutched his chest and i set my bag down, then gently pushed him aside. and if i hadn't seen it before, i would have screamed, too.

a body. reginald.

a loop of fabric was wrapped around his neck, pinching tight as he hung from the rafter. his head lolled forward as if he had just fallen asleep. but his eyes were open, bulging. they were already clouded and dull. his skin was mottled purple and he swayed an inch this way, an inch that way, his shoes scraping across the glossy finish of the cherry-wood table underneath him. each time his body moved, the rafter he was tied to groaned. the scrape of his feet and the groan of the rafter seemed like the only sounds in the entire world and i remembered, far before i was turned, my father sitting with me as a child while i held my grandmother's hand. she lay in bed, wilted, her body ravaged by sickness.

"she's gone now," my father said as his hand glided over her eyes.

i squeezed my grandmother's hand, unwilling to believe, even as sadness locked in my throat. "but how do you know?"

there had been no change in my grandmother from this moment to the last. not a final word, a sigh-not even a flicker of her soul as it passed through her body.

"the silence," my father said simply, standing. "it's dead silence."

that was what surrounded us now in reginald's apartment-dead silence, punctuated only by the scrape and groan.

and then the living came through.

"oh, reggie!" felipe slapped his hands to his cheeks and started to scream-a high-pitched, painful wail, tears welling and rolling over his manicured fingers.

"oh, god," i whispered.

"that's my fabric!" emerson's voice was a shrill knife cutting through felipe's anguish and my own astonishment as i tried to tear my eyes from reginald. emerson shoved me aside, pointing to the ragged-edge loops around reginald's neck. "that's why he stole my bolt?"

it actually was god-awful fabric, even for a suicide.

felipe heaved and began clawing at the table, his clawed hands going for reginald's pant legs as i tried to hold him back.

"emerson," i snapped, "forget about the fabric and call nine-one-one."

i held on to felipe and he crushed against me, finally giving up, crying silently. i could feel his warmth, the thud of his heart-and i couldn't look at reginald anymore. he wasn't just a dead breather. he had been loved.

emerson was on her cell phone; i could hear her voice, calm and rigid as she talked to the nine-one-one operator.

"suicide . . . hanging . . . already dead." she was shielding the phone with her hand, her back toward the body. she looked over her shoulder once or twice and mumbled into the phone.

"we have to get him down!" felipe sobbed, tearing away from me. "we can't just leave him there, hanging like that."

"no," i said, grabbing a handful of his shirt, yanking him backward. "we have to leave him, felipe. the police will handle this." back in san francisco, i had tried to pull my roommate away from enough csi marathons to be pretty familiar with police procedurals.

"we're going to call the police? but why?"

"they're already on their way," emerson said, waggling her cell phone as if that explained it all.

"holy fuck."

it could have been the slow motion of the whole situation but the two-word sentence sounded like a full monologue. my head snapped to where the deep voice was coming from. it was my direct intent to rip his throat out for interrupting this horrific moment, but when i saw him, the death scene in front of me faded into oblivion and my entire body went rigid, colder than normal, and on complete and utter i-want-to-eat-him-in-a-nonvampiric-way high alert.

he was handsome in that traffic-stopping kind of way, with brown-black hair that was just slightly shaggy and unkempt. the wave of his bangs licked over his eyebrows and framed chocolate-brown eyes that i would happily drown in. his skin was the most delicious shade of non-new york, non-vampire toasty brown, and, i happily noticed, he had the kind of body that made one think of greek gods or jungle men in loincloths. he had a tribal tattoo running down the length of his well-muscled arm and though i had never been interested in them before, i was suddenly, wholeheartedly pro-ink.

even from this distance, i could smell the salty, toasted coconut scent that wafted from his skin.

i was actually salivating.

though it almost physically hurt to tear my eyes from him i did-just for a millisecond-to glance at emerson. she had gone from open-mouthed stare to stone still, feet akimbo, hands on hips. her eyes were hard, narrow slits spitting dagger glares toward the man i intended to spend the rest of my afterlife with.

"what the hell are you doing here, pike?" she spat.

pike, pike! she knew his name! images of harp-strumming cherubs and vera wang floated in my mind while his name pinged around my head like the heavenly music it was. pi-i-i-i-i-i-k-e . . .

and then it stopped.

how did emerson hawk, of utter stink and stolen designs know my new beau, pike? which is actually kind of a stupid name (unless you're a fish, natch) but still, it should never have been able to come out of emerson's halitosis-filled mouth.

pike held up an expensive looking camera. "photo essay for the contest. but . . ."

emerson pointed. "reginald fairfield."

"i was supposed to shoot the three finalists."

emerson cocked out a hip, still pointing. "meet finalist number three. a photo shoot is not going to happen." her voice was remarkably unaffected and i cringed. maybe i wasn't the only one without a soul.

"is something going to be done about-"

but his deep voice was cut off by the wail of sirens and the marching band-like clatter of police officers as they thundered into the building. they spread out, corralling us as crime scene techs surrounded the body and studied the scene.

"we're going to need to clear the premises." the police officer didn't look at us as he said it, but no one dared challenge him. "but don't go far. we need to take statements."

emerson, felipe, pike, and i stumbled out into the hallway, keeping our distance from the flurry of activity flowing in and out of reginald's apartment. felipe was quiet, nose a heady red, cheeks chapped from the constant flow of tears. i patted his shoulder awkwardly. he sniffled and shook like a wet chihuahua.

"i'm really sorry, man," pike said slowly.

felipe continued to stare straight ahead, teeth chattering, but otherwise catatonic.

i heard pike suck in a sharp breath and jam his hands in his pockets. as a dead man was hanging not thirty feet away, i shouldn't have noticed the way that motion-hands in pockets-pulled pike's jeans just a little tighter over his ass, exposing his perfect, peach-shaped bottom, but i did.

i remembered the sweet, juicy taste of peaches and licked my lips, savoring the memory on my tongue.

then pike turned those mesmerizing cozy brown eyes of his on me. "i don't think we've met yet. you must be nina, right? i'm pike." he held a hand out-a big, wonderful hand that made me think of the old adage about big hands and feet-and i slipped my hand into his feeling dainty and demure-which was refreshing when i'm most often referred to as any variant of "soulless bloodsucker."

i brushed my long, black hair over one shoulder and pulled back my shoulders-or stuck out my breasts, depending on how you looked at it-and pasted on my most beguiling smile. i may be a little short in the soul/life department, but when it came to flirting, i was a star student and pike warmed to my gaze.

"yes, i'm nina lashay. and this," i said, touching felipe lightly on the shoulder. "this is felipe. he is-was . . ." i choked on the word and felipe's eyes went round and heart-breakingly big. "he was with reginald."

"dios mio!" felipe started again, huffing and tearing at his hair. "mi osito de peluche es muerte! muerte!"

one of the paramedics came toward us and snaked an arm around felipe, talking in a low, soothing voice and leading him away.

pike shook his head. "poor guy."

there was an uncomfortable pause and i briefly thought of googling "how to flirt at a murder scene." i decided to go with the tried and true.

"so you're-pike?" i could feel my eyebrows scrunching together unattractively and pike offered a small smile, his eyes completely transfixed on mine. it was like we were speaking our own incredibly sexy language.

i had every intention of making that language clothing optional.

"it's short for paikea."

well sure, that was better.

"it's maori, but i'm actually hawaiian."

i was thinking of my pike, greased up in suntan oil and smelling like coconuts.

"you have quite a strong grip, don't you?"

i snatched my hand back, embarrassed, wishing for once that i had an ounce of blood to wash a cute crimson blush across my cheeks. instead i just smiled demurely, glancing at my soulmate through lowered lashes.