The Caribbean sun baked the sand into a white glare, sending shimmering heat waves dancing over the turquoise surf. Aedes landed on a broad, waxy monstera leaf, his iridescent wings humming a low, hungry frequency. He spotted her then—Culex, her slender abdomen pulsing with a faint, translucent glow.

"You have the scent of a thousand sweet blossoms and a hint of salt," Aedes buzzed, his voice a raspy vibration.

Culex turned, her multifaceted eyes reflecting the jungle canopy. "And you smell like a rogue who has spent too much time in the shadows of a dive bar."

"I have a taste for the finer things," he replied, sliding closer until their spindly legs brushed. "And right now, you are the only thing on the menu."

"Talk is cheap, Aedes. Can you actually keep up with me?"

"Try me."

He lunged, pinning her against the vein of the leaf. His mouthparts didn't seek blood; they sought her skin. He tasted the musk of her thorax, his tongue flickering against her spiracles. Culex let out a sharp, clicking sound, her wings fluttering in a frantic rhythm of desire.

"Take me," she whispered. "Right here, before the wind shifts."

Aedes didn't hesitate. He shifted his weight, his hard, chitinous cock sliding out from its sheath. It was thick and glistening with a bead of clear pre-cum that caught the sunlight. He nudged her legs aside, exposing the wet, swollen lips of her pussy. She was already dripping, a thick, translucent lubricant coating her clit.

"You're so wet for me," Aedes groaned.

"Just shut up and fill me," she hissed.

He thrust forward. The sound was a wet, heavy squelch as his cock buried itself deep inside her. Culex arched her back, her wings humming a high-pitched scream of pleasure. He began to pump, his hips slamming against her with a rhythmic, slapping sound. The friction created a loud shlicking noise, the sound of flesh sliding against saturated membranes.

"God, you're tight," Aedes gasped, his balls slapping against her thighs with every violent plunge.

"Harder," she pleaded, her legs wrapping around his waist, pulling him deeper. "I want to feel you hit my cervix."

He obeyed, driving himself in with a brutal force that pushed the air out of her orifices in short, sharp puffs. He could feel the heat radiating from her, the smell of pheromones and musk filling the humid air. He focused on the sensation of her clit rubbing against his pelvic bone, the wetness overflowing and dripping onto the green leaf below.

"I'm going to cum," she cried, her body shaking. "I'm cumming, Aedes!"

Her walls clamped down on him in a series of rhythmic spasms. Aedes let out a guttural roar, his own climax hitting him like a wave. He thrust one last time, burying himself to the hilt, and unloaded a hot, thick stream of seed deep inside her. They stayed locked together, panting, the only sound the distant crash of waves and the slow drip of fluids from the leaf.

"That was almost enough to make me forget I'm starving," Culex whispered, licking a stray drop of sweat from his chest.

Aedes pulled away with a wet pop, his cock sliding out of her glistening pussy. "I can't stay. I found a vein of gold—a tourist with blood like syrup, sleeping soundly in a hammock by the shore. I'm going to gather a stash and bring it back for us. We can feast together."

"Don't take too long," she said, her voice softening. "The predators are out."

"I'll be back before the sun dips," he promised, kissing her one last time.

Aedes took flight, his wings a blur of motion as he zipped toward the beachfront. He saw the target—a pale, fleshy neck exposed to the air. He descended, landing with surgical precision. He plunged his proboscis deep, feeling the rush of warm, rich blood filling his abdomen. He was nearly full, his body heavy and sluggish with the prize.

Then, the world shifted.

A shadow loomed. A massive, fleshy palm descended with the speed of a falling mountain.

Smack.

The sound echoed through the palms.

Culex waited. The sun touched the horizon, painting the sky in bruised purples and bleeding oranges. She flew toward the hammock, her heart hammering against her ribs.

She found him on the white-washed wall of the bungalow. Aedes was no longer a creature of flight and desire. He was a flattened, jagged smear of grey and crimson, his iridescent wings torn into useless shreds. A single, crushed leg twitched once and then went still.

"Aedes?" she whispered, landing beside the red stain.

There was no answer. She pressed her head against his cold, broken thorax, the smell of his blood mixing with the salt of the sea. She stayed there long after the stars came out, a small, grey ghost mourning a love that had lasted only an hour.