Page 72 of Haunted By the Shadow of Death

The shifter smiled and then disappeared. Then my view was suddenly blocked by Death standing over me.

“I’ve been calling and calling you. Why didn’t you come?” My words were laced with hard accusations, proving just how desperate I was. No one would speak to something such as her like that if they were in their right mind. I wasn’t. I’d slipped into panic and desperation last night, and there was no coming back from it. I’d seen too much death in too short a time, and to see Kicks like this now was breaking me inside. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be the same. He was the rock, the mountain that shifted gravity around him. From the moment I’d met him, he’d oozed life and vitality, pumping it out around him. Death hadn’t seemed possible. Not for him. He wasn’t supposed to die. He was supposed to be the last man standing.

“No human commands me.” It wasn’t a set-down. I didn’t think she cared enough.

“You’re not taking him.” He was dying. Was that why she was here? To collect his soul? Because it wasn’t going to happen. I’d fight Death herself if that was what needed to be done. His soul was staying right here with me.

I leaned forward, sheltering him from her view and making it beyond obvious that she couldn’t have him. He was mine.

She stared down at him and then back to me, seeming bored. “You think you could stop me?”

The idea had flickered in my mind for a second. That I wanted him to survive enough that I could save him from even Death herself. I hadn’t been able to save my mother, and Charlie had been saved by a minor miracle that was none of my doing.

She continued to stare at him. “He’s nearly dead.”

My grip on him grew tighter, as if I could physically keep his soul here with me.

Suddenly it all clicked. She’d told me one day I’d beg her. I was ready.

“You knew this was going to happen,” I said.

“Yes.”

“Can you save him?”

Death walked over, staring down at him.“I could.”

She smiled, and it stopped my heart. Kicks hadn’t wanted this. But it didn’t matter. I couldn’t let him go. I couldn’t live with his death.

“You want your vengeance? You want me to do your bidding? Fine. You save him and get us out of here and I’ll do whatever you want. But you don’t get to take him. He’s mine. No one takes him. Ever.”

“I can live with this bargain. Can you?”

“I just said as much. Do. It.”

I didn’t care what the cost was. He was slipping away from me. There was no price too high. Even if doing this meant he’d no longer want me, I didn’t care. He’d be alive, even if it was with someone else. But in order for me to go on living, I needed to know he was breathing, laughing, loving.

“Just know, the cost for cheating me is steep,” she said. “You make the deal and you live by it.”

I wanted to rage at her and tell her to go fuck herself, but I couldn’t. Not until I was sure Kicks was safe, and probably not then either.

“I said do it.” I didn’t recognize my voice as I ordered Death to do my bidding. I wasn’t sure what the bargain I’d struck truly entailed, and I didn’t care. I was becoming someone I didn’t recognize, but it no longer scared me. I was becoming someone who would survive, and make sure those she cared about continued on, and that would be enough. It was more than enough.

She didn’t touch him or kneel beside him. All she did was take a few steps toward him, and I could feel his heartbeat strengthening in my hold. He gasped, and his breathing grew stronger.

“He’ll live,” she said.

“You promised to get us out of here.”

“I don’t need to be reminded of my part of the bargain.”

A stairway made of nothing but black shadows appeared beside me. Kicks was much larger than me, but I’d get him out of here if I had to drag him the entire way. I didn’t want Death laying even so much as a pinky upon him.

“We’re getting out of here, so you hang on. You hear me? We’re getting out,” I said.

Kicks didn’t respond. His eyelids weren’t even flickering.

I grabbed an arm in each hand, laying his body against my back, and he felt nearly weightless in my arms. Death was somehow taking some of his weight as I climbed the stairs that would lead us out of this hell.

---