Page 106 of Death is My BFF

My fingers lifted to my lips, tracing the memory of our hot and heavy moment. I couldn’t believe I’d letDeathhimself have my first smacker. Not that I was complaining—the kiss was not to be forgotten. He’d known exactly what he was doing, and he’d done it exceptionally well.

Jerk.

For the second time in the same day, I’d unleashed an unexplainable force from my hands. The two-hundred-and-forty-pound shredded Jerkules had been knocked flat on his back by whatever shot out of my hands.

Who the hell am I? WHAT am I?Could I really be this prophesized entity who would start wars, just like Ace had predicted?

Skittles purred as she rubbed her fur against my bed curtain, drawing my attention to the magazines featuring David and “Mystery Girl” that my mother had bought at the airport. They were stacked chaotically under my bed, and when I slid one out, the glossy image of David Star’s brown eyes unsettled me. They now appeared lifeless, empty, merely a mask concealing the monster behind them.

Death posed as a celebrity seemingly for sport, slipped on a façade so everyone worshiped him. It was irredeemably evil. How did he reap the souls of the dead while being David anyway? Did he have help? There was no way one person could collect all those souls at once.

I gulped a breath.Couldhe be in multiple places at once? The last thing I needed to worry about was twenty thousand Deaths wandering around the planet. I already had enough trouble sleeping at the thought of one of him.

Another idea presented itself as I riffled through the pages of a second magazine. If David Star was Death himself, then what was the D&S Tower? Who the hell was Devin Star? My skin tingled as I reached a page of David and Devin posed together. Gorgeous, the picturesque duo that all of New York and beyond was obsessed with, but now that I knew the truth about David, it was clear all aspects of the Star family were fabricated. I sat back on the floor, shining the beam of light from the flashlight onto Devin Star.

I recalled my first encounter with Devin. He was charming, and so handsome it was almost agonizing to look at him. My thumb crept onto the magazine page and covered thenin his name.Devi.

I slid my thumb away from the page, horror spreading through me, as I filled in the missing letter with another.Devil. I shook my head, voicing my denial with a repeated “No.”

“There’s no way I got in a car accident with the Devil,” I said, and laughed, since talking to myself had become the norm. “I mean, come on.”

Devin is my boss, and my mentor, David had told me outside of Manuel’s taco shack.He showed me the ropes when I was a rookie.

I quickly shoved the magazines back under the bed. How could I have been so blind? Death and the Devil controlled the D&S

Tower. I already rode one yellow bus to hell my first three years of high school. Now I would be riding a one-way train to Satan’sactualeverlasting torture chamber.

Sighing, I climbed to my feet to make a chamomile tea. When I stood up, my vision swam with dizziness. I fell back, thankfully against my mattress. Having almost fainted, I yanked myself up onto the bed and gripped the comforter in dazed confusion. My mind raced, but my heart slowed. Something wasn’t right.

When I got my wisdom teeth removed, they drugged me and counted back from ten as I drifted into oblivion. I hadn’t been able control the plunge, and this felt the same way. A mighty wave of fatigue sucked every last ounce of energy from me, and my eyes fluttered shut.

The nightmares began a few weeks before I met Death at Thomas’s house. Fragments of the same vague images would terrorize me all night long. Just before I’d wake up, a massive shadow would always approach me, and I’d be unable to move. These night terrors had gotten stronger since meeting Death, until I discovered he was the shadow all along.

Now the same paralyzing sensation of the nightmare overcame my body, but the dream itself was altered. This time, I was in the alleyway near the D&S Tower. The figure approaching me was not Death.

“Hello, Faith,” the Raven demigod rasped in his bone-chilling voice. “We meet again.”

The last time I’d seen Malphas, he’d taken Thomas with him on Main Street. He’d also died in Death’s Roman gladiator memory.

I should have been afraid. Here, I didn’t feel much of anything.

“Why am I here? I was asleep.”

“And in sleep you remain. This is called a demonic projection.

I thought perhaps you’d feel more comfortable if we met alone, on your terms. If you want to leave, all you have to do is wake up.”

I felt torn between two decisions. One part of me desperately wanted to say,Later, ho,and make haste like the Road Runner—whereas the other part of me just couldn’t leave.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“To help you.”

“Uh-huh . . . ” Looking Malphas directly in the eyes felt like a dare to touch the tip of a scorpion’s tail. “Haven’t really been getting that vibe from you. You know, when one of your helpers slashed my arm in the alleyway and I almost died? Or when you kidnapped and murdered Thomas?”

“It was never my intention to harm you, Faith.” Malphas leaned against the shadowy wall beside him and put his hands in his pockets—the only human mannerism I’d seen from him. I wondered how old he was. Visually, he looked to be in his early thirties. There was a distinct lilt to his voice, too, which resembled Death’s untraceable accent. It even made my blood run cold in a similar way. “My subordinates were severely punished for what they did to you outside the D&S Tower. As for your friend Thomas, I can assure you he is not dead.”

My heart skipped a beat. “Prove it.”

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