Page 53 of Death is My BFF

“Oh, but she does.” The demon’s mouth twisted into a malicious grin and Death gripped me so hard I thought he was going to crack a rib. “You’ve never brought a mortal back to life. Did you think nobody would notice?”

“Stay away from the girl.” Death’s scythe blazed down the staff, glowing with symbols and patterns. Lightning zigzagged across the sky, trailed by an earsplitting clap of thunder.

“It’s too late now,” Malphas said. “What are you waiting for? Go on, boy! Run off and play nurse to your pet. Once that venom gets to her heart, you know the effects will be impossible to reverse.”

The raven demon vanished. Bullets of rain poured down for one final assault and aggravated the lacerations along my forearm. I wilted into unconsciousness, succumbing to the storm.

X

Water dripped down my face as I came to. I blinked past a thick haze, a headache stabbing at my temples. Moving in slow motion my brain struggled to register what my eyes captured. Shadows fell from crates and packing materials stacked all the way up to an immense factory ceiling with glass windows painted black to block out the light.

Wind echoed through the cavernous space, hitting my bare skin like ice.

A dark mass shifted to my right, and I flinched, breathing raggedly. I was tied to a workbench, my arms and legs strapped tight with rope. My head was a boulder as I lifted it up. Blood. There was blood all over me, streaking my jersey. Bile climbed up my throat at the sight of my right forearm, the gruesome aftermath of a shark bite, torn muscle and bone sticking out. The sweatpants David had given me were absent, exposing the cheeky lilac panties I’d worn underneath. My right leg was mauled by two deep slashes. Panic drove me into a frenzy, and I tugged at the restraints, releasing a cry.

Two massive hands pressed my shoulders back down.

“I wouldn’t move if I were you.” Death’s hooded head bent over me. Nothing could hide the pure wrath in his voice. He was pissed.

“You’ve been poisoned. I slowed it temporarily from entering your heart, but you won’t last much longer if you flail around. I have to remove the rest of the venom.” He stuffed a wad of cloth between my lips. “This will hurt. Stay awake.”

His head lowered over the wound on my arm. Horrified, I understood what was next and let out a strangled scream against the gag. His teeth were like razor blades piercing into my skin as his hot mouth clamped down onto my flesh. Breathing raggedly through my nose, I tried to sit up, but his powerful arm splayed across my chest and gripped the edge of the table. He drank hard and fast.

The pain throughout my body was indescribable, knives picking me apart. I longed for it to end, begged to be put out of my misery as the torment peaked and unleashed its fury.

Something warm and wet ran across my wound. His tongue.

The pain that demanded to be felt faded to a dull ache. Through half-opened eyes, I watched my forearm stitch itself together, leaving only a small trace of blood behind. Drained of energy, my head thumped back against the workbench. Dizziness hit me like a baseball to the face and everything spun into splotchy, distorted images, like the carousel from the carnival, except with creeping shadows closing in to consume the horses. Life ebbed away with the promise of peace, only to flood back in with a sharp shake into awareness.

“Hey!Hey!” As if Death’s thunderous voice wasn’t enough, his hands were shaking my shoulders. “Wake up!” He grasped both sides of my skull. “Open your eyes, Faith. Open them now. Come back to me.”

Just five more minutes.

“No, not five more minutes! It is not time to sleep!” Death barked, as frantic as a creature with so much control in his voice could sound. “Faith, listen to me. You need to stay awake. You’renotdying on me, stupid human. Not tonight.”

He gave my jaw one last firm shake and yanked the cloth out of my mouth. I managed to pry my eyes open.

“You came for me,” I croaked.

Liquid fire dripped onto my cold lips. Blood. His wrist bled profusely, blood as black as the demon’s. He pushed his skin against my mouth, but I clamped my lips shut and thrashed my head to the side.

“You’re drinking it. All of it. You’ve lost too much blood.” He pried my jaw open with his gloved fingers, forcing the liquid down my dry throat until I choked it down. It wasn’t coppery like normal blood, but instead thin, and it tasted almost . . . sweet, the perfect candy. Suddenly, I needed more. I drank vigorously, fighting back a moan as the taste of his blood transformed into a charge of heat that licked down my spine. I could feel myself becoming stronger.

My mouth filled with one more swallow, when he pulled his wrist sharply away. Realizing what I’d been doing, I tried to spit out the remains of the black substance, but he clamped his hand over my mouth, holding me against his steel frame.

“Swallow it, or you’ll die,” Death snarled. Then he muttered the unthinkable, “Please, Faith.”

The blood slid down my throat like warm sugar.

Death released me and shifted a step back, as if I were about to explode. Shadows crawled over me as invisible hands undid the rope knotted at my wrists and feet.

I swung my bare legs over the edge of the table, adrenaline rushing in my veins. My senses were tremendously intensified, and I struggled to adjust to the new world around me. Blood, dust, and mold overpowered the air. Rain struck the roof of the warehouse, louder and louder, hammers striking the inside of my skull with each pattering drop. Pressing my palms against my ears, I suctioned out the noise with a wince.

“Is the rain extremely loud or is it just me?”

“You’re shouting.” I couldn’t see him, but I knew he hung back in the darkness somewhere behind me.

An uncomfortable amount of energy buzzed through me, and I could no longer stay in one place. Taking off in a hurtling sprint, I raced around the warehouse, the world blurring around me. I leapt over wooden crates, weaved between construction material, and smashed my fists into a sheet of metal, denting it without any pain.

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