Page 42 of Death is My Ride or Die

I could only imagine what this meeting would entail and how pissed Ace would be. After Glenn had informed Death that the warlock was located at some club called Spades, Death dismissed the little demon with a vicious glare and gripped my bicep.

Shadow consumed us both, and my equilibrium vanished as we dematerialized. When my feet hit the ground, everything spun like a merry-go-round. I held on to Death’s arm for dear life, but he shoved me off of him like a stray dog. I hit his black leather couch at a clumsy angle, sucking in large gulps of air as David Star’s office came into full focus.

“Seriously?” I sneered.

Death struck a match against the heel of his boot and lit a rolled cigarette. “I forgot to tell you to inhale, didn’t I?”

I scowled. “That—thatblood exchange. What did you do to me?”

“It’ll help me track you down easier.” He didn’t explain further and tilted his head back, exhaling smoke as he strode away. “You’ll stay here while I meet with Ace.”

“But whataboutMarcy?” I demanded.

Releasing an aggravated breath, he turned around. “What about Marcy?” His tone was mocking and viciously moody.

“Marcy is the whole damn reason I signed your contract. You said you’d find her.”

“I never saidIwould. Semantics, cupcake.” When I just stood there, shell-shocked and thinking I’d made a huge mistake, he brushed past me. “Relax. I’m sending a few of my subordinates to start looking for her tonight.”

Tonight?

“Why not now? She’s in danger. Every second we wait, she’s in danger. Send your people now!”

“I know what I’m doing, Faith. You don’t call the shots.” He slammed his palm into a panel on the wall, and a door opened. He disappeared inside, returning with a blood-free face and a black sweatshirt. His shirt rose slightly up as he pulled the garment over his head, and I caught a glimpse of black tattoos snaking up his lower abdomen as he rolled it down.

“Bye.” He chucked a pack of open D&S Tower travel tissues in my direction and slunk past me to palm his phone on his desk “Don’t touch any of my shit while I’m gone.”

Shadows slunk from the corner of the room, crawling over his massive frame as he started to wane away. I launched forward and grabbed his hand before he could.“Wait!”

The mist absorbed back into him, and he became fully solid. Death’s hooded head tilted down to our linked hands, and a chill slid up my spine. His fingers flexed as he tore from my grasp.

“I’m going to pretend you weren’t just holding my goddamn hand, cupcake.”

“You can’t leave me here alone,” I whispered. “Not after what happened. Ace called for both of us.”

“We aren’t anus. You aren’t in control of your abilities, and I can’t risk another slipup. As hilarious as it would be, you could kill somebody. Then you’d be a blubbering mess, and maybe you’d—whoops—accidentally flash my dick off next.”

“I can assure you, that wouldn’t be an accident.”

The corners of his mouthalmostturned up. “Ace is at his club. There will be hundreds of people there. I’m in enough shit with Rainbow Hair as it is. I don’t need you burning down his place the second you have a little panic attack on top of everything else.”

“The only way I’ll learn how to control my power is with experience.”

His jaw flexed. When he went to turn away from me, I grabbed him again, and he whirled back around to shove his muscular chest in my face. “Touch me again. Watch what happens.”

My whole body tingled from head to toe, but I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. Not physically, at least. “What if something happens while you’re gone? What if Malphas breaks into the tower like he did last time?”

At the mention of his father, Death averted his eyes and snarled out a foreign word. Guess I knew the Grim Reaper’s trigger now.

“What if you mess up again,” I continued slowly, “and Lucifer finds out?”

His obedience to Lucifer was a weakness that we both knew he had. I could see a vein pulsing in his neck now. My next words had to be the final nail in the coffin.

“Or maybe you can’t handle being around me,” I said, letting my voice drop to a sultry murmur. “Maybe I make you lose control—”

“Stop.”His face snapped toward mine, and I stiffened. He stalked a slow, calculated circle around me, his mouth dipping close to the wild pulse in my neck. “It’s a bad idea to taunt me, Faith.”

I turned over my shoulder, our lips a breath apart. “Since when has a bad idea stopped me from doing stupid things?”

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