Page 59 of Death is My Ride or Die

My eyes welled with tears. The ghost of its cries rang in my head, and the fright and sadness at what I’d done spread through my body like ice. I forced myself to stand, keep moving away from the scene, and turn my back to it. Left. Right. Left. Right. My emotions caught up with me, and I started to hyperventilate, collapsing to my knees.

Everything felt slowed down. My wounds, they weren’t healing. My tongue swelled. My head lolled on my neck. I fell forward and surrendered to the silent warehouse.

Footsteps approached. I could not move.

The heavy toe of a boot rolled me over.

“Yourfirstkill,” purred a voice. “Congrats.”

I felt a sharp prick in my arm and shot up with a jolt, inhaling sharply. My hand gripped a hard bicep, and I stared wide-eyed at Death. He was crouched over me, his face shadowed by a cowl, except his short, dark facial hair and the outline of his full lips. He wore black leather pants with various straps for weapons fastened around his muscular thighs and calves.

“You hesitated,” he said, dropping an empty syringe into a bag.

I scrambled to get up and shoved at his chest. “Get off me!”

“Now there’s a sentence I seldom hear.” Death stood, while I forced my legs to cooperate with my brain.

“What the heck did you inject me with? And what––whatwasthat thing?”

“I injected you with an antidote.Thatwas a breed of hell hound, and they’re poisonous.” I could feel him staring at me as I tried to keep myself together. “You need to table your precious morals and commit to ending an enemy that wants to end you.”

“I killed it, didn’t I?”

“You got lucky,” Death said coldly, stepping up to me. Usually, when he did that, I had to fight the urge to step back. This time, I was fighting the urge to sway forward. “You wasted too much time finding a box of Kleenex to finish the beast off.”

My face flushed with heat.

“Heed my advice,” Death said firmly. “Give your enemies the opportunity to hurt you, and they will. They will drag you around like you’re their bitch, then bury you six feet in the ground like you’re their bone. When it’s life or death,trulylife or death, you don’t have time to decide. It’s them or you.”

“Killing doesn’t come second nature to me like it does to you.”

“Agreed. I’m shocked you didn’t politely ask the hell hound if you could end its life.” He had the nerve to smirk. “Aw, does that piss you off? Good. Maybe it’ll trigger your power, which I didn’t see a single spark of.”

“We haven’t beentrainingwith my power,” I grated. “I worked with what I had, which was that ridiculous toothpick of a knife you left me. What the hell is your problem?”

“My problem, Faith, is you. You keep defending yourself, leaving no room for improvement.” Death pulled back his cloak, revealing a metal scabbard at his side. “You want to handle something bigger than a toothpick? Then here.” He unfastened the weapon and tossed it to me.

I caught it by the handle. It was much heavier than I’d expected. “This is a sword.”

“Nothing gets past you.” Death tilted his head up. “I’ve been meaning to give it to you. Go on. Unsheathe it.”

The sharp gleam of metal reflected my tired blue eyes in its glossy surface. “It’s stunning. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. You’ll need it so I don’t crush you into the floor.”

When I looked up, Death was gone.

I spun around and he was right front of me, twisted in mid-motion as his body cut through the air. I blocked his hard first strike with my sword out of reflex. He carried only a metal bar. He maneuvered it around his body, and I was struck hard enough to stumble back. He halted with the pole tucked under his arm. I followed the line of muscle up his leg to his bicep and broad shoulders.

“Focus,” he hissed.

Death punched forward with the bar and performed a series of strikes at the air, corralling me like he was herding sheep. He moved faster and faster, spinning the weapon around his body like it was second nature.

“Get one finger on me, and I’ll give you anything you want,” Death said. “If I knock you down on your ass, the same condition applies. Yes or no?”

I’ll admit that thought of him owingmesomething for once intrigued me. But I knew better than to fall for it. “Not happening.”

He inclined his head to the side. “Scared?”

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