Page 123 of Death is My Ride or Die

Death cocked his head as he lowered himself to a crouch on the metal beam. Under the light, his horns had an almost lustrous shine to them. “Why doyouthink I fell?”

“Insubordination. Being good got too boring for you, so you broke the rules.” I wandered into the shadowy parts of the warehouse’s main floor and climbed a set of metal stairs. I ignored the pain in my leg the best I could. I made it four flights up, but it still wasn’t high enough. Standing beneath his spot, I put my hands on my hips in frustration.

“Hmm, you’re warm, but be more specific.” He sprawled out on the beam and gazed down at me over the side with a lazy smile. All he needed was a catlike tail to complete the visual. “Why would I break a rule in Heaven?”

“Jealousy.”

“Warmer, but not warm enough.” He snickered in a way that made my temperature rise. It was crazy how he had that effect on me from so far away. “You’re going to have to try harder than that, cupcake.”

I noticed a stack of crates across from me on a platform that led to one of those metal beams. I started toward it, and the slow smirk that spread across Death’s mouth was sinister. He leapt soundlessly to his feet and sauntered across the beam to follow me from above. “What do you think you’re doing?” he questioned.

“What does it look like? I’m the firefighter coming to get my big, stupid cat out of a tree.”

I got one foot up onto a crate, climbing up and stretching my hand toward a metal beam. The tower of crates wobbled and threatened to fall. Attempting to go up one more step was a mistake as the tower of crates gave way. But before I could fall, a taloned, obsidian hand wrapped around my arm and hauled me up to the beam. My palms leaned against the warehouse wall for support.

When I slowly pivoted on the narrow beam, Death was already so far away it was as if he’d never saved me. His hands were clasped behind his back, one foot behind the other with his spine ramrod straight. He cocked an arrogant brow, confident that he controlled the situation.

“Don’t look down,” Death taunted. “You might fall. Then you won’t be cupcake anymore. You’ll be pancake.”

When I glanced below us, a sense of vertigo overcame me. My heart pounded as I looked straight ahead at Death.

“It would be wise for you to return to the penthouse,” he said. “Let’s call it a draw, shall we?”

I edged further along the beam. “I told you; I’m not going to let you die. I’m strong enough to come with you tomorrow, and I’m going to prove it tonight.”

“Very well.” Death stuffed his hands in his pockets and moved gracefully backward, balancing perfectly. “Tomorrow will be my last chance to enter the portal, you know.”

My heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean?”

There was a reluctant pause. “I’m running out of time,” he said. “My scythe is my Achilles’ heel. There are creatures of the night less civilized than me and Devin, or our soldiers. Night creatures that are more animal than man, driven by primal urges like killing, eating, mating. I’ve found that my scythe has kept me safe from my own inner . . . ” He cocked his head. “Beast. But now, the destructive drives of the Seven Deadly Sins that plague me are spiraling out of control. Soon I’ll be driven completely mad by my curses, by my hunger, unable to communicate in the mortal language. I’ll forget who I am. Ahrimad knows this. He was diminishing in this way when I found him in the willow. Which is exactly why he’s in the Otherworlds, so that I can’t get to my scythe and stabilize my curse. Portals between our world and other realms are stronger around a full moon. And tomorrow night, by midnight, I must find one of these portals and enter into the otherworld. Or else—or else it’ll be too late.”

“There has to be another way,” I said. “Can’t we draw Ahrimad out from wherever he is?”

“The forbidden worlds are difficult to navigate between. Even Limbo is complicated to travel to. There is a razor-sharp line between reality and imitated memory.”

I continued toward him. He seemed strangely more composed in his demonic form than he did in human form. Still, my heart was slamming into my ribs at the thought of him losing control in this monstrous state.

“I’ll tell you why I fell, Faith,” Death said, staring at me and rooting me to my spot. “I loathed the mortals. I hated how they breathed, I hated how they felt emotion, and I hated how they were all so predictable. Mortality is a miserable element in every human’s existence. You fear it, mask it, pretend it isn’t there. Here I am, embracing it. Still, I saw the souls of men who lived a thousand lives richer than mine, most of whom had the poorest of circumstances. They had friends, relatives, strangers they left behind, people who loved and grieved to the point of sickness. And I wondered why a part of me envied their pain. Now I understand. Death gives life a significance lost in my eternity.”

He held his arms out to his sides, palms out. My heart lurched in my throat as I watched him lean back and fall off the beam. I shouted after him, and adrenaline slammed into me as I rapidly searched the ground below me for his body. I hurried back across the beam to the wall, climbed down, and raced to descend the metal stairs to the ground floor.

His body was nowhere to be seen.

“Are we finishing this fight or what?” his deep, velvety voice asked from behind me. “I’m bored.”

I spun toward him. “You idiot! I thought you—ugh!” I came at him in full ninja mode, and this time he didn’t vanish. But he did fight back. I was quickly on the defensive, blocking his movements. He fought like it was second nature, like a machine calibrated to kill. And even now, in this frightening form, I could feel him holding back. Watching my every decision as if he were fifty steps ahead of me.

I knew I would never amount to his skill level, but it wasso infuriating. I wanted to impress him, though his hard hits quickly fatigued me, and I was forced to back off and put some distance between us. Light burned out of my hands.

“You’re fading fast, princess.” He tsked with his tongue. “Never fight a villain half asleep.”

When he slunk toward me with his head lowered, I followed my instinct this time and backed away.

Death corralled me away from the light, into the dark. He feigned a lunge and dislocated his jaws with a roar, razor-sharp fangs elongating from his gums and his pupils shrinking to thin slits. I lurched back with a shriek, knocking into a shadowy object. Sharp metal brushed against my arm and tore into my bicep before I caught myself.

Panic pulsed in me as I frantically searched around, but Death was nowhere in sight.

Warm blood poured down my forearm and dripped onto the floor. “Stupid demented angel-monster-pantherthing!” I hissed, slapping a hand over the deep wound. Now I had two gashes, my arm being the worst of them.

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