Page 135 of Death is My Ride or Die

“Jesus Christ, your neck.”

He clamped a hand to the wound on his neck with a wince. “Fucking fang-face venom. Makes me heal slower.”

I quickly shrugged off my backpack and searched for a first aid kit. When I sprayed some kind of magical antiseptic on his wound, Blade hissed and glared at me like an animal. Like Death. Deciding Blade should take over, I handed him the first aid kit. He took out a big piece of gauze and slapped it haphazardly onto his neck.

“The other six were neck-deep in battle, and Leo got pinned,” Blade said. “Somebody had to make sure you stayed in one piece.”

“I thought you hated me.”

“I hate everyone, lassie. Equally.”

“Well, thanks for the help.”

“Don’t mention it.” Blade swiped his knives across his pants to clean them. “You were impressive back there. There may be hope for you yet.”

We hurried back to the battlefield and jumped into the anarchy. Gunner took out creatures one by one from his perch in a tree, releasing arrow after arrow from his crossbow, spearing them in their skulls and hearts. Leo was on the ground with Death’s Fallen, cleaving away with his sword, while Denim and Wolf sprayed bullets that sizzled as they met the vampires’ flesh. Romeo and Flash were tag-teaming with hand-to-hand combat.

Ravens cried out in a frightening chorus, circling the sky in a swarm that drew everyone’s attention. Demons re-formed from the ravens, ambushing the reapers with their blackened fangs, claws, and terrifying porcelain faces.

Malphas’s raven underlings. Which meant Malphas was close too.

A mighty wind raged as the ravens came plummeting to the earth. I leapt back with a scream to avoid getting speared by their beaks and fell to the ground.

The second my head hit the grass, images flashed through my mind like a dream on mute.

Ahrimad. . . He was in the mausoleum. Death’s old cloak hung off his body, but he looked too thin, too sickly, like a parasite had drained him from the inside out. He stood in front of a floor-to-ceiling mirror with a surface like water. As he turned away from the portal, he silently roared, his eyes glowing a wrathful amber. The skin of his face pressed tighter against his skull. His scythe swung out, his face taut with fury, the portal rippling closed behind him—

Suddenly, I was back in the graveyard, my mind scrambling as I hurried to my feet. I was trying to understand what I’d seen when I noticed a wall of shadows in front of me. I was trapped, untouched by the sounds of war around me, surrounded by Death’s shadows. A barrier had formed between me and them. Between me andeverybody. And they all continued to fight, unaware of this.

The shadow prison stretched outward, forming a larger clearing of darkness. When I tried to escape, the darkness hissed and spewed out toward me like claws, and I reeled away from it with a shriek.

The adrenaline shooting through my veins told me these shadows weren’t protecting me.

They were containing their prey.

Coldness spilled down my spine. I whirled around as Death’s boots touched the ground. He stood tall and monstrous with his wings tucked behind his back, his head pointed slightly down. Posed, like a deadly statue. And for a horrifying second, I didn’t think he recognized me.

All I knew for sure was that I had been imprisoned by these shadows. For him.

Above us, more ravens circled like vultures.

Death moved in a blur, sprinting toward me. He picked me up and bounded off the ground, hurling us both into the night before a scream could rip through me.

XXXV

Gone was the sweet, sweet, blessed sensation of earth, as Death’s wings took us high into the air. Heights were a bellowingHELL NOfrom me, and this was the unanticipated amusement park ride of the century. I wrapped my arms frantically around his corded neck, holding on for dear life.

We landed on a flat portion of the roof of the mausoleum, where a massive, overgrown oak tree blocked our view of the sky. Well, landed isn’t really what happened.Helanded and then tossed me away from him. I rolled over twice and ended up on my back.

Death stood over me: horns, wings, demonic eyes.

My mind whirled as he flexed those lethal talons.

“Um, hey,” I said, rather awkwardly. “That was a little rough, don’t you think?”

Death worked his jaw in an odd, animal-like way.“Hungry.”

“Same,” I said. Laughing uneasily, I cast another desperate look around us to find one of the reapers. But all I found was a wall of shadows surrounding the roof. “I could really go for some chicken nuggets right now. Or a Big Mac. Anything but disgusting flesh like mine . . . ”

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