Page 144 of Death is My Ride or Die

The Forsaken backed away from us.

Layla flipped her hair over her bare shoulder and posed with her hand on her hip. “Hello, hello,” she greeted, her stare lingering on Ace as she studied him with interest before darting her red gaze to me. “Night not going as planned?”

The mocking tone in her voice set me off. Ace fired a warning look in my direction and clutched my wrist.

She hooked her talon-like nails into Ace’s shirt and kissed him hard on the mouth.

“Ace!” I screamed.

The Forsaken howled. Red plumes expelled from Layla’s pores and seeped into Ace’s skin like a poison. His violet eyes widened, his palms trying to push her away as the kiss continued. A dreamy look overrode his features. The plumes of smoke tainted his irises from the inside, turning them a bright red. She pulled back.

“He tastes like grief,” she purred. “It’s a shame I can’t torture him like I tortured the Grim Reaper.”

“What?”I could feel the power within me start to rise to the surface, the thought of Death suffering under the hand of this crazy bitch too much. “Fix him,” I demanded, jabbing a finger toward Ace. “Fix him right now, Layla, or I’ll—I’ll fry you to ash!”

I really needed to work on my intimidating phrases.

“Now, now, Faith,” Layla purred, pressing herself against Ace. In his delirium, his mouth was plastered with a big, goofy, lovestruck grin, and his hands eagerly gripped her body. All he needed was heart-shaped pupils to complete the visual. “You have to play along to attend the party. Kill me and the emotion incantation will never wear off for your friend. Both the warlock and Death are fine, as long asyoudon’t act up.”

Heat tingled in my fingertips at the thought of ending this bitch once and for all. But if she was telling the truth, killing her wouldn’t be worth it. I breathed deeply, trying to calm myself down. I had to keep it together. I had to keep moving forward.

“Take me to Ahrimad,” I said.

Layla’s mouth curved. She led me and high-as-a-kite Ace further into the catacomb. Torches lit polished marble on the walls and the floors, a reflection of what the upper part of the mausoleum used to look like before it was shit on. The further we traveled, the more I became aware of a buzzing vibrating through me like the ground had a pulse. Finally, we stopped in front of a metal door.

“Get in,” Layla commanded, Ace’s bicep still imprisoned by her sharp talons. I couldn’t leave him like this. “Now.Or I’ll slit his throat.”

“Do what she says,” Ace said in an exhausted voice. “I’ll be fine.”

Anger fueled my courage as I stormed inside. The door shut behind me with a resounding thud, sealing me inside the capacious polished-marble room.

Oh my God.

Six of the reapers were tied in a circle on the floor. Their backs faced one another, and they had been stripped of weapons. Their heads lolled to the side, drawing my attention to the dreamy, far-off look in their red-tinted eyes, showing that they were under the empath demon’s spell.

Romeo stood flat against a marble wall, shirtless and covered in . . . hickeys?

“What are you doing here?” Romeo whispered.

“Layla stuck me in here for the, er”—I glanced around at the empty room—“party?”

Romeo glanced to the side toward a staircase leading deeper into the catacomb. “Could you maybe hide behind that pillar and not breathe or excrete any smells for, like, five seconds?”

“What’s going on?”

“Layla’s lovely sister didn’t know that charming me wouldn’t work like it worked on my brothers,” Romeo explained. “I tried to explain it to her. Turns out, she never learned English in the Underworld. Which is unbelievably hot . . . ”

“Romeo, get to the damn point,” I hissed, gesturing to the six tied-up reapers.

“Long story short, they think I’m charmed. I’m a little rusty with the empath demon language. Whatever I said to the sister made her uncuff me and want to bed me. But don’t worry, I’m a professional. I politely declined the one-on-one action. Now she’s bringing her other sister to—”

“Now isnotthe time for a gang bang, you idiot—”

“If you would let mefinish, cheeky,” Romeo said, “theothersister has the keys to our chains. And she will rid me of these ones, so I can move my hands and kill them.” My gaze turned to the cuffs around his wrists, and I realized they were similar to the special handcuffs that I’d used to debilitate Duncan and Malphas.

“Ah.”

“Yeah, ah.” Romeo’s attention snapped to the side again, as if he’d heard a noise. He waved me off and mouthed,Hide.

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