Page 1 of Death is My Ride or Die

I

Faith

Tick. Tick. When I opened my eyes, the illusion that I was safe evaporated.

Across the way, Malphas, dressed in silk, lounged on a Victorian-style red velvet couch. His raven-black hair was woven together in warrior braids and neatly tied back. Bathed in soft lighting, the room was bare except for a large Persian rug, a rather ornate coffee table, and the couches where we sat opposite each other.

Moments before, I had been in the corn maze in Pleasant Valley fighting for my life against hell hounds and demons. Malphas had grabbed me, and now we were . . . here.

Death’s motionless corpse looped through my mind. The painful howls of a man I’d believed to be unstoppable. My aching heart was anchored to the image of him dying. I wanted to believe he’d survived. That he was a force of nature and nothing could take him away from this world, but deep inside, I knew not even Death was indestructible.

I’d wanted nothing more to do with him. He’d played me from the beginning. He’d spared my special soul as a girl, only to return once my power had matured to collect it for his own cryptic, selfish reasons. He’d used his alter ego, David Star, to gain my trust and make me fall for him. And yet, time and time again, he’d saved my life, showed me glimpses of a man who maybe had the capacity to feel. He’d given me hope. Hope that it wasn’t all a lie.

No matter how hard I tried to rationalize calling on Malphas as a good thing, a necessary thing, I felt guilty. The coldhearted creature who’d claimed I was only a possession but kissed me like I was his saving grace was gone. I’d killed Death.

“Let’s not get dramatic,” Malphas said. “He’s alive. I sent his soul to a different realm temporarily.”

I sat up straight. “You just read my mind.”

“Indeed.”

Death had said it was difficult to read my thoughts, whereas Malphas seemed to pick apart my brain with ease. It was frightening, to say the least.

“What do you mean, you sent Death’s soul to a different realm? What realm?”

“He’s in Limbo. You may know it as Purgatory.” Malphas smoothed a wrinkle in the fabric covering his forearm. “There are other worlds besides the human one. They’re mostly abandoned and filled with darkness and other things . . . things that wander into the mortal realm and go bump in the night. Limbo is a complex realm that parallels Earth. A place for wandering and forgotten souls. That is where Death’s soul lies.”

“How long will you keep him there?”

A shrug. “Can’t hold him there for all eternity, unfortunately.”

And the Father of the Year award goes to. . .

“If Death’s soul is in Purgatory, then where’s his body?”

Malphas grinned. “Inaccessible at the moment.”

My fingers curled against the cushion beneath me, drawing my attention to a tear in the velvet material. A layer of dust blanketed the old-fashioned furniture, and the walls were sparsely decorated with peeling wallpaper. Cobwebs curtained every nook and cranny.

“They have makeover shows for this, you know,” I said.

“Hmm?”

“Your evil lair. It sucks. Looks like a haunted mansion for cockroaches.”

“Faith, Faith, Faith . . . ” Malphas leaned his forearm on the cushion beside him and dragged a sharp black fingernail across the velvet. “Still mouthing off after everything that happened?”

As I homed in on that deadly finger, I felt a scraping sensation inside my mind, like a claw digging into my brain. I had no idea what Malphas was capable of. I had to tread carefully.

“Your aunt is rumored to have possession of an object,” Malphas continued, “an object that Ahrimad requires to fully walk this realm.”

Ahrimad was the death god who’d cursed Alexandru Cruscellio, aka Death, more than two thousand years ago. When Death was a child, he had been tricked into releasing Ahrimad into the human world. In return, Ahrimad had promised to give Death the opportunity to kill the person he hated the most in the gladiator arena. Which, ultimately, had led to Death killing his own father, Malphas. That was why Malphas hated his son and was seeking vengeance in the present. Even though Alexandru had ultimately destroyed Ahrimad (which had led to him becoming the next death creature), both of Death’s enemies from the past had found a way to rise again. Now they were working together.

“Torturing your aunt over this . . . special object . . . would be a waste of energy,” Malphas continued. “Hunters like her wear jewelry and engrave tattoos into their bodies that limit my power. So, I waited. I waited for the right moment.” He reached out to touch the small wooden metronome on the coffee table between us. Bobbing left to right in an irritating rhythm, it began to tick faster. “Your essence is so peculiar; I knew right away you were the one. The one my sonsparedwith the Kiss of Death. You, my dear girl, are a treasure.”

“You can save the ‘join me’ evil villain speech. I’m not helping you with whatever twisted plan you have up your sleeve.”

Tick.Tick. This time, the metronome reverberated in my ears and vibrated my vision with an intense pressure. Malphas’s image blurred. I craned my neck to the side and winced. The sensations left me at once as the ticking faded to background noise again.

---