Page 21 of Death is My Ride or Die

“This is not the end,” Ahrimad said to Death. “May tonight serve as a reminder: the Devil cannot hide in his tower any longer. This is just a taste of the chaos that is to come. The grimoire will be mine.”

Ahrimad lifted the scythe, and the staff blazed a brilliant blue, electricity firing from the top of the blade. The energy rocketed into the mirrored ceiling of the ballroom, causing one of the mirrors to ripple like silvery water. Ahrimad dematerialized into black smoke and shot up into the ceiling. He was gone. But Malphas lingered behind.

Death’s father remained at the center of the ballroom floor, using his son’s empty corpse as a shield. The corpse foamed at the mouth like a rabid animal, its mismatched eyes rolling back into its head.

“Fight me, you coward!” Death exclaimed, his voice raw as he staggered to his feet. He moved with jerky, mechanical strides, as if Ace’s legs were no longer fully cooperating with him.

Over the corpse’s shoulder, Malphas’s features visibly strained, his lips twitching. I had the strangest thought that he’d stayed behind because he’d wanted to say something to Death, but hecouldn’t.

Malphas shoved the corpse forward and exploded into a thousand ravens. They spiraled high and vanished through the mirror still rippling in the ceiling above us.

And that’s when it all went down the crap chute.

The corpse stumbled between me and Devin and Death. It unleashed a bloodcurdling howl as itgrew, joints popping, bones snapping. Clothes tore, its height and width expanding just like it had in the alleyway when Death had fought off Malphas’s demons. Except now I could see the transformation, the man becoming the monster, well over seven feet of muscle and rage. Ink blotched the corpse’s tan skin in patches, spreading across the body like wildfire until it was night itself. Features sharpened, too sinister to be human. Shadows fired from his broad back, unfurling in wicked tendrils and briefly outlining the exoskeleton of two enormous, invisible wings.

Then the corpse roared, the deafening sound unlike any apex predator in my wildest imagination.

All I could do was gape in disbelief.

Another creature suddenly crashed into the corpse, tackling it to the ground. The red, scaly being rippled with lean muscle, a barbed tail with an arrow point slashing the air behind him. Lucifer. He crawled onto all fours before standing, a forked tongue flicking out of his mouth.

“Get her out of here!” Lucifer thundered, his voice monstrous and otherworldly. “We need the girl alive!”

“I’m not leaving until I’m back in my corpse!” Death snarled, gripping his wound as Ace’s body bled.

Fire exploded from Lucifer’s hands as he charged to attack Death’s corpse first, and I managed to snap out of it enough to get out of the way. Death’s corpse launched into the air to avoid him, plumes of smoke momentarily outlining his phantom wings again as they swept forward. One flap and they cut through the ground like it was made of papier-mâché, the sheer force hurling wind through the ballroom like a hurricane. I held on to one of the guest tables for dear life, but when the corpse lowered to the ground, I imagined those lethal wings sliced back like a pendulum of doom.

I felt a sharp pain in my side and screamed. My hands released the table, and I was tossed back, only to land in waiting arms.

“Cue girlish swooning,” Death said dryly.

I fought to catch my breath. “Nice catch. Now get your hand off my ass.”

“Get your ass off my hand.” Death set me down—and not very gently, might I add—as I nearly toppled over. But I realized it wasn’t him that had affected my balance as a wet warmth drew my attention down to my torso, where a massive gash tore into my side. Shock had numbed the sensation until now, and blood poured from the wound.

“Shit,” Death hissed.

I could seeboneand bit down on my lip not to scream. The raw pain of the injury was like a branding iron. I must have almost fainted, because time seemed to skip forward a few seconds, and now Death was holding me upright. My eyes were glued to the deep gash as the most miraculous thing happened: my skin began to heal. The gash was closing inch by inch, and the pain was dissipating . . .

I looked up at Death with wide eyes. “Was that you?”

“No.”

“Oh, okay. Cool. Awesome. Because that would have made me feelbetter.” The room spun. “Welp, good luck getting your body back. I’m going to go pass out now—”

“I don’t think so.” Death hauled me up into a standing position again. “Go out there and distract my corpse so I can sneak up on it and get back inside.”

“What?Have youseenyour corpse right now?” I said frantically. “The fangs? The talons? That famished, unrelenting need in its freaky eyes to tear my flesh apart?”

“That’s just my resting face, cupcake.”

“You need me? Then we’re at an impasse. I want a guarantee that when you’re back in your body, Aunt Sarah and I get to go home safe.”

“The only impasse between us,” Death said as we watched his corpse slam Lucifer into the marble floor, “was me five seconds ago considering tossing you in front of my corpse and forcing a distraction.” Then he pinned me hard to the pillar and loomed over me, Ace’s once kind features transforming into Death’s fearsome wrath. “Be a good girl and do as I say,” he said, “or the first thing I’m going to snack on when I’m back in my body is your mommy and daddy. Got it?”

It wasn’t like I had any choice other than to help the jerk.

“Now here’s what you’re going to—” Death started, but I was already shoving past him and heading into the war zone. “Or you can just go out there and wing it!” he growled after me.

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