Page 2 of Death is My Ride or Die

“Either you are with me or you are against me,” Malphas said calmly. “No matter which option you choose, our paths will inevitably cross again. I always get what I want, one way or another.”

“You’re a sick, heartless creature, and you don’t scare me,” I said, my voice trembling so hard I had to tighten my muscles to speak.

“You called for me in your hour of need, and I answered. I was the weapon, but you pulled the trigger.”

“It was a mistake,” I hissed between clenched teeth. “A moment of weakness, not need. I was scared, and I should never have relied on you. Only a monster does what you did to your son.”

“Alexandru is hardly my son. He never appreciated the sacrifices I made for him.”

“Youabusedhim.”

“He was never meant for a delicate mortal hand.”

“You act like being human is some disease.”

A thin, icy smile crossed his face. “Because itisa disease, Faith. I was mortal, once. I’ve lived it.”

Tick.Tick.Tick.

Malphas watched me intently as the metronome droned on, my eyelids drooping closed.

“The binding spell attaching Alexandru’s soul to Limbo will wear off eventually. If he manages to get back sooner, which I suspect he will, then he’ll be weak. You’re the only one who can get close enough to him to complete this final task.”

Malphas snapped his fingers. The metronome stopped.

One moment, he sat across the way; the next, he sat beside me. He clamped his hand down on my shoulder, and our surroundings strobed in and out of darkness. I stared deep into the void of his unfeeling eyes, sinking, sinking. Claws scraped the inside of my skull, and panic spiked as I felt paralyzed beneath his touch.

Instinct snapped into place. I shoved against the sensation of his power with all my might, all my will, and the scraping subsided. My heart skipped a beat. I’d mentally shoved Malphas away without him noticing.

“We can help one another, Faith.” Malphas reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a blade between his fingertips. “You want to escape the consequences of the Kiss of Death, and I—I want Death out of my way.”

Malphas released my shoulder. The lethal gleam in his dead obsidian eyes made my stomach knot.

“If Death escapes Limbo, he will go to the D&S Tower ball to warn Lucifer,” he continued. “I have arranged for you to be escorted to this event. Should you encounter Death there, you will stab him with this blade. It’s laced with poison. A poison that will paralyze him for an hour and keep him out of our way. Long enough for us to deliver our message.”

“What message?” I whispered.

Malphas grinned, black venom seeping from the tips of his incisors. “That we will get what we want, no matter what it takes, and what we want is theBook of the Dead.”

The world spun as I processed this.

“You foolish girl,” Malphas chided in a soft voice. “You feel so deeply for Death, but he’ll never love you. He’s incapable of it.” He paused and handed me the dagger. “A little advice, Faith. The trick to life is not to let the imitation of what was once there fool you into believing it lives on in the present. Beyond the shallow depths of any façade, there’s always the truth.” As he leaned back, his features shimmered into a dreadful creature with translucent skin and bluish-black fangs. “You need only peel away the mask.”

He vanished. The room plunged into darkness, and I sprang upward. Malphas’s room was gone. I was in my bedroom.

Glancing down at my lap, my breath caught in my throat when I saw the dagger still clenched in my hand. It hadn’t been a dream.

II

DEATH

Time moved faster in Limbo.

According to the digital clock on my temporary communication portal between Limbo and Earth, which I’d created with an incantation, an hour had passed since my soul had been banished and sent to the realm of lost souls and memories. I had tried to contact Lucifer, but the dusty old coot was worse with technology than I was and hadn’t picked up. Glenn could have helped, but the little crap had hung up on me. He’d get what was coming to him after I escaped.

When my soul had shot through Limbo, it’d landed in a mirrored version of Times Square. The rowdiest, flashiest area of New York. Limbo sucked the life out of the bustling heart of the city. Here, it was a dead land. Cold, gray, depressing as hell, and void of any life except for the distant moans and wails of lost mortal souls.

An ideal vacation spot, if not for my current circumstances.

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