Page 58 of Death is My Ride or Die

“I’m rarely bored,” Death simpered, pleased with himself. As we headed to the refectory, it dawned on me that he was a little too sprightly.

Which of course meant Death was up to no good.

In the middle of the night, I felt Cruentas’s hot breath on my face, and I petted his silky coat.

“Hey, buddy,” I said in a sleepy voice. “Where do you go when you disappear? Hay Island?”

Cruentas whinnied, making me laugh.

I sat up and decided to get a snack. I was leaning over Cruentas with my hand on his coat to turn on the lamp on my nightstand when he lunged forward and took off, and I went with him.

The world spun . . . and I was thrown into oblivion.

My shoulder hit hard concrete, and white-hot pain exploded in my arm. My surroundings had shifted. I was in a spacious warehouse with a blacked-out glass ceiling, except for a few holes that let in the rain. I’d been here before. Death had taken me here after Malphas’s demons had attacked me in the alleyway.

I rolled over onto my stomach and found a weapon beside me.

A hunting knife.

A thunderous roar echoed from somewhere, chilling me to the bone.

What the hell?

My heart was a jammed trigger on an automatic machine gun. To stop my fingers from shaking, I gripped the hunting knife tightly and rose to my feet.

This had to be a test. But Death was nowhere in sight.

I tensed as a creature emerged from the shadows to my left.

Its body was bulging with muscle and covered with black quills like a porcupine. Its ears were flat against its head like an aggressive dog.

As the creature herded me into the center of the warehouse, it fell under a ray of light, and its features came into focus. My stomach churned. Leathery gray skin stretched tight against its bones, and its muzzle was stained with blood. When it snarled, chunks of flesh were wedged between its teeth. And its teeth—God, those razor-sharp teeth—dripped a greenish liquid that sizzled like acid.

A monster straight out of a nightmare. Sweat poured off me. I looked down at my little blade, up at the massive creature, then back at the blade. It was starting to look more like a toothpick than a weapon.

The creature’s quills expanded before pressing tightly against its body like armor. It barreled toward me.

“Shit!”

I spun out of the way before it rammed into me with its horns. The creature wasn’t very smart, considering it kept running for twenty feet and smashed into a wall.

It charged again. This time, I only barely got away, since the black quills on the side came to life. They reached out and hooked onto me like small fingers, dragging me with it. I cried out as the creature picked up speed and my legs crumbled underneath me.

My arm swung out with my hunting blade, digging into the beast’s side. With no luck at stopping it, I ripped the knife from its muscular flesh and stabbed it again. The creature howled, and the quills released. Oily blood slicked my fingers, and I lost my grip. I skidded across the ground, rolling a few times before I landed on my back.

The old lights on the ceiling of the warehouse were spinning, rotating. My vision blurred, flickering in and out of blackness. Everything pulsed with white-hot pain.

I rolled over onto my stomach, lifting myself with bloody hands and breathing hard.

I blinked, as if that would wake me up from this sick nightmare.

I spun around and faced the dying animal. The tendons of his legs were all screwed up and shredded, and his abdomen wound was far worse than mine. I raised the blade to end its misery.

A sob lodged in my throat. In spite of my training, I couldn’t cross the line to kill.

The creature let out a raspy howl. Its head thrashed side to side, as if it were fighting an invisible force. The cords in its neck strained. Its skin drained to a light gray.

Horror washed over me as I raised the dagger and plunged it deep into the center of its chest. It didn’t explode into ashes. Its eyes softened, then the beast slipped away.

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