Page 101 of Death is My BFF
“Jesus!”
“Wrong.” Death snatched me around the throat with his massive gloved hand. My bedroom door slammed shut and he pinned me against it. His hooded face crowded my vision. The alluring aroma of leather, cherries, and cologne. “Sexy sheep pajamas. I would have never expected those.”
“Get your hand off me!” I gasped.
“I know you struck a deal with the warlock to get information on me,” he snarled. “You have until zero to tell me everything he told you.” His mouth lingered at my neck, and I envisioned those hidden razor sharp fangs ripping into my throat. “Ten.”
“Screw you!”
He laughed. A low, chilling sound. “Rain check. Nine.”
“Because of you, my friend is dead!” I snarled.
“You only have one friend. She’s alive.Eight.”
“Thomas was my friend. I can’t tell anyone about what I saw, or how he was taken. He was innocent! He had nothing to do with this!”
“Seven,”he growled. “I warned you that you needed my protection. Learn from your mistakes.”
“Learn from my mistakes?” In a moment of clarity, I brought my knee up to his crotch and slammed into hard muscle.
He released a low hiss. “Great aim, Bruce Lee. That was my thigh—”
“Hiya!” I connected with softer flesh.
Death bent over with a grunt. I ripped free from his hold, maneuvering swiftly under his arm. He straightened to his full height, and I was breathless for a moment at the sight of his looming cloaked frame. His head nearly touched theceiling.
“You’ll pay for that.” From the strain in Death’s voice, it seemed not even the Grim Reaper could recover fast from a hard knee to the jewels.
“Add it to my tab.” Now that his raging muscle wasn’t trapping me, I aspired to bash his nose in with my knuckles and raised my fists to my face. “You let Malphas take Thomas, didn’t you? You didn’t come help us because you wanted me to be afraid!”
“I’m not your guardian angel,” he sneered. “My Fallen were ambushed and yourfriendwas taken because of your own stubborn-ness. This could have all been avoided if you had listened to me from the beginning.”
“Don’t youdareblame me,” I said with a tremor. “You’re a heartless monster!”
“Projecting your grief onto me is a waste of energy. Thomas’s life holds no value to me.”
Tears brimmed my eyes. “Get out of my house!”
“Make me.” Death took a step forward, and the floor groaned beneath his combat boot. Everything about him oozed dominance.
“Leave it toyouto wander like a ditz into town and enter a warlock’s store. His building is on hallowed ground. Do you have any idea how difficult it was for me to reach you? He could have . . . ” Death stopped himself, breathing raggedly as his baritone voice slipped into something velvety and otherworldly. “He could have imprisoned you there for the rest of your life, and no one would have ever been able to find you.”
“You wouldn’t give me answers. You’ve lied and kepteverythingfrom me.”
“I don’t owe you anything,” he said maliciously. “I never said I was the good guy.”
“You never said you were the bad guy either! Yet, here you are, trying to store me away for your own personal use!”
The hair on my nape lifted at his soul-chilling, bestial growl.
“You have no idea the lengths I’ve gone to protect you.”
“Protect me? You were never protecting me. You try to keep me in one piece, so I’m still valuable to you!”
He took another step forward. This time, I didn’t back away, and every inch of my skin was charged by his proximity. “What a whiny little race, mortals. You fool,fateis your only injustice, not I.”
Tension crackled between us. The air felt thick, so excruciating it painfully blocked my lungs. He was a live wire and the closer we came together, the closer we approached something unpredictable.