Holding up the spine so the blood dripped over her chest and soaked into the dark material of her jacket, I let loose a guttural chuckle. “It seems your mate had a spine after all.”
“Who are you?Whatare you?”
I parted my jaws, allowing a growl to roll up from my throat as I painted a lick over my incisors. “Death incarnate. Seeking penance for your deed.”
Just as I hoped, she began to tremble on the ground at my feet, even though she tried her hardest to keep her voice steady and firm. “D-deed? What deed?”
“Vandalism. Trespassing. Robbery. Now you are to suffer and bleed.”
Her delicate throat twitched with a tantalizing swallow. I began to salivate, and with no lips to catch the fluid, droplets of spit joined the blood soaking her chest. When the warmth hit her, making her shirt cling to her breasts, she tried to crawl away.
I threw the spine to the grass and stooped down, grabbing her by the ankle and dragging her back toward me. She screamed, her fingers raking tracks into the dirt.
“Struggle all you want, little thief. You’ve committed a crime against death itself, and until you atone for your sins, there’s no escape.”
“Are you going to kill me like you killed Mark?” The acid in her tone took me by surprise. She was terrified. What mortal wouldn’t be after watching their mate be torn to shreds? But there was no missing the spark of defiance behind her eyes. The hatred.
Thelife.
Just like that, my obsession to possess life had me in a chokehold once again.
Eventually, she would become mine. They all did. But I needed to own more than her bones several decades from now when her heart gave out.
I’d take her for myself,now.Her soul, her body, her mind. All of her.
I’d be her lord and master.
I’d make her a slave.
Chapter3
RAYVEN
The specterof death stood over me, glaring down at me from empty eye sockets. A moon-colored animal skull, long and slender, sat perched on his shoulders, antlers stretching out on both sides and reaching toward the midnight sky.
He was dressed entirely in black, but his clothes weren’t torn and tattered like I’d expect a night-crawling monster to wear. No, the form-fitting clothes he wore beneath his floor-length cloak were elegant, damn near regal, albeit old and moth-eaten. An odd juxtaposition to the fleshless head with a forked, black tongue and large sharp teeth.
Odd andintriguing.
I was too terrified to scream or run, but I couldn’t deny the curiosity clouding my thoughts.
This beast said he was death incarnate, but what did that mean? Was he the grim reaper so many modern stories were based around come to drag me to the bowels of Hell? Or was I face to face with Satan himself, come to make me pay for my sins?
“I-I’m sorry.” I crawled backwards an inch, desperate to put space between me and this creature, but he stepped forward to close the distance again. “Please, just let me go. You can keep all the trinkets…”
The beast laughed, a deep, guttural noise that made my stomach turn, and he slowly shook his head back and forth.
“Oh, little thief,” he said, chuckling menacingly. “A mere apology isn’t enough to atone for your transgressions.”
The rest of the blood drained from my face, a new wave of fear lancing through me.
“Then, what do you want?” I pleaded, crawling backward another inch, unable to tear my eyes away from the skull looming over me. “Name it. Money? Gold? I’ll give you whatever you want.”
He paused, turning still as stone, and hope flickered in my chest. Was he really considering it? Would he accept some form of payment in exchange for my life? I waited with bated breath, goosebumps racing over my skin, for him to answer, and my heart sank when he spoke again.
“What I want is your blood.”
I moved to scramble away, but he swooped down again and grabbed my ankle before turning to march his way across the graveyard, dragging me along behind him like a doll. Finally, I found my voice, and a scream tore from my throat as I kicked at his pale fingers with my free foot.
