Page 116 of My Undead Love Life

The fabric held, but the pressure hurt. Pain sparked along my sides as it pinned me hard enough that I couldn’t twist away.

Its teeth bared inches from my face. I shoved both gloved hands against its lower jaw. My arms shook violently as it forced itself closer.

“No,” I gasped. The word barely came out.

Its mouth opened wider, black saliva stringing between its teeth. One claw ripped down my side, catching in the outer layer of my coat. I felt the fabric tear. Something sharp exploded too close to my ribs.

From inside the office, Frank shouted in pain.

A heavy crash followed. Jan screamed his name, and then her scream broke into a horrible, wet sound that didn’t sound human anymore.

“Spencer!” Luck yelled.

“Don’t give up!” Mad roared.

I couldn’t help them. I couldn’t even help myself.

Another roar answered from inside the office, muffled by the door and the walls. Something slammed against the desk they had shoved in front of it. Wood splintered.

Frank shouted again, his voice ragged and furious, and then a gunshot cracked from somewhere inside the office.

Once.

Twice.

Something or someone hit the floor, and Jan sobbed loudly.

The leopard above me pushed against me harder. My elbows bent despite everything I did to stop it. My muscles burned as my palms slipped against cold, dead fur and ruined skin.

Its growl vibrated through my chest, low and wet, like it had swallowed a gallon of blood.

“Spencer!” someone shouted.

“Fuck! I can’t get to her. Kill it!” Luck shouted. “My gun’s in the office!”

“Yeah, someone just used it!” Mad screamed. “How could you forget the fucking—gun?”

“I’m sorry!” Luck cried. “Spencer!”

My vision narrowed to the snow leopard’s rotten mouth. This was it for me. The thought came with a horrible, quick clarity. This was how it ended. Not in the subway tunnel. Not in the mall. Not with the horde. Here, on the floor of a warehouse, beneath an undead snow leopard that should never have been in this city at all.

It would be okay, though. I would see Keith again. But…I was sorry I hadn’t made it home. I was sorry I hadn’t found my family. I was sorry Frank and Jan had followed us only to die in the next room. I was sorry I had let myself love again and would leave the three men who had held me together behind.

The office door splintered inward. Something pale and bloody shoved through the gap.

Mad cursed. Oxi shouted. Luck screamed my name again, closer this time, but he sounded pinned too, trapped somewhere beyond the leopard’s weight and my failing arms.

The leopard’s jaw forced my hands lower.

I closed my eyes and prepared for the pain, but another gunshot cracked through the warehouse.

The sound was deafening in the enclosed space, much louder than the one from the office.

The leopard jerked from above me. Its weight shifted just enough for me to suck in half a breath.

Another shot followed.

Blood sprayed across my jacket and scarf.