Page 14 of My Undead Love Life

A fucking snow leopard.

And something was wrong with it. Its eyes weren’t natural anymore.

Milky white clouded over the predator’s gaze the same way they did with infected humans. Dark veins spiderwebbed faintly beneath patches of fur around its mouth, where dried blood stained the white coat blackish-red. One side of its jaw twitched unnaturally.

It wasn’t alive. It was infected, and I was wounded.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” I breathed.

The leopard crouched low, muscles tightening beneath its snow-covered fur.

It launched straight at me.

3

SPENCER

Keith had broken his promise.

He’d promised to always stay by my side. Instead, he’d shoved me into the arms of a stranger and sacrificed himself for me.

The memory tore through my chest.

Keith’s voice.

His kiss.

The way he smiled at me even while the undead closed in around him.

My lungs burned as I struggled for breath; each inhale was thick with mildew and the overwhelming stench of the undead.

Tears blurred the tunnel into smeared streaks of grays and blacks while the groans behind us echoed endlessly through the underground. It felt like a shard of glass had lodged itself between my ribs and twisted deeper every time I breathed.

The stranger carrying me tightened his grip when I gained the strength to start fighting him again.

“Put me down!” I snarled, shoving hard against his back. “I said, put me the fuck down!”

He stumbled slightly beneath my weight but kept moving. His boots splashed through puddles on the subway floor. “That’s not happening!”

“I have to go back!” Desperation clawed wildly through my chest as I twisted harder, trying to force myself free. “Keith’s still back there!”

“And if you go back, you’ll die too!” he shot back breathlessly.

“I don’t care!”

“That’s a huge fucking problem!”

I slammed my fist against his shoulder hard enough that he cursed under his breath. “I’m not your problem!”

“Jesus Christ,” the blond man muttered as he nearly lost his footing. “You are strong when emotionally unstable.”

“Put me down!”

He staggered sideways hard enough to smack against the tunnel wall. His grip slipped for one terrifying second before he caught me tighter against his shoulder again.

“Okay—Okay, fine!” he snapped between breaths. “You keep fighting me like that, and we’re both eating concrete.”

A fresh wave of groans echoed closer behind us.