Page 175 of My Undead Love Life

My heart slammed against my ribs.

“Back off,” Luck snapped.

The man laughed. “Relax. I’m just talking to her.” His hand slid down my arm.

My skin crawled beneath every layer of clothing I was wearing.

“You’re real pretty,” he murmured.

Fear twisted through me before disgust, and then, rage burned through both emotions.

The woman with the knives smiled. “Could trade her.”

Everything inside me went cold.

Keith’s finger moved onto the trigger. “I will paint the fucking snow with your brain.”

One of the men behind him raised his rifle. “Lower it.”

“No,” Keith said.

Oxi’s face had gone frighteningly still. “You have three seconds to release her.”

The tall man’s grip shifted again. His thumb pressed into the inside of my arm. “Or what?”

Luck stepped forward, finger on the trigger of his pistol. “Or we stop asking and this can be a blood bath.”

The woman with the knives had drawn one without me noticing. She swung toward Luck’s stomach, but he dodged easily.

“Spencer,” Mad barked. His voice cut through everything. “Do it.”

Mad’s eyes locked on mine, and survival took over. I moved my katana and pushed it forward. The blade struck beneath the man’s jaw, and I drove it into his throat.

There was more resistance than I expected. Rotted flesh tore easier. This was living muscle and tissue. The blade caught before it finally gave. Warm blood burst over my glove, wrist, and cheek. It was shockingly hot against the freezing air.

The man’s laughter cut off mid-sound. His eyes widened with confusion. He looked at me like he genuinely couldn’t understand how the woman he had grabbed had hurt him.

A wet choking noise bubbled from his ruined throat, and his fingers released my arm. He staggered backward, hands rising toward the blade.

I ripped it free, and more blood poured down the front of his coat.

Gunfire exploded through the trees.

“Get down!” Keith slammed into me, one arm catching around my waist as he threw both of us sideways.

I hit the ground hard. Snow softened the impact, but the air still ripped from my lungs. Cold rushed through my clothes immediately.

A blade sliced through the space where my neck had been a heartbeat earlier.

Keith rolled over me, shielding my body with his as he fired. The sound was deafening.

A man dropped near my feet.

Mad surged past us. His axe slammed into the chest of someone rushing from the left. The stranger’s gun fired into the trees as Mad ripped the weapon free and drove the axe higher.

Oxi intercepted another man before he reached us. His cane sword flashed once, burying itself beneath the man’s ribs. Oxi twisted, pulled it free, kicked his gun away, and moved between me and the remaining attackers without looking back.

Luck fired at the woman who had swung the knife. The bullet caught her in the shoulder, spinning her.