Page 25 of My Undead Love Life

Oxi stopped sharpening his blade. Outside, distant groans echoed through the tunnel. Something shuffled just past the door.

A beat of silence passed before Mad scrubbed a tired hand down his face. “Okay. Fine.” He pointed toward the sleeping bags. “Let's move her between us.”

Oxi looked up. “Seriously?”

“She’s literally freezing,” Mad shot back. “Unless you want her waking up sick as fuck tomorrow.”

“She might still wake up sick tomorrow,” Oxi grumbled. “Sick and pissed off at us.”

“But she'll wake up alive,” I countered. “She's freezing, Oxi. I’m not overthinking it.”

His eyes flicked toward Spencer before he sighed and shifted over. “Bring her over here.”

Carefully, I slid one arm beneath Spencer’s knees and another behind her back. Once she was off the freezing concrete, her body instinctively curled toward me. I was surprised at how light she was. Hours ago, she'd been screaming and kicking against me while trying to get back to her boyfriend. Now, she just lay limp in my arms.

She didn’t stir even a little. The poor woman was completely exhausted.

My chest tightened painfully.

“It’s okay,” I murmured quietly, carrying her across the closet and carefully lowering her onto the pile of sleeping bags.

Mad immediately pulled the blanket over her.

I settled beside Spencer while Mad laid on her other side.

The second we got close enough, I felt the cold radiating off her. Her entire body felt chilled.

“She’s so cold,” Mad muttered beneath his breath.

“She’ll warm up now,” I assured him quietly while pulling the blankets tighter around all of us. The sleeping bags rustled softly as I tucked another layer over Spencer’s shoulders. “Remember how we found Oxi?”

Mad let out a tired chuckle. “How could I forget?”

Oxi sighed dramatically as he put all his shit in his bag and lay down on the other side of Mad. “I hate this story.”

“It’s a good story,” I argued immediately.

“It’s a humiliating story.”

The corner of my mouth twitched upward despite everything. “We found you half-dead in the middle of winter.”

“In a tent,” Mad reminded him.

“A terrible tent,” I corrected.

“It wasn't that bad.”

“It had holes in it,” I told him. “Actual holes. Snow was literally blowing inside.”

Mad and I had been scavenging through a nature preserve after a blizzard when we'd spotted a tent tucked between frozen trees. At first we'd thought it was abandoned, but then, we'd heard coughing.

When we'd opened the flap, Oxi had been buried beneath every blanket he owned, shivering so violently his teeth were rattling. His lips had turned blue. Honestly, most of him had been blue.

“I don't see how this is a good story,” Oxi muttered. “And I totally would've lived.”

“Sure.”

“I would've.”