Page 66 of My Undead Love Life

I reached up again, trying to wipe the frozen tears from his skin. My glove was clumsy against his cheek, so I tugged it off with my teeth and touched him with my bare fingers instead. His skin was freezing.

“Oxi,” I murmured. “You’re going to ice over up here.”

“So are you.”

“Then, let’s both go back in.”

His hand caught my wrist before I could pull away.

I froze.

He turned his face and pressed a soft kiss to the inside of my wrist.

My blood roared in my ears. The kiss barely lasted a breath, but I felt warmth rise everywhere. My fingers curled instinctively, and his thumb moved over my pulse like he could feel exactly how hard my heart had started beating.

I should have pulled away. I should have thought about Keith, about my grief, about the fact that my heart was a disaster, but part of me was clearly not realizing any of that. Because I didn’t pull away.

I wanted Oxi.

His gaze lifted to mine, darker now. “Spencer…”

“I know,” I whispered.

His hand slid from my wrist to my elbow as he leaned down. I rose onto my toes. The cold vanished as his breath brushed my lips. Before they could touch, movement caught my eye on the building across from us.

My mind refused to process it at first. The shape was too still and blended in with the snow.

A low rooftop was across the narrow street from the mall, its ledge buried under frozen snow drifts. Something crouched on it near a broken ventilation unit. Something large.

Oxi stilled before turning and looking where I was, without letting go of me.

I squeezed his arm tight. “Oxi…”

“I see it,” he whispered.

The animal stood on the opposite rooftop, silent and watching. It was a snow leopard.

Its thick fur should have been beautiful, pale gray and white with dark rosettes. But death had ruined it. Patches of fur were missing along its shoulder and flank, exposing frozen flesh and bone beneath. One side of its face had peeled back enough to show too many teeth. Its eyes reflected the weak moonlight with a cloudy, unnatural sheen.

It was clearly undead, but it wasn’t wandering aimlessly like the slower corpses downstairs had done. It was watching us like a predator watched its prey.

Fear spiked through me so hard my knees almost weakened.

“Go back now.” Oxi grabbed me and pulled me toward the door.

We ran. The snow fought every step, crunching and sliding under my boots. My breath tore out of me in white bursts. Oxi kept one hand locked around mine and the other on his cane sword, half dragging me when my foot slipped in the narrow path.

Behind us, the snow leopard didn’t roar. It didn’t make a sound or even attempt to follow.

We reached the roof door, and Oxi shoved it open against the snow. We stumbled through together. He yanked it shut behind us and threw his weight against it.

A horrible roar broke the night open from somewhere across the roofline in response. The sound ripped through the metal door and down the stairwell. It wasn’t the mindless groan of a zombie. It was rage.

“Can it make it up on the roof?” I stumbled back as dizziness swept over me.

Oxi caught me before I hit the wall. His arms came around my waist, steadying me. “I don’t know.” His eyes were fixed on the door, and his face had gone pale. “We need to talk to the others. Reinforce everything again. Check the roof access. Check the stairwells. Barricade anything it could climb or break through.”

“Because now…” My voice shook.