Page 87 of My Undead Love Life

Snow leopards.

Three of them.

My fingers tightened around my katana until my knuckles hurt.

Their dead, milky-white eyes locked onto us with a focus that made my skin crawl. One had its lower jaw hanging, blackened gums exposed around teeth too long and too sharp. Another had a torn strip along its flank where its ribs flashed beneath matted fur. The third was smaller, but there was something worse about it. Its head was cocked slightly, and one cloudy eye had collapsed inward, leaving a dark pit above its muzzle.

They were hunting us.

“Don’t move,” Mad said under his breath.

“Wasn’t planning to,” Oxi said in a strained whisper. One of them stepped forward. Its paw pressed into the snow without sound. Its head tilted, milky eyes fixed on my face with an intelligence that made my gut twist.

“It’s infected,” I whispered.

“Definitely,” Luck muttered.

The second one moved to our right as the third slid left. They spread out and began circling us.

My pulse roared in my ears. Every instinct in me screamed to run, but running was exactly what prey did.

Akiko’s voice flashed through my head, not from katana training this time, but from one of her endless survival lectures.

Predators like the chase.

The smaller leopard’s tail twitched.

“They’re herding us,” Oxi growled. “They’re actually⁠—”

“Back up,” Mad ordered. “Slow. Don’t turn your backs on them.”

We moved as one, boots crunching through the snow as we stepped backward.

The leopards matched us. The one on the left angled closer, forcing us away from the row of buildings. The one on the right drifted in, cutting off the path toward a narrow alley. The largest stayed ahead of us, blocking the road while never getting close enough for my katana or Oxi’s cane sword.

One of them let out a low, broken growl. Wet and rattling, like blood was filling its lungs.

“Those are not normal infected animals,” I said.

“No shit,” Oxi muttered. “I know they’ve gotten smarter, but this is…”

“Worse,” Luck said tightly. “Much worse.”

The smallest leopard lunged forward suddenly.

I jerked my katana up.

It stopped just outside striking distance, claws digging into the snow as its lips peeled back.

A feint. It had feinted.

My stomach dropped so hard I felt sick.

Mad saw it, too. His face changed, all the color draining from it as his eyes moved over the three animals again.

“Vehicle,” Mad said suddenly, nodding behind me. “Right there.”

I risked a glance where he nodded. A white van sat half-buried along the curb, angled slightly where it had crashed into a snowbank. One of the back tires was flat. The windshield was cracked in a spiderweb pattern. The side door hung open a few inches, enough to show darkness inside.