Tricking Death

Chapter 29 - Two Little Words

"What are you doing here?" I ignored the hand that he had offered to help me up, wincing a little as I straightened myself up. Having him standing over me just made me feel too vulnerable.

"I could ask you the exact same thing," he said with a frown, withdrawing his hand to cross his arms over his chest. "Tell me: is the problem that you can't understand simple instructions, or that you're simply hard of hearing?"

"Excuse me?"

"Hard of hearing, it is." He let out a sigh when I raised my eyebrows in confusion at him, before his gaze darkened and his hand darted out to grab a hold of my arm. It was impossible to pull away, and the smell of rot and roses wafted over me. "I told you to wait back at the hotel for me. Not wait until I had left and then follow me. So, now you get the fun task of telling me just how much you managed to hear back there."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I spat, struggling with both hands to try and free myself.

"Don't try and play dumb with me, Emily," he hissed, squeezing my arm even tighter in his grip. "You have already worn my patience very thin. Now, tell me: how much of that conversation did you hear?"

"Enough." He narrowed his eyes, clearly not pleased with my response. He get fed up with my struggles and grabbed onto both of my arms before uttering his own retort, stopping my pathetic attempts at fighting him off almost entirely.

"'Enough' isn't an answer."

"Yes, it is. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean that it isn't an answer." I didn't quite know why I was being so bold this evening, especially with such concrete evidence right in front of me of what Death was capable of doing to those who crossed him. The guys had not moved a single inch since he had dropped them to the ground, their blood creating ever-growing sticky red pools around them.

He dropped both of my arms with disgust, turning away to rake his hands through his hair and tousle it into a thick cloud above his head. I was surprised at how easily he gave up, but it soon became very obvious that he wasn't giving up: he merely was exerting a ton of willpower to stop himself from doing something he would regret.

Something that he would regret doing to me. There was an echo of a scream, one that I knew I wasn't physically hearing, and then I knew that one of the guys lying on the sidewalk had just slipped from unconsciousness into Death's realm. Even though I knew that they had much worse planned for me tonight, I couldn't help but feel sorry for them. They picked the one girl that they should have left alone.

"Let's go." I was snapped out of my thoughts by Death adjusting himself and holding out his hand to me again.

"What? Where?"

"Back to the hotel. Now. Let's go."

I ignored his outstretched hand and tried to walk past him, but quickly found myself trapped against his chest with his breath washing over my ear.

"With how you've been behaving tonight, I don't trust you enough to let you walk along freely: you might just decide that you're going to bolt on me. So, either you give me your hand, or I carry you all the way back to the hotel."

"You are NOT carrying me again. No way. It is way too humiliating; I have legs, I can walk. Alright?"

"Then give me your hand."

This time, when I fought my way out of his grip, he let me win. I turned and jabbed my hand out in his general direction, adding a touch of defiance by refusing to look at him. I was expecting to get stuck holding hands with him all the way back to the hotel, like a child being led along by a parent, but instead I felt a sharp, hot tugging sensation around my wrist.