HALLO, REAPERS!! HOW ARE YOU? 

MY BIRTHDAY IS OCTOBER 7TH FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE WONDERING ROFL.

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So, this was more like the first half of the chapter, since I've been writing kinda slow lately and wanted to get something up! Hopefully you guys leave some lovely feedback that'll get my creative juices flowing!!

Also, I'm hosting a Halloween COSTUME AND ART contest this year! Send me your costume and new art that has to do with DIMBFF by October 31st and the fans who impress me the most will win an extra special surprise! Make sure the costume/art is 100% geared toward my Death series for a better chance to win!! You can submit as much as you want! ;) 

Here's the link to Facebook group for Death is My BFF!! (JOIN USSSSS!! Link in my bio on Wattpad too!)

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Death and I stood side by side with our arms crossed over our chests. In front of us stood The Crossroads, Ace's shop, with its distinctive Ouija board-looking sign.

I gestured toward the entrance. "Age before beauty."

Shooting me a flat look, Death strode forward and gripped the door handle. His enormous frame stiffened, as if he'd stuck his finger into an outlet. Tendrils of violet light pulsed to life around the store and latched onto Death's gloved hand. Leather and flesh seared. Magic crackled, and I realized there was some sort of ward protecting Ace's store, and he was now in its web.

"Oh, crap!" I lurched toward him, when Death ripped the door open with a menacing growl and loosed a ragged breath. The magic died off.

We looked at one another. From under his hood, Death had an untamed look in his shadowed eyes as if his monster side had been dangerously stirred awake again. He blinked, and it burned away.

"Enter at the same time?" I offered with a timid laugh.

Baring his white fangs in a smile that was a distant cousin of polite, Death made a show of holding the door open with his charred hand and gestured me inside. "Ladies first."

Sighing, I stepped past his menacing frame into The Crossroads. Other than my ears popping like crazy, nothing too cynical happened. "Talk about anticlimactic. I was kinda hoping for something to use my ninja skills on. Like a guard dragon, or a bunch of wizardly henchmen, you know?"

Death, who was removing his tattered leather glove and replacing it with another, strode ahead of me with a derisive laugh. "Ninja skills is a stretch, Cupcake. Your shirt is inside out."

I looked down at my plain long sleeve shirt. Pursing my lips, I shrugged nonchalantly and continued forward. "I meant to do that."

We passed tons of crystals, meditation trinkets, and other paraphernalia, heading toward the library.

"So," I said, since Death wasn't particularly chatty, and I was getting a little nervous to be back in the place I'd committed arson and physical assault while under possession of the pendant still fastened around my neck. "What exactly is Ace going to do to help me 'home in on my powers'? Am I finally going to practice like we did that one time in your office? Or is this going to be another meditation thing? You know, I read on your computer––"

"How the hell did you get onto my computer?" Death growled.

"Wasn't that hard to guess your password. Grimreaper1? Really? Anyway, I read online that mediation isn't something you usually learn right away. Which is why I think we shouldn't do anything like that with Ace, if that's what you had planned. Think Ace will give me a wizardly wand this time around?"

"Hopefully he gives us a gag to stuff in your mouth," Death muttered.

We were walking down a line of book shelves to Ace's séance room, when a familiar face suddenly slinked into our path.

"Evening," said the vampire, who I remembered was Dunkin. His silvery hair was pulled back in a low pony tail and he wore a similarly tailored suit from the last time I'd seen him, in Ace's demon club. Last time we'd met, Death had thrown one of his vampires off the balcony and pissed Dunkin off. "Fancy seeing you two lovebirds again."

"You have five seconds to get out of my fucking way," Death said without pause and shifted so that he stood mostly in front of me, muscles shifting beneath his regal cloak. The fact that it ticked me off that Death's first reaction was to protect me rather than let me defend myself, made me reflect on my increasing confidence and growth as a newformed ninja.

"Shit, you get fired up fast. Who pissed in your cheerios, mate?" Dunkin showed his palms, as if expecting Death to plow over him. "I'm just browsing some reading material. Last time I checked, this property doesn't belong to you." Dunkin reached a long-fingered hand to a random shelf beside him and flipped through a book. "Ace has some real interesting stuff, here."

"Why are you here, Leach?" Death demanded in his low, deep voice. With only his tone, Death had a way of making people feel like they were more unimportant than a little itty bitty speck on this earth.

Dunkin scrutinized me from behind Death. "Your pet remains in pristine condition and unmarked. How come? Have you gone soft and now she wears the trousers in the relationship?"

"No, I wear the bra," I said.

"And we're not in a relationship," Death clarified unnecessarily. My stomach sunk a little. I mean, he wasn't wrong...

"And yet you laid claim on her in Ace's club," Dunkin pointed out, his tone harshening. "Right after you threw one of my vampire's off of the balcony in front of the whole club."

"I was testing his elasticity," Death quipped.

Dunkin fake laughed, before his expression molded into granite. "You humiliated me, and you humiliated the Crypt. And I expect a bloody apology. Or else you and I, we're going to have a serious problem."

Death flashed his fangs in a broad, frightening grin. "I don't react well to threats."

"You wouldn't react well to your pets head separated from her skull, either, now would you?"

Death made a terrifying noise at the back of his throat.

I grabbed a fistful of Death's cloak from behind, as if to keep him on a leash. His spine straightened, and he looked slightly over his shoulder. I imagined he would have whirled around and bitten off my hand, had his focus not been entirely on Dunkin. Hopefully he had gotten the message that we couldn't start another catastrophe on Ace's property.

"Maybe you should tell your disgusting vampires to keep their hands to themselves," I said to Dunkin, "so that they don't assert themselves onto women without permission like yours did to me."

"What a cheeky little mouth you have on you, luv." The way he spoke made it seem like he was appraising a perfect medium rare steak. "You can't blame a vampire for being curious. Your soul is the most vibrant essence I've ever faced. It's simply unfair that Death is keeping you all to himself. And he hasn't even had a taste? Has he even shagged you?"

Dunkin instigated a reaction out of me that made me step forward, but now Death fired a scolding look at me and I stayed put. Turning back to Dunkin, he clenched his gloved hands and leather creaked. Dunkin waited, as if expecting Death to explode with rage. It was likely that Death was so unpredictable at the moment, so enraged, that he couldn't even speak, and I was astounded he hadn't ripped this vampire's head off yet after his earlier encounter with his reapers. When Dunkin clearly didn't get the response out of Death he hoped to provoke, those soulless vampire eyes flicked back over to me.

"See, I'm more of a traditional Master Vampire, hypnotizing my prey and whatnot," Dunkin said, flipping through another book. "But lately, I've dabbled a bit in magic to hunt. Mixing it up revives that old thrill of being a newborn. The thrill of the hunt. Driving your prey to madness before consumption. Drinking your fill..."

"And chasing it down with a garlic milkshake?" I offered, earning a low, sinister laugh from Death. Good, he wasn't in full blown Monster-mode yet.

The vampire's gaze drilled into me, unblinking. "The good old days were more fun, don't you agree, Your Highness? Back when evil could have a hundred whores and shag any human they wanted without any repercussions." He turned that soulless stare back to Death. "Don't you miss it?"

The implication that Death was just like Dunkin made me sick, although it didn't come as much as of a surprise. And the fact that Death didn't answer right away, and that Dunkin was implying he wanted to "shag" me, only made the whole situation more uncomfortable.

Before I could stop him, Death stepped up the vampire until they were face to face. "Get out of our fucking way," he growled in a dangerously low voice, and the 'or else' was implied.

"Don't you think it's unfair for the girl," continued Dunkin without any fear in his expression, "to keep her so freely, yet controlled, at your side? If I recall correctly, and I always do, lively things like her don't last long around you." He lifted his hand and wiggled his fingers in a mocking way, and I realized Dunkin was referencing Death's gloves.

Death cocked his head to the side. As he clenched his jaw, muscles ticked like a bomb counting down. I was used to seeing Death with the utmost control, but just like in the gym earlier, lately he was losing his grip. This whole coincidence meet-up with Dunkin did not feel right.

"Death," I started, yanking him by the cloak. "Don't. He's not worth it."

Death shrugged out of my grasp. "Don't touch me."

"Yeah, don't touch him, luv." Dunkin flashed his fangs in a slow, gummy grin. "I'd hate to see you draw your last breath without me getting a taste." He turned to Death again with a callous, taunting look in his eyes. "How exactly did you stick your undead knob in her tight little mortal fanny? Must have be real draining for her but that's how you know it was a good hard fuck, eh?"

Death started forward, a massacre on the brink, when I shot my arm out in front of him and boldly stepped in front of him. "I wouldn't call it a knob, Dunkin. More like one of those bulky cast iron shooting mechanisms that pirates used to fire bowling balls at opposing ships."

"A cannon," Death said dryly from behind me. "It's called a cannon."

"Also," I said, as Dunkin seethed at me, "you should work on that enigmatic grin. The gummy smile you showed us before was cringe."

Dunkin's silver furrowed. "Gummy smile?"

I glanced back at Death, who had his head tilted down at me as if he were contemplating attacking me instead of Dunkin. I winked and imagined a pierced brow had lifted beneath his hood. He lifted that wicked gaze up to Dunkin.

"She's right, that was a weird fucking smile," Death agreed.

Dunkin frowned. "What the bloody hell are you talking about?"

"Maybe he just has high gums?" I shrugged, casually grabbing a book off the shelf.

"Some things not even immortality can fix." The lapels of Death's cloak brushed against my back as he edged closer to me. It felt obscene. Goosebumps spread across my arms. I tried not to focus on that, and instead, the task at hand. Down, girl!

"I most certainly do not have high gums," Dunkin insisted. "That's just the way I smile."

"You also had something green in-between your teeth," I said, motioning to my own.

Dunkin bared his fangs and prodded at them with his pinky. "I do? Where?"

I neared closer to him, squinting my eyes at his mouth. "Right... There, asshole!" I smashed the book in my hands into his pale face and punched him hard in the gut. His hand shot out toward me and I reacted fast, unleashing a set of handcuffs from my back pocket and snapping it across the vampire's wrist. The device spiraled up his wrist like a snake and constricted. Dunkin reeled back with a hiss, his arm limp at his side. Seeing this as a prime opportunity to attack, Death kicked his boot into Dunkin's side and knock him into a book shelf. Books tumbled off the shelf and onto the floor. Death threw his whole weight onto the vampire and gathered both his wrists behind his back to cuff.

Dunkin hissed, his eyes black as a demon and his features unnaturally sharpened. "And get off of me, you wanker!"

Death stood, keeping his boot on Dunkin's back. "Shut the hell up," he snarled and pushed on Dunkin's spine until the vampire grunted. Then cut his shadowed stare to me, and I was smirking.

I held out my arms. "Are you not entertained?"

Death ripped down his hood, revealing carved, mouthwateringly masculine features. I swallowed a lump in my throat. His mismatched eyes held mine, the panels of his godlike face trapped between a raging storm and something else. I expected him to rip into me with his words, chastise me for attacking a Master vampire.

Death bowed his head at me once, in a strange acknowledgement of respect. His venomous mouth lifted into a wicked smile. "I'm mildly impressed."

"You and I both know you can't do shit to me, mate!" Dunkin shouted, writhing on the ground like a big baby. "I'm an affiliate of Lucifer's committee! I'm a purebred vampire, and you're a bloody bastard question mark. You don't deserve your position in Hell, you good for nothing mutt––!"

Death slammed his boot onto Dunkin's arm and bones crunched. He released a high-pitched wail of pain that rebounded comically off the spacious library.

"What is going on in here?" demanded a voice. Death and I turned our heads, to find Ace standing at the end of the towering aisle of books. 

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AHOY!! WHAT IS EVERYONE'S FAVORITE THING ABOUT HALLOWEEN?????

I'm hosting a Halloween costume contest this year! Send me your costume that has to do with DIMBFF by October 31st and the fans who impress me the most will win an extra special surprise! Make sure the costume is 100% geared toward my Death series for a better chance to win! ;) 

ARE YOU STILL NOT A MEMBER OF THE DIMBFF GROUP?????? BRUHHHHHHhhhHH, YOU ARE MISSING OUT!!!!

Here's the link to Facebook group for Death is My BFF!! (JOIN US!! Link in my bio on Wattpad too!)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/308207282529485/

Twitter/Instagram: Katrocks247