Page 73 of My Undead Love Life

“Mad, there are two snow leopards down there.”

He stopped. “…Two?”

“Yes.” I pointed toward the edge of the roof, but I didn’t step closer to it again. “They were watching me.”

His expression changed. The concern for me didn’t leave his face, but something else moved in behind it. Calculation, I think. The part of him that studied exits and weak points.

He moved toward the ledge slowly and crouched rather than standing over it, keeping most of his body back from the edge.

I stayed where I was, breathing through the pain.

Mad looked down. The wind tugged at his hair and coat. “That’s unusual.”

“Yeah,” I hissed, standing fully and brushing snow off my pants slowly with my good hand. “They’re solitary animals.”

“I know.” His voice was too quiet.

“What are they doing?” I asked.

Mad’s jaw tightened. “Watching the building.”

A chill crawled over me. “To get to us?”

“I assume so.”

I swallowed hard.

He eased back from the ledge and stood, his axe held loose but ready. “One of them is closer than I’d like.”

“I know. It moved when I fell.”

His eyes snapped to me. “It moved when you fell?”

“Yeah.”

“Toward the building?”

I nodded.

Mad looked back toward the ledge, then to the roof door, then across the rooftop as if mapping every possible way it could reach us.

“Let’s head back inside,” he said gently.

I flexed my shoulder, and pain flared down my arm so sharply that I sucked in a breath.

Mad noticed. “Spencer.”

“I’m fine,” I added quickly.

“You’re not.”

“I’m mobile.”

“That is not the same thing.”

“I can still swing a sword.”

“Can you lift your arm?”