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Thirteen
The rest of the drive back to Atlanta was uneventful. Mainly because Bunny turned her music back on to use as a brain distraction and Death wisely chose to vacate the vehicle. She pulled into her building’s parking garage, as tense as ever and feeling like she could easily sleep for a week. Even though she’d only been gone overnight, coming back to her apartment felt strange. The world felt skewed somehow, as though now everything was just a little off balance and it was messing with her head.
Bunny dumped her purse and overnight bag next to the door, figuring she’d deal with them later when she had a little more headspace. She knew one thing for sure—she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to go back to work. Dialing Cerise and being granted two more nights off made her feel a little guilty, but she knew she would feel better for taking the time out.
RuPaul swam excitedly over to the side of her tank closest to Bunny, eyes bulging and mouth bobbing open and closed. Bunny immediately complied with what she determined was a silent request for food, opening the fish flakes and letting the tip of her finger rest gently on the surface of the water before releasing any. RuPaul eagerly nibbled at Bunny’s finger—her fishy version of a kiss, perhaps—and then Bunny let the flakes crumble over the surface.
“You’re the best person I know,” she said to the fish, brushing her hand down the front of her jeans before flopping face-first onto her puffy denim-blue sofa. Familiar smells enveloped her. The scent of her favorite candles, the gentle freshness of the breeze trapped in the fabric after watching the sunset the other night. Bunny breathed deeply, using the various aromas to ground herself, holding onto the lead rope while her mind pulled on the other end, desperate to escape and run rampant.
Her dad. Ben. Remnants of their arguments drifted back to her, along with the stern look on her dad’s face when he had called her Bernadette. The way Death had shrugged off his coat. And the hum of the slightly different tire on the road as they had pulled back out onto the highway together. The sense of absence she’d felt, even before she’d turned to see he had vanished from Morticia’s front passenger seat.
Of all the things she needed to work out, only one was crystal clear: now she was even more determined to find out what had happened to her mom. Right after she worked out what the eerie glowing numbers meant.
Six numbers, no repeats.
What the hell was it? The combination to a bank safety deposit box? The winning lottery numbers? With a grunt of effort, Bunny rolled over on the couch so she was on her side, staring at the blank TV on the wall like it somehow might have the answers she was looking for. But it remained as dark as her future. She was never going to find out the answers to anything if she didn’t fulfil her quota. But how the hell was she supposed to get nearly seven million souls ready to enter the world in less than seventy-two hours?
She sighed restlessly, heaving herself into a sitting position. There was only one person who would be able to help her, and she wasn’t even sure he’d be willing. Worse still, she didn’t know how to contact him. It’s not like she could just keep Death on her speed dial, no matter how tempting the thought might be. Bunny chewed the inside of her lip thoughtfully, and then on instinct, reached for her moonstone pendant.
It was cool to the touch, reminding her of the coolness of his skin. Her fingertips tingled a little on contact but she didn’t break her hold. Instead, she chose to close her eyes, concentrating on her memory of the angular planes of Death’s face, the hidden chocolate warmth in his eyes, and the timbre of his voice.
Once she had the image firmly in mind, she took a deep breath, held it for a moment or two, and then slowly began to release it.
“You rang?”
Bunny just about jumped out of her skin when the very voice she had been imagining came from right next to her on the couch. She leapt to her feet with a gasp, her hand leaving her necklace and covering her heart instead.
“I will never get used to that,” she complained, eyeing him with a hint of annoyance. “Feel like I need to get you a collar with a bell on it!”
He raised one dark brow. “What do you want, Bunny? In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not the one who decided to shirk my duty.”
There was a hardness to his voice that shamed her. Her stomach flipped uneasily, and she searched for words that felt like they didn’t want to come.
She pursed her lips, then relaxed them. “That’s why I called you,” she told him, fighting to keep her tone light and not default to her regular sass. Her grandmother Alice’s favorite saying had been ‘you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.’ Death was understandably pissed that she’d consciously chosen to throw off the balance. She didn’t need to upset him while getting him to help her restore it. She took another breath and looked him straight in the eye.
“Look. I really need your help.”
He studied her after the words had left her mouth, his eyes narrowing once he realized exactly what she was asking.
“You don’t agree with what I do or how I do it, right?” he said, parroting back the words she’d hurled at him during the baby expo incident. “Why would you want my help?”
Okay, maybe this wasn’t going to be as easy as she’d thought. In her experience, being direct was the only way forward in situations like this.
“Because you’re the only person who can help me,” she admitted, her hands flapping at her sides in a gesture of helplessness. “You’re the only one who knows what the balance needs to be like, and you’re the only person who can teach me how to go inter-dimensional in order to ensoul everyone and meet this damn quota.”
The apartment was quiet around them. Death looked away from her, perhaps wishing that she’d never asked, or maybe even contemplating the pattern on the drapes. Who the hell knew with him? She watched him closely, beginning to convince herself that he was going to tell her to go jump.
“Please,” she added. And this time there was no edge to her tone. No sass. No snark.
It was enough to make Death turn back to her, a flicker of surprise evident in the way his brows had lifted slightly.
“Ever since you came on the scene, you’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass,” he said eventually, making her blink in surprise. He hadn’t been quite so candid with her before, and Bunny wondered if this was something he’d been holding back the whole time. But she had a thick skin. She could take it.
“Then I’d say that’s even more reason for you to help me, so I can leave you in peace and get on with my job,” she told him matter-of-factly, throwing him a half-shrug for good measure.
“Fine,” he begrudgingly agreed after another couple of beats. “But I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing it to honor Connie’s memory. So long as that’s clear.”
Elation expanded inside of her like helium filling a balloon. But it was short-lived. There would be a lot of things she’d need to learn, and not much time left to learn them in if she was going to stand a chance at pulling this off.
