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“Crystal,” she said, trying not to sound too eager. She didn’t care why he had agreed to help her, only that he had. Their eyes met, and she nodded gratefully. “Thank you.”
His face was just an unreadable as ever. He studied her for a moment, before giving a short, sharp nod. “You’re welcome.”
* * *
Half an hour later,Bunny was caffeinated, had been to the bathroom, and was now standing in front of Death on her peach and white living room rug. She had absolutely no idea what was coming her way and was already feeling more than a little bit blindsided. Glancing up at him expectantly, she waited for further instructions and prayed they weren’t horrendous.
The look on his face didn’t inspire much confidence.
“You already know how to get into the lobby and how to collect your souls. Today we need to do a crash course on tracking vessels and traveling between them.” He lifted his chin, his eyes drifting upward as though trying to decide the most logical aspect to start with. Eventually, he gave a tiny shrug. “Let’s go with tracking vessels to start with.”
“Vessels?” Bunny asked, one of her hands perching on her hip. The breeze drifting through her living room window tempted her to tuck her blonde hair behind her ears, but she resisted the urge.
“People,” he explained. “You want to learn how to do this or not? C’mon.”
She followed him down the hall, her pulse hitching up a notch when she realized he was leading her into the bedroom. She glanced at him, her eyes widening. “What do we need to be in here for?”
“It’s better if you’re lying down your first time,” he explained, gesturing at the bed. “It puts a bit of strain on the body.”
She didn’t miss a beat. “Who said it was my first time?”
He let his head tilt to one side, giving her a brief eye roll. “Shut up and get on the bed.”
His words sent an undeniable thrill through her and were so unexpected, Bunny was shocked by them even though she tried desperately to hide it. She tucked her chin toward her chest, hiding behind a veil of blonde hair as she kicked off her shoes and then lay on her usual side of the bed with her hands folded over her belly. And then she noticed Death was bent over, undoing the laces of his boots.
“What’re you doing?” she asked, using her core muscles to do a sit-up so she could peer at him. She wasn’t mentally prepared for sharing her bed with Death, even if it was just in a figurative sense. His only response was to give her a look, which made her lie back against her fluffy pillow. A moment later, he perched on the other side of the bed and swung his legs up.
The bed moved under his weight while he made himself comfortable, and she tried to ignore the mattress jiggling beneath her before he settled down. With a blush threatening to bloom across her cheeks at any second, Bunny pressed her lips together into a line of resignation, while he continued.
“Each vessel will give an indication that they’re ready for celestial attention. For example, when people are almost ready for death, they have a gray aura that darkens the closer they get to the precipice.” He tilted his face toward her. “That’s how I know I have the right person. But finding the right person in the first place is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Bunny thought about the white glow around the women she had seen, reasoning that if Death saw celestial interference in terms of gray and black, it only stood to reason that she would see white and colors. She watched him take hold of the chain around his neck, tugging until the black stone pendant was resting on the outside of his t-shirt.
“These pendants—our passes—are the doorway to everything we do,” he told her. Now that they were lying down, his voice sounded gentler somehow. “No other celestial has the same access on their passes that we do.”
She frowned, a though occurring to her. “Can any of them come to earth?”
He gave a noncommittal shrug. “Some, yes. But they can’t engage the way we do. That duty is ours and ours alone. Now. Take hold of your pass and close your eyes.”
Bunny did as she was told, her eyelids fluttering closed as her pendant came to rest comfortably in her right hand.
“Feel the energy of the souls you’ve stored within the confines of your pendant,” Death told her. His voice sounded even quieter now, as though he was getting further away from her. She concentrated on his words, trying to pick them out of the cacophony of her own thoughts swirling around in her brain. And then she felt another presence. Or rather, presences.
The souls within her pendant suddenly came to the fore, pushing one another aside as they all seemed to vie for her attention. Bunny frowned a little more deeply, until she understood the nature of what they were trying to do. “They feel like they want to get out.”
“They probably do,” Death agreed. “They’ve been stored in there well past their time, and if you’re not careful, then the souls in the cooler will start to expire, too.”
A flurry of activity from the souls within her pass made Bunny flinch. “I forgot about that,” she admitted somewhat sheepishly.
“Forget about it for now, too. We need to concentrate on emptying these souls out of your pass before you can refill it. Pick one soul and home in on it.”
“Mmkay,” Bunny murmured under her breath, searching in her mind until she could zero in on one of the souls in particular. “Okay, I… I think I’ve got one.”
“Good.” Death actually sounded pleased. “Concentrate on it, feel its vibrational energy. Got it?”
She focused her mind, waiting until she was sure she had a good grip on this soul. It emitted a high-pitched sound that wasn’t unbearable, and she took her time to get used to it before she nodded. “Yes.”
“Right. Now hold on to that soul’s frequency but begin to push your mind away from it until you hear the frequency echoing.”
