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Death had also shuffled to the end of the booth seat, so much so, his elbow touched Di’s soul. The woman shivered and moved away with a glare at the man who’d caused this ruckus. If Death noticed her censure, he didn’t show it.
“What’s happening?” he asked, with all the gall of someone who had skipped out on the newest episode of their favorite show and needed the people still watching to catch him up.
“You took her fucking soul out!” Bunny grunted through clenched teeth, pushing the words out of the side of her mouth so she could talk to him without raising further suspicion.
“He what now?” Di yelped, her tone jumping several octaves.
“Nothing,” Bunny said to her, forcing her face into a mask of calm collectedness to keep Soul Di from freaking out. “Put it back!” she hissed to Death on the sly.
“How can I?” he asked, perplexed. “I don’t even know how I took it out!”
“Are y’all angels?” Her eyes were huge as she looked at both Bunny and Death.
Bunny snorted. The very idea was ludicrous, and the word ‘angel’ conjured an image of Michael.
She turned away from both Death and Di’s soul then, focusing instead on the human body lying in front of her. She wasn’t breathing, and if Bunny was going to stand a chance at somehow fixing this clusterfuck, she was going to have to move now. Bunny leaned over Di’s body; two fingers pressed to the woman’s jugular. There was a pulse. It was faint, but it was there.
“Hello? Di?” Bunny said loudly. “Can you hear me?”
“I’m right here,” Soul Di frowned. She leaned over her body too, trying to see what Bunny was seeing. “Of course I can hear—hey!”
As soon as the soul was in grabbing distance, Bunny lifted a hand to her celestial pendant.
The soul was sucked toward her, and she used her pendant almost like a funnel to redirect it back into Di’s body. Soul Di struggled a little, as though scared about what was happening. She reached out with her wispy smoke-like hands, trying to grab onto the booth table in a panic to stop herself from being forced back into her body. But Bunny doubled down her efforts, focusing her energy into putting Di's soul back where it belonged.
Eventually the soul went back into Di through her mouth, making a gurgling sound like water draining from a bathtub before disappearing completely.
Di’s body gave a huge, shuddering gasp before her eyes flew open.
“She’s breathing!” another waitress yelled with relief.
The old man at the table next door clapped his hands together excitedly. “Oh, thank God!”
Dianne fluttered her eyelashes and blinked before opening her eyes wide. She gazed up into Bunny’s face, frightened, before she tried to sit up. Bunny pressed a hand to her chest firmly, keeping her on the floor.
“What just happened?” Di asked in a panicked tone. She tried to turn her head to look at Death in the booth, but Bunny refused to let her move.
“Don’t talk,” she said in her best nurse tone before leaning down and lowering her voice. “To anyone, okay?”
Dianne gave a tiny nod, but the look on her face didn’t have Bunny convinced. She avoided looking at Death, because she was almost certain she was going to have to convince Di later she had never seen him in the first place.
The ambulance arrived in record time, and Bunny was only too glad to hand Dianne over to the EMTs who attended. When she stood up, several people who had witnessed the event gave her a round of applause, which only served to make her cheeks burn. She gave an awkward wave, took some money out of her purse, and left it on the table as she headed for the door.
“Aren’t you gonna finish your breakfast?” Death asked, scrambling to catch up with her. His black coat shifted with the effort, flaring behind him dramatically.
“I lost my appetite,” Bunny growled as she stepped out onto the street. Early morning light cast a pretty gray filter over the city, which would soon turn to weak sunshine. “C’mon.”
It was only two blocks back to her apartment. The crisp air smelled like rain, but Bunny preferred to walk whenever possible. Her sneakers padded along the dark concrete sidewalk, and she ignored the trash and graffiti she passed. A lot of people—her brother and father included—didn’t understand how she could love the city when so much of it was dirty or downright gross.
But Bunny saw the beauty that imbued the urban jungle. She loved the architecture of the buildings, and how the glare from the traffic lights made neon pools out of puddles in winter. She always marveled at the way nature adapted to the man-made setting, whether it was pigeons nesting in the sheltered lips of steel girders in underground parking garages or tiny weeds poking green heads up through cracks in the pavement in summer.
“That’s a nice necklace,” Death said, breaking her out of her thoughts. He had been walking along so silently beside her that, just for a moment or two, she’d almost thought she was alone.
When she glanced at him, his eyes were on the moonstone pendant she always wore around her neck. Not only had it been her mother’s—it was also the source of her celestial power. And he knew that. Except… right now he didn’t.
“Yours is exactly the same,” she told him, quickly checking the time on her watch. “Only yours is black. Obsidian, maybe? I’m not sure, you never actually told me what it was made from.”
He shook his head, lips turned down as he thought about it. “I don’t remember it.”
“Yeah, well,” Bunny replied, starting to frown herself, “I’m gonna help you get it back anyway.”
