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Bunny chuckled lightly into her mug, lifting her head as her dad pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“I’m gonna grab a quick shower,” he told her, heading for the living room. “Leftovers are in the fridge.”
* * *
She wasn’tsure if it was just her imagination or someone nearby had been indulging in a little evening baking, but Bunny could have sworn the fall breeze drifting in through the kitchen window smelled just like the faint aroma of her mom’s famous hummingbird cake. She sat and sipped her coffee in companionable silence with Death, not even batting an eyelid when he came and perched on the stool beside her at the kitchen counter.
There was a real sense of her being closer than ever to figuring out how to get Death’s memory back, but for the moment she was too caught up in her own memories to reach it. Images flickered through her brain of her mom in her favorite apron, baking bread or cooking a pot roast. Ben sitting next to her at the counter, doing his homework while his big sis fixed him a glass of chocolate milk. The family laughing together on the rare occasions when they’d picked up pizzas from Minetti’s for a dinner treat.
Death seemed to realize Bunny needed this time to reflect. He sat in silence, simply being there by her side. She was more than happy to just enjoy the serenity of his presence. Her gaze fell from the gently swaying curtains at the kitchen window to the counter. His hands rested on the stone surface, one on top of the other. It was crazy how everything about him was so human, right down to the wrinkles on his knuckles.
His hands were so masculine. He had wide palms that would measure at least another inch or so more than hers, with strong fingers curled casually around each other as he sat in quiet contemplation. Just briefly, those fingers had caressed her jaw, her ear… her neck. She was tempted to reach for them now, to remind herself they would still be cool to the touch. To remind herself that even though he looked every bit as human as she was, he was really something much, much more special than that.
His index finger twitched, as though he was anticipating her next move.
A sullen knock at the kitchen door made them both swivel in place.
Bunny could see a big letter ‘R’ through the window, emblazoned on what was obviously the sweater of a cheerleading uniform. She knew that uniform well—she'd gone to Rome High as well. She slipped off her stool, checking her watch to note the time as she opened the door.
“Bunny—wait!” Death said, starting to get up from his own seat.
The door creaked a little as it opened, revealing a young lady standing on the doorstep. She had a deep gash along her forehead crusted with dried blood—and she immediately swiped at Bunny with broken fingernails.
It took Bunny a hot minute to process what was going on, but she managed to jump backwards out of the line of fire just in time.
It was more than a little shocking to see the teenager, not only because she ought to be dead, if the color of her skin and the condition of her wounds were anything to go by. But also because she had that same needle-tooth filled grin the repairman at Arcadian Waters had adopted right before he’d dived out of a closed fourth-story window and vanished into the night.
Demon.
The girl stepped forward as if she was about to enter the house, but then looked at the doorway apprehensively. Bunny followed her gaze, noticing the fly strip that had obviously been hung on the wall next to the door by her dad to keep the pests from taking ownership of the house. But the demon-infested cheerleader was looking at the damned fly strip with wide-eyed fear, as though it were about to rear up like a cobra and strike her.
Bunny’s gaze darted to the open box of fly strip cannisters on the counter right next to the door. God bless her dad’s bad habit of not picking up after himself!
She snatched the one sticking up out of the box, pulled it out of the tube, and slapped it straight onto the demon-girl’s forehead. It was a long shot, but it was one that Bunny was willing to take, given the circumstances.
A howl filled the kitchen, not unlike the wail of the Wicked Witch of the West getting a bucket of water dumped over her head. Bunny was still gripping the tail end of the fly strip when the possessed girl backed away from the door.
Just like pulling off a Band-Aid, a shadowy puff of air came away from the girl’s body, stuck fast to the fly strip.
“I have a message for you, from the Soul Dealer,” it rasped, fighting desperately against the gravity that seemed to want to pull it downwards. “He says soon he will have you back in Hell where you belong!”
The Soul Dealer? What did he have to do with all of this? Hadn’t Death dealt with him when they’d been trying to escape Hell?
“Oh yeah?” Bunny said, leaning down to look menacingly into the shadow itself. “Well, you can tell that pompous asshole he can kiss my ass!”
She flicked the fly strip at the ground like it was a whip, and the demon’s last tenuous hold on the teenage girl was broken. Without anyone else in the immediate vicinity to infect, the demon squealed and was sucked down into the earth beneath the porch.
The cheerleader collapsed backwards, her body exploding into a pile of disgusting brown goop all over the porch steps.
“Oh, that’s just fucking great!” Bunny chirped sarcastically.
“What’s that?” a voice asked behind her, making her jump.
“Jesus, Dad,” she gasped, glaring at him over her shoulder.
“Sorry,” he said, screwing up his face as he peered at the mess on the porch.
“I took the trash out and the bag leaked,” Bunny said, thinking on her feet. “I’ll clean it up. Sorry.”
