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Fresh air,good food and lovely company had all played their part, lulling her into a dreamlike state. Death reached over to switch the radio on low, and they both enjoyed a drifting rock ballad on the local station as she drove home through the quiet but familiar streets of Mosswood. It was getting late by the time Bunny pulled into the driveway of her dad’s place, and she was feeling more than a little weary.
All the lights in the house were off, signaling Marshall hadn’t bothered to wait up for her. She smiled, remembering the days when her parents always wanted to know where she and her brother were after dark. They had been simpler times, she reflected, as she let Death and herself into the house. But was simple always better?
Bunny caught a glimpse of her celestial coworker in the glass of the kitchen door as she closed and locked it.
He met her gaze calmly, as though knowing it was only a matter of time before he caught her looking at him. Bunny felt a little tinge of heat in her cheeks, but honesty? She’d fallen so deeply into wanting him that she just didn’t have it in her to be coy right now.
And therein lay the tragedy. Here she was, finally with the nerve to do something about her feelings for him. And here he was, blissfully unaware they had already started that journey with The Kiss.
Rosie’s words came drifting back.
Do you know that he has feelings for you?
It was much easier to focus on that and ignore the witch’s warning.
Taking Death by the hand, Bunny led him up the brown carpeted steps of her childhood home. Past the embarrassing array of family pictures displayed on the wall along the staircase, past the bathroom with its orange and brown tiles and 70s-style shower curtain. She opened the door at the end of the hall with a twist of her wrist that she’d used a million times before, feeling like she was a badass for sneaking a boy into her bedroom.
Only he wasn’t a boy. He wasn’t even a man. He was an immortal being, and she was a plain old human, who was apparently capable of ripping demons out of bodies and sending them back to Hell. Only… why had a demon been able to find her in Mosswood in the first place?
It was all too much. She needed to touch base with the only person she could think of who could bring a little logic into her crazy life right now.
Closing the door behind them, Bunny held onto Death’s hand more tightly than ever. She wrapped her free hand around the moonstone necklace she’d inherited—along with this celestial gig—from her mother. As she willed it, a bright white sliver of light began to appear around the edges of the full-length mirror on the back of her bedroom door.
Not once did Death falter, seemingly more than happy to follow her lead. His hand tightened around hers as she led him through the portal, and he didn’t let it slacken when they stepped right into the middle of the Lobby. Enveloped in the faint swirling mist Bunny had come to expect from the place, she made a beeline toward Roberta’s desk.
“Have you heard from Mike and Raph?” Bunny asked as they approached the receptionist, her head tilting to one side enquiringly.
“Not a word,” Roberta sighed, sounding perturbed. She glanced down, taking note of the way Bunny and Death’s hands were linked. A second later, she flicked her gaze upward again. “Which is a little unlike them, to be honest.”
Bunny resisted the urge to let out a groan of frustration. If nothing else, she’d been hoping for an update about the demon situation.
“So, they’re AWOL? Great.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to stave off a headache that was threatening to take hold. “This is the clusterfuck that just keeps on giving. First a demon infects the AC repairman, then my coworker, then a small-town cheerleader—”
“Wait, what?” Roberta interrupted, holding up an index finger as a marker for clarification.
“Yep,” Bunny said matter-of-factly. “A grimy little piece-of-shit demon rocked up to my dad’s house in Mosswood last night, just after we got there. Gave me a stock-standard warning from the Soul Dealer that I’d be going back to Hell ‘where I belonged’.”
Roberta frowned at the mention of that name, the corners of her lips turning down with such elasticity that she almost looked like she was wearing a rubber mask for a second. “What’d you do?”
“Sent that little shit back to Hell,” Bunny said, her free hand coming up to rest sassily on her hip. “Who knew fly strips could be such effective exorcism tools?”
“It’s the chemicals in the adhesive.” Roberta nodded approvingly, glancing up as Death wandered in the direction of the giant water cooler Bunny collected her souls from.
“Yes well,” Bunny said a little snarkily, “it would have been easier if somebody had mentioned that I could use fly strips to suck them out of the bodies they’re infesting.”
“Look,” Roberta tossed back. “I’m really busy around this place in case you hadn’t noticed.” She waved her manicured hand at the huge empty lobby her desk occupied. “You think that your catastrophe is the only one I’m dealing with? Think again.”
“Okay,” Bunny nodded placatingly. “So just to sum up—no word from the angels, and now we’ve got demons who somehow know where to find me on the human plane.” She pressed her lips together, daring not to hope as she jerked her head in Death’s direction. “Any ideas on what the deal is with his memory?”
“I spoke to my rep in Upper Management," Roberta started, her face twisting into a wince. "She wasn't happy about the situation."
Bunny felt her heart sink like a concrete block thrown into a lake. "Figures," she said quietly.
"He's immortal and you're not," the receptionist pointed out. "They were never gonna be thrilled, doll."
"Did your source tell you that it's what caused him to lose his memory?"
"Not in so many words," Roberta shrugged. "But with everyone in that department, it's about reading between the lines."
