AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her brows lifted in surprise before dipping with interest. “Lilacs?” It was a weird thing to remember, seeing as they were smack dab in the middle of a major city. Truth be told, she was just thrilled he thought he could remember anything at all.
He nodded just once, a tic in his jaw flickering as he stepped into the space she had made by backing away from him. He reached out for her wrist but stopped before taking it.
“May I?”
She nodded, watching him.
His hand was as cool to the touch as ever. His fingers felt like a winter draft circling her wrist, lifting it gently until it was poised at chest height between them. With gentle care, he leaned forward, inhaling deeply even though she already knew he didn’t need to breathe at all.
“Lilacs,” he confirmed.
She didn’t know if he was correct or not. She’d been wearing the same body spray since she’d been in her thirties and wasn’t a huge fan of perfume. But she did know it had a distinctly floral bouquet, and for a moment her heart fluttered with hope. Was it too good to be true that the one thing he could remember was the way she smelled?
“Well, that’s something at least,” she said, gently tugging her wrist from his grip as she straightened. She couldn’t afford to get her hopes up. Not when she didn’t know what had caused all this in the first place.
Unless it had been the kiss…
“Either way, something is very wrong here,” she said, her lips twisting in a grimace as she moved away from the nagging thought in the back of her mind. “And there’s only one person I know who might be able to fix it. Come on.”
She led the way down the hall, her nurse hustle automatically in effect.
“Where are we going?” he asked, behind her and slightly to her left.
“The Lobby,” she whispered back, not wanting to risk being overheard ‘talking to herself’ by anyone else who might be doing rounds.
Luckily, he seemed to take the hint and followed her the rest of the way in silence. She could sense him keeping pace with her as she brought them to the incontinence supply room. Opening the door, Bunny paused and glanced both ways down the hall before stepping inside. Once he’d joined her, she closed the door behind them.
“This looks more like a hospital or something,” he declared, glancing at the boxes of Depends lining the huge metal shelving units on each wall.
“You don’t say,” Bunny replied wryly, heading over to the blank wall where they usually opened the door to the Lobby. The skin on her left wrist still prickled from the coolness of his touch as she reached up to pull her moonstone pendant out from beneath her scrubs. The stone had begun to glow a soft, luminous blue. Bunny pressed her index finger to the wall in front of her, beginning to trace a line.
Brilliant white light appeared along the line as she moved, giving the impression of light spilling around the edges of a closed door that hadn’t been there seconds before. Just the way Death himself had taught her weeks ago.
“Whoa,” he breathed, uncharacteristically impressed by the display of cosmic power.
Bunny lifted a worried brow before she forced it back down. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” she told him, pushing gently on the closed door. As it began to swing open slowly, she wasn’t sure whether she’d meant the comment as a threat or a promise. When the door was fully open, she tipped her head to one side swiftly so that her neck popped. “Let’s go.”
“Wait—I’m not going through there,” Death announced, a note of panic in his usually smooth voice. It was shocking enough to make Bunny turn back to look at him, noticing he had backed away from the door toward the front of the closet. “What if I can never come back out again?”
“You do it all the time,” Bunny assured him, as if trying to convince a kid who ate broccoli last week that it would be just as delicious a second time. “Normally,” she added with irony. “Trust me.”
Death shook his head slightly from side to side. “You first.”
If it wasn’t for the seriousness of the situation, Bunny might have smiled. He was an immortal celestial being who was responsible for conveying souls to the afterlife. And he was scared of going through a door into a place he frequented to do it. But she didn’t laugh. Instead, she nodded and turned to walk through the door.
“Wait!”
Her Skechers squeaked on the hospital linoleum as she paused. Before she could glance back at him over her shoulder, his chilled hand slipped into hers and gripped it firmly. As though he was scared she was going to leave him behind. She tightened hers to comfort him and stepped into the blinding white light of the higher celestial plane.
The polished stone floors immediately felt smoother beneath her feet. But he wasn’t holding her hand anymore. She turned, noticing his shadowy form lingering in the doorway back on the human plane.
“Shit,” she hissed, going back through.
His eyes widened when she reappeared, as though she was a rabbit a magician had somehow pulled out of an empty hat.
“You—you just appeared out of nowhere!” he said, astonished. “Can you do it again?”
“This isn’t a game,” Bunny told him, frustrated he hadn’t been able to accompany her. “We need to get you into the Lobby. I’m not sure why it’s not working.” She paused, nibbling the inside of her bottom lip thoughtfully before she had an idea. She looked at Death, shrugged a shoulder, and decided why the hell not?
