Page 80 of Death

“What?”

“Kiss me.”

She pauses to wet her lips before pushing up onto her toes. The instant our mouths touch, I feel the warm essence of her spilling into me. It curls down my throat and settles in the pit of my stomach, filling me with unimaginable comfort.

And silence.

Beautiful silence.

Tannis tilts down, breaking the kiss as her lips swing into a smile. “And there you are,” she whispers, feeling me inside.

I pull her closer and she rests her head on my chest. We continue swaying in time with the music, silently feeling each other while the world lives on.

A child accidentally brushes my knee as she scurries past us through the crowd. Tannis raises her head and grins to herself as the girl disappears and I catch a blissful wave somewhere in her bright eyes.

I kiss the tip of her nose. “Have you given any thought to what you want to do next?” I ask. “Anything you’d like to study? Anywhere you’d like to go?”

Tannis bites her bottom lip, eyes once again straying to the running child, and I already know her answer.

“Not really,” she says instead.

I tilt my head. “Are you sure?” I ask with a raised a brow.

“I’ll think about it.”

“You want a child.”

She nearly flinches. “I… don’t know. Not that it’s possible anyway.”

“It’s not?”

“Well…” Her shoulders bounce. “I mean, I’m dead.”

“Technically, yes.”

“So, then, I can’t…” Her face contorts. “I can’t have kids. That ship’s sailed.”

“Oh, Tannis.”I smile.

“What?”

“Mortals create life by accident every day,” I say. “You think I can’t do it on purpose?”

I reach down and rest a discreet hand on her belly over her dress. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, pretending to concentrate for a moment as her entire body stiffens.

Tannis juts back a step. “Ari, are you seriously—?”

I crack up, unable to hold it back. “No, I’m just kidding.”

She deflates. “You douche!”

“It doesn’t work like that.”

“I don’t want one like right now,” she says, slapping my shoulder.

I block her second blow and pull her little body even closer to mine. “We have to do it the old-fashioned way.”

“Really?”