“Yeah. That's how he persuades you to take the dark path.”
“He? He like ...”
“The devil.”
I felt a cold shiverâlike a shot of ice waterâspeed through my veins, piercing my heart. “That sounds awful.”
We ate in silence for the next few minutes. I steered clear of the spaghettiâimages of maggots kept coming backâbut went headfirst into the meat lasagna. I was crunching through my third slice of the ultra-buttery garlic-bread goodness when Nina pushed through the front door, Vlad in tow.
Nina rushed over toward me and threw her arms across my shoulders, tugging me to her marble-cold chest. “Poor thing! Are you doing okay? You looked horrible at the office. Like, likeâ” I peeled myself away from Nina, wiping my greasy lips on a napkin. “Like that,” she finished.
“Thank you for your concern,” I said, patting her arm softly.
“What happened?” Vlad asked, keeping his distance from the dinner table.
“Sophie was attacked. And mugged!”
Vlad's eyes widened, and I could see the rise and fall of his paisley silk ascot as he swallowed slowly. “By whom?”
Nina pointed a well-manicured finger in Alex's direction. “His ex-girlfriend attacked her. But we don't know who mugged her.”
Alex put down his fork. “We're working on it.”
Nina crossed her arms, jutting out a single bony hip. “How are you working on it? Because it looks an awful lot like you're sitting here, stuffing your face, wining and dining my roommate, not out trolling the clouds or galaxies or wherever you angels go when you're not breaking our pottery.”
“It was an IKEA vase,” I protested.
“How can you just sit there, eating?”
Vlad's nostrils flared. “Is that garlic?”
Nina pierced him with any icy stare. “Go get the donation clothes. The grown-ups are talking.”
“Oh what
ever
!” Vlad moaned, stomping all the way to Nina's room.
I took another bite of garlic bread. “What else do you expect us to do?”
Nina stomped her foot.
Vlad poked his head out of Nina's room. “Uh, Auntie?”
Nina held up a silencing hand and glared at Alex and me. “We need to be doing something.”
“We're eating.”
Vlad stepped out of Nina's room, his arms weighed down with a monster-sized heap of Nina's discarded couture. “Nina?”
Nina shot him another glare, then focused back on us. “Sophie was practically useless at work today. Can't you see how this is tearing her apart?”
Vlad stepped out and dumped the load of clothes on the living-room floor. He produced an iPod from his pocket and popped in the earbuds, then disappeared back into Nina's room, shutting the door with a slam behind him.
I swallowed while Alex fished around in the Bambino's bag, extracting a handful of red-pepper packets. “We're going to get to it, but first we have to eat. Not all of us areâyou know, dead.”
I poked at the remains of my lasagna and Caesar salad while Alex and Nina bickered.
“We're close,” Alex was saying. “I know we're close to finding the Vessel.”
“Yeah, but Ophelia actually has that going-out-and-looking-for-it thing going on. What have we done? Nothing. Nothing!”
“We're researching,” Alex said, the muscle flicking in his jawâthe way it does when he is desperately trying to remain calm.
There was the faintest giggleâgentle, like the sound of tinkling bellsâtrilling in my head.
They can't help you
, Ophelia's voice intoned.
They don't even know where to begin. Your little friends have no idea how to deal with people like us. Us, Sophie ... you and I are one and the same.
“I am not dead!” I stood up, my fork clattering to my plate, my chair flopping onto the ground behind me. Nina and Alex's faces swung toward me.
“Um, Sophie?” Nina asked, her dark eyes wide with alarm.
I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed my temples. “It's Ophelia,” I said, “I can hear her.”
Alex stood up. “Where? Is she here?”
“Here?” Nina scrambled up on the kitchen table,
eek-a-mouse
style. “As in
here
?” She crouched down fighter style and clenched her fists. “I'll kill her.”
“No,” I wailed, pushing my palms against my head. “She's in my head. I canâI can hear her in there, talking to me. Taunting me. She's driving me crazy.”
That's good. Tell them you're hearing voices. That's just another nail in the nutty-mortal-girl coffin. They're not going to save you, Sophie. Not when they think you're already going crazy.
Nina pointed at me and angrily stared at Alex. “See what I mean?”
“I'm not crazy!” I yelled, feeling the red flush of blood as it rushed to my cheeks. “You're the crazy one, Ophelia !”
Alex swallowed hard, his eyes intent and holding mine. “She's in your mind?”
I felt the tears welling in my eyes. “I'm not crazy,” I said, my voice small. “I can hear her.”
“I know,” Alex said, taking my hand in his. “I know.”
I stepped back, shaking my hand from Alex's. “You have to tell me everything,” I snapped, “everything that fallen angels can do. I need to know what I'm up against with Ophelia.”
Alex sighed. “I already told you.”
“You told me mind reading. Now she's
in
my mind.” I crossed my arms. “What else?”
“Well ... we can manipulate your thoughts.”
I stepped back, looked Alex up and down, then leaned close, examining the curve of his chest, the muscular swell of his shoulder.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
I used my index finger to poke his firm stomach. “How do I know you're not manipulating my reality right now? For all I know you could be some eighty-year-old bald guy with gold teeth and liver spots.”
Alex grabbed my outstretched index finger and pulled me against him, my breasts pressing against his chiseled chest. We were hip bone to hip bone and I could hearâand feelâthe rhythmic beat of his heart. Alex's lips brushed the tip of my ear and I gave a slight, involuntary shiver, relishing the delicious feeling of his closeness, of his breath on my neck. All the pain and fear of Ophelia's visit was melting away.
“Are you willing to give me the benefit of the doubt?”
I shoved away from him. “Don't be sexy when I'm seriously trying to be mad at you.”
“Or when your roommate might seriously be in jeopardy of losing her lunch,” Nina moaned.
I steeled myself, gazing at Alex. “Anything else I should know?”
Alex sucked in a breath. “Yes. I guess so.”
I gave him the universal “Spit it out!” look.
“But it's not about Ophelia. It's about your father.”
Nina looked up. “Is he dead? You said you didn't know if he was dead.”
“Is he?” I asked.
“I don't know. It's not about that.”
“Okay ...” I said.
Alex avoided my gaze, looked at his hands. “Have you ever considered why you are the way that you are?”
I used the heels of my hands to wipe the last of my tears. “Neurotic? I can think of a few reasons.”
Alex raised his eyes. “No, your âpower.'”
“Power?”
“Okay, your lack of power. Both your mother and your grandmother had real powers.”
“And I can't do anything.”
“Not true,” Nina said, finger raised. “I've seen you make a pizza disappear. Ba-dump cha!” She held up her palms, played to an imaginary crowd. “Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week ... starting in an hour.” Then she disappeared into her room.
“Not that you can't do anythingâit's that nothing can be done to you. Magical immunity.”
I shrugged. “So? What of it?”
“Look, you get your traits from both parents, right? Red hair, green eyes.”
I nodded. “Excellent use of high school biology, thanks.”
Alex rolled his eyes.
“Okay, sure, fine, whateverâfamily traits. But I didn't get mind-reading abilities. So, what's your point?”
I didn't think it was possible for Alex to look even more exasperated, but he did.
“My point is that your father might also be magically immune.”
I wagged my head. “No, my father was one hundred percent grade-A normal.”
“You think. You look pretty grade-A normal and yet you're magically immune.”
“Okay, so how does knowing my father might be magically immune help us? I mean, it's not like it's going to show up on his medical records or on a Google search. And, what does my family tree have to do with finding the Vessel of Souls? Or getting rid of Ophelia?”
Alex looked at the floor and then up at me. “You might want to sit down for this.”
I snorted. “I'm talking to an angel about the father that left me four days after I was born, in my apartment where I saw the image of my dead grandmother in the bathroom mirror. And got beaten up by a fallen angel in a sweater set. I really don't think there is anything I need to sit down for.”
Alex shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
I stared at him. “Well?”
“Lawson, there is only one other known person who is magically immune.”
“And that would be ... ?”
“Satan.”
I sat down with a thud on the couch. “What? Satan? Like
the
Satan? Are you saying that I could be related to Satan?” I sprang up, went nose to nose with Alex. “Are you saying Satan could be my father?”
“I told you you might want to sit down.”
“Oh, Lord, I need to sit down.” I flopped onto the couch, letting my head sink into the pillows.
“What's wrong with Sophie?” Nina asked, coming out of her room.
“Her dad might be Satan,” Alex answered.
“Oh. Bummer. Are we out of O neg?”
I sat up and pointed to Nina, who was rooting around in our refrigerator, frowning at a plastic bag of blood. “And that is not the weirdest thing that happened to me today,” I said. “Geez.”
“Hey, Soph, it's okay.” Alex was crouching down, his muscular thighs flexed, his palm on my knee.
“Totally,” Nina said, tearing open her snack. “There are worse things than being the spawn of Satan.”
“Oh yeah? Like what?”
Nina and Alex exchanged a panicked glance. “Like, uh, you could be ... help me out here, angel,” Nina murmured out of the side of her mouth.
Alex held up his palms. “Hey, you're on your own with this one, Nina. I was going to go with the âthere, there' form of sympathy. Clean, neat, no promises.” Alex turned back to me, patting my knee and smiling softly. “There, there,” he said.
“At least you know who your father is,” Nina said helpfully.
“Might be. We're not sure yet.” I looked from Nina to Alex. “Right?”
Alex remained silent and I felt my blood pressure rise. I looked at Alex, aghast. “You knew about this, didn't you? You know that only Satan had the magical immunity thing going on and that I might have some kind of a connection.”
Alex stepped back, putting up his hands in case I decided to swing at him. “Look, I'll admit I thought about itâa little. But frankly, it's really hard to consider that your girlfriend might be Satan's kid.”
I paused, feeling a tiny prick in my heart. “Girlfriend ?”
Alex immediately pinkened and my heart did a double-thump. “I mean ...”
“No, that's okay.” I imagined Alex and me pressed up against each other, stealing kisses, holding handsâdoing the things that
couples
did. I imagined my engagement ring and sparkly veilâand my father, Satan, walking me down the aisle.
“Crap,” I muttered. “Still, what does this have to do with the Vessel?”
Nina's eyes widened. “He's the other big cheese that wants the Vessel, right?”
Alex nodded slowly and I felt the blood pulsing in my cheeks. “Oh, great. So, not only does Ophelia want to kill me because she thinks I know where this stupid thing is, but now my father, who may or may not be Satan, may or may not want to kill me to get a hold of this thing that I have no idea about.” I put my fists on my hips. “You're sure there's not an unsolved murder that we could team up on? You know, maybe work up to this whole fate-of-humanity thing?”