“Hey, love, how you feeling?”
I wagged my head and shrugged. “I don’t really know.”
“Fancy a slice?”
“No thanks. I just want to go to bed.”
Will looked like he was going to make a smart reply but thought better of it. Instead, he patted my shoulder awkwardly, then leaned down and brushed a soft kiss over my cheek, his lips soft as they tickled my ear. “Sorry you have to have such a crap guardian.”
I heard the rev of Alex’s engine as he sped away.
I opened the apartment door and Nina was stretched out on the couch, barefoot and dressed in a silky violet robe. There were a dozen empty blood bags crushed on the coffee table.
“Couldn’t find a fat guy.”
“Where’s Vlad?” I asked.
“Took off with the VERMers,” Nina said. “Apparently, a T-shirt shop on The Haight has committed some egregious crime against Count Chocula. Besides, I thought we could use a quiet night. Just you, me”—she held up the paper bag that was next to her on the couch—“and a couple dozen marshmallow Pinwheels.”
I grinned and lowered myself gingerly to the couch.
“You wouldn’t believe how hard these were to find. The corner market was totally sold out.”
“Weird. You’re starting to look better.”
“A full meal will do that to you.”
I poked the stack of blood bags with my toe. “A full meal? Looks like you had a full football team.”
Nina grinned and burped softly. “No offense, but you’re not looking so hot.”
I frowned and glanced at myself in the hall mirror. My hair was ratted and streaked with dirt and dried blood. There was a noticeable bald spot that flared red and angry when I touched it. My mascara was running and my lower lip was split and fat. Scratches and cuts crisscrossed like raised red train tracks over my legs and arms. It seemed that every part of me that wasn’t covered in blood was smeared with dirt and ballpoint-pen ink.
“I look like I got in a fight with the Office Depot guy.”
“And lost.”
I glared and Nina grinned, the tips of her fangs still sporting a deep red hue from her recent feeding.
“I think I’m going to take a shower.”
I ran the shower water as hot as I could get it and stood under the stream, scrubbing gently and whimpering each time I found a new ache. I stepped out and dried myself off, being careful not to look into any shiny surfaces. Ophelia’s gleeful laughter at my mother’s suicide still rang in my head and I wasn’t ready to face my grandmother.
I stiffened, thinking back to when I confronted Grandma about my being the Vessel. “Being a Vessel isn’t the worst thing, but dying to protect it is.”
Dying to protect the Vessel. Dying, to protect ... me.
I clamped my eyes shut and lost my breath. I saw the glare from the sun on the blond hardwood floor. I felt my mother touching me, nuzzling me, her hands seeming so big as they stroked my hair. “This way they’ll never find you, Sophie. They won’t know where to look.” A sob choked in my throat as the image became a memory, a thought. My tears mingled with the shower stream, flooding over my cheeks. I remembered that voice. I remembered that moment.
“It’s the only way.”
I started to nod my head despite the ache the movement caused. “Don’t do it,” I whispered. “I need you here.”
I stood still, letting the hot shower water wash over me.
When I finished with my shower I flopped on the couch in my bathrobe. ChaCha curled up next to me and Nina dumped two whole boxes of marshmallow Pinwheels on a plate and set it on the coffee table in front of me.
“I feel like I should be taking care of you,” I told her. “I practically got you killed.”
“But you rescued me,” Nina answered from the kitchen. “You came and found me. I’ve never had a friend who would do that for me.” She curled up on the couch next to me, folding her legs neatly underneath her.
“So, what happens now?”
“Well, I don’t have to be afraid of Ophelia anymore.”
“Does that mean it’s over?” Nina wanted to know.
I looked into her dark eyes and took a deep breath, trying to banish the image of Ophelia’s crumbling wings, her solemnly bowed head from my mind. I thought of Alex, of our night together, how I had run my fingers over the four-inch vertical scars just under each shoulder blade. He had stiffened, ashamed of the marks left from losing his wings.
“No, it’s not over. Not by a long shot.”
Nina rested her head on my shoulder, wrapping her cold arms around me. “It’s just the beginning, isn’t it?”
I may have been safe from Ophelia, but that was all. “I keep wondering how long it’s going to be until someone else comes hunting for me. And then there’s Alex... .”
“Alex isn’t going to come hunting for you, Sophie. He’s in love with you.”
“He’s a fallen angel.”
Unrepentant in her mission ... Alex’s words rang in my head. I closed my eyes and prayed for sleep to find me.
Chapter Twenty-Seven