Mr. Matsura opened his mouth to speak, his hand gesturing toward the broken door.
“Sorry to have bothered you,” Ophelia said again, this time slowly, her crystal-blue eyes focused hard on Mr. Matsura’s. He closed his mouth and nodded, his eyes taking on a dull, vacant glaze. He turned slowly and disappeared into his own apartment.
“How did you—”
“Shut up,” Ophelia hissed. She frowned. “That really harshed my buzz.”
Ophelia loosened her grip on me, and I shrugged away, trying to rub some feeling back into my shoulder.
Nina gaped. “Your buzz?”
Ophelia narrowed her eyes and they glittered a sinister blue. “Violence makes me giddy.” She shoved her way between Nina and me and stepped backward, heading toward the front door, the crumbles of our vase and shards of splintered door frame rustling under her feet. She hung in our broken doorway, her hands on what remained of the frame.
“Well, you know what they say about three being a crowd. Nina, it was just precious to meet you in person. Sophie, you and I will pick this up later.”
And I can hardly wait for that. Ophelia’s voice rang in my brain, her eyes brimming with intent and focused hard on me.
Once Ophelia disappeared out the front door Nina rushed to me, gathering me in her arms and crushing me against her cold, marble chest. “Oaf,” I groaned, feeling the bruise from Ophelia’s push.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Nina said, pushing away from me. “Are you hurt? Did she get the Vessel?” Her dark eyes traveled to the shards of broken milk glass on the floor. “Was that it?”
“No. Yes. I mean, I’m fine.” I massaged my chest. “Mostly. And no, that’s not the Vessel.”
Nina crouched down, gathering up the glass pieces. “Well, that’s good.” She picked up a piece, scrutinized it. “I’d hate to think that God shopped at IKEA.” She brushed the rest of the glass into her bloodless palm and dumped it into the trash in the kitchen. “So you’re okay?”
“I will be.” I went to the kitchen for a wet rag and caught a glimpse of myself in the hall mirror: bald spot slightly visible, black marks already starting to blossom under each eye, blood caking and starting to dry at the corner of my mouth. I checked my neck and groaned at the constellation of tiny bloody pricks there and Nina came up behind me, frowning.
“Wow, she really got you good. Are you sure you’re okay? Can I get you something—a Band-Aid, a transfusion ?”
I wet a rag and pressed it against my neck, then gingerly laid a package of frozen corn across my head. The sting of the cold seemed to counteract the sting of my lack of hair.
I slumped onto the couch, pulling my knees up to my chest. “Now I’m just confused.”
“Confused?” Nina brushed her hands on her skirt and pulled a second package of frozen vegetables from the freezer. She sat down next to me on the couch and carefully laid the bag on the purple handprints peeking out of my shirt. “About what?”
“Ophelia.” I pressed the frozen peas to my chest, held the corn against my head.
“She’s a class-one nutter. What’s there to be confused about?”
“When I handed her the vase—which I tried to pass off as the Vessel—”
Nina grinned. “Nice strategy.”
“Thanks. Anyway, she knew right away that that wasn’t it.”
“So Ophelia knows what the Vessel looks like.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “But then she seemed almost amused. She looked me up and down and said, ‘You really don’t know, do you?’ Why does everyone seem to think that I know something I don’t, or that I don’t need to know something I should? Or you know, maybe should.”
Nina shrugged her small shoulders.
“It wasn’t even what she said was so weird. It was the way she said it. It was like I was a piece of meat. It was weird.” I shuddered. “Gave me the heebie jeebies.”
“Well, didn’t the fallen angels used to drink the blood and eat the flesh of man? So, maybe you were, like, dinner?” Nina grinned triumphantly.
I raised my eyebrows.
“Not that I’ve ever thought of you that way.”
“I know. But it wasn’t hungry-like; it was ... appraising, almost.”
Nina looked thoughtful. “Well, Alex said the Vessel could be anything or anywhere. Maybe you do have it and you don’t even know it. Maybe it is here.”
I looked around the apartment. “You said yourself you don’t think God shops at IKEA. That doesn’t leave much else around here.”
Nina sprang up from the couch and walked toward the bookcase. “Maybe it’s this.” She held up a porcelain elephant with gold tusks.
“Doubt it. My college boyfriend gave me that.”