“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, whatever—family 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 ‘there, 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 it—a 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 hands—doing the things that couples did. I imagined my engagement ring and sparkly veil—and 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?”
Alex patted me awkwardly on the shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure something out.”
I wasn’t so sure. My stomach started to churn and I felt as though my whole world—my whole, Sophie Lawson, demonically normal world—was slipping away. I didn’t know my father, I couldn’t know my mother. My grandmother was gone and I was alone in the world—and now, somehow, I might not be.
I wondered whether it would be better to be an orphan or the daughter of the dark king.