“Wait,” I said to both men. “Did everyone get out?”
“There was just the four of you, right? No customers inside prior to the fire?” Will’s eyes were suddenly dead serious and focused hard on me.
I paused for a beat and then shook my head no. “It was just the four of us.”
I was refusing to go to the hospital when I spied Alex’s white SUV speeding up the street. He parked crookedly in the back alley and sprinted out toward me, enveloping me in his arms. He held me tightly against him; I could feel the erratic beat of his heart. “I was so worried,” he told me.
I wiggled out of his embrace. “I’m fine,” I said to Alex and to the paramedic. “We’re all fine.”
Alex used his thumb to wipe the soot from my cheek, then smiled that cocky half-grin. “Geez, Lawson, I knew you hated your job, but burn the place down? Arson is a crime, you know.”
“So is floral-print polyester. And I didn’t burn the place down.” I slid off the tailgate and the medic strode toward me, frowning.
“Ma’am!”
“She’s okay,” Alex said, turning to the medic. “I’m taking her home.”
The medic shrugged and began packing up his things. “Whatever, man.”
Alex held me at arm’s length as if examining me for breakages. Then he pulled me aside and squinted into the darkness. “Hey, isn’t that Will?”
I blew out a sigh and nodded without turning around. “Yeah. I’m getting my own fan club. Can we just get out of here?”
“You’re sure you’re okay?”
I touched the pads of my fingers to my cheeks. “I feel a little sunburned, but that’s it.” I left out the part about how every other sound made my heart do a double take while my breath constricted in my throat. I left out the part about wanting to curl up under my comforter and pretend this whole thing—the Vessel of Souls, Ophelia, the devil—didn’t exist. My shoulders slumped and I trudged to the car, sinking myself into the front seat.
Alex slid into the driver’s seat, and the slamming of the car door brought me back to the cool interior of his SUV.
“So tell me about these guys,” he said as the engine purred.
I took a deep breath, my lungs feeling ragged with lingering smoke. “Just a group of kids.”
“Kids?”
“I don’t know—teens, maybe early twenties. The head guy said his name was Adam. He said he had a message from Ophelia.”
Alex turned toward me as we coasted to a stop. “What was the message?”
“Gee, I don’t know. I was a little bit distracted by the fire and the giant blade hurtling toward me.”
“What else?”
“I don’t know, I don’t remember. It happened so fast.”
The muscle jerked in Alex’s jaw. “Think.”
I sighed. “Um ... he said he knew what I was, that he wanted to keep me for himself. He wanted to stab me.”
“And?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Uh ... they had bad hair. I should have known something was off about them. I should have known they were evil. One of them was actually looking at the poly-blend clam diggers. Like, looking to buy them, Alex.” I shuddered.
“Anything beside their odd fashion sense stand out?”
“They were really tall. All of them. Like, really tall.”
This got Alex’s attention. “How tall?”
“Freakishly tall. Like an NBA team in to rob People’s Pants. Although we do—did—carry a large assortment of big and tall.”
“All of them were tall?”
I nodded. “And they all kind of looked alike, too. And the fire didn’t seem to bother them. And”—I sat forward in my seat, remembering—“they disappeared. They couldn’t have gone out the front of the building unless they went directly through the fire. They would have had to come out the back, but they didn’t. No one did except for us. The firemen said the place was empty.” I shrugged. “No bodies inside.” I blew out a sigh. “I don’t get it. Before, Ophelia showed up herself. Now, suddenly, she’s bringing in the B-squad to do her dirty work?”
“Maybe she had other plans.”
I forced a smile. “Well, at least we know killing me isn’t her first priority if she’s outsourcing.”
Alex’s lips were pursed, his hard eyes focused on the road.
“What?” I asked him. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“They’re called Nephilim.”
“Nephilim?” I let the word roll over my tongue. “Are they angels, too?”
Alex shook his head slowly. “No. They’re half-angel, half-human.”
“I take it they’re evil?”
Alex’s nostrils flared. “Vile.”
“Well, now they’re working for Ophelia.”
I watched Alex’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. “And now they know where the Vessel is.”
“How do we stop them?”
Alex shifted to a stop and looked at me. “I don’t know if we can.”
Chapter Twenty