Alex blew out a long sigh and in one swift motion, pulled off his shirt, leaving me face-to-face with his impeccable (okay, fine, “angelic”) pectoral muscles. He turned his back toward me and my mouth watered—and my eyes found their way to two, four-inch scars, each running vertically just underneath his shoulder blades.
“They took your wings?” I ran my index finger gently over the waxy, silver scars, the warmth from his skin roiling through my entire body. I swallowed slowly. “They took them off?”
Alex turned to face me again. “I’m earthbound.” His bright eyes suddenly clouded. “You call us fallen. When that happens, your wings just … just come off.”
“Looks like I came right in the nick of time!” Nina swished through the office door and stood, legs spread, hands on hips. “What is going on here, and why wasn’t I notified of beefcake nudity?”
Alex slid his shirt back over his head, and I sat back down, kicked my feet up on the desk. “Apparently, Alex is an angel now.”
Nina slapped her forehead with the heel of her hand. “Oh! That’s the smell! I couldn’t place it for the life of me. Makes perfect sense.”
Alex raised his eyebrows at me. “Smell?”
“Oh, vampires. They have this whole smelling thing. It’s no big deal.”
Nina yanked a blood bag from my mini fridge. She popped a straw into it and started to drink, her dark eyes fixed on Alex. “So an angel, huh? So do you like, know Lucifer?”
“Vampire, huh?” Alex asked, looking Nina up and down. “So do you, like, know Dracula?” There was a hint of smile playing on Alex’s lush lips.
“Touché,” Nina said, chewing on her straw, her eyes fixed but playful.
“Can you give us a moment, please, Nina?” I asked.
Nina stomped out into the hallway. “Fine! But you’re telling me everything the moment Coptastic—or Angeltastic—or whatever the hell he is—flies off.” She poked her head back through the doorway, her fingertips pressed against her mouth, her lips twisted into a wide grin. “Oh, I said hell—sorry, does that offend you?”
I rolled my eyes. “Nina …”
Alex smiled softly at her, and I got up, closed the office door.
“Geez!” I heard her bellow in the hallway.
“Okay, Alex, you’re an angel. My werewolf boss has run away. Yeah, okay, I see what’s going on here.”
Alex’s face brightened. “You do?”
“Yup. I’m a nutter.”
“Your vampire roommate just walked in here downing a bag of AB negative. Why is this so hard to believe?”
“Look around! This is the Underworld. Demons, zombies, bastions of hell. Don’t you think I would have been notified of angels? We don’t even have a form for that. And we have forms for everything.”
“We operate on different planes. If it makes you feel better, I really didn’t know the Underworld existed either. Demons, vampires—a complete world consisting of monsters? All legend to us on the celestial plane.” Alex chuckled. “And man, no one is going to believe this. Are they going to get a kick out of hearing about the Underworld when I get back.”
I felt my heart skip a beat. “When you get back?”
Alex’s eyes were soft. “Well, yeah, Sophie, that is the eventual idea.”
I paused, considering. Then, “Angel, huh? So were you … born that way?”
Alex bit his lip. “No. I was born human. The angel thing happened after I passed.”
I swallowed. “You died?”
Alex nodded.
“So let me get this straight: you lived, died, went to heaven, became an angel—”
“Fell from grace,” he said softly.
“And returned to Earth? Man, I feel so unaccomplished.”
“So?” Alex asked, looking at me sideways.
“So, I guess it’s good to know that the man I’m involved with thinks he’s an angel.”
Alex grinned. “We’re involved?”
“No. No, not anything like—I mean, as coworkers. Or, you know, detectives. Or whatever we are.” I offered a thin smile.
Alex frowned. “That’s too bad. I was already thinking about what to serve at the wedding. It’s going to be hard to feed the vampires, I’d expect. I don’t know how blood would go over on the buffet table….”
“Can angels even—wait—at the wedding? Our wedding? Alex, I’m not even sure I like you, let alone would be willing to—one day, in the far, very far, very distant future—have a wedding with you.”
“Oh,” Alex said, his warm arms encircling my waist, his lips cool and moist against my earlobe. “I think you like me, Lawson. I think you like me a lot.”
For the first time in a long time my heartbeat sped up and the feeling was delicious and welcome—rather than precipice-of-death horrific. I looked up into Alex’s earnest blue eyes. “Angel, huh? I guess I could get used to that. It’s not the strangest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Well,” Alex said, “if it makes you feel better, I could just leave you to your relationship with the troll.”
I socked Alex in the arm and stepped back, awkwardly breaking our embrace and regretting it immediately. I rubbed the warm spot on my waist where Alex’s arms had been.
“So, if you’re going to be hanging around here”—I was careful to keep my eyes focused on the grain of my desktop—“I should probably know what happened.”