Page 437 of Evil Hearts

“Hey now! I’ll have you know that my body parts function just fine, thank you very much!” he shouts, and I tug him further back.

When I dare a glance at Eva, her face is drained of color, and she looks ready to be sick.

“Go on. We need some privacy away from your ass.”

Raphael sighs loudly but disappears in a plume of dark smoke.

“Sorry about that.” I rub the back of my neck, feeling a bit uneasy now that it’s just us two once more. “Raphael can be a bit…much.” When I look over at her, she looks about as awkward as I feel.

“It’s f-fine.” She turns and moves toward the door. “We should get going.”

My body perks up. “Where are we headed?”

“My parents’ for Thanksgiving dinner.”

My shoulders droop. “Thanksgiving…dinner? That’s yourbigplan?” I groan. “Somebody just kill me now.”

“Would love to, except I don’t think it works on donkeys.”

“Funny,” I tell her as I follow behind her and out into the blustery day.

“Stop tapping. You’re making me nervous.”

My fingers cease tapping against my thigh for a split second, long enough for me to peer over at her, before resuming. Eva’s gripping the steering wheel tight, to the point her knuckles turn an off-white against her olive skin.

“As if you’ve got anything to be nervous about.” I roll my eyes at her and turn my head to look back out the window. We’ve been in the car for what feels like hours, and I can’t wait to stretch my wings. They’re cramped in this little blue BMW.

I let out a forlorn sigh.What I wouldn’t give for a fast car like Parker’s.

“Of course I’m nervous,” Eva says and lets out a breath. I give her a bored look she doesn’t notice. “Not only do I have to pretend as if I didn’t die and come back, now I’ve got to deal with trying to pretend you don’t exist.” She groans and slumps against the steering wheel once she coaxes the car to a stop at an intersection.

“You won’t have to worry about me. You’re the only one that can see me.”

She narrows her eyes at me. The sunlight brings out a subtle fleck of green in her otherwise brown-eyed gaze. I swallow hard and lean back in my seat. “Why’s that?”

“Angels live by a code of sorts. ‘Don’t reveal ourselves to a mortal’ and all that,” I tell her with a wave of my hand.

“Then why did you and that Raphe guy? Will Ivy get in trouble for doing that?” Her brows are pinching together, and a frown is stretching across her mouth. “Aren’t they Angels too?”

“I don’t know about this Ivy,” I scoff, “but Raphael isn’t an Angel. He’s a Demon, as I clearly mentioned.”

“But his wings…” She trails off, then jumps a little when a blaring horn sounds from behind us. She lets her foot off the brake, and then we’re driving through the intersection.

In slow motion, I watch the scene unfold. My body stiffens, bracing for impact. There’s an oncoming car that is going toofast, and Eva won’t brake in time. I launch across the dash without a second thought and phase through the windshield.

My body rolls across the hood and onto the ground. I turn, my wings outstretched as I hold up my arms, and the speeding car hits me instead of the BMW. The car wraps halfway around me before coming fully to a halt. The metal grinds, and sparks fly.

There’s the sound of squealing tires and shouts of alarm. I back away, hardly breaking a sweat, but an unexpected feeling grapples at my chest. I touch my chest, gripping the fabric of my shirt.

“Quinn!”

I glance over my shoulder to Eva. She wrestles with the seatbelt that locked up on her when she jerked the car to a stop to narrowly avoid said car wreck. Then she’s scrambling out of the car and hurrying over to me.

When I fully turn to look down at her, there are tears in her eyes, and her chest is rising and falling fast. “Are y-you okay?”

I arch an eyebrow down at her. “Stop crying,” I command. She reaches up to swipe at her eyes while I peer over her head to the other person in the car. There’s a shimmering light, and the ethereal silhouette of the Angel wanes before disappearing completely.

“I c-can’t help it. I saw the car coming, and then you went through the glass—”

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