"It's over," someone said. A woman. "Oh my God."
A quick glance ensured me that, indeed, the earthquake was over. Another glance, a deeper glance, told me the winged being was gone.
"I've never been in a real earthquake." I knew the voice. Lewis.
"Me neither." Erin. "I have to call home." While I felt relief from almost everyone else, I felt fear spike in her. Fear for her baby.
"Are you okay?" Lewis again.
"I'm – I'm fine. I think." I turned just in time to see Francie check her hair.
That's when I saw the darkness beside me. Reyes stood on my other side, and I realized he had Mark's hand in a brutal hold. The man cried out, his face plastered against the table, a picture of pain.
Hershel bolted upright as though to challenge Reyes, but one look from the supernatural being, a look fairly glittering with rage, convinced him to leave instead. He tucked his chin and left without looking back.
Reyes dragged Mark out of the booth, then let go. The man didn't need any more encouragement. He rushed out the front door, his tail tucked between his legs, and the only thing I could think to say was "He didn't pay yet."
"Is everyone okay?" Dixie asked, winded and worried.
The workers and patrons alike nodded, their shock still evident. We clearly didn't have any customers from California in the bunch.
"She's okay," Erin said, relief flooding her cells at last. She had a phone pressed to one ear and a hand pressed to her chest, her smile a radiant beam. "Hannah's fine. They didn't even feel it at the house."
I realized then that Cookie had dropped the plates she'd picked up, but she was more concerned with me. She still had a hand on my shoulder as though to keep me anchored.
Dixie gave Erin a hug, then said, "I guess we have a few messes to clean up."
Sirens wailed in the distance, and people made their way out of stores across the street. They looked stunned as they surveyed the landscape. Questioned each other. Embraced.
Bobert rushed to Cookie and pulled her into a hug before turning to check on me, but my attention was still on the man standing so close. So startlingly and dangerously close.
Reyes had yet to move. Again, his emotions were so tightly packed, I had a tough time figuring out what he was thinking, but I did feel concern behind the hard expression he'd leveled on me. Then his gaze slid to where the otherworldly being had been, and I stilled.
Had he seen it, too?
The fire that forever engulfed him surged, the heat blistering. It licked over my skin and caused the most explicit sensation. All thoughts of the being fell away as a tendril of desire coiled inside me.
When he turned back to me, his expression was still granite hard. It bit into me, tugged at my overheated core. His burnished irises dropped to my mouth, and he took a minuscule step closer. If Bobert hadn't interrupted, I would have jumped his bones right then and there.
Yes, near me was a dangerous place for Reyes to be.
"Are you okay, pumpkin?"
I tore my gaze off the object of my most humiliating fantasies and melted into Bobert's embrace. Cookie joined us for a threesome. Score!
"That was crazy," I said, suddenly realizing we'd just survived an earthquake.
"Yes, it was."
I pulled back. "Have you ever been in an earthquake before?"
They exchanged glances, hedged a little, and then Bobert said, "Yeah, in a way."
Cookie nodded. "A couple. You know, little ones here and there. Nothing major."
"Well, screw that." I took the carafe and headed for the coffeepot. "I, for one, am never moving to California."
Erin and Cookie swept up broken glass as several of the customers went outside to assess the damage there. Fire trucks pulled up, but there didn't seem to be any smoke. Francie cashed out a couple of customers, then went to help Dixie with a stack of files that had fallen over in her office.
Stepping out of the circle of warmth created by Reyes's presence, I started for the kitchen to see if I could help with anything there. A departed woman stepped into my path, drawing me up short. The top of her head barely reached my chin. She had on a plain blue dress and a gray sweater. Her graying hair was mostly hidden by a floral headscarf, and deep grooves lined her soft brown eyes. I looked back to see if Reyes saw her, too. He gave no indication that he did. His unwavering focus was still on me, so I couldn't talk to her there.
"You are the light," she said. In Portuguese! I knew another language. What were the odds?
I nodded toward the restroom and had every intention of going there in hopes that she would follow me. Instead, she stepped forward as though she were going to go through me. I didn't have time to tell her she couldn't do that. I was solid to the departed, and they were solid to me. Or they had been up until that moment, because instead of bumping into me and bouncing back, she passed right through. That was new.