The devastation of losing my passengers didn’t affect my appetite in the least. I was enjoying a killer green chile pizza called the Chimayo. I wanted to marry the pizza and have its babies, but the server said it was already spoken for. Damn it.

My jesting, however, had eased the tension roiling in Tiana’s stomach. She chowed down on a sub called the Sun Mountain. It looked amazing, and I had to resist the urge to ask for a bite. At least until we got to know each other better. I gave it ten minutes.

“You don’t understand. It’s not any one thing,” she explained. We were, of course, discussing her coworker. “I can’t really put my finger on it. I mean, Eve and her husband are, like, super religious.”

“Religious?”

“Yeah, but not your everyday kind of religious. They’re like the nut kind of religious. They believe they are here for a reason.”

“Here?”

“On Earth. They think God put them here to…” She laughed softly as though the very thought made her uncomfortable. “I can’t even say this out loud without cringing, but they think God put them here to fight evil.”

“Okay,” I said, a little taken aback. “Well, it’s good to know we have someone on our side, yes?”

She let out a breath that was part amusement and part relief. It must have felt good to talk with someone about her concerns.

“You don’t think they’re the good guys?” I asked.

“I think they think they are, but they go about it the wrong way. I’m surprised Dr. Schwab hasn’t fired Eve. Especially after her latest catastrophe.”

That perked me right up. I encouraged her to elaborate by inching closer.

She met me halfway. “She told one of our mothers that her son was evil. Told her to be careful and watch for signs of the beast.”

I sat stunned, torn between laughter and alarm. “The beast? Who would tell a mother something like that?”

“That’s what I mean. She’s crazy. Said the kid had a darkness about him.”

A darkness? Could she really see into the supernatural realm? “And she told her that at the doctor’s office?”

“No.” Tiana shook her head and took a drink of water. “That’s the only reason she still has a job. She doesn’t work directly with the patients unless she has to contact them for billing or insurance information. According to Eve, she just happened to run into the mother at a grocery store in the South Valley. A store that’s all the way across town from work and the Fosters’ house. Why was she shopping for milk all the way across town?”

“Good question. What did the doctor say?”

“Well, it was the woman’s word against hers. She denied saying it, of course, but why would that mother make up something so bizarre?”

“I agree. I don’t suppose I could get the woman’s name?”

Tiana was more professional than I gave her credit for. She shook her head, albeit regretfully. “Sorry. They have pretty strict laws about stuff like that.”

I was beginning to like her more and more. The girl had ethics. I had ethics.

No, wait, that was epics. I had epics. Epic ass. Epic boots. Epic looks, but only when I was drunk. Tons of epics.

“I understand.” Besides, if I really needed the info, I could get Uncle Bob to get it for me. But I didn’t want to cause the woman any more grief than was necessary. And I certainly didn’t want to get Tiana in trouble or cast any suspicion her way in the workplace. “So, I get that this is a little disturbing, but I’m sensing something more.”

She put down her fork and shifted in her seat. “There was another incident. The cops came, but they could never connect the two.”

“The two?”

“That’s why I thought you might be undercover or something. You know, like they were still investigating, but I guess not.”

“I can’t tell you everything,” I said to her. “But I can promise you, if I find anything to implicate Mrs. Foster of any wrongdoing, I have a ton of connections with the APD.” A ton meaning one in the form of Uncle Bob. Some might say he weighed a ton.

Okay, he wasn’t that big. In fact, he seemed to be losing weight lately. And not in a healthy way.

“Well, after that incident, Eve kind of eased up on the whole religion thing. At least while at work. Personally, I think Dr. Schwab ordered her not to bring it up again. But this one mother came in with her two kids and… it was so weird. When Eve saw the kids, she had the strangest reaction. Like all the blood drained from her face. She turned white. And the look she gave the mother. If looks could kill.”

Okay, even if the kids did have some kind of dark aura or something, why look at the mother that way?

“Did she say anything about it to you?”

“No. Saint Eve doesn’t exactly confide in me.”

“Saint Eve?” I asked with a grin.

“That’s what we call her at the office. All that holier-than-thou crap. Her husband is just like her.”

Interesting.

“So, no, she didn’t say anything to me. I just kind of overheard her on the phone talking to her husband.”

“Nice. And?”

“She told him that a little girl had come in with her mother and baby brother. She said the girl was marked.”

I stilled. Swallowed hard. Then asked as nonchalantly as I could, “Marked?”

Tiana shrugged. “No idea what she meant. And I wouldn’t have thought much about it except for the fact that…” She shook her head and took another drink. “Never mind. It’s crazy.”

“No, Tiana, please tell me. What happened?”