Page 4 of Cookbooks and Demons

“Lares?” Cindy asked, furrowingher brows.

“That’s my name,” he stated. “Lares.”

Demons had names? Of course, they did. Helena actually felt bad that she hadn’t thought to ask.

“Oh, sorry,” Cindy laughed, recovering from her surprise far faster than Helena did. “Just wasn’t expecting a handsome man and you cook too. Double trouble.” She slid a hair back over her ear in a flirty gesture, much to Helena’s horror.

“Uh. Let’s get out of his way. I have… I mean, he has a lot to do before everyone else getshere and…”

Lares held out his hand. “Wine.”

Cindy held out the forgotten bag in her hand.“Oh, yeah. These need to be chilled before—”

“I’ll take care of it,” Lares said shortly. “Now if you could give me some space, ma’am.”

Cindy looked over at Helena mouthing the word “ma’am” at her before rollingher eyes.

“Sorry, Lares. And thank you.” Helena grabbed her friend’s arm and escorted her back out the kitchen door. Once the door had swung shut, Cindy turned on her.

“Okay, who is that and what is he doing here, and can I have his phone number?”

“Um, he’s a caterer. I called him to get some help after everything sort of … exploded,” Helena covered.

“Yeah, but where did he come from?”

“I… he… used to work for my grandmother. Why? What does it matter where he came from?” Helena asked.

Cindy tried to go back to peek, but Helena prevented her. “I mean, a real honest to god caterer in a private residence. You are going all out tonight. I knew you came from money, but I didn’t know the extent.”

“I’m not… it’s not like… Look, he’s doing this as a favor to my grandmother. Please don’t make a big deal out of it because I think he’s really annoyed by the whole thing as it is.”

Cindy glanced back at the door with a thinking expression. “Yeah, I sort of got that vibe. Like he’s a professional, you can tell that right off, but sort of that Hell’s Kitchen kind of professional? You know, where he’s going to go off at any minute if things aren’t diced correctly.”

The comparison caused a needle-like constriction in Helena’s throat, but she swallowed it down. “You want to go ahead and get changed? You can use my bedroom,” she offered, practically dragging her friend there by her duffle bag. The bathroom was across the hall to her bedroom. Once she got Cindy installed in there, she headed back to her dining room.

With the intensity of soon to be roadkill trying to outrun the car, she unpacked the new fiesta-ware from their boxes. Unfortunately, the new plates had factory dust all over them, which meant she needed to go back into the kitchen in order to get a dishtowel to wipe them to company-ready standards.And a garbage bag for thepackaging.

Her eyes slid sideways to the forbidden door warily.

“Stop it,” she muttered to herself. This was her home and therewasn’ta demon in her kitchen. It was a caterer … that had just appeared in the middle of a demonic summoning circle.What happened to the summoning circle?shethought.

Cindy hadn’t noticed it and Helena didn’t actually recall seeing it again either.

Deciding not to think about it further, she screwed up her courage and marched, practically sprinting, into her kitchen.

“Taste this.”

She had barely passed through the door before there was a spoon thrust into her mouth. A burst of creamy chocolate fluffy wonder filled her mouth. “Oh my God,” she exclaimed as her fingers rushed up to her lips to keep the dessert fromescaping.

“What do you think?” the demon caterer asked. He still remained in a more human-like form complete with clothes, but his eyes flashed with their own eerie inner light, closer now to starbursts thananything.

“It’s delicious,” she said with a full mouth, trying to swallow some of it down.

“Yeah, yeah. I know that,” he dismissed, waving the spoon back and forth. “But is it too chocolatey, too creamy, not chocolatey enough? Good mouth feel.”

“Um, what is it supposed to taste like?”she asked.

“I don’t know. I can’t taste it. You have totell me.”

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