Page 41 of Cookbooks and Demons

Chris straightened his jacket. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry.” He turned to all the neighbors, saying louder, “Sorry everyone,” which was not received well as it prompted grumbling. Éliott didn’t leave Chris’s side until he had been walked all the way back tohis seat.

Only then did Helena let out a breath, giving Rafferty a brave face. “I’m alright,” she tried to assure him.

“Bullshit. No, you’re not.”

“Yeah, but I got to be,” she said, readjusting her napkin on her lap. “We still have the salad, cheese, and dessert courses to go.”

“Forget that. Do you want to leave?” Rafferty asked.

“No,” she assured, squeezing his hand again. “This is your special dinner out. I’m not going to ruin that.”

“You didn’t,” he said. His eyes were bursting with fiery stars and that was when she realized the wrong feeling was radiating off of her companion. Suddenly it hit her that she had taken a demon to a very public restaurant, which rang a klaxon inside her.

“Please, don’t do this,” she asked softly. “Don’t hurtanybody.”

His eyes widened a little bit, maybe because he realized what was happening too. The wrong feeling subsided just as Éliott returned. “How is your dinner?” he asked, his eyebrows pinched together in a genuine show of worry that wastouching.

“I am so sorry, but we need to go,” she said, not willing to abandon the dinner for her sake, but she would before Rafferty lost himself. “I am so very sorry.”

Éliott leaned forward. “If you would like me to have your ‘friend’ removed we can do so. It is noproblem.”

“No, no, please don’t do that,” Helena asked. “It’s just…” She glanced worried over at Rafferty, who was determinedly staring at the window trying to masterhimself.

“I understand,” Éliott said, though there was no way he did. Helena was grateful for his sentiment anyway. “I have been there, believe me. I will inform the chef and have them pack up the rest of the courses for you to enjoyat home.”

“Thank you, and please, apologize to the chef for me,” Helena said, feeling terrible but also knowing this was the correct thing to do.

“I will. Do not worry.”

Chapter 22

Had the Cheese Course at Home

Helena didn’t want to risk taking the train home so she splurged on a taxi instead. The driver was friendly enough, but it was difficult to keep up the innocent chit chat with him while Rafferty huddled, turned away and radiating that wrongness that made the hairs on the back of her arms stand up on end. The only silver lining was it didn’t seem to bother her as much anymore. Unfortunately, the driver kept glancing at Rafferty, and it made her keep talking.

“Is your boyfriend there going to be sick?” the driver finally asked when they hit the expressway.

“No, no, he’s just… not used to this climate,” Helena said, rubbing up and down on Rafferty’s arms as if to warm him up.

“Ah, from the South, is he?” the driver asked with forced cheer, trying to figure out what was happening since there was no obvious reason for his discomfort. “I have cousins who live down in St. Louis…” He launched into another story about said cousins that Helena didn’t listen to, would never remember, and only gave obligatory uh-huhs and ah-yeses when needed.

Finally, they pulled up in front of Helena’s door, and even before the car had fully come to a stop, Rafferty opened it and dashed out.

“Sorry. Thank you. Sorry,” was all Helena could say, waving the driver off, letting the app take care of the payment as she chased after her demon while trying to hold the takeout boxes.

This was not how she had hoped the nightwould go.

Rafferty had to wait for her to follow him up the stairs and open the door, but as soon as she had, he pushed through and beelined for her kitchen. As he went, his jacket and tie were thrown over the dining room table, and he hauled off the black shirt, tugging it over his head just in time before his horns made it impossible.

“Rafferty, what’s wrong?” she called after, but he said nothing as he disappeared through the kitchen’s swinging door so hard it rebounded off the wall. It swung back and forth a few times before settling, and in the last pass, she saw his bare back, gray and tall, with wings flexing back and forth rapidly like an angry, defeathered goose.

Sighing, she let him be, setting the takeout containers on the table next to his discarded coat. Kicking off the beautiful but uncomfortable shoes she had been wearing, she padded to her room and more sedately discarded her own clothes for her bathrobe. There was no sign or sound of Rafferty, so she dashed to her bathroom and started a very hot and welcome shower. She spent a long time standing under the water, letting it bead down on her. If only she could wash her feelings away as easily.

“I don’t need to decide anything until tomorrow,” she assured herself, trying to put Chris’s strange actions out of her mind as best she could, but the echo of his words haunted her.

It wasn’t until she came out of her bathroom, swathed in her lavender terrycloth bathrobe and hair up in a towel turban, that she could be distracted from those darker thoughts. Eerie noises came from the kitchen. Discordant sounds that made the hairs rise off the back of her neck and would have given a haunted house a run for its money.

“He’s a demon. What did I think he was going to do when he’s upset?” she told herself and went into her bedroom to pull on some comfy pajamas. As much as she knew she needed to go take care of the takeout boxes, like put them in the fridge or something, she just felt exhausted and confused from the night. She couldn’t even make herself go brush her teeth, so instead, she climbedinto bed.

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