Page 6 of Cookbooks and Demons

“Yeah, it looks nice,” Helena agreed, watching her friend pull out two tapers from her cabinet that she had forgotten she had.

Cindy held them up. “Should we go ahead and use these?”

“I uh,” Helena said, distracted as she glanced down as the kitchen door opened slightly beside her. She didn’t see anything, but the garbage bag whisked away, and she only flinched a little as it went. Cindy didn’t see any of it as she dug around for the candle holders, setting the tapers into a crystal pair that Helena’s aunt had given her and placed them in the central part ofthe table.

Cindy surveyed her handywork, propping her fists on her hips. “There. That looks great! Now we just need a lighter. Or should we wait to light them when everyone gets here?”

“Oh, let’s wait until everyone…” and then the door cracked open again and one of her long, stick-like lighters appeared. “Or I’ll do it now,” Helena amended, taking it from the demon. “Uh, thank you,” she added softly.

The door shut again inresponse.

Cindy grinned and leaned forward to pitch her voice down. “I don’t think he’s surly. I think he’s just shy,” she said, and thengiggled.

“Yeah, maybe,” Helena agreed weakly, because what else could she really say, and clicked the trigger to call up a flame atthe tip.

Once the tapers were lit, Cindy dimmed down the dining room lights with the slide switch, and Helena genuinely smiled at the serene space. “It’s actually exactly how I pictured it,” Helena said.

“And you didn’t even have to sell your soul to get it,” Cindy quipped.

Helena eyed her a moment at the strangely on point quip, but Cindy didn’t seem to notice as she adjusted one of the cloth napkins that Helena had simply folded into a nice triangle. “Oh, I can do better than that. I know this great fold from when I worked as a server,” she said and gathered up all the napkinsto redo.

“Oh, Cindy, you don’t have to do that.” Helena tried to intervene, but Cindy waved her off.

“No, quit it,” she ordered, swatting away Helena’s offending hand. “Let medo this!”

Yielding, Helena glanced at the clock. It was already ten minutes past when people were supposed to bearriving!

“Oh no, where is everyone?” A panicked thought of having gone through … everything … she had just gone through and no one showing up to her dinner party sent a shiver of dread through her heart.

“I wouldn’t worry yet. People are always late for dinner parties,” Cindy tried to assure her, but even she flashed a worried look at the clock. “Who all is supposed to be coming?”

“Charles and Chris, and a couple people from work, and my boss…” She regretted the rash move even more upon sayingit aloud.

Cindy’s eyebrows popped up to her hairline. “Oh. That was a bold move.”

“Yeah, well, they say you don’t get what you don’t ask for, and I thought, hey, maybe she’d… I don’t know … like to get to know mebetter?”

Cindy’s face looked worried. “Well, yeah, that’s what I said, but it’s one thing to take your boss out for coffee and another to invite them into your home and feed them. Oh!” She turned her head back toward the kitchen and nodded her head at it, mouthing, “That’s why the caterer.” She then tapped her nose, signaling she got it now.

“That was just … a happy coincidence.”

“Hey, take your luck where you can find it,” Cindy said, then turned contemplative. “Maybe I should do this for the Head of Surgeryat work.”

Just then the doorbell rang. A thrill of panic ripped through Helena, but Cindy, being the one with less on the line, got to the door first. Based on her squeals of greeting, Helena was relieved when Charles and Chris came in, also bearing a bottle of wine and hugs. Charles admired the plate settings while Chris worked on opening the wine, and Cindy womaned the door as Helena’s guests were coming fast and furious. Soon the room was filled with happy excited people, and Helena found herself too busy making introductions and seeding conversations to continue to worry about the demon in herkitchen.

At least untilheappeared bearing a tray of hors d’oeuvres. Her eyes grew wide as she stared down at the little deconstructed pigs-in-a-blankets all in neat little rows on what she realized was one of the serving plates her mother had given her when she moved in, which Helena had stuffed on a shelf and promptly forgot about. Her guests cooed as they swarmed to each take one, keeping the demon from needing to enter farther than three steps into the room. Half the tray was gone before it occurred to her to spur forward and take it. She met the demon’s eyes as her hand touched his cold one under the tray. His eyes flashed from the hypnotic black pits to starburst fire before returning once more to the intense black as if warning her once more about blowing his cover.

“Uh, thank you,” she said, and he nodded once before returning to the kitchen.

As soon as the door swung shut, the women from her office and Cindy all let off a chorus “oooooooo la la,” that of course ended in giggles. One of them even fanned herself withher hand.

Helena’s cheeks burned. “Oh stop. He’s just doing this as a favor … to my grandma,” she said, trying to not let the lie stick in her throat.What the hell was her grandmother doing with a demon summoning spell in the back of her cookbook anyway?

A thought to ponder later … if there was a later.

“You see, I’ve had a little bit to think about this,” Cindy said, pointing at Helena’s nose with a finger from the hand currently wrapped around a half-drunk wine glass. “I don’t think he’s just doing this because he owes your gramma. Because from what we just witnessed there…” She didn’t finish the sentence, instead blowing out a breath and shaking her opposite hand like she was at a Chippendale’s show and it was all too hot to handle.

That set off another chorus of giggles, not just from the office women, but the men in the room as well. Charlie even gave her a thumbs up. Helena’s cheeks burned hotly because all she wanted to do was scream at them to all run: there was a demon in the house! She had no idea how she summoned it, but they were all in danger, and she was probably going to be arrested because while demon summoning wasn’t unheard of in the world, it was definitely punishable by three different authorities, and even if she didn’t get caught, the thing in her kitchen would probably eat hersoul and—

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