Page 21 of Cookbooks and Demons

“I have breakfast for you,” he said and presented her with a beautiful plate. It looked like it had been pulled from a photo session for a food magazine. Picture perfect, sunny-side-up eggs lay next to several strips of bacon and five dollar-coin pancakes. There were even little drips of syrup dotting the edge of the plate as artistic decoration with a single raspberry perched on top of thepancakes.

Her mouth watered as all the smells wafted up intoher nose.

“Go sit down,” her house guest said, pushing her toward the dining room table. “I’ll bring you something to drink in a minute.” He thrust the plate at her and disappeared into her kitchen again.

Lacking other options, Helena shrugged and sat at the table. But the needs of her bladder still hadn’t been addressed, so she picked up one of the mini pancakes to stuff into her mouth as she scurried off to quickly take care of business. By the time she came back, fully relieved, a glass of milk sat waiting by the plate.

“Rafferty?” she called and peeked into the kitchen to see the demon washing the dishes in her sink. Now he was back in his demonic form, and it almost made her laugh to see him standing there, wearing one of her clean aprons over his dingy one, his triangular tail flicking back and forth like a contented cat while he worked away in the suds. There was still a wrong feeling emanating from him, but maybe she was getting used to it because it didn’t bother her as much that morning. He hummed to himself contentedly, so she let him be and went to enjoy her breakfast.

Or at least she tried for two bites, then stood up and went back tothe door.

“You don’t have to clean, you know,” she said, pulling the door open just in time to see him hanging her apronback up.

“It’s alright,” he said. “It’s all done.” He turned back to her and had… well, it wasn’t a smile on his face, but so freaking close to one she didn’t know what else she wouldcall it.

“Oh!” she said, looking at her tile beneath his black-shoed feet as he shifted back to fully dressed human caterer. “The circle…”

He looked down, having thrust his hands into the pockets of his slacks. “Yeah, well. Don’t get too excited. It’s still there,” he said. The circle had completely vanished again. “I mopped away the majority of it, but the essential particles are still embedded into the tile at this point. And will remain so as long asI’m here.”

“Noted,” Helena said, determined now to have no other house guests over for the next two weeks, just to be safe.

“How are you feeling?” Rafferty asked, eyeing her.

“Fine. Why?” she asked. She glanced down at her plate. “Did you do something to breakfast?”

“No,” he said, unable to keep his eyes from glancing over at her platehungrily.

Helena grinned. “Would you like to taste it?” she asked teasingly.

A small pucker of worry appeared between his eyebrows. “I just want…” Then he closed his eyes and took a step back. “Never mind. It’s abad idea.”

“I feel fine. We can do this,” Helena assured him.

He shook his head. “You’re out of eggs. That’s allthere is.”

“Okay. That doesn’t change anything I said,” she stated and made herself reach out to take his hand to lead him back out to her dining room. He followed behind her demurely as a little boy, the puckered worry still between hiseyebrows.

His concern made Helena wonder if there might be long term consequences to what she was doing, but if there were, she gave it the same amount of regard she gave drinking alcohol or eating too much sugar. This was still in moderation.

“Sit,” she ordered him like a dog she was very affectionate with, and he did so while she took her place and positioned the plate between them. “What do you want to taste first?”

He stared at the plate, then dragged her eyes back up to her. “You’re really going to willingly keep doing this?”

Helena shrugged one shoulder as she plucked up some bacon and broke the crispy thing in two. She held one out to him, but when he went to take it, she pulled it out of his reach and instead directed it straight to his mouth. He snorted a moment, obviously consternated by the idea of eating from her hand, and she just grinned at him. Finally, he opened his mouth and let her feed him the bacon while she quickly put her own half into her mouth. Then she leaned forward and set her forehead against his forehead like they did before.

Again, like last night, flavor burst over her tongue, crispy, warm, salty, and meaty. She had never tasted bacon like this before inher life.

“How are you doing that?” she breathed out as soon as she swallowed, leaning back to openher eyes.

“Doing what?” he asked, echoing her breathy voice. She noted the tears leaking down his cheeks unheeded. Gently, she wiped them with a thumb, and he let her as he breathed through his nose, clearly still overwhelmed to taste so much afterso long.

“You know,” she insisted, then gestured vaguely to her mouth. “It all tastes betterwhen we…”

He shook his head, clearly struggling to focus on what she was saying. “What?”

She studied him for a moment, trying to detect some trick or lie in him, but he just kept licking the inside of his mouth, savoring. “Why?” he finally asked. “What are youtasting?”

Just then, Helena’s alarm went off on her phone.

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