Page 17 of Destined for Dreams
Chapter 6
Cori
The aroma of fried chicken filled the air. Cori flipped over the latest batch and checked on Emily—Melena’s adopted daughter—to make sure she was prepping the next set of breasts for their turn to fry. Whenever she cooked a big meal, a lot of people showed up for it, so she had to make sure there would be enough for everyone. She had two fryers going to make a dozen chicken breasts and a couple of dozen more legs and thighs. Since she didn’t have to work that day, she’d been able to start preparing dinner just after four. It was now a little past six in the evening, and everything was almost ready.
“Go ahead and switch those out,” Cori told Emily, nodding at the other fryer.
The seventeen-year-old girl leaped to the task. Emily had a much better handle on cooking than Melena, who’d given them all food poisoning a week ago when she’d attempted to make breakfast. This was quite the accomplishment when the whole household was supernatural and shouldn’t be able to get sick easily. The sensor had the strangest knack for ruining even the simplest of meals and only succeeded about a quarter of the time in making something decent, but that never stopped her from trying.
Cori had won fifty dollars on a wager that the breakfast would go terribly wrong. Lucas had to bet in his wife’s favor or else he’d have been sleeping on the front lawn in the snow. Two others had thought Melena might do better this time since she’d screwed up the last three meals. It was sad since she had such a large and well-stocked kitchen where you could cook almost anything. No one was quite certain how the sensor managed to mess up meals so badly and with such consistency.
“So I noticed you didn’t come home last night,” Emily said, glancing over at Cori through her tangled mess of brown hair. She’d been soaking wet when she got home after school. There’d been a snowball fight that had gotten rather ugly with several supernatural teenagers involved.
To look at Emily, nothing about her seemed abnormal. She was slim with straight hair a few inches past her shoulders, pale skin, and eyes as blue as the sky on a clear day. Nothing in particular would leave a person to think she was different, but the teenager and Cori had something in common. She’d also ingested Melena’s blood once. The big difference being Emily was born a sensor, so it didn’t change her as much other than making her stronger, faster, and able to heal more quickly. On the other hand, Cori had gotten a much larger dose that could possibly count for two, but no one was certain. It wasn’t an exact science.
After Emily had returned home from school and the snowball fight, she’d changed into a fresh pair of jeans and a long sleeve shirt before diving in to help in the kitchen. It was one of the things Cori would miss most once she moved to her rebuilt cabin, and according to Melena, that wouldn’t be too much longer now—maybe ten to fourteen days, depending on if all the parts and appliances arrived on time. Lucas and Melena arranged to have it built again in the same location as before, near Bartol’s cabin. Cori couldn’t wait to see the finished job, which she’d promised not to go see before it was done. That had been one promise she regretted giving since it hadn’t been easy not checking on the progress of the place.
“I stayed at Bartol’s last night,” Cori admitted.
The teenager lifted a brow. “That’s good, right?”
“I hope so.”
Emily turned her chicken pieces over. “We’ve gotta start planning for Thanksgiving. It’s always better when you’re around to make sure everything goes right, and you can invite Bartol for it, too. He needs to get out more.”
The holiday was only a few days away, and Cori had already been thinking about it. She’d love it if she could convince Bartol to eat with them, but he wasn’t much of one for being around large groups. It would take a miracle to get him there, especially since she couldn’t even get him to attend the smaller, more intimate dinners.
“Are you inviting any friends from school?” Cori asked, preferring to avoid the subject for now.
Emily nodded. “Two of them actually asked to come after they found out you’d be cooking.”
Cori was rather hoping it might draw Bartol as well. “What about their families? Are they okay with that?”
“One girl only has her dad, so he’s coming, too. The other one is just making an appearance at her family dinner and then coming here since all her parents do is fight the whole day.”
Micah—Lucas’ brother—stepped into the kitchen. “When is dinner going to be ready?”
He looked just like Lucas since they were twins, but he kept his blond hair much longer so that it fell to his shoulders and framed his golden-tanned face. The two men’s large build and strong facial features were exactly the same, though.
“Half an hour,” Cori replied.
“Good.” He rubbed his stomach. “I’m starving. Oh, and expect a few extra guests, including Kerbasi.”
“I figured,” she replied, pulling her chicken out of the fryer to cool.
Kerbasi was a former guardian—sort of a lower cast of angel—who lived in a shack behind the house. He was the man responsible for torturing Bartol in Purgatory, but he’d been reforming himself over the past year and a half—with help from Melena—and had improved enough that most people tolerated him these days. Cori couldn’t forgive him, though, since he’d done horrible things to her mate. She’d repeatedly tried to make him stay away with various threats.
Despite that, he had a way of ingratiating himself at meals no matter what she did. The man could eat more than anyone else she’d ever met—including all her supernatural friends—and when she cooked, he made sure he got his share and then some. There was no stopping him. Stronger and more experienced people than her had tried and failed.
She moved over to the potatoes to start mashing them. “Just make sure he stays out of my way.”
“Of course.” Micah nodded and left the kitchen.
Cori and Emily finished with the rest of the meal and set the table while chatting about school and other topics. Everyone filed into the dining room as they put the last of the steaming dishes down. Other than the main house occupants, including Melena, Lucas, Emily, and Micah, there was also Kerbasi, Ariel—a former angel recovering from a stay in Hell—and two nephilim from the nerou compound. Micah’s daughter, Olivia, was also there.
They ate in silence for the next ten minutes until those with sensor abilities jerked their heads up. It took Cori a moment longer to recognize that her mate had just flashed outside. What was he doing here?
“I’ll go talk to him,” she said, standing. Then pointed at Kerbasi. “Touch my plate, and I swear by all that is holy I will let Melena handle one of your next meals without you knowing it.”
