Page 72 of Taste of Forever
“You need to sleep too,” she informed me. “Gonna get in next to your girl or should I make you a bed on the couch?”
“Neither.” I smoothed the covers over Heather one last time. “I’ll sleep on the floor in here.”
“The floor?”
“Yeah, but not yet. You’ve been amazing and I appreciate you, but I’ve got one more favor to ask.”
“Okay.” Tavia cocked her head, waiting.
I pulled the discharge instructions out of my pocket. “Will you help me make chicken noodle soup?”
“Cy,Cy! Come here, you’ve got to take a picture.” Des stuck his obnoxious finger in my face. “He’s crying! I see actual tears.”
“You want to lose that finger, Des?” I lifted the knife and waved it in his direction.
“Don’t! That’s dangerous.” Tavia grabbed my wrist and brought it back to the cutting board. “But yeah, that is apotentonion. Geez.” She sniffled and used her upper arm to wipe the tears from her own eyes.
“I don’t understand how humans can eat these things.” I blinked, trying to clear my eyes of the stinging. It felt like the air was biting me.
At least I didn’t wipe my eyes with my hands this time. I’d already made that mistake once.
“Well, we don’t usually eat them raw. Once they’re cooked, they don’t taste as strongly.” Tavia, to her credit, was making a valiant effort to teach me without making fun of me too harshly.
“Are the other ingredients like this?”
“No, this is the worst one. Everything else is easy.”
“Thank fuck.”
“You’re doing great, Laith.” Tavia’s smile and praise seemed genuine, but she was probably on the verge of bursting out laughing.
“Are you sure this is going to make Heather’s soup taste good?”
“Yes. Onions, carrots, celery.” Tavia counted them on her fingers. “Those three are the backbone and base of almost all great soup recipes. I’m not even much of a cook, but Amy’s a pro. She’ll vouch for me.”
“Okay.” I was skeptical, but continued my chopping as Tavia had shown me.
She claimed chicken noodle soup was a staple in many human households and was often made when someone was feeling ill, which backed up what Rebecca had said. I just didn’t understand how a staple food could besomuch work. There were no less than twelve ingredients on the list and they all had to be added in a particular order. The pot in which everything cooked also had to be at a certain temperature.
How had humans survived this long when they needed to eat so many different things? Vampiresonlyneeded blood. Sometimes we supplemented with bone marrow and raw or lightly cooked meat, but that was it.
“Okay, done with onions,” I announced.
“Carrots and celery are next. Same thing, just dice them up into roughly uniform pieces.” Tavia hovered at my elbow. “You sure you don’t want help with chopping?”
“No. I want to be the one to make this for her. I just need to make sure I’m not fucking it up.”
“I could start the chicken broth and save you some time. It’s just putting bouillon cubes in hot water.”
“Nope. Thank you, but I will do every step of this recipe myself.”
“All right, suit yourself.”
Amy returned not long after I finished dropping my first ingredients in the pot. Her arms were full of shopping bags and Tavia rushed over to help her unload.
“I got all of Heather’s essentials. Smells amazing in here. Whatcha cookin’, Tav?”
“Me, nothing.” Tavia grinned and angled her head toward me. “Laith is making soup for Heather.”
