Page 11

Then He M ade Me Tea

R afferty looked over his shoulder at the destroyed door, eyes wide with amazement. Slowly, he stood up, his back to her as the cold wind blew the wisps of his hair. A piece of glass holding on at the top wavered in the night wind a moment before losing its grip and gloriously crashing to the ground. Both beings in the kitchen flinched at t he sound.

“Oh crap,” Helena said as she stared at it. “That’s going to be expensiv e to fix.”

Rafferty grunted, then turned, finally stepping out of the circle. Helena didn’t realize what he was doing until there was a clink of metal bumping metal. Looking over her shoulder, she watched as the demon filled the dented kettle she kept on her stove from her sink. The fire on her stovetop made her flinch again, and she dropped back onto her backside to press her hands against her face. She couldn’t hold it back anymore and started cryin g softly.

She didn’t care what else the demon did around her. And she didn’t lift her head again until something warm pressed against the back of her hand. Startled, she scuttled back too fast and banged her elbow against the cupboard.

“Ow,” she whimpered meekly, grabbing t he elbow.

“It’s okay. Just drink it,” Rafferty said, squatting down where he had been standing so he was on the same level, well the same level-ish, as she was. He held out one of her large mugs, steam rising fro m the top.

“What is it?” Helena asked, eyeing the mug.

“Something to undo what I did,” he said. There was no hint of apology in h is voice.

“ What is it?” she asked again, narrowing her eye s at him.

He sighed. “The black tea with a dollop of honey and a sprinkle of nutmeg and cinnamon. Chamomile tea with peppermint or lavender would be better, but you don’t have any. Black tea will give you an immune boost. Cinnamon for health, protection, and happiness… nutmeg is for luck usually, but in this case it just goes well with c innamon.”

He stretched his arm to its full-length to hold the cup out for her to take. Her hands shook as she did. It smelled warm and wonderful. She knew she shouldn’t trust it, but she drank down half before she began to feel like the person who could make that sort of call.

The first thing the demon did was walk back to her shattered back door. He held out his hand toward it. A weird, unearthly, glassy sound slid over her skin, giving her goosebumps, and then the glass reformed itself in the door. He opened the door and retrieved her pan, then came back to drop it into the sink. Beside her, he resumed a squat, his wings wrapped around him, like he was trying to shield himself from her view.

She licked her lips. “What happened to me?” s he asked.

“I showed you what I am fully.”

Helena shuddered with the memory. “I’m going to feel that in my nightmares forever, aren’t I?”

“Probably, but I don’t know,” he admitted. “I am an unnatural thing trying to force itself into creation.” He dragged his black nail along her kitchen tile. The nail left no trace but seemed to be drawing something, or maybe he just liked the feel of the semi-smooth surface. “We all crave it. Being here in creation.”

“But you can’t be here?”

He shook his head, which meant shaking his horns. “You feel it even if you don’t know what to call it. We just don’t bel ong here.”

“What’s wrong with where you are?” She took another sip of her tea.

“It hurts to be there, like all the time. We can never get comfortable in our own skin. That uncanny feeling you get around me. I feel that about myself every second. And there is no repriev e except…”

She didn’t want to prompt him to continue, pretty sure she understood, but she did need to confirm. “Except when you consume the essence of another.”

“From one of creation, yes,” he said. He stopped his tracing and set his chin on his arms, wrapped about his knees. His wings hovered behind him now, as if he intended to fold them all the way around and hide. “You should send me back.”

Helena shook her head. “This is n’t fair.”

“I did this to myself. I sold my own soul to another demon and got dragged into the darkness for it. I have no one to blame but myself, and you are not responsible for me,” he said resolutely. “As it is, I’m not really sure what we’re going to have to do to fix this current summoning without payment from you. I fudged the rules l ast time.”

They fell into silence for a minute.

“I have an idea,” she said and stood up to go to her fridge. While her legs were still wobbly, they held her. From inside, she pulled out a three-quarter wheel of brie and an unmarked jar. Then she grabbed some crackers from her cupboard and her charcuterie board. She set it all down on the floor between them, then knee-walked over to her silverware drawer to retrieve a butt er knife.

The whole time, the demon watched her from within his little w ing cave.

She uncapped the jar, spread some of the contents onto one of the crackers, then sliced off a thin piece of the brie to set on top of that.

“You should have done the brie first, then the jam on top of that,” Rafferty commented in a low voice, like it pained him to watch her assemble t he snack.

“Noted,” she said dryly, not really caring for being told how to make her own snack the way she liked it. When she finished her preparations, she held the whole mess before her. “This is really tasty. You’re going to l ove this.”

“It’ll taste like ash,” he replied bitterly.

“No it won’t,” she assured, forcing herself to smile. Then she popped the whole thing into her mouth. She held it there and leaned forward, beckoning him to do the same.

“What are you doing?” he aske d warily.

“Do that thing you did before where you pull the memory of this taste from my mind,” she in structed.

His wings actually recoiled away an inch. “You are crazy. You want me to touch y ou again?”

“I’m giving you permission to touch me,” she stressed. “Big difference. Now do it. I’ll be fine.”

He hesitated, but she stared him down, meeting his starburst eyes with determination. Then he shifted, the eyes dimming to plain darkness, but instead of the uncanny demon sitting before her, it was the man-form he wore before. She had to admit it made it easier to be close to him, not because of the unnerving appearance, but it felt like his demonic aura had lessened considerably. Like a dimmer switch just before it cli cked off.

He then leaned forward like she wanted and set his forehead agai nst hers.

Helena chewed the snack in her mouth and continued to breathe through her nose as the cold sensation rolled through her mind, leeching away the taste even as her brain registered it.There was less drama to it than before, no strange sideways feeling or whispers accompanying flashes of what she assumed had been hell. Just the ice cream headache, which actually lessened as she gave the me mory away.

“Oh hell,” Rafferty moaned in his throat. Helena kept her eyes on him the whole time, and she smiled for real as his face turned to pure bliss. As soon as she swallowed, he sat back, his eyes still closed in ecstatic bliss. “Apple, raspberries, blackberries, but not too sweet. Almost savory and that paired with the creamy brie… you’re right. It’s perfect.”

She prepared ano ther one.

Just before she brought it to her mouth, he peeked open his eyes. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“That was payment for summoning you. Now this one is your gift,” she said and set the cheese and jam cracker in h er mouth.

He looked like he would protest again, but she set her jaw and arched an eyebrow at him. His lips thinned, but he obeyed, leaning forward again so they could repeat the process. This time the moan was even greater and his fingers came up to clasp her face.

“Ugh, it’s too much! It’s too much!” He leaned back and those same fingers went to his mouth as if the food could not be contained there. It struck Helena as sad as she chewed, now tasting it since he had stopped pulling the memory from her. Tasting it was one th ing, but…

“Do you actually have to eat at all?” she asked, setting up the crackers for anoth er round.

His chest heaved from the sensations he felt, and he dropped his hand there as if it could help contain his emotions. “We don’t eat on the other side, but we feel hungry non etheless.”

“But you can eat here?” she asked, chewing up one of her snacks for herself t his time.

His eyes finally opened, and he watched her hungrily. “Yes, I can eat. It just means nothing.”

“Hmm,” she said and picked up two of the prepared crackers now, holding one out to him. “Let’s try something. We both eat these at the same time while you pull the memo ry, okay?”

He only hesitated a moment, taking the cracker from her and looking at it as if he couldn’t trust it. She set hers to her lips and waited. He yielded to her pressure and copied her action. Together, they slid the food into their mouths and then leaned forward to touch.

This time it was d ifferent.

Helena’s whole world exploded into a symphony of flavor and taste. It felt strange and exhilarating. She had heard of people describing fine dining experiences as if they had been better than sex. Was this what they had been referring to? She whimpered a little as he moaned. His forehead pressed into hers, but it also felt like they had gone past the physical bounds of their bones to merge together. Such a thing seemed like something that should scare her, but she didn’t resist, and it gave back as much as she offered. At last, they had to swallow, and she was aware of him gently pull ing away.

Breathless, she opened her eyes, surprised that she had actually closed them. The being sitting before her stared back at her i n wonder.

“What… what was that?” s he asked.

He touched his tongue with his fingers. “I… tasted that,” he said, mystified. Tears beaded on the edges of his eyes. “Thank you,” he whispered, voice wavering as the rush of emotion overwhelmed him. “T hank you.”

Tears responded in her own eyes as she smiled. “You’re very welcome, Rafferty. I’m glad I could do this for you.”

He couldn’t respond to that, other than to cry some more, and she moved to wrap her arms around him. His face planted in the crook of her shoulder, and he sobbed for a long, l ong time.