Holding back my trepidation, I turn to where Fritz looks over the paperwork, “What would I need to do?”
“You’ll need to create a full menu. Entrees, appetizers, drinks, desserts, the works,” Fritz’s excitement is palpable, the frantic motions of his hands as he speaks showing every bit of his enthusiasm. “You don’t need to worry about the design part of it. They have people for that. Oh, and you’ll need to present all of it to the owners in a meeting where they can try everything. It’s an audition of sorts.”
Bel claps again, “Oh! You can try everything out on all of us for Christmas dinner! It would be the perfect trial run!”
“You think they would be alright with that?” I ask earnestly.
“Be alright with it?” Bel asks in disbelief, “They’ll love it. Oh, my god, it’ll be so much fun, Caspian.”
“We can even order some fancy-ass wine to pair with everything,” Fritz adds, “Once you’ve got a menu nailed down, I can do the rest.”
“Ooh, what about a table runner and place settings?” she asks, the gears in her head turning a mile a minute, considering all the things she’ll need to prepare for the arrival of her friends.
They continue discussing the logistics of the party they’re planning while my mind wanders as I work on the meal I’m preparing.
I find myself struggling to keep up with the anticipation swirling inside of me. Here before me, I have two people willing to do whatever it takes to support me in building a life—Ooh, maybe I’ll make that pesto focaccia recipe I was contemplating.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think it was possible for a demon like me to find a place in this world, much less two people to enjoy it with so immensely.
Each day, my love for my Dove grows, and having my dearest friend here as a partner, of sorts, too… I cannot even fathom the joy filling me at the thoughts of our future.I can make Sfogliatella with the almond filling, an homage to Bel’s delicious fragrance.
While I’m feeling incredibly hopeful for our upcoming eternities, there’s still much ahead of us. The matter of dealing with the hunters, healing Belissenda, both inside and out, the Claiming.Ugh, the Claiming.
Truthfully, it should be Fritz. As much as I’d love to take a bite out of Belissenda’s full ass, I don’t want to do it likethat.
The monster beneath my skin tries to remind me that,yes, we would like to do that, but I’m not a slave to my devilish impulses.
Ididjust return from eating a hearty portion of a corpse, but that’s beside the point.
The three of us sit to eat together for the first proper meal since we’ve been here. There’s been so much chaos surrounding us between moving Bel’s things and getting her to the doctor, managing the constant calls from her friends about why she’s moving in with two men she hardly knows. Then, the horrible talk with her parents. She put on a brave face, but that kind of cruelty and dismissal being just a regular part of her life must take a toll on her.
She’s already been hard at work, too. The makeshift office that is the third bedroom is still in disarray, and I decide that if this is going to work, I’ll need to accomplish that tonight or first thing tomorrow. I’ll need to begin spending more time working to create a menu for this opportunity, and they’ll both want to return to their lives, too.
But for tonight, we have a glimpse at what awaits us.Forever.The three of us sitting around a table, Fritz pulling endless laughter from our girl, her looking to me with stars in her eyes and that soft, blissful pink staining her cheeks.
I notice a few times that her eyes go momentarily vacant, staring unseeing into the past. The horrors she’s seen that I’m not entirely privy to haunting her. Fritz sees it too, his grins ceasing whenever hers do and his eyes meeting mine. He may have the ability to influence the emotions of those around him, but even he is unsure how to soothe her and bring her back to the present.
During one of these spells, he leans in, whispering to her, “Hey, wanna hear about the time Caspian tied me up and used a branding iron on me?”
My Gods, of course, that worked.
Her head snaps to him, then me, jaw on the floor, “Shut up, he did not.”
I throw my head back in laughter, “Of course, I did. He washauntingthe local bishop, and then almost exposed our presence completely. He fully deserved the punishment.”
In an attempt to cover the excitement at just the wordpunishment,she asks, “Haunting? How?”
Fritz swallows down the bite he’s currently masticating, “It was nothing terrible. I just moved around a few things when he wasn’t looking, kept his house freezing cold. Oh, and I hung his shit from the rafters and wroteConfessin blood on the wall. Simple stuff.” She opens her mouth, and he halts her question with a stone-cold expression, “Don’t ask, Sweets.”
“Did he, though? Confess?” she pleads.
“No, so he died terribly, on display for the entire town to see.”
“It took almost a week and a half,” I add, “His most faithful kept giving him water, hoping for a miracle. One of them should have just put him out of his misery, but I digress. Fritz was too rash, so I dealt with him.”
“Why did you not just stop him instead?” she asks, though she must know the answer.
“Because, silly Dove,” I yank her chair to me and wrap my arm around her, whispering into her ear, “Ilovedpunishing him. Looked for any excuse to do so; to hear him beg me for mercy, knowing how thoroughly he craved the cruelty.”
