walked around the car to her and glanced down to realize that, despite the cold concrete floor, she was barefoot. “Let’s get those cold feet back inside.”
She giggled in a charming fashion. “Silly boy, I’m nearly immune to extreme temperatures.”
“My vampire superhero,” he quipped. Being a couple inches shorter than she, he tilted his head up to kiss her soft lips warmly.
“Are you hungry?” she asked as they made their way through the garage and into the house.
He noted a sly smile on her face. “Actually, yeah,” he replied as the scent of fresh-cooked food wafted from the kitchen. It smelled like sausage, eggs, and hash browns. That’s strange, he thought. I’m the only person in the house who eats food. Not that vampires couldn’t consume human food, of course. They merely didn’t need anything except blood for sustenance to survive. As he walked into the kitchen from the small hallway leading from the garage, he saw those very items on the stovetop.
“You cooked those?” he asked as Katrina appeared at the stove in a blur and began serving up everything onto a large plate.
She pulled a tray of biscuits from the oven, slipped two onto the plate, and placed the food on the kitchen counter before one of the barstools.
“Guess what?” she asked in a giddy manner that was completely out of character for her. “I’ve been watching some cable cooking shows over and over on the DVR, and I think I’ve managed to make breakfast!”
He dropped his book bag to the floor with a thump and alternated stares between the plate and Katrina in amazement as she retrieved a glass of ice water for him and placed it next to his plate.
Katrina cooking, he mused. Is this the Twilight Zone or the apocalypse? “Wow,” he said.
She continued smiling and ushered him to the counter to sit down. “Go ahead,” she urged excitedly. “Give it a try and tell me what you think. I know it’s evening and supper time, but I couldn’t wait for you to try everything.”
As he picked up the fork lying next to the plate, he glanced up at her with a smirk and teased, “What have you done with my normally somber vampire?”
Her smile faded, and she adopted a predatory expression. “Eat, my love, while you still can,” she offered grimly.
His smirk transformed into an evil grin. “Now that’s my lethal lover.”
Caleb tried each of the items and was astounded by the taste. Truth be told, she nailed these perfectly.
“These are terrific, Kat. Honestly, this is wonderful. I appreciate it, and not just because I’m hungry.”
Her former smile returned, and she propped her chin on one hand while leaning on the counter next to him. “Thank you,” she cheerfully replied. “I wanted to do something nice for you. Cooking is a little offering of myself that I can give to you. I haven’t cooked in centuries.”
His eyebrows rose. “You never tried cooking for your previous mates?”
“Nope. You’re the first since my human husband, Samuel,” she replied with an endeared expression.
Caleb beamed with pride at that, given how important Samuel had been in her life. She hasn’t cooked since the early 1500s then, he realized.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed an overly stuffed large plastic trash bag sitting on the floor. He frowned, recalling that he had taken the trash out that morning before heading to work.
“So,” he carefully ventured, “did you have to practice much?”
Katrina’s eyes darted to the trash bag still sitting nearby and innocently looked back at him. “Not so much, I suppose,” she said. “Although I might have made a couple of orders to the grocery store on more than one occasion.”
Thanks to online grocers, he mused. Last December when she had sequestered him in the house to protect him from Chimalma, she had located an Atlanta-based grocery chain that offered online ordering and delivery.
“I see,” he said with a smirk as he continued eating.
“I’m just going to take the trash out, and I’ll be back,” she said.
“I thought I took the trash out this morning?” he asked after swallowing a forkful of eggs.
“Oh, hush,” she mildly chastised as she walked out to the garage.
He smiled while continuing to eat.
She returned in seconds and washed her hands at the kitchen sink. “Alton called today,” she mentioned as she dried her hands on a towel. “He invited us to London when you go on spring break in March.”
“Yeah, he called me earlier about that, as well,” Caleb admitted. “It