Gaslight (Crossbreed #4)(37)
But I wasn’t easily shooed.
“Wyatt needs a drink,” I informed her. When she didn’t respond, I jerked my thumb behind me and then used my hand to mimic drinking.
She wiped her flushed forehead with the back of her hand, her hair askew from the loose braids on either side of her head that barely held it all together. I was curious to see what she’d been up to, so I ventured farther inside and looked around.
The granite countertops and appliances gleamed, as did the floor, which still had water drying on it. The long, narrow kitchen had small windows along the far wall that overlooked the front property. She must have gone outside and collected acorns, dead leaves, and twigs to fill the tall vase in front of the window.
Nice touch.
I approached the kitchen island and noticed the dust bunnies beneath the cabinets were nonexistent. “You keep a tidy house.”
She wrung a dish towel between her hands, eyes downcast.
Wyatt strode in and yanked open the fridge. He bent over, giving me a good view of his ass. “Where’s my Mountain Dew? Hey, wait a second.” He shut the door and opened the freezer. After a beat, Wyatt slammed the door and stormed over to the deep freezer near the entranceway.
Gem wandered in and leaned against the wall. “Are you going to build a home in there?” she asked Wyatt, who was headfirst in the freezer with his feet off the ground.
He stood up, frost clinging to the ends of his brown hair. “Our food’s gone.”
“She probably moved everything so she could clean.”
Wyatt looked at Kira like a man in survival mode. “Where’s my soda? And the ice cream?”
When she shrugged, he began opening all the cabinets. “The chips are gone. And the waffle mix.”
Gem inched in. “Hey, I like my waffles.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Here I was, going undercover to bait a sadistic Vampire, and Wyatt’s biggest crisis was discovering his snacks were missing.
He opened a narrow closet and dragged the heavy trash can out. “Son of a ghost. She threw away all the food.”
Kira tried to pull the trash away from him, but he held on firmly.
“This isn’t trash,” Wyatt explained, holding up a bottle of orange soda. “This is what we eat. Haven’t you ever seen food before?”
Without missing a beat, Kira reached for the soda and twisted it open. She then waltzed over to the windowsill and began pouring it onto a small plant.
Fed up, Wyatt walked over and took the bottle away. “What are you doing that for? You’re going to kill it.”
“I think that’s the point she’s trying to make,” I said. “What’s the big deal?”
“Easy for you to say, Vampy. But the rest of us have to eat.”
Gem winked. “For ten dollars, you can buy a pack of donuts.”
He set the bottle on the island and stormed out. “I can’t deal with this right now. I’m all booked up on crazy.”
“I’ll see if Viktor can have a talk with her,” Gem yelled through the doorway. Then she turned to me and shrugged. “Not that it’ll make a difference. Viktor doesn’t like all the junk food either.”
“But ice cream?”
Her eyes lit up when she looked over at Kira. “Maybe we should get her to try some. I bet she just threw away anything she didn’t recognize.”
Kira went about her business as if we weren’t in the room. After securing an apron around her dress, she reached in a cabinet and pulled out several pans.
Gem appeared at my side and lowered her voice. “Have you ever seen anyone so happy cooking?”
“It’s unnatural. Maybe she’s a demon.”
“Wyatt certainly thinks so.” Gem rocked on her heels and laughed brightly. “Once she gets used to things around here, I’m going to see if I can get her to speak in her native tongue. I pored over my books on ancient European Breed languages and found nothing remotely similar to what Viktor was speaking. So far, she hasn’t said a peep. It’s impossible to learn a language when I can’t hear it, and Viktor doesn’t want to help. Sometimes I can pick up the etymology of a word, and that helps give me a comparative. He’s probably afraid I’ll figure it out. God forbid the poor woman might want someone to talk to.”
“How the hell do you remember all those words?”
“Everything my Relic ancestors learned about language passed on to me. If I were able to have children, whatever new language I learned would pass on to them. I think it’s wired in our head to build on our knowledge, because I can’t shake the insatiable need to pick apart words.”
“We need to show her how to use the computer so she can order groceries online for pickup. Did you see all the beans Shepherd bought the other day? Nobody needs that many beans unless they want to build a bomb.”
“Speak of the devil.”
Shepherd’s musky scent announced his arrival as he moved into the kitchen, sweat dripping from his head, his torso glistening.
“She already mopped,” Gem quipped.
“Thought I heard yelling in here,” he said, out of breath.
I glanced down at his black workout pants and bare feet. “That was Wyatt. He’s having a conniption because all the sugar in the house is now in the trash.”