Laurent huffed. “It’s not the same. Jake is in charge of the creature that infected him, not the other way ar—”
Jake spread his arms. “‘Infected’? Seriously? Do you even hear yourself?”
“That creature wrecked my wedding reception!”
Jake leaned back, his features slack with hurt, and Vars was quick to squeeze his arm. “That is not fair, Laurent. You’re being selfish.”
“Either way, he’s only helped us so far. I see no reason to reduce him to his origins. Besides, Baal is only a part of him,” Gray said.
“What’s gone into you? That’s not what you said yesterday,” Rev hissed, staring at Gray with narrowed eyes.
Knight grinned. “Yeah, Gray? What has gone into you?”
Elliot snorted so hard some of his food fell out of his mouth and into his lap.
Shadow frowned. Trying to do something about his restless hands, he grabbed a small bowl of food that didn’t smell half as bad as the rest of it. “I have good intentions,” Shadow said.
Laurent pouted. “And that’s exactly what hell is paved with.”
“That’s enough, Laurent.” Beast picked up a can of soda.
Gray looked straight at Laurent. “You always do that. You always see the worst in people. You did that both with Jake and Elliot. Maybe it’s you who should take a good honest look at yourself.” He then turned his attention to Knight, narrowing his eyes. “And no, I’m not fucking a demon. End of story.”
Shadow’s shoulders slumped, but he’d promised to not tell anyone about what they’d done, so what was he to say? He smelled the little bowl that seemed to contain peppers, but instead of sweet they smelled acidic. Quite pleasant actually, and he was so hungry after having no opportunity to eat since he got out of bed! Tentatively, he picked up one of the red strips of the vegetable, surprised by how wilted it seemed. Almost as if it were rotting!
Without thinking, Shadow put the piece into his mouth, and the tart flavor, mingled with the same aroma Shadow had smelled on fresh peppers, filled his mouth with nourishing goodness.
Had he found the holy grail of human foods that he could also savor?
Laurent opened his plump mouth as if to say something, but Beast put his massive hand over Laurent’s face, and continued to drink his soda.
Jake was the one to finally break the silence at the table. He passed Shadow a bowl of rice. “You look hungry.”
Elliot sniggered, reached under the table and wiped some dust on his hand. He then brushed it off over the rice. “How about now?”
“What the fuck, Elliot?” Jake asked. “What did he do to you?”
“No, no! It’s what he likes. Mold, dust, rats, bats, spiders, all the creepy crawlers. And now apparently also pickled peppers.”
Shadow looked around the table, crushed by the disgust on everyone’s faces, but nodded, filling his mouth with more of the pickles.
Gray stared too, the fork halfway to his mouth and dripping the spicy sauce. “Then what happened to the food I was bringing you all week?” he asked.
“He used it as bait for rats,” Knight offered.
Joker’s face lit up, and he rested his tattooed arms on the table. “So you eat rats, cockroaches, and spiders? I don’t know about you guys, but I think he might be exactly what we need in this house. Cats don’t quite cut it.”
Shadow’s heart sank, and he avoided staring directly at Gray, ashamed what he might think of him now. “I tried to eat your food, but it made me sick.”
Knight reached behind Elliot’s back to pat Shadow. “Don’t worry, some of Elliot’s food combinations make me sick too.”
Gray was the only one keeping perfectly quiet, but his hazel gaze drew Shadow in, until Shadow’s skin burned with anticipation.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Gray asked.
“I didn’t want you to stop coming.” Shadow confessed in a small, pathetic voice.
For a while they just stared at each other as if Gray didn’t know what to say to that, but Joker spoiled the moment.
“That’s what she said!”
Gray grabbed a bread roll from a basket in the middle of the table and tossed it at Joker with so much skill it hit him right in the forehead. “I think we can all agree that he can eat the bugs and rats if he wants?”
“He’ll get really fat soon in this place,” Fox mused.
Beast shrugged. “Doesn’t really matter as long as he does his job.”
Shadow mixed some more dust and pickled peppers into the rice offered to him. It was fine taste-wise, but the clean, nauseatingly neutral flavor of the white grains was pushing the quality of the meal downhill. If he could squeeze a nice fat rat over it, it would have made a world of difference. He couldn’t help what nourished him. His shadow form was alive and entwined with the human skin by the power held in the ruby, but he still needed to sustain the body that wasn’t exactly like everyone else’s. Maybe it was because Baal had created it?