“I don’t know
if six turkeys will be enough for all of us. There will be a total of eleven of
us with Maggie, Declan, Courtney, Lili and Jared,” Blair said, surveying the
kitchen counters covered with roasting pans, mixing bowls, and various pots and
pans on the stove. “Trust me, Jake eats a lot. One turkey alone is like
an appetizer for him. He’s been banned from every all you can eat buffets in
five counties.”
“Excuse me!
Hungry gargoyle here who’s also helping.” Horace held up his free claw while
the other one made a handy dandy nutcracker for the walnuts he was put to work
cracking open.
“And you
demolishing the desert table doesn’t have something to do with that? The
turkeys are twenty-six pounds apiece. We’ll be fine.” Stasi covered the sweet
potatoes with marshmallows and popped them into the hot oven so they could
brown.
“You did use
cream and real butter in the mashed potatoes, didn’t you?” Irma wandered in
with Phineas, her equally ghostly beau, in tow. “It’s what gives them the
proper taste. All of that low fat and no fat nonsense will give you the right
flavor.”
“It’s a good
thing we all have metabolisms that can handle the extra calories and cholesterol.”
Blair set the rolls on a cookie sheet to go into the second oven.
“Come on, baby.
All you have to do is try it,” Jazz coaxed, leading Nick by the hand into the
kitchen. “It’s not that bad.”
“How would you
know? Have you tasted it?” The tall vampire followed her with a wary look on
his face.
“You can’t give
him that!” Blair and Stasi protested, aware what their witchy friend had in
mind.
“But this will
let Nick feel like he’s a part of the dinner,” Jazz argued.
“A glass of
wine is just fine with me.” He started to back out of the estrogen-filled room,
but thanks to magick increasing Jazz’s strength, his witch’s firm hold on his
wrist wasn’t letting him escape. She used her other hand to pull a container
out of the refrigerator.
“I’ve read
books where they do additions like this. So why not this?” She dumped the
contents in the blender and fired it up. She poured a little bit of the thick
mixture into a glass and offered it to Nick who reared back as if she held a
ball of fire. “It’s like an iron rich smoothie,” she assured him.
“That smells
terrible! What’s in it?”
Jazz looked
into the glass but seemed to hold her breath. “Pureed turkey and cow’s blood.”
“That was
what you put in our refrigerator?” Stasi cried. “Jazz!”
“It’s not like
I put bits of an entire dinner in there.” She held the glass toward Nick who
kept backing away with his hands up.
“Wine only.”
Moss green eyes
shot sparks in his direction. “Nikolai Gregorivich I made this for you and you will
drink it!”
That was when
Nick disappeared in the wink of an eye.
“I cooked for
you!” Jazz shouted.
May all of you
have a fantastic Thanksgiving day.
