Wicked Wishes

Chapter Three

The smell of sugar woke me. My eyes were groggy as they slowly opened. I didn't know how long I had slept for, but I was still exhausted. There was an ache at the back of my head, a sting against my lips.

The dream... it had been a dream, right? A weird, peculiar dream that couldn't possibly be real.

I sat up slowly, grabbed my robe that had been sitting on the edge of my bed and wandered into the bathroom. After cleaning up a little and splashing cold water onto my face, I headed toward the kitchen. Did I leave a candle burning overnight? Why the hell was I smelling sugar?

Ren was standing in front of my stove, and the previous evening hadn't been a dream, unless I was seriously hallucinating. He flipped the pancakes in the skillet as if he had done it a hundred times before. With his free hand, he ran his fingers through his dark hair, which glistened as if he had just finished taking a shower. He had on a fresh set of clothes, a simple light blue t-shirt and black jeans.

When he met my gaze, I almost lost my balance. He was real. My fingers went to my lips, the feelings of the night before almost flooding back to me. He smirked and turned his attention back to the cooking in front of him.

I stumbled toward the small table in the corner and slowly sat, my hands going into tiny fists as I watched him. He deposited the first round of pancakes onto a plate before he put fresh batter into the skillet to start the next round. He glanced at me again before he shook his head and went back to his work.

"I think the proper thing to say is good morning," Ren murmured, though there was a hint of amusement in his voice.

My lips parted, and it took me awhile to find my voice. "I... uh. Good morning," I said, settling with his suggestion. I cleared my throat and leaned back into my chair, trying to appear as casual as possible as this demon stood in my kitchen making pancakes.

"There you go, little dove," he said. He picked up the plate he had just put the fresh pancakes on and a bottle of syrup that was sitting on the counter and sat them on the table in front of me. "Better eat up, I don't go easy in training."

Training. Right. That had been our deal. I poured a little of the syrup on top of the pancakes and took a piece off with my fork. "Thank you." It was all I could think to say. Holy shit, was it too late to make this end? My cheeks started getting hot the longer I looked at him, so I had to force myself to tear my eyes away and turn my attention to the plate.

I was halfway done with my plate when he finished his and took a seat across from me. He poured a ton of syrup over his stack of pancakes, practically drowning them in all the extra sugar.

"We'll start with some of the basics today," he said as he took another bite. "We'll go through the elements and see if you have an affinity for any of them."

I nodded and finished my last bite on my plate and leaned back in my chair. "And if I don't?"

"Well, then we'll move on to something else. We need to make sure you're prepared to help me seal the gates of Hell... it's not going to be an easy task." He took the syrup bottle and poured more onto his plate. Wasn't that going to start tasting awful after a while? He looked me over, his dark eyes travelling my frame. Why did he keep doing that? I wanted to squirm under his watchful eyes, but I had to stop myself. I couldn't show him any sort of weakness. He was a big bad demon sitting across from me, eating pancakes and cooking for me, and I still had no idea what the extent of his powers were.

"I'm, uh, going to go get changed, then," I said as I stood. "Thank you for the breakfast," I added quickly after. He took his last bite and took my empty plate and his and deposited them into the empty sink. Empty sink... he'd done the dishes, too?