Anything for Her - Complete

Chapter 36

"These are the best pancakes I have ever eaten!" Janine moaned, reaching over to grab another choc-chip pancake from the top of the stack.

"Keep them coming, fire boy," Rose instructed from her place at the table.

"Hell yeah!" Frankie agreed, also snagging herself another pancake. She grinned at Christian – he was a good kisser and could cook. That was two points in his favor already!

"I'd forgotten how much Dhampir women eat," Christian said to Dimitri, shrinking when three sets of fierce female eyes turned to him. "Because it's such a pleasure to see women with a healthy appetite!" he quickly added, hightailing it back into the kitchen to whip up another batch of pancakes before they descended on him!

"That was delicious, thanks Belikov," Pavel added. Dimitri had made a full cooked breakfast for Pavel, Eddie and himself and eggs on toast for Abe and Christian. Not that the latter had had a chance to sit and enjoy his, yet. "I'll just get going to pick up the supplies," Pavel said standing up from the table now his meal was complete. "Lord Ozera? I've asked our contact for a fresh supply of blood for you, too."

"Please – it's Christian and thanks. I know Rose has frozen here..." he trailed off. Everyone knew frozen blood would sustain a Moroi, but it was pretty gross and nothing like fresh. It was like eating a week-old refrigerated cheese sandwich - it would keep you going, and it wouldn't kill you, but consuming it wouldn't be a pleasant experience. Pavel left in Abe's car driving the twenty-minutes to a rendezvous spot.

"What do you all want to do today?" Rose asked with a yawn. It was now approaching midday, and she'd only been up just over sixty minutes, but she'd only had a few hours sleep so was tired.

"Why don't we watch a movie and hang out?" Christian suggested, walking back into the dining room. "I want to hear about what you're doing at college."

"That's a great idea," Janine said. "You young ones relax. It will give your father and me a chance to play with our granddaughter - we don't see her nearly often enough!"

"Yeah thanks for coming to take care of her so we could go to Jill's wedding," Rose said. As soon as she came down, she'd noticed Janine was tending to Lara. Usually, it was Eddie, which led Rose to suspect her mother knew how things stood, and had stepped in as Lara's primary babysitter to avoid Christian guessing Eddie's real purpose here.

The group finishing off their breakfast they headed through to the living room, flopping onto the sofas. Like the ones in the guest quarters, what they lacked in style they made up for in comfort. Janine and Abe disappeared upstairs with Lara, wanting all her playtime before she went down for her nap.

"Let's watch Nightmare on Elm Street," Christian suggested, flipping through the films on offer.

"I have not seen that in years!" Rose grinned. Lissa had never enjoyed scary movies, so the movie nights they'd had at St. Vlad's, then later at the Palace when Lissa was first coronated, had always featured her preferred romantic comedies.

"Is that the one the guy goes on a killing spree after killing his sister?" Dimitri asked. After so long with Rose, his American pop culture was getting better, but he was still hit and miss on films.

"No – that's Halloween. This is the one where four kids are killed in their sleep," Rose explained.

"I'm in," Frankie said enthusiastically. "Rose? Do you guys have popcorn?"

"You had to say it," Dimitri muttered in exasperation as Rose moaned loudly.

"Oh! Yes! Can you make me my favorite, Comrade? Please?" Rose wheedled.