Page 21 of The Unraveling

His lips part, then slam shut as he hums in thought. “Well . . .” He licks his lips. “I suppose, but they were nowhere near as fancy as your convenience store cakes.”

She smirks. “Isla bought another . . .”

Victor straightens. “Perhaps I should try.”

I shake my head. “You’ll throw it up like I did the sandwich,” I warn. “Waste all the immortal blood you drank.”

“It’s possible, but then we have further confirmation that our bodies are reacting aversely to food, considering it doesn’t cause immortals to vomit.” He rakes his fingers through his hair, wavering on his feet as he shifts aside for Daisy to get in the fridge. “Besides, Dr. Smith will arrive shortly, should anything go wrong.”

I glance at the grandfather clock in the corner of the dining room, momentarily concerned for its condition—it’s never this quiet—until the swinging pendulum has me freezing. The mere fact I felt the urge to look at all sends a shiver running through me. I hug myself. How long have I been out of sync with time? From the natural way immortality gives me the instinct to know the exact minute and hour?

Either way, anxiety writhes in my gut with the early hour. Dr. Smith is cutting it close to sunrise.

Daisy sets the cake on the table before helping Victor into a chair next to me. I lean my head on his shoulder, and he plants a kiss on my hair.

I’m stone-still with my breath held as Daisy slides the cake in front of Victor and pops the plastic top off. Her eyes level with his as she hands him a fork across the table. Swallowing, I wind my arms around Victor’s middle as he takes it and stares down at the cake.

“Damn, I wish I could try chocolate cake for the first time again,” she says as she lowers herself into a chair. “I know the implications ‌are tricky, but I can’t help but hope it’ll taste good for you.”

He gives her a tense half-smile, half-grimace as he stabs the prongs through the frosting and scoops out a chunk.

A taste-memory coats my tongue: sweet, creamy chocolate icing, cooler-cold and melting with the moist cake. It was one of the last desserts I ever ate as a human, the last time I was strong enough to walk the distance to the convenience store on my own to purchase one. It was exciting when I discovered Daisy liked them too, how the same ones were still popular three decades later.

I almost want to take a bite, aching to know if it lives up to my thirty-year-old recollection. Instead, I recoil and grip Victor tighter as he takes one.

He doesn’t chew at first, merely stares into the tray without a discernible expression. Then, as my breath wafts from me to prepare for a question, his jaw twitches.

Daisy beats me to it, leaning close with wonder to ask, “So? What do you think?”

Victor’s gaze doesn’t wander—not even to me as I adjust my grip around him—as he finally, slowly, chews. With twitching fingers, he scoops another forkful and brings it past his lips. He takes his time chewing, lost in thought as he slides the prongs across the top of the icing to collect a layer to taste.

“Is it awful?” I whisper.

After a beat, he ever so slightly shakes his head. My heart jolts, and I drown in waves of tumultuous dread.

So low that I strain to hear him, he whispers, “I’ve never tasted human food so sweet. So . . . good. It’s nothing like the cakes I remember.”

“How’s your stomach?” I bite my lip.

He hums in thought, taking another scoop before saying, “It’s unbothered so far.”

“What does that mean?” I ask.

As if he doesn’t know how to respond, his lips only part as he lifts his fork again.

A hefty knock on the door has the fork pausing halfway to his mouth, and I wrinkle my brows and stare toward the hall.

Daisy darts away with a shout of, “Coming!”

“Who could be here at this hour?” Though it feels like I’ve forgotten something.

Victor purses his lips for a moment before realization crosses his face. “John.”

I grin. “Oh, it’s been months since we’ve seen Dr. Smith. Hasn’t it been? Why is he here so close to sunrise?”

Tone hollow, Victor says, “To help us.”

My deep cough and trembling legs when I stand with him and take his arm reminds me. I stare down and swallow a knot. “Right.”