An Elemental Difference - FIRE - Book 2 (Stefan Salvatore)

Chapter 50 - Pumpernickel dingleberry

GILBERT HOUSEHOLD

CRUNCH

Aella crunched her cereal between her teeth louder than ever before, each bite making the two men opposite her recoil at the loud noise, both for excellent reasons. Her emerald eyes, usually full of love and humor, now stared daggers between the two.

First, at Stefan, a fury he hadn't had the pleasure of being a target of, and now he knew why. The second is John, a hatred that the elder Gilbert deserved and wasn't sure if he should have been afraid of or proud of.

CRUNCH

Stefan shifted a little, and Aella's eyes narrowed even further, "Coffee, hunny?"

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When Elena entered the kitchen, both men seemed to relax a little. John smiled at his daughter, "Morning."

Elena froze, eyes widening at her birth father, "What are you still doing here?"

CRUNCH

At the loud noise, Elena's eyes darted to Aella, and she raised her brow, "You don't look surprised." Aella simply shrugged, eyes still narrowed on her boyfriend.

John held up the carafe of coffee, "Coffee?"

Elena firmly shook her head as she sat opposite John with a hard stare, "We're not doing that. We did that last time you were here, and caused us hell. No more avoiding. Why are you here?"

"I'm here to protect you." John wiped his hands with a napkin with a casual shrug, "That's all I can say for the moment."

Aella scoffed while Elena could only stare aghast at him, "What do you mean that's all you can say?"

John settled back in his chair and took a single sip of coffee, "I'll tell you more when I'm convinced I can trust you."

"Bitch please," Aella laughed scornfully. "You trust us? You are so fake; even China denied they made you!"

Stefan rubbed his face tiredly as John opened his mouth to argue with Aella when Jenna and Alaric rushed in, "Oh God, I'm late."

Alaric felt exhausted yet slept all night without waking; while looking for the coffee, he muttered, "That's what you get for hitting the snooze three times!"

Aella, who seemed to enjoy mocking all in sight that morning, mused, "Snooze? Is that the new term for sex?"

"Aella-aahhh!" Jenna's scolding took a high pitch turn as she turned to glare at Aella, only to see John at the table. "What the hell?"

Aella blinked; she'd never heard her name called in such a way and noted to herself aloud as she finished her cereal, "Well, that's a new one."

John, always eager to rile up Jenna, only smiled widely, "Good morning to you, Jenna. Alaric..."

Jenna's scowl returned as she pointed at John, "Okay, I'm confused, right? Because we were not expecting you, like, ever."

"Mhmm," Aella cheered on her guardian. "Kick his ass out, Jenna."

"It's my house!" John exclaimed, glaring at the witch, who only shrugged and muttered, "Semantics."

"I got in late last night. Stefan, let me in."

Jenna turned to the vampire aghast, "Stefan!"

Aella pushed away her empty bowl with a snarl as she hissed towards Stefan, "I knew I should have been worried when your BuzzFeed quiz result said you were a Peter Pettigrew!"

Alaric gently stepped towards Jenna, "Jenna, maybe you should calm down." The guardian turned her glare on him, and he quickly backed up with arms raised, "You know, I'm uh, probably just gonna take off."