Page 13 of My Blind Date is a Warlock

“I assure you that everything you’ve heard was grossly exaggerated,” Jacob said, rebuffing the compliment, a touch of color riding high across his cheeks.

“Oh, so you didn’t stave off a horde of undead soldier mummies with nothing but a bottle of holy water and a switchblade the size of my finger?” Piper held her pinky finger in the air and wiggled it. I started to laugh and covered it up with a cough when Jacob glared at me, his face turning a shade of pink I would have never thought to see on a man like him. Not one who’d gone toe to toe with many creatures of the dark in temples and libraries thought long gone figments of the imagination.

I’d never heard of Jacob Buchanan before he breezed into my life, but after our dinner, when I learned he used to be an explorer and archaeologist, I’d gone and looked him up online in a forum run by and created specifically for our kind. He was not kidding when he said that some of the tales about his exploits were greatly exaggerated.

“It was actually a cursed blade, a scimitar that was said to belong to the pharaoh whose tomb we were desecrating. And the vial of holy water was actually a grenade I’d rigged up to blow holy water all over the place. And you know, a bit of magic always goes a long way,” he explained, a wreath of flame covering his left hand.

Impatient for attention, Rita and Charlotte both tugged at each of Jacob’s arms.

“Hey, mister, are you a monster hunter like the Scooby gang?” Rita asked him in awe.

“Something like that.” Jacob scratched the tip of his ear. The girls exploded in a fit of excitement and bombarded him with questions while dragging him off to the picnic blanket their parents had laid out for them. No one had set the tents up yet, and it was likely we’d all be sleeping under the night sky given that the weather was perfectly mild and the Milky Way gleamed softly against the darkening night sky with the crescent moon smiling cheekily down on us.

Jacob looked over his shoulder, his eyes silently begging for help, but Piper and I were content to let the rascals keep him busy for a short while.

“He seems nice.” Piper hooked her arm with mine and we began to walk to the other side of the clearing where Mom, Gran, and a couple of other coven members were already helping themselves to glasses of moonshine.

“Don’t start.” I bopped the top of her head with my knuckles. “Where’s the spawn of Satan and her royal bitchiness? Did they decide to do us a service and not show up after all,” I asked, a tiny bit of hope singing in my veins for all of two seconds before my sister squashed it like a grape beneath her boot.

“Oh, they’re coming, alright. Hailey would not let pass yet another opportunity to brag about her grand wedding in the Maldives. Are you going to be okay?” She gave my hand a gentle squeeze, concern darkening her light blue eyes.

“Now you ask me that? Weren’t you the one ragging on me just the other day for refusing to attend because I didn’t want to face my bullies?”

“Yeah, that was insensitive of me. I should have never told you to get over it, not when everything that happened shaped the way you look at the world right now—”

“Oh, dear goddess, I feel a life lesson and/or unwarranted advice coming on,” I groaned when I heard Piper using that tone. The “I’m older than you, married with two kids, and therefore wiser than you” tone.

“Shut up and listen.” Piper shoved into my side, nearly sending the both of us toppling to the ground. “You’ve let what Jerome and his friends did to you hold power over you, so much so that it's birthed this irrational hate of warlocks in your heart. Some vampires have no regard for human life and kill humans willy-nilly on a daily basis, but you wouldn’t classify them all as murderers who deserve a stake to the chest, would you? Would you?” she asked when I remained silent.

“No,” I replied sullenly.

“It’s the same with warlocks. Just because you’ve had the misfortune of dealing with a bad crop in your past, it doesn’t mean that the whole lot of them are reprehensible pricks. Case in point, the charming Bostonian currently humoring my little hellions over there.” She pointed him out with a soft smile. Jacob was regaling the girls with a story, a fantastical one judging by his hand gestures and over-the-top facial expressions.

“This all goes back to Gran’s matchmaking nonsense. She could be wrong, you know? She’s not all-knowing. This could be the one match she gets wrong,” I said, not ready to give in.

“I highly doubt that, my little snowflake. I’ll be batting a thousand long after I am nothing but dust and bone, best you believe that, girlie.” I felt a hard thump on my back as Gran appeared out of nowhere and scared the bejeezus out of Piper and me.

“Weren’t you just standing over there?” Piper squeaked, looking to where we’d seen her a few seconds ago back to the woman standing behind us.

“You two were dragging your feet, so I thought I should drag you over. But I see that you were too busy gossiping about me. How did you like my gift, snowflake? He’s a dish, ain’t he?”

Piper and I groaned.

“Don't give me that face. You’ve known him only two days and I can already sense a change in you. Your waves are chaotic, but definitely transitioning into something new. Something better.”

“Waves? Really, Gran?” I scoffed at her babble. By “waves,” she meant the life energy that shaped every living being and was the source of all magic. She quelled my mocking laughter with one look and I immediately shut up.

“Did you get in a fight? You have a cut on your lip.” Gran reached out and ran her thumb gently over the wound. I felt the soft skin knit back together, tiny bites of her healing magic getting to work.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” I answered as a small group cleared the copse of trees in the opposite direction from where Jacob and I had entered from. Jerome Clarke was leading his coven into the circle, and as if he had a homing beacon, his sharp gaze immediately landed on me. Cold fingers of dread skittered up my spine at the leer that twisted his otherwise handsome face.

CHAPTER 13

“Are you okay?” Jacob asked me for what felt like the hundredth time, running a soothing hand down the arch of my back. I found myself leaning into the touch before I could stop myself and, truth be told, I didn’t want to. I found some comfort in hiding behind his huge and bulky body, away from Jerome’s prying eyes. Nicholas, Samuel, and Lucas were there too, his minions who reveled in my torture alongside their leader. They’d all kept their distance so far, including Hailey, who’d spared me a single look of derision before giving me a wide berth and helping set up the buffet table. But now that everyone was finally present, the ceremony was about to start.

“I’ve never recharged ley lines before. What do we do exactly?” Jacob asked, stuffing the last half of his hotdog into his mouth, humming in pleasure at the delicious taste. A speck of mustard got caught on the side of his mouth and some of his scruffy beard. Without any conscious thought, I reached up and swiped it off with my thumb before wiping it on a napkin I grabbed off a picnic table laden with a bevy of food. Jacob’s eyes flared and his magic spiked before he could reel it in. Not wanting to make a big deal of it, I grabbed a cheese puff and explained what usually happened.

“Everyone stands around the big ol’ tree over there and imbues a fraction of their power into it and then we all party like it’s 1965.”

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