Page 26 of My Blind Date is a Demon

“Oh. Well, that’s good, because you are about to have an emergency of your own.”

“Damon, stop—” I start to say, but he bursts into flames so hot I can feel them from several feet away. Several people shriek and put their hands up to protect themselves. The blast lasts no more than a moment. In a second, Damon is straightening his tie as he heads back to the car. I have to look to see what he actually did. The woman and her kids are fine, but they also seem confused. The woman puts her car in drive to go around me, but her car doesn’t move. She looks confused. I then notice that her front left tire has melted. She’s stuck to the blacktop. I can’t help but snicker. But then I feel a little guilty. I’m about to go apologize and offer to pay for the damage when I hear Damon call out to me from inside the car.

“Get in the car, Tamzin,” he says.

“Damon,” I say, giving him my mom glare. “You can’t just do that—”

“Get in the car,” he repeats, his red eyes flashing. I get in the car and we stare at each other.

“You can’t do that,” I say. “You can’t just lose your temper when people get in your way.”

“Why not?” he asks. “She’s attacking you, your character, and embarrassing you. If you won’t stick up for yourself, I’ll stick up for you.”

I feel my face blush hotly, and not from Damon’s hell flames. I can’t remember the last time a man stood up for me like this, and it feels...good. I am suddenly so dawn to this man, this demon. I just want to grab him and kiss him and thank him in oh, so many ways. My mouth is dry and my stomach is dancing. My head is spinning and I can’t remember where I am or what I was supposed to be doing. I can’t even thank him, I’m so confused.

“Anyway,” Bridgit says, breaking into my whirling thoughts. “The dance is now just a spring fling. Everyone is invited and any parent can serve as a chaperone. Would you like to chaperone, Tamzin? Damon?” Her voice seems to drop an octave as she says Damon’s name. She looks at him with her most charming smile, playing with her braid again.

“That sounds delightful, Miss… I don’t think I caught your name,” Damon says to her, giving an equally charming smile back.

“I’ll be there,” I tell her before she can respond. “Thanks, but I have other appointments to get to. Talk to you later!” I throw the car into drive and pull away. As we leave the parking lot, I see a tow truck pulling in. I have no idea how he plans to remove the melted tire from the blacktop, but I guess that’s his problem.

“Damon, that was so cool!” Bella says from the back seat.

“No, it wasn’t,” I say, shooting Damon a look.

Damon laughs. “You liked that, did you, little one?”

“Yeah, that was Elsa’s mom. Elsa is so rude all the time to everyone. She must get it from her mom.”

I open my mouth to say something, but then close it again. I feel like I should tell my daughter not to talk crap about someone. But, at the same time, if Bella doesn’t like someone, or if someone is being mean to her, shouldn’t I allow her to speak up and express her feelings?

“I’m sorry you feel that way, honey,” I say. “But she’s just one person. Can you just ignore her?”

Bella sighs and sits back in her seat. “It’s not just her.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m the only witch in the whole school. The others go to the academy.”

The academy is the Mystic Cove Academy for the Arts that just opened this year. It was created by Catherine Hawthorne—the head of the Mystic Cove Coven and Ms. Bridgit Hawthorne’s aunt. The headmaster is Jacob Buchanan, the husband of Sophia Barnes, Beverly’s granddaughter. Most of the witch kids go to school there or to the much older Redwood Academy closer to New York City. When I found out that Bella was a witch, the topic of where she should go to school naturally came up. As a Mystic Cove native, I knew that all the witch kids went to a private academy, so I assumed Bella would go there as well. But my husband, Mark, balked at that idea. He wanted Bella to have as much of a “normal” childhood as possible, so we sent her to Mystic Cove Elementary when she started kindergarten. She took private lessons with Beverly, so I had just assumed that there was no reason to change things and send her to an academy now.

“Well, what about your friends?” I ask. “Wouldn’t you miss them if you went to an academy?”

“Most of my friends are werewolves,” she says, and it is true. Unlike witches, the werewolf kids attend public school. “I’m the odd one out. They are always talking about stuff I don’t understand or doing things I can’t do.”

“Feeling a bit like the odd witch out, are you?” Damon asks. I shoot him a look. I don’t need his help parenting my own kid.

“Exactly!” Bella says. “I mean, I love them, but I don’t think they would miss me much if I went to another school. I can always text them and see them after school anyway.”

“Hmm.” I thought about it, and she was right. Mystic Cove is a small town. Everyone knows everyone, so it’s not like she’d be isolated from the community if she went to a private school. If anything, she’s more isolated by going to the public school and not being around the other witch kids.

I thought about Mark’s arguments more and realized that perhaps I should have challenged his idea of “normal” more. After all, Bella isn’t abnormal. She’s a perfectly normal witch. And normal for her would mean going to a school with a curriculum designed with her in mind.

But it’s not really fair to argue with a dead man. He’s not here to make his case or defend what he thinks is best for his daughter. Should I really be so quick to send her to the academy just because her father isn’t here to argue with me? Mark wasn’t sending Bella to public school as a punishment. He loved her and wanted what was best for her. I should still strive to see things from his point of view, right?

“Is that what you want?” I ask Bella. “Do you want to go to the academy next year?”

“More than anything!” she says with far more excitement than I expected. She’s never expressed a desire to go to the academy before.

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