Page 28 of My Blind Date is a Demon

“I bet you know all of Mystic Cove’s dirty little secrets,” Damon is saying, his voice low and seductive. Lisa giggles and lets out a snort. She slaps her hand over her nose and then laughs again.

“Hey, Lisa,” I say, nudging Damon out of the way and giving him an annoyed look.

“Well, hey there, Tamzin,” she says in her southern drawl, smacking her gum. Lisa’s father is a local werewolf, but when her parents divorced, she moved to Alabama with her mother. She only moved back to Mystic Cove a few years ago, right after college. “Hey, Bella. Want a treat?” She offers Bella the candy jar from her desk.

“Yes, please,” Bella says, rifling through the cheap suckers looking for an orange one.

“Was there something you needed, hon?” Lisa asks Damon. “I don’t think I caught your name…or your…umm…” She eyes his horns. “Affiliation?”

Damon takes her hand and strokes the back of it. “You can call me—”

“You don’t need to call him anything,” I interrupt, pushing him further to the side. Bella finds her sucker and puts the jar back on the counter. “He’s with me. We need to see Detective Dawson.”

“Oh,” Lisa says, picking up the phone receiver. The trailer is so small, I can hear the phone ring on Detective’s Dawson’s desk. “I hope everything’s all right.”

“It’s not,” I mutter.

“Yeah?” Detective Dawson’s voice sounds like an echo since I can hear it both from his office and through the phone receiver.

“Beckett hon, Ms. Tamzin Jones and a gentleman are here to see you.”

“Send them back,” he says.

“You can go on back,” Lisa says, hanging up the phone.

“Thanks,” I say. “Can Bella stay here with you?”

“Sure! Come here, sweetie. Want to watch some funny cat videos?”

“Always.”

Lisa pulls up a chair next to her and she pulls up YouTube on her computer.

“Did you see the one where the cat was afraid of pickles?” I hear Bella ask as I leave her in good hands.

Even though Beckett’s door is open, I knock just the same. “Detective?”

“Come on in, Ms. Jones,” he says, offering me his hand. He looks at Damon and stares for a moment, his smile fleeing his face. Detective Beckett Dawson is a newcomer to Mystic Cove. He was recruited here for his history of solving cold cases. And he was pretty much drummed out of his previous department because he had an experience with an extraterrestrial. Now, Mystic Cove is not home to any known aliens, but in this town, anything is possible. Our sheriff figured that someone with Beckett’s history would be open to living with werewolves, vampires, and whatever else we have living among us, and he was right. Beckett also ended up engaged to the town’s resident ghost, my best friend Cora. So, Beckett has ended up fitting in like an old glove—but I guess he can’t help but be startled by someone like Damon.

“And you are?” Beckett asks Damon.

“I should probably close the door,” I say.

“You can call me Damon.” The two men shake hands. “And, yes, I’m exactly what you think I am.”

“Damon the…Demon?” Beckett asks, eyeing Damon warily as we all sit down.

“Exactly,” Damon says, a wide grin on his face.

“O…kay,” Beckett says, looking to me. “So, what’s going on, Tamzin? Are you safe?”

“I don’t know,” I say, shaking my head. “I mean, Damon isn’t a threat. At least, I don’t think he is.” I set the cookie jar on his desk. “A few days ago, Bella captured Damon in this cookie jar. He says that he was trying to possess me. That he was sent by someone to torture me.”

Damon holds up his hands. “Hey, it’s my job. Nothing personal.”

Beckett pulls out his notebook and jots a few things down. “Do you enjoy your job, Damon?”

“Is that a crime?”

---