Page 10 of My Blind Date is a Demon

I feel the wind around us falter, shake, weaken. The thing lets out a screaming hiss, like it’s in pain. Or afraid. Bella’s voice grows louder and she holds the cookie jar out. The thing is sucked into the cookie jar. Bella puts the lid on the cookie jar and gives me a wide smile.

“I caught it!” She says. Then she wobbles a bit and drops the jar. I catch the jar before it hits the ground and set it down gently. Then Bella faints into my arms.

“Bella! Bella! No!” I check to make sure she’s breathing. She is. I know that using magic can be exhausting, so I hope she has only passed out. I gather her up into my arms and run to the kitchen, looking for my phone. I find it under the table. I sit cross-legged on the floor and dial Beverly’s number.

“Beverly!”

“What’s wrong?” she asks. She can surely hear the urgency in my voice.

“I need you…I need you…” is all I can choke out before the tears start to fall.

“I’m on my way, dear.”

I can’t even hang up the phone. I just drop it to the ground and start crying as I rock my baby in my arms. I could have lost her. I almost lost her. No, not her. I can’t bear it.

I hold her tight and let out a scream.

CHAPTER 4

Beverly breezes into the house, the front door opening in front of her without her even touching it. She comes right to me, kneeling down next to me and Bella.

“What happened?” she asks.

I shake my head, still trying to process it all. I point to the cookie jar. Beverly gasps and puts her hand to her chest. She waves her hand and a shimmery orb like a soap bubble appears around the jar and then dissolves into a cascade of glitter. The room feels instantly brighter, lighter, like when a dark, heavy cloud moves away from the sun.

“It’s a…a monster,” I say. “It was trying to…I don’t know. Get me. Bella trapped it in the jar, I think.” I’m rocking Bella. I brush my hand over her brow. “Then she passed out.”

“She probably just exerted too much energy,” Beverly says. Beverly mutters something as she lays her hand on Bella’s forehead. Bella gasps and opens her eyes.

“Where…where is it?” Bella asks, sitting up.

“It’s all right,” I tell her, urging her to lay back down. “She…she is all right, isn’t she?” I ask Beverly, almost afraid to know the answer. If something ever happened to Bella, I don’t think I could bear it.

“She’ll be fine,” Beverly says, rubbing my shoulder reassuringly. “We sometimes just have to be careful not to exert ourselves, don’t we?” she says to Bella.

“It was going to hurt Mommy,” Bella says emphatically.

“I’m sure it was,” Beverly says, standing up. She walks over to the cookie jar and looks down at it, her arms crossed.

“Is it gone?” I ask.

“It’s not gone enough.” Beverly toes the jar with a booted foot. The jar shakes and there is a growling sound from within. I clutch Bella tightly.

“What is it?” I ask.

“What spell did you use?” Beverly asks Bella.

Bella sits up, and it takes all my willpower to allow her to slip from my arms. I don’t want to let her go.

“Umm… I think it was a…a… Well, I wanted to do a banishing spell, but I couldn’t remember it. I knew I didn’t want to do a binding spell, but it was the only thing that came to mind. So, I kind of…made up my own spell.” Bella looks down sheepishly.

“Hmm,” Beverly says thoughtfully. “Tell me exactly what you did.”

Bella gets up, and I follow her. She shows Beverly the movements she did and a symbol she drew on the cookie jar. Then she says the words, but it’s all gibberish to me.

Beverly nods and mumbles to herself. “Well, you at least kept it away from your mother. That’s the important part. You did well, Bella.”

Bella beams. “Really?”

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