“If I were delusional, I wouldn’t have been able to find you by having a student of mine hack into your social media page and locate you.” Tristin preened like a peacock. “Who thinks I’m an idiot now?”
“I do,” Damon said.
“Me too,” Zoe said.
“Perhaps you don’t realize how much trouble you are in or how bad your situation is,” Damon said.
“Wait.” Tristin held his hand out. “I know why Dr. Powers is so angry. And it’s not just because of what your grandmother did at that meeting.”
“What are you talking about?” Zoe demanded.
“I did a little research on him. Actually I did a
Zoe nodded. “We know.”
“Did you know that his father’s maternal grandmother’s family goes back to the 1600s in Boston?” Tristin said.
“So? A lot of Bostonians can trace their family trees back that far. Not that all of them are accurate, but they like bragging rights,” she said.
“He’s a blue blood,” Tristin said. “Don’t you get it? His family was around for the Salem witch trials. He has a thing against witches.”
“Does he think we are witches?” Zoe asked. “Did you tell him or his followers that?”
“I may have insinuated that you had powers he’d find helpful in his line of work.”
“He’s just a human,” Damon said. “Or are you claiming otherwise?”
“Is he a witch hunter?” Zoe said.
Tristin shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just saying it’s possible…”
Damon moved close to stare directly into Tristin’s eyes. “You’re just saying that you will forget this conversation and this visit to Chicago. You won’t have any further contact with Dr. Powers or any of his followers. You will also forget that I am a vampire and that Zoe and her grandmother are witches. You will forget your belief in paranormal activity and decide to join the Peace Corps and help others instead.”
Zoe was surprised that Damon added that last command. Surprised and pleased.
“No witches? No vampires?”
Zoe wasn’t sure if Tristin was making statements or forming questions.
“No witches and no vampires,” Damon said forcefully. “They don’t exist. Understand?”
Tristin nodded.
“Okay, you and Bob are going to get in a cab, go back to the airport, and fly back to Boston.”
Again, Tristin nodded.
“Stay there.”
Zoe eyed Tristin suspiciously. She wasn’t sure if he was faking it or not. She waved her hand in front of his eyes to see if he’d blink, but he retained the same glassy-eyed expression of someone in a trance.
Damon strolled over to the couch and focused his attention on Bob. “You will return to Boston and tell Dr. Powers that Zoe and her grandmother are no longer in Chicago. You were unable to serve the legal document to anyone and you will return it to Dr. Powers.” Damon took the paper from Zoe and slapped it into Bob’s hands. “Understand?”
Bob nodded.
“Good. Now come join Tristin in the cab heading to the airport.” Damon led both men outside, where a cab magically was waiting.
“How did you do that?” Zoe asked when Damon returned to her side.
“I compelled them.”
“No, I meant the cab. It was there without you even calling for one.”
“The cabdriver is a vamp from Vamptown. He’ll make sure they leave.”
“He’s not going to kill them, is he?” Zoe asked.
“Why do you care?”
“Because I don’t want their blood on my hands,” Zoe said.
“You live in Vamptown. You’re going to get blood on your hands at some point,” Damon said.
“That’s not true,” Daniella said as she walked in the front door, which was still open. “I don’t have blood on my hands. Well, cupcake-icing blood but not the real stuff.”
“That was before demons moved in,” he said.
As if on cue, the organ music opening for
“Wow.” Daniella was impressed. “Bruce told me about hearing the music but it doesn’t come through our vents at the cupcake shop. I listen to Adele while I’m baking. I like Florence and the Machine, too.”
“What are you doing? Making your requests? This isn’t a radio station. Those are demons down there,” Damon said.
“I know that.”
“They can suck out a witch’s brains. You don’t want to know what they can do to humans,” he told Daniella.
“I’m a druid hybrid,” she reminded him.
“Which makes it worse for you,” Damon said.
“Stop trying to scare her,” Zoe said, putting a protective arm around Daniella. “She can do bad things to vampires when she’s mad. I want to hear more about that, by the way.”
“It won’t help you against demons,” Damon said. “And hybrids aren’t immune. They get the punishment of both a human and a witch. Your beating heart would be yanked out of your chest and then your brains sucked out.”
“They’re bad. They’re evil. They’re dangerous. We get it,” Zoe said. “Sometimes people use humor as a coping mechanism.”
He raised an eyebrow. “People?”
“Hybrids and witches,” she said. “To quote one of my favorite TV shows, ‘Do not belittle my coping mechanisms.’”
“
Zoe shook her head.
“I have it on DVD,” Daniella said.
“In case you’re interested, I just had Neville destroy your ex-fiance’s laptop and any other devices he might have, including thumb drives, so he can’t fall back on that to regain his memory,” Damon told Zoe. “But don’t let me interrupt your girl talk.”
“Ignore him,” Zoe said.
“I stopped by because Nick is meeting me here for dinner. He’s bringing corned beef and cabbage from an Irish pub in an hour or so for St. Patrick’s Day. While we wait, I thought you might need some help restoring order to your work space, Zoe. I heard via the grapevine that Damon made a bit of a mess of it,” Daniella said.
“Zoe is a witch. She can fix it with the blink of an eye,” Damon said.
“I’m trying not to use magic,” Zoe curtly reminded him.
“Yeah, how is that working out for you?” he drawled.
He was trying to get to her. And he was succeeding. “Daniella and I will be upstairs,” Zoe told him.
“It would be a good idea to put a protection spell on her,” Damon said. “I told you that demons are not kind to hybrids.”
Zoe was aggravated that she hadn’t thought of that herself. There was also the fact that here she was, forced to use magic again.
“Is it okay with you that I cast the spell?” she asked Daniella.
Daniella nodded.
The
He just gave her one of his sexy smirks that made her lust after his lips … and the rest of his body.
