Page 29 of Meet Cute Magic

I give him a tight smile. “I don’t know if you know this, but you’re kind of uptight. I’m afraid that our next assignment will send you into a tailspin.” He closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath. “Unless, of course, you want to leave the collection of ingredients to me. That would make both of our lives so much easier, honestly. We could—”

“Absolutely not. You’re not doing this alone. We had a deal, Rosie.” I sigh, knowing that was what he was going to say, though my irritation feels forced.

“You better be careful, or I might think you like spending time with me, Jack Attack,” I say with a smile that he returns.

“It’s just Jack.”

“Hmm. Well, just Jack, the next thing we need for the potion is the tears of a vampire, so we have to go find one,” I say. He stares at me for a long moment, and I take in a deep breath, knowing a panic is imminent.

“A vampire?” he asks, his face going pale, and I do a really great job at fighting the smile that wants to break free, thank you very much. I have to keep reminding myself that not long ago, he didn’t even believe magic existed. Now he’s being hit over the head with the fact that there’s an entire other world he didn’t know about. “Those are real?”

“Yeah. Surprise!” I say with a wiggle of my fingers. He closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath.

“And they eat…”

“Food,” I say far too quickly to be casual. He stares at me, and I sigh. “But their main nutrition comes from blood.” He tips his head like he’s waiting for the full story, and I roll my eyes again. After six weeks of this, I might have to have my eyes surgically fixed. “Human blood. It’s from blood banks, though, and humans get first dibs. Don’t worry.”

“What about when there’s a blood shortage—”

I sigh. “This is so irrelevant,” I say, throwing my hands up. He stares at me, not giving in, and I explain, somehow knowing he’s not going to let it go without my doing so. “It’s because the vamps are running low. They always prioritize blood stores for human emergencies and medical procedures. While some have personal blood sources—”

“What is a personal blood source?” His curiosity over all things magical is endearing, so I answer.

“People who are, for lack of a better word, paid and taken care of to be exclusive blood donors to vamps.” I stare at him, knowing another question will inevitably come.

“Why would they do that?” There it is.

“For one, vampires are very old and have a lot of power and, usually, a lot of money. They are very well cared for. And allegedly, it’s a very… enjoyable experience.” He opens his mouth, and I jump to answer before he asks. “No, I have never experienced it. Enough with the questions for now. The next potion ingredient we need to collect is vampire tears, which shouldn’t be too hard because, honestly, vampires are big crybabies.”

“How…” Jack pauses as if not sure how to say what he’s going to say next. “How do we find a vampire? Much less a crying vampire? Are we going to make the vampire cry? Or—”

“There’s a club in Diamond Ridge for supernaturals, and I happen to know that on Monday nights, a very emotional vamp tends to come in and sit in her melancholy. I think we can stage bumping into her naturally and gather what we need.”

“When you say a club for supernaturals… you mean… ?”

I’ve learned Jack is not a take things at face value kind of guy. He’s an evidence and information type. As much as I want to be annoyed and inconvenienced, though, I can’t seem to be. Instead, I find it more and more endearing, and I catch myself wanting to give him whatever information he’s craving.

“All of them. Vampires, witches, shifters. I’ve met a couple of merpeople there too.”

“Merpeople? Like with tails?”

I nod and explain. “Not super often, and they don’t have tails at the club. It has to be a super dry day outside, and they have to make sure they can trust no one is going to spill some kind of liquid on them.” He stares at me blankly, and I go on. “They have legs when dry, but once they get a large portion of their skin wet, game over. Big ol’ fish.” He blinks a few times, and I sigh. “I don’t know the exact details, and this is so off topic.”

“What was the topic?”

I fight a groan and instead take a deep breath before speaking with a sweet customer service voice I typically use on men who come into my romance bookstore and ask why we don’t have an autobiography on some mediocre man who died a hundred years ago.

“We need the tears of a vampire for Phillip’s potion.”

“And the only place we can get it is this supernatural club?” I nod. “I don’t know, Rosie, I’m not really much of a club person.”

“You don’t say.” He glares at me, and I just smile. “You could just stay here and let me—”

“Fine,” he says with a groan, stuffing the cookie in his mouth as if it’s going to help with whatever he’s feeling, and really, it should. “Fine. I’ll go.”

“Great. We leave in five. It takes about an hour to get there.”

“This is kind of last-minute. What if I have plans?”