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“You can’t think that laid-back werewolf will know her. He teaches locally. She’s from New York.”

“New England is not that large an area of this country. Given how beautiful she is, I think a lot of males would know her. If they ever met, Isaiah would remember her. And she’d probably remember him. Werewolves are particularly susceptible to womanly charms and the alphas draw a lot of attention from women.”

“Did he drawyourattention?”

I smiled and shook my head. It wouldn’t do to encourage his infatuation. I needed todiscourage him, but I wouldn’t use Isaiah to do it. My vulnerability and Isaiah’s undeniable masculinity made that a path I didn’t dare walk.

Despite my reluctant appreciation for Rasmus’s new humanity, sleeping with this version of him would nullify my argument with Orlin that the guardians had been wrong to make him change. That was reason enough to fight my attraction to this younger version of him. Because I knew I wasn’t wrong.

Sleeping with Isaiah also would cause me several complications I didn’t want or need. Those complications would double if the alpha werewolf decided I was a female worth fighting for. Luckily for me and my maturity, I could look all I wanted without touching either of them.

When I didn’t answer his question about Isaiah, Rasmus went back to studying the phone. He wrote down all the info on the spell caster, including the link to her biography.

“Look at this,” he said.

I took the phone back. Dr. Bertram was presenting some of her findings at a local museum this weekend. It was about several ancient artifacts she’d become an expert in by studying them for decades.

“We need to get into that lecture, Rasmus. I see a double date in our future.”

Rasmus blinked at me in shock. “After all that posturing in the car,nowyou’re talking about us dating?”

“No, I’m talking aboutthe four of usgoing undercover at that lecture.” I pointed at me and then at Rasmus. “The two of us would go as one couple, but we’d only look like we’re dating. Conn and Mulan, who areactuallydating, would go as the other couple. But we’ll all get to learn about her.”

“Oh. That sounds like a plan,” Rasmus said and then frowned. “How fancy is this museum?”

“Fancy enough for dress clothes,” I said, grinning at him. “I’ll tell Ben ya need to expense a wardrobe upgrade. I lose my belongings in fire so I’m going to have to do that as well. We’ll need to disguise ya because ya can’t wear yer face mask to a museum. They’ll think ya’re a thief come to rob them blind. Have ya ever thought about being a blond?”

“With my skin color? Never,” he said firmly.

I chuckled at his resistance. We could find him a wig if he didn’t want to color his hair. “Well, we’ll figure it out. Conn’s good at disguises. We’ll get him to help.”

Meanwhile, I intended to visit the other family willing to talk to us. With more scrying practice, maybe I could figure out their location... and how to keep from passing out each time I used the locket. There was no shortage of mysteries still to be figured out.

ChapterSeventeen

Iwould go to my grave believing that I’d been blessed with the body of a woman meant to be six feet tall. Those twelve inches I lacked in reality were a critical loss when I tried to buy clothing that fit. My womanly curves refused to be controlled, and the older I got, the more that became true. Training every day kept all five feet of me toned and strong enough to fight. But there was no fighting my expanding size.

I had to look for clothing that was both petite and curvy. That’s why I settled for a black one-piece jumpsuit and paid to have it altered in length. The just-above-ankle taper of the legs allowed me to wear minimal black heels that still gave me the illusion of height.

I borrowed jewelry from Fiona because I no longer had any. There was no sign of it when I invaded Jack’s house and Fiona didn’t have anything of mine in her possession. I’d bet my emergency bottle of Jameson’s that Jack’s demon hunter girlfriend had taken my gold snake chain and my maternal grandmother’s pearls.

Fiona had a set of blood-red ruby earrings that had a matching ruby necklace. The color of the stones was so bright that they looked like flames against my multi-toned, but mostly silver hair. She’d offered to do my makeup as well but I drew the line at lipstick. I preferred to do that on my own.

The black satin jumpsuit was sleeveless, but it had a matching satin jacket that flattered my waistline. Wearing one solid color went a long way to making me appear as tall as possible.

I was headed to the living room when Rasmus stepped out of the garage also fully dressed. He’d chosen a mandarin-collared white shirt and paired it with a patterned black vest. He wore slacks that hugged his legs and showed off his trim waist.

The man looked seven feet tall, which was how big he used to look in his old incarnation. In this one, I believe he was more like six feet two, which was oddly as high as I could jump kick on a good day.

Not that I was thinking about kicking him in the head. That was just my brain tallying up the positives. One other about this version of Rasmus was that he didn’t seem so combative. He seemed more willing to listen before assuming he knew better than me.

I hated to admit it, especially after all my complaints about what the guardians did to him, but the arrogance of his previous version was something I didn’t miss a bit.

“You look beautiful tonight, Aran.”

His compliment caught me off-guard. “So do you,” I said, returning it.

“What do you think of the wig and glasses?” he asked.