Page 43 of Blind Date with a Werewolf
Ruby watched Max’s face—sometimes Max caught things when he touched people. But nothing except casual pleasure showed on his face. At least he hadn’t run screaming, which he’d done on one memorable occasion. They never did figure out what was wrong with that guy, but they hadn’t let him join their team, either.
“And last but not least, our computer guru, Peg.”
Small and gray, Peg did not reach out to shake hands. She didn’t touch people unless she had to. In her case, it wasn’t any psychic sensitivities but shyness. Asil won points by giving her a simple bow that smoothed over any awkwardness caused by her mumbled welcome.
“It is my pleasure,” he assured her, and it felt as if it might be the truth.
Ruby took a step toward the camera—not that she knew as much as Peg or Terry, but the compulsion to try to fix something other people were struggling with was an inborn condition she was afflicted with as much as anyone else.
“Aren’t you going to introduce him?” Asil asked in tones of mild puzzlement, his eyes focused just beyond Peg.
Peg said with sudden animation, “That’s my twin brother, Dusty. Most people can’t see him.”
Ruby was the only one of the team besides Peg who caught more than occasional glimpses of Dusty, who’d died in a car accident when he and Peg had been thirteen. In fact, just now,Ruby couldn’t see him herself. When she and a couple of witches had first started ghost hunting, Peg had been their first client.
Asil gave Dusty the same shallow bow he’d given Peg. “Pleased to meet you, too, Dusty,” he said.
A notebook fell off the table where it had been sitting next to the dissected camera. Peg giggled as though she were still thirteen instead of fifty-something. Sometimes Ruby’s teammates were the creepiest thing they ran into during ghost hunting.
Terry cleared his throat. “So?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
Ruby shook her head. “He hasn’t asked.”
Alan gave a soft laugh. “Pay up.”
Max collected from everyone—Ruby included—and Alan was four bucks richer.
“Dare I ask?”
Ruby looked at Asil. “Everyone asks why we’re here hunting ghosts in the daylight.”
“Daylight doesn’t affect ghosts,” said Asil, sounding taken aback. “The dark just makes it easier to scare people.”
“And trip down stairs,” agreed Max heartily as Alan folded the bills he’d collected with great ceremony and put them in his wallet.
“Ah,” said Asil. “That sounds painful indeed.”
And over the next half hour Ruby watched from the sidelines as her online date charmed his way effortlessly into her team’s good graces. Even Peg—who generally had no liking for any man—opened up to him shyly as they bonded over a dislike of Max’s favorite coffee brand.
He was gentle with her friends—and she finally admitted she was glad Miranda had talked her into this date. But there was no way she would ever let this sweet and beautiful man meet her nemesis.
She shivered and rubbed the steady burn of her wrist.
Asil could have been of help fixing the camera—modern gadgetry was one of his many talents—but his prey was not the ghosts who lived in this house.
He gave half a thought to his rain-dampened pants, which would doubtless pick up every speck of dirt on the ballroom floor. Ah well. He sat down beside Alan and started with a plug and began to work backward in the tangle, moving as quickly and efficiently as he could without tearing the cord in half. Apparently, they all needed to be separated and then strung throughout the house—and Asil had decided that was how he was going to get Alan alone.
“There are better ways to store extension cords,” Asil observed to Alan in the nonthreatening voice he’d been using since he’d entered the ballroom.
“Dusty likes to tangle them,” Alan explained. “Or so I’m told. I’ve never actually seen him—only caught a whiff now and then. But my wife says he tangles the cords, so I believe he tangles the cords.”
“And thus you stay married,” murmured Asil.
He knew his voice was light and his body language was neutral, but Alan angled his head to expose his throat without even being aware he was doing it.
He had been unhappy watching how the geas worked on Ruby. He’d gained an inkling of the way she’d been living since she’d…escaped? The situation had that feel—of an interrupted hunt with wounded prey. Meeting Ruby’s team—her collection of broken people—had just about been the cherry on top of his emerging rage.
Alan had sensed the edge of Asil’s anger.
