'Who is she?' Ivy asked belligerently as I entered the sanctuary and found them on the landing, the lowering sun coming in past their feet.
'I'm his secretary,' a tidy woman at David's side said, smiling. 'Can we come in?'
My eyes widened. 'Whoa, whoa, whoa,' I said, waving my hands in protest. 'I can't watch two of you and bring in Lee.'
David ran his eyes down my casual sweater and jeans, his eyes thick with a calculating evaluation. They lingered on my shortened hair, dyed a temporary brown just this afternoon as he had suggested over the phone. 'Mrs. Aver isn't going to come with us,' he said, making what was probably an unconscious nod of approval. 'I thought it prudent that your neighbors see me arrive with a woman as well as leave with one. You're close to the same body build.'
'Oh.' Idiot, I thought. Why didn't I think of that?
Mrs. Aver smiled, but I could tell she thought I was an idiot, too. 'I'll just pop into your bathroom and change, and then I'll go,' she said brightly. Taking a step into the room, she set her slim briefcase beside the piano bench and hesitated.
Ivy started. 'This way,' she said, indicating that the woman should follow her.
'Thank you. You're so kind.'
Making a small face for all the hidden undercurrents, I watched Mrs. Aver and Ivy leave, the former making a lot of noise in her bland black heels, the latter silent in her slippers. Their conversation ended with the click of my bathroom door shutting, and I turned to David.
He looked like a completely different Were outside of his spandex running pants and shirt. And nowhere near the same person the time I saw him leaning against a park tree in a duster that went to his boot tops and a cowboy hat pulled over his eyes. His heavy stubble was gone, to leave sun-roughed cheeks, and his long hair was styled and smelled of moss. Only the highest ranking Weres could carry off polish and not look like they were trying, but David managed it. The three-piece suit and manicured fingernails helped. He looked older than his athletic physique would testify, with a pair of glasses perched on his nose and a tie snugged up to his neck. Actually, he looked really good—in a professional, educated sort of way.
'Thanks again for helping me get in to see Saladan,' I said, feeling awkward.
'Don't thank me,' he said. 'I'm getting a huge bonus.' He set his expensive-looking suitcase on the piano bench. He seemed preoccupied—not angry with me, but wary and disapproving. It made me uncomfortable. Sensing me watching him, he looked up. 'Mind if I do a little prep paperwork?'
I shifted back a step. 'No. Go right ahead. You want some coffee?'
David looked at Jenks's desk and hesitated. Brow furrowing, he sat astride the piano bench and opened his briefcase up before him. 'No thanks. We won't be here that long.'
'Okay.' I retreated, feeling his dissatisfaction heavy on me. I knew he didn't like that I had lied to my partner by omission, but all I needed was for him to get me in to see Lee. I hesitated at the top of the hallway. 'I'll go change. I wanted to see what you were wearing.'
David looked up from his paperwork, his brown eyes distant as he tried to do two things at once. 'You'll be wearing Mrs. Aver's clothes.'
My eyebrows rose. 'You've done this before.'
'I told you the job was a lot more interesting than you would think,' he said to his papers.
I waited for him to say something more, but he didn't, so I went to find Ivy, feeling awkward and depressed. He hadn't said a word about Jenks, but his disapproval was clear.
Ivy was busy with her maps and pens when I entered, saying nothing as I poured a cup of coffee for me, and then her. 'What do you think of David?' I asked, setting her cup beside her.
Her head went down and she tapped a colored pen on the table. 'I think you'll be okay. He seems to know what he's doing. And it's not like I won't be there.'
Leaning against the counter, I held my mug with both hands and took a long sip. Coffee slid down, easing my jitters. Something in Ivy's posture caught my attention. Her cheeks were a shade red. 'I think you like him,' I said, and her head jerked up. 'I think you like older men,' I added. 'Especially older men in suits that bite and can plan better than you.'
At that, she did flush. 'And I think you should shut up.'
We both started at the soft knock on the archway to the hall. It was Mrs. Aver, and it was embarrassing that neither of us had heard her come out of the bathroom. She was dressed in my robe, her clothes over one arm. 'Here you go, honey,' she said as handed me her gray suit.
'Thanks.' I set my coffee down and took it.
'If you would, drop them off at Weres-'N-Tears dry cleaners. They do a good job getting out blood and stitching up small rips. Do you know where that is?'
I looked at the matronly woman standing before me in my fuzzy blue robe, her long brown hair down about her shoulders. She looked to be about the same size as me, if a bit hippy. My hair was a shade darker, but it was close enough. 'Sure,' I said.
She smiled. Ivy was back at her maps, ignoring us, her foot silently moving. 'Great,' the Were said. 'I'm going to change and say 'bye to David before I leave on four feet.' Flashing me a toothy grin, she sashayed to the hallway, hesitating. 'Where's your back door?'
Ivy stood up with a noisy scrape of a chair. 'It's broken. I'll get it for you.'
'Thank you,' she said with that same polite smile. They left, and I slowly I brought the woman's clothes to my nose. They were still warm from her body heat, and the faint scent of musk mixed with a light meadowy smell. My lips curved downward at the idea of wearing someone else's clothes, but the entire idea was to smell like a Were. And it wasn't as if she had brought me rags to put on. The lined wool suit must have cost her a bundle.
Steps slow and measured, I went to my room. That dating guide was still out on my dresser, and I looked at it with a mix of depression and guilt. What had I been thinking, wanting to read it again with the idea to drive Kisten wild? Miserable, I shoved it in the back of my closet. God help me, I was an idiot.
Resigned, I slipped out of my jeans and sweater. Soon the clack of nails in the hallway intruded, and as I put on my nylons, there was the pained sound of nails being pulled from wood. The new door wouldn't be in until tomorrow, and it wasn't as if she could slip out a window.
I was feeling very unsure about this, and it wasn't anything I could really pinpoint. It wasn't going in charmless, I thought as I shimmied into the gray skirt and tucked the white blouse in. Ivy and Kisten would be bringing in everything I needed; my duffel bag of spells was already packed and waiting in the kitchen. And it wasn't because I was going up against someone better in ley line magic. I did that all the time.
I shrugged into the jacket, slipping the warrant for Lee into an inner pocket. Wedging my feet into the low heels I had pulled from the back of my closet, I stared at my reflection. Better, but still it was me, and I reached for the contact lenses that David had couriered over earlier.
As I blinked and teared the thin brown bits of plastic into place, I decided that my unease was because David didn't trust me. He didn't trust my abilities, and he didn't trust me. I'd never had a partner relationship where I was the one under doubt. I had been thought of as an airhead before, and a flake, even incompetent, but never untrustworthy. I didn't like it. But looking back over what I had done to Jenks, it was probably deserved.
Movements slow and depressed, I styled my shorter hair up into a spare, businesslike bun. I put my makeup on heavy, using a base that was too dark, and so having to give my hands and neck a good layer as well. It covered my freckles, though, and with an unhappy feeling, I twisted my wooden pinky ring off; the charm was broken. With the darker makeup and the brown contact lenses, I looked different, but the clothes really turned the trick. And as I stood before my mirror and looked at myself in my dull boring suit and a dull boring hairstyle, and a dull boring look on my face, I didn't think even my mother would recognize me.
I dabbed a drop of Ivy's expensive perfume on me—the one that hid my scent—then followed it up with a splash of a musky perfume Jenks once said smelled like the underside of a log: earthy and rich. Clipping Ivy's phone onto my waist, I went into the hall, my heels making an unusual amount of noise. The soft sound of Ivy and David in conversation pulled me into the sanctuary, where I found them at her piano. I really wished Jenks were with us. It was more than needing him for reconnaissance and camera detail. I missed him.
David and Ivy looked up at the sound of my feet. Ivy's mouth dropped open. 'Bite me and slight me,' she said. 'That is the most god-awful thing I think I've seen you wear. You actually look respectable.'
I smiled weakly. 'Thanks.' I stood there gripping my hands in a fig-leaf posture as David ran his gaze over
