Page 20 of Dragon Charmed

Standing outside the university bookstore took Tessa back to her own college days. But Tessa hadn’t started college until after she retired from modeling at twenty-five. She wondered what it would have been like to leave home at the age of eighteen and live on campus and make friends. But then she wouldn’t have met Megan. They had both been older undergraduates at Ohio State and latched on to each other, eventually sharing an apartment. Tessa had graduated and moved to Tennessee to work for Katrina, and Megan had finished her master’s degree before moving back to her hometown of Nashville as well and starting an internship at the museum.

Now Tessa was waiting for Ben. She’d agreed to meet him here. He suggested they go together, but even though she had jumped in with both feet when she followed him, she didn’t want to be in a car with him yet. Especially when she’d sat down last night and decided to research him online, only to realize she didn’t know his last name.

How had she not asked him his full name?

Sloppy detective work on her part. She would be asking that today so that she could do some digging on the lumberjack detective. Normally she wasn’t a beard woman, but he was a handsome specimen. Working in the fashion industry, Tessa was used to being surrounded by beautiful people, but Ben was different. He was good-looking, but he didn’t seem to realize it, and in her experience, men almost always realized it. It was refreshing.

Not that he wasn’t a little cocky. Bringing her a coffee while she was stalking him was cocky. And even though Tessa would never let him know it, she appreciated him approaching her in a confident yet nonconfrontational way.

Students rushed by her carrying huge containers of coffee. Many were talking to themselves. Rattling off equations and historic dates. It was time for finals, and they were sleep-deprived and stressed. She remembered that feeling well.

This might not be the best time to try and talk to the professors, but if they waited any longer, they would miss talking to them during summer break. Even though she had struck out on researching Ben No-last-name, she had spent time on the Vanderbilt website studying the History of Art staff. There were several associate professors, professors, and lecturers. Even though Megan had gone to Ohio State, she had completed a year at Vanderbilt in an exchange program with Professor White. Mia had selected Megan to work with her because of Megan’s white papers on the history of mythology and dragons in art. Mia White was the expert on both subjects in the academic arena. Megan had raved about how amazing she was. Until she dropped off the face of the planet.

Had she walked away from everyone she knew and everything she’d accomplished because of grief? Tessa couldn’t imagine losing the person you loved the most in a tragic accident. But something told her it was more than that. How many people wanted to talk to Mia White about dragons and the curse? Not just John or Eric and Sienna’s clan, who were the good guys…dragons… But they had already faced the bad guys too. Eric and Megan almost died, and Adam had died trying to find a way to break the curse.

It was mind-blowing enough to see Eric unfurl his wings and fly. What if they could break the curse and the clan would be able to transform into their full dragon forms?

Holy guacamole. That would be amazing.

Speaking of guacamole…she would have to ask Marilyn, the clan chef, to make her guacamole again the next time she was at the clan house. She added pineapple to it, which sounded weird but was oh so good.

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

She flinched before blurting, “Taco Tuesday!” How had he gotten so close without her noticing?

He held up his hands as if to calm her. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.” His eyes danced. “Taco Tuesday? Is that your version of a swear word?”

She couldn’t stop the grin on her face. “Kind of. But more like a craving. I was thinking about guacamole if you must know.”

He smiled and lines appeared by his eyes. “Got it. So do we need to feed you first?”

“Nope,” her brain said as her stomach hollered, Yes! “I can hold off for now. I did some research last night on who to speak with. There is an associate professor, Alisha Brown, that teaches art and mythology, which would be what Mia White would have taught when she was here. I think we start with her.”

“Sounds like a plan. I reviewed the campus map to find where the art history department was. We have to head to the right down that sidewalk.”

They walked toward the building in silence, Tessa’s thoughts spinning as to their next steps. “So how do you want to handle this?” she asked.

“Handle this?”

She stopped, which prompted him to stop as well. Students maneuvered around them in a mad rush.

“You’re the PI. When you question someone, how do you normally approach them? Do we need to make up some elaborate story about why we’re looking for Mia White? Or do we need to play good cop, bad cop?”

He hesitated for a moment before responding. “I think we just tell them the truth. You said your friend is worried about her, right? We tell them that we’ve been asked to find her since friends are concerned about her, and leave it at that.”

Tessa sighed. “That makes sense.”

The right side of his mouth quirked up. “Are you disappointed we don’t have to make something up?”

Her face heated slightly. She hoped he couldn’t see her blush. “No… Maybe. I think I’ve watched too many movies.”

“Yeah. Not too much excitement with this, huh?”

She shrugged. “Nope. But that’s okay. Hopefully we can get some clue where to go next.”

They continued their trek across campus and entered the building where the Department of the History of Art offices were housed. They walked into the department and, after a couple of quick inquiries, were able to find Alisha Brown’s office.

Tessa peeked inside. Alisha sat at her desk working on her laptop.