Page 52 of Resurgence of the Pack

I had no doubt that many women saw her and automatically thought ‘Bitch!’, but that was jealousy speaking and showed zero knowledge of the woman herself. Elvira was smart, fiercely loyal and had suffered from a broken heart when she was very young. Despite that setback, she still kicked ass.

I beamed at her. ‘Elvira!’ I called, giving her a wave.

A smile tugged at her lips. She pushed off the wall she was leaning against and sauntered over – and I meansauntered.Next to me, my brother breathed, ‘Wow.’ Elvira was a knockout, in all meanings of the word.

‘Hey, Queenie,’ She greeted me with air kisses – she was carrying two cups of takeout coffee.

‘How are you doing?’ I asked.

‘I’m good. I thought we could have that chat we talked about.’

I blanked for a moment and then my brain caught up. She wanted to chat about the Domini? And hold up: how the heck had she found me? ‘How did you know I’d be here?’ I asked.

‘Honey, Itoldyou to come here, remember?’

‘You did. But how did you know I’d be herenow?’

‘I had a flunky watch out for you on CCTV.’ She waved a hand still holding a takeout cup, at a street camera.

‘Huh,’ I said. I wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of Connection flunkies tracking me.

‘Don’t freak out about it,’ she half-pleaded, half-ordered. She handed me a cup. ‘Here. Use this to hide your lips, that way no one can lip-read our conversation. Let’s walk and talk.’

‘Give me some space to speak with El alone,’ I told the others. Tarkers and Wakado grimaced but fell back, whilst Ben was more than happy to trail behind Elvira’s butt. Ugh, men.

Elvira and I walked and talked, using our cups as cover. ‘The Domini is an ancient organisation,’ she murmured. ‘They’ve existed for hundreds of years, way longer than the Connection. Rumour has it that some of the Domini leaders set up the Connection to help leverage other species appropriately, but it got out of hand. It’s a universal presence – wherever there are clusters of Others, the Connection will be there too.’

‘Has the Domini partnered with the Anti-Crea?’

Elvira shook her head. ‘We don’t think so. The two seem to work together when their needs align but nothing more. Isuspect that one or more of the Domini may be pulling Anti-Crea strings, but that’s a gut feeling. Historically, the Anti-Crea have always been a slow lumbering beast. Like all bigots, they have problems with original thought so the Connection has assessed them as being a low threat level. But lately things have ramped up. A few Connection officers are suspected of being Anti-Crea and I’ve been tasked with making friends with them.’

‘You’re going undercover?’

‘Kind of. I’m not pretending to be anything I’m not – I’m still just an inspector.’ She grimaced.

‘There’s nothing “just”about your role. It’s a hard one so don’t downplay it.’ I chewed on my thumb. ‘So you don’t think the organisations are supporting each other but there might be a few bad apples in both camps. Is there anything else you can tell me about the Domini?’

‘There’s rumour of a special group of vampyrs tasked with bringing them down. I don’t know who heads it, but if you can find out you might be able to pool resources.’

I grimaced. Voltaire: he’d want to pair with me about as much as a horny man would want to pair with syphilis. Still, like syphilis, I might make myself a constant irritant to him if he didn’t play ball with me. ‘Thanks for that. Any suggestion that the Connection is looking atthe Domini?’

She shook her head. ‘No. We’re looking hard at the Anti-Crea – and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the Domini pulling our strings to make us do so – but we have such limited numbers that we can’t split our focus too far.’

‘You think the Domini are deliberately throwing the Anti-Crea under the bus?’

‘I think the Anti-Crea have stirred up things too much. They’ve shucked off their restraints from their masters.’

‘And their masters aren’t happy about it,’ I mused.

‘That would be my guess. Lucy, the Domini are master manipulators in positions of power. If you stick your head above the parapet make damned sure you’re wearing a helmet.’ Her eyes were serious but then an impish grin curved her lips. ‘Love the shirt,’ she said as she air-kissed me again.

‘This?’ I pulled at my top. ‘I got it half price. I love your pencil skirt – it looks amazing on you.’

‘This old thing?’ she shrugged. ‘Just part of the uniform.’ I laughed. ‘What?’ she demanded.

‘We are shockingly shit at accepting compliments.’

‘We are,’ Elvira agreed with a frown. ‘Next time, let’s dobetter.’

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