26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Some sort of magic tingled over me as I walked through. ‘Hello?' I called. There was no answer so I grimaced and started walking down a corridor.

I had been walking for a minute or two when I noticed that I'd passed the same painting twice. I kept on moving forward – and saw it for the third time. I was trapped in some sort of illusory loop.

We're not really walking anywhere, I said to Esme as I panicked a little. At least, I don't think so. We're just moving down the same stretch of corridor over and over again.

I felt her frown. No, it's not the same. Our scent is not here and if we'd walked it before, it would be.

Be that as it may, we've walked past this painting three times.

We stopped and examined it: it was humorous, quite at odds with the ambiance of the Bodleian. It was a painting of a red dragon sprawled under an apple tree, neat glasses poised on the end of his nose and a book clutched in his claws. Its title was A book wyrm. Someone thought they were a comedian.

As I stared at the picture, the dragon set down his book and looked at me. ‘Only three goes!' the thin, reedy voice of an old man warbled. ‘Not too shabby, my dear, not too shabby at all.'

I gaped. Had I watched too much Puff the Magic Dragon as a kid?

‘Come on in!' the dragon invited me, and suddenly the painting was hanging on a door rather than a wall as it had appeared moments earlier.

I pushed it open, strode through – and stopped. This red dragon wasn't painted. He must have been twenty feet long, and the room I'd just walked into was absurdly hot. I'd be sweating in minutes.

I'd met dragons before, but mostly in their human form. On the rare occasions I'd seen Emory as a dragon, he'd been busy razing zombies for me so it wasn't like I'd had a lot of time to examine him in detail.

What I noticed first about the Librarian was that his teeth gleamed. ‘Do you use teeth whitening?' I blurted out.

He looked amused. ‘Ah. You're one of those,' he said.

A moment later he shifted into his human form. Despite the heat, he was dressed in a jumper with leather elbow patches and he had wire-framed glasses perched on his nose. I wondered if they were necessary or an affectation like David's.

‘One of those what?' I asked belatedly.

‘I'd say you're new to the Other realm. Are you?'

‘Don't you know who I am?' I asked curiously. Surely if he knew my question, he knew who I was.

‘Should I?' he asked.

Well, there went my over-inflated ego. I gave him an awkward finger wave. ‘I'm Lucy, Queen of the Werewolves. For the UK, I mean, not the whole world.'

‘Ah, that must be nice for you.'

‘Not really,' I admitted. ‘Most of the other alphas want to kill me.'

‘And is that why you want to recover the orb? To kill them first?'

I looked at him, horrified. ‘Absolutely not.'

We don't need air to kill them, Esme snorted.

‘I want to help them,' I explained. ‘All of them. I want to strengthen the werewolves' position in the Other. At the moment, no one really considers us a threat.'

‘And you want to be a threat?' The Librarian raised a bushy eyebrow.

‘No, but I want to be taken seriously, to have a seat at the table and an equal voice.'

He nodded slowly. ‘Well that, my dear, is something of worth. Ask your question.'

‘When did the orb, the artefact that gives the werewolves their lost air powers, get stolen?' I repeated.

‘On the 1 st of January 1846,' he said decisively.

I'd expected some showy magic, or maybe I'd expected him to rummage around in some dusty tomes before he gave me an answer, not just blurt it out. It was a bit of a letdown. ‘Thank you,' I said politely.

He looked amused again. ‘You're welcome, Lucy Alessandro-Barrett.' So the cheeky dragon did know who I was! He leaned forward. ‘Now, ask me how I know that date.'

I decided to play ball. ‘How do you know that date?'

He smiled. ‘I can't tell you that, but you're a smart girl so I'm sure you can work it out.'

I gave him a flat look. ‘You were there?' I hazarded a guess. ‘Alive at the time, I mean, not there there .'

‘Oh, I was most assuredly living at the time. I'm a good few centuries old – and add a few more for luck.' He winked. ‘But no, I was not on the Staffordshire packs' lands when the orb was stolen.'

I suppressed a grin. Well, that was helpful: he'd inadvertently confirmed the location of the seat of power at the relevant time. I felt a tingle of excitement.

He looked at me seriously. ‘You had another question.'

I licked my lips. ‘Yes.'

‘Ask.'

‘How do I take down the Domini?'

He studied me. ‘Ending their attack on you is one thing, taking them down completely is another. What do you really want to do?'

‘I want to end them,' I said firmly. ‘It's not enough to stop them attacking me because I don't want them to simply pick a new target. I want them to stop – and I don't think they'll do it if I ask nicely.'

‘You need to cut off the head of the snake – but you need to do it correctly. If you cut it off wrongly, it will be like a starfish and grow back two limbs for the one you chopped off.'

I was momentarily distracted. ‘They do that?'

‘Starfish? Yes, they all start life with five limbs. When they lose one, two grow back. If you see a starfish with ten arms, you know it's seen some shit.'

‘Huh. So what you're saying is that I could end up making the Domini even worse if I don't destroy it properly? '

‘Exactly. Cut off the head, not the arm.'

‘How do I find the head?'

He smiled humourlessly. ‘You follow the orb. Your two questions were intertwined. The road ahead is messy, Lucy. Have a care.'

‘I will. Thank you.'

‘Good. And tell your brother, the answer to his question is yes.'

‘What was his question?' I asked nosily.

The old man wagged his finger. ‘That's for him to know. Now to the business side of things. I answered your questions – two of them – and one day I will require a favour from you.' Before I could object, he held up a hand to forestall my objections. ‘For now, I require your vow of silence.'

‘About what you are?' I clarified.

‘About everything that has been said and seen since you walked into my corridor.'

I grimaced. ‘I'll agree to the vow of silence but I won't agree to an open-ended favour. I've read Rumpelstiltskin. Plus I need to be able to tell my brother the answer to his question.'

The dragon smiled. ‘Good for you. A favour to be called within a year, which will not bring any harm or loss to anyone. And yes, of course you must tell your brother his answer, or else there was no point in answering it.'

I tried to think of a way that his words might be tricking me but I came up blank. ‘Okay,' I agreed. ‘Done. I vow not to communicate with anyone the events that have transpired since I walked into your corridor and walked back out of it, save for the answer to my brother's question.'

The dragon smiled. ‘Marvellous. I do appreciate a well-constructed oath.'

I glowed yellow as the vow's magic took hold. Things were cooking nicely; I knew the date and I knew the location. Now all I needed to do was go back in time and stop the thief.

Easy-peasy.

Tarkers' face slackened with relief when I walked back out. ‘You're alive!'

I grinned. ‘I seem to be. Let's roll.'

No rocks this time? Esme asked mischievously.

Let's keep our rocks to throw at people that annoy us, I suggested .

Good idea. She paused. But not at glass houses, right?

You're getting the hang of these sayings. I grinned.

I turned to my brother. ‘So, apparently the answer to your question is yes.' I nudged him. ‘What was the question?'

He glared. ‘None of your business.'

I nudged him again, ‘Aw, come on. Just tell me – is it a good yes, or a bad yes?'

He smiled faintly. ‘Yes is rarely bad.'

‘I can think of a few examples,' I disagreed. ‘Saying yes to bigotry is always shitty, for example.'

He rolled his eyes. ‘Trust you to rain on my parade.'

‘I'll stop if you'll tell me what we're parading for,' I said, hoping to entice him into spilling some beans.

‘None of your business, Lucy Caboosy,' he huffed.

‘Fiiiiine. But you know I'll get it out of you eventually.'

‘We'll see.' He slung an arm around my shoulders. ‘Did you get an answer to your question?'

‘I got even more than I bargained for,' I admitted.

‘In a good way?'

‘In a good way,' I confirmed, hoping I wasn't lying.

As we walked out of the Bodleian, a familiar figure caught my eye. Elvira was dressed in a black pencil skirt with a white shirt and black jacket. As always, she was wearing skyscraper heels and enough kohl eyeliner to outline the whole of the United States on a map. Her warm Mediterranean skin tone was complemented by dark red lips. The only flaw in her otherwise perfect appearance was the tiniest kink in her nose.

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 mean sauntered. 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, I told you to come here, remember?'

‘You did. But how did you know I'd be here now ?'

‘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. I suspect 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 at the 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 do better.'

‘You got it.'

‘I must go. I hope the Librarian helped because God knows I wasn't much use. But maybe you can at least tug on that vamp lead.'

‘I will, thanks. And El – be careful.'

Her eyes softened at the nickname. ‘You too, Luce.'

As she swayed away, Ben sighed lustily. ‘I thought you and Noah…?' I trailed off.

‘Oh, yeah, of course!' Ben protested. ‘I'd never do anything, but a man can admire beauty when he sees it. She's like Eva Longoria – and she 's totally on my list.'

‘I am not digging into that,' I declared. ‘But I want you to know that Noah is one of mine. He's more than just part of the pack. If you're not really into him then…'

‘I am!' he insisted. ‘I'm taking it slow, but I am. I promise.' I nodded and let it go. Sometimes you have to trust people to live their own lives.

As we walked to the bus stop to get a ride back to our car, my brain was bursting with the information I'd gained on my little trip to Oxford.

One thing was for sure: that information meant a trip to the past was a necessity. I really hoped that strolling into it wouldn't fuck up anything important.