Page 22 of Mystic Justice
‘Looks like I pissed off a necromancer,’ she said airily. ‘I guess I’d better find out which one.’
‘Stay in the chapterhouse until you’ve rooted them out,’ I suggested.
She grimaced. ‘I know you’re right, but Esmeralda is such a pain in the ass.’
I grinned. Esmeralda – Esme to her conquests – was the siren who ran the chapterhouse; worse, she was aScousesiren. She was beautiful and she hated that Elvira was just as beautiful without any augmentation. Esmeralda liked all eyes on her and Elvira was stiff competition.
‘El!’ A red-headed male in Connection uniform burst into the alley.
‘Slow-poke,’ Loki snarked.
‘You’re late,’ Elvira said drily. ‘Party’s over.’
Still panting, the man took in the various piles of ash. ‘So I see.’
‘Hey, Bland,’ I greeted him. Inspector Gordon Bland was Elvira’s partner when she needed one. Today one would have been handy.
‘Wise,’ he nodded back, chest still heaving as he desperately sucked in air.
‘You need to work on your cardio,’ I commented.
‘And being on time,’ Elvira shot back. ‘If it wasn’t for Wise, I’d be dead right about now.’
Bland winced. ‘Sorry. I got held up at an incident in town. Two centaurs were getting into it.’
‘All sorted?’ I asked.
‘Yeah. They were fighting over a lady.’
‘Who won?’
Bland grinned. ‘The lady. She told them neither of them stood a chance so they started complaining about her instead. They’re taking their matching black eyes to a pub to reminisce.’
‘Cute,’ I commented drily.
Krieg pushed off from the wall and Bland’s eyes widened. ‘Your Excellence!’ he said, bowing hastily. ‘Forgive me, I didn’t see you there.’
‘No,’ Krieg’s tone was amused. ‘You only had eyes for Inspector Garcia.’
Elvira’s cheeks warmed. Whoops. Bland’s crush on Elvira was obvious to everyone but her, but maybe she was finally getting clued in; when she looked at Bland her eyes were speculative.
‘My honour to meet you, Your Excellence.’ Bland bowed low to Krieg. ‘I’m Inspector Bland,’ he continued. ‘Bland by name but not by nature.’
Elvira was close enough to hit him lightly on the shoulder. ‘Ugh, youhaveto quit with that awful line.’
‘Never. It’s served me well.’
Krieg cut through their bickering with a miniscule bow of his own. ‘My honour to meet you, Inspector Bland,’ he rumbled.
‘What are you doing here?’ Elvira asked Krieg. ‘Your Excellence,’ she tacked on hastily.
‘Having lunch with Inspector Wise,’ he replied smoothly. ‘When she came running, I came too.’
‘A two for one,’ Bland muttered. ‘I love a good bargain.’
Elvira’s eyes were narrowed and she folded her arms. ‘What’s your business with Stace?’
‘That’s our business, isn’t it, Inspector Garcia?’ Krieg’s tone was mildly reproachful but Elvira didn’t falter. Man, she was one ballsy bitch – even I’d hesitated to square off to Krieg when I’d first met him.
