Between Jobs

by W. R. Gingell

  It definitely didn’t look like he was in any hurry to leave. He didn’t so much as glance at me, shivering out on the step while he was warm and comfortable on his chair inside. I glanced back across at JinYeong but he wasn’t shivering, even with his light suit pants and jumper.

  Stupid vampire. They probably don’t feel cold.

  I sniffed against the back of my hand and hoped my nose was just cold, not wet. Maybe if I leaned back I’d be able to hear what they were saying in there. It wasn’t like they had the long glass doors closed, after all. If I was gunna be cold, at least I could hear what they were talking about.

  I leant back a bit, arching my back in a sudden shiver when the small of my back hit the wooden platform, and something heavy dropped over me, all fleecy on the inside and warm with someone else’s body heat.

  I squeaked and fell over sideways. By the time I’d scrambled out from under the fleece and leather jacket enough to be able to see, Zero was sitting down inside again. He didn’t look at me this time either, but this time I knew he saw me, so I smiled and tucked my arms into the jacket.

  I’d have to be careful not to lean back while trying to hear, or he’d notice.

  JinYeong, on the other side of the courtyard, scowled at me.

  What was he cranky about now? I made a face at him and he turned sharply on the ball of his foot, pacing back towards me with the stride of a hunter.

  Oops.

  “Don’t sit next to me,” I hissed, but he dropped down next to me anyway, long legs stretched out elegantly in front of him.

  He said something to me that I couldn’t understand, leaning too close again.

  “Don’t sniff my hair!” I told him, in an indignant whisper. “It’s weird and gross! What’s wrong with you?”

  JinYeong tapped his nose.

  “Yeah, it’s not your nose that’s flamin’ wrong,” I said. “It’s your personality.”

  One of his brows went up briefly, but JinYeong didn’t appear to be offended. I wondered if he’d understood; it’d be a pity to waste a good insult. Casually, he pinched the cuff of Zero’s jacket, lifting my hand, and sniffed my wrist for good measure.

  “Now you’re just messing with me,” I said.

  He grinned.

  What a mongrel. I pulled my arm away and he let me go, leaning back on the palms of his hands with his nose in the air, eyes closed. There was still a faint smile on his face, but I wasn’t sure if that was because he enjoyed needling me, or if it was because he seemed to be able to smell again.

  “Weirdo,” I muttered, and got up. There was enough courtyard to keep us far enough away for comfort, so I didn’t see why I had to sit right next to him.

  There was enough to see around the courtyard, too; and now that I was warm and happy in Zero’s massive jacket, I was content to wander instead of listen—especially if I had to sit next to JinYeong in order to listen. So I wandered and looked, hunching my shoulders to keep my ears warm in the collar of Zero’s jacket, my hands stuffed in his pockets.

  As I drifted around the courtyard, I saw that even here in the courtyard, there were some elements of the house across the road, even if it was mostly cave and courtyard this far in. The walls were covered with ferns and moss, but between the fresh-scented greenery, in the gaps, there were still pictures hanging on the walls.

  And over toward the wall that met with the wooden platform, in a soft green corner with a small waterfall, there were even a couple of umbrellas.

  Pretty flamin’ typical of the bloke across the road, if you ask me. Who keeps their umbrellas upstairs? I mean, who keeps ’em halfway between what’s essentially fairyland and the human world too, I suppose; but at least it was wet here. They could come in useful.

  There was even a hall stand to keep the umbrellas in, all overgrown with vines and flowers, with the handles poking out of the greenery. I would have thought they’d been there for a long time if the yellow umbrella hadn’t been delicately filigreed with tender vine shoots and newly budding flowers. It caught my eye by the brightness of the tatty yellow fabric showing between the green.

  I narrowed my eyes at the hall stand and shuffled forward until the toes of my boots were touching the first step, obeying Zero in the letter if not the spirit, of the law. Everything else there was pretty well covered in old growth, dark green and strong. It was only on the yellow one that the vines looked new.

  Was it another Between thing? Or was this umbrella, like so many of the other things around here, not exactly what it was pretending to be?

  I reached for it, careful to keep my toes right up against the step and no further, and my fingers touched the plastic yellow handle.

  Yeah. That wasn’t a plastic handle.

  My fingers slid around the grip—did it feel like a sword grip?—and I briefly smelled leather. The umbrella twitched a couple times, like it was trying to decide whether it was an umbrella or a sword, and for a second I saw a sword.

  “Yikes!” I said, and nearly fell over.

  Something snagged the back of Zero’s jacket and hiked me backward in an undignified, arm-flapping bundle, the jacket hoisting me by the armpits.

  “Oi!”

  JinYeong twitched me around to face him, and released the back of Zero’s jacket. He grabbed me by the wrist instead, and flapped my own hand in front of my face.

  “Manjiji ma,” he said.

  What, like don’t touch? Hang on, he said that to the boss today—was he telling the boss not to touch the pet?

  I tugged indignantly at my wrist and said, “Manjiji MA!” back up at him.

  JinYeong’s eyebrows went up. He dropped my wrist with a fastidious wince, and hooked one finger under the collar of Zero’s jacket instead, pulling me back to the centre of the step. When we were there, he pushed down on the top of my head to make me sit down, and dropped back down next to me.

  Yeah. He was messing with me now.

  Just wait, I thought darkly to myself. He might be a vampire, but my local library had Google. Google knows everything, and I was betting there would be something in there about dealing with vampires, too.

  A slight sound tickled my eardrums; was that Zero’s voice I could hear again?

  JinYeong stopped my involuntary turn of the head by grabbing one of my ears, and shook his own head slightly.

  Oh. So he wanted to listen, too; but he couldn’t if he had to stop me getting into trouble or if Zero found out we were listening.

  I winked at him and twitched my ear away, wiping it on my shoulder by reflex.

  JinYeong looked coldly at me, and then away again.

  Looking into the middle distance like a flamin’ model.

  I hugged my knees instead, without leaning too far forward, and heard Zero say, “It wasn’t a normal kind of glamour.”

  “What does that have to do with the Waystation?”

  “Nothing, if the owner of the house wasn’t a human. And if he hadn’t been murdered. And if there wasn’t a trail of human blood leading all the way to this Waystation.”

  There was a moment of pause. When the other fae spoke, his voice was shocked. “He’s dead?”

  That was a voice blank with surprise. I flicked a look up at JinYeong and saw that he looked disappointed. He knew what I knew—this fae hadn’t murdered anyone.

  Well, he hadn’t murdered the bloke across the road, anyway.

  “Murdered,” Zero repeated.

  “Who would be stupid enough to murder—” the fae cut himself off. “Who did it?”

  “Someone I’ve been looking for. Someone who likes killing a human and then four Behindkind in a row.”

  “That one? But why would he—he wouldn’t…”

  “Why wouldn’t he?” asked Zero, his voice as expressionless as ever. “What makes this human any different from the others?”

  I sneaked a peek over my shoulder and saw the fae bite his lips worriedly. “I don’t know. I’ve got to go. You can’t stay here, either.”

  “I have mo
re questions.”

  “Can’t answer ’em; it’s a waystation, not a police station.”

  I kinda expected Zero to bash him one. I wanted to bash him one. I mean, it was obvious he wasn’t telling the truth—or at least that he knew something he wasn’t saying.

  To my surprise—and, by the look of it, JinYeong’s disappointment—Zero didn’t either throw blows or put a hand to any of his weaponry.

  “Mwohya?” I heard JinYeong complain, but I was too busy watching Zero.

  That must have annoyed the vampire, because he grabbed my ear and twitched my head away again.

  “Haji ma,” he said.

  I would have stuck out my tongue at him, but I heard Zero get up and I didn’t want him to see me being that childish. I was mature and level-headed; the perfect pet. The sort of pet who should be kept indefinitely and eventually allowed to rent the house instead of him, preferably.

  I got up, leather squeaking, and JinYeong rose lithely beside me. Did one of Zero’s brows go up at the sight of us waiting together for him?

  I wasn’t completely sure, but the only thing he said was, “Take it off,” flicking a finger at his jacket.

  I took it off regretfully, shivering reflexively as the cool air hit my warmed arms, and automatically grabbed Zero’s leather strap again.

  “Don’t let go,” Zero said once again, and this time he led the way.

  I expected something…I dunno, more. But all we did was go home again, back through the cavey house, or the housey cave, until we were descending stairs that looked like stairs again. The house smelled like a real house again, too.

  Athelas was waiting for us when we got through the door at home, though I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have admitted it. He had his legs elegantly crossed, as usual, and was pretending to read a book in a careless sort of way.

  If he’d really been reading it, he would have been in his favourite chair in the living room opposite. They might be three psychos, but in some ways, they’re very predictable psychos.

  I don’t know if Athelas can smell blood as well, but his head came up sharply as I entered the kitchen, his brow suddenly creased.

  “What happened to the pet? Pet?”

  “An mogosso,” said JinYeong, at once.

  “I did gather that you hadn’t tried to drain the pet, since I see her standing and alive.” Athelas’ voice sounded impatient.

  He really doesn’t like it when I don’t answer questions he asks.

  “It’s a tiny cut,” I said. I waved my fingers at him. “Doesn’t even hurt anymore.”

  “Did it bleed Between?”

  “I staunched the flow,” said Zero.

  “He means he strangled the snake,” I told Athelas. “Want a cuppa?”

  “Thank you, yes. Dear me, a snake?”

  “Yeah.” I dug the necklace out of my pocket and tossed it on the table.

  It made a small tinkle of metal against wood, and slid to a stop halfway across the table from Athelas, who leaned forward to touch it with one long, slender finger and said thoughtfully, “Dear me! He certainly did. Why did you bring it home?”

  “He threw it at me and I put it in my pocket,” I said, but I didn’t think Athelas was talking to me. He was looking at Zero.

  Flamin’ typical. I think they like being mysterious for the fun of it. So long as everyone knows they’re being mysterious.

  Yeah, my eyes are rolling. What about it?

  “Best not to leave that sort of thing Between,” Zero said shortly, as I poured tea for Athelas. “Coffee for me, Pet.”

  “I take it that JinYeong managed to catch the scent, this time?”

  Zero nodded, shrugging off his jacket. Methodically, he began to remove the weapons I’d seen him strap on earlier.

  “How, if one may ask?”

  JinYeong jerked his chin at me and made a remark that sounded disparaging.

  “Oi!” I complained. “I’m making coffee for you! You should be more polite.”

  “Naega wae?” demanded JinYeong.

  “’Cos I’m making your coffee,” I said. I bashed the tea strainer against the side of the bin vigorously to get rid of the clinging tea-leaves, and pointed at him with it. “And it’s pretty dumb to be rude to the person who’s making your coffee. Dunno what could fall in there.”

  Athelas slid an amused look in our direction, but when he’d taken his cup of tea from me, he asked Zero, “What did you discover of importance?”

  “There is certainly a glamour on the house.”

  “We suspected as much. What, then?”

  “I think there a glamour on the dead human, too.”

  Athelas’ hand, teacup poised to drink, paused momentarily. “On the human? Why?”

  “I’m not entirely certain,” Zero said slowly. “But I think a trip to the morgue is in order.”

  “Ne,” agreed JinYeong. He picked up his coffee from the edge of the kitchen counter where I’d pushed it, eyeing me coldly, and took himself off to the living room. Over his shoulder, he called, “Ingam aniya.”

  “The victim wasn’t human?” Athelas looked as surprised as I’d ever seen him, those soft dove eyes wide and pale and startled above the rim of the teacup. He stood swiftly, following JinYeong into the next room, and said, “That can’t be so. The one thing we know about the killer is that he always kills humans as the main target. Always.”

  “Then this wasn’t the main kill,” said Zero, following them both. Unlike JinYeong, who had thrown himself elegantly down on one of the sofas, and Athelas, who despite his perturbation had sat down in his favourite leather chair, crossing one leg over the other, he propped himself against one of the brick support pillars, one ankle crossed over the other.

  “It has to be!” protested Athelas. “It was hanging in front of the house—it was the first body we found. It was the only body we found here!”

  “Then something has changed,” said Zero. “I’m certain the real owner of that building hasn’t been seen for several months at least. Behindkind took over the house some years ago, I would say.”

  I couldn’t really tell if he was as perturbed as Athelas or not; he’s always so expressionless that you can’t know.

  “Whoever the murdered person was, he was in the field by himself,” he said. “They didn’t know about the murder at the waystation; they thought I’d come to find the sword.”

  JinYeong made that annoying hiss again, and said something that contained the word petteu.

  “Oi!” I said, from the stairs. “It’s rude to talk about people behind their backs!”

  He puffed out another small, dismissive breath and turned his nose back to the ceiling.

  I automatically looked at Athelas, who smiled into his tea despite the line that still creased his brow. “He says if the sword had been there you probably would have tried to touch that, too.”

  “Hang on,” I said. “D’you blokes mean that sword that was pretending to be an umbrella?”

  “What?” Zero said sharply.

  JinYeong’s sharp chin twitched toward me. “Mwoh?”

  “Dear me!” said Athelas, replacing his teacup very carefully in the saucer. He set it down on the coffee table beside him and added, “You certainly have a way of drawing attention to yourself, Pet. You saw a sword while you were Between?”

  “It was in the courtyard,” I said, nodding. I looked from Zero to JinYeong. “Didn’t you see it? It was yellow. Is it important?”

  JinYeong, his voice disgusted, demanded, “Ku akka ko?”

  “I don’t speak Korean!”

  “He must have seen you touching it or playing with it earlier,” Athelas said. “He’s annoyed with himself for not recognising it.”

  “Thought you blokes knew all about this stuff,” I said. “Thought you were the ones who could see stuff that isn’t what it’s pretending to be.”

  “In general, yes,” said Athelas, his light eyes steady with warning. Gently, he added, “Perhaps you should rethink your tone
, Pet.”

  “Sorry,” I said, suppressing a yawn. I was so tired that I was letting myself get careless. I knew that, but I was still tired enough to plop down on the sofa beside JinYeong, taking up the other cushion. None of the other unoccupied chairs were comfortable enough to curl up on—JinYeong knew how to pick the comfiest spot in the room. “But there really was a sword that looked like an umbrella, so if that’s the one you’re after, I know where it is.”

  “Pet,” Zero said, “how did you see the sword?”

  I leaned my head against the sofa arm. “Dunno. There was a lot of stuff there from the house, so I was touching things to see what they really were, and the umbrella was a sword.”

  “Is it not more important to know why you didn’t see the sword?” enquired Athelas. “I hate to encourage our Pet in her cheekiness, but she has a point.”

  “High level glamour,” said Zero, shrugging. “Directed at fae. We’ve been looking for that sword for years and never seen it; I thought the Family still had it, and it wouldn’t have occurred to me that it was at the Waystation if the fae there hadn’t thought I was there for it. I’m more interested in knowing how the pet saw it.”

  “You blokes said humans don’t go Between by themselves, or that your Behindkind people don’t take humans with ’em,” I said, yawning. We hadn’t gone further than the house across the road, but I was dead tired. “They wouldn’t try to stop humans from seeing it because there’s no humans to see it.”

  Athelas smiled into his tea once again. “I think Zero’s perturbation is more a matter of how a human can see anything Between.”

  “Oh yeah,” I said, yawning again; this time enormously. “’Cos Between’s about how you see stuff and if you can see stuff you can make big trouble by affecting stuff, or something.”

  “Humans can’t affect Between,” said Zero. “Full blood humans, anyway.”

  “Oh.” I didn’t really care. I just wanted to sleep. Everyone had their tea or coffee, and even if the coffee wasn’t keeping me awake, it didn’t look like any of the three psychos were having trouble staying awake. My duties as pet were done for the night and there was a kind of warmth to the room that made me content in my sleepiness. “I’m gunna go to bed now,” I said, but my head didn’t want to lift from the sofa arm.