Between Floors

by W. R. Gingell

  I glared at him. “Yeah? What about the security cameras in here?”

  “Security cameras are easily taken care of,” said Zero, shuffling me out of the way. “Pay attention when you’re out alone.”

  “Fair enough,” I said, trotting after him. “You worried about me? ’Zat why you followed me?”

  “I didn’t follow you,” Zero said, steering toward the wrong aisle. “I came directly from Between.”

  I grabbed the trolley and towed him toward the rice aisle instead. “Yeah, whatever.”

  “How long will this take?”

  “What, the shopping?”

  “Yes.”

  “Dunno, half an hour. Hey, reckon I’ll go to the library afterward.”

  I looked up and found that Zero’s cold blue eyes were resting thoughtfully on me. “I’ll come with you,” he said. “How long will that take?”

  “You only came out with me to make sure I don’t go off to visit Detective Tuatu, didn’t you?” I said accusingly. I’d thought as much—there was no need for me to be going to the library right now.

  Zero looked down at me but didn’t answer. He steered the trolley toward the next aisle, passing the rice aisle.

  “Okay, so if we can’t visit Detective Tuatu, can we go see Daniel?” I asked, giving up on the right aisle. We needed more biscuits, anyway.

  “Why do you want to see the lycanthrope?”

  “Wanna make sure he’s healing all right.”

  “He’s recovering well.”

  “Yeah, but I want to see him recovering well.”

  “You’ve still got some vampire saliva in your system,” said Zero. There was a bit of a burr to his voice—or maybe a buzz. Like the sound was just a bit off. “It’s not wise while he’s still in his wolf form.”

  Oh yeah. Zero was probably making sure no one could overhear us talking about stuff like vampires.

  I frowned. “What, you reckon he’d bite me or something?”

  “No,” Zero said. “It’s more likely that you’d bite him.”

  “What? JinYeong didn’t!”

  Shortly, Zero said, “JinYeong has had many years to learn how to control his instincts.”

  “Yeah? Is that why he’s so flamin’ sulky all the time?”

  Zero cleared his throat and turned down the aisle.

  “It’s no good,” I told him. “I already saw you smile.”

  “I didn’t smile.”

  “Yeah you did. Who thought it was a good idea to turn someone like JinYeong, anyway?”

  “It was my decision,” said Zero, and continued down the aisle and right past the biscuits like he hadn’t just dropped a bombshell.

  I grabbed the biscuits and chased after him. “What? You turned him? How? You’re not a vampire! You’re not, are you?”

  “Keep your voice down a little, Pet,” said Zero. “I’m not a vampire. JinYeong is the result of Behindkind trying to interfere in human concerns.”

  “You mean trying to help humans?”

  “It’s interference. It never ends well, and rarely ends in anything other than disaster.”

  “Okay, well, I can see why you don’t want to help humans if you end up with vampires like JinYeong, but you helped me.”

  “I didn’t help,” Zero said. “We have a bargain. An even exchange. Your service for our protection until a certain set of circumstances play out.”

  “Yeah, but you’ve saved my life heaps of times, and you’re training me, so—”

  “It’s an even exchange,” he repeated, voice hard. “Don’t begin to read too much into bargains with the fae, Pet. Humans who read too much into fae bargains tend to die young.”

  “Pretty sure humans around fae die pretty young in general,” I muttered.

  It wasn’t meant for Zero to hear, but he said grimly, “Exactly. Help from the fae very rarely helps the humans involved.”

  “Okay, that makes a lot more sense,” I said.

  Zero, looking as though he thought he might regret asking, asked warily, “What makes more sense?”

  “If you’re trying to protect humans by keeping out of their way, you should just say so. I don’t get why you have to talk in riddles all the time.”

  “I don’t care what happens to humans.”

  “Yeah?” I said. “’Cos you keep pretending you don’t care what happens to them, but I’m pretty sure you’ve just been trying to protect them in a different way.”

  Zero’s icy blue eyes met mine and then turned away. “No,” he said. “I was explaining it in a way that might appeal to you. I do not care what happens to humans.”

  “All right, if you say so,” I said, seizing the side of the trolley to pull it across the top of two aisles. We needed flour next. I’d told Zero I would make him pancakes. “How did it happen, anyway? JinYeong, I mean?”

  “I found him in the mountains in South Korea during the Korean war,” said Zero. “His entire corps had been slaughtered by vampires, and one of them stayed to play with JinYeong. He was…more of a handful than the vampire expected. They were both dying when I got there, on either side of the room, and neither of them knew what to do about it.”

  “Why’d you say it was your decision, then?” I asked. “Didn’t he just, I dunno, turn into one when he died?”

  “No,” Zero said. “A vampire’s bite isn’t the only thing needed to turn a human into a vampire. Vampire blood is also needed.”

  “Weird,” I muttered to myself. “Figure he was just hatched or something. Hang on—is that why you lot kept telling me not to bite him?”

  “Yes.”

  “You could have just told me that’s why. It’s not like it’s something I thought about.”

  Zero glanced back at me. “You didn’t think of it?”

  “Nah. I’m not a vampire; why would I have a burning urge to bite someone?”

  “Ingesting vampire saliva usually has that effect on humans. If they’re able to bite a vampire within the time they’re influenced, the cycle continues on to create a new vampire. If it’s Behindkind the infected person bites—”

  “Wait, if I’d bitten you then, it could’ve killed you? Just like if JinYeong or Daniel bit you?”

  “Yes.”

  I drew in a breath between my teeth. “And you just kept me around the house when you thought I might go biting you? After I turned halfway into a lycanthrope and nearly did bite you?”

  “I told you not to bite me.”

  “Yeah, I remember.” It had seemed weird at the time, but now that I knew why—actually, no, it was even weirder. “But if it’s an instinctive thing—”

  “You didn’t bite me.”

  “No, ’cos I’m not an emotionally unstable vampire.”

  “Athelas spoke of testing you; causing you to ingest more potent levels of saliva to gauge your resistance to the side-effects of it.”

  “More potent—what sort of more potent levels? JinYeong already licked his finger and shoved it down my throat!”

  “If JinYeong kissed you to prolong the time of exposure—”

  “What? No. Heck no.”

  Zero’s blue eyes were just a bit paler, and I was pretty sure that was a sign of amusement. He only said, “Athelas didn’t think you would like the idea, so I didn’t bring it up with you.”

  I couldn’t help grinning. “Pretty sure JinYeong wouldn’t like it much, either.”

  “Athelas didn’t mention that, but he did say that in the interests of scientific research—”

  “Heck no. Not even for scientific research.”

  “There are,” said Zero thoughtfully, “a very great number of things that need to be scientifically researched when it comes to you.”

  “Oi! I’m not a lab rat, you know.”

  “No,” Zero said, but there was a considering sort of tone to his voice that worried me. “You’re not. That also is very interesting.”

  Zero and JinYeong were both gone the next morning, which was flaming rude when I’d woken up in th
e mood to cook. Making a big, cooked breakfast would have settled that, I was pretty sure. Maybe it would also have settled the uneasy, restless feeling of discomfort that I had this morning.

  “Fine,” I said to the empty house. “If bad stuff happens, it’s not my fault.”

  I hadn’t agreed not to go see Daniel, just Tuatu. I hadn’t even agreed not to call Tuatu again, so I could do that if I wanted to. I could do whatever I wanted to do. I could definitely go out this morning, anyway.

  I would be very careful to stay away from Between, men in green pants, and blokes who looked like moths with a blank for a face. Zero couldn’t complain if I was being careful, after all.

  That decided, I made myself coffee and ate biscuits, muttering. I didn’t know where to find Daniel, which was annoying; if I’d still had the lycanthrope abilities I’d had when I was close to turning wolf, I would have been able to find him. It put a bit of a damper on my plans for going out and Doing Stuff By Myself, but it occurred to me that at least I could go find Athelas at the police station and see with my own eyes that he was still whole and healthy, instead of stranded in the middle of a room by fibres of moonlight.

  That would be nice, I thought doubtfully. Well, not exactly nice; but I wanted to see the Athelas who was real—not the one who had killed me in a dream. And despite the fact that Zero seemed determined to be off-hand about Athelas’ prolonged absence and my dream, I didn’t feel comfortable at all.

  Mind you, would I really know if Zero was uncomfortable about it? I thought about that doubtfully as I tied the laces on my sneakers. He was pretty flaming hard to read at the best of times, and I’d only just started to be able to pick it when he was amused at something. Sometimes, anyway. Would I really know if he was worried? Would he let me know if he was worried?

  Yeah, probably not.

  He’d asked me about the dream—and he’d said to tell him if I dreamed it again. Zero didn’t do stuff for no reason. So maybe he really was worried after all, even if he was talking as though he wasn’t. Or maybe Zero just knew more about it than me and JinYeong, and wasn’t telling. That was also pretty likely.

  In any case, I was going to see what I could sniff out about Athelas. And if Athelas was okay, and there was nothing to worry about, then I was going to see if I could find Daniel. Maybe I’d try and find Daniel even if Athelas wasn’t okay—Daniel hadn’t killed me, after all.

  I took it easy on the walk there. It was starting to get a bit hotter these days now that summer was really here. As hot as it ever gets in Tassie, anyway. The sun really bites here, but there isn’t usually much in the way of humidity. The sun’s enough to get you too hot, though, and I didn’t seem to have a hat that wasn’t webbed up with about ten years’ worth of spiders. I can face the stuff that comes through Between from Behind, but I can’t handle spiders. I’d rather just set fire to the stuff. Hopefully JinYeong never finds that out.

  I was still a bit too hot by the time I got to the cop shop, but after I’d washed away the sweat at the tap outside Maccas and dried my face on my shirt, I was pretty normal looking. I must have been, because the cop that offered to take me to Detective Tuatu’s desk was cheerful and didn’t ask what I had in my pockets.

  He left me at Detective Tuatu’s desk, too, which was pretty handy as well as really trusting for a cop. I hadn’t expected things to be that easy. I sat there for a little while, looking around at everyone who was moving around the floor, then got up and wandered in the direction of the toilet sign—and, more importantly, the stairwell. I was pretty sure it was the seventh floor where Athelas had been working undercover in Upper Management, and the stairwell was sure to lead there sooner or later.

  The thing was to move slow but not too slow. Don’t bounce. Don’t draw attention to yourself. I’d managed to creep up on my psychos once or twice, after all. I mean, that was when I’d had a bit of Between to help soften my footsteps, but I’d still done it.

  I looked around reflexively for a bit of Between to soften my steps, fortunately reminded of past successes, but there was no sign of anything more than the white coolness of laminate and fake marble around me as I climbed the stairs.

  Mind you, no one from downstairs yelled at me to come down.

  And when I finally got to the seventh floor, no one yelled at me to get lost. There wasn’t even a suspicious look levelled at me, which was nice. Of course, things would probably get a bit harder once I opened the door at the top of the staircase and actually came into contact with humans again.

  Humans, or something else.

  I swallowed, my throat suddenly very dry. Oh yeah. What was I going to do if there were things like the Moth Man up here? Sandman, Zero had called him. I couldn’t look at a Sandman’s face without feeling like I was going to lose myself, but if I didn’t look at them, they’d probably know I wasn’t meant to be here.

  I grinned a sickly kind of grin at the steps beneath me. It was probably the first time I would be glad to see a flicker of Between to my surroundings, instead of wary and a bit scared.

  Well, the second time, anyway.

  The first time it had happened had been here in this station. I’d been in an interview room, and I’d been so glad to see Between cracking through the wall like sun-damaged glaze, my three psychos coming to get me.

  Without meaning to do it, I set my chin.

  “Don’t worry, Athelas,” I muttered. “I’m coming for you.”

  Sort of, anyway. At the first sight of any Behindkind, I was probably gunna run for it and yell for Zero.

  I put my hand on the door that said push, and pushed.

  I dunno, I think I expected it be locked or something. Even if it had just been a restricted area of the cop shop, I kinda expected it to need something extra to get through. Maybe a swipe card or a pin pad or something.

  I didn’t, though. The door just said push so I pushed, and it swung open, too.

  The room opened wide and tidily partitioned in front of me; a series of gridded cubicles on the left, partitioned to the shoulder, and a small, windowed office to the right that had no one sitting at the window where they should have been sitting. Air conditioning swirled softly, a flutter of disrupted paper in the background, but there was no other noise. No one else there. No one to stare, no one to display confused curiosity about why there was a skinny teenager walking in by herself. Just…no one and nothing but the air conditioning.

  “What is it, Christmas?” I muttered. The difference between this floor and the one below was chillingly stark. I would have preferred to brave the stares of anyone wondering why I was there than walk into a white graveyard.

  Knowing my life, it was likely there really were dead bodies hanging around. I didn’t look too closely at the cubicles just in case there were bodies in them, and hurried toward the far end of the room, where a line of printers guarded the turning into a hallway.

  I didn’t know where I was going, but I kept going for the hallway. There was no stopping now—not when someone might appear any minute. Wherever it was I was looking for Athelas, it wouldn’t be here in all the low-walled cubicles, surrounded by printers.

  Nope, Athelas would have made sure he had his own office. Dead cert.

  I passed by the printers, turning left, and found myself walking down a white hallway, unpleasantly reminiscent of my dream the other night. I tried not to shudder. It was just a hallway; nothing but a hallway. There were a lot of hallways that were white and cool and felt like they went on forever.

  Funny, though. I stopped part way down the hallway, staring at the far end. Lots of hallways were long and white and cold, but did a whole lot of them have the same blueprint at the end of them? The one with the button sticker that helpfully said you are here?

  Yeah, nah. There was no way this wasn’t the same one I’d dreamed.

  I looked around nervously as I walked, but this hallway didn’t stretch forever like the one I’d dreamed, and the blueprint actually got closer as I walked toward it. Had I be
en here before? I didn’t think so, but how else could I have dreamed about it? At least this time I was actually getting somewhere when I walked, and that helped me to squash away the horrible feeling that I could find a moonlight-pierced Athelas somewhere around the place.

  It didn’t help with the feeling that something had definitely gone wrong with Athelas.

  I kept walking right until the end of the hall, and it let me get there, which was nice. I stopped in front of the blueprint after a quick look around to make sure there was no one watching me. The title was just the street address of the cop shop, and the words, Hobart Police Station. It would have been handy to see that in my dream. I’d have to remember to tell Zero that without letting on I’d seen it in real life.

  Funny, though. I could have sworn the you are here sticker was in a bit of a different place than I’d seen it in my dream.

  I looked at it a bit closer, but if it was different, it wasn’t different enough for me to remember how. I left it behind with a lingering look over my shoulder, turning to the left rather than the right just because I’m slightly more right handed than left handed, and I felt that if a nebulous someone was expecting me to go one way, it would be to the right.

  Never said I’m not paranoid, did I?

  It occurred to me some time after I turned the corner that I’d also turned left to get into this corridor. If I kept going, I should get back into the main room with the cubicles, shouldn’t I? My eyes slid past the couple of doors in the new corridor, but instead of the window I should have been able to see on the left at the end, or the protruding tail-end of a printer or two, I saw only another left-hand turn.

  Oh, and the blueprint again, with the you are here sticker maybe just a bit higher than it had been last time I saw it. And this time, there was no right-hand turn opposite the left-hand turning.

  There was definitely something dodgy going on here. I left the doors for later and went on toward the left hand turn in the hallway, trying to remember everything I’d learned about widdershins, and wondering if it was something that was a thing Between. I certainly couldn’t see anything else that was Between around here, but maybe widdershins was a kind of manual hack to get into Between instead of the easy way.