Between Frames (The City Between Book 4)

by W. R. Gingell

  That was a stretch to the truth if ever there was one: JinYeong was only bearing it because I’d been bearing it a minute or two ago, and it was even less proper for me to be doing it. Mind you, I’d rather bear the sword than bear with JinYeong, so there’s that.

  “Your father will be displeased.”

  I coughed a bit of a laugh into the shoulder of JinYeong’s suit jacket, and murmured just loud enough for him to hear, “He just pull the I’m telling your dad on you thing on Zero?”

  “Mm,” JinYeong murmured back down at me, and then: “Jaemi isseo.”

  Oh well. At least he was having fun.

  “What my father thinks of it is very little to the point, is it?” said Zero, ice and fire at once. “He is not here, and I am certainly not there. I’m a member of the Enforcers, not the Family.”

  “But my lord, we come with an offer from the Enforcers!” protested one of the fae I hadn’t seen before.

  Good for him. He was probably sick of the golden fae making a huge mess of their offers. I approved. Despite the fact that I didn’t like or trust the golden fae, I wanted Zero to take what he’d been offered, and the golden fae wasn’t helping his own case.

  What was the offer? Glad you asked. It was an offer to make sure no one bothered Zero while he made sure the humans around here were kept safe. Sounds like a job for the police, right? Well, the Enforcers kinda are the police—the fae version, anyway. There’s no human version of what they are, either, which means that fae mostly get away with hurting humans with no one to help. Zero can help…but whether he will help or not is another question.

  Zero said flatly, “I gave an answer to your proposition last time my dwelling was invaded. Why are you bothering us again?

  “A new situation has arisen,” said the golden fae, scowling back at the other fae. “It has nothing to do with that previous offer, though if you’re willing to think that over again—”

  “I imagine that’s why you’ve brought a few friends with you?” suggested Athelas, gently swinging his foot. There was no reason for the movement but to show the assembled fae that he was whole and hearty—which was worrying.

  Because if Athelas was trying to make sure that people thought he was whole and hearty, he was probably still feeling pretty awful. It made sense: we’d only just rescued him from a torture chamber the other day. He wasn’t supposed to be up and fighting when his insides were still healing.

  Athelas’ eyes met mine for one moment, then went back to the golden fae, faintly enquiring.

  “They are here as representatives,” said the fae.

  “Representatives of whom?” Zero asked him, voice hard. “And what situation has arisen?”

  One of the questions must have embarrassed the fae, because he went slightly more bronzy about the cheeks and chin. I reckon I could have guessed which question it was that embarrassed him, too, though I wasn’t exactly sure why. It was the question he answered first.

  “As always, I represent the Enforcers and Behind Law.”

  JinYeong sniffed a laugh. “Cogitmal.”

  Lie.

  I flicked a look up at him, and saw that he had his hunting look on again, though it was more glittery and amused than usual. More like when he was threatening to fight me instead of Zero.

  “How interesting,” said Athelas, and his voice held a layer of amusement, too. “I was under the impression that your branch of the Enforcers is very, er…family oriented.”

  “Do not tempt me,” said the fae, through his teeth, “to teach you otherwise.”

  “I am singularly good at instruction myself,” Athelas replied, with a faint smile.

  “The situation,” Zero reminded them both, the words icy cold.

  I shivered a bit, and so did the hand that still clung to JinYeong’s suit jacket, pressed between my chest and his arm. I let go, and maybe he thought I was going to move further into the room, because he tilted his head to glare down at me, one incisor a warning not to move.

  I would have stuck out my tongue at him, but the female lieutenant was watching me, so I shoved my hands in my pockets instead and grinned at her.

  “You lot want tea and coffee?” I asked.

  “No!” said the golden fae.

  “Yes,” said Zero.

  I saw the way his eyes met JinYeong’s eyes, and the very slight tip of his head toward the kitchen, so I wasn’t surprised when JinYeong tugged me away into the kitchen by the cuff of my sleeve. He brought the umbrella sword with us as well, which meant that while I was getting tea and coffee, I could jerk my chin at it and ask, “What’s he mean, Heirling Sword?”

  JinYeong raised both eyebrows at me and pursed his lips. That was his not going to tell you and what are you going to do about it? look.

  Since the jug was still boiling, I thought about it for a bit, then said, “Heirling Sword musen dusiya?”

  He gave a short, incredulous laugh. “Yah, banmal?”

  “Dunno what you mean,” I said. Technically, it was true. I mean, I was pretty sure he was having a go at me for not being polite enough, but I didn’t actually know the word he was using. “Maybe if you spoke in English I could understand you.”

  His teeth showed in a snarl. “Yah, Petteu; choshimhae.”

  I pulled a face at him. “Wae?”

  “Hangukmal hajima!”

  That made me grin as I filled a tray with tea and coffee and good things to eat. No way I was going to stop speaking Korean.

  I’m gunna tell you something you probably don’t already know. Learning Korean is hard. It’s backward—and I mean almost literally backward—from English. And what with learning Korean and how to fight, plus how to not die when it comes to Between, my brain is just as floppy and tired as my body is, these days.

  So why learn it? Well, because it annoys the heck out of the vampire.

  Petty? Yeah, but then, I am a Pet.

  What? I already told you I’m a pet. You didn’t think Pet was actually my name, did you? Nah. I’ve got a name, but right now, everyone just calls me Pet. It’s better that way. If I’m a good pet—cook the dinner, stay behind Zero, stay alive, that sort of thing—I’ll get my house back to myself. For good, this time. I’ve got a fae agreement and everything.

  I was too busy being smug about annoying JinYeong; I didn’t see the way he had his head tilted—like he was listening to something—until the jug stopped boiling and I realised I couldn’t hear the others talking in the living room. I took one step toward the doorway, and JinYeong also stepped swiftly forward, incisors showing.

  “Petteu,” he said, in a purr. “Hajima.”

  “Wasn’t doing anything,” I said, but I stepped back behind the kitchen bench. When he spoke all silky like that, with the glint of danger in his eyes, I didn’t know whether or not I’d end up getting bitten.

  Flamin’ rude, I thought, narrowing my eyes at the doorway. It wasn’t just the fact that JinYeong had unmistakeably told me I was to stay in the kitchen—it was the fact that I couldn’t hear anything from the other room.

  Nothing. Zilch.

  Which meant Zero was doing something to make sure I couldn’t hear.

  Well, that wasn’t on. I mean, there probably wasn’t much I could do about it, but beggar me if I wasn’t going to try. I might be the pet, but there was no reason for them to be keeping me out of the conversation again.

  I spooned tea into Athelas’ strainer, focused on stealing even the smallest peep of noise from the other room, and there was a clear chime of metal against metal as the spoon tapped the strainer.

  As the chime lingered on the air, far longer than it should have done, I heard Athelas’ voice say, very clearly, “How unusual! I was under the impression that the higher-level Family members in the human world were much better guarded than that! However did they manage to lose their hearts?”

  Okay, so he could have been talking about fae falling in love, but I was gunna bet—

  “That is precisely what we wish to know!” sna
pped the golden fae. “It is unprecedented for fae to have their hearts torn out, even those living in the human world!”

  Yep. There we go.

  Athelas’ voice, fading with the chime on the air, said, “Dear me! A novel method for dispatching fae.”

  There was a professional kind of interest to his voice—like he was curious to know how the perpetrator had done it, or how he might replicate it. Maybe a faint sort of approval.

  It was the kind of tone that made me shiver, reminding me that Athelas was about as deadly as Zero when it came to dealing out death and destruction. Just a bit more polite about it, maybe.

  The chime was gone, but I thought I might just be able to keep hearing their voices. If I listened in just the right way, with a bit of Between to the hearing…

  “I see no reason to help the Family,” said Zero, very faint and scratchy. Whatever he was doing, it was really hard to get around, even now that I was using a bit of Between to make things more clear. “Our interests…not aligned.”

  Flaming heck. I was losing him.

  I saw a bit of Between edging Zero’s coffee cup, and touched a finger to that instead of concentrating on Athelas’ tea strainer. The cup could also have been an ornament—well, was an ornament if you saw it the right way Between. Even now, I could see the filigree and jet edges to it. That was probably because it was the cup Zero used all the time, and Between seems to attach itself to stuff and places so that Behind can seep through into the human world. Like a disease or something.

  And maybe I could use that connection to Between to give me a bit of an opening into the living room. I turned around with the coffee mug as if I was just going to fetch the coffee tin from the upper cupboard and spoon some in. Like Zero drank instant coffee instead of the drip pots I usually made.

  “In addition, there is…information. The Family will release that…to you…culprit is apprehended.”

  Just a bit more, and I had it. Just a little bit more.

  “Petteu,” said JinYeong in my ear, with an unmistakeable edge to his voice. He spoke in Korean, but the meaning came through Between, loud and clear when he said, “If your ears become too big, I will bite them.”

  He had that look again where I wasn’t sure if he was going to bite me or not when I turned around, so I shut down what I was doing pretty quickly. Reckon I’ve already had enough vampire spit running around my system to last me a lifetime.

  I got some of it in worse ways than others, too.

  “That reminds me,” I said. Zero’s always trying to teach me that I need to use surprise in my attacks. “You kissed me the other night! It’s bad enough that I have to be drugged up because you bit me! Why’ve I gotta be kissed as well?”

  And yeah, I know he kissed me because he was dosing me up on vampire spit, but he could have—

  Well. To be fair, I didn’t like it when he licked his finger and shoved it in my mouth that one time, either. If it came to that, I didn’t much like being bitten. There isn’t a good way to get vampire spit. No one should have to ingest vampire spit.

  JinYeong shrugged, and this time when he spoke, it was pure Korean without any edge of Between to translate it. “Nae maumdaelo hae.”

  He spoke in a swift, self-satisfied mumble that made it hard to separate the words, even if I had recognised them.

  I retorted, “Speak in English!”

  “Shilloh.”

  Don’t wanna.

  Well, wasn’t that flaming typical?

  “Yeah, well if you try it again, I’ll flamin’ bite you,” I grumbled.

  One of JinYeong’s brows went up. “Haebwa, Petteu,” he said, and sauntered away toward the living room.

  I followed him out there, and trotted around between the fae like the good little pet I was, grinning at the female lieutenant as I pushed the tray at her. Her lips curved just the smallest bit, and I saw a gleam of white.

  Heck yeah. On the Zero scale of emotion, that was a definite grin.

  I sidled around behind them once my tray was empty, trying to make my footsteps as light as possible. If I could just edge around behind them, there was a good chance I could stay and listen and…

  “Pet,” said Zero. “Kitchen.”

  Oh well, there went that plan.

  Chapter Two

  I didn’t get to hear a single word more, and by the time I could get back into the living room, the fae were gone. The three psychos went out straight after, too, even though the time was going on for three in the morning by then. Zero wouldn’t tell me where they were going, which was flamin’ annoying, and JinYeong smirked at me on the way out, which was even more annoying.

  And now they were all back home, after spending all the morning and early afternoon out without a single word of explanation.

  Flamin’ typical.

  I chucked the rag I’d been wiping the kitchen down with onto the bench, giving up on cleaning the tar for a little while. I came out into the hall just in time to meet Zero and Athelas at the door like a good pet should. Zero had a tiny tear in the shoulder of his leather jacket as well as the blood I’d already seen on his jeans through the window, and Athelas’ usually mildly untidy curls were dishevelled.

  Behind me, the bathroom door opened, wafting a cloud of scent that heralded JinYeong’s re-emergence. Zero took in JinYeong, his hair still wet from his shower, and his blue eyes flicked to the small splattering of black blood that extended from the kitchen and into the living room. Then those eyes came back to rest on me.

  “Don’t blame me!” I said. “JinYeong’s the one who messed up the kitchen. I’m cleaning it.”

  “Clean your face first,” said Zero.

  “Don’t tell me I’m gunna turn into a tar beastie or something, now,” I grumbled.

  “I think not,” said Athelas. “But that fluid tends to bleach the skin when left too long.”

  “That’s JinYeong’s fault, too,” I called, ducking back into the kitchen to use the sink there. I’d be gassed if I went into the bathroom. “He threw his shirt at me.”

  In the living room, JinYeong protested in a stream of injured Korean that was too fast for me to follow.

  “Dear me,” Athelas’ voice said, as I heard them entering the kitchen behind me. “How novel!”

  I snorted a mix of water and black blood through the streaming tap. “If that’s what you want to call it. Who have you two been fighting this time, anyway?”

  “No one.”

  “What, you just rolled in some blood you were passing or something?” I turned my head to look at them, dripping blackened water into the silvery sink. “And there’s a tear in Zero’s jacket.”

  “When my lord says he has not been fighting, he refers only to fighting to bloodshed,” said Athelas. “The blood and the tear are two separate incidents, nor was the blood pursuant to the fighting.”

  “Busy morning, then.”

  “Indeed.”

  I came away from the sink wet-faced but clean, and dabbed at my face with my t-shirt. “Oi. If you lot want lunch, it’s gunna have to wait. I gotta finish cleaning the kitchen first, and then find something else for dinner. I can do tea and coffee, though.”

  If they were having tea and coffee, there was a good chance they were going to discuss what they were up to. I didn’t like fae popping in and out of the house at random times, but I liked Zero and Athelas disappearing without telling me what they were up to even less. When they didn’t tell me what was going on, surrounding humans tended to get hurt. If I wasn’t there, there was no one to remind them to be careful with the humans.

  But Zero said, “No coffee.”

  “Is there any necessity to be quite so severe?” protested Athelas.

  Zero’s eyes met mine again. “Oh, I think so. There have been a few too many vibrations around the house since last night.”

  “If you’re trying to tell me something, you’re gunna have to be more clear about it,” I said. He might be hinting that he’d noticed me eavesdropping last night, b
ut if he wasn’t and I was just feeling guilty, I didn’t want to give the game away. “Do you lot take lessons in being obscure?”

  “Something like that,” agreed Athelas.

  “I suppose JinYeong takes lessons in being an annoying shower-hog, too.”

  “Yah,” said JinYeong through his teeth, stepping up into the kitchen.

  Ignoring him, I started wiping down the kitchen bench, and said to Zero, “You lot were gone for a while.”

  “We took as long as we needed to take.”

  “Yeah? And what takes about twelve hours to do, then?”

  Zero’s eyes went a shade bluer. “Typically, working a curse-breaking enchantment into a sword.”

  “Draining a fully armoured fae of blood,” mentioned Athelas.

  JinYeong said a short, mocking sentence that made no sense to me, but I understood the dark amusement in his eyes.

  I blinked. Opened and shut my mouth. They were teasing me? “Oi!” I said at last. “You can’t do that!”

  “If one knows the right people, one can certainly do so,” Athelas said. “Or perhaps you’re referring to the armoured fae, in which case I’m happy to inform you that you’re still incorrect.”

  “Hang on,” I said, side-tracked. “How come you said a fully armoured fae? Does it take less time if they’re unarmoured?”

  “Certainly,” said Athelas. “Fae tend to wear armour that enhances their physical aptitudes—among them, blood flow. There’s a reserve contained in the armour.”

  “Your armour has veins? That’s disgusting.”

  “Perhaps,” Zero said. “But it gives fae a prospective five minutes longer to survive if things go wrong.”

  “Yeah, it’s still gross. Anyway, talking about blood, how’d you get that blood on your jeans?”

  “I fell into some blood.”

  “What, someone just left it out for you to fall into?”

  “Pet,” said Zero. “If you’ve finished cleaning the kitchen, maybe you could start on dinner?”

  “Yeah, maybe,” I said. So he wasn’t gunna talk, huh? “But I reckon I’ll need some more groceries, now that someone spilled tar all over the stuff I was making. Anyway, I’m not finished cleaning it, not by a long shot. You lot sure you don’t want tea and coffee now that the bench is clean?”