“So if he’s killed someone in the last couple days, Athelas should catch him on the cameras as an unfamiliar face. If he hasn’t, we won’t be able to spot him until he’s somewhere light enough to see.”
“Exactly so. Pet.”
“Yeah?”
“Remember to mind your tongue.”
I didn’t let go of Zero’s pocket until we were through the front door, and even then I almost wished I hadn’t. He didn’t give me a chance to grab him again, though; he started off at a good stride down the hall and took the stairs of the grand staircase four at a time. I followed at more of a jog than a trot, which made it easier to ignore the fact that the walls seemed to be living and were definitely moving. There were probably things in there, too, but I didn’t look closely enough to be sure.
We went at a good pace until we were at the top floor, and stopped outside a set of double doors guarded by two fae. The guards bowed to Zero and stood aside, though I could feel their curious eyes on me as I walked between them.
I looked around at the bit of the room I could see from behind Zero, and saw four huge windows along the far wall, matte with silver-speckled darkness. It wasn’t going to be easy to keep the room lit up if someone cut the power. Mind you: did Behind have access to electrical lighting?
I squinted up at the lights, but I couldn’t tell if they were electrical or some kind of magic. I was looking around for a light switch to be sure when a cool, female voice said, “I hear there has been a development.”
I craned my head around the other side of Zero, and saw her sitting there behind her huge, ancient desk. At first I thought she was a human woman; old, white-haired, and elegant. And that was weird, an old human woman being here, Behind. Then she gazed at me with the same kind of what-is-this-bug grimace that the golden fae usually gives me, and I looked a bit closer.
It could have been the crown around her brow that gave it away, all silvery and moonlight—something like I’d once seen on Zero when he came from Behind—but the kind of otherness that was almost Between but not quite made me very sure. Was I seeing actual magic?
I glanced at Zero, and saw that he was watching me carefully. Right. Don’t talk about the visible stuff that might be magic. Maybe don’t talk at all.
“Yes,” Zero said. “We’ve reason to believe it’s a peryton.”
She stiffened just a touch. “I beg your pardon?”
“Whoever wants to kill you is using a peryton to do so. We know where it was up until a couple of days ago, but we’ve no idea where it is presently. My steward and my assistant are downstairs going through your security footage and your staff.”
“I see,” she said. “How did you happen to lose sight of it?”
“Our investigation process isn’t for you to discuss and dissect,” said Zero. Oh, he really didn’t like her. “I’ll start in this room and work outward, setting up lights. Pet, find the light switches.”
That made the old woman look at me with an almost offended look. “First you bring that abomination to my house, and now this?”
“G’day,” I said, hunting for light switches. They weren’t hidden Between or anything, just behind stuff. “Don’t mind me.”
“What,” said the white-haired fae, in a glacial voice that was even sharper than Zero’s ice, “is it?”
“This is my pet,” said Zero. “Send it for drinks if you need anything. Don’t call your own staff until we clear them to come up to you. JinYeong is working on that at the moment, so it shouldn’t be much longer.”
“Very well,” said the woman. “But if it makes a mess, I will have it put down.”
“If my pet requires putting down, I will put it down myself.”
There was no emotion to Zero’s voice; not even respect or interest. And yet, that lack chilled me less than the off-hand way the woman had spoken about killing me.
He added, in her general direction. “You’re not to leave this room. If the lights fail here, use the electronic ones from the human world: we will be working at putting up a failsafe while we’re here. How many switches are there, Pet?”
“’Bout six. Two near the door, a couple opposite each other near the desk, and a couple down this end of the room.”
“Unacceptable,” said the fae woman. “I refuse to sully my rooms with electronic lights.”
Zero ignored that. He said, “If the power goes off on the human side, rely upon the lights I’m enchanting now. They’re not the most powerful but they’ll be enough to offer evidence.”
“If they’re being used to offer evidence it will be because I am dead,” said the woman. “That is also unacceptable.”
“You’ll need to speak to the Family about what is and is not acceptable,” Zero said. “I’m not your servant or your man. I’ll protect you where I can, but if I can’t, the lights will see that we’re able to bring the matter before our courts. It is important for you to remain in this room, however.”
“I’m a very busy person, Lord Sero. I can’t remain in a single room for an entire day.”
“You did so yesterday,” he said briefly. “If you have paperwork to do, do it. If you don’t, sit quietly regardless.”
“I will make a complaint about your conduct, Lord Sero.”
“As you wish. Pet—Athelas and JinYeong are in the security room. Check to see if they want refreshments and bring a tray up here. Make sure you prepare it with your own hands.”
I wanted to ask where the security room was, but with the way Janna Whiteleaf or whatever her name was, was looking at me, I decided that it would be safer finding my own way, even if I was Behind. I obviously couldn’t expect any help from Zero, who had gone into a state of iciness I had never seen from him, even when I first met him. If it hadn’t been for the warning he’d given me before we walked in, I could have thought that he’d just gotten really good at pretending to put up with me.
The walls were still moving a bit when I got out of the room, though the bits nearest the two fae guards didn’t move much—like they were afraid to play up too close to the guards. I had much the same feeling, so I just sort of nodded at them and nipped down the hall toward the stairs. The walls undulated with a rhythmic, wave-like motion on the second floor, and when I passed the round hallway mirror halfway down, I saw a face that was almost mine but not quite.
It put me off, so I stood staring at it for a few seconds before I croaked out, “Oi. Where’s the security room?”
A hand rose into the frame of the mirror and into view, fingers pointing down the hall, though the face didn’t change at all. Ah. I’d walked past it already.
“Thanks,” I said, and backtracked. I didn’t want to look at that face that wasn’t quite my face for any longer than I had to.
A very tall Behindkind with straight, thick brows opened the door and looked down at me when I knocked at the door to the security room.
“G’day,” I said again.
He looked at me with a faint, distant frown. “I think you’re lost.”
“Not at all,” said Athelas’ voice. “That’s our pet. Allow it in, will you?”
The Behindkind looked down at me, frowning, then jerked a thumb toward the inside of the room, but didn’t move, so I pushed past him.
“’Scuse me, mate.” The faint smell of fish, or maybe just the ocean, followed me; a weird kind of 3D scratch and sniff. At least Athelas and JinYeong were in sight, and that was a relief. I asked them, “Want coffee?”
“Tea, thank you, Pet,” said Athelas pleasantly. He didn’t need to tell me that—I already knew he drank tea. So that left me wondering why he said it. If it had been anyone else, it wouldn’t have bothered me, but since it was Athelas, it did bother me. Obviously we were still being careful in front of the rest of the household, not just the woman upstairs.
“Ne,” said JinYeong. The woman in front of him, a brunette in a maid’s uniform, blinked a little bit as he looked away, then grew wide-eyed again when he looked back at her. Interrogation? Was
she Behindkind or human? Did the vampire wiles work on other Behindkind?
More importantly, why did the fae who’d let me in look like he was just barely holding back on punching JinYeong? I mean, I felt like that a lot, but I had to live with JinYeong and the fae didn’t. Did this fae hate vampires, too, or was he watching the woman JinYeong was interrogating?
“What’s she?” I asked Athelas, who was sitting in front of the security screens.
“Human, naturally,” he said, without looking away from his screen. “What else would she be? She’s one of the staff here; other than the guards and the steward here, each of the staff is human.”
“Yeah, can’t have Behindkind servants in a Behindkind house,” I muttered.
The tall Behindkind looked curiously at me, and Athelas said, with a kind of poisoned honey to his voice, “Exactly so. Do attend to your work Pet—I would hate to send JinYeong with you when he’s otherwise occupied.”
He didn’t look away from his screen, but I met his eyes in the reflection of the screen, and they were all warning. Do not be cheeky, Pet, those eyes said. That was a bit of a relief. I knew that things tended to change with Zero and Athelas when other Behindkind were around, but I still wasn’t entirely sure why it happened. I threw a look in JinYeong’s direction, and saw that he, too, was watching me through his eyelashes.
Good grief. If they thought it was this bad, they should have warned me before I got here. Mind you, maybe they were hoping to remind me to be careful what I wished for. Whatever it was, it left me with the feeling that here in this house, I was as likely to be killed on the spot as I was to be held in indefinite, indentured service with no hope of escape.
And I was left with the feeling that, as close as I technically was to the human world, I was also immeasurably far away from it.
I found my way to the kitchen more by good luck than good management, and maybe there was some kind of messaging system I didn’t know about, because nobody tried to stop me moving around the place, even though I passed about three people on my way there. There were three in the kitchen, too; one washing up, one putting the finishing touches on a meal that I assumed was for her upstairs, and one polishing silver. Humans, of course. I tried to look at them covertly, but after a while I just looked at them because they didn’t seem to be capable of doing or seeing anything except what they were doing.
They didn’t stop me making tea and coffee, and they didn’t stop me taking a tray out, either. Just sorta did what they were meant to be doing, with glazed eyes and movements that were just a bit stiff—or maybe sticky. I trotted back to take Athelas and JinYeong their refreshments, feeling more chilled than I had before, then headed to the top floor to take Zero and Janna theirs.
Janna refused to take hers from me—refused to look at me, even, so I left it on the desk for her, biscuits sitting next to the saucer. I hadn’t gone even a few steps away when she said, in icy fury, “How dare you!” and something closed around my neck, tight and choking.
I gagged, clutching at my neck, but there was nothing there. Spots danced on Zero’s back, but I couldn’t get out a word to call him for help, or a breath to survive on. When the darkness crowded in at the edges as well, I gave up trying to find something to tear away from my neck, and reached out as far as the restriction around my neck would allow me.
Leather, between my fingers. I tugged on Zero’s jacket, the faintest pinch and pull that I lost after a moment, and he looked around. The pressure around my neck released in a moment, and I collapsed on the floor.
“What are you doing to my pet?” I heard him ask, as I gasped for breath on the floor.
“It left crumbs on my desk,” she said coldly. “If you’ve not trained it better, you should expect someone else to punish it occasionally.”
Zero said, “No one trains my pet but myself. Remember that. These lights are tuned to you especially—they won’t turn off unless you die. If your own lights fail and the human lights fail, these will stay alight.”
“I’ve told you that it will not suffice.”
“Get up, Pet,” said Zero, without looking at me. “We’re done here.”
Janna sat up straighter, and I swear her nose got thinner. “Do you mean to say that you are not even going to remain with me?”
“Do you not trust the Enforcers and your guards? Do as I’ve told you: let no one in or out of this room. The others have orders not to let anyone in or out of the house.”
“I assume that I am not included in those orders.”
“You are included,” said Zero. “I’ve given orders that you’re to be returned here if you attempt to leave. As I’ve already told you, Senator Whiteleaf, I do not answer to you; my concern is only to catch this person and keep you alive if possible. Come, Pet.”
I didn’t feel really safe until I was back home with Zero, stepping back into the kitchen through the wall with a good grip on his leather jacket.
Then I blew out a relieved breath, clicked the kettle on, and started to get out the stuff I’d need to make Athelas’ teacake.
“A little less enjoyment than you expected, Pet?” asked Zero. It could have been meant as a gentle dig, but there was a tiredness to his voice that left me feeling that he was just as weary as I was from the expedition.
So instead of answering in a straightforward way, I said, “There were humans back there. Running the house, I mean.”
“Most of them.”
“She keeps Behindkind as slaves, too?”
“The steward is enslaved, too,” said Zero. “Behind has laws about slavery, but only to ratify what can be done. The senators are allowed more leeway than most because they provide power to the king.”
“That’s gross and unfair,” I muttered, spooning coffee into three mugs.
“Yes,” he said. “But that’s what happens Behind. To the powerful, more power is given.”
Without surprise, I said, “You don’t like that much, do you?”
“There’s very little I can do about it,” he said, his voice hard.
It made me wonder, that tone of voice, exactly how much he’d tried to do about it, and how badly it had gone.
Pushing things a bit, I asked, “What about Mr. Preston? That’s a thing you can do something about.”
“Don’t worry about Mr. Preston,” said Zero.
“Yeah, but I can’t help worrying about him. Maybe I could try to help by myself—I can do some stuff now.”
“Your help isn’t needed or useful.”
Rude, but not unexpected. “All right,” I said. “But if you’re protecting scum of the earth like Janna Whitenose or whatever her name is—”
“Janna Whiteleaf.”
“Yeah, if you’re gunna protect scum of the earth like that, I don’t see why you can’t protect scum of the earth like Mr. Preston and stick out your tongue at the system at the same time.”
“Mr. Preston is a human, and I feel no need to stick out my tongue at the system.”
“I’m human, too. You still brought me along.”
“You’re not like other humans. You’ve earned a place here.”
“You don’t know any other humans,” I said gruffly. I could feel how warm my face was, just like my heart. “I’m pretty much standard. You lot just have a warped view of humanity.”
“So you say. I’m quite well enough acquainted with humanity, thank you, Pet. I’ve met the best as well as the worst, and I don’t believe you’re the standard.”
“Oh. Where am I on the spectrum, then?”
“Neither best nor worst.”
“Told ya—I’m average.”
“You’re not average.”
“I would tend to agree,” said Athelas, appearing around the door. JinYeong followed him; a lean, hungry figure, and I tossed him a blood bag from the fridge. Whatever it was that had gotten him so hungry for blood, it was best to get rid of the urge before he started baiting Zero or going out on the hunt.
“Are you finished already?” The
re was a frown in Zero’s voice.
“JinYeong has vetted each of the present human staff, and I’ve checked the last shift of guards that took over via the cameras.”
I made a mumbling sort of “pft” noise.
“Yes, Pet? I trust you’re not sulking about your time in the house, since you worked so hard to get there.”
“Nah,” I said, even though I was a bit miffed, actually. “But Janna Snotnose—”
“Whiteleaf.”
“Whatever. She’s pretty snotty about humans and using human stuff for someone who has a whole room full of security feeds and computers.”
“There are certain facets of humanity that are more useful than others,” said Athelas.
JinYeong, sucking on his bag of blood, watched me as I stirred sugar into my batter. Goodness knew why he was interested—it wasn’t like I was making blood snacks for him or anything.
“There’s a lot of humanity that’s useful,” I said, as he got up and padded around the bench. “You lot just don’t wanna admit it. You just keep using the useful stuff and snarking when you don’t like something.”
“Igae mwohya?” muttered JinYeong, and cool fingers twitched my chin up to let the light play on my neck. I kept stirring the batter, sprinkling blueberries into the mix, and said, “Janna Needlenose—”
Zero sighed.
“—choked me a bit because I left biscuit crumbs on her desk.”
“Perhaps it would have been good for you if you had remembered your place, Pet,” said Athelas. “Senator Whiteleaf is not best known for her love of humans.”
“Seems like she’s got a lot of company,” I said, elbowing JinYeong away so that I could pour the batter into a tin. He moved, but kept watching me over his blood bag.
“You are sulking,” Athelas said. “How very unlike you! Pet, you should remember that humans are distinctly weaker and less intelligent than most fae. It is important that such people remember their place when Behind.”
I frowned. “I’m not trying to say we’re not physically weaker. I’m trying to say that being physically weaker doesn’t make humans less valuable than you lot. And you keep saying we’re less intelligent but I haven’t noticed it. You’ve just got access to more information than we have.”
Between Frames (The City Between Book 4) Page 16
