“Coffee, Pet,” said Zero. “We need to have a long discussion with Miss Knopke, and a hot drink will help matters.”
He wasn’t wrong; coffee helps everything.
Erica still looked pretty terrified, but she didn’t plead with me to stay with her, so I trotted away into the kitchen to make tea and coffee. Hopefully the detective had more in the way of tea and coffee than he’d had last time I was here.
Zero’s voice, just a little above a murmur, followed me. I wondered if Erica knew how calming he was being with her. He was never like that with me, trying not to scare me and trying to make me feel at ease.
I huffed at the kettle and set up the tea and coffee tray. Lucky Erica. Still, I thought, opening a new packet of biscuits, it wasn’t her fault that Zero didn’t appreciate his pet. I would just have to practise my swordsmanship and Between skills until I was a more exemplary pet.
It seemed to be working, too; I heard Erica’s soft voice rising and falling as she explained to Zero all that she’d explained to me earlier, pausing to listen to questions and stopping and starting when she became too upset.
Oh well. At least Erica would be safe with them. I’d been afraid they would be as brusque with her as they’d been with me at first, and that wouldn’t have worked with Erica. It didn’t make sense to get hurt feelings because they were treating her too nicely.
I’d already filled them in on Erica’s story last night, so I wasn’t surprised that they were nearly finished asking her questions by the time I came back with the tea and coffee.
“Erica can wait for us here in the living room,” said Zero, taking his coffee. “Make sure she’s comfortable, Pet. We’ll talk in the kitchen and come to a decision before you walk her home.”
If I hadn’t been looking at him when he said that, I might not have seen the way his eyes met Athelas’ eyes.
Right. So even though I was the one who was supposedly walking Erica home, Athelas would be trailing behind again. Good. I wasn’t so comfortable with the thought of being approached by Daniel at the moment. There was just a bit too much animal rage in his eyes for me to think I’d be able to hold him off if he chose to attack—and that was just the human version of him.
I’d already seen the damage the animal side of a shifter could do. More, I was afraid of what would happen to me if the wolf that had been growing in me was threatened enough to come out like it did in my dreams.
I sat with Erica while the others left, and until it felt like something muffled the voices I’d been listening to as they faded down the hall.
Rude. They were doing something so I couldn’t listen from here.
I waited just a bit longer, then left Erica with a comforting smile, and trotted up to the kitchen. Much to my joy, Zero didn’t tell me to go back when I perched myself up on the detective’s kitchen bench.
He asked me, “Is she calm?”
“Yeah, not too bad. She’s less frightened now than when she first saw you.”
“Good,” said Zero. “She’ll have to trust us enough to sit still and be protected without running into a panic.”
“If I stay with her, I think she will,” I said. “What’s the plan? What are we gunna do?”
“It seems evident that Erica thinks it was Daniel that night,” said Athelas.
JinYeong complained, and I heard Shanae’s name in there.
In the interests of fair play, I said, “Yeah, it still could have been her, Zero. She was there that night.”
“She was also in the vicinity the night April Post and Bianca Terry died,” said Tuatu. “Bianca Terry died outside a work party, and April Post was killed in the parking lot before her 4 am Monday shift. Shanae was at the party and claimed she left early, and she was working the same shift as April Post.”
“I mean, I still think it’s Daniel,” I said. “But that woman’s flamin’ terrifying and if she’s a shifter, she’s got as much ability as Daniel to get nasty.”
“I agree,” Athelas said. “Zero?”
“We can’t discount her.”
I sank my chin on my palm. “So, what do we do?”
“Set a trap,” said Athelas, smiling dreamily. “Nothing too convoluted, since we’re dealing with shifters. A message, perhaps, Zero?”
Zero nodded. “We need full cause before we administer judgement.”
“Judgement?” demanded Detective Tuatu, looking more alert. “What judgement?”
“It’s part of our job,” Athelas said. “It’s a requirement for Enforcers that they find Intent, Initiation, and Act all present before they act in judgement as Enforcers.”
“What do you consider as Intent, Initiation, and Act?”
“They offender must be present with the intent to commit the crime, have initiated the crime, and be in the act of the crime before we can proceed with infield justice.”
“So we’ve gotta get Shanae and Daniel to go somewhere they think Erica’s at with her new friend, and they’ll go there to kill—hang on. You’re going to use me as bait again, aren’t you?”
“We’ll use the promise of you as bait for them,” said Zero. “That’s all we’ll need for them.”
“Yeah, but how do you get the Act, if that’s how you’re gunna do it?” I asked, frowning. “If Daniel goes haring off to where he thinks I’m being a bad influence or whatever on Erica, he might have Intent to hurt me, and he might even Initiate that by changing to his other form, but how does that give us the Act?”
“That’s your legal system,” said the detective. “I just have to see them there before I can question them. Nobody gets hurt.”
Zero nodded expressionlessly. “JinYeong, give Shanae a message for Erica tomorrow. Tell her that Pet will be waiting at the City Theatre at ten o’clock tomorrow night; they’re going to see a show together. I’ll make sure Daniel knows they’ll be at the Botanical Gardens for a late-night performance at the same time.”
“Will that be impetus enough, do you think?” asked Athelas.
“It will be, if it’s Daniel,” I said. “He’s been glaring at me for the last few days whenever he sees me with Erica.”
“And if it’s Shanae, it will probably be enough to get her there, just to see what’s going on,” Zero said. “JinYeong and the detective will watch for Shanae. Athelas will wait for Daniel. Pet and I will be at Erica’s house to make sure nothing happens to her while the exercise is ongoing.”
“I’m with him?” Detective Tuatu looked doubtful.
“That’s what I keep saying,” I confided. “I don’t know why we keep him; no one wants to work with him.”
JinYeong showed me his teeth, but Zero ignored both that and my remark.
“Go walk Erica home, Pet. You can tell her what we’ve decided; make sure she understands she needs to be at home all day tomorrow if she can, and to definitely be out no later than 9pm tomorrow night if she must work.”
“Got it,” I said, and went back to the living room.
As soon as I got there, Erica jumped up from her seat.
“What’s happening? What did they say? Are they going to help me?”
“They’ve got a pretty good idea of who it was,” I told her. “So they’re setting a trap. Don’t worry; you’ll be completely safe the whole time. You’ll be with me and the big white bloke.”
“Is he actually a detective, too?”
“Well, sorta.”
“What do I have to do?”
“Nothing,” I promised her. “You just stay snug at home all tomorrow night while everything happens. We’ll come to meet you at nine or a bit before, and guard you while they spring the trap elsewhere.”
“You’re not—you’re not going to use me as bait?”
“Nah,” I said. “Not actual you, anyway; just the promise of you being somewhere. We’ll be safely at your house while everything’s going down somewhere else.”
Erica looked down at her bag, then up at me, and her eyes were luminous with tears. “Thank you,” she said quietly.
“Really. I’m ashamed of myself for being such a coward, especially when you’re so brave. But after the second one died…”
“It’s okay,” I said. I jerked my head toward the kitchen. “They’re the ones doing all the dangerous stuff; I’m just following along and doing the housework. They’re good at what they do, so you don’t have to worry.”
“Thank you, anyway,” she said. “I still think you’re the bravest one. Don’t go meeting with Daniel again, will you, though? It’s not safe.”
I probably wouldn’t have met him again anyway, but I found myself saying, “I won’t. I might see him at work, but—”
“Don’t even talk to him!” she said urgently. “Not if they’re—not if they’re making plans about him. I don’t want him to find out.”
“They’re making plans about Shanae, too,” I said. I didn’t think it was Shanae, and I was pretty sure Erica didn’t, either. She might not like Shanae, but she didn’t act as though she was scared to death of the other woman, either. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll walk you home now.”
“Ready?” asked a voice from the doorway.
Detective Tuatu was there, slipping his keys into his pocket. They must have sent him to walk Erica home as well, which was pretty rude considering that everyone was camped out at his house.
“That mean I’m staying?” I asked the detective gloomily, but I didn’t expect him to say yes, and he didn’t.
“They want a bit more coverage,” he said. “You’re meant to come, too.”
“Fine,” I said. Flaming Behindkind. They wanted to talk without me there. What were they up to now? “But someone better be buying me dim sims or something.”
I slept in late the next day, and I suppose JinYeong must have been hungry, because when I woke up he was perched on the end of my bed again. Lucky for him, I was awake enough to recognise his figure as him instead of the wolf-Daniel figure I had been leaping for in my dreams.
He looked poised to duck, but I just flailed at him a bit and groaned, “Why are you in my room? What is it you don’t understand about privacy?”
“Irona, Petteu,” he said. “Pab haera.”
Then he stalked away and out the door. Left by myself, I groaned a bit longer and made myself get up. I didn’t want to get up, and I definitely didn’t want to cook anyone’s breakfast. My stomach was already lurching from the smell of vampire in the room.
I went downstairs and made toast, which didn’t smell exactly good, but at least didn’t stink to my nose right now.
“How come Athelas is at work?” I asked JinYeong, putting a plateful of toast in front of him. These days there was a lazy susan in the middle of the table, full of jam and honey and other spreads, so at least I didn’t have to run back and forth to fetch stuff.
JinYeong just shrugged one shoulder at me—which meant either he didn’t know and didn’t care, or knew and didn’t care to tell me.
And yeah, maybe I wouldn’t have understood him if he told me anyway, but his attitude was still annoying.
Zero came in after JinYeong started eating, and I knew right away that it was going to be a hectic morning, because he was dressed in his training clothes. He sat down and ate a mountain of toast with raspberry jam, then said, “Get dressed, Pet. We’ll practise in the house this morning.”
“Athelas didn’t like us practising in the house last time.”
“Fortunately for us, Athelas isn’t the master of this house. You seem to do better with a more urban training ground, so we’ll start in here. You’ll have to find your own weapon again.”
“I’m gunna change into a werewolf before much longer,” I complained. “How come I still have to do training?”
“You’re not a wolf yet,” said Zero. “And the skill of drawing things from Between is useful whether or not you’re human. You need to be able to draw on anything in an emergency. You need to practise until you can put your hand to anything in an emergency and bring its other form from Between into your reality.
“Yeah, but do I have to be running around and trying to dodge swords while I do it?”
“Yes,” said Zero. “There’s no benefit in being able to access Between while you’re safe and calm. You need to be able to do it when you’re bloody and beaten and dying.”
“Oh,” I said. “But doesn’t it make more sense to be able to access stuff before it gets that bad? Then I won’t have to be bloody and beaten and dying. Also, what if I accidentally shift?”
There was the faintest breath of a laugh as Zero rose. “I thought you wanted to be trained, Pet.”
“Yeah, that was before I found out you were going to make me dodge from one end of the place to the other while you chased me with two flaming big swords,” I said. “And my legs feel like they’re going to fall off, and I might lose my arms.”
“The more you train, the stronger you’ll get.”
“Yeah,” I said again. “That’s what you say, but I don’t think my legs got the message. The other day you had me starting from a squat and dodging between markers, and at my age my knees shouldn’t be clicking. They are.”
“You’re wasting time,” said Zero. There was a movement of stuff coming from Between as he drew two swords from nothing.
“And I have to work today.”
“Prepare yourself, Pet.”
“And how come your swords are bigger than mine?”
“You choose your own weapons,” said Zero. “You fight with whatever you take from Between.”
“I gotta pee.”
“You already went.”
“You’ve only shown me how to guard and stuff; I haven’t had enough practise!”
“This is the practise,” said Zero, and began to move forward, blades lifting and sweeping into position. “All I ask of you is to seek your own weapons and turn to fight.”
“All, that’s flamin’ rich!” I muttered, but Zero was already surging forward. I turned and ran.
The house was empty when I got home from work that night, which was weird and unsettling. Funny how quickly I’d gotten used to coming back and feeling that certain something that meant one of my psychos was at home.
I hung out in the kitchen for a couple of hours, trying not to feel nervous about the night ahead and drawing random things out of Between to see what they were, or if I could affect what they came out as. It was nerve-wracking doing it when Zero was charging after me with his weapons, but by myself it was pleasant, even calming.
After a while I lost my nervousness, and I’d almost forgotten I was going out again that night until Zero called me and I realised I was going to have to jog for it to make it to Erica’s place by the agreed time of nine o’clock.
“Pet,” said Zero’s voice, jarring even by phone. “You haven’t started yet.”
“All right, all right, I’m going!” I said. “Just gotta get me hoodie.”
I hung up on him before I could feel guilty about not telling him that my hoodie was still in my locker at work from my shift earlier. He probably would have told me not to bother getting it, and I felt weird without it. I only had two of them, and it was my favourite one. If I was going to be on a stakeout with Erica, I wanted my good hoodie.
Lucky for me, the last of the nightfillers were only just leaving when I arrived, and they let me sneak back into the store. That surprised me, but the last one out said, “Erica’s in there; she’ll let you both out. Make sure you don’t leave without her, though; you’ll set off the alarms.”
Hang on, Erica was here? She was meant to be at home right now, meeting Zero.
“Flaming heck,” I said.
I dodged a few scattered milk crates and the piece of freezer cladding some long-gone workman had left open to expose the innards of the freezer, and jogged for the locker rooms. I must have been moving more quietly than I thought, because when I came around the corner of the last aisle and met Erica, she nearly jumped through the roof.
“Pet? What are you doing here?”
“Forg
ot my hoodie,” I said. “What are you doing here? You were meant to be home all day; Zero’s expecting you to be there when he arrives at nine!”
“There was—my locker was—someone has been going through my locker. I came back tonight to get out my watch. I took it off for tickets yesterday and forgot to put it back on. I only just remembered it now, and I thought it would be safe for me here if nightfill was still around.”
“I’ll call Zero and let him know where we are.”
“Don’t!” she begged me, and I hesitated. “He’ll be so angry, and I know I shouldn’t blame him, but don’t, Pet!”
Zero had said to call or text if anything went wrong, but with Erica looking at me like that, it was hard to say no to her.
Ah heck. I should really say no. Why wasn’t I saying no? I struggled to lift my phone, and eventually put it back in my pocket.
“We’ll be right there,” she said. “I promise. We can leave as soon as I find it.”
“Okay,” I said. “But you’d better hurry up. If we hang around here too long, Zero will call first. He was expecting to find you at home when he got there.”
“I will,” she promised. “I just—I couldn’t leave it there for him to have. It’s precious, you know?”
I would have hung around outside the locker room while she fetched her watch, and texted or called Zero anyway, but Erica pulled me in with her.
“Stay with me,” she said.
So I stayed with her. I couldn’t really do anything else, not now that I was here. But it was hard, hanging over her shoulder and waiting while she went through every piece of rubbish in her locker with more and more frantic reiterations of “It’s got to be here! It must be! I know I left it in here!”
Actually, I was surprised she could find anything in the mess of old mouldy food and scrap paper—by the looks of it, she hadn’t eaten any of the lunches she’d brought to work this week or the week before that.
I jiggled up and down beside the locker, taking out my phone every five minutes to check the time and wishing the detective or Zero would call first; but although Erica’s search grew more frantic, she wouldn’t leave.
It took nearly half an hour before she found it, a tiny gold thing that was small enough to fit beneath a badly stained bowl without making it sit sideways, and by then I was so relieved that all I said was, “Good, let’s go!” without complaining about the wait.
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