Between Decisions (The City Between Book 8)

by W. R. Gingell

  Unfortunately for me, I didn’t realise that JinYeong had followed me up the stairs on his narrow, silent feet, apparently curious to know where I was sneaking away to. There was enough of his cologne already upstairs that I didn’t notice him enter the living room, either, until I was halfway out the window and something gently pulled at my right wrist.

  “Noh,” he said, pinching the cuff of my hoodie so I couldn’t get away. “What are you planning?”

  “None of your business,” I said, as indignantly as I could manage in a whisper.

  “You should not be on the street alone at this time,” he said. “It is not safe. Come back in.”

  “Or what?” I said resentfully. “You’ll tell Zero?”

  He scowled at me. “I will not tell Hyeong.”

  That made me stop and blink a bit. “Wait, you’re not threatening to tell Zero? How you gunna stop me, then?”

  “Nado molla,” he said, clearly disgruntled.

  So he didn’t know either. I nearly grinned at him but stopped myself just in time because he probably would have taken it as encouragement.

  JinYeong’s expression became reproachful. “I cannot stop you, but I do not wish you to go,” he said. “This is not pleasant.”

  I stared at him. “Are you—are you sulking?”

  “I am not sulking,” he said stiffly. “I am annoyed because it is dangerous, but you will go, and I cannot stop you.”

  “’Course you can,” I said, propping my foot against the opposite side of the window. “All you have to do is yell out to Zero through your bedroom window and that’ll be the end of it.”

  “I am not Hyeong,” he said, looking away.

  There was no reason why that should have made me want to cry, but I had to swallow a definite lump in my throat. This was exactly how someone like me ended up thinking the vampire was a friend, and then apparently finding myself wrong in two very different ways.

  “I wasn’t going to be stupid,” I said, turning in the window frame to dangle both my legs back in the room. “I was just gunna try and get a look in the post office’s computer system for that bloke’s contact details. You know: the one who’s been paying the bills on my place and Morgana’s and Ralph’s.”

  “Of course,” he muttered. “Then I will come with you.”

  “Good grief, no!” I said. “Zero might not notice me leaving if he’s in the back yard, but he’ll definitely notice if we both go!”

  “Hyeong and the old man would worry if you go alone,” he said. “It is not safe anymore.”

  “It never was safe out there for me,” I told him. “I’m starting to get an idea of that now that I’m getting a few memories back.”

  JinYeong didn’t answer, but although he shoved one hand in his pocket and looked away moodily once again, he didn’t let go of my hoodie.

  “Fine,” I said, dropping back down to the floor. “I’ll go during the day when there’s people on the streets and people waiting in line. Happy?”

  JinYeong made a sound that was close to eung in the back of his throat, and put his other hand in his pocket. I hadn’t heard him use that word before, but the bit of Between that translated it for me said that it meant yes. It was the softest and least defensive yes that I’d ever heard from him.

  I must have stood looking up at him for just a fraction of a second too long, because he turned back toward me, hands slipping out of his pockets, and stepped toward me. For one frozen second, I thought he might actually be going to try and kiss me again. I would have moved if I could have, but I just stood there as he leaned in—and then around me to close the window.

  I stared at his chest, barely two centimetres away from my nose, for a rather breathless moment before I said sharply, “Stop it!”

  JinYeong looked down at me with an inquiring lift of the brow, and I saw amusement flit briefly across his face. He put the palm of his hand against my shoulder and gently scooted me out of the way, then finished closing the window.

  “Myan,” he said; another softer, less defensive form of the word he might usually have used to apologise with—if JinYeong ever did apologise for things. “You feel a distance from me, but I do not feel a distance from you. I forgot. I will make a boundary.”

  “You flaming better,” I said crossly. I didn’t like dealing with this disarming version of JinYeong: it felt rather like dealing with shoeless JinYeong—dangerous when you least expected it. “I’m going to bed. Don’t sit up here; I don’t want to smell your cologne.”

  Tuatu was already waiting for us down by the chocolate shop when we got to the waterfront the next day. So was Ezri, who must have been sent by Abigail to scout out the area to make sure it was safe before we all met up. That was probably a good thing, because Ezri was keeping a pretty good eye on the detective, and he was keeping just as good of an eye on her. Palomena was there too, watching everyone with a wondering eye.

  “Recognising some old friends?” I asked Tuatu, grinning.

  He jumped a bit, then said, “The kid looked familiar. I was just thinking that I’d have to keep an eye on her for shoplifting or damaging property, but now that I come to think of it, she’s about the height of the kid that tried to smack me in the back of the head with a cricket bat.”

  “Okay, but we weren’t told whether she wanted you alive or dead,” Ezri said, strolling over to us. “So technically it’s not my fault.”

  Tuatu shot her a look that was more dislike than fear and said, “Hitting a person on the head with a cricket bat is something you have to take personal responsibility for.”

  “This is our police officer,” I told Ezri, and there must have been a bit of a chill in my voice, because she froze for just a second before her usual hit-me-and-see-if-I-care attitude took over again.

  “All right, no need to get territorial,” she said.

  “Actually, I said no needless injuries,” said a familiar voice from behind us.

  Abigail emerged from the chocolate shop, and this time Tuatu tensed up.

  “You!” he said. “You’re one of them, too?”

  “What?” she said, grinning at him. “Wasn’t I useful when I was helping you pick chocolates for your girlfriend?”

  “Dear me!” murmured Athelas, as Tuatu’s cheeks darkened with embarrassment. “It would seem that you’ve had a second meeting despite yourself, detective.”

  Tuatu snapped, “North is not my girlfriend!”

  “You keep telling yourself that,” I said. “Oi, Abigail; this is Detective Tuatu. Tuatu, this is Abigail: she’s the one that tried to have you kidnapped.”

  “I didn’t actually tell the kids to kidnap you,” she said to Tuatu. “Sorry about that. We just wanted a quiet chat with you; we have to be really careful, these days.”

  “Yeah, me too,” he said, with more than a bit of sarcasm in his voice. “If it’s not Upper Management trying to frame me for murder or cave trolls taking a pot-shot at me, it’s a group of humans trying to hit me on the head with cricket bats.”

  “That was your friend’s murder they tried to frame him with, by the way,” I said to Abigail. “I told you about that; you blokes ought to have a bit of a chat about it later. In the meantime, everyone better figure out how we’re gunna communicate and think about putting in some earplugs.”

  Detective Tuatu’s eyebrows went up. “We’re supposed to be working together today? What’s to stop them trying to hit me again later?”

  “What’s to stop me hitting you right now?” demanded Ezri, scowling.

  “Be quiet, Ezri,” said Abigail. “He’s got a right to be concerned. Things didn’t…go well the other night. We were a bit hasty. There won’t be any friendly fire from our side, all right?”

  She said that directly to Tuatu, and he must have thought she was sincere, because his shoulders lost a bit of tension, and he nodded.

  Zero said expressionlessly, “Are you all finished?”

  “Sorted,” said Abigail.

  Tuatu said, “Yeah.”r />
  “We’ll split into groups of two,” Zero said. “It’ll be safer that way. If you find the siren, try to keep hold of it, even if it seems dead. If it retreats to its nest injured, it won’t come out again until it feels safe. Abigail, you’ll need to liaise with your people to make sure they have something to block their ears: if we’re in groups of two it’ll be safer, but we’ll still need to be careful. Athelas—”

  “I’ll go with the delightful young lady who wields a cricket bat,” said Athelas. “I’m sure we’ll manage well together.”

  “All right, old man,” said Ezri. “But you’d better be able to keep up.”

  I grinned; Ezri might think she was tough, but she was no match for Athelas. I said to Zero, “How about I go along the Salamanca side where the Aurora Australis is docked? Might be able to ask a few questions or sneak on board. A few of the videos came from there.”

  “I will go with you,” said JinYeong at once.

  “Make sure your earplugs are in and your phones are on,” Zero said briefly. He asked Abigail, “Do you know what you’re looking for?”

  “Water fairy,” said Abigail, nodding.

  “It’s not fae,” Zero said shortly, surprising me. “It’s a different kind of thing altogether. Sirens share no bloodline with fae.”

  “Hm,” Abigail said, but she didn’t sound too surprised. “In our records, they’re called water fairies, but I suppose you know what you’re talking about. They come from your side of the world, don’t they?”

  “Yes.”

  “A siren, you reckon?”

  “Yep,” I agreed. “It sings at you and convinces you to throw yourself overboard—or in this case, convinces you that you’re dancing on something when there’s only thin air beneath you.”

  “Right,” said Abigail, a line digging itself between her brows. “So we go in groups of two, keep in our earplugs, and make sure that our partner is okay at all times. You said it’ll have a nest? Our records don’t have anything else other than a basic description.”

  “In its true form, it will have made a cave for itself: something underwater or above the water, but not far from the water. It could be big or small. Look for little collections of rocks and shells and anything bright that could still be pretty beneath water.”

  “Like I said, we have a description of the true form,” said Abigail. “What about when it’s out and about among humans?”

  “In its glamoured form, it will look just like a human.”

  “How will we know when we’ve found it, then?” asked Ezri. “We usually try to get a look at stuff through our cameras—”

  “Lots of ’em look different in cameras than they do in real life,” Abigail explained quietly to Tuatu. “It’s a pretty decent constant—enough to make life safer for us when we have our camera apps open most of the time.”

  “Use whatever human devices make it easier,” said Zero. “We have nothing to give you, so you’ll have to be careful.”

  “We brought a few things along,” said Abigail, and there was a gleam to her eye. “You know, a few of the things we thought the detective might like to hold onto for us. Give him a bit of an idea how useful they might be.”

  “Sort it out between you,” Zero said shortly. “Palomena, you’re with me. Athelas, Ezri; JinYeong, Pet—spread out. We’ll meet again in the park by the government building in an hour. Communicate via text if you find anything—do not take your earplugs out until you know the siren is dead or gone to nest.”

  He turned and left before any of us had a chance to reply, but I reckon Palomena must have been used to dealing with uncommunicative male bosses, because she was right there beside him when he went. Unlike me, she didn’t have to adjust her step to keep up with Zero: she walked effortlessly and steadily at the same pace. They were well matched—might even have looked like a normal couple out for a walk along the waterfront if there wasn’t something so suspiciously warlike about the shadows they cast. I could almost see the impression of all the weapons I knew each of them had hidden on them, but maybe that was just because I knew them so well.

  Ezri and Athelas melted away together without a word, and JinYeong and I left while Tuatu was saying suspiciously to Abigail, “Is it anything that’s likely to change me into anything not human? Because my grandmother said—”

  There wasn’t too much to see on our side of the boardwalk apart from a lot of seabirds, though. Not a lot of conversation, either, after JinYeong finally let me put the earplugs in his ears, complaining the entire time. I squished the bright orange foam between my fingers to put plugs in my own ears, then caught JinYeong’s eyes and jerked my head in the direction of the bright red hull of the Aurora Australis. Usually, if you try to get aboard without a government pass on a day that isn’t set aside for tours, it isn’t possible; today, I had a vampire with me.

  The vampire proved to be as useful as I’d thought he would be. More than usually annoying, but useful. It wasn’t that he was intrinsically more annoying than usual, either; it was just that he was so flaming present all the time, and I didn’t seem to be able to ignore him walking along beside me like I usually could. I couldn’t really blame that on him, either, unless I was blaming him for telling me that he loved me, which had precipitated the whole uncomfortable state of affairs.

  Nah, I was gunna blame him for it anyway.

  “You’re still a pain in the neck,” I told him, even though he couldn’t hear me. Maybe particularly because he couldn’t hear me.

  I must have startled the bloke who had been hanging around and watching us slowly make our way onboard, because he seemed to stammer something at me even though I couldn’t hear him. From the bit that I could tell by lip-reading, he’d said, “You can’t be here. Are you deaf? I’ve been yelling at you.”

  I waved JinYeong in front of me to take care of the bloke, and he did so silently. Dunno what he said to the bloke, but he stepped aside and seemed to have forgotten that he could look anywhere else but the gangplank. We kept going along the lower deck and around aft, because that was where it was easiest to get in, passing a huge buoy that had been slung up on deck for whatever tourist group had passed through most recently. Just under cover, we came across some sort of a station that looked like it might be used for collecting water or specimens of some kind: great big pipes with doors in them, and capsules that looked tiny inside of them until you saw one on the deck and realised they were nearly waist-height, glittering with salt water and bubbles along the glass sides that sparked rainbows.

  “That’s right,” I mumbled to myself. “It’s a research vessel.”

  JinYeong kept walking, one hand in his pocket. He didn’t seem to be too interested in the site, so I followed him through a round-edged doorway that led into a small, narrow room with computers on both sides of it.

  There was a window facing out—did they still call them portholes when they were flaming huge?—and on the ledge that surrounded it, I saw a collection of plastic toys, ornaments, and even a plant or two.

  I raised my brows at that and shot an inquiring look at JinYeong. I could feel a scattering of Between to the room—cabin?—and there had been a trace of it out and about on the deck outside, but not enough to make the walls move or anything.

  Was it enough to be considered a nest? Or was it just the sort of thing that a crew member, stuck on board a ship with the same crewmates for months on end, would put up around the place to feel a bit more cheerful? And was the bit of Between just a natural residue from a siren who had already lured a couple of kids into danger, or a sign that it was still around?

  JinYeong was more interested here, prowling up and down the room with narrow eyes and both hands in his pockets until someone came into the room from the opposite end and approached us both with an enquiring look on his face.

  I grinned at the bloke—if he was a siren, he was a portly, not-too-good-looking one—and said, “G’day. We’re with the college group.”

  I saw his lips move, but
I couldn’t hear what he said. I almost reached to take out my earplugs, but even if he was just a human that didn’t seem like the brightest idea. There was too much Between about this ship to make me feel safe being able to hear when a siren could start singing at me any moment.

  JinYeong took care of him anyway, though he didn’t bite the man, to my relief. He just told him to do something, and the man, looking confused, continued on through the room and went out onto the deck. Maybe JinYeong had sent him to join the other bloke, who knows.

  I felt the buzz of my phone in my pocket as I was taking a closer look at some of the computer screens, and took it out to see what was up.

  It was a text, short and grim. It said, camera app NO. text only, and not much. Siren sorted; didn’t find nest. cu @ park.

  I showed it to JinYeong, and his brows went up as if to say What’s this?

  I shrugged and mouthed Athelas at him. The text had come from Athelas’ phone, though I was certain that Ezri had been the one to send it. Texts from Athelas were few and far between—even more so than texts from Zero—and it certainly wasn’t his style.

  So something had gone wrong with using the camera app, had it? I put my phone away, wondering what it could have been, but not too worried: Ezri or Athelas had still been alive to send the text, which was the important thing, and it seemed as though they’d taken care of the siren in one way or another. Still, it might be a good idea to find the nest if we could.

  I went back to the computers, getting a quick look at each one as I passed onto the next. It was mostly hard-to-read lines of text and meaningless numbers, but there were a few diagrams, too, and they were familiar.

  “Looks like they’re taking samples,” I said, frowning at a diagram of the same sample containers I’d seen in the tubes out on deck. I couldn’t tell what most of the readings were, but I was pretty sure some of them were co-ordinates for where the samples had been taken.