“We know,” said Zero sharply. “But I’m not sure exactly how you know.”
“I saw the murdered bloke the other day. The last one that was murdered in the Orient.” Recalling what Tuatu had said about the psychos, I added mendaciously, “I reckon he must still have someone he’s going after, if he’s hanging around.”
Zero’s eyes, cold and hard, met mine across the top of the chilli pot. I blinked back at him innocently.
“It would seem that we have a useful problem to solve, then,” said Athelas. “After this afternoon, I would say that’s delightfully novel!”
“No you don’t,” I said, hard put not to grin.
“I hesitate to contradict you, Pet—”
“No you don’t,” I said again, and this time I really did grin. “You’re gunna say that we need to figure out who the bloke is. Well, I already know.”
Zero pinched the bridge of his nose, a sure sign of exasperation. “Why do you know who the murderer is?”
“Checked his I.D.,” I said.
There was a hiss of laughter from JinYeong, and a crease or two appeared beside Athelas’ eyes.
Zero, through his teeth, said, “You did what?”
“I checked his I.D.”
“Did you pickpocket our murderer?”
“Nah. I dunno how to do that. Just looked at his I.D. when he bought cigarettes and they asked him for it. He’s not even going by the victim’s name. I mean, it’s not like I knew he was the murderer or anything. Someone,” I added virtuously, “Someone was making sure I didn’t know what was going on. I just followed him ’cos it was weird that he had the same face as one of the victims I saw on the security footage.”
Zero, frowningly, looked across at Athelas. “He’s taken on the form of his victim, but so far he’s made no attempt to gain information from the form—though he has once used it to gain access to his next victim.”
“It’s a delightful conundrum,” Athelas said.
“What if it’s not something he does because he’s trying to get info?” I asked idly. “I mean, he’s not trying to get into anyone’s life, and he doesn’t seem to be trying to fool anyone that he’s the victim. He’s using another name and he’s obviously been keeping away from the family afterward—he just uses it to escape. The only time it looked like someone recognised him was the last one.”
“An escape mechanism, or perhaps a by-product rather than a choice,” Zero said, slowly. “Athelas, what sort of Behindkind are capable of full body transformation? I can think of a few, but my thoughts are nothing so comprehensive as we need to be. Make me a list—and in that list, separate the ones who take a full body transformation involuntarily when they kill a person, from the others.”
“What, you don’t know off the top of your head?”
“I assume, Pet, that you are not able to list every animal in the human world at any given time. Or even every animal that could be included under a banner of specific distinguishing features.”
“Yeah, but I’m also pretty sure the other Behindkind wouldn’t like you implying that they’re animals.”
“Perhaps not,” said Athelas. “But I’m sure they’d return the favour in any case.”
“Anyway, if you wanna know the name, it’s Cameron Michaels.”
Zero looked at me curiously. “Why would we want to know the false name of the murderer?”
“Well,” I said, faintly offended to find my information disregarded, “maybe you don’t. But the picture on the ID didn’t look that much like him as he is now, and if he’s not going by the name of the bloke he murdered, maybe it isn’t a fake name. Maybe it’s his real name. Well, the one he uses when he’s in the human world, anyway.”
“If it is his real name, what of it?”
“You know the cops can track him, right?”
“The humans have a database of names available to them?” asked Zero in surprise.
“A few,” I said, trying very hard not to roll my eyes. What had Athelas been doing in the police station while he was undercover? “If they can’t get him from a previous conviction, they should be able to get him on a license or a parking ticket. He was using a licence as ID.”
“It couldn’t hurt to ask,” Zero said, though he still looked unconvinced.
“Big of you,” I said, unable to hold back my sarcasm any further. And because I was annoyed, I didn’t tell them I’d already asked the detective to search the name. Instead, I asked, “You want me to call Detective Tuatu?”
“Athelas will do it.”
“Don’t trust me, huh?” I said, getting up to clear the table. There were a few bits of cornbread left—I’d leave them outside tonight for the old mad bloke. He was probably hungry again by now.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the dead man before now?”
“Oh, right. I thought JinYeong told you. I was out with him when I saw the bloke. I thought that’s what he was looking at in the street.”
“It wasn’t,” Zero said briefly.
“Ohhh!” I said. “He was looking at the Sandman? Was it following me then, too?”
“Kurae,” said JinYeong, just as Zero said, “There’s no need to discuss it.”
“That’s fine for you to say,” I said. “You can just strut around being all big and fae and untouchable. I’d rather know if something’s out to get me so I can run and hide when I need to.”
“May I also mention that since we met you, my lord has been doing a considerable amount of—how did you put it?—strutting around, making sure that you don’t die?” said Athelas.
“And I’m grateful for it,” I told him. “But it would have been nice to have a heads up before it attacked me the other day. If Daniel hadn’t been there—”
“That reminds me.” Over the sound of the kettle boiling, Zero said, “You’ve yet to tell me where Daniel is.”
“I’m not ratting him out,” I said.
“One assumes,” said Athelas, “that that means you know where he is.”
“Nope,” I said, a bit smugly, pouring hot water into the teapot. “I dunno what he’s up to or where he thinks he’s going. I only met him the other day because he helped me get away from the Sandman, and I don’t know where he was going after that.”
It wasn’t like he didn’t have anywhere to go, after all. He wouldn’t still be with Morgana, now that he had his own clothes again. Well, pack clothes, anyway.
“Anyway,” I added, “does it really matter? It’s not like Daniel killed anyone on purpose, and he’s only just recovered from what happened to him.”
“He still has to attend a Behind hearing.”
I gave Zero his coffee. “Yeah? Do the Enforcers know about him, then? Didn’t reckon you’d told them.”
Zero took his coffee after about half a beat of silence, and that was as good as a dropped jaw. So I was right about Daniel—Zero had been keeping him secret and safe for a reason of his own. It also meant that he trusted the Enforcers even less than I’d thought.
“Maybe he’ll be able to tell you a bit about Upper Management,” I said helpfully. I could have told them what Detective Tuatu had told me, but I didn’t want to accidently give away how much he’d told me. “When you find him again.”
“Thank you, Pet,” said Zero. “We’ll remember that.”
I grinned at him, and his eyes dropped to his coffee before the slight curve to the outer edges of his mouth could become anything more.
“So what are we doing tomorrow?” I asked. “Keeping a fae bigwig safe?”
“We,” Zero said, with the suspicion of a sigh, “will be going out on business that does not concern our pet.”
“Oh. Well, I might as well go to the grocery store, then. We’re about to run out of toilet paper.”
“You can’t go out,” said Zero.
“What? Is this your revenge?”
“I don’t want the Sandman following you back here. I didn’t go to all the effort of shielding the house from our fae visitors for you to
bring a Sandman down on us.”
“But I have to do shopping,” I protested. How on earth was I supposed to check up on Morgana or leave out something for the old mad dude if I couldn’t go out?
“One of us will go with you.”
It was my turn to shut my mouth on something that would be far too revealing.
“The expression on your face is hardly complimentary,” said Athelas. “One would almost assume that you find our company distressing. One would almost think, Pet, that our presence would keep you from some more interesting pursuit.”
My eyes met JinYeong’s as I passed him his coffee, and I saw the faintest gleam of one incisor. “I need biscuits,” he said.
I passed him the shortbreads, and said, “Okay. I’ll take JinYeong with me tomorrow.”
Athelas’ brows went up, and Zero frowned.
JinYeong, startled, sat up straight and said, “Mwoh?”
“Well, he scared off the Sandman last time,” I pointed out. “Me and Daniel had to fight flaming hard to get away, but JinYeong just sorta snarled at him and he left.”
“Ne,” said JinYeong, his poise returning to him. He sat back with his biscuit and coffee, almost impossibly smug, and said to the other two, “I am the best choice.”
“I am at a loss for words,” said Athelas. “Our pet, choosing JinYeong’s company first!”
“Yes,” Zero said, still frowning. “Very interesting.”
Athelas sipped his tea. “Insulting, I would have said.”
“See,” I said to JinYeong. “They don’t like you, either.”
JinYeong shrugged, but his mouth was still smug.
Zero and Athelas left first the next day, presumably to make sure their bigwig was still safe. They didn’t look suspicious, though Athelas threw me one last quizzical look as they left, ignoring JinYeong’s openly mocking smile.
Still, JinYeong didn’t comment when I turned toward the Brooker to visit Morgana, and when I said, “You better not rat on me,” at him, it was more by habit than because I thought he actually would.
“Choshimhae, Petteu,” he said to me, lazily twitching a finger back and forth. “If you are rude, should I be nice?”
“I’m cooking for you,” I said. “I’m nice. I don’t put holy water in your food, do I?”
To my surprise, JinYeong considered this sarcastic statement for a moment or two, and then nodded. “It is enough,” he said.
“Yeah? Oh well, at least you don’t try to drink my blood.”
“Your smell is not a food smell,” he said.
“Yeah? Then why do you keep biting me?”
“That is another matter.”
“I think I’m working up an immunity to you, though,” I said. “Last time it was only my arm and my neck that went numb. Sooner or later, it’s not going to do anything.”
One of JinYeong’s brows went up. “We shall see,” he said.
“Oi. Who’s the bloke Zero and Athelas are looking after today?”
“Pemil,” he said.
“Well, I know it’s an important fae, anyway. But I don’t get why Zero won’t let me go along—it’s not like it’s less dangerous out here. There’s a Sandman looking for my blood, or whatever it is Sandmen want, and that can’t be less dangerous than snooty fae.”
“There are dangers and dangers,” said JinYeong cryptically, and after that he refused to speak with anything of Between to his words, regaling me instead with a flurry of unaugmented Korean that was far too swift for me to follow.
When we got to Morgana’s house, I was still trying to prod information out of him with as little success as I would have had with Zero, though for very different reasons. JinYeong, with a perverse kind of delight, answered every one of the questions I asked him—the answers too swift and convoluted for me to even hope to understand.
“Fine,” I said to him, at the front steps. “But I’m not inviting you in.”
“Sangkwani obseo,” he said, shrugging. He made a half-turn and rested his shoulders gracefully against the brickwork, and said something in Korean, tapping his watch.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be quick,” I said, and shut the door as he was pretending not to be craning his head to see inside.
When I passed through the bottom level of the house, I could hear someone moving around in one of the rooms, and there were a couple of boxes outside the door. I nearly went to have a sticky beak and find out who was moving in, but it wasn’t like it was my business, after all. I’d assumed that the place rented out rooms, but this was the first sign I’d seen of anyone actually moving in.
It was good that I didn’t take the time to check it out, because Morgana was already bouncing by the time I got into her room.
“I saw you come in!” she said. “Your partner came with you! Isn’t he coming up?”
“Nah, he’s sulking,” I told her. “He doesn’t like people.”
“Oh. Well, I’m glad you’re back, anyway! I wasn’t sure you’d come back now that Daniel isn’t across the road. I was just about to text you.”
“Just wanted to make sure you’re doing all right,” I said. “Stuff got a bit hairy the other night, and I haven’t been able to get back until now. Thanks for not freaking out about Daniel.”
She looked surprised. “Why would that freak me out?”
“Well, he is kinda a wanted criminal at the moment.”
“Yeah, but he’s just scared. Whatever it was he did, it can’t have been that bad.”
In human terms, it probably would have been manslaughter, but I wasn’t sure what you’d call it in Behindkind parlance. Come to think of it, maybe I didn’t want to know.
“Still,” I said. “Thanks for helping out. Things should get a bit quieter now. You get someone new moving in downstairs?”
She grinned at me. “You still want to keep tabs on Daniel, don’t you? I mean, you still need to keep an eye on him for work, right?”
I had a very bad feeling about this. “Did you—did he ask you if he could stay?”
“No, I asked him. There’s loads of rooms downstairs, and we’re meant to be a hostel type thing. We just haven’t had anyone for a while except the kids.”
“Where are the kids, anyway? I haven’t seen hide nor hair of them.”
“They’re probably keeping to their favourite rooms,” she said. “They’re a bit scared of Daniel.”
“They’re not dumb,” I muttered. “Morgana, he’s nice, but he’s not exactly safe. It’s not a good idea to let him stay here.”
“He hasn’t got anywhere to go right now. And I figured if you keep coming here to keep an eye on him, you’ll keep coming to see me.”
I couldn’t help grinning, because she looked so happy and pleased with herself. “Don’t your parents mind?”
“They’ll just be happy we’ve got guests. It makes it look better to anyone who comes looking for a place, too, so it doesn’t matter if he can’t pay right now.”
“Okay,” I said. “But call me right away if anything…weird happens.”
“That’s what Daniel said. Why do you both think something weird’s gunna happen?”
“I told you. He’s a bit dangerous, and the people who tried to come after him are even more dangerous.”
“Are they the ones you’re really after?”
“Yeah. Right—you need anything before I go? Coffee?”
“Oh. Are you going already?”
“Yeah,” I said. “My partner’s waiting for me, and he’ll be pretty stroppy if I take too long.”
“Okay,” she said reluctantly. “But next time, we have to play poker.”
“Play with Daniel,” I said, grinning. It would do him some good to be beaten by someone younger than him.
This time when I went past the occupied room downstairs, I poked my head in around the door. Daniel looked up from the box he was unpacking and shot a half-grin at me.
“Oi,” I said. “Who said you could move in here?”
“Morgana,” said
Daniel, but he looked guilty. “It’s just for a while, Pet. If it looks like it’s getting dangerous for her, I’ll leave.”
“All right, but for pity’s sake don’t go changing while you’re here!”
“I’m not stupid!” he said, indignantly. “Anyway, I can smell the vampire out there. If I change in here, he’ll smell me out straight away.”
“Good grief, yes!” I said, backing hastily out of the room.
“It’s all right. I haven’t changed again while I’ve been here. There won’t be any scent to take back. Vampires think they’re pretty good, but they aren’t as good as they think they are.”
I grinned. “You should hear what vampires say about you lot.”
He snorted. “They’re just jealous. We’re warm-blooded and they’re cold, so people find us naturally more loveable. Vampires have to use their control on people, but if a lycanthrope smiles at someone, they love us straight away.”
“That why you never smiled at work?”
“I was going through a difficult time,” Daniel said dignifiedly, after a small pause. “And I do smile, sometimes.”
“No, you don’t. You scowl and glare at people.”
“I only scowl at you because you’re annoying.”
“Fair enough. I think a lot of Behindkind find me annoying.” Which reminded me. “Oi. What can tear out hearts?”
Daniel frowned. “The Troika are investigating that? Weird.”
“Yeah? Why’s that?” I asked, side-tracked.
“Well, the fae who are being killed are high level fae.”
“Yeah, I heard that. High level in what way?”
“They’re all from old, old families—and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who thinks they’re all linked to the Family, too.”
“You mean the Family put them somewhere they’d be useful, and that’s why someone is bumping ’em off?”
“That’s what I think,” he said, nodding. “But not too loudly. You never know who’s listening.”
“All right, but why wouldn’t the ps—the Troika want to work on finding out who did it? Even if Zero’s not on good terms with the Family, they’re still dead fae.”
“The Family are all about preparing for the next leader of Behind. So if he’s seen to be too close to the Family right now—”
Between Frames (The City Between Book 4) Page 14