Between Floors Read online

  I would have had to bite my tongue again if I hadn’t seen how parchment pale his face looked; how deep the lines beside his eyes had become. Whatever Athelas might say, or laugh, he was in a crazy amount of pain; and if pets snap when they’re in pain, Behindkind are capable of worse.

  Maybe the lower parts of the moonlight had been supporting Athelas more than the upper part of them had been suspending him, because as the last of them disintegrated from beneath his upper body, he sank slowly against me, the fullness of his weight bearing down on my shoulders bit by bit. I caught him as he drifted downward, and the filaments from above shredded into particles of light, drifting down after him until he rested on the cold white floor in a nimbus of sparkling moonlight.

  Blood leaked from him in round-edged waves and haloed his body, and I hesitated for just a second. He’d said he was going to kill me. Not just once, but three or four times now.

  But I couldn’t just leave him there; and it wasn’t like he could hurt me now, anyway. He couldn’t even sit up. There was blood seeping from him everywhere, deep blue and sticky, and his eyes were nearly shut, with just a slit of glittering grey to them to show he was still alive—still, barely, conscious.

  I dragged him, bloody and supine, over to one of the walls, and propped him there. He fell against me, too heavy to support his own weight, and for a brief moment cold, grey eyes met mine, close and unclouded and utterly alien.

  Then there was a hand around my neck—just a single hand, long fingers pinning me to the wall with inhuman strength.

  Ah heck.

  Athelas was healing a lot quicker than I’d expected.

  “Athelas,” I said, my voice strained. “Please don’t kill me.”

  “Too late,” he whispered.

  Pressure, around my neck. Pressure, and suffocation; then, more quickly than I would have thought, darkness.

  Chapter Four

  I woke, gasping, and I could breathe. I opened my eyes thankfully, and the first thing I saw was JinYeong, sitting on the coffee table again, watching me.

  I threw the cushion at him.

  “What the heck!”

  JinYeong ducked, and the pillow sailed over his head, ruffling his hair.

  “Ya, Petteu!”

  “Don’t throw things at JinYeong,” said Zero.

  Good grief, how had I missed Zero sitting there on the coffee table beside JinYeong? It was probably the nasty sharp gleam to the vampire’s eyes—he was still watching me, and that made me uncomfortable.

  “What?” I demanded. “Why are you both watching me sleep? It’s weird.”

  “What were you dreaming about?” Zero asked. “Stop waving your arms around, Pet.”

  “I’m trying to get up! My head’s gone weird.”

  “It’s the vampire saliva starting to wear off. You’ll live. What did you dream about?”

  “Athelas, if you really gotta know.”

  Zero frowned. “What about Athelas?”

  “He killed me,” I said shortly, wrapping my arms around my knees. There was a sick, wobbly feeling inside me. I’d always known Athelas could kill me at a moment’s notice if he wanted to, but I suppose I hadn’t really expected him to do it. “Which was rude because I was trying to help him.”

  “Is that why you were crying?”

  “I wasn’t crying,” I said automatically, ignoring the tear the rolled down my cheek. There was still water welling up there; my eyes felt wobbly and slick, too.

  JinYeong reached out a finger and stole the tear.

  “Oi!”

  He brandished it in my face. “Igon mwohya?”

  “What is it with you and personal space lately?” I said sourly, hunching my shoulder to wipe away the salty drop on the other cheek before he could pinch that, too.

  He said something short and toothy, that whispered a meaning of bite me in my head though I didn’t know the words he used.

  I turned to Zero with wide eyes. “Did the vampire just say Bite me?”

  JinYeong grinned.

  “Don’t bite the vampire.”

  I gave JinYeong a dirty look. “Heck no. I’d probably catch something nasty.”

  That stopped him grinning.

  Zero, his expression put-upon, asked, very clearly, “What exactly did you dream, Pet?”

  “Hang on—how come I understood him?” I asked. I didn’t want to talk about Athelas. I didn’t want to talk about the painful way he’d laughed, or the strands of moonlight piercing his body, or the way his hand had curled around my neck at the last and killed me. “I don’t know those words in Korean. I don’t even think that was a literal translation to make, but I still understood it.”

  It didn’t occur to me until Zero said, “Athelas isn’t here,” that I realised I was actually waiting for Athelas to explain. That made my chin do a very weird wobbling sort of thing.

  He’d killed me. Why was I still listening for his voice?

  “Yeah,” I said. “I know that.”

  There was silence for a few moments, until JinYeong’s derisive sniff of laughter broke it.

  Zero said, “I asked you a question, Pet.”

  “Yeah, but how come I could understand the vampire when—”

  JinYeong hissed again, this time in annoyance. “Vampire bureuji ma. Oppalago burreo.”

  “I’m not calling you Oppa!” I snapped. “You’re flaming old! I should be calling you Ahjussi!”

  JinYeong was still opening and closing his mouth in shock when Zero said icily, “Pet, if you can’t keep to the same subject for more than ten seconds at a time, I’ll leave you and JinYeong to fight it out between the two of you. Answer my question.”

  I desperately wanted to complain that JinYeong had started it, but Zero’s eyes were absolutely icy, and I didn’t dare. I didn’t dare to ask him about JinYeong again, either; or to keep stalling about Athelas.

  I said, “Dreamt I was in a corridor. Nothing there but walls and floor. Walked for ages but it didn’t go anywhere, so I went through the wall instead.”

  “And then?”

  “And then I was in a room. Athelas was there, too; somebody strung him up with clear stuff in the middle of the room—he said it was moonlight. He thought I was someone else and said he was going to kill me but I figured if I could get him out of the moonlight stuff, he’d realise it was me.”

  Zero didn’t look at me, and his voice was quiet when he asked, “Did he?”

  “Nah. Got him out, then he killed me and I woke up.”

  “You woke up,” said Zero. He didn’t say it in any particular way; just said it, which was weird, because of course I woke up. He’d seen me wake up. But he’d said it as if perhaps he was surprised I’d woken up.

  I sat up straighter in alarm. “What? I’m not supposed to wake up if he kills me in a dream?”

  “It depends on the dream,” Zero said, sitting back with folded arms. “Since you’re not dead, it seems unlikely that your dream was the kind of dream that will be useful to us. Tell me if you have it again.”

  “If it’s not the sort to be useful, how come you want to know?”

  “Because if you have it again, it is the sort that will be useful,” said Zero sharply. “And because if it’s the useful sort, I want to know why you aren’t dead.”

  “You lot really need to learn how to say things in a nicer way,” I complained. “You’re not supposed to ask people why they didn’t die.”

  “Should I have congratulated you?” asked Zero.

  The ice was gone from his eyes, and I got the impression that he was a bit amused, so I said, “Yeah.”

  “Congratulations on not dying,” he said. “Make sure to tell me if you dream the same dream again.”

  “Okay,” I said. There was a bit more warmth in me than there had been earlier. I asked him, “You want coffee?”

  “Yes.”

  “Biscuits?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh yeah. And can you check out my phone? JinYeong says it’s okay
, but someone else was talking on it when me and Tuatu were Between, pretending to be you.”

  Zero took the phone and looked it over, front and back. “I told you earlier: phones don’t get reception Between. There was no need to attach anything to your phone—you were simply given another form of reception.”

  I thought about that, and said, “Yeah, but it happened later, too; when I tried to call Athelas.”

  “Did it?”

  “Yeah.”

  “The reception you had Between was suspect, but there’s nothing wrong with it now.”

  “Oh. Is it okay if I do a bit of shopping today? We won’t have anything to make pancakes with if I don’t.”

  Zero thought about that for longer than it should have taken, and I was very careful not to grin. I was pretty sure Zero loved pancakes about as much as I loved coffee, even if he would never say so, and I was also pretty sure that he was caught between upholding his ban on me going to see the detective, and his desire for pancakes.

  At last, he said. “All right.”

  “And since I’m gunna be out—”

  “You’re not going to see the detective.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “I don’t want you near the detective at the moment. It’s too…complicated.”

  “How come it’s okay for me to go to the supermarket alone, but not to Tuatu?” I demanded. “I’ve been attacked three times at the supermarket—I’ve never been attacked at his place!”

  “You’re not going to the supermarket alone,” said Zero. “I’m going, too.”

  “Oh. Well, couldn’t you come to Tuatu’s house, too?”

  “Pet,” said Zero, between his teeth.

  JinYeong, still sitting on the coffee table, laughed sarcastically to himself, and I thought I caught a murmur of meaning to what he said. Not enough to understand it, but enough to know he was probably being rude about me.

  I waited for a bit, but Zero didn’t get any chattier, and JinYeong only waved me away to the kitchen. He was probably still ticked off at me.

  Suited me. I went to the kitchen to make coffee, and called the detective. If I couldn’t see him, I at least wanted to make sure he was alive.

  The line picked up, and there was the sound of wary silence. Good sign, I s’pose.

  “Oi,” I said, filling the jug.

  There was silence for a beat longer, then a sigh. “Pet. Why are you calling?”

  “Making sure you’re still alive,” I said, grinning. It was good to know he was still alive. Some days, it felt like I was surrounded by death—an irresistible force that mowed down anyone who stood too near to me.

  I dunno. Maybe I’ve seen too many bodies in my lifetime. Seeing my parents’ bodies would have been enough, but since the psychos had moved in two months ago, I’d seen more bodies than most gravediggers.

  “I’m still alive.”

  I set the jug to boiling and looked around for the mugs. Great. No one had done the washing up. I mean, I was the one who was meant to do it, but it was still annoying.

  I asked, “Your bones heal?”

  “Yes. Actually—”

  “Vampire spit.”

  “What?”

  “Vampire spit. It’s like the sticky plaster of the fae world, apparently.”

  “I was healed in an impossibly quick amount of time by vampire spit?”

  “Yep.”

  “That’s disgusting.”

  “Thank you!” I said. “None of those three understand how gross it is. Probably because they don’t have to use it—actually, they can’t use it, so…”

  “Pet? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing wrong,” I said slowly. “Just wondering something.”

  “What?”

  “Why JinYeong hasn’t tried to kill Zero yet.”

  “Is that something you’re expecting?”

  “Dunno,” I said. If I got technical about it, JinYeong had already made several feints at ridding the world of Zero—but if I really thought about it, feints were all they were. Things had gotten very close to a fight more than once, but although Zero had been wary, he had never been completely defensive. Perhaps Zero, as much as I now did, understood that if JinYeong had really been serious about killing him, there were much easier ways about it than an outright fight.

  It was only a little while since I’d learned how dangerous vampire and lycanthrope saliva was to Behindkind like Zero.

  I said, “Just wondering why JinYeong hasn’t gone in for poisonings yet.”

  “Did the vampire bite me?”

  “Yeah,” I said. I dug vindictively into the coffee with a teaspoon, and briefly considered putting something nasty into JinYeong’s cup. “You’re lucky. You were already unconscious.”

  “Yeah,” said Tuatu. He didn’t sound convinced. “Pet, is the quiet one around?”

  “Athelas? Nope. Why? You wanna talk to him?”

  “Yes.”

  “I wouldn’t, if I were you,” I said, with conviction. Detective Tuatu wasn’t anything like knowledgeable enough to be dealing safely with Athelas, and he’d already slipped up when they first met. Pity I hadn’t got to him first to tell him not to agree that he owed anything to Athelas. “What do you want to talk to him about?”

  “That body—”

  “Your friend, was it?”

  “Yes. I’ve just been paid a visit by Internal Affairs; they want to know why we were texting and why I didn’t meet him the night we were supposed to meet.”

  “Awkward.”

  “Yes. I couldn’t tell them we had met that night—”

  “Well, technically you didn’t,” I said. There was silence on the other end of the line. “Sorry,” I said. “But you really didn’t, and it’s probably better if you don’t tell them you were there that night.”

  Detective Tuatu sounded slightly amused. “Thank you, Pet; I’m not as naïve as you seem to think.”

  I ignored that. “You get arrested?”

  “Nope. Not even officially under investigation—yet. They wanted me to help with their enquiries.”

  Good. The dryad must be doing its job.

  “All right,” I said. “Be careful. And if you see Athelas at the cop shop, tell him I’ve been trying to call, all right?”

  Tuatu’s voice sharpened. “You haven’t seen him since that day?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “Neither have I. I thought he’d stopped doing whatever it was he was doing—that’s why I asked you if he was there. I have some questions for him. You haven’t seen him at all?”

  “Yeah,” I said again, and there was another layer to the feeling of worry that had begun to creep over me. Athelas was Athelas, but still…

  “Do you think it’s got something to do with—”

  “Whoever’s trying to frame you for murder? Yeah. I wouldn’t leave the house for a few days, if I were you. Don’t reckon it’s safe.”

  He didn’t promise anything, just asked, “What about you?”

  “Me? I got Zero. I’m fine,” I said. “Worry about yourself. Oi. Gotta go: The coffee’s ready.”

  “All right,” he said. “But don’t go doing anything stupid, Pet. Whatever you did last time to convince them to help out—just don’t.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” I said, and hung up.

  When I came back into the living room with the coffee and biscuits, Zero was less laconic, but not by much.

  “Do you dream like that often?” he asked, as he took his coffee. Maybe he was trying to stop me bringing up Tuatu again.

  “Nah,” I said. It had been at least eight or nine years since I’d had this sort of dream. “I usually get nightmares. Just one, though, so maybe that doesn’t count.”

  Zero sipped his coffee. “You wouldn’t call what you had a nightmare?”

  That made me stop and think. Long enough to make JinYeong get up with an impatient sound between his teeth and take his own coffee from me.

  At last, I said uncertainly, “I don’t think so.
It wasn’t…scary enough, I suppose.”

  “Being killed by Athelas wasn’t scary enough for you?”

  “Dunno, maybe my brain was pretty sure it was a dream all along. It was nasty, but it wasn’t as scary as the nightmare. And I could do stuff in it—walk around, get into the next area. Like a video game.”

  “But you’ve had nothing like it before?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe when I was younger. I didn’t have anyone to dream about for the last little bit. I only dream about people I know.”

  “I see,” said Zero, but he didn’t sound satisfied. He was frowning, too, but I didn’t think that was at me in particular. More like he was worried, maybe.

  And yeah, maybe I wasn’t telling him everything, but I didn’t particularly want to talk about the kind of dreams I’d had when I was younger. They usually involved horrible things happening to people I loved, and that was worse than dreaming about horrible things happening to my psychos, even if I was personally involved in the horrible things that were happening to Athelas.

  There was something about being personally involved that made it, I dunno, better than having to watch it unfold without being about to do anything about it. Yeah, Athelas had killed me, but it was still better than waking up sobbing because I hadn’t been able to do anything about the deaths of people I loved.

  After lunch, I went to the supermarket without thinking about it—without checking first with Zero, either. I remembered when I was halfway there, but since I was pretty sure Zero had only said he was going to come with me to reinforce that I wasn’t to go and see Tuatu, I didn’t bother to turn around. It hadn’t been that long since I’d been shopping, and I could have lasted longer without coming again, but I’d kinda thought I might be able to spend a bit of time looking for my werewolf friend Daniel if I came out alone—even if Zero wouldn’t let me go see Tuatu.

  He was recuperating, too, which just goes to show you what happens when people get too close to me.

  I was just thinking about that gloomily when a very big, very white hand reached over my shoulder and grabbed the handle of the trolley I’d been about to pull out.

  “Flaming heck!” I said, jumping.

  It didn’t show on his face, but I know he was laughing. “You should pay more attention when you’re out alone. I could have hit you over the head before you knew I was here.”