“Yes?” said Kalix.
“Well, the reason I’ve been going to his place rather than inviting him here is because you’re here. Not that I don’t want to introduce you to my boyfriend of course but…”
Moonglow paused. This felt very awkward.
“You’re worried I’ll do something weird?” suggested Kalix.
“Yes. If you turn into a werewolf when Jay is here it’ll really be hard to explain. It’s best that no one else knows you’re a werewolf. Not that I don’t trust Jay of course, but…”
“All right, I won’t turn into a werewolf,” said Kalix.
“And please don’t eat raw meat straight from the fridge.”
“Is that strange?”
“Unusual,” answered Moonglow. “And probably quite distressing for Jay. He’s a vegetarian.”
“Okay, I won’t.”
“Also it’ll seem weird if you cut yourself, throw up on the floor or assault us in the midst of an anxiety attack.”
“Hey!” said Kalix. “It’s not like I do these things all the time. Maybe once or twice.”
Kalix started to sulk.
“And please don’t sulk,” said Moonglow. “Not that it would be so unusual, having a person sulking in the house. Daniel does it all the time. But I want Jay to feel comfortable when he visits. You know, I really like him.”
Kalix looked thoughtful for a second. She could understand the concept of really liking someone. She smiled.
“I promise not to do anything strange. I don’t want to make your boyfriend uncomfortable.”
“Good,” said Moonglow. “Thanks for being understanding.”
Moonglow went off to her bedroom to put on her make-up and start the long process of getting her hair in good order. Shortly afterwards Daniel appeared in the living room, obviously not in the best of moods.
“Isn’t it annoying the way Moonglow keeps inviting this guy over here?” he said. “You can’t turn round but Jay’s cluttering up the place.”
“He’s never been here before,” Kalix pointed out.
“Hasn’t he? Well he was at our last house all the time. You couldn’t move without trampling over him. It’s completely inconsiderate of Moonglow to invite him over.”
“Why?”
“Why? Plenty of ways. There’s you to think about. Is it right for a sick werewolf to have to put up with this sort of thing? I’d have thought Moonglow would have been more considerate than to fill up the house with annoying visitors.”
Kalix laughed.
“Moonglow asked me about it first.”
Daniel was unconvinced. A cunning look came into his eye.
“Do you think you could scare him off?”
“What? How?”
“You know, maybe turn into a werewolf when he’s here, and growl at him? No? Perhaps that would be a bit much. How about just having an anxiety attack and running round attacking everyone? Maybe cut yourself a bit, make it look realistic? Or you could just vomit everywhere, that’ll spoil his visit.”
“Certainly not,” said Kalix. “I wouldn’t do that.”
Daniel was disappointed. Having saved this werewolf’s life, he might have expected her to be a little more co-operative.
“Well what about bringing in some raw meat and wolfing it down? Jay would hate that.”
Kalix shook her head and departed from the room, leaving Daniel to plot Jay’s downfall on his own. Moonglow was on her way to the shops, and asked Kalix if she wanted anything.
“Beer or whisky or cider,” said Kalix.
“You know you’re technically not old enough to drink alcohol?”
“I’ve had a very hard life as a werewolf,” said Kalix.
Moonglow laughed. She’d realised recently that when Kalix was not suffering from anxiety attacks or running from her pursuers, she could actually be quite funny.
“Can I use your computer and the internet?” asked Kalix.
Moonglow agreed, though she was a little nervous about letting Kalix use her new MacBook unattended.
“I’ll be careful,” said Kalix.
Moonglow turned on her computer.
“Daniel really doesn’t like Jay does he?”
“No,” admitted Moonglow. “He doesn’t.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know,” said Moonglow, though really she knew very well.
“Did you ever sleep with Daniel?” asked Kalix.
“No. We just met and became friends.”
Kalix nodded.
“My mother hated Gawain,” she said, unexpectedly. “So did my father. They banished him from the castle.”
Kalix looked sad.
“I thought he’d come back for me. But he didn’t.”
Moonglow was unsure of what to say.
“Being banished by the werewolf clan must be serious. Would it be dangerous for him to come back?”
“Yes. But I thought he would anyway. Do you think he thinks about me?”
“Of course. He probably thinks about you every day.”
“I don’t think he remembers me,” said Kalix.
Kalix seemed to have no more to say on the subject. To prevent her from sinking deeper into gloom Moonglow found some fan sites for Transvision Vamp and the Runaways. Kalix was diverted by this, particularly when Moonglow showed her how to download music from the page. Moonglow left her to it, and went off to the shop.
As Moonglow left the house it was already getting dark. The only shop nearby that was open at this time on a Sunday was a very small supermarket, not cheap but fairly well stocked. Moonglow bought vegetables and spices she needed for cooking. At the checkout till the attendant greeted her with a smile. Moonglow had quickly got to know the staff. She always did, even in an anonymous city like London. She returned home, dumped the food in the kitchen and went upstairs to change. There she found Kalix, now in werewolf form, apparently trying to eat her computer.
“Hey!” yelled Moonglow, and leapt to retrieve her MacBook before it disappeared between Kalix’s great jaws.
“What’s going on?”
Kalix looked back at her angrily.
“Explain this,” demanded Moonglow.
Kalix slowly changed back into her human shape and then stood looking at the floor.
“Well? Why were you trying to eat my computer?”
“It wouldn’t work,” muttered Kalix.
“So you thought you’d bite it?”
“Yes.”
“Kalix, this is precious to me. You promised to be careful. If I’d got home thirty seconds later you’d have crushed it.”
Moonglow quickly inspected her computer. It seemed to have survived the experience.
“What was so annoying?”
“I couldn’t read it properly,” admitted Kalix. “There was something wrong with the writing.”
“There was nothing wrong with the writing, Kalix,” said Moonglow. “The truth is you just can’t read very well.”
“I can so.”
“No you can’t.”
“There’s no need to keep lecturing me about everything,” snarled Kalix, and departed swiftly from the room.
Moonglow sighed. She’d known it would be a sensitive subject. But perhaps, she thought, now she’d raised it she could do something about it. She picked up her laptop and walked down to Kalix’s room.
“Go away,” said Kalix.
“Look, instead of trying to destroy my computer why don’t you use it to learn to read better?”
“I can read fine,” said Kalix, stubbornly.
Moonglow was already busy logging on to a website she’d found recently which she thought might help. Unless of course it just insulted the young werewolf more.
“You shouldn’t be embarrassed about not reading well,” said Moonglow. “It doesn’t mean you’re not clever. I already know you’re intelligent. It’s just because you didn’t get to school much. Look at this.”
Moonglow had logged on to a remedial learning to rea
d website. It was very cheerful and involved a lot of colourful pictures of animals and flowers. It was like a simple infants reading book, but brightly animated. When you got things right the animals danced around the screen, and congratulated the user on their performance. When you got things wrong, the colourful animals encouraged you to try again.
“Start using this site and you’ll be reading and writing in no time and won’t that be better than just getting angry about it?”
“I don’t need any help,” said Kalix.
“Well you should take a look anyway,” said Moonglow. “I have to go and start cooking for Jay now. If I leave my computer here will you promise not to damage it?”
“All right.”
Fervently hoping that this would not be the last time she saw her MacBook in good working order, Moonglow went off to the kitchen.
103
Maddened with rage, Markus ran through the streets of London. Anyone unfortunate enough to get in his way was flung roughly aside as the crazed werewolf sprinted north towards Hyde Park. Sarapen’s town house overlooked the park, and Markus had only one thought in his mind: to kill Sarapen. Sarapen had stolen the Begravar knife and killed Talixia. Now Markus would kill him. Markus had no thought of the Thaneship, no thoughts of the effect his action might have on the clan. He did not even think of what Verasa would say. His older brother had to die. That was all that mattered.
Markus arrived at Hyde Park just as the moon rose. He transformed into his werewolf shape and leapt the tall fence with a bound that would have been beyond the power of any man. A few people outside the park rubbed their eyes, shook their heads and hurried off, not wanting to believe that they’d seen a wolf-beast hurdle the fence.
The park had closed at dusk and no one else saw Markus as he raced over the grass. Now he could see the block in which Sarapen lived. Markus raised his snout and howled, the howl of a MacRinnalch werewolf going to war. He sprang over the fence which separated the grass from the houses beyond then raced through the bushes towards Sarapen’s door. Already he could scent the werewolves inside. Alarms went off in the house as the intruder approached. Seconds later the back door was torn from its hinges and Markus stormed in, roaring for Sarapen to come and face him.
Two werewolves hurried to confront Markus. They tried to grapple with him but Markus was too strong. He sunk his teeth into the neck of one opponent, killing him instantly, then smashed the other werewolf him into the wall, knocking him unconscious.
“Where is Sarapen!” screamed Markus, and ran forward through the hallway.
“Markus!”
Markus turned to find himself confronted by Decembrius and Mirasen.
“What is the meaning of this!” demanded Mirasen.
“I’m going to kill Sarapen!” yelled Markus.
Mirasen tried to reply but Markus was too maddened to listen. He threw himself at Sarapen’s advisor. Decembrius leapt on Markus’s back and the three werewolves fell in a struggling, growling heap onto the floor. The struggle was fierce but brief. When it was over Markus jumped to his feet. Mirasen lay dead and Decembrius was barely alive. A huge pool of werewolf blood spread out over the tiled hallway.
Markus ran through the house, screaming for Sarapen to come and face him. Unable to find his brother he began to wreck everything he came across, throwing furniture across the room and hauling down shelves and bookcases, smashing everything with his claws and his mighty jaws. Everywhere he went he caused destruction, but he couldn’t find Sarapen. Finally realising that his brother was not here, he ran back to the hallway. Decembrius was struggling to rise. Markus grabbed him by the throat and dragged him to his feet.
“Tell Sarapen I’ll kill him next!” snarled Markus, then threw Decembrius from him. Decembrius crashed into a marble statue and slumped to the floor. Markus stormed out of the house, disappearing over the fence into the darkness, still enraged, and still howling.
104
Thrix arrived home very late. She’d cleaned up the mess at Talixia’s house, sending the body home to Scotland for burial. The process had involved various pieces of sorcery and several long phone calls to her mother. Thrix was unable to get on with any of her own work and was in consequence extremely disgruntled when she arrived home. She hoped she could work through the night and make up for some of the lost time.
It had not taken long for the murderous feud to reach London. Thrix still found it hard to believe that Sarapen had really killed Talixia but what other explanation was there? The Mistress of the Werewolves seemed quite certain that Sarapen had stolen the Begravar knife from the castle, and no other weapon could have caused Talixia’s death.
Verasa asked Thrix to find Markus. Verasa did not want her younger son to confront Sarapen. She feared for his life. Thrix had agreed to look but she hadn’t done so. She’d already been to visit Kalix, and spent a long time at Talixia’s apartment. She couldn’t afford to waste more of her time chasing Markus around the city. As Thrix put her key in her front door she sensed her flat was not empty. Malveria was inside, sitting languidly on the couch, surrounded by magazines, with the TV on and a bottle of wine suspended in mid-air within easy reach.
“Make yourself at home,” said Thrix, dryly.
“Thrix!” said the Fire Queen, welcoming her joyfully. “I have been eager to see you. But you are so late coming home. Have you been working all day or is it perhaps another date with the eligible young men of town?”
“No date. No work.”
Thrix slumped on the couch and brought the Fire Queen up to date with the latest events. Malveria nodded sympathetically. She knew that Thrix was hating this.
“As you should. You have the far more important business of clothes designing to be getting on with. Some wine?”
Malveria nodded to the bottle and it travelled steadily through the air to pour itself into a glass which Malveria floated over to Thrix. Thrix accepted it gratefully.
“Or something a little stronger?” suggested Malveria, and raised a bottle of the MacRinnalch whisky a few inches off the nearest shelf.
Thrix shook her head.
“Not yet, I have to stay up all night and work.”
“You are making me fine outfits for the Sorceress Livia’s birthday celebration?” said Malveria, eagerly.
The Enchantress nodded, rather wearily.
“Splendid,” said Malveria. “But I am forgetting. I have encountered the great whore Princess Kabachetka while spying at the office of Zatek the treacherous.”
“You did? What did you learn?”
“Her hair is definitely dyed. I have suspected this for some time though she resolutely denies it. But it was quite uneven around the roots, no doubt because the Princess is too mean to pay the best hairdressers. But that is typical of the Princess, a cheap elemental to the core.”
Malveria frowned.
“I would so much like to kill that Princess. Do you know she had the effrontery to insinuate that I was generously proportioned? She accused me of hiding my excess weight! Which is absurd. Of course it can be done - I believe her mother the Empress Asaratanti has long concealed several hundred pounds of ugly fat in another dimension - but such tactics are not necessary for the extremely slim Queen Malveria. Last year my devotees added the title Slenderest of Queens to my many existing names, quite unbidden by myself.”
“But of course I cannot kill the Princess,” sighed Malveria. “If I did then it would be said that I had done so out of jealousy at her superior fashion sense. You wouldn’t believe, my dearest Thrix, how cruel they can be in my dimension. Those harpies who flock around the Sorceress Livia simply live for gossip.”
The Enchantress, well used to Malveria’s ways, waited patiently for the Fire Queen to get to the point.
“But I must admit to some slight failure in my spying. When I saw the harlot Kabachetka I was unable to conceal my rage and we had a great argument which may have become violent had I not been unwilling to resort to violence in front of a fashion designer
. If my front row seats for the Vogue fashion awards were to be withdrawn I would simply not be able to carry on living.”
“So you didn’t learn anything?”
Malveria swept her arm expansively through the air.
“Please, Enchantress. You disparage me. I did not say that I didn’t learn anything. In Zatek’s building I sensed a very particular form of sorcery, sorcery I would not have expected to find there. It’s called the Seeing of Asiex and by its use a sorcerer can see very far, even through a strong magical barrier.”
“You mean there isn’t a traitor in my organisation? Zatek is just using a spell to spy on me?”
“I believe so.”
Thrix gulped her wine down and poured herself some more.
“I’ve never come across this Seeing of Asiex.”
“It is very obscure. Indeed, I would not have thought that Kabachetka could provide this spell for Zatek. Some forms of sorcery are very difficult to transport to this dimension.”
“Perhaps,” suggested Thrix. “Merchant MacDoig is involved? He’d know how to do it.”
Thrix pursed her lips. So Zatek could use sorcery, and Princess Kabachetka was prepared to hire the Merchant to import obscure spells for him.
“Can you help me block it off?”
“Of course, Enchantress. I know to how to negate its effects.”
“Excellent. Malveria, that’s the best news I’ve had all day. No more spying from Zatek and no more Kabachetka stealing my designs.”
“Indeed it is excellent, dearest Enchantress. But I remain troubled. A person who can use this spell may have other resources to hand. We must be ready for his next move.”
Malveria looked longingly at a yellow cocktail dress in the pages of Tatler.
“I would like a dress like that. But as you know, yellow has always refused to suit me. I count it as a great misfortune in my life.”
“Yes,” agreed Thrix. “It is a burden.”
“I so wanted these yellow shoes last year,” said Malveria, and started to look quite unhappy. When she turned the page and found a picture of the same model now wearing a tiny yet exquisite yellow hat, a tear formed in her eye.
“Oh look how beautiful she is in her yellow hat. She is so lucky.”
Lonely Werewolf Girl Page 29
