Martin Millar - Lonely Werewolf Girl (43 page)

From their conversation she gathered that they were in a band.
They played guitar and sang and they were soon going to be stars. They
were cheerful and confident. Kalix felt some admiration, and some
jealousy. The twins were free, and doing what they wanted. The family
wasn't chasing them and they had their own house to live in. They never
had to hide in alleyways. They talked about going out and drinking with
friends. Kalix could tell just by looking at their brightly coloured
hair that their lives were good. Suddenly she felt much younger than
them, and quite inferior. When Kalix asked what their band was called,
her voice came out surprisingly weak, and the sisters didn't hear her
over the traffic. Kalix felt stupid to have spoken and not received an
answer. She was too shy to repeat the question.

By the time they reached Camden Kalix was regretting that
she'd come. She dreaded them asking her what she did with her life. The
fact that she'd fought savagely to save them only an hour ago was quite
forgotten by Kalix, because the sisters weren't talking about fighting.
They were talking about lyrics, amplifiers and shiny new clothes to
wear onstage. It sounded a lot more interesting than Kalix's life. When
they arrived at their house, Beauty and Delicious tumbled out of the
car and headed inside. Kalix remained where she was.

"Do you want to come in?" asked Dominil.

"I don't know," mumbled Kalix.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"All right," said Kalix, and followed her from the car.

Dominil had not mentioned the fight. Nor had she commented on
the odd fact that the sisters hadn't transformed into werewolves when
they were under attack. Kalix was curious about this. She couldn't
imagine why the sisters had chosen to face the hunters in human form.
They would have been much stronger as werewolves.

The house was now tidy. The cleaners had done an efficient job
and Beauty and Delicious were surprisingly hesitant about messing the
place up again. Dominil would nag at them if they did. This was the
down side to their involvement with her. In revenge, they were writing
songs about her.
Evil White-Haired Slut
was
already completed, and
Stupid Werewolf Bitch
was
coming along well.

"What's your band called?" asked Kalix, again.

"Yum Yum Sugary Snacks."

"That's a good name," said Kalix. "It suits you."

The twins didn't seem interested in her opinion. Kalix sat
quietly and looked round at the array of guitars neatly stored on
racks, and the huge collection of CDs on the walls, and music magazines
and papers on shelves.

Dominil was already getting down to business.

"I'll find another rehearsal studio. Do you have any
preferences?"

Beauty and Delicious began a long conversation about all the
rehearsal studios they'd been in; which ones they liked and which ones
they were banned from. After that they all moved on to a discussion
about venues. By the time they started discussing the new software
Dominil was installing on their sampler, Kalix was feeling thoroughly
left out of things. Dominil acted like she wasn't there. Even though
Kalix was a werewolf like them, and a member of the family, the
musicians and their manager seemed to have no time for her. Kalix felt
like a young and very boring werewolf with nothing interesting to say.
She wanted to leave but she couldn't seem to find an opportunity even
to say goodbye. Finally, when Beauty and Delicious went to the kitchen
to make coffee and Dominil followed them in, Kalix just slipped quietly
out of the house and headed for home.

She felt depressed. It hadn't been that much fun meeting the
twins, and she didn't like Dominil at all.

116

Verasa studied her new Perugino with little pleasure. She'd
bought it last month, intending to have a copy made before loaning the
original to the National Gallery of Scotland. Normally this would have
brought Verasa a good deal of satisfaction. Two years ago the Scottish
Arts Council had held a dinner for her, honouring her contribution to
the Scottish arts. It remained a very pleasurable memory. Unfortunately
the news from England was too bad to allow her to indulge herself in
any form of artistic pleasure at the moment.

Her sister Lucia was furious at Markus's attack on her son
Decem-brius. Verasa pointed out that Markus had been maddened by the
death of Talixia but it had not mollified Lucia. She doted on her son.
And, as she forcefully reminded the Mistress of the Werewolves,
Decem-brius had not been responsible for Talixia's death.

Verasa herself had been extremely concerned when Markus had
gone missing after the attack. She'd spent a few very anxious days till
news arrived that he'd been brought home by a young woman who no one
knew. Again she felt a flicker of annoyance at her younger son. He owed
it to her to keep her informed. She understood that Markus was upset
about Talixia but that was no reason to lose control.

Dominil had reported the events at the rehearsal studio. That
was a strange story. An attack by a large group of hunters followed by
a rescue by Sarapen and Kalix. Dominil believed they had met by chance
outside the studio. Sarapen, having encountered Kalix, would now pursue
her, of that Verasa was sure. She consulted with Rainal and they sat
deep into the night, sipping whisky and eating from a dish of venison
from a stag that had been killed that day.

"What will Sarapen do now?" wondered Rainal. "Now that Markus
has killed Mirasen?"

"He'll try to kill Markus of course. Sarapen will regard it as
justifiable revenge, and he might be right, by clan tradition."

"Not if he started the violence by killing Talixia."

"True. But we can't prove he did."

Verasa had sent more werewolves from her estates down to
London to stay by Markus's side.

"Only two weeks till the next meeting of the Great Council,"
said Rainal. "It will certainly be an interesting affair."

"Too interesting, possibly. I'm thinking of postponing it."

Rainal protested. "The meeting cannot be postponed."

"I am the acting head of the clan. In exceptional
circumstances the head of the clan may delay the meeting. There are
precedents."

"Only in time of war."

"This is now war."

Rainal didn't like it but Verasa was adamant.

"I need more time. Dominil needs more time. And I don't want
to risk Lucia changing her vote. Far better to let her forget her anger
at the attack on Decembrius."

117

Kalix trudged home in the rain. She had no money so she faced
a long walk from Camden to Kennington, all the way through town and
over the river. She wondered if she should try to take the underground
without buying a ticket but decided against it. She didn't feel like
fleeing from a ticket inspector.

Kalix had felt some elation after the fight but it had now
faded, leaving her depressed. The meeting with Beauty, Delicious and
Dominil had left her feeling inadequate. She wasn't looking forward to
arriving home. The young werewolf had now convinced herself that
Moonglow hated her for crashing into Jay. Probably she would be thrown
out the house. If it wasn't for her journal and her walkman she
wouldn't even go back. She cursed Moonglow for being so unreasonable,
and cursed herself for ever getting involved with humans. But she
didn't seem to get on much better with werewolves. Dominil had hardly
spoken a word to her and the twins obviously regarded her as an idiot.

Kalix tried to cheer herself up with the thought that she
might never eat again. It worked for a while but by the time she
reached the river her depression was turning into anxiety and she
wished she had her laudanum with her. Kalix plodded on through the
rain. When she finally arrived in Kennington she took out the shiny new
key Daniel had cut for her and opened the door as quietly as she could.
Moon-glow wasn't in. Daniel was slumped on the couch in front of the TV.

"Kalix. I'm glad you've come home."

This took Kalix by surprise.

"Are you?"

"Of course. I've had a terrible day."

"Is Moonglow throwing me out?" said Kalix.

"What?" Daniel laughed. "Of course not. She wasn't that mad.
Moonglow can't stay in a bad mood for long. She's gone over to Jay's to
have a better evening, that'll cheer her up."

"Oh."

"You better dry your hair," said Daniel.

Kalix went up to her room and hastily drank some laudanum.
Because Daniel had suggested it, she dried her hair with a towel before
going back downstairs.

"Are you sure Moonglow doesn't want me to leave?" she asked.

Daniel almost laughed again but when he saw Kalix was very
concerned about this he reassured her.

"It was really nothing. Moonglow likes you."

"Does she?"

"Of course. How could you think she didn't?"

"No one likes me."

"We like you a lot."

Kalix had difficulty accepting this.

"Why?"

Daniel shrugged.

"Why would anyone not like a bouncy young werewolf like you?"

The word
bouncy
was so unexpected and so
inappropriate that Kalix laughed. She wanted to tell Daniel that she
liked him but it felt like an awkward thing to say.

"Did you have a good time at college today?" was the best she
could manage.

Daniel looked glum, and sank further into the couch.

"No. It was a bad day."

"Were the lectures hard?"

"The lectures? I didn't really notice, to be honest. What made
today an especially bad day was that I went and talked to Alicia after
Moon-glow practically forced me into it, and when I was talking to her
she looked bored and said she had to go and do something else."

"What did she have to do?"

"She didn't specify."

Daniel sighed.

"I am the number one loser when it comes to talking to girls,
it has to be said."

"Lots of girls must like you," said Kalix, who didn't like to
see Daniel depressed.

"Well no. Not lots of girls. Very few girls. Actually no girls
like me. Not Moonglow and not Alicia and not any of the hundreds who
wander around King's College every day."

"What about the girl at the party?"

Remembering this sorry experience, Daniel became more
depressed than ever.

"I'm going to eat everything in the fridge then drink the last
of my wine."

Daniel headed for the kitchen, looking sad. Kalix sat for a
while, puzzled. She didn't like it that Daniel was sad. He was always
so nice to her. She couldn't understand why no girls liked him. Kalix
wished that she could cheer him up but she wasn't sure how to go about
it. Usually she was the one who was depressed. She had no experience of
bringing cheer to anyone.

Kalix rose from her chair, a little unsteadily. The day had
taken a lot out of her. The fight had been very violent and though
turning into a werewolf had given her energy, this had now faded. She'd
not eaten for several days. The laudanum she'd drunk when she came in
was coursing through her system, making her drowsy and euphoric by
turns. She followed Daniel into the kitchen.

"I like you," she said, then took him in a tight embrace and
kissed him.

Daniel was startled. So startled that he failed to move. He
really didn't think he should be kissing the young werewolf but he was
too surprised to break away. Besides, Kalix's embrace was very strong.

Also, it was so long since anyone had kissed Daniel that he
wasn't finding it that unpleasant.

"Eh… hello…" came a voice from only a few feet away.

Daniel leapt backwards, banging himself quite painfully
against the sink. To his horror he found Moonglow regarding them with a
shocked expression.

"Hi!" said Daniel. He was grinning wildly in an attempt to
appear unruffled, meanwhile wishing that he might be instantly
teleported to another dimension.

"What's going on?" said Moonglow.

"I think I'll go to my room now," said Kalix, and trotted off.

Moonglow watched her go then turned to Daniel.

"You kissed her?"

"Absolutely not."

"What do you mean absolutely not? I saw you!"

"She just grabbed me and kissed me, it took me by surprise."

Moonglow frowned.

"I didn't see you fighting her off."

"I didn't mean it!" said Daniel. "It just happened!"

Moonglow emptied the contents of her shopping bag into the
fridge. She didn't know what to think about Daniel kissing Kalix. It
was certainly an unexpected development. It surprised her so much that
she forgot all about the suspicious looking young man she'd seen
loitering outside their house. When she'd reached the front door and
turned back to check, he'd disappeared.

"I mean, she's been sick," said Moonglow. "And she's only
seventeen."

"Isn't that older in werewolf years?" said Daniel. "You know,
like cats?"

Daniel was mortified by the whole event. He was aware that he
hadn't exactly struggled to avoid it, though he tried to pretend he had.

"Just walked up and grabbed me. I was ending it right then
when you came in, just about to push her away…"

"Stop babbling," said Moonglow, and almost smiled. "Hey,
you're both adults, more or less."

In the small back yard outside the kitchen, Gawain was
watching. He had seen everything through the kitchen window. He'd seen
Kalix kissing another man. The werewolf stood in silence for a long
time. He'd yearned to see Kalix for three years.

'Well now I've seen her,' he thought, bitterly. He leapt over
the fence and hurried away, with no destination in mind, but a desire
to put as much distance as possible between himself and the unbearably
painful sight of Kalix in someone else's arms.

At her office in the centre of London, Thrix was sleeping on
her couch. She woke suddenly. No matter how deep her sleep, the
Enchantress could not be taken unawares. She awoke knowing that someone
was nearby. She looked round the room, her werewolf eyes adjusting
instantly to the dark. There was no one in her office but a slight
scrabbling noise outside made he look round in alarm. She was four
floors up and no one could possibly be outside her window.