Martin Millar - Lonely Werewolf Girl (18 page)

Markus snarled and by the time the sound was out of his mouth
he had changed into his werewolf shape. The moon had risen. Thrix
transformed, and felt irritated as she did so. It was difficult to type
on a computer as a werewolf. Had Markus not interrupted her she would
have finished her email with far greater ease than she would now.
Markus was glaring at her with loathing. He hated Thrix because she
knew of his liking for female clothes. She'd known for a long time,
ever since she'd caught him wearing something of hers back in the far
off days before she left the castle.

"I really don't care," said Thrix.

"You don't? I seem to remember you had some very amusing
comments to make at the time."

The Enchantress felt a little guilty about this. She had
tormented her brother and while never giving away his secret, had
threatened to, many years ago.

"I was a lot younger then," said Thrix. "It took me by
surprise."

"But now you are quite prepared to accept that your brother
has some peculiarities?" snarled Markus.

Thrix's long golden werewolf coat gleamed in the sorcerous
light and her own eyes lit up with anger. Markus's hostility towards
her over the years had left her with little sympathy for him.

"I told you, I don't care. I don't care about you, your
clothes, the next Thane or the MacRinnalch Clan. I care about my
fashion house and you're all keeping me from it. Now if you'd like to
leave me alone, I might be able to get on with my work."

52

Daniel had been instructed by Moonglow to
entertain Kalix. He didn't feel equal to the task.

"I've no experience of entertaining werewolves." "Who has?
Just keep talking to her. That's what I've been doing." "Didn't she
threaten to kill you if you didn't shut up?" "Well yes," admitted
Moonglow. "But she didn't really mean it." Daniel was still in a bad
mood because Moonglow was going to visit Jay. Her face was made up to
be very pale, her lips were dark purple, she had on her favourite black
dress and she'd even brought out a pair of black high heels she'd been
saving for a special occasion.

"Why is this a special occasion?" inquired Daniel.

"I haven't seen Jay for four days," replied Moonglow, happily.

Daniel cursed under his breath, and resolved firmly to never
think about Moonglow again. From now on, he would feel nothing for her.
Moonglow departed.

"I have no feelings whatsoever for that girl," muttered Daniel
to himself, and wandered into the living room where Kalix still lay in
front of the gas fire.

"Moonglow has a really annoying boyfriend," he said. "He is
just so irritating. No one likes him apart from Moonglow. He's always
going on about how he's travelled the world and swum in the Amazon and
his hair is dyed really badly and when he goes out with Moonglow he
wears make-up which is just stupid. I hate him."

Having no interest at all in Moonglow's boyfriend, Kalix
ignored this. It didn't prevent Daniel from warming to the subject.

"I mean, boys wearing make-up, what's that about? Jay looks
ridiculous. It's not like he's good looking or anything. He looks like
something you'd find in a graveyard. What Moonglow sees in him is
beyond me. And as for his astrology, what a waste of time. The guy is a
complete phoney. And where does he get his money from? From his parents
I expect. No doubt daddy owns a company and Jay is just playing with
make-up for a year or two before he goes off to be company director.
They're all the same these types. And that's not the worst - "

"Be quiet!" said Kalix, in a surprisingly loud voice.

"What?"

"Stop talking. I'm not interested. Leave me alone."

Daniel was abashed.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to go on about it. Can I get you anything?"

"No."

Kalix turned away. Daniel searched for something else to say.
Moonglow had instructed him to keep talking.

"Is it fun being a werewolf?" he ventured.

"It's great," muttered Kalix, bleakly. She was still wrapped
in her quilt and she had a hot water bottle thoughtfully provided by
Moonglow. Now her body was warm but inside she was still frozen.
Daniel, who was just as kind as Moonglow, though not so good at showing
it, suddenly felt worried that Kalix might die there and then. This
would be bad. He'd feel terrible and Moonglow would probably blame him.
He wondered if it might be a good idea to play her some music.

"Do you like music?" he asked.

Kalix didn't stir.

"I have a really big collection," continued Daniel. "Music for
all tastes. Well mainly heavy rock, heavy metal, nu metal and doom
metal, but branching out into darkwave, progressive rock and all
associated territories."

Kalix had no idea what any of these words meant and wished
fervently that Daniel would just leave her alone. She tried flexing her
limbs, wondering if she might have enough strength to leave but she
knew it was useless, her legs wouldn't carry her out of the door.
Daniel, having moved onto his favourite subject, wasn't letting it go.
He told Kalix about several of his favourite gigs - Metallica, Slayer,
Motorhead - and talked enthusiastically about his forthcoming visit to
the Wembley Arena to see Nine Inch Nails.

Kalix had a dim memory, from some time when she'd been lying
in a stupor, of a conversation between Daniel and Moonglow in which
Daniel had been complaining about not having a girlfriend. Listening to
Daniel's endless monologue, she began to understand why. Kalix had
little experience of human society. Unlike the other young werewolves,
she'd never been to school. But even with her lack of experience, she
felt it must lie outside the norms of human behaviour to inflict an
endless tale of how difficult it had been to get a ticket for Nine Inch
Nails on a suffering house guest.

"Be quiet," she said again.

Thinking that any reaction was better than none, Daniel kept
on.

"I really like the first album better than the second one but
the third is probably the best though it wasn't so well reviewed in
some of the papers but of course the music papers - "

The moon rose. Kalix abruptly transformed into a werewolf. A
fierce beast, part human, part wolf, and all of it very irritated with
Daniel. She snarled, dragged herself almost to her feet and put her
great fangs right in Daniel's face.

"If you say one more thing about your music collection I'll
kill you."

Daniel took a swift step backwards, intimidated by the great
fangs. Though still weak, Kalix's transformation into werewolf form
gave her sufficient strength to leap on Daniel and they crashed onto
the floor. Kalix put her jaws at his throat.

"Don't you like music?" wailed Daniel.

Kalix shouted something at him. As an angry werewolf, her
voice was difficult to understand. It was harsh and her Scottish accent
became stronger. But Daniel could have sworn he heard her say she only
liked the Runaways. He looked up into Kalix's mad werewolf eyes. The
werewolf was looking hungry. She opened her mouth.

"I have a large collection of Runaways albums," cried Daniel.
"And most of their early singles."

Kalix closed her jaws. She looked at him suspiciously.

"Is this true?"

53

Moonglow lay in Jay's bed but she couldn't sleep. She was
worrying about Kalix and Daniel. The most sympathetic of friends could
not call Daniel competent at caring for others. He was well-meaning but
Moonglow had a feeling he might not be able to cope. She began to fret
and blame herself for leaving him there on his own. She should have
known better. Here she was, selfishly enjoying herself with her
boyfriend while back home Kalix might be dead. Daniel probably wouldn't
notice. He'd be in his room, engrossed in one of the obscure music
websites he was fond of visiting. Daniel loved everything about music.
Show him a website that traced the genealogy of one of his favourite
bands right back to when the singer and the guitarist first met at high
school and he'd be occupied for hours.

"Oh my goodness," said Moonglow, sitting up suddenly in bed.
She shook Jay.

"Wake up!"

Jay, a sound sleeper, took some time to rouse himself.

"When is the full moon?" said Moonglow, urgently.

"Tomorrow night," replied Jay.

"Oh dear," said Moonglow, and leapt out of bed and started
scrambling into her clothes.

Jay looked on in surprise.

"What is it?"

Moonglow couldn't believe she'd forgotten that Kalix would
automatically turn into a werewolf tonight. She'd forgotten all about
the MacRinnalchs transforming on the night before the full moon,
although Kalix had mentioned it. It was unbelievably stupid of her. She
raced to get ready and was phoning a cab while still struggling into
her dress. Who knew what might happen when Kalix became a werewolf?

'She's bound to be hungry,' thought Moonglow. 'I don't believe
her werewolf form suffers from eating problems. She might just devour
the first human she sees.'

When the cab arrived Moonglow hurried out, leaving her
boyfriend perplexed. Jay lived in a flat near Sloane street, quite an
expensive part of London, but in the quiet night-time streets it did
not take long for the taxi to cross the river and make for Kennington.
Moonglow fretted at every red light, becoming more and more convinced
that she was going to return home to a scene of carnage.

As they drew up outside her flat Moonglow quickly paid the
driver and hurried up the stairs. She flew through the front door and
the first thing she saw was werewolf Kalix coming out of the kitchen
with blood dripping from her jaws. Moonglow wailed. Kalix opened her
mouth in surprise and Moonglow saw that the werewolf had a mouth full
of meat.

"You killed Daniel!" screamed Moonglow, and pounced on Kalix.
"You monster!"

Kalix growled some unintelligible reply. Moonglow, in a blind
fury, attempted to reign blows on her, though Kalix was far too agile
to allow herself to be struck. The werewolf stepped back and put out
one powerful arm to hold off the girl.

Daniel walked out of the kitchen with a slice of pizza in his
hand.

"Moonglow? Why are you trying to hit Kalix?"

Moonglow was suddenly very embarrassed.

"I thought she'd eaten you."

Daniel was puzzled.

"Why would she do that?"

He turned to Kalix.

"See, like I said, Moonglow worries too much. That's why she
gets me to take all these notes at class even though we don't really
need them. You want to wash down that beef with some pizza?"

Kalix nodded and Daniel loaded a slice of pizza into her
mouth. They trooped into the living room where all around the couch
there were signs of consumption: empty pizza boxes, empty packets of
pop-tarts, and the string that had held together the huge joint of beef
which Moonglow had put in the freezer for Kalix.

"I thawed it out in the microwave," explained Daniel. "Hence
the blood. Kalix likes her meat raw, but not frozen."

Kalix and Daniel had apparently become great friends. They sat
down next to each other on the couch. Next to the empty food containers
were a bundle of records and CDs.

"Kalix loves the Runaways."

"You do?" said Moonglow.

"My favourite band," replied Kalix.

"Oh," said Moonglow, who was still embarrassed at the fuss
she'd made.

"So, what brings you back early?" asked Daniel.

"I just thought I'd see how you were getting on."

"She doesn't trust me," said Daniel, again turning to Kalix.
"As if I'm not capable of looking after a sick werewolf. Have I been
looking after you well?"

"Really well," said Kalix. "Can I hear more Runaways?"

It was strange to hear human words coming from the wolf's
face. As Kalix spoke her lips would curl back over her long, sharp
teeth. Daniel handed her a cloth to wipe the blood from her jaws, a
sight which Moonglow found slightly gruesome. It was also strange to
see Kalix apparently happy. When Moonglow had left the house she'd been
lying miserably in front of the fire and now here she was, eating food
and listening to records. Perhaps, Moonglow conceded to herself, Daniel
was not so hopeless after all.

Now that the shock was over, Moonglow was pleased. It was good
to have a cheerful werewolf in the house. Much better than a suicidally
depressed werewolf. Moonglow fitted herself on the end of the couch and
took what was left of the pizza from the box.

"I'm sorry 1 thought you'd eaten Daniel," she said.

"That's okay," replied Kalix.

They sat for a while, eating pizza, and listening to music.

"Thanks for letting me stay here," said Kalix.

Moonglow smiled. Now that Kalix was full of meat and
transformed into a werewolf she seemed like a whole new person.
Moonglow wondered if this happened every month. Or was Kalix just happy
because Daniel was playing records by her favourite band? As far as
Moonglow knew, Daniel didn't like the Runaways that much. Their brief heyday had happened around 1978, before he was born. He
only had some of their records because he'd come across them in a
second hand shop and bought them in the compulsive way he often did,
before wondering why he never had any money to pay the bills. But they
were certainly going down well with Kalix. Already Moonglow and Daniel
had had the unusual experience of hearing a young werewolf singing
along, not tunefully, to
Cherry Bomb
. Kalix had
never seen the original vinyl single before and cradled it in her lap
like a baby. "I wish Joan Jett was my mother," said Kalix. "Play it
again."

54

Mr Mikulanec was not tall but he was heavy, barrel-chested,
and very strong. His dark hair was cropped short and there was
something cruel about his features. He had killed many werewolves in
his forty years of existence, and was confident of killing many more.