Читать книгу The Anxiety of Kalix the Werewolf - Martin Millar - Страница 36

CHAPTER 30

“How can you possibly have lost Kalix?” demanded Moonglow.

Daniel was both shamefaced and exasperated, having already answered this question three times.

“I had to stop for gas. I went to pay for it, and when I got back to the car she wasn’t there.”

“Didn’t you see where she went?”

“No. I drove around looking but she’d vanished.”

Moonglow could hardly believe that Daniel, having successfully picked up Kalix at the airport, had lost her on the way home. She stared out the window. “It’s getting dark. This is the third wolf night. Kalix will change.”

“She’s changed hundreds of times. She’ll be all right.”

“Was she wearing her pendant?” asked Moonglow.

Kalix’s pendant, a mystic item given to her by the Fire Queen, kept her safe from prying eyes, hiding her werewolf nature from the hunters.

“I never notice jewelry. She was probably wearing it.”

Moonglow was not reassured. “It won’t hide her if she runs around the streets as a werewolf. Why did she get out of the car? What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything,” protested Daniel. “I went and picked her up at the airport. At short notice, which was helpful of me. I can’t help it if she did a runner on the way home.”

“Did you insult her? You know how sensitive Kalix is.”

Daniel insisted that he hadn’t insulted Kalix, but Moonglow was no longer listening. She was putting on her shoes and picking up her keys. “I’m going to look for her.”

“How?” asked Daniel. “When she’s a werewolf, she can climb over buildings and hide in parks. We’ll never find her.”

“I’m going to try.” Moonglow frowned quite deeply. “I knew something bad would happen. Every time Kalix goes away on werewolf business, something bad happens.”

“She had a bruise on her face,” said Daniel.

“What?” Moonglow paused while buttoning her coat. “A bruise? Why didn’t you say that before?”

“I just remembered.”

“How big was it?”

“Quite big.”

“I have a very bad feeing about all this,” said Moonglow.

Daniel sighed. He had a bad feeling about it too. They’d known Kalix long enough to know that she tended to attract trouble.

“Dominil probably bullied her for no reason then sent her home,” said Moonglow. “Now Kalix is upset. She always takes everything so badly. She might have had a big panic attack in the car and run away; she’s done that before.”

Daniel followed Moonglow to the door. “You know we have no chance of finding her?”

“She can’t have gone that far. Kalix won’t run around the streets as a werewolf; she must be hiding somewhere.”

Daniel remembered a previous occasion when they’d hunted the streets for Kalix. They’d only found her thanks to Malveria’s supernatural powers of perception. Kalix had been very badly injured, and had it not been for the Fire Queen’s exceptional healing powers she would have died. Malveria wasn’t around to help them now.

“She sometimes hides in the park,” said Moonglow. “She has a favorite clump of bushes. We can start looking there. Wait while I make tea.”

Daniel looked puzzled. “Do we have time for tea?”

“It’s not for us, it’s for Kalix. I’ll take it in a flask.”

“Why?”

“Kalix likes tea. It’s soothing. I have a feeling we’re going to find her in a very agitated state.”

Daniel waited in the kitchen as Moonglow boiled the kettle. “I wonder what everyone else is doing tonight?” he mused out loud. “Going to gigs, or clubs, I suppose. Not like us. We get to hunt in dangerous parks for a crazy werewolf. With a flask of tea for protection.”

Moonglow smiled. It was the first moment of good humor they’d managed between them since the disastrous events at the cinema. By the time she’d made tea and poured it into a thermos flask, Daniel was ready with his coat and shoes on. They trooped downstairs together, groping their way in the darkness.

“We really should get a light bulb for the hallway sometime,” said Daniel.

It took only a few minutes to drive to Kennington Park, but as Daniel pulled up at the curb he felt nervous. “I don’t like parks at night. They lock the gates and you’re not meant to be there. What if it’s full of criminals?”

Moonglow looked at the dark expanse of grass and shrubs and the locked iron gate in front of them. It was quite intimidating. “I brought a torch,” she said.

“Won’t that just warn the muggers we’re coming?”

There were a few pedestrians on the pavement opposite, but no one paid them any attention as they scrambled over the fence.

“Kalix’s favorite bushes are this way,” said Moonglow, leading the way.

The light from the street didn’t extend very far into the park and they soon found themselves enveloped in gloom, following the narrow beam of Moonglow’s torch. When they reached the bushes, Moonglow shined her torch into them and called out softly. “Kalix?”

There was no reply.

Daniel called louder. There was no reply.

“Well, I’m not standing here calling out for a werewolf all night,” said Daniel. “Let’s get it over with.”

He plunged into the bushes, struggling toward the center of the large patch of vegetation, which was just as sharp, thorny and uncomfortable as he imagined it would be.