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I try not to look too eager as I make this suggestion. But oh how great it would be to actually know someone in my neighborhood. To have someone to go for coffee with, or shopping, or the cinema. To talk to about the things that suck about life in London and the things that are awesome. A real-life person-friend so I don’t have to feel so much like a cat-lady loser.
“I’ll be back near here on Monday,” she says. “Maybe lunchtime. I can pick it up then.”
I quell my disappointment, but perhaps she sees it on my face.
“Actually, did you want to meet for lunch?” she says. “You’re the first cool person I’ve met here and I’ve been dying to make new friends.”
Cool person! My insides light up in a glow. I had been thinking the same about her,
but I had worried about sounding too desperate if I’d asked to meet up.
“I would love to have lunch!” I say, trying not to grin all over my face. “How’s 12 o’ clock on Monday?”
“Make it one, if that’s okay? We’ve got a big weekend planned for Rachel’s birthday so I might be a bit hungover. Full on party time from tonight to Sunday. Actually, do you want to come tonight? We’re meeting at a bar in the city near Shoreditch.”
I make a regretful face. “That would have been so great but I have work tonight.”
Secretly I am glad to have an excuse to say no. I am no social butterfly. The thought of going to a bar with a bunch of strangers is terrifying. I am much better one to one.
“This place can’t be open that late!” she protests.
“Actually I’m doing an evening shift at a restaurant I work at part-time. Luca’s. It’s just down the road from where we live.”
“Oh yeah. I’ve seen it! You’re pretty handy on the job-front, huh? I might have to pick your brains about that at lunch. I’ve been looking but I’ve had no luck.”
“Sure, my knowledge will be all yours!” I ring up her purchases at the cash register and bag them. “Looking forward to Monday.”
We agree where to meet as I see her out of the store. I stand in the doorway to give her a little wave as she walks off. “Stay safe!” I shout instinctively.
She looks at me curiously. I point at my hair. “I meant tonight. We blond girls can’t be too careful with the Wolf-Claw Killer on the rampage.”
She laughs. “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.”
Chapter 2
DIANA
Later that night, I walk home after finishing my shift at Luca’s restaurant, taking care to stay in well-lit areas and keeping my eyes peeled for any wolfish maniacs.
I walk past India’s house. The house has four floors just like mine. In fact, it is pretty much identical. Pillars flanking the front door, cream painted facade, pretty stone-work masking a rather different story on the inside. I glance up at the windows across the multiple levels, wondering if one belongs to India. She is probably still out celebrating Rachel’s birthday.
I wonder what Rachel is like, and whether she’s a werewolf too. She has to be. Werewolves almost always live in packs as far as I know and this is especially true of female werewolves. The fact that the two of them have moved to London together strikes me as more than a little unusual.
I suppose they will be safer than most. All of the victims of the Wolf-Claw Killer have been human girls.
It irks me that the press have named this murderer Wolf-Claw after the notorious Devil Claw Killer, the serial killer who had murdered my biological mother. It’s like they were trying to create the same sort of panic in the populace. Completely unnecessary given the savage nature of the crimes, and the fact that the last two kills had happened outside of the full moon, making every night a terrifying night.
Theo has given me a shield bracelet and taught me an incantation to activate it. He’s also given me a nasty two inch dart dipped in a super-concentrated wolfsbane potion of his own invention. He’d designed it to be carried on my keyring.
I am holding the dart now, clenched between the knuckles of the index and middle finger of my right hand. Just in case. It feels a bit stupid to be doing so, but he’d made me promise. Fat lot of use it’ll be if the killer decides to spring at me now. I am bone tired. I doubt I have the energy to swing it with anywhere near enough force to pierce a werewolf’s hide right now.
I realize I have come to a standstill outside India’s house. Boy would she think I was creepy if she happened to glance out of her window. Yawning, I trudge onwards.
Thinking of Theo reminds me that the sticky note I left for him about India’s wolfsbane potion may have gone astray. Little Mozz is always touching things she shouldn’t, but even if she hadn’t misplaced it, there’s no guarantee that absent-minded Theo will have actually seen the note.
I dig out my phone from my satchel and give him a ring. It is past midnight, but Theo being a night-owl answers immediately.
“Hi Theo. Did you see the note I left you?”
