refuses to acknowledge that I’m the boyfriend she needs?” he said, warming to the theme.
Kalix, not really interested in any of this, sat on the bed, staring at the letter in her hand.
“You’d think Moonglow would show a little human sympathy, and—”
Daniel stopped abruptly. Kalix had changed into her werewolf shape. Kalix didn’t have to transform—the change only came on automatically on the three nights around the full moon—but as a full-blooded MacRinnalch, she was able to take on her werewolf form any night she chose. Having changed earlier in the evening, confronting the hunter, she had a lingering werewolf appetite, which now needed to be satisfied. Kalix, who was never concerned with food when she was human, became very concerned with it when she was a werewolf.
“Need meat,” she said. In her transformed state, Kalix was half-wolf, half-girl, walking on two legs, but with a covering of shaggy fur, a wolf’s face, quite alarming jaws, and sharp-taloned paws. She brushed past Daniel, heading for the kitchen, where Moonglow had thoughtfully provided several joints of beef for her, all of which Kalix would now devour with enthusiasm, along with anything else she came across.
Daniel watched her go and felt hard done by. He was sharing a flat with a girl he loved who wouldn’t go out with him and an unsympathetic werewolf. He wished that Vex was around to listen to his problems. She wasn’t the best listener, but she was better than no one. Vex however, had been whisked back to the imperial palace by Malveria for interrogation about her first days at college. Suddenly depressed, Daniel retreated upstairs to his room to lie on his bed, play music loudly, and stare at the ceiling. He put on his new We Slaughtered Them and Laughed CD, in which he found some consolation.
* * *
Downstairs in the living room, Moonglow smiled as the young werewolf trotted by on her way to the kitchen. Kalix had such a poor appetite that it was a relief for Moonglow when she made the change into werewolf form and gorged herself on meat. As a vegetarian, Moonglow didn’t relish the sight of Kalix chomping her way enthusiastically through a side of raw beef and licking the blood off of her fangs, but it was certainly good for her health.
Kalix arrived back in the living room, still moving gracefully despite her cargo of meat. She was as agile as a cat and capable of extremely swift movement. “Meat,” she said, sitting down at the table and licking her lips before taking a huge bite out of the joint.
“Is it good?” asked Moonglow.
“Mmm…good meat,” muttered Kalix, devouring it eagerly.
There had been a time when Kalix, on regaining her human form after the werewolf change, had been so upset at the thought of the food she’d consumed that she’d fall ill, vomit, and dissolve in waves of anxiety. After some months with Moonglow and Daniel, she seemed to have calmed down.
“Is there pizza?” asked Kalix, finishing the beef. Moonglow smiled again. When they’d first met Kalix, they’d had some trouble understanding her while she was a werewolf. Her strong Scottish accent, transmitted via her wolf jaws, could be difficult to comprehend. They were used to it now.
“I was just about to phone them,” replied Moonglow. “I’ll ask Daniel what he wants.”
“He wants you,” said Kalix.
Moonglow blushed and suddenly regretted Kalix’s less complicated werewolf emotions.
“That’s why he’s sulking in his room. Because you won’t go out with him. Why won’t you go out with him?”
Moonglow was flustered and didn’t know how to reply. Even if she’d wanted to be Daniel’s girlfriend, something of which she wasn’t sure, she couldn’t. It would be complicated to explain though, particularly to Kalix.
“How was Dominil?” she asked, to change the subject.
“Okay,” said Kalix. Her face fell. She pawed at the string that had wrapped her joint of beef. “Gawain sent me a letter,” she
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