‘He was.’ She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. ‘I only knew him for a day too, but he still came here to protect me. All that did was end up getting him killed.’ Her head rose. ‘He is dead, isn’t he?’
I nodded.
‘I thought so,’ Anna said. ‘I tried to go to his room on Tuesday to talk to him, and I saw that something terrible had happened.’ She choked back a sob. ‘It was my fault. He was only trying to help me.’
‘It wasn’t your fault. The blame for this lies solely at the door of his killer. This isn’t on you, Anna.’ I gazed at her and another terrible thought struck me. Oh no. ‘Anna, have you been in touch with anyone in the last couple of days? Any werewolves?’
A single tear rolled down her cheek. ‘I already know.’ Her voice was barely audible. ‘I know what happened to Becca. I tried to call her after I saw what had happened to Tony, and someone else answered.’
‘I’m so sorry.’
Anna’s eyes met mine, a sudden ferocity blazing in their blue depths. ‘She didn’t kill herself. She would never have done that.’
‘I know.’
‘Becca didn’t do it!’
‘I know,’ I repeated. I reached for her hands. It was a pathetic reassurance, given what she was going through, but it was all I could do. ‘This will be difficult for you,’ I said, ‘but I need to know everything. I need you tell me exactly what’s happened from the very beginning.’
Anna closed her eyes for a beat. When she opened them again, she seemed calmer. ‘That much I can do.’ She didn’t relax, but I knew she wanted to tell her story. She needed to get it off her chest.
‘I went to a club called Crystal on Saturday night. I got chatting to a wolf there and we ended up at his place. Becca had been getting on my nerves. She hadn’t wanted me to go out – she seemed to think that I should be meditating, or some kind of shit like that, so I could prepare for the full moon. All I wanted to do was blow off steam.’
I nodded understandingly. And then, because I had to be sure, ‘Gregory, right? Did he hurt you? Or threaten you? Or do anything at all?’
Anna smiled faintly. ‘No. The sex was kinda dull, but he was nice enough. The next morning, though, I felt guilty. I knew he’d want me to stick around, but I also knew I’d used him to piss off Becca. I left early and headed home to talk to her. I’d hardly drunk anything the night before but I felt terrible. It was like I had a bad hangover.’
She grimaced. ‘I tried to walk it off and clear my head, but it kept getting worse. I had something to eat and ended up spewing all over the pavement in front of two tourists.’ She shook her head. ‘I knew if I went back to Becca, she’d tell me off even more for getting into that sort of state. She’d say I was irresponsible and stupid. I only made zeta last full moon, and new ranks often have to deal with challenges from other werewolves during the lunar change. I’m not stupid. I wouldn’t risk my ranking after I’d worked so hard for it. But Becca took everything so seriously. She never allowed herself to have fun. It was all work, work, work.’
Her expression was downcast. ‘She’ll never have fun now,’ she whispered sadly to herself.
My heart went out to her, but I had to keep her on track. ‘So what happened?’
‘I ended up at St James’s Park. I was so woozy.’ Her brow furrowed. ‘I could hardly keep myself upright. I stumbled around for a bit and then … and then…’ She shook her head, unable to continue.
‘What? What happened, Anna?’
‘A wolf.’ She flinched. ‘A werewolf attacked me. She came out of nowhere and—’
‘She?’
Anna nodded. ‘It was definitely a female. I didn’t recognise her, but everything was blurry by that point.’ Her hand went to her throat. ‘I thought she was going to kill me. She went for my throat. She would have ripped it out – I’m certain she wanted to. But then,’ Anna swallowed, ‘she spun me round and forced me down to the ground. She held me there while she changed.’
‘Back to her human form?’ I asked, surprised.
‘Yes.’ Anna tried and failed to smile. ‘You have to be able to speak if you’re going to make an effective threat.’
I leaned forward. ‘What did she say?’
‘That she’d see me on Friday night during the full moon at St James’s Park. That she’d challenge me, and she’d win.’ She wrung her hands. ‘She laughed. It was like she knew she’d already won. She said that I’d better start saying my goodbyes to my family because she’d make sure I wouldn’t see Saturday. Then she took off. She left me in the dirt and took off.’
Anna took another deep breath. ‘I couldn’t go home after that. I couldn’t face Becca. I came here to the hotel instead. I thought that if I could recover from whatever was wrong with me, everything would be alright. But,’ her voice dropped, ‘it wasn’t. It really wasn’t.’
‘What happened next, Anna?’
‘I couldn’t tell Becca I’d let myself get attacked, and I didn’t know who else I could trust. I didn’t know if it was someone from my own clan who’d hurt me or someone else. I didn’t know what to do.’ She hung her head. ‘I went to see Tony. I thought that if he could find who’d attacked me, I’d be able to speak to Becca and we could confront them together. Tony was in Supe Squad and he wasn’t a wolf – he wasn’t even a supe. He seemed like the perfect person to help. He told me that everything would be alright and I should lay low for a couple of days until I felt better. He promised that he’d find out who’d hurt me.’
She licked her lips. I indicated that she should take her time. She nodded and continued. ‘He came here on Monday night and said he thought he knew who was responsible, but I should stay here until he’d sorted it out. I was really scared. I didn’t want to be left alone so I begged him to stay. Ibeggedhim. He got a room down the hall and then … and then…’ She gulped, her sobs preventing her from speaking further.
