A small olive-skinned face emerged over the rink’s crash barrier. ‘Listen up. I’ll lead those two away, you drop down and run like hell. Is it a deal?’

‘Rico, get out of here!’ she hissed. ‘Get help!’

She saw Tom had tried to dodge past Swagger to reach the rink. But Swagger had moved with incredible speed, swiping Tom’s hind legs from under him. He somersaulted through the air and splashed down hard in a puddle of blood.

‘No!’ she yelled. And her fingers were slipping. Below her, the ’wolves were licking their bloody chops in anticipation.

‘Hey, boys,’ a supercilious voice called. ‘Either of you two got a light?’

Kate turned her head to find Jasmine leaning casually against the crash barrier, with three cigarettes clamped in her mouth. Rico was peeping out from behind her legs.

The grey ’wolf emitted a low roar at the sight of these new prospective morsels, and its partner’s drool hung from its jaws in great sticky strings. They approached Jasmine cautiously, as if suspecting a trap.

But the girl was just standing there.

The beasts drew closer, closer.

And Rico passed her a lighter. ‘Sorry, boys,’ she said coldly, ‘I found one already.’ She closed her eyes and placed the flame to the tips of the cigarettes –which flared like blowtorches.

The grey, skinny wolf gave a shrill, ululating howl and skittered away. But the dark one was enraged. It lunged forwards, jaws opened wide to take off her head.

Jasmine dodged, and stubbed the flaming cigarettes out on the creature’s snout. It roared in terrible pain and bounded away, gnashing its teeth. ‘I’m not running anymore!’ she screamed after it. ‘You hear me?’

Kate dropped down to the filthy concrete, half-blinded, her stinging fingers red-hot and numb. She tried desperately to blink away the bright blobs on her vision left by the light show. ‘What the hell brand are those?’ she gasped.

‘Jicaque’s self-rolled,’ she heard Jasmine mutter.

‘You stole ’em!’ said Rico accusingly.

‘Sure. I got light fingers, he got big pockets. Figured I could find a use for them smokes.’

But Kate was no longer listening. As her vision started to clear she saw that Swagger had batted Tom back to the ground. He looked a gory mess, his coat matted black with blood – how much was his and how much he’d rolled in she couldn’t tell. Before he could get to his feet, the Swagger-wolf was on top of him, stamping down on his barrel-like rib cage. His sharp teeth raked a neat crimson line along Tom’s throat.

Rico broke free of Jasmine’s grip and raced across the rink to where the two ’wolves struggled.

‘No!’ Jasmine yelled. ‘¡Para, Rico! There’s nothing you can do!’

Then everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.

Rico was sprinting across the bloody arena, his breath coming in short puffs, steaming into the icy air.