‘I don’t know. But until then we can’t turn to anyone for help.’ He swallowed hard. ‘When I see my mom and dad again, I want them to see me, Tom Anderson, as I used to be.’

‘You think things can ever be the same after all we’ve been through?’

‘Maybe not the same,’ Tom said. ‘But maybe better. Because of what we’ve been through.’

‘We have to make it count for something, right?’ She rolled her eyes, but Tom saw she was trying not to smile. ‘Give me a break, Tom Anderson. Stop being so damned good, saying the right things all the time.’

‘OK.’ He smiled wryly. There was so much he wished he could say to her. ‘You look a total mess.’

‘Don’t push it, Anderson!’ He ducked as she threw a pillow at him. But when he looked at her again, he saw the worry in her eyes. ‘I wonder where they’ve gone now … my parents.’

Tom sighed. ‘What we need is a psychic.’

‘Uh-huh.’ Kate suddenly seemed to brighten. ‘And I know where we can find a couple.’ She crossed to Stacy’s PC and moved the mouse to wake up the screen. ‘See if we can get online. I haven’t touched base with the geeky Net community in days. Maybe someone’s heard something about the lupines we should know about.’

Tom smiled wryly. ‘Right. That extreme possibilities chatroom you hang out in?’

‘I’m beginning to think no possibility’s too extreme these days,’ she murmured.

Soon she was connected and signed in – as ‘Troll Lover’, her online alter-ego in these chat rooms.

‘No way!’ she cried suddenly, making Tom jump.

He crouched to look at the screen over her shoulder. ‘What is it?’

‘A message from Adam Blood,’ she said, her hands flying to her mouth in excitement. ‘Sent this morning.’

‘Genuine?’ asked Tom nervously.

‘Only two people in the world know I call myself Troll Lover. You and him.’

‘Well, what does he say?’

Quickly she typed in a password and hit the ENTER button. Tom blinked as the short message appeared on screen:

g

Dear Trolly,

Hope you are as sexily aloof as ever –and hope Tom isn’t ripping his way through a new wardrobe every week (down, boy!). Heard a whisper – something big, secret, scary and wolfy is going down in Chicago sometime soon. All the pureblood clans have been summoned by Takapa … So in case you happen to be in Chicago right now –get your stupid arses out of there! And if not, AVOID LIKE THE BLOODY PLAGUE IF YOU HAVE ANY SENSE!

AB

g

‘It sounds like him,’ said Tom dryly.

‘Well?’ Kate looked up at him nonchalantly. ‘Am I as sexily aloof as ever?’