Tom called a goodbye – Woollard didn’t reply – and stepped out after them on to the dismal street. Rico shut the doctor’s door, then skipped off after Jasmine. Tom had barely taken another step when he heard the bolts slide stiffly across, one after the other; the old doctor was back in hiding behind his locked doors and empty bottles.

Unable to shake his sense of unease, Tom stared about. There was no one around. The only moving object was a black Porsche, crawling away from him along the kerbside, its engine barely breathing. Soon it rounded the corner and was gone from sight.

Still peering about warily, weighed down with the box of phials, Tom headed after Jasmine and Rico.

g

Jasmine drove carefully so as not to draw any unwelcome attention, picking a path that took them through the quieter streets. The dirty white of the New York dawn was slowly soaking through the sky. Soon another day would be underway and these wide-open roads would be clogged with the morning’s traffic.

Rico was asleep in the back, despite the radio blaring. Jasmine kept switching stations, singing along with songs for a few lines, then tiring of them and hunting down others. The constant chopping and changing was starting to put Tom on edge. He was worried about Kate, and exhausted by the craziness of the night.

Bored with the monotonous low-rise landscape outside the car, he looked at Jasmine instead. Jeez, she was pretty; her dark complexion flawless, the little stud in her snub nose glittering in the dawn light. Tom realised they’d been together for hours and yet he barely knew a thing about her. Maybe he could distract her from the station-hopping with some dazzling conversation.

He nudged down the volume and found his mouth was suddenly dry. ‘So, uh … How long have you been with Ramone?’

She glanced across at him. ‘I ain’t with Ramone, if that’s what you mean.’

Tom felt flustered. ‘I … Well, I guess from what he said, I assumed …’

Jasmine yawned. ‘Truth is, we went together for six months. Longest I’ve been with anyone. Something special at the time.’

‘What happened?’ Tom asked.

She shrugged. ‘Life, I guess. I don’t wanna be tied down at sixteen. He still got it for me, but we’re just friends. Good and simple.’ She paused. ‘That the way with you and Kate?’

‘Kind of.’

Jasmine smirked. ‘You two seemed pretty tight to me. You been with her, Tommy-boy?’

The question hit straight and hard at some dark place deep inside him. There was no way he could even dream about that kind of relationship with Kate. It was out of the question while he remained ’wolf; it would bring about Kate’s worst nightmare – her own lupine change – something she was determined would never happen. And anyway, he doubted she was even remotely interested in him in that way.