scorn.
“Michele,” whispered Rosa, her voice full of hatred.
When she turned to the single-story building again, Mattia was standing at the entrance in human form, beckoning to her with an exhausted gesture—and opening the gray metal door with his other hand. It swung inward. There was a key in the lock.
“I work here,” he managed to say, with a groan. “That’s why.”
The Panthera reached the terrace. Some of them, those who had killed no prey yet, couldn’t control their greed any longer and sped up. Rosa ran past Mattia, dragging him with her, and the two of them flung themselves against the heavy door from the inside. It latched. With trembling fingers, Mattia turned the key in the lock. Outside, several of the big cats uttered howls of fury as their claws scraped over the metal. The noise was deafening.
“The windows have grates over them,” Mattia whispered to her. “They won’t get in here even in human form.” His catlike eyes were glowing as brightly as the single emergency light above the entrance. While she saw him only as a vague outline, he must have as clear a view of her as if it were daylight. She put out one hand, her fingers so cold that she was afraid they might break off if they met the slightest resistance. Hesitantly, she touched his shoulder. It could have been made of ice.
Only now did she realized that it was improbably warm in this building. The heat was on full blast.
“You planned to bring me here,” she said.
He nodded, faintly. “The key was on the outside of the door, and I turned the heat up hours ago. I knew what state we’d be in when we got here.”
He moved away from the entrance and opened a small switch box on the wall. A red light showed. Mattia pressed it.
“The alarm system,” he said, loud enough for those outside the door to hear it. “It’s switched on now.”
The scraping of claws stopped. Something dropped on the snow—Jessie’s body?—and now they heard Michele speak. He was back in human form.
“How long are you going to hide in there? Until morning?” He uttered a sound that was possibly meant to be a laugh, but wasn’t. It was more of an animal screech. “There’s already someone on the way to fetch men with tools.”
Mattia lowered his voice. “If the alarm goes off, this place will soon be teeming with security guards. They won’t risk that until they’ve hauled some park official out of bed and bribed him. That’ll take at least an hour, and by then the effect of the serum will have worn off.”
As if that guaranteed her survival. “Let’s set off the alarm ourselves,” she said.
“I have to talk to you before all hell breaks loose,” he said. “What’s more, then they’d find us both here, me naked and you…well, with not much more on.”
She followed his glance to her legs, which were blue with cold. There was hardly anything left of her tights.
“Better to appear in court on immorality charges than dead,” she said, going to the window and peering out. The Panthera had retreated to the edge of the terrace. Only Jessie’s body lay in the snow, distorted, looking like a dirty garment and easily visible from the window. A promise.
Rosa abruptly turned away. She stepped aside, leaning against the brick wall. “They’re waiting.”
“Good. That gives us time.”
Long tables dominated a gloomy room that occupied the entire single story. Several dozen model boats stood there, none of them more than a foot long, with pointed sails, countless little pennants, and colored symbols. By one of the side walls stood a workbench with carpentry tools, stacks of paint and varnish cans, plastic canisters, and rolls of sailcloth. There were more tools hanging above it.
“Kids and tourists rent the boats and sail them on Conservatory Water,” said Mattia, as if it were something she would need to know. “I repair them when they break down, which is quite often.”
She looked at his glowing eyes. “What’s the plan?”
“We have to talk. About Valerie.”
“They’re going to kill us, Mattia, whether or not the serum’s still working.” She fell back against the brick wall, which was so cold that she hardly noticed her backbone rubbing against the joins in the brickwork as she slowly slid down it. She sat on the floor with her knees drawn up. “Why Valerie? What does she have to do with any of this?”
“She and I,” said Mattia hesitantly, as if it were