A memory flashed before me, my mother and I huddling in the bathroom in some hotel room, wrapped in a blanket, both of us shivering because some stray noise outside reminded us of Clarissa’s voice.

“I didn’t mean to upsshet you.”

“I know. Finish your food.”

He looked at the ribs. “Not hungrrry anymorre.”

“It’s okay,” I told him. “Don’t let it go to waste.”

He bit into the rib. “Did you ever go back?”

I smiled at him. “What do you think?”

He blinked.

“Funny thing about that pack,” I said. “A few years ago someone went over there and wiped them out. Must’ve been some sort of marksman, because most of them had been shot from a distance. Very clean shots, with silver bullets.” I leaned over and touched a spot at the base of his skull about half an inch below his earlobe. “Apricot. Also known as medulla oblongata. It’s an area of the brain that controls involuntary functions: breathing, heart rate, digestion. It is the only place in the shapeshifter body that guarantees instant death when hit by a silver bullet. Very small target.” I held my fingers a little over an inch apart. “Tiny. Takes a lot of practice.”

Ascanio’s eyes were huge on his bouda face.

Not everyone got a clean death. Some were more up close and personal. Not everyone died either. There were four children—all boys—and three adolescents—two girls and a boy—in chains. The next generation, new victims of Clarissa’s tender love and care. They made it.

“What happened to yourrr dad?”

“He died about two years after we ran away. He was a hyena and they only live about twelve years or so in the wild. He probably lived twice that. If you’re done eating, we need to get a move on.”

He hopped off the wall.

We wiped our faces with the towel from the Jeep, returned the pan, and drove out.

“Whereee to now?” Ascanio asked.

“Garcia Construction.” I highly doubted that we would even be allowed to enter Anapa’s HQ in our current shapes.

Garcia Construction had an address on the east side of the city, in the tangle of newly renamed streets, and it took us a good hour and a half to find it. The building sat in the back of a lot behind a chain-link fence, but the gate stood wide open. We parked on the street and breezed right in. Gravel crunched under my paw-feet. I really hated gravel. It was sharp, it got stuck between your toes, and it didn’t exactly provide a stable surface.