“I’m not bleeding.”

“You were. And there is a rip in your hoodie where he got your shoulder.”

He looked at her.

“Was I not supposed to mention it?” She put her hand to her chest. “So sorry, Sir Wolf.”

“In a few hours I’ll heal. You wouldn’t. If you got cut up by a cat’s claws, you would bleed unless we treated the wound. It would make you weak. Hours later you could reopen your wound if you turned the wrong way. Cats are filthy animals, and they carry all sorts of shit on their claws. You could die from an infection.”

They made a right onto Birch Road. To the left the ruin of the mall spread out. During the mall’s life, a narrow strip of lawn had ringed it, dotted by ornamental trees. Now the trees had grown, and thorny bushes sprouted between the trunks, forming nature’s answer to a barbed wire fence and offering only glimpses of the mall beyond. Most of its buildings had long since crumbled into dust. The rains had washed it away, and an occasional sign was all that remained of the shopping center. He read the names—Burlington Coat Factory, PayLess Shoe Store, Ross . . . They meant nothing to him.

“Did you share this cat view with Curran?” Julie asked. “Or are werelions slightly less filthy than other cats?”

He refused to take the bait. “A wound that’s a minor inconvenience to me could be a death sentence for you.”

Julie sighed. “Do you really think that if a wereleopard attacks me, jeans would stop him? Clothes don’t have magic powers, Derek. They don’t mystically protect you from three-inch claws, rapists, or murderers. If someone decides to hurt you, they will do so whether or not you have a thin layer of denim over your skin. Lighten up.”

“It’s better than nothing.”

She narrowed her eyes, looking sly. He braced himself.

“I saw a picture of Hugh when he was your age,” she said.

“Mhm.”

“Hugh was a hottie.”

His reaction must’ve shown on his face, because she threw her head back and laughed.

THE ROAD CURVED GENTLY. They kept going around the bend, to the mouth of Orion Drive. Here no trees hid the mall, and the view was wide open. He stopped. Next to him Julie jumped off her horse, tied Peanut to a tree, and took a cloth backpack from among the saddlebags, hanging it over her left shoulder.