She didn’t seem particularly surprised. ‘Call me Stacy,’ she said, but as she held out a hand in greeting, she peered at him closely. ‘Your face looks familiar.’

Please, God, don’t let there be a newspaper around here, Tom thought, returning her strong handshake. ‘Just one of those faces, I guess. I’m Tom, I was with Jasmine and—’

‘Wait, wait, wait,’ said Stacy, shaking her head, her voice falling to a whisper. ‘Not with all these people around. Besides, this sounds like a long story and long stories always sound better with hot coffee and bagels.’ She held out her hand to Kate. ‘Am I right, Miss …?’

‘Kate,’ she said, shaking the outstretched hand. ‘And I think you’re the most right person I ever met.’

Stacy led them to a coffee shop deep inside the hospital, and ordered for everyone before bustling over to a hexagonal table. ‘Sit down, all,’ she said, drumming her fingers on the tabletop until they were seated, ‘and let’s get the introductions out of the way.’

Tom and Kate told selected highlights from their separate stories over Styrofoam cups of thick, treacly coffee while Rico and Jasmine filled their faces with cream cheese bagels. Tom detailed the chase for the blood samples and the risks Swagger’s men took to get them, and Kate confirmed how Swagger himself arranged for what was left to reach Stacy.

Stacy gave a low whistle. ‘Weird goings-on, all right.’

‘It was weird,’ Kate said. ‘Swagger was furious with the thugs who’d stolen the samples. He said you needed them.’

‘I do, they’re very valuable to my work.’ Stacy seemed strangely moved. ‘For a lupine to have said that –he must be counting on me coming through for him and his kind.’

‘Er …’ Kate paused awkwardly. ‘Actually, he called you the dumbest person on the East Coast.’

Stacy shrugged. ‘I’m not in this line of work for the applause,’ she said mildly. ‘Oh, those poor kids …’

‘Excuse me?’ Tom frowned at her. ‘Those poor kids are maniacs.’

‘Murderers,’ Kate added.

Jasmine agreed. ‘Did you miss the part where they almost killed us to get that stuff?’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Stacy. ‘Of course it’s wrong, what they did. But it’s not entirely their fault. They’re lupine now, desperate for anything that’ll help them cope with the new-found needs, with the conflicts that being ’wolf entails.’

‘So am I,’ Tom blurted out, and immediately regretted it. ‘Desperate, I mean.’

Stacy stared at him. ‘You’re lupine?’

‘He’s a newblood,’ Kate said quietly, ‘not long turned.’

‘And I hate it,’ Tom said. ‘When I was first bitten I fought; was able to resist the change – like Rico.’

Jasmine nodded. ‘Rico got bitten, but he don’t change.’

Tom scowled. ‘But unlike Rico, I was bitten, locked up for a month and force-fed turning herbs and potions until my resistance cracked.’

‘By my mother,’ Kate put in bitterly.