‘No,’ said Jicaque mildly, glancing around to check no one had overheard. ‘Merely a combination of dried herbs – an old, old recipe.’ His expression hardened. ‘I have heard many things, many rumours about you. But I am careful what I choose to believe. If not, I would’ve been killed years ago.’

Tom sat back down warily and pushed aside his coffee. ‘Maybe I should be more careful too. I heard you’d retired from practising medicine.’

Jicaque smiled, his striking amber-coloured eyes twinkling. ‘So the ’wolves like to think. You could say I started minding their business a little too closely for their liking. The lupine community does not appreciate human interference in its affairs. They threatened to kill me.’

‘They’re evil,’ Tom said, ‘they should be wiped out. Hunted down.’

Jicaque shook his head. ‘Like any predator, they have the right to exist.’ He sighed. ‘Werewolves have been a part of the hidden fabric of human society for countless generations. But they were not always so hidden. Will you listen to an old man’s story?’

Tom nodded. ‘It has to beat the jazz.’

Jicaque frowned at him, then began his tale. ‘No one knows for sure when the first werewolf dragged itself out of the darkness and into the world of men. But according to the ancient texts, a community of Pueblo people in America’s southwest suffered particularly from a plague of attacks. As is often the case in nature, they discovered an indigenous remedy nearby. If the bitten victim imbibed a solution of a local herb – in any other situation highly toxic – for the length of one lunar month, then the lupine toxins were unable to take hold. Ancient magics and rites were used to support a body’s natural resistance as it utilised the herb to overcome the lupine threat. In modern understanding, antibodies were created. Babies began to be born with natural immunity. Eventually, the community was able to drive out the lupine entirely.’

Jicaque paused to take another sip from his steaming cup. ‘They came to be known as the Shipapi; taking their name from the Pueblo word Shipap, meaning the womb of the earth, the place from which the first pure human beings entered the world.’

‘Go on,’ Tom said, fascinated.

‘Slowly, the word spread to other tribes that there was a way to fight back against wolfkind. But because the ’wolves hid in human form, the Shipapi’s secrets were entrusted only to a very few. They travelled the land, driving out the hidden ’wolves and appointing others in this sacred order.’

‘So what went wrong?’ Tom reached to take another gulp of his coffee –then changed his mind. ‘How’d the ’wolf fight back?’