When she came back from the hunt, in a sense everything returned to normal. There were no secrets anymore, which made both of them feel relieved. The girl’s pants were dirty, her lips red from the blood. She sat down next to Zoltán at the kitchen table. She smelled of struggle and blood and he smelled of comfort and soap. He looked at her and understood that he was not going to break up with her; he was too weak to do that. If they broke up the security would be gone. What’s safer for a prey than living in unity with a predator?

She told him the entire story.

Zeus was only the beginning. Nikolett hadn’t planned on biting more dogs, but the incident haunted her thoughts. As she waited to fall asleep in the warmth of the bed she recalled again and again the moment when she bit into Zeus’ ear. There was something utterly compelling about that moment, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. It wasn’t the dog’s terror or pain that appealed to her – that was only a necessary element, so to speak. She finally figured out the source of her fascination. It was the moment when the dog shrunk. It was giant before the bite, as if an aura embraced it, an aura that enlarged during the fight, extended far beyond the measurements of its body, though body language was a part of it. It was an invisible sign warning everyone that this dog was dangerous.

This dog was ready to fight.

After the bite, however, this invisible extension shrunk smaller than the dog itself. Zeus was no warrior anymore; he subordinated himself to the will of a creature more power­ful than him. His muscles relaxed, his movements became slower, showing no menace, promising submission. Even days later Zeus wouldn’t dare to look Nikolett in the eye.

That was it, the moment that fascinated her so much that she couldn’t sleep at night. She knew that the moment she bit the dog her own aura grew. That’s why Bandido’s owner stepped down without a fight. He saw that Nikolett was dangerous. That she was larger than him, even if her physical measurements said otherwise.

She realized that she was just an animal too, and in this jungle only the strong can survive. Mankind had lived in apartments, in the labyrinth of cities for so long, detached from nature, that it took this bite for her to find her way back to her original nature. Having understood this, every day she spent without that high seemed a gray waste.

Of course she couldn’t know whether it was a one-off incident with Zeus, or if the experience could be repeated. Whether she could only bite Zeus, or if she could do it to other dogs too.