“What happened to the other werewolves?” asked Nat.

The silence confirmed his fears. Nat closed his eyes. “They’re dead, right?”

Iona took his hand. “There was no alternative,” she said. “They had a taste for human blood. If they had escaped, they would have caused chaos. If they had been caught …” Her voice trailed off. “We couldn’t take the risk.”

“But it wasn’t their fault!” cried Nat. “Surely they could have been saved?”

“It was too late to undo the damage,” said Iona softly. “They’ll always be the innocent victims in the story of the Proteus project. Ophelia put her own life in terrible danger in order to put them out of their misery. She’s a remarkable woman. The only justice is that the people responsible are dead, too, and I have it on good authority that the families of the missing will learn the whole story.”

Remembering the werewolves and what they had endured cast a shadow over the gathering, and Nat was glad when Iona ushered everyone out of the bedroom, leaving him and Woody to doze in the darkening shadows.

The next day brought a more cheerful mood and more visitors for Nat and Woody. Nat could smell his next visitor before she arrived. It was Crescent. His senses seemed to have gone into overdrive. He wondered if it was his new Wolven blood. Or maybe it was because she had brought him a bunch of bedraggled yellow flowers that smelled so strongly of cat pee, they made his eyes water. Alongside her, looking lean and fit, complete with designer eyewear, were Vincent and Angelo Spaghetti.

“I’m superbummed you and Woody aren’t coming with us,” Crescent declared dramatically, tossing her flaming red hair. “The Spaghetti twins are coming instead, just for a vacation. When you’re better, your dad says we can all meet up in Paris, special guests of John Carver’s Twilight Circus of Illusion.”

In the Italian style, Vincent and Angelo each kissed Nat and Woody on both cheeks.

As he reached the door, Vincent hesitated. “There’s an old proverb our Spanish brothers live by,” he said thoughtfully, as though he had just remembered it. “‘Live with wolves and you learn to howl.’ I think, my friends, that you have learned this well.”

Ophelia was the next visitor.

“I can’t undo my part in what Alec and I did,” she said, “but whatever happens now, at least you and Woody will always have each other’s friendship.”

Nat and Woody returned her bear hugs and Ophelia’s face lit up with a radiant smile. All the hard edges dropped from her face, and for a moment she was beautiful.

“There … there’s somebody else who wants to say good-bye,” said Ophelia mysteriously.

Even before the door opened, Nat knew who the visitor would be.