supposed. They were like a herd of deer that had grown too numerous and needed to be thinned, so that

they could not upset the natural order of the world and so that only the strongest among them could

survive, to make for better game.

supposed. They were like a herd of deer that had grown too numerous and needed to be thinned, so that

they could not upset the natural order of the world and so that only the strongest among them could

survive, to make for better game.

Soon, thought Wulfgar. Soon they will be here. The bodies of his victims would serve as bait to bring

them. It was growing dark and it was time to begin his preparations. The darkness cloaks the predator,

he thought, and contributes to the terror. And it was past time that these humans remembered what real

terror was, what it meant to be the prey.

As Gomez made his rounds, he kept thinking about Paul and his involvement with the murder

investigation. He was worried about his human friend. His highly sophisticated, thaumagenetically

engineered cat brain was capable of complex thought patterns, far superior to the brains of ordinary cats,

yet unlike many magically enhanced creatures, Gomez did not hold himself above his ordinary cousins,

even the more simpleminded ones.

There, but for the grace of God, go I, he thought, as he finished conferring with a short-haired tabby

named Ginjer, who lived two blocks away. Ginjer was an ordinary cat, whose owner had picked her out

of a litter offered by a neighbor's kids. Unlike Gomez, Ginjer had always led a pampered life as a

domestic cat. She ate well, slept in a warm, pillowed cat basket in the bedroom of her mistress, and

spent her days lounging in the window wells and playing with balls of yarn.

A simple, kind, gentle, and uncomplicated creature, Gomez thought. A kitty that's never known the cold

and homeless night or the indignity of rummaging through trash cans, searching for a chicken bone or the