Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 27)

Bobby leaned his face in closer to the bars and sniffed loudly, and then he rubbed his cheek against the bars. I wasn’t even sure he realized he’d done the second part. “You must only hang out with really powerful shapeshifters if you think my leopard is small.”

I moved back from the bars so I could give Edward better eye contact. Olaf moved back with me. Newman stayed near the bars. He wasn’t being cautious enough either, especially after seeing Bobby go apeshit earlier.

“So you guys haven’t seen many shapeshifters with animal forms as small as regular animals either?” I asked.

They both shook their heads.

“The wereleopard that was my mentor was my size in animal form,” Bobby said.

“Did he contract lycanthropy in Africa, too?” I asked.

Bobby nodded. “He contacted Uncle Ray because he heard about my attack in the news. His story was almost identical to mine, except that they hadn’t been able to kill the shapeshifter that attacked him and his friends.”

“I was wondering if it’s a different strain from the one that’s here in the United States,” I said.

“I’ve never hunted in Africa,” Edward said.

“I have worked there,” Olaf said, “but I had no business with any Therianthropes while I was there.”

“We have a few low-level people at home that don’t get that much bigger than a regular leopard, but even they’re bigger than Bobby’s beast.”

“Then you may be correct: The African strain might be a different strain from the one we have in America,” Olaf suggested.

“It would have to be different from most of Europe as well,” Edward said.

“All the Therianthropes I know came from parts of Europe, so yeah, agreed,” I said.

“I’ve seen them in Europe. They look mostly the same as they do here,” Edward said.

Olaf nodded.

“Why does it matter how big he gets, or any of that?” Duke asked.

I answered, “Maybe it doesn’t matter, but then again, sometimes the esoteric shit is what makes or breaks a case, or what helps keep us alive on the next hunt.”

“Whatever happens here, Duke,” Edward said with more accent than he’d used in the last few minutes, “we go on to other cases, other monsters. The things we learn here may help us save lives later.”

“They are working on a cure for lycanthropy,” Olaf said. “Perhaps investigating the African strain and comparing it to others would help in that search.”

“They’ve been looking for that for decades,” Duke said derisively.

“They are much closer than they were,” Olaf said.

“Really?” Bobby asked.

Olaf nodded.

“How do you know?” I asked before I remembered that we weren’t alone, and this should have waited.

“I was offered to take part in some of the research.”

I so wanted to ask more questions, but I’d wait until it was just the three of us, because we had too many secrets from everyone else here to risk it.

“Did you try a cure?” Bobby asked.

“No,” Olaf said.

“Why not?” Duke asked.