The first bullet had been a surprise.  That had been almost a minute before, and while Arc wasn't surprised anymore, somepony kept shooting at him.

Caught in the middle of the road, he had dived behind the nearest available cover, the median barrier.  Having solid concrete at his back was comforting, but the barrier was only about a meter tall, and his knees were getting tired of crouching behind it.  The pavement was hard, and a few dried pine needles and dust from the surrounding mountain forest were scattered on the ground and his white coat.  The night air made the temperature fairly reasonable, at least.

Based on the sound, he was being shot at with some sort of assault rifle.  The bullets didn't have a hope of penetrating Arc’s solid cover, but they'd have a much easier time with his body.

There was a momentary pause in the fusillade.  Arc lifted himself high enough to get one eye over the barrier.  Two cars were on the other side.  The government sedan stood with its doors open and bullet holes in the windshield.  Arc caught a glimpse of movement behind the other car before he ducked down again, hearing a bullet smack the barrier where his head had been.  Small concrete chips sprinkled down on him.  He gritted his teeth and pinned his ears flat.

There was another pause in the shooting.  With a whisper of movement, Forest Song slid down beside Arc.  There was dirt on her olive coat, but her dark eyes and youthful face seemed extraordinarily calm given the circumstances.  

The rain of bullets picked up, and over the noise, she shouted, "So, why did you cross the road?"

Arc winced. "Very funny. So did you get a look at our shooter?"

"One guy with one gun in a superior tactical position," Forest replied, sneaking her words between the bullets.

She chanced a look over the barrier and got shot at.  Seemingly unperturbed, she said, "Next time he reloads, I'm going out there.  Cover me."

Arc thought it was unwise, but nodded.  A few seconds passed, and then there was a pause.

Forest had the good grace to hurl herself over the barrier a few meters from Arc’s position, making it harder to engage the two of them at once.  He aimed his weapon towards the other car and pulled the trigger twice before the sights came level.  Aimed shots would have been preferable, but suppressive fire would help Forest get across the pavement to her target.

Arc had thought she was going to cover behind the government car, but instead she had covered the distance to the other vehicle almost before Arc had finished firing.

Forest put one hoof on the trunk and vaulted hindquarters-first, aiming straight at the stallion who was putting another magazine in his rifle.  Her hooves hit him in the chest and she followed him to the ground.

The grapple was short, and she had the rifle away and the stallion turned facedown to the asphalt in a fraction of a second.

Arc stepped over the barrier and advanced, gun low and ready.  By the time he got there, Forest had already finished frisking her captive and held his forelegs twisted behind his back.

She looked at Arc and jerked her head toward the car.  "Search it.  Smells like blood."

Keeping the gun ready in his other hoof, Arc opened the passenger door.  He did a cursory inspection of the interior in the dim glow of the overhead light.  There didn’t seem to be anything of interest, so he hit the trunk release.

There was movement from the rear of the car and Arc already had his gun up when the trunk lid was pushed open and somepony tumbled out.  It was a colt, probably in his preteens.  He was covered in blood and shaking like a leaf

Arc immediately lowered the gun and crossed to the rear of the car, kneeling on the pavement.  "Hey," Arc said, holding out a hoof.  The kid’s eyes went to where Forest was hoofcuffing his former captor and then back to Arc.  He shoved himself into Arc’s embrace. It took several minutes for the colt’s trembling to subside..

Arc patted him on the back. "It’s okay now.  You’re safe, kid."  The colt still hadn’t said a word.

Deciding that the colt seemed well enough to move, Arc stood him up and gave him a look over.  Despite the blood that liberally covered his entire body, there were no obvious injuries.

The colt looked past Arc into the trunk of the car and immediately jerked away.  Arc followed his glance and wished he hadn't.  There was a lump of something there that was vaguely shaped like a body, a badly mauled one.

Arc circled around, getting in front of the colt and distracting him.  "Hey," he said again.  Unable to think of anything else, he asked, "What’s your name?"

The colt looked at him blankly.  Arc tried again.  "Who are you?"

Nothing.  Arc frowned, and glanced over at Forest where she was pulling her detainee up from the ground.  She hauled him over to the trunk, grabbed his legs, and stuffed him inside, slamming the lid closed.

"You drive," she said to Arc.  "I’ll call for a cleanup crew."

Unsure of what else to do, Arc showed the colt to the backseat of the car and got into the driver’s seat.  Despite the kid’s lack of comment so far, he seemed to appreciate the irony of swapping seats with his tormenter.

Forest got in, dialing her cell phone.  Dispatch answered immediately and she explained the situation, ending with, "Pick up the shell casings and do something with the car we’re leaving."

Arc, meanwhile, had gotten the commandeered car moving.  He turned around at the next crossover and headed back down the mountain.  He and Forest had followed their mark nearly all night before finally catching up with him on a stretch of highway in the forest.  There wasn’t much traffic at that hour, but a quick call had gotten the road closed behind them on the excuse of a rock slide.  The last thing that either of them wanted was company to a shootout.

Forest finished her call and glanced over her shoulder.  In a low voice, she asked Arc, "Did you find out who the colt is?"

"Didn’t talk," Arc replied.

Forest turned to the back seat.  "Ni jiao shenme mingzì?"  There was no reply.

"What was that?" Arc asked.

"Chineighese.  I don’t know very much, but it seemed like a good place to start."

Arc nodded.  It made sense; one in five ponies in the world was Chineighese after all.

"Wie heißt du?" Forest tried again.

Arc glanced in the rearview mirror.  The colt looked confused.

"It seems he isn’t Germane either," Forest said.  "I was kind of hoping for that.  I have a lot more experience speaking it."

Arc was tempted to ask how a mare who looked like she was barely old enough for college seemed so worldly, but in this business, he had learned quickly that nearly everypony was something more than what they seemed.

Arc drove silently for nearly an hour.  Despite the clock ticking over midnight into the early morning, the kid in the back seat remained alert.  Arc caught him watching the front seat intently.  He couldn’t blame the colt.

He wanted to do something to comfort the kid, but didn’t know where to start.  He’d only been married for three years with no kids of his own.  Maybe his wife would have an idea.

Roxy was with a team cleaning up a house when Arc, Forest, and the kid arrived.  This was the place where the chase had begun.  The basement contained a scene even uglier than the trunk of the car.

Arc pulled up in the driveway.  The kid had gotten noticeably more tense as they returned to the house.

"Go find out the situation," Forest told Arc.  "I’ll get him cleaned up."

She got the kid out of the car.  There was a hose rolled up at the side of the house and she led him towards it.

Arc went into the house.  He found his wife in the basement with a few others.  Roxy wore a noseclip, and looked thoroughly disgusted with the blood and body matter painted everywhere.  At least none of it was on her sunny yellow coat or feathers.  Spotting Arc brought a smile to her face, although she paused on the way to a hug, remembering her bloodstained sterile clothing.

"One of those nights, huh?" Arc asked, careful not to look anywhere but her face.

"You could say that," Roxy agreed dryly.  She glanced around the room.  "Although this happened probably twenty four hours ago."

"Wolves?" Arc asked.  The previous night had been a full moon.

Roxy nodded, her mouth set in a tight line.  "Maybe just one, although there’s pieces of multiple victims."

She turned back to face Arc.  "How did it go with you?"

"We got him," Arc said.  "He had a kid in the trunk of his car.  Forest is taking care of both of them now."

"Forest Song?" Roxy asked.  "I’ve heard her name before but haven’t met her."

Just then, Forest walked in, a few splashes of water on her coat.  She gestured over her shoulder.  "He didn’t react well to cold water, but he got the point after not too long."

"Who?" Roxy asked.

"The kid I mentioned," said Arc.  "He was locked in the truck with a body."

Roxy’s eyebrows went up.  "I don’t think I can really express how I feel about that without resorting to excessive profanity."

"Where’s Granite the angry wizard when you need him?" Arc quipped.

The two of them shared a much-needed laugh, joined, surprisingly, by Forest.  "That sounds like him," she said.

"You’ve heard of him?" Arc asked.

"Worked with him," Forest clarified.  "Even if I hadn’t, word gets around."

"Speaking of word getting around, I’ve heard of you," Roxy said.  "It’s nice to meet you.  I’m Roxy."

Forest nodded.  "It’s nice to meet you, too.  Your husband has been an absolute gentlecolt helping me out tonight."  She turned to Arc.  "And we’re still not done.  We’ll have to do something with the kidnapper.  I also think we should get the colt something to eat and get him away from this place."

"What’s his name?" Roxy asked.

The three of them paused.  A compatible language or other means of communication still had not been established.

"We’ll think of something," Forest decided.  She smiled her goodbye and left the room.

Arc leaned in and carefully kissed Roxy goodbye without touching anything but her lips.  He followed Forest out of the basement, finding her outside the house tending to the kid.  He was still wet, but wrapped in a blanket.  Cleaned up, he sported a pale blue coat and white mane.

They got him back into the car and set off for a strip mall.  Forest drove.  There weren’t many 24-hour eateries to choose from, but the colt quickly decided for them.  Spotting a familiar fast food joint, he tapped on the window and excitedly blurted, "Hayburger!"

Forest and Arc traded glances and she pulled into the parking lot.

The kid didn’t seem to be able to read the menu, but was overjoyed to receive a hayburger and fries from the drive-through.  He was already chowing through them by the time they got back on the road.

The nearest place to drop off the captive in the trunk was San Palomino and it would take several hours to get there.  The colt had gone to sleep.  Arc was making himself comfortable in the passenger seat.  Forest was focused on the dark road ahead.

"I think this is going to get ugly," she said without preamble.

A statement like that brought Arc to alert.  "What do you mean?"

"That house smelled like wolves," Forest said.

"Roxy seemed to think that a lycan had might have killed several ponies in the basement," Arc said.

"I think that’s likely," Forest said.  "But it smelled like there was more than one night’s worth of blood there.  As if it had happened before."

She tossed her head towards the back seat.  "On top of that, Hayburger here seems to be brand new.  He might have just gone through his first change.  I’d hate to think that body in the trunk was alive when they were locked in there with him."

Arc’s gut turned.  "If that’s unfortunately true, it certainly looks like there could be a lot more to this."

Forest glanced over her shoulder at the colt sleeping in the back seat.  "Only a few times in my life have I ever seen anything like this."

"How frequently is that?" Arc asked, although it was only after he’d said it that he realized he was inadvertently asking her age.

Forest didn’t seem to mind, however.  "Maybe once in fifty years."  Seeing Arc’s surprised look, she grinned.  "Yeah, twenty going on two hundred.  I don’t know my exact birth date but it’s about that.  I was actually born somewhere around here.  My mother’s ponies are from the area."

"I’m from Trottingham," Arc contributed mildly.

Forest nodded.  "Where did you meet your wife?"

"Appleoosa.  We met when I was stationed there."

Forest chuckled at a memory.  "I was there when they built the place.  Although, I guess I could say that about a lot of places.  I’ve been in the employ of the Equestrian Government pretty much since I’ve had a job."

"Military?" Arc asked.

"Mostly.  More tours than I can count."

It made Arc’s one deployment to Camelstan look unimpressive and he decided not to mention it.

The drive took a few more hours and they ended up in San Palomino in the early morning before the sun came up.  Arc had dozed, but roused himself in case he was needed to navigate. Forest appeared familiar with the city, and knew where they were going.  Hayburger was still sleeping in the back seat.

The prison they approached didn’t look like a fortress.  It looked more like a warehouse.  A garage door was open when they arrived and Forest drove inside.  A couple of serious-looking guards stood around to receive the prisoner.  They all seemed to know Forest, and she talked with them briefly before opening the trunk.

The stallion they dragged out looked quite a bit worse for wear after spending a couple of hours in a trunk with a corpse.  No one felt sorry for him.  He would be held and probably interrogated.  Hopefully, he would talk, and hopefully, he knew something useful.

The car wasn’t worth hanging onto.  Arc quietly woke up the kid and the two of them went to get the keys to a loaner sedan with government plates while Forest supervised the criminal transfer.  The colt watched the prisoner being led away, but decided to stay close to Arc.

After signing some paperwork, Forest rejoined the group.  She held up a scrap of paper.  "Our kidnapper is one Rough Trade."

Arc shrugged, but filed it away for later.

The three of them left in the new car.  The next stop was a dormitory-style building that was used for housing lower-risk detainees.  While some of the tenants were held against their will, it was a useful facility to keep safe a young, vulnerable kid.

It was still early, but Market Outlook was already there to meet them.  She looked a little older than Forest, and considering she was a retired valkyrie, probably was.  Being a petite mare with an orange coat and a blue mane, however, didn’t make her quite the pony one expected to be running such a halfway house.

Despite still being relatively new to his job, Arc had quickly learned that looks were often deceiving.  Market gushed over the kid, who, despite the language barrier, seemed to already trust her.

"I’ll take care of him," she promised.

Market seemed to know Forest.  Arc had noticed that just about everypony seemed to.  Apparently she had made a lot of acquaintances in two hundred years.

After they told her about the communication problem, Market offered, "I have a pencil and paper.  Maybe he can write his name."

With a little pointing and pantomime, the colt wrote Tronçon Fidèle.

"Tron-con?" Arc said.

The colt’s eyes rolled up and he clenched his jaw momentarily. "Truhn-suhn," he enunciated carefully.

"Maybe he’s from Prance," Market said.  "I’ll try to find a translator."

After establishing that Tronçon was in good hooves, Forest and Arc left.  "Can I drop you anywhere?" she asked.

"Home," Arc decided.  He gave her directions.

While she drove, he called Roxy.

Being summoned in the evening to travel a few hundred miles to a bloody scene and stay there working until the morning hadn’t thrilled her, as she expressed to Arc when he inquired about how she was doing.

Onto business topics, Arc asked what had been found.  There was a limit to how much it was prudent to say on an unsecured cell phone.  Roxy simply said that they’d found, "Enough."

And it was.  Both in volume and horror.  On the bright side, there was also a significant amount of evidence available.

"Can I come get you?" Arc asked.

Roxy considered it, but they were almost done at the house and it would take hours for him to drive back.  "I’ll get a ride soon."

After the night both of them had experienced, she put a little extra emphasis on "I love you."  So did Arc.

After hanging up the phone, Roxy turned back to the basement.  She’d remembered to remove the plastic booties on her hooves before picking up the phone, and replaced them before going back to work.  The blood on the floor squished a little as she walked over to the two stallions who had come with her.

Proficient Efficient and Carbon Lattice were not crime scene specialists.  Carbon had previously worked with Roxy at a genetics lab.  Proficient was not particularly experienced with the study of biological material, but he was usually cheerful and always a helpful pony to have around.

Carbon was a rather stout pinto.  Proficient was constantly suited, whether at a gala ball or slogging through blood and guts, always wearing the perfect accents to his navy coat and the blonde mane that framed his horn.

Between the three of them working all night, the basement had been well scoured for clues.  With some lab work, Roxy was convinced that they would be able to identify whoever had been there.

She was almost finished packing her kit when her ears twitched at the sound of somepony entering the house and heading for the stairs.  There was no telling who it might be, and all three of them covered their weapons.

The newcomer turned out to be a tall unicorn with fair hair and expensive accessories.  Everything about him seemed well-defined, especially his shoulders and jaw.  He looked like he’d come off a magazine cover.

The sight and stench of the basement hit him almost like a physical blow and he backed up against the wall.  He blinked hard a few times and managed to tear his eyes from the scene and focus on Roxy.  "What happened here?"

“This is a crime scene,” said Roxy.  "Who are you?"

"Rocky Road," he replied absently, looking ill.  She took a few steps towards him.  She could practically smell the anxiety coming off him.  And with the scent, something interesting and familiar.  She’d also noticed it from Forest.

"I’m looking for my cousin," he went on.  "I think she was here."  He paused, and then added, "I don’t think she was here by choice."

A second kidnapping?  This case was looking even more sinister than it already did.

Proficient stepped forward.  "Let me get your information, Mr. Road.  Let’s go upstairs."

"Call me Rocky, please."  He managed to smile, as if he introduced himself that way a lot.  The expression didn’t meet his eyes, though, as he looked around the basement again.  Proficient took him by the shoulder in a friendly gesture and the two of them went up the stairs.

Roxy and Carbon finished cleaning up.  They carried their supplies out of the house.  An expensive foreign car was parked at the curb.

Carbon’s thick eyebrows went up.  "A good-looking guy like that with money like this…why is he out searching for his cousin himself?"

It was a good question.  The two of them left their gear in their modest government vehicle before returning to where Proficient was speaking amiably to Rocky in the kitchen.

Proficient was a smooth talker, so much so that he’d already gotten the cousin’s name and description, and confirmed that both she and Rocky were lycans from the Los Mustangeles area.  It helped that Rocky was desperate, but it was still impressive.  It was always difficult to approach somepony and figure out if they knew about the hidden, supernatural world without in turn revealing too much about it.

"We’re Shades from the San Palomino office," Proficient told him.  "The information you’ve given us could be very helpful in determining what happened here and apprehending the culprits."

"Speaking of Shades," Roxy said, "I understand that you’re worried about your cousin, but why are you here?  This is a job for us, the government."

"I know," said Rocky, "but I couldn’t just do nothing."  He hesitated, and added, "I’m not very well acquainted with the Shades."

"Most ponies aren’t," Proficient allowed.  "It probably doesn’t help that the phone numbers aren’t exactly in the book."

Proficient got up and put his business card on the table.  He held up his notebook.  "I have all your information here.  If you think of anything else that might help, please let us know.  Where will you be if we need to find you?"

Rocky thought for a moment, but then decided, "I’m coming to San Palomino until she’s found."

They couldn’t really tell him no.  Proficient, Carbon, and Roxy got into their car and Rocky into his.

The ride back home was good for discussion.  Proficient drove.  Rocky followed in his own car, but had the good grace to make it seem like he wasn’t.

"So what did we find?" Proficient asked conversationally.

Carbon and Roxy glanced at each other.  She gestured for him to speak and dropped her nose to her phone.

Without her, the conversation went on.  Carbon said, "There were parts of at least two, maybe more, ponies spread around."

"I presume the running theory is a lycan massacre?" Proficient provided.

"I certainly hope not, but yes," Carbon agreed.

"It’s possible that the remains we found were like that before somepony turned a lycan loose," Proficient said, although it sounded like he was only trying to keep possibilities open.

Roxy had been in the middle of texting Arc with a summary of her night.  He replied back with a few things he had learned.  Apparently Forest was almost two hundred years old.  Roxy signed off with I love you and switched to searching the internet for some information.  The first thing she found made her eyebrows go up, "Rocky has his own Ponypedia page."

"What?  Really?" Carbon said, leaning over to look at the screen of her phone.  "Oh, I thought he looked familiar."

"What does he do?" Proficient asked.

"Modeling," Roxy replied.

Carbon hmmed.  "What about the cousin?"

"What was her name again?" Roxy asked.

"Light Switch."

Roxy searched it.  "Nothing obvious.  I’ll have Tammy take a look."

The San Palomino Shade office’s long-suffering IT professional had been asking for somepony to relieve her for months.  Being on call twenty four hours a day to make computers run and also performing in-depth research was terrible for her sleep schedule.  Roxy decided to wait until it was a little later in the morning.

The three of them talked quietly over their findings and had developed a few theories to compare to the evidence when they got back to the lab.  The sun rose and Proficient put on a pair of sunglasses expertly matched to his outfit.  He seemed to have accessories for all occasions.

Then again, so did Carbon.  Roxy knew firsthoof from a few shopping trips.  For her, dressing Arc was a constant struggle, but at least as a military stallion he had the basics down.

Speaking of Arc, he was outside headquarters with a travel mug of coffee in his hoof when Proficient, Carbon, and Roxy arrived.  Roxy still didn’t trust that her hooves were clean and postponed a hug.  Just being close to him was pleasant after the night she’d had.  His clean, masculine scent was so familiar, so...alive.  She shuddered briefly as the remembered stench of blood and suffering.

Arc helped them carry the gear into the building.  After going through security, Roxy hoofed him her bag.  "I’m going to go see Tammy."

Arc nodded and went with Proficient and Carbon.  Roxy turned a different way and found a door marked IT.

Tungsten Tammy was inside, buried behind a neatly arranged mountain of computer equipment that nearly filled the small room.  It was indeed a very large pile in which to hide a minotaur.  Only her horns could be seen over the monitors in front of her.

When she heard the door open, she got up, nearly filling the small room.   "I heard about what happened," she said.  "Sounds terrible."

"It was," Roxy agreed.  She paused and was about to describe it, but decided that neither of them would appreciate that.  "I have a few things to ask you."

She gave Tammy the list of names connected to the case and some of the meager information they’d turned up.  There would be more later, after the lab tests.

"I’ll get to it," Tammy promised.  She turned to go back to her desk, swaying slightly.  Roxy put out a hoof to steady her.  If Tammy fell, it would be a long way down.

"Thanks," Tammy muttered.  "I’m a little tired."

"A little?" Roxy repeated.

"Okay, I’m probably to the point where the dark circles under my eyes are getting to black hole territory," Tammy allowed.

"Still nopony else to help out?" Roxy ventured.

Tammy shrugged.  "I heard they got someone new in the office."

"Even if they didn’t know anything about computers, they could at least help."

"It’s a manticore.  His paws are too big to type."

"They don’t make keyboards that size?"

Tammy waved a hand.  "Well, considering how manticores have a reputation of trying to eat ponies.  You all can be a little passive-aggressive about things like that."

Roxy nodded.  "Makes sense."

She said goodbye to Tammy and went downstairs to the lab.  She passed Granite, a stone-grey unicorn, on the stairs.  He didn’t pause and let her by.  That was partially because he was skinny as a rail and also partially because as a general rule he didn’t care about anything.

"How are you doing today?" she asked.

"Zero fucks," he muttered.

"The usual?"

Granite continued up the stairs without replying.  Roxy went the other direction.

The lab in the basement was fairly well stocked, although it wasn’t specialized.  When Roxy had been employed by a for-profit company, they cared about results and each specialized lab was provided all it needed.  In this government office building, the lab was secondary, and when they needed something that wasn’t on hoof, they occasionally had to go elsewhere.

The recent addition of Roxy and Carbon had been a significant boost to the staff.  The small group of technicians were all that the Shades had in the entire San Palomino region.

To get around staffing, contractors were occasionally employed.  Granite, for example, was a consultant on magic.  However, lab testing could get expensive.  Roxy had only been working out of the basement lab for a few months and had already seen several requests denied for want of funds.

They had the basics well in hoof, at least.  When Roxy came in, Carbon had already hoofed the evidence off to the techs who hadn’t been out all night.  Arc stood nearby, glancing at the various pieces of equipment that occupied the room.

Proficient came in with the San Palomino office director, a mare named Sapphire Shores.  He was already filling her in on the situation.  He finished with, "And that is why a male model is demanding access to the building."

Sapphire, who looked nothing like her namesake, glanced at the rest of them.  Roxy and Carbon nodded in agreement.  Arc looked confused.

"Well, I think you all have this well in hoof," Sapphire said.  "I’ll get our visitor an escort.  It sounds as if he could provide valuable information."

"There’s a male model having an argument with security," said Forest, pointing over her shoulder as she came in.

"Thank you, Ms. Song.  I suppose I should get going," said Sapphire.  "Good work, everypony.  Keep it up."

Roxy started after Sapphire as she left, but paused.  "I meant to ask her about additional funding, but I think I’ll save it for when I’m not exhausted."

The other techs agreed to process what she, Carbon, and Proficient had spent all night collecting, although as the samples were laid out, some of them appeared to realize the mess they were getting into.

Rocky was still at the front desk when they walked through on the way out of the building.  Considering Arc was as much a part of the case as she, Roxy decided to introduce them.

"Rocky, if you have a moment, I’d like to introduce you to my husband, Arc."

Rocky looked up from the forms he was filling out and straightened up.  He had a few inches on Arc and smiled as he extended a hoof.  "Pleasure."

Arc shook with a neutral expression.  "Likewise."

"His cousin Light Switch is missing, and we think she might be connected to the case," Roxy provided.

"Sorry to hear that," Arc said.  "Let us know if there’s anything we can do."

Rocky gestured to the paperwork.  "Maybe check back when I get finished this afternoon."

The three of them shared a polite laugh and parted company.  Arc and Roxy continued out of the building to Arc’s car.  

Arc pulled into traffic.  At the first stoplight, he asked, "Is he really a male model?"

"Yes, actually.  Seems famous, too."

"Where did he come from?"

"Los Mustangeles."  Roxy thought for a moment.  "Maybe Nita and Argyle know him."

Roxy dialed Nita.  At this time of day, she was probably at work, but considering she was the secretary for a private investigator who took cases from the supernatural community, it would probably be okay.

Roxy put the phone on speaker as it picked up.  "It's Roxy."

"Hey there," replied Nita cheerfully.

"Quick question, have you ever heard of Rocky Road?"

Nita paused.  "Is it that time of the month, because-"

"No, a stallion named Rocky Road."

"Oh yeah.  He's part of the Mustangeles pack."

Nita may have lived in Los Mustangeles, but she preferred the company of the lycans in San Palomino.

"His cousin went missing," Roxy said.  "It may be related to something we're working on down here."

"All right.  I'll ask around."

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Roxy said goodbye and hung up.

In another few minutes, Arc and Roxy were home.  The house was a modest one-bedroom in among near-identical suburban dwellings.  After the night both of them had experienced, it was a palace.

Roxy debated food or sleep, and decided she should eat.  Arc was nowhere near the chef Roxy was, but he could crack eggs and toast bread.  He made breakfast for the two of them while Roxy showered.  She made it quick, because her appetite was starting to return after spending the night in that house.

Breakfast was quick but pleasant.  Arc had made enough for seconds.  She gave him a contented smile as she finished the plate.  Arc smiled back and cleared the table.

Roxy got up lazily and came over to the sink, putting an foreleg around Arc.  "I’m going to bed.  Coming with?"

Arc held up a coffee cup with a look of regret.  "Maybe later."

She kissed him on the cheek and went to bed.  Her cat, Dinah, was curled in a ball of fur on the sheets.  Not a replacement for Arc by any means, but welcome company, after the night she'd had.  Roxy slipped beneath the covers and was asleep in minutes.