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Prince, I was facing the werewolf version of the entire cast of Revenge of the Nerds rolled into one. And sure enough, he was in the waiting room, at full alert. And, also sure enough, so were Ken and Jack. My ex, my hoped for, and my never gonna happen, all together in one small space. Sometimes my unlife was too good to be true.
    Maurice and Amanda were there, too, and Monty and Rover. They all looked worried.
    “I wasn’t hurt all that badly,” I said as Rover undulated over for pets and scritchies. As beings with no limbs, white worms unlived for the gentle scratching. I had Rover rolling around in wormy ecstasy in no time.
    “Yes, we know,” Ken said briskly. “We have a new problem.”
    I picked Rover up and let him drape over me. This earned me a happy smile from Monty and a glare from Ralph. Jack, thankfully, didn’t look grossed out. He looked like Ken -- worried.
    “Human, undead or otherworldly?” I asked while I scratched Rover under his chin and he gave me the white worm version of a love hug. Fortunately, Monty had him well trained, so no ribs cracked and I didn’t have trouble breathing.
    “We don’t know,” Ken said.
    “We got things squared away at the scene of the crime,” Jack added. “But….”
    “But?”
    Monty sighed. “But despite our cleanup efforts, there’s a residue that shouldn’t be there.”
    “Aura, deposit, signature, impression, what?”
    “Aura, as best we could tell,” Ken said.
    “ I couldn’t see it,” Jack said. “But I could feel it. It felt evil,” he added.
    “That makes sense.” I wasn’t looking directly at Ralph, but I could see him out of the corner of my eye. His tail was practically wagging itself off his body. I heaved a sigh. “This sounds like a job for us werewolves.”
    I knew I didn’t sound enthusiastic, but you’d never have been able to tell from Ralph’s reaction. He was practically bounding around the room with joy. “Vic and I will go check out the scene and report back.”
    Maurice snorted, big time. “As if.”
    “This is a werewolf job,” Ralph snarled.
    “And under chapter three, section twenty-two, paragraph fifteen of the Enforcement Codebook, no agent will go to investigate any source likely to be attached to the Prince without at least two other agents of different species.” Ken could quote the Codebook verbatim and from memory. The reason none of us hated him for it was because he only did it in cases like this.
    “That means you need a vampire and a lich along,” Maurice translated snidely. “Or a zombie, but, since we don’t have one handy, you’re stuck with us. And, since we’re so dedicated to the cause and there are two of you, you luck out and get three vampires, an extremely experienced lich, a white worm and, if I’m any judge, a human along for the ride. Aren’t you lucky ?”
    Ralph growled. “We don’t need any of you along. A werewolf pack together can never be defeated.”
    “Um, right, Ralph.” I did not want to get into this subject with him here and now. Never, really. Ralph and I didn’t see nose-to-nose on this one, and I doubted we ever would. “However, since I’m the agent in charge of this case, I say who goes along. And considering what came out of there almost kicked all of our butts and then some, I want everyone named already with us. And, if we cross any zombies, succubae, witches, warlocks, altar-demons, fairies, mummies, skellies, hellhounds, daemon cats, or any other undead species on active duty, I want them along, too.”
    “As far as anyone’s ever heard,” Maurice added, “two does not a pack make.”
    Ralph grumbled and growled, but I ignored him and strode out of the waiting room. Happily Amanda caught up to me before I had to stop and ask which way was out. Overachieving sense of smell or not, hospitals messed with me big time.
    “Jack’s taking this really well,” she murmured to me as we walked briskly to the moving sidewalk that would take us from the