"I felt the surge of magic that Billy used then—sharp, precise, focused. There was no sense of ritual in what he did, no show gathering of power building to release. He blurred as he moved, and between one breath and the next, Billy-the-naked was gone and Billy-the-Wolf slammed into the assailant, a dark-furred best the size of a Great Dane, fangs slashing at the hand that gripped the forward stock of the shotgun." Chap. 1, p. 9

"I walked past the elevator on my way to the stairs. There was a sign on it that said it was under repair. The elevator hadn't ever been quite the same since a giant scorpion had torn into one of the cars and someone had thrown the elevator up to the top of its chute with a torrent of wind in order to smash the big bug against the roof. The...