"We haven't had a rogue lycanthrope since the squad was formed. Are you sure about this?"
"I'm sure it's a shapeshifter, but I didn't say it was a lycanthrope."
"Explain."
"All lycanthropes are shapeshifters by definition, but not all shapeshifters are lycanthropes. Lycanthropy is a disease that you catch from surviving an attack or getting a bad batch of lycanthropy vaccine."
He looked at me. "You can get it from the vaccine?"
"It happens."
"Good to know," he said. "How can you be a shapeshifter and not a lycanthrope?"
"Most often an inherited condition. The family guardian dog, beast, giant cat. Mostly European. One person a generation has the genes and changes."
"Is that tied to the moon like normal lycanthropy?"
"No. A family guardian comes out when the family needs it. War, or some kind of physical danger. There are swanmanes. They are tied to the moon, but it's still an inherited condition."
"That it?"
"You can be cursed, but that's really rare."
"Why?"
I shrugged. "You've got to find a witch or something with magic powerful enough to curse somebody with shapeshifting. I've read spells for personal shapeshifting. The potions are so full of narcotics that you might believe you were an animal. You might also believe you were the Chrysler building, or you might just die. Real spells for it are a lot more complex and usually require a human sacrifice. A curse is a step up from a spell. It's not really a spell at all."
I tried to think how to explain it. In this area Dolph was the civvie. He didn't know the lingo. "A curse is like the ultimate act of will. You just gather all your power, magic, whatever, and focus it on one person. You will them to be cursed. You always do it in person, so they know it's been done. Some theories think it takes the victim's belief to make a curse work. I'm not sure I buy that."
"Are witches the only people that can curse people?"
"Occasionally somebody will run afoul of a fairy. One of the old Daoine sidhe, but you'd have to be in Europe for that. England, Ireland, parts of Scotland. In this country it'd be a witch."
"So a shapeshifter, but we don't know what kind or even how they got to be a shapeshifter."
"Not from a few marks and tracks, no."
"If you saw the shifter face-to-face could you tell what kind they were?"
"What animal?" I asked.
"Yeah."
"Nope."
"Could you tell if they'd been cursed or if it was a disease?"
"Nope."
He just looked at me. "You're usually better than this."
"I'm better with the dead, Dolph. Give me a vamp or a zombie and I'll tell you their Social Security number. Some of that is natural talent, but a lot of it is practice. I haven't had as much experience with shapeshifters."
"What questions can you answer?"
"Ask and find out," I said.
"You think this is a brand-new shapeshifter?" Dolph asked.