"I don't doubt it," she smiles very slightly as she says it. "And maybe that's enough."

There's a moment's pause as she considers leaving it at that. She doesn't owe a random shifter she met in the underground any advice or encouragement. The best thing she could do for him was probably to tell him his father was right.

But instead, she says, "You know, the thing about food chains is that with enough luck and planning, some animals can change the order. A man on his own can't beat a bear or a wolf. Give a man a gun, and suddenly he moves to the top of the chain."

And give a hunter a clear eye line and a medieval weapon and he could kill a centuries old vampire. Where you are on the food chain was what you made of it more often than not.