Eliott King's sister is dead, and so are her boyfriend and her best friend, found dead in a river, blood leaking from all over. Then more people start showing up in the river dead, and something is seriously wrong - seriously, seriously wrong.
Most of the town turns immediately to blaming a serial killer, pointing fingers at the neighbors they hate and the ones that hate them, or some freak animal, blaming the same neighbors' dogs and saying they have rabies. But Eliott's grandmother doesn't think so, and neither does Ezra Terrell, the unbearably cute kid next door, and neither does Mei Xiao, the recent transplant from China.
The four try to find out what is behind these deaths, but in doing so, they stir up old conflicts that run deeply in Troy, Vermont - conflicts that could kill them and everything and everyone they care about and love.
With a new name and new life, Nathan must learn to fit in at an Academy of the Feral Investigation Bureau, or risk being sent back to prison.
*****
Escaping prison was only the beginning for inmate C41. Now on the run and going by Nathan, he's enrolled in an American Academy for training agents and joins the Feral Investigation Bureau, charged with hunting down criminals and sending them to the same place he just escaped. But after learning how blurred the distinction is between feral and non-feral, Nathan is forced to flee with his sister and his boyfriend, only to discover their safe house hides a secret that might cost Nathan his freedom.
Content and/or Trigger Warning: sex and violence. [Note: failed suicide attempt]
[[word count: 70,000-80,000 words]]