"Well, we'll get clothes before being seen, yeah," he said, wryly.  "Just not our clothes, because they have our smell.  We'll steal something along the way.  And<i>no shapeshifting</i>.  Not even a little.  There's only so much that can be masked."<br/><br/>He wasn't particularly worried.  It seemed like an easy job.  Either they'd get her parents, or they wouldn't, and either way he had someone with him who knew the area.  The first scouting mission was always the most challenging - there was just so much that he didn't know.  A local guide simplified things, though he didn't trust Vara even a little.  She had spent her whole life with the vampire, and vampires often used powerful psychic compulsions to condition their servants.  Even if she wasn't lying about taking him in and out (and there was good reason to think she was lying), it was possible that her mind would betray her regardless of her feelings on the subject.  There was no way for him to tell how deep Blackvayne's hooks were in her soul.  It was possible she had no idea, either.<br/><br/>The other thing he heard was her saying there were<i>thousands </i>of humans living there.  The local pack would not like hearing that - some wanted to kill every last human, to wipe them out, even if it meant destroying werewolf-kind in the end.  The witches were noncommittal about it, seeing reasons to kill them all, but also to save them.  Witches and wolves alike agreed that human numbers should be kept small, though.  Thousands were too many.  If that became common knowledge, the werewolves would lead a great slaughter.  He opted to keep quiet about that little knowledge.  Vara might think that humans had some right to live.  It was not an attitude shared by anyone around there, including Geraint.<br/><br/>"We'll go the way you suggest.  You're the expert," he told her.