Hero as Werewolf

I just re-read this story. I'm having trouble understanding it. First off, the surface we see can't be true; no post-human "masters" would tolerate the number of deaths implied (20 to 30 masters killed per year per old-style human): we see three humans and hear of others, so the year toll is on the order of hundreds to thousands in the city. The masters are at least as crime-free as we are at our best, so this is a major emergency for them. Consider that 100 murders a year made New York City a by-word for danger. Secondly, there's that odd post-death capability to speak and move that the masters have. Suggestion: the city is a hive, of some kind of social insects. The new masters are from a new queen, or a new kind of insect. The surviving children of the old queen live by consuming the new children. This accounts for both odd features. Or am I just way too literal? The girl's inability to talk is a puzzle the above doesn't address. -John