Red Rider's Hood

predator was to cage it or kill it, and I don't think there were any bars in the world strong enough to cage in Cedric and his gang.

If you can't beat them, join them, said a nagging voice in my head. It's what they want. It's what you want. Don't deny it!

I put my hands against my head, trying to press the voice away, but it was too deep in me now. It's out of your hands, the voice said. Let nature take its course. And accept your true nature. You're one of them. You've been one of them since the moment you stepped into Troll Bridge Hollow.

Then, out of nowhere, something huge, hairy, and reeking like a zoo pounced and brought me down hard. I hit my head on the pavement. Massive paws pressed down on my shoulders, pinning me to the ground, and all I could see was a fang-filled mouth set in a wide-open snarl. My whole head could have fit in that mouth.

I knew who this was. I knew from the single gold fang, drip­ping werewolf saliva.

'Which side are you on?' said the familiar voice of a girl, from behind Marvin.

'Marissa! Thank God you're?' The Marvin-wolf snarled in my face. It was a deep, jagged roar?an awful sound, like the voice of a demon. I tried to see where Marissa was, but the Marvin-beast filled my entire view.

'Answer me!' Marissa demanded. 'And if Marvin smells that you're lying, he'll swallow you whole!'

I believed he could. That horrible mouth. Those awful teeth. And I also believed that he could smell a lie.

'I . . . I . . .

Marvin's claws began to dig into my shoulder.

'The truth!' Marissa said.

'I . . . I don't know,' I told her. 'I don't know which side I'm on.' I had no choice but to admit it now.

It wasn't the answer either of them was expecting, but it must have smelled true, because the pressure on my shoulder eased. Marvin backed off of me. Finally I could see Marissa behind him, standing on the cracked sidewalk of the dimly lit street.

'You can't be on two sides at once,' she said. 'Choose, or get out of the way.'

I looked at snarling Marvin, then I looked back to her. 'How about you?' I asked. 'Which side are you on?'

She didn't answer me right away. 'You were right all along about Marvin,' she said. 'He's been a full-fledged Wolf for a month, but I didn't know until last night.' She looked at him lovingly, and gently brushed a thick lock of fur back from his eyes. 'He became a Wolf to save our family.'

'I don't understand.'

'Wolves won't attack other Wolves' families. They're the only ones in town who are safe. So Marvin became one of them. He sacrificed himself to save me and our parents.'

'You weren't off-limits last night.'

She grinned. 'I attacked first. All bets were off. But Marvin here protected me.'

Marvin let out a gentle purr. It had never occurred to me that Marvin might have a reason to be a Wolf beyond his own selfish ambition. Now I understood why he hated me so much.

He had ensured Marissa's safety by becoming a Wolf?the last thing he wanted was to see her dating a Wolf- in-training.

'Marvin turned on the pack last night, by saving me,' she said. 'Now he has no choice but to fight against Cedric, too.' Only then did I see that Marissa held the crossbow to her side.

'Grandma! Where is she? Is she all right?'

Suddenly Marvin turned his head, hearing something I couldn't hear.

'They're coming!' Marissa said. 'Run, Marvin!'

Marvin glared at me?the same glare I'd seen when his eyes were human. Grandma was right; there was something about the eyes that never changed. Then he bounded off with the speed of a cheetah: a brown blur down a dark street, gone in an instant.

Marissa ducked into a doorway, disappearing into the shadows. 'So you were right about Marvin being a werewolf,' she said from the darkness. 'But you were wrong about him being bad.'

The air around us became silent. Too silent, like the moment before a storm. 'Better hide, and hope we're down­wind,' Marissa said.

But I didn't hide. I stood there, out in the open, and watched the wolf pack come around the corner. They were all there, bounding headlong on all fours, like racehorses, with Cedric in the lead and Loogie winging just a few feet above. They saw me right away and came to a halt. I had no idea what they were going to do.

'I know you're after Marvin,' I said. 'With all of you on it, you're sure to catch him.' Yeah, I thought, and with all of you on it, no one else in town will get eaten by werewolves tonight. I won­dered if Marissa had thought of that, too.

Cedric couldn't speak in wolf form, but his body language was easy to read. A quick gesture of his head called me over to him. I stepped from the curb, and then Cedric Soames, the cold, callous leader of the Wolves, knelt down. He wanted me to climb on his back and ride with them. So I did.

Suddenly something grazed past my ear and struck a were­wolf to my right. A roar of pain, the wolf turned, and I could see sudden shock and agony in its green eyes. A/C has green eyes, I thought. That wolf is A/C! Suddenly he collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain. A silver- tipped crossbow arrow had pierced his flank.

A second arrow whizzed out of the darkness, nailing a mail­box across the street. Cedric roared and took off. I gripped his fur to keep from falling. The rest of the wolves followed, and before long we were racing at full speed, ignoring the shooter, following Marvin's scent instead of Marissa's. I turned back only once to see A/C roar, squirm in pain, then go limp.

Which side was I on? There was no time to search for answers. All I could do now was ride on a werewolf's back, toward a destiny as hidden as the dark side of a full moon.

19 A gut full of stones

Marvin stayed one step ahead of us, weaving in and out of the city for what seemed like hours. Several times the pack broke up and tried to circle around him, but just as he had weaved his way down the football field when he was Marvelous Marvin, star running back, he kept just out of the pack's reach. This chase was a waste of the pack's time. I knew it, and most of the pack must have known it, but I wasn't going to lean over and whisper into Cedric's ear. Every minute the pack was forced to follow Marvin was another minute they weren't 'wolfing.' Whether he intended to or not, Marvin Flowers saved a whole lot of lives that night.

As I rode Cedric, like the lead man in a posse, I began to feel a strange sense of power. You could lead this group, that mischie­vous voice in my head kept telling me. Consigliere? Sure, maybe for a while, but then there was Denver. I had already claimed the Mile High City as my own. In a few years' time, I could be there, handpicking my own pack. This night's wild ride through the moonlit city was just a taste of what it could be like. Then I looked up at Loogie, flitting back and forth above us. The possibilities were endless.

As dawn approached, it seemed that Marvin was finally get­ting tired. The pack wasn't just following his scent anymore, now they could see him. Even I, with my limited human vision, could see him loping steadily in front of us, crossing through the mist of a lonely, run-down park. I recognized it right away. It was Abject End Park, gateway to the Canyons. Marvin was leading us back to our new lair. Maybe he knew it was over for him, and he wanted to end it there. Or maybe he had some­thing else in mind.

We reached the old dance club. The dense mist of the Canyons poured in through the door. Cedric stalked in first with the pack close behind. I hopped off Cedric's back. There was something wrong in here, but I wasn't quite sure what it was. It was something I had caught out of the corner of my eye, but I hadn't seen it long enough for it to leave an impres­sion on my brain.