Red Rider's Hood

to get a lock of his hair (you don't want to know).

On the night when the moon had slimmed to a dying cres­cent in the sky, Cedric took the gang up to the roof of his apart­ment building, to get away from the heat and humidity that fell on the city like a hot, sopping rag. There was something the others didn't like about going up there. I could tell from the moment Cedric kicked open the door to the roof.

There were a bunch of chairs thrown around up there, still wet from an afternoon rain. In a corner was an old, rusty weight set, and I almost laughed at the thought that werewolves needed to pump iron. Rather than moving into standard hang poses, the Wolves just waited at the door. Loogie coughed up a wad and spat it, hitting Klutz's shoe. They fought about it until Cedric shouted at them, and they stopped.

I didn't like this. I didn't like the way they were all acting, like they were scared of something up here. Just then Cedric came up behind me and kicked me to the ground.

'Ow!' I scraped my arm on the gritty tar paper of the roof.

'The Wolverine's gotta toughen himself up,' Cedric said. I tried to get up, and he put a foot on my chest, pushing me down again.

'You want my help, stop treating me like an animal.'

'We're the animals,' he said. 'But you haven't earned your fangs yet.'

I got up and readied myself for the next blow. 'So I gotta let you beat me up? That's how I earn my fangs?'

A/C came forward. 'The pack leader's gotta show his dom­inance,' he said. 'The way of the wild is our way, too.'

'He fought us all up here,' said Marvin, smiling like he couldn't wait to see me beaten to a pulp.

Cedric spun and did a roundhouse kick, smashing me in the side of the head. It would have been more lethal if he actually knew karate, but even so, it was pretty painful. It knocked me to my knees, but I got right back up. He tried it again, but this time I caught his leg and pushed him back.

The other Wolves backed away. The Wolf everyone called El Toro came up to me and whispered, 'Don't fight back. Just take it.'

Sorry, but that just wasn't the way I was made.

Cedric lunged at me. I stepped aside and threw my fist into his gut. It hurt him, because he wasn't ready, but he tried not to show it. He punched me in the stomach twice as hard, then grabbed me before I could double over from the pain. He lifted me off the ground, and before I knew it, I couldn't see ground beneath me at all?just air. He was holding me by the front of my shirt out over the edge of the fifteen-story roof. I couldn't see his eyes in the dim rooftop light, but I could hear his fury. It came in snarling breaths.

'You hit me!' he growled. 'After all I've done for you, you hit me!'

'Self-defense,' I said. I tried to squirm out of his grip, and then I realized how stupid that would be?if he lost his grip, I'd fall to my death. The panic was welling up inside of me like a bad school lunch. I tried to speak again, but only a pitiful squeak came out.

'Cedric, don't!' yelled A/C. 'He's not a Wolf yet! He'll die!'

A sneaker slipped from my foot, but I never heard it hit the ground, because the ground was so far away. I could still hear the wild snarl in Cedric's voice. 'Do you know what happens when one of us falls from this roof?'

'What?' I squeaked out, figuring that if he keeps talking, he's not dropping.

'I knocked Loogie off a few weeks ago,' Cedric said. 'Accident.'

Yeah, right, I thought. Like Hiroshima was an accident. It seemed to me Cedric liked to use Loogie for experiments, like seeing what would happen if a werewolf fell off a roof.

'He landed flat on his back, got broken up real bad.'

'Yeah,' said Klutz. 'It turned him into a sidewalk Loogie.'

That started Klutz and Loogie fighting again.

'It sure did hurt, but he healed in a few days,' Cedric said. 'Werewolves do. But you won't.'

'Drop me, and you lose your edge on the hunters,' I told him.

'Beg,' he demanded. 'Beg me not to kill you.'

I flashed to the time he had choked me, and I gave up Grandma's money to save myself. Money's one thing, but self-respect is another. I don't beg. Not even for my life. So I whis­pered so only Cedric could hear, 'I think you showed enough dominance.'

I thought he'd either drop me or throw me back onto the roof. Instead, he set me gently back on my feet. His rage had passed like a summer thunderhead, all rained out before you could find an umbrella.

'Good for you, Wolverine,' he said. 'You're one step closer.'

'He didn't bleed! He didn't bruise!' Marvin complained. 'Not even a black eye!'

'You got a problem?' yelled Cedric. 'Maybe you want to take a flying leap today?'

That shut Marvin up. The other Wolves came up around me, to congratulate me for passing Cedric's test?I guess the only rule for passing is that you survive. They patted me on the back, they gave me the secret handshake. It took the edge off the anger I felt toward Cedric. In fact, in spite of what I had just been through, I felt an odd sense of accomplishment. A sense of pride.

But I'm just pretending to be one of them, aren't I? Aren't I?

Still, I didn't tell Grandma or Marissa about what happened on that roof.

I didn't see much of Marissa during my first two weeks as a Wolf pledge because Cedric kept me so busy. I went to the antique shop when I could, but the owner was there most of the time, or there were customers, so Marissa and I couldn't really talk. We did get to sit and eat hot dogs one evening on the end of a pier. We had to meet there because it was the only place I knew I could go where a spying Wolf couldn't get close enough to listen.

'Your grandma is teaching me all the stuff you're not getting to learn,' Marissa told me. She took another bite of her dog and spoke with her mouth full. I can respect a girl who talks with her mouth full. 'Even if you don't know something, I will, so by the time the moon gets full again, we'll be ready.'

'Like what stuff is she teaching you?' I was a bit jealous that she got to spend more time with Grandma than me.

'You know,' she said, like it was nothing. 'How to track supernatural beasts with an ectoplasmic lens, how to slow their transformations with eye of newt and baking soda. Those kinds of things.'

'Oh.'

'Tell me everything you've learned!' Marissa said. But I shook my head. 'Nothing important. Nothing we'll need.' She now knew ancient secrets from mysterious werewolf hunters of the past. So I would have some secrets, too.

'Enough of that,' I said. 'Let's talk about something else.'

'What else is there to talk about?'

'Anything but werewolves,' I said. And so we talked about the upcoming year at school, movies we wanted to see, music that made you want to dance, and anything that came to mind.

Spending time with Marissa, even though it was only half an hour or so, made everything feel normal just for a while. The fresh river air seemed to blow away all thoughts of dark and unnatural things. But when we left the pier, she went one way, I went another, and there I was again, in the shadows of build­ings, facing the hard concrete reality of Wolves that hid within human flesh.

Tonight would be the new moon, the darkest night of July. Only the stars would peer down from the sky above, so hard to see in the city. It was less than two weeks until the moon would be full again, but I was wasting my time with Marissa, talking about silly things instead of plotting werewolf doom.

I took a shortcut, leaving the relative safety of the busy streets, and turned down an alley full of Dumpsters and deep shadows. It was the kind of place where you find police chalk outlines in the morning. It wasn't too smart of me to walk down that way, but I've always been a little too bold for my own good. My mom would call it foolhardy. Grandma would call it just plain dumb.

Maybe it was just that I felt kind of safe now, being a pledge to the Wolves. Lately, when I got the feeling I was being stalked, I knew it was one of them, tailing me on Cedric's orders. Oddly enough, it gave me a feeling of security, because I was in with them now, and if some thugs ever did actually jump me, I had the distinct feeling