Red Rider's Hood

'Marvin, we know you're in here,' I said. Cedric growled in a fury. I put up my hand to calm him down. 'Let me handle this for you,' I told Cedric. 'I promise you won't be disap­pointed.'

Cedric snarled at me again, then watched to see what I would do. The whole pack kept their eyes on me as I stepped out into the middle of the old dance floor. I had to be referee here. Maybe, if I played this right, everyone could get what they wanted. But then, how could that be, when all Cedric wanted was to see Marvin dead?

'Let's make a deal, Marvin.' I had no idea what the deal could possibly be, but I knew if I kept talking, it would keep Cedric and the pack from tearing the place apart looking for Marvin so they could tear him apart. 'A deal, Marvin. A really good deal.' Why I wanted to save Marvin, I had no idea. He had done nothing but make life miserable for me since that day he washed my windshield. 'Cedric and the pack will let you live, in return for something,' I said.

Cedric's eyes narrowed, and he bared his teeth at me. This had better be good, the look said.

'Something in return,' I said again, stalling. And then it came to me! 'Cedric will let you live . . . but someday, he will ask you to do a favor for him. And whatever that favor is, you can't refuse.' I glanced to Cedric, and that angry wolf gaze changed into a coyote grin, because what I offered Marvin had come straight out of one of Cedric's beloved Mafia movies!

We waited, and after a few moments Marvin came slinking out of the shadows, onto the dance floor. The pack surrounded him, and Cedric went back to growling, just in case Marvin had forgotten how furious he was.

Then the feeling fell upon me again. Something here didn't look right. As the pack formed a growling circle around Mar­vin, and as Marvin crouched and crawled on his belly like a naughty dog, I tried to retrace all the things I had seen over the past few seconds that could have given me that freaky feeling. I glanced at the door: still partway open, with mist spilling in. I looked down to the dance floor, now scuffed and scratched by werewolf claws. I lifted my eyes up to the old disco ball, swing­ing slightly up above, all sharp and pointy.

Sharp and pointy?

I glanced up again. That was no disco ball! I wasn't quite sure what it was at first. It looked like a ball of gray clay, with silverware sticking out of it in all directions. Forks, knives, spoons. Silver ware.

Then I realized that the ball of clay in the middle might not be clay at all. It might just be plastic explosive.

A wire stretched from the little ball across the ceiling to a far wall. Leaving the dance floor, I followed the path of the wire to an old DJ booth, where I saw none other than my own little old grandma, dressed in black like a special-ops agent, clutching a detonator.

She snapped her head to see me at the threshold, and her jaw dropped. She was scared. Scared of me?scared that I would give her away to the wolves. I turned to look at them. They were all on the dance floor, going up to Marvin, one by one swatting him with their paws, like some sort of wolfen punishment ritual.

Grandma, her hand shaking, lowered a finger toward the red button on the detonator. But I grabbed her hand before she could touch it.

'You'll have to kill me to stop me, Red,' she whispered. 'Because it's either me, or them.'

Still I held her hand. 'No, Grandma, no. Not this way!'

'What way, then? There's only one way with werewolves: kill or be killed.'

'No,' I said. 'Let me think!'

I turned again to the wolves. They were so wrapped up in their punishment of Marvin, they had no idea that death hung right above their heads. Marvin was in on this! He had to be. He was sent racing through the city all night to keep the wolves busy while Grandma, and Marissa, set up the deadly silverware bomb.

'Let me think, Grandma!' Fourteen Wolves remained today. Fifteen if I took the bite. Packs would be sprouting up in one city, then another, then another. Including Denver. I pulled the detonator from her.

'Red, no!'

I could be a leader. I could rule a city by night.

'Do the right thing, Red.'

I could fly on the wings of a bat?undying and undead at the same time!

'There's only one right thing! You know it in your heart!'

My life and my future hinged on the choice that I made. I knew what I should do, I knew what I wanted to do. . . .

'No more thinking, Red. Choose!'

I could have a life as a supernatural creature of the dark. It was a fine fantasy, except for one thing. Werewolves were mer­ciless killers that lived on human flesh.

'Choose now!'

I screamed with the agony of my choice and brought my fin­ger down on the red button.

The explosion blew out the glass of the DJ booth. It blew the chairs and tables across the room. Forks, knives, and even spoons were embedded half an inch deep into the walls, and when I looked at the dance floor, I saw a dozen wolves dancing. They spun, they rolled, they howled, pulling the silverware out of their wounds, but it would do no good. It was too late, the deadly silver had already worked its way through their veins. Wounded and wailing, they spun, they crawled, they shivered, and they died. My enemies. My friends. The wolves died, and my tears stung so badly, I wanted to rip my eyes right out of their sockets. How dare I cry for them? How dare I care enough to cry?

Two more wolves came bounding out from beneath tables. Two that hadn't been caught by the explosion of silverware, and then there was Loogie, flapping wildly across the rafters above, not sure what to do, turning to wolf, to bat, and back to wolf again. Marissa popped out behind a pole, a quiver of silver- tipped arrows at her side. She loaded them into the crossbow.

'Over there,' I said through my tears. 'By the back door!'

Marissa turned and fired, her arrow lodging in Klutz's flank. He fell and wailed as the silver did its deadly damage.

'The window!' El Toro leaped out the window, and Marissa and I followed right behind. He was already disappearing into the mist.

'I can't see him,' said Marissa.

'I can!' I took the crossbow from her, took aim at the fad­ing figure, and fired. I couldn't see him anymore, but the wail and the thud as he fell to the ground told me all I needed to know. In a moment, all was silent. A dim blue light had begun to fill the darkness. The coming dawn.

'What about Marvin?' I asked Marissa.

She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. 'He went onto that dance floor to draw the wolves there. He sacrificed himself to save me.'

'I'm sorry.'

'Red?look!' I turned to see the mist before us begin to swirl, and a snout appeared, followed by a pair of eyes that were accusing, and angrier than I had ever seen them before.

It was Cedric.

I raised the crossbow. 'Run!' I said to Marissa.

'No,' she said. 'We'll face him together.'

Cedric stood there, breathing his anger in short, ferocious breaths. I put my finger on the trigger. I began to pull back . .. and then I stopped.

Cedric didn't attack. He didn't lunge for me; he just stood there. He was daring me.

Kill me, you coward, that look said. Kill me, you traitor. You liar. You double-crossing false friend. Shoot me between the eyes. I dare you.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't pull that trigger. And he knew it.

That's when he lunged, his mouth wide, teeth bared. Marissa screamed, tugging me back. I pulled the trigger, but the arrow flew uselessly up to the sky?and suddenly I was sur­rounded in a flutter of black.

Wings brushed passed me, dozens upon dozens, heading straight for Cedric. Cedric roared, and in a second he had for­gotten about me, because he was covered by countless bats, every one of them digging their fangs into his wolf flesh, suck­ing deep, draining.

They were done in less than a minute. Then they fluttered away as quickly as they had come, leaving Cedric's