Red Rider's Hood

It was true that there had been more warnings about coy­otes over the past year. And now that I thought about it, I remembered my mom always saying that when she was a kid, there were a few years when she couldn't go out at night because of them, especially when the moon was bright, and . . . I gasped as I realized what I was thinking. Not when the moon was bright, but when the moon was full.

'And,' said Marissa, 'what about all those reports about teenagers in our neighborhood running away from home?'

'So, what about it?'

'Think, Red! Those kids didn't run anywhere. Oh, maybe they tried to run, but they didn't get too far. No farther than a wolf's belly.'

'No!'

'Yes! And they don't leave any evidence. Werewolves?they eat their prey, bones and all.' Then she picked up the hideous wolf skull from the table. 'Of course, you don't have to be afraid of old Xavier Soames here?he can't hurt you anymore. Now I just use him as a test. You see, the moment this skull changes from human to wolf, that's the moment they all trans­form. That's how I know you're not one of them.'

I rubbed the back of my head. A knot the size of a walnut had risen there.

'I've been trying to figure out their identities for months now, but the Wolves are very secretive. They don't make their identities known often, and when they do, it's usually the last thing that person sees. Cedric's the only one we know for sure.'

'But I saw some of them!' I said. 'I can identify?' Then something suddenly dawned on me.

She must have seen the way my jaw dropped halfway to the ground. 'What's wrong?'

'Your brother...' I almost didn't tell her, but I knew I had to. It was too serious not to tell.

'My brother what?'

'Your brother's one of them.'

She stepped back from me and looked at me in anger, as if I had slapped her right across the face. 'Don't you say that! Don't even think it! He'd never be one of them! Never!'

'But I saw him!'

'You take it back! You're lying just to get back at me for hit­ting you! You take it back!'

But I shook my head. It hurt my brain to shake it. 'He came to my grandma's house with the rest of them this morning. They stole the money I brought for her. And then they stole my car.'

She sat down in the leather chair, trying to sort it out, try­ing to deny what I was telling her. 'Maybe Cedric's just making him pay back a favor. He does that, you know. Just because Cedric's got my brother jumping through hoops doesn't mean he's one of them. I bet he'll get away, and tell me all about it the second he does.'

I thought about that nasty look on Marvin's face. He sure looked like one of them to me.

'Maybe you're right, and maybe you're wrong,' I told her. 'Either way, it's not safe to be out there now.' I looked at the skull she held. I did not want to see the face of any creature that owned a skull like that.

'I don't get to be safe,' she said. 'Wolf hunters never do. And now that you know, you don't get to be safe, either. We can't do this alone?we're gonna need some help.'

'So you're just gonna go to the police with werewolf stories?'

'Who said anything about the police? Thirty years ago, there were two werewolf hunters who rid the town of the curse the first time. I've been trying to track them down, but they disappeared. Some people say they died along with Xavier Soames, but others say they just went into hiding.'

And then something clicked in my mind.

'My grandmother knew them! She said some old friends taught her to use wolfsbane!'

Marissa's eyes sparkled. 'That's the best lead I've gotten yet! Let's find out what she knows!'

She went to the back door, pushed it open, then hesitated at the threshold. 'The Wolves could be anywhere,' she said. 'Just around the corner, or clear across town. There's no way to know.'

'Well,' I said, 'I guess going to the movies tonight is out, huh?'

She laughed at that. It was good that we could still laugh. Far off I heard something howl to the moon, and although it was a chilling, awful sound, I was relieved that it was so far away.

'Marissa,' I asked, because I simply needed to know, 'what made you think I was a werewolf?'

She looked at me a good long while before she answered. One side of her face was lit by the soft light of the room, and the other side of her face was lit by pale moonlight. My face must have looked the same to her. Half- warm, half-cold.

'You fit the profile, Red. You're restless?a little impulsive, maybe. It made me think there might be a little bit of animal in you.'

I grinned. 'Maybe there is,' I said with a wink. I was just joking, but Marissa didn't laugh.

5 Making mischief

'They lived just around the corner,' Grandma told Marissa and me as she poured us cups of scalding-hot wolfsbane tea. 'When things got bad, they taught us how to brew wolfsbane?strong enough to keep the wolves away, but not strong enough to kill you when you drank it. She spooned a heavy dose of honey into each of our cups. 'There. Try that.'

I stirred and took a sip. It tasted a lot better than the wolfs­bane cigarette had smelled. It tasted like jasmine and mint.

Marissa tried her tea, grimaced, and added more honey. 'What do you remember about them?'

Grandma shrugged. 'They were just a friendly couple. Quiet. You'd never guess they were werewolf hunters. When they finally put Xavier's gang down, they just disappeared.'

'Any pictures of them?' I asked. Photography was Grandma's hobby. No one ever escaped her lens.

She just shook her head sadly. 'They were camera shy. If a camera came out, they made themselves scarce. I suppose I understand why. They were only safe as long as they were anonymous.'

'Would you recognize them if you saw them again?' I asked.

Grandma sighed. 'Thirty years changes people. I can't say I would.'

Marissa stood and began to pace the room. 'If we don't even know what they look like, how can we find them?'

'The medallion,' said Grandma.

'Huh?'

'One of them wore a medallion?very scarred, very old. Bronze, I think it was. Find the medallion, and you'll find them.'

'Yeah, like that's gonna happen,' I said. 'How are we going to track down a medallion?'

I reached to pour myself another cup of tea, but Grandma stopped me.

'Careful,' she said. 'One cup is plenty. As long as it stays in our blood, it should keep the werewolves away.' Then she turned to Marissa. 'Tell me, dear, how did you come by the skull of Xavier Soames?'

Marissa glanced around as if the walls might have ears, then spoke in a low whisper. 'It was my uncle who got it,' she said. 'He's the one who told me about Xavier Soames, and how the Wolves had terrorized the neighborhood. It made him a little bit crazy, I think. For as long as I can remember, he's been very superstitious?carrying rabbit's feet, avoiding ladders, that sort of thing. He taught me all he knew about werewolves. He had read that the best way to keep evil spirits from coming back was to make mischief with their bones.'

'What kind of mischief?' I asked.

'Moving the bones around in the grave, that sort of thing.'

I swallowed hard. Digging up a grave, opening a coffin, and shifting bones was not the kind of mischief I'd ever want to get into.

'My uncle snuck into the graveyard late one night, just before the moon rose, and dug old Xavier up. It had been only a year, but there wasn't much left of him but crusty bones.'