He flinched away from me, then stood his ground. “You saved us, Gruff,” he said in a shaky voice. “Thank you.”
“Gruff?!” Kim had come up behind Paul. She stared at me in shock and disgust. “That monster can’t be Gruff.”
“Yes, Kim,” Paul said calmly. “He saved us. And now we have to save him.”
I looked at Paul in surprise.
“The people,” said Paul, looking nervously over his shoulder back at the pool. People were starting to climb out as the howls of the werewolves grew fainter in the distance. “They were too scared to see what really happened. All they know is monsters tried to get them, and you look like one of the—uh—monsters. When they get their courage back, they’ll come after you.”
Paul was right. Already I heard grumbling and angry shouts coming from the crowd of people climbing out of the pool.
“There’s one that didn’t get away,” a man yelled.
“Let’s get him!” shouted another.
Paul plucked at my arm. “Come on, Gruff, we’d better hurry.” He looked at the limp werewolf on the floor. “Is that a friend of yours?” he asked worriedly. “It may slow you down too much if you have to carry him.”
Suddenly Kim gasped. She sank to her knees beside the injured werewolf. “Daddy!” she cried. “Daddy!”
The blood drained out of Paul’s face. He stared at me. “Is it true?” he whispered hoarsely.
I nodded. Behind us the crowd of people were getting louder. Some had found a pile of lumber and were arming themselves with heavy chunks of wood. “We’ll teach those creatures,” they grumbled. “We’ll teach them to attack our town.”
Quickly I tossed Mr. Parker over my shoulder. I held out my arm. Kim hesitated a second then jumped up and clung to my shoulder. Paul leaped up beside her. The crowd roared. People screamed at me to let them go.
“It’s all right!” Paul shouted. “He helped us. He won’t hurt us.”
But the people were shouting for blood. They couldn’t hear him. I ran out the door, the crowd close on my heels.
Chapter 48
I staggered into the backyard of the Parker house and collapsed on the ground. We’d left the angry crowd of people behind but it hadn’t been easy.
Paul hurried to unlock the door. The three of us carried Mr. Parker inside. “What will we do with him?” asked Kim in a trembling voice. “Will he ever be human again?”
I’d had an idea working in my head as we ran back to the house. I didn’t know how dangerous it was or even if it would work, but we had to try it. I’d managed to keep the werewolf book with me through everything and now I put it on the table and again opened it to the “Rules of The Wereing.”
“You know what to do?” asked Paul eagerly, stepping up to look.
I jabbed my claw at one of the rules. “A werewolf cannot tolerate anything silver,” it said.
“Silver,” mused Kim.
“Silver?” asked Paul. “But what will that do?”
“I get it!” cried Kim. She ran to the dining room and came back with a silver tray and two candlesticks. She dumped them on the floor. “You check the bedrooms, Paul. Get anything silver—picture frames, necklaces, anything!”
Kim hurried out of the room.
Mr. Parker was breathing normally now. I didn’t think he would be unconscious much longer. There was no time to lose. I leaped up the stairs at one bound, going all the way to the attic. I’d seen a trunk there once when Paul was showing me around. It was full of old toys Mrs. Parker couldn’t bear to throw away.
I dumped the toys out and hauled the big trunk back downstairs to the living room. What would happen if this didn’t work? I’d seen the Parker werewolf try to save Kim but I’d also seen him bite another human. And in the end he had tried to escape into the woods with the werewolves.
If we couldn’t cure Mr. Parker—the dad werewolf—I was afraid of what he might do to his own family when he woke up.
Chapter 49
I opened the lid of the trunk and gestured at Kim and Paul. Nodding, they dumped all the silver they could find into the trunk—knives and forks, neck chains, pitchers, candlesticks, everything.
Being near so much silver was hard for me. My muscles began to ache and cramp. Shooting pains stabbed my arms and legs. I grew too weak to lift Mr. Parker by myself.
But once I made Kim and Paul understand what we had to do, they took his legs, I took his arms and we put him into the trunk with the silver.
Instantly, the Parker werewolf came awake.
“RRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRR!”
It bellowed in shock. The werewolf grabbed the sides of the trunk to heave itself out, its eyes blazing. I grabbed the lid of the trunk and banged it down, jumping on top of it. I motioned to Kim and Paul to quick lock the trunk.
But the werewolf reared up, roaring, and bumped me off the lid. As I tumbled to the floor it hissed at Kim and Paul. Patches of its coarse gray fur flew through the air. It had one leg out of the trunk when I reached up and pushed the lid hard, sending it crashing down on the werewolf’s head.
It whirled, swiping at me and baring its fangs. The sudden movement threw it off balance and as the werewolf tried to spring out of the box, it slipped on all the silver inside and fell heavily. I pounced, wrestling it back into the trunk.
Pain sapped the strength from my limbs everywhere I touched a piece of silver. Strange sour-smelling smoke rose from the Parker werewolf. It tried to push me off its chest but its muscles were weakening. I pulled myself up. Paul grabbed my shoulders and he and Kim dragged me out of the trunk.
Again I climbed on the lid. This time I collapsed on top of it, my
