Red Rider's Hood

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.

"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 wolfen form in a heap on the ground, moaning. His fur was already growing shorter. His snout pushed in to become a human jaw. The mist around us was glowing a brighter blue with each passing sec­ond. Dawn had arrived.

In a moment Cedric's transformation was complete. He was in human form again, and the bites from the vampire bats cov­ered his body like measles. He gasped over and over again, like he couldn't get enough air. His eyes rolled in his head. I went over to him, kneeling down.

"No blood!" he said. "No blood! Bobby Tanaka! No blood!"

They had drained his blood, and there was nothing I could do. I took off my jacket and covered him, and Marissa, for all her hatred of him, took off hers as well. I rolled it up and put it behind his head as a pillow.

"Horrible!" he gasped. "Pain." He clutched his gut. "Like stones in my stomach."

I couldn't imagine the feeling. "It's okay," I said. "It's okay." But I knew it wasn't. It would never be okay.

Cedric tried to hold back his pain and looked at me with anguish in his eyes. "Why?" he said. "Why did you? Why did you, Red?"

"You said werewolves were a part of nature," I told him. "And maybe you're right. But it's also part of nature for humans to protect themselves. That's why, Cedric."

He closed his eyes, either from the pain of the vampire bites, or maybe from the pain of my betrayal. Then he opened them again. "Mother Nature's a tough old witch," Cedric gasped out. "Like your grandma."

I could feel his heart beating, but with nothing to pump, it just pounded against itself.

"Finish it," Cedric said. "Please, finish it."

I knew what he wanted, but the silver had all been spent. No more arrows, nothing. And then I realized that there was some silver left. Keep it close to your heart, Mom had told me. I did, and I guess it protected me. I reached into my shirt and pulled out the little coin with the image of Saint Gabriel. I took it from around my neck and gently lifted Cedric's hand. There were bat bites all over his palm, little bloodless wounds. I took the coin and pressed it into his palm, closing his fingers around it.

"I hope this pays the fare, Cedric," I said gently, "to wher­ever you're going."

He gripped the coin tightly, making sure the silver touched the open wounds on his hands, and he closed his eyes. He shuddered once, shuddered again, and then he was gone.

I stared at him long after he was dead, and when I finally looked up, a beautiful girl in a flowing black gown stood before me.

"Hello, Red. Sorry it had to end like this, but what kind of babysitter would I be if I let Cedric get you?"

Grandma and Marissa came up behind me. "Who in blazes is that?" Grandma asked.

"Rowena," I told her. "Queen of the Crypts."

Out of the mist behind her stepped Loogie, in human form. Well, sort of human, considering his recent undead status.

"We missed one!" said Grandma.

Rowena put up her hand. "Don't worry about him," she said gently. "He's one of us now. We'll keep him out of trouble."

Loogie looked at Cedric's body and lowered his head in respect.

"Go home," Rowena told us. "My girls will clean up the mess."

"We have to count the bodies," I told her. "To make sure we got them all."

Then Rowena came over to me and whispered into my ear. "You'll never get them all," she said. "They're werewolves, and no matter how many you kill, there will always be one more."

The thought made me shiver, but I knew it was true. Grandma got all of Xavier's gang, and still the wolves came back. Even if we got all of Cedric's, it didn't mean we were safe forever.

"The Wolves all had families," Rowena reminded me. "They won't take kindly to what happened here tonight―and who knows if there's a baby brother or sister who took the bite. So my advice to you, Red, is to fix that car of yours, and make sure it's faster than anyone can run―man, or wolf."

She backed away. I nodded to her in understanding, then she and Loogie turned into bats and flew deep into the Canyons.

"Hmm," said Grandma. "Vampires, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Somebody else's problem." She turned and walked away.

I took one more look at Cedric, the immortal leader of the pack, not so immortal after all. Then Marissa gently grabbed my arm, to lead me away. As dawn broke over the city, we walked out of that dismal place, across Abject End Park, and headed for home.