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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 makinghim 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.
    â€œMaybe 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.
    â€œI 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.”
    â€œSo you’re just gonna go to the police with werewolf stories?”
    â€œWho 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.
    â€œMy 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.”
    â€œWell,” 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.
    â€œMarissa,” 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.
    â€œYou 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
    T hey 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.”
    â€œAny 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 Iunderstand why. They were only safe as long as they were anonymous.”
    â€œWould you recognize