He sank the six ball in a side pocket. "Then why are you here?"
I didn't answer. Instead I threw a set of keys onto the table. They hit the cue ball and knocked it to the side. "These are the spare keys to the Mustang," I said. "I got no use for them, seeing as I don't have the car anymore."
Cedric was not expecting this. He looked at the keys suspiciously, like they might blow up in his face. We both stood there on either side of the pool table, the keys between us.
"Go on, take them," I said. "It's not like they're made of silver."
He scowled at me and slowly came around the table toward me, like a wild animal stalking his prey. Part of me wanted to turn and run, but a bigger part of me wanted to stand my ground.
When he got to me, he sniffed the air around me, once, twice, three times.
"I smell fear," he said with a quiet intensity. "But not nearly enough."
I sniffed the air around him. "I won't tell you what I smell." It was something like a locker room, and something like a zoo. I'm sure he knew it. I'm sure he was even proud of it.
"You should be wetting your pants in terror, Little Red, but you're not." And then he grinned. "You're just full of surprises." He reached out his hand. I thought he was going to hit me, but instead, he leaned over the pool table, scooped up the car keys, and slipped them into his pocket. Then he turned to Loogie. "Bring Red a cue stick, and rack them up for a new game."
Loogie sucked up some snot and did what he was told.
"If you win, I let you live," said Cedric. "If you lose, I get to kill you any which way I like."
"What if I don't want to play?"
He smiled, but it looked more like an animal baring its teeth. "Not an option."
With Cedric's whole pack between me and the door, I didn't have much of a choice. I was a pretty lousy pool player, but I could put on a good show, slamming the balls hard, once in a while sinking them into a pocket I wasn't aiming for. The others watched our game, grunting their approval each time Cedric sank a ball and sneering each time I missed. For a few minutes I let myself get so absorbed in winning that game, I had forgotten why I had come, and what I intended to do.The plan, the plan, I told myself. Even though my life was on the line, I had to get back to the plan.
"My grandma's preparing to hunt you down," I told him.
"Tell me something I don't already know."
"You tell me something first," I said. "Tell me why you let me and my grandma live."
Silence from the whole gang. Cedric only shrugged. "We didn't let you live. Little kids and old women just aren't worth the time it would take to get rid of."
"Yeah, and after we threw you down there, the basement reeked of wolfsbane," said Klutz McGinty, who was about as stupid as he was clumsy. "Ain't no way we was goin' down there after that!" Cedric threw him a look that could have spoiled milk, and Klutz looked down at his oversize feet, shutting up.
"I think you've got a much better reason for letting us live," I said. "A reason that you're not telling anyone."
"And what might that be?"
"Revenge."
Cedric kept his expression cold and hard to read. "Keep talking," he said.
"You could have just taken the money, but you didn't―you took my car as well. When you took my car, you knew I'd come looking for you. You wanted me to find you. You even parked it out on the street to make sure I would."
By now the others had uncrossed their arms, and had moved a little closer, listening intently.
"You wanted me to come," I said, "because you figured you could get me to turn. You could convince me to join the Wolves. And wouldn't that be the ultimate revenge on my grandma? Taking me in, and turning me into . . . one of you."
Looking at Cedric, I couldn't tell whether I had gotten it right. Maybe that had been his plan all along, or maybe not. But one thing was certain―now that I had said it, it was his plan.
Five of my balls were still on the pool table, and Cedric had only two more to sink. He took aim, then suddenly took a completely different aim, and made the only move that would end the game in a single shot. He put the eight ball in a corner pocket. It was an automatic loss.
"You win," Cedric said. "Guess this wasn't your day to die."
"Dang," said Klutz, who just didn't get it. "I thought you'd win for sure, Cedric."
Cedric laid his cue down on the table. "Time for you to leave, Red."
"What if I don't want to?"
"Not an option."
I took a step closer to him. "Oh, I think it is."
Cedric looked at the others, and then back at me, with a grin. "Are you asking to be a Wolf?"
"Everyone knows what an honor it is to be in your gang," I said.
"Answer the question," said Cedric. "Are you . . . asking . . . to be... a Wolf?"
I took a deep breath. "I'm asking to live forever. I'm asking to feel what it's like to be two things at once―man, and animal. I'm asking to be a part of the pack."
"What about your grandma?"
I shrugged. "Her issues aren't mine."
Cedric thought about it and nodded. "Keep it up, Red― you might just get your car back."
I smiled. "I was hoping you might say that." Then I pulled up my sleeve, like I was at the doctor's office getting a shot. "Do it!" I said. "Give me the bite right here, in front of everyone, so they all know I'm one of you."
Cedric put down his cue. "Won't work now," he said. "Only works on the full moon."
I pulled down my sleeve. "Guess I'll just have to wait."
"Fine," Cedric said. "Until then, you'll be a pledge―and if you prove yourself worthy, when the time comes, we'll offer you full membership."
"Fair enough."
"And if I ever think you're not playing straight with me, you're wolfchow."
I nodded. "That's fair, too."
8
Putting Marvin to the test
“You did WHAT?"
If Grandma's hair wasn't already gray, it would have gone that way when I told her that I had confronted Cedric.
"You always said 'keep your friends close, and your enemies closer,'" I reminded her. "Now I'm on the inside."
"I don't know who's more stupid: you, for going to Cedric Soames, or me, for telling you the truth." She wagged a finger at me. "You gotta leave werewolf hunting to the professionals."
"You weren't a professional at first," I reminded her.
Grandma shook her head so hard, I was afraid her teeth might fly out. "I don't want my only grandson to risk getting the bite. No. I forbid it."
"Don't worry, Grandma," I told her. "I know what I'm doing."
She wasn't convinced, and although I wasn't about to admit it, neither was I. See, my performance in the Cave had been the performance of my life, but even then I knew it was only a half lie. As much as I hated the Wolves, there was that restless, impulsive part of me that wanted to know what it was like to change into something fierce: something out of control. Maybe that's what made me so convincing.
"It's brilliant," Marissa said as we sat alone, munching on chips in the antique shop one rainy afternoon. "Scary, but brilliant. Do you think Cedric believes you really want to be a Wolf?"
"I think so."
"Thinking isn't good enough. You have to be sure."
But I knew nothing could be sure. Cedric had no real reason to trust me. Then I thought of something.
"The skull!"
"What about it?"
"Give it to me!"
She looked at me like I was already one of the Wolves. "No."
"Trust me," I said.
She looked at me, not trusting me in the least, then reluctantly she opened a cabinet under the counter. After she looked to make sure no customers were coming in, she pulled out the skull of Xavier Soames and gently set in on the counter. It was a human skull again, but somehow the eye sockets seemed to be watching me. It was smooth and cold to the touch.