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leather jacket. I tried to get a glimpse of his face, but his visor was as dark as the motorcycle. Still, I could tell he was looking straight at me. This hadn’t been an accident.
    â€œI’ve been looking for you,” I said, picking myself off the ground. “The Wolves are back. We need your help.”
    He didn’t respond right away. He just stood there, sizing me up. And then a harsh whisper came from beneath his visor.
    â€œStay out of this!”
    Then he gunned the Harley and disappeared down Bleakwood as quickly as he had come.

6

Wicked as a Wolf
    I t’s all for the best, I suppose.” Grandma had me sitting up on the dining-room table as she tended to my palms and knees. The stinging antiseptic solutions smelled worse than wolfsbane. It made me wonder what evil doctor decided that if it hurts it must be cleaning the wound. “At least we know the hunters are back, and on top of things.”
    â€œI only saw one of them,” I told her.
    â€œWell, one’s better than none.”
    â€œOw!”
    â€œNow don’t be a baby. It’s not that bad.”
    Marissa, sitting across the room, snickered, so I bit my lip to keep myself from whining. I was never a very good patient.
    â€œDoes it hurt worse than when I clobbered you over the head?” Marissa asked.
    â€œI don’t know,” I told her. “You knocked me half-unconscious, so I didn’t feel much of anything at the time.”
    She snickered again.
Fine
, I thought.
Let her. She was just jealous because she hadn’t been the one to find the hunter.
    â€œIf he thinks I’m just gonna back off and let Cedric Soames get away with stealing my wheels, he’s wrong.”
    Grandma slapped a Band-Aid over one knee and moved to the other one. “You got a foolish streak in you, Red.”
    â€œWhat’s that supposed to mean?”
    â€œIt means that you should back off and leave wolf hunting to those who know how. I’m sure you’ll get your car back in time. Now hold still.”
    â€œMarissa and I can help the hunters.”
    â€œYeah,” Marissa said. “We can be kind of like…apprentices.”
    Grandma looked at my hands, which weren’t scratched enough for Band-Aids, and shook her head. “They gave you a warning today. You keep sticking your nose in this, you’re gonna wind up part of the problem.”
    â€œCedric took your money, and my car. I can’t just sit around and wait for someone else to take care of it. That’s just not the way I’m built.”
    â€œYou keep it up, and you won’t be ‘built’ at all. You’ll be in pieces. The Wolves will see to that.”
    I squirmed a bit at the thought and hopped off the table.
    â€œThere,” Grandma said. “Good as new. Now you both get on home—and Red, don’t you dare tell your parents what you’ve been up to.”
    We left without another word about my run-in with the hunter—but even before we reached the bottom of Grandma’s long stone stoop, Marissa and I were already making plans.
    â€œYou still remember it?” Marissa asked.
    I nodded. “Four-L-Y-C-Nine,” I told her. I had burned that license plate number into my memory as the black Harley had sped off. It wasn’t something I was going to forget anytime soon—but it was also something I wasn’t gonna tell Grandma. Some things she just didn’t need to know.
    â€œI’ve got an aunt who works at the Thirty-fifth Precinct,” Marissa said. “She could run the license plate and tell us who owns that motorcycle. We’ll have their name, address, everything we’d ever want to know about them.”
    â€œWhat do you think the hunters’ll do when we show up at their door?”
    Marissa grinned. She was up for this just as much as I was. “Maybe they’ll be impressed that we actually managed to track them down. But then again,