Red Rider's Hood by Neal Shusterman Read Free Book Online Page A

than I could picture Grandma doing it.
    Grandma went to the bathroom and picked out her helmet hair until it was a full gray Afro once again. She caught my dazed look in the mirror. “Surprised I have a secret side, Red?”
    â€œI guess I always thought of you as the bingo type, not the wolf-hunter type.”
    She let out a deep, hearty laugh. Then she glanced at the Band-Aids that still covered my knees. “Sorry about yesterday,” she said. “I only meant to scare you, not knock you off your bike. Guess my riding skills aren’t what they used to be.”
    I thought of the way she wove in and out of traffic as we rode home today. “You’re pretty good, if you ask me.” And then I added, “Maybe you could let me take it out next time.”
    She didn’t answer, but she didn’t need to. The look on her face told all. I didn’t ask again.
    A heavy pounding on the front door nearly scared me out of my skin. For a split second I thought the Wolves had followed us here, but it was just Marissa. She had this paleness about her, and wide eyes, like she had been doing some mischief with bones herself.
    â€œRed, I know who the hunter is. You’re not gonna believe it.”
    But when she saw Grandma, still in her leather pants and jacket, Marissa realized I already knew.
    â€œYou’re both too clever for your own good,” Grandma said, shaking her head in both exasperation and admiration. “Running a check on my license plate!”
    â€œIf we could do it, Grandma, don’t you think the Wolves can, too?”
    â€œIt’s no secret to them, Red,” she told me. “They’ve always known.”
    Now that I thought about it, it made sense. Now I understood why Cedric was always so nasty to me—and why he seemed to have a grudge against her the day he stole her money. Then something came back to me. “Blood money. The Wolves called the money Cedric stole from you blood money. Why?”
    â€œBecause Cedric’s a fool. He thinks we killed wolves for reward money. The truth is, people did give us money after we got rid of Xavier and his pack. We didn’t ask for it, but they gave it to us anyway. Envelopes were slapped into our palms or slipped under our door. That was the bread I’ve been hiding all these years, the bread Cedric stole.” And then she let loose a sneaky little laugh. “If he had any sense, he would have killed me right there in my basement, instead of letting the smell of wolfsbane keep him away. See, to Cedric I wasn’t worth his trouble. He thinks I’m too old and feeble to be a threat to him—and that will be his downfall.”
    It was all coming together for me now. Marvin had been hanging out at that intersection, casing cars for things to steal—it was bad luck all around that I got caught at that particular traffic light on that particular day. But then again, maybe it wasn’t luck at all. Maybe it was fate. The second Marvin told Cedric it was me—the wolf hunter’s grandson—taking a big bag of cash to my grandmother, Cedric wasted no time in getting to Grandma’s house before I did.
    Marissa pulled her chair closer to Grandma’s. “Will you tell us everything you know?”
    Grandma looked at us and sighed. “I suppose I have apprentices now whether I want them or not.” She went to a bureau that held dozens of photo albums. She was a photographer,after all, so photos filled every nook and cranny of her place. As a little kid, I had been through just about all of those albums. They were filled with pictures of her with Grandpa, and of their trips to strange and faraway places. But today, Grandma pulled out a photo album from the bottom of the lowest drawer. This one was full of werewolves, and of her and Grandpa’s efforts as werewolf hunters. The pictures of the wolves were all taken with a telephoto lens from a safe distance, some with