Whoa. My little sister was using a high-powered rifle as leverage? Well, if there was any doubt she and I were related…
“You really were the one who attacked those hunters in the woods and stole their guns, weren’t you?” she asked.
I started to shake my head, but Charity wouldn’t have it.
“How would these guns have gotten under the porch if you didn’t hide them there?”
“I don’t know. Maybe someone else—”
“You’re lying again.” She nodded at my red-splotched neck. “But I don’t get why. Why would you attack a couple of hunters? Why would you steal their guns and hide them? How, even? And why would you do all that to save some wolf? That’s so not normal. Except you’ve been acting really strange for, like, a year now. Ever since Daniel came back.”
She glanced at Daniel. He shoved his hands in his pajama pants pockets, trying to look casual—which didn’t exactly make him look innocent, but did make his pecs flex in a very nice way. Charity’s cheeks pinked a bit, and I assumed it was because she’d finally noticed that Daniel was shirtless. I mean, she was a girl, after all; even if she was wigging out, she was bound to notice the perfection of his body.
Suddenly, her eyes narrowed as she looked at Daniel. “Is that … a bullet hole?” She used the muzzle of the gun to point at the welt on Daniel’s shoulder, making my stomach feel like I was on a rocking boat. “Or is it a burn? Or both?”
Daniel glanced at me as if asking how I thought he should answer the question. But I didn’t get a chance to respond.
“Oh, my heck.” The pink flush in Charity’s cheeks turned a bright shade of red. I could almost see the gears turning in her head as a realization dawned on her. “Silver bullets? That wasn’t a normal wolf those hunters were after, was it? I mean, what the sheriff said about the whole town being able to hear the wolf howling. That shouldn’t be possible. A normal wolf can’t be heard beyond a mile and a half. I studied wolves last year for my science project, so I know.”
I didn’t like the emphasis she kept putting on the word normal in her sentences. And I especially didn’t like the way she was holding the gun now, pointing it at Daniel in her unsteady hands.
“Charity, I don’t know what you think is going on, but—”
Charity rocked the gun in my direction, making me throw my hands up defensively on instinct.
“Don’t you point that at anyone!” I cried.
“What I couldn’t figure out was why you’d risk your life to save some wolf.” She tilted the gun back toward Daniel. “But I know why now.…”
“What do you think know?” Daniel asked, sounding calm, like a therapist, and not like someone who had a gun pointed at his chest.
“I had to research myths about wolves as part of my project. I know what they say about wolves, or people, who can be burned by silver. And I saw you do a flip from the roof and land on two feet like it was no big deal. Normal people can’t do that.”
I gave a little gasp. “So being a show-off comes back to bite you in the butt, eh?” I said to Daniel.
He smirked. “So it does.”
“This isn’t funny!” Charity rocked the gun back and forth between us. “I’m not stupid, Grace. I know you think just because I’m in middle school that I should be oblivious to everything. I know something’s been going on. Ever since Daniel came back … and people started turning up dead again from wild-dog attacks. And all that stuff the news has been saying about the return of the Markham Street Monster.”
“I know you’re not stupid. But this isn’t what you think. Daniel didn’t do any of that.”
Charity shook her head, the gun swaying dangerously back and forth as she did it. She blinked fast, as if fighting the tears that formed in the corners of her eyes. “He’s a monster, isn’t he? A … a … a werewolf?”
I opened my mouth, ready to tell any lie that would convince her otherwise, but Daniel placed his hand on my shoulder.