Page 6 of Luna & Andres

"That's what I'm going to find out," I replied. I forsook the cereal and swept past him towards the front door.

He grabbed my arm and looked into my eyes. "And if it is? What then? He's still a monster."

I shrugged out of his grasp and glared back at him. "I'll figure that out when I find him. You can either help or stay out of my way."

He searched my face for a moment before he sighed and nodded. "Fine, I'm coming with you. You don't know what the hell you're doing, anyway." He stalked past me and into his room. The door was left open, and I followed him to the doorway.

"What the hell does that mean?" I questioned him.

Red knelt beside the bed and pulled out a metal box from beneath the frame. His hands left smudges on the dusty cover. He placed the box on the sheets, unlocked the heavy lock on the front and opened the lid. Inside was a 9mm handgun with four clips. The clips were already loaded, and there was a fifth clip in the chamber. He popped it out before shoving it back inside.

"You're not supposed to keep those things loaded," I pointed out.

He stood and pocketed all but one of the clips. "And we're not supposed to be hunting werewolves, but we are."

I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow. "Werewolves? Seriously?"

"You wanna tell me what else that thing could've been?" he dared me. I frowned, but didn't argue. I couldn't, not when I had no idea what those things had been. He tossed me the last clip. "You're going to need those."

I looked at the bullets. They were a light gray color. "Silver bullets?" I guessed.

"What else?" he returned.

I nodded at the tin box. "How long have you had these bullets in there?"

"You're not the only one who's been doing some work today," he explained.

"Right," I replied as I pocketed the clip.

"So where do we go from here, Miss Detective?" he asked me.

I pulled out the receipt I'd kept with me all day and held it up between two fingers. "Here."

CHAPTER 3

A quick online search told us the River Diner was an apt name. The business was located on the east side of the river and opposite the old industrial factories.

I drove us out there and parked on the worn-gravel outside the double doors. The neighborhood was rough. The city's infrastructure department hadn't touched the area in decades. The road that passed by the diner was deeply rutted, and the electric poles leaned. Garbage littered the ditches and there were no manholes that led to the sewers. There were no streetlights so the area was consumed by the night that surrounded us.

We stepped out of the car. Red glanced over the top and at me. "You sure you want to do this? We could just forget about this whole thing and go out to a movie, instead."

I closed my eyes and shook my head. "I can't forget, and we're going in."

I shut my door and strode up to the entrance. Red sighed and followed suit. We entered.

The diner was one of those old-fashioned, nineteen-fifties models with the row of stools and a narrow row of booths with faded, patched cushions. The place was old, but clean, with crystal-clear counter tops and swept floors. The lady who handled the counter chain-smoked her way up and down the stools. She wore a white apron over her plain pink shirt and calve-length skirt, and somehow got through those long days in short heels. Her silver-streaked hair was pulled back in a tight bun and her well-manicured hands rang up the price of meals faster than any hacker.

She plucked the cigarette out of her mouth and smiled at us. "Good evening. What can I get for you two?"

I took a seat on a stool and Red took the one beside me. "I'll have a hamburger with fries and a coke."

She wrote the list down and turned to red. "What about you, hun?"

"Got anything with regret?" he asked her. I glared at him.

"Pardon?" the woman wondered.

He smiled and shook his head. "Just give me the same."

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