Another Car Ride

They got to Adelaide's house a few minutes later. She was sitting on the porch, her white hair giving her a faint halo from the moonlight and porch light. Her first aide backpack was next to her, and as soon as she saw them pull up, Adelaide hopped to her feet and ran to the car.

"I told my parents that I needed to help some friends from school with some things," she said breathlessly. "Well? What's going on?"

"Well," Brett began, a little disgruntled that she had also sat in the back seat.

"Oh, I'll explain it. You'd just mess things up," Emily said crossly. She turned to Adelaide. "I know you've dealt with some crazy things before. Unusual injuries," Emily waved at Brett in the front seat. "Perhaps seeing unusual things, something like that. The reason I know that is because everybody here has experienced something similar."

Adelaide gave herself some time to think while she pulled a dry towel out of her backpack for Emily. "I've always been really good at medicine. People say it's because I'm smart, and I really do love learning about how to help people, but sometimes," She said, "Sometimes I feel like I'm healing people with magic or something. Like I will them better." She looked at the other two curiously. "I kind of figured something similar might be happening with Brett,"

"Does everybody know my biggest secret?" Brett interrupted incredulously.

"You're a rather obnoxiously obvious target," Emily stated. She toweled her damp clothes vigorously, as well as her hair.

"I figured Brett might have had something similar going on," Adelaide continued, "but I didn't think you might have..."

"There are quite a few of us here at school." Emily said, still toweling. When she finished, she looked pointedly at Brett, who stared back until realizing he was still sitting in front of Adelaide's house. Muttering about obnoxiously bossy females, he started the car up again and started driving.

"I can't tell you who everyone is yet, but that's not the point. The point is that there are monsters as well as kids with gifts. Monsters that really want to kill the kids with gifts. Most of the time we manage to hide the people from them before it becomes too much of a problem." Emily went on. "The bracelet I gave you for you birthday? That's a protective charm. It keeps the monsters from noticing you. I never did manage to give one to Brett though."

Adelaide tugged self-consciously at the braided hemp bracelet set with a single carved green stone.

"Wait a minute, who's we?" Brett interrupted.

"I don't have time to explain everything right now," Emily shot an irritated glance at the Brett, and then continued on. "The most important thing right now is that somehow Levi got involved with all of this. He's a normal, but I think some monsters are using him as bait to get Brett to come and save him. I'm not sure why."

"I killed one of them earlier today," Brett growled. "Just like I'm going to kill the rest when we get there."

The girls sat in uncomfortable silence after that last comment. Outside houses gave way to gas stations and strip malls, and Brett started driving faster. Adelaide said, "Shouldn't we try focusing on getting Levi safely out of there, instead of walking into the trap like this?"

"That's what me and you are here for," Emily said, smiling. "Levi is probably seriously injured; they're likely to try using him as a bargaining chip with Brett, to get him in a vulnerable position, and then take him down. But they don't know about you or me. Our job will be locating and extracting Levi while Brett keeps the fenrir occupied."

"I thought they were werewolves," Brett said.

"I'll explain that later too, I promise. But right now the most important thing is making sure Levi is safe." Emily shook her head. "I'm breaking so many rules today," she said wryly, "But monsters have been moving allot more openly lately. Maybe it's time for people like us to do the same."

"And Brett's going to take care of the wolves," Adelaide said, doubt in her voice. "By himself."

"I'm going to give him a little help before he goes in," Emily assured her. "And both of us will be there if things get too hairy." She pulled a couple nails, big as railroad spikes, out of her coat pocket. "Each of you take one of these."

Adelaide took one dubiously, but her mouth firmed a second later. "I'm ready. Just," she said, patting Brett quickly on the shoulder, "Just be careful out there, okay?"

Brett blushed a little, but when he spoke, his voice still carried angry undertones, like the distant rumble of an earthquake. "Don't worry. I can take care of myself."