Levi is still alive, the note said. Barely.

Brett bristled, but stepped out onto the porch and closed the door quietly.

"What are you doing here?" He hissed. "I don't want you, or Levi, or anybody coming around he-"

Emily thrust the shirt and note at him. "Before you ridicule me, perhaps you should consider the consequences of your own actions."

Brett took them without thinking, grimacing at the wetness of both. Halted mid-rant he glanced down at the shirt and caught his breath. It was Levi's shirt, green with a Chinese dragon printed across the back. It was ripped, and mud and deep red spattered his hands where he touched it.

"Couple of wolves just left that on your porch. Horse-sized wolves. I ended up in your neighbor's kiddy pool to keep them from smelling me," Emily said, tossing her wet hair. "Did you read the note?"

Your friend is still alive, godspawn, scrawled in blotchy, spidery black letters. Will you be, before the night is over? Come to Malaspina Park. Hurry. My wolves are hungry, hungry for vengeance. The little one might not last much longer.

Brett felt a wave of heat, then chills, sweep over his whole body. He crumpled the paper, his whole body trembling. Pebbles on the ground started trembling. Without a word he started toward the car.

Emily jumped into the back seat with him before he'd started the ignition. "Adelaide," she said. "We need Adelaide. I don't know how badly Levi's been injured." She pulled out her phone, already dialing the number. "Hopefully my phone still works after that dunking."

Brett glared back at her furiously. "Get out, you-"

"It's your fault," Emily said. "You pushed him away. You left him defenseless." The phone in her hand was ringing.

"Shut up," He said quietly. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"What possible reason could you have for abandoning him like that?"

"He told you about me! He told you about the wolves, the goblins, and now you're sticking your nose into my business! You want to get Adelaide mixed up in this crap too? I'm trying to protect you, you idiot! I'm trying to keep the nightmares from getting you, like they- like they-" Brett stopped, his voice stuck in his throat. He realized vaguely that pebbles floated lazily around the car. That's new, he thought, vaguely disconnected. Everything seemed so unreal. All his life, Brett had been confident that whatever happened, he'd be able to handle it. Now Levi was gone, and Brett couldn't handle it. He'd never felt helpless before.

"Levi didn't tell me anything," Emily said softly. Her eyes burned in rage. "Not. One. Thing."

A click on the other end of Emily's phone brought them both up short. "Hey, Emily. What's up?" Adelaide's voice seemed to drain the tension out of the too-close atmosphere of the car. Still, neither Emily or Brett spoke. "Emily? Is everything okay?" Adelaide's voice asked.

"Adelaide, I-" Emily stopped for a moment when Brett motioned. "Hold on, somebody wants to talk to you.

Brett took the phone. "Adelaide?" He asked, his voice uncertain. "I, um." He took a deep breath, held it.

"Brett? What's going on?"

"Nothing's wrong Adelaide," Brett said.

"Brett," Adelaide said. "It's going to be okay."

"No it's not," Brett said woodenly. He took a deep breath. "I messed up, Adelaide, and now Levi's- hurt. Maybe. I don't know. Everything's messed up." He wanted to crumple the phone in his hand, but he forced himself to keep talking. "I need to do something really dangerous tonight, and I- well, I don't want to get you involved. But you're probably the best person, the only person I would trust to help, and-"

"Come over to my house, I'll have my stuff ready by the time you get here," Adelaide hung up.

Brett crushed the phone in his hand.

"Start driving," Emily ordered from the back seat.

"You still here?" Brett asked sarcastically. He turned on the ignition, his mom's little car roaring to life. She'll probably want to know where I had to go in the middle of the night, he thought to himself. Another lie. The lights puled on and he backed into the road, then roared down the street, slightly faster than necessary.

"I assume you know where Adelaide lives," Emily said. "You owe me a new phone, by the way."

"If Levi didn't tell you about stuff, how do you know?"

Emily chortled unpleasantly. "Oh, this is too rich. You actually thought you were the only one?" Brett glanced back. Emily's eyes glittered like chips of moonlight. "I knew what you were from the first moment I saw you."

She looked out the window, up where the night twinkled with stars. "It took a bit longer for me to identify others. Adelaide is one of us too."

"Godspawn?" Brett recalled the word from the note.

Emily hesitated for a moment. "I'm not sure. I can see the power lingering around certain people, like sparks hover around a campfire. You have it really strong. Adelaide has less." She shivered, her clothes still damp. "I saw it on the wolves too. And I've seen it on others. When I first met you, I thought you were one of the monsters."