“I’ll give you a big T-shirt and, um, some underthings, and you can get cleaned. And then you can go to bed. Okay?” Emily asked.

She would need to find a mattress for the girl soon, but for now, they would just have to make do.

Teddy grumbled a bit, but she didn’t disobey as Emily ran around and looked for clothes the girl could wear postshower.

When the bathroom door was shut and Emily heard the water running, she returned to her search only to notice the icon of her email flashing.

She clicked, expecting a message from her school, or maybe her mom, or at worst an ad that got past her spam filter.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Subject: How Very Naughty

Hello Emily,

Did you know that poking around while being so loud has the tendency to set off a few flags? Well, now you know.

Tomorrow at 4 pm, the Dark Cup on 4th and Instein.

Be there, and you’ll have all your cute little questions answered.

Don’t, and maybe those flags I burned will reappear.

With love,

A Stranger

CHAPTER SIX

Being Blankets

Teddy was a pile of blankets. She had become one with the warmth. The covers and her were the same entity.

From deep within the shadows cast by the blankets over her head, two brown eyes that were half closed with sleepiness were following the nervous movements of a girl who should have gone to bed a long time ago.

The sun had gone down already. It was past seven!

Teddy closed her book—she couldn’t understand most of it anyway— and mumbled into her blankets, shifting just a little bit. She wanted to sleep, but Emily’s stomping was keeping her awake. The Boss was worried about something that she’d seen, and it was making Teddy worried too.

Not too worried, but a little worried.

She wasn’t sure what to do herself. Her job was easy; at least, she thought it was at first. Teddy would do what the Boss told her. If that meant eating people or beating people up, then that was no problem. She could even help by protecting the Boss from no-good capitalists and Heroes.

Now she wasn’t too sure. The Boss wanted to do “Hero things” and that didn’t exactly fit into what Teddy understood. It was probably part of a big ploy that the Boss wasn’t telling her about yet. Teddy knew that the Boss was really clever. She went to school and everything.

Teddy’s job was to hurt things for the Boss, but maybe the Boss didn’t need that right then and there. Which meant that Teddy was free to eat and sleep all day.

Except she wasn’t sleeping or eating, she was watching the Boss be worried.

It was all very confusing and Teddy didn’t like it.

“Hey, Boss?” Teddy asked.