Anya slid her hand down and patted Red's annoyingly firm behind.

“And if you are looking to try venting their way, you KNOW that I'm game."

Red took a step away.

“I don't think I'm ready," she said.

"Bullshit," Anya replied.

"But I won't press it . . . this time."

Hunt night ...

“Okay, everyone ready to howl?!?" Tarloh yelled, revving up the lycanthropes for a night of hunting. It was one of the few times they got to go and do what they were born to do . . . hunt. Tarloh, Red, Matthew, Mindy, Michael, Talia, Nathaniel, Robbie (over Red's objections), as well as Karl (a first-generation lycanthrope) and Chris (a wereboar who was possibly the biggest redneck ever to walk the planet) had been buzzing about the opportunity all day. Jane had never really talked to the latter two, but the hunting pack all seemed pretty chummy with each other.

Red had been working with Jane for about three hours a day for the past week. While getting Jane to stand her ground was like pulling teeth, it had finally begun to happen. The young woman was using her extra appendage to help keep her balance, keep potential attackers at bay, as well as maneuver. Jane could actually scamper at great velocity using her hair like a spider used its legs. It was kind of creepy to watch. She could even use her braids to push against nearby walls and scale upwards in alleys and narrow streets with incredible speed. She had nothing by way of an offense yet, but she was making progress. Red had made sure to compliment her when she did something right, and Talia noticed the pride Jane expressed when she received praise from her friend. Jane's recovery over the last week had been amazing. She still had a lot of emotional healing to do, but she no longer bore the weight all by herself. Those closest to her could see her with almost a bounce in her step for the first time since they'd known her . . . for probably the first time in many years.

The rest of the Strays gathered together to wish the hunters well before the lycanthropes headed down a series of tunnels that led out of town. Jane, of course, said nothing but her eyes drifted from new friend to new friend before settling on Red, watching her personal trainer disappear into the darkness with a glance over her shoulder.

"They're going to be randy when they get back," one of the other onlookers said.

“I get first dibs on . . . everyone," Anya joked.

Jane steeled herself for the idea . . . all those people doing all manners of things. Tarloh and Talia . . . Mindy and probably Arthur again . . . anyone who felt like it and Anya . . . Red and and . . . Come to think of it, Jane couldn't remember seeing the beautiful woman go off with anyone. Hell, she didn't remember seeing where Red went when bedtime rolled around. She always seemed to be awake, organizing one thing or another.

‘Wait,' Jane thought. 'That one time . . .' She was thinking back to one time when everyone had just woken up. She had been down on the lower platform and Red came out of . . . out of the tunnels. She had come from the opposite direction than where the Node was located.

She looked around and no one was paying attention. Her braids extended like spider legs, and she scurried down onto the tracks.

“What are you doing?" she asked herself. But she kept going. A ways down the tunnel, she reached what appeared to be a dead end. But off to the side, she noticed a door off on her right. She opened it, and there was a metal staircase leading down. It looked like a maintenance tunnel or something. ‘What the fuck do I know about old train tunnels,’ she thought. There seemed to be electrical wires running along the ceiling and a lone bulb at the bottom guided her way. She cautiously made her way down, emerging into a small room.

“What the . . ." she started. The tunnel dead-ended about twenty feet down, but the wall next to it had been dug out for about ten feet and reinforced with steel. There was actually a queen-sized bed, some plastic vines decorating the walls and partially covering a mural. . . a depiction of a beach and a sunset. It brought the real world into the tunnel . . . making it home. There was a bookshelf and a dresser, almost like a real-world bedroom. There were some clothes hanging over the back of a chair . . . red leather pants and a red shirt. It was definitely where Red stayed. It was a strange space, not at all the way Jane pictured the warrior/hunter living. ‘How DID you expect her to Live?’ Jane wondered. ‘No one really talks about her.'

Jane sat down on the bed, even though she realized it was inappropriate. She wasn't just exploring anymore. Instead, she was snooping . . . invading someone's privacy. Red was a leader, yet lived apart. And Jane lay on the woman's mattress, closing her eyes and breathing deeply, inhaling the faint aroma of roses. She wondered where that smell was coming from, then noticed a vase of flowers on a nightstand on the other side of the bed.

‘Those are pretty. I wonder where she got them?' It occurred to her that they had to be gathered fairly recent . . . they wouldn't survive down here without sunlight for very long. ‘Something that beautiful shouldn't be kept under the earth,' Jane thought.

"God this bed is comfortable," she muttered, drifting into a half-sleep.

Hellfire and brimstone, the sirens were loud! Jane awoke from her daze with a start. There was a blaring noise pulsing from down the tunnel. It sounded like an alarm. And even at that distance, she heard a commotion, and she felt her heart sink in her chest. She scurried up the stairwell and down the tracks. And the sounds she heard began to gel into an unpleasant cohesive concept . . . there was a fight going on.

Jane poked her head around the corner and up over the floor of the lower platform. There was a full-scale battle going on in the underground subway station. She saw the Strays locked in mortal combat with . . . things . . . in suits and sunglasses and ‘Oh God,' Jane whimpered inside her mind, ‘it's those things! The ones from the alley . . . the ones that almost killed me.' Jane's feet froze, thought her heart was going a mile a minute. She felt her skin growing cold and her hands hand become clammy. She couldn't move . . . she could barely think.

The “Hellspawn" were carrying swords that seemed to go on forever, and several were covered in blood. But the Strays weren't the only ones with casualties, as a number of the evil beings were lying on the floor.

'No,' Jane thought, overcome with fear. ‘Not now . . . not with the lycanthropes all gone.' Then it occurred to her . . . that was EXACTLY why they were here. Somehow, they had known that the strongest warriors wouldn't be there. ‘How could they know?"