"Kiss me," she said, and soon felt Jane's lips against her own. That was when Red climaxed again, and she let out a mini-scream directly into Jane's mouth as her juices flowed onto her lover's hand. She pressed her thighs together and trapped Jane's hand in place, but never stopped kissing her. It wasn't until the mini-quakes stopped before their mouths reluctantly separated.

Red shifted over and lay with on hand and one leg draped over the younger girl's exhausted form. Jane brought the hand she had used on Red to her lips, feeling a need to taste it. It was . . . slippery and musky and not at all unpleasant.

"Is it always like that? That . . . wonderful?" Jane asked.

"It can be . . . and so much more." Red kissed Jane on the forehead.

"I. . . Thank you. I didn't realize . . . I could never Jane, for not the first time in her life, couldn't think of what to say.

"It's okay. We'll work it out when we wake up," Red said. She didn't fondly anticipate that moment . . . when they would have to get up that evening at meet the world . . . deal with the dead and plan retribution. But for a moment, she wasn't going to worry about it.

She was going to enjoy her moment of bliss with a beautiful young woman who . . . who was already asleep and snoring. Red smiled. She treasured it, because she was afraid she wouldn't have much to smile about come evening.

Red poked her head up from under the covers, barely able to make out the annoying red numbers on her digital clock.

"Crap," she muttered.

"Time to get up." ‘Time to go deal with the dead,' she thought. Then the Lump next to her began to shift and turn. 'I don't want to wake her,' Red thought, ‘but I don't want her to come around and not know where I am.‘ So she reached over and turned on the light.

Jane's face was so peaceful as it pressed against the pillow. Red hadn't seen her that much at peace. Even when she had been spending a lot of her time unconscious after almost being killed (the act that had brought her to the Den in the first place), she had been restless. ‘I'm just so comfortable,’ she thought to herself. But it was time to get up. She slowly worked her way out of bed and started grabbing clothes.

“What . . . what time is it?" Jane asked groggily, opening one eye and noticing that it was annoying light in the room.

“Almost five in the afternoon," Red said. She knelt on the bed and leaned in, hoping to sneak a kiss. But Jane was ready for it, turning her head and meeting Red lip-to-lip. There was a moment of joy, but even Jane knew there was work to do.

"I guess we need to go see Jane couldn't bring herself to say it . . . to talk about those members of the Strays that had died the previous night. The Strays were a group of lycanthropes and humans with magical abilities (called Talents) who lived together in secret, stealing to survive but keeping the forces of darkness at bay... most of the time. The previous night, a group of demons called Hellspawn had come down into the Stray's underground lair (called the Den) and had attacked the Strays. A number of friends and potential friends had died defending the Den before the Hellspawn were driven back due in no small part to Jane's wrath.

Between the two women who had shared that bed, most would have agreed that Red was more dangerous . . . at least, they would've agreed until the previous night's fight. Red was a second-generation lycanthrope who could morph into a part-human, part-puma hybrid with incredible combat prowess. Jane was a Talent with living hair. It seemed like a silly Talent, until she used that hair to hurl a subway car at her enemies, then beat the attacking Hellspawn to death with their own limbs. Jane was still suffering from emotional issues, and she had taken those issues out on those attacking the only people to befriend the young woman since her father had died over twelve years earlier.

"Shit," Red said.

“I was supposed to take the final shift tonight.”

She turned to say something to Jane, but stopped to admire the view.

The smaller girl was in the process of pulling on the jeans that Red had stolen for her, and she filled them out nicely. Red waited until she got a glimpse of those wonderful breasts her lover possessed, then those breasts were covered by Jane's bra and sweater.

"I... Do you want to go out separately or . . ." Jane started.

She wasn't sure if Red wanted people to know what happened.

Red walked over, put her hands on both sides of Jane's face and kissed her.

"I wouldn't have let Last night happen if I was going to be ashamed of it. And you shouldn't either." The two women grabbed their jackets and then made their way down the tunnel from Red's personal hidey-hole and into the Den itself.

"I need to find Tarloh," Red said.