Jane almost sputtered.

“What do you mean?"

Anya looked confused.

"I . . . mean . . . did you get some sleep?"

Jane blushed.

"Yeah. I did." She looked around.

"I feel bad though.

I should've been up here helping."

"You saved the day yesterday, and I can't imagine how much energy it took out of you. You probably needed it more than anyone."

Jane looked around.

"Do they have . . . is there a plan? For what happens next?"

“That's what the meeting is going to be for," Anya replied.

“Did you want to grab something to eat? I think the bosses are going to be a while."

Jane was thankful for the reprieve. She wanted to tell Anya what had happened Last night, but she felt a bit guilty about enjoying herself in the wake of tragedy.

She and Anya went over to the dining area and grabbed seats. People kept walking up and talking to Anya or thanking Jane. Eventually, they were joined by Mindy as well as Robbie, Red's brother. Jane was strangely uncomfortable around Robbie, whose life he claimed she had saved just a few weeks earlier. After all, Jane had just slept with his sister. They all chewed their food and made quiet but friendly conversation. They were all nervous about what was to come.

There was an air of unease around the central table and the adjoining bleachers as everyone settled in for the meeting. Jane sat quietly towards the back of the aluminum steps, planning on being a silent spectator to the proceedings. She was watching Red who was still in consultation with Tarloh as well as the shadow demon known as Johan. Jane hadn't spent much time with that particular trans-dimensional traveler, but Mindy and Anya assured her that he was a class act.

“Okay people," Tarloh boomed, his voice as intimidating as his six-and-a-half-foot frame, "let's settle down. First things first. We lost six of our own yesterday, and there will be a service for them an hour after the meeting ends. So nobody go running off. Now, we need to discuss what happened. The Hellspawn got too close and knew us too well. As many of you know, there's two ways this probably happened. The first is that they've been spying on us longer and better than we thought. The other is that we have or had a traitor in our midst." The assembled crowd muttered and the mood got grim.

Trust and friendship was what defined the Strays, and a violation of those ideals didn't set well with any of them.

"But I don't think that's the case," Tarloh said.

"If there was a spy, he or she would've split during the fight, and everyone is accounted for . . . one way or the other. If there was a spy, then they would probably be amongst the dead. But just to be on the safe side, we're going to have to get strict on our ‘no-solo’ policy.” He stopped and stared at Robbie, who just sank into his chair.

“Groups of three if you're going to the surface and nobody . . . and I repeat, NOBODY . . . goes off alone. If there IS a mole, we're not giving them a chance to sneak off and report anything. Now, I'm handing things over to Red."

The beautiful redhead stood up and took a shrewd look around.

"I know a lot of people are looking for blood right now, but we're not going to run into anything blind. Tonight, I'm taking a squad and we're going to start doing some serious tracking. We'll be out all night, every night until we find out where these guys are coming from. If anyone hears or sees anything up on the surface that might help, LET US KNOW. Don't go after these guys by yourself. I promise you all, what happened yesterday will NOT go unanswered, but it's going to be on our terms. There's no point on planning an offensive against an enemy we can't locate with goals we can't discern being directed by a entity or entities we can't even identify." Red Looked at her clipboard.

"Okay, with me . . . Matthew, Michael, Anya, Johan, Nathaniel, Patrick, Talia, Torath and Snake. Tarloh is going to organize the other fighters into shifts, and we're going to extend the defense perimeters by a hundred yards in each of the three main paths out of the Den."