Chapter Twenty Eight

Jane stood in the alley, her eyes closed to the night-time world. Strands of her magically empowered hair were "sniffing" the air, for all intents and purposes, trying to sense her invisible foe. She felt something brush against a single hair, making her senses dance like a spider at the center of its web. Her eight braids reached out, grabbing debris and garbage cans to use as weapons when . . .

"Stop!" came a sharp voice a little further down the alley. Jane's friend, mentor and lover emerged from the darkness. Red looked the younger woman over. "What did you forget to do?"

Jane's pretty face was masked by confusion, and then reality seemed to dawn on her. "I went for weapons with everything. I didn't keep anything for defense."

"Precisely," Red said, trying to sound soothing. She normally wasn't quite so polite when a trainee made a mistake, but Jane's fragile mental state earned her a few breaks. "Anya, how was her defense up to that point?"

A small section of apparently empty spa