This story is a bit wordy and fairly long, so if you are looking for immediate gratification, you might want to look elsewhere. It contains heterosexual and lesbian sexual activity.
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The following story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between actual persons, living or dead (or just confused) is entirely coincidental. Please do not copy/redistribute the story, in part or in total, without the author's permission.
This story takes place in the entirely fictional city of Springfield, California, so don't go looking for it on a map. And in my little fictional world, there are no unwanted pregnancies or STD's, except as plot driving devices. The author encourages the practice of safe-sex. Finally, as the name implies, this is part of an ongoing series. It would benefit the reader greatly to examine the earlier stories for background information and descriptions.
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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 space replied, "Actually, pretty good. Even with her eyes clothed, I couldn't get near her. That hair of hers is pretty frickin' fast and sensitive." Anya materialized and started to get dressed.
Red, a red-haired lycanthrope and team leader, had decided the newest member of the Strays needed some topside training. She had wanted to launch another attack on the hellspawn that the Strays had been warring with for some time, but she realized that they had lost the advantage of surprise, so had decided to wait until her fellow leader, Tarloh, returned from Los Angeles with information about the Dark One. Tarloh and his companion Talia had been gone for a couple of days, and the waiting was making Red jittery. Whatever this Dark One was, it had to be a major mystical player, because the hellspawn were a warrior race that didn't bow down before just any old creature.
So Red had brought Jane and Anya (a human woman with the Talent of invisibility) to train Jane in the use of her own Talent. Jane had gained the ability to manipulate her luxurious hair as if it were actual limbs. She was able to control eight braids with relative ease, and could use some of her free strands as a sensory shield. Her hair was incredibly strong and resilient, and had the ability to stretch for huge distances. What some might interpret as a silly ability had turned into something quite extraordinary, and it actually got stronger when Jane felt extreme emotion.
Red walked over and stroked her lover's hair. "Let's take a break and go grab some coffee. I'm buying," she joked. Most of the money the Strays had at the moment had been provided by Jane. "C'mon girls," she said, sliding an arm around Jane's and leading the smaller girl towards the street, Anya on the other side.
"Should we be spending money right now?" Jane asked.
"It'll be okay. We're not going to Starbucks or anything. I just figured we could use a rest."
Anya stretched her long sexy body as she walked. "Good thinking," she said. "Hey, we could mug a drug dealer on the way back to make up for it. I heard there's a slime demon dealing meth over on Seventh Street, and it was eating some of the clientele."
Red looked over Jane. She was still nervous about getting the girl involved in a fight, despite knowing what Jane was capable of. "You up for it? Helping us make the streets safe?"
"I . . . I don't know if I'm ready," Jane whispered, pushing herself against Red's side, enjoying her warmth.
"You're going to have to find out sometime," Red replied, trying to sound stern while secretly wanted to wrap Jane up in her arms and protect her forever. "I think you need to see more of what we do . . . and you need to decide once and for all if this is the life for you." Red hated saying that. The last woman she had said it to had left her.
"Okay," Jane said, looking into Red's eyes, begging for her approval. "After coffee."
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A little while later . . .
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Red had actually felt a little nauseous when she surveyed the carnage before her. Things had gotten ugly quickly. She and Anya had sent Jane topside to scout for any comrades the slime demon might have brought along while the two senior members of the Strays crept up on him. The pale-skinned thing that barely resembled a human was in the process of making a sale to an emaciated young man who was seriously jittery. The pusher had made some obscene gesture when the young man looked to make a purchase, indicating that more than money would be required. And the young man had stood up, his face caught between desperation and disgust, and reached for the button to his jeans as he turned around. When nothing happened, he turned back. The slime demon was gone.
Red and Anya had seen what had happened. Jane's hair had come shooting down shortly after the monster's intentions had been made clear and encircled the thing, pulling it up to the rooftop before it could make a sound. The two women found a fire-escape and quickly made their way up, arriving at the roof of the building just in time to see one of the demon's limbs land on the edge. Jane had ripped the monster apart. She was dripping with the green blood of her victim, and her eyes were barely human themselves. When she saw Red, the humanity returned and she dropped to her knees, crying like a child.
