Chapter Four

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The next day . . .

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Jane awoke with a start but noticed the pain was less than the day before. She opened her eyes and took a look around. She seemed to be in some old, long building, but there was no natural light. It looked like a subway station, but one that hadn't been used in a long time.

"This particular station was buried back in the fifties, and the city never thought it would be cost-effective to excavate it," said Arthur, who was sitting nearby. "We diverted some power lines and water pipes down here and voila! Instant home-sweet-home!"

Talia approached. "Red and Tarloh are ready, and everyone is waiting." She looked at Jane. "Are you all right to move?"

"Where . . . where are you taking me?" she asked.

"Down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland," Talia said with a grin. "C'mon."

Arthur brought up a wheelchair. "Wanna go for a ride?"

Jane lowered her eyes. "Do I have a choice?"

Talia lifted the girl's face and smiled. "Actually, today is all about choices my dear." She waited for Jane to nod, and then she and Arthur helped the girl into a wheelchair.

"Clothes?" Jane asked timidly.

"No time," Talia said, but she did grab a blanket and drape it over Jane's partially naked form, then wheeled her up a ramp and into what had once been the station's lobby.

At one end of the lobby, the platform was a large table as well as a couple of sets of old bleachers. There had to be at least thirty or forty people gathered in that area. She recognized a few from the last time she was awake. But there were two new faces that demanded her attention.

One was a male, older than the rest, appearing to be in his mid-thirties. And when Jane saw him, the phrase "alpha male" reverberated strongly in her mind. Before he sat down, she could see he was easily six-and-a-half feet tall and as broad at the shoulders as a bison. He was dressed in the clothes of a transient, but even those could not hide his formidable physique. He had blue, piercing eyes staring out from beneath a mop of dark curly hair and he had the beard of a Viking warrior.

Next to him was a woman. 'No,' Jane thought, 'the word "woman" seems so inadequate.' She was a vision. She was herself six feet tall and dressed in tight red leather that clung to her hourglass figure, with full hips and a firm-looking bosom. Her face should have been looking down on Jane from a billboard, advertising slim cigarettes or skin-care products, and her eyes sparkled green. She had curly red hair that flowed chaotically down her back, and there was a streak of white that went right down the middle of it.

"Not many women like her," Talia whispered, sounding a bit amused. It occurred to Jane that it had been a few moments since she had last breathed. "It's okay," Talia continued. "She has that effect on people."

"Well," boomed the voice of the alpha male, "it appears our 'guest' has arrived." The rest of the crowd went quiet. "You are Jane Collier?"

 

Jane nodded, almost afraid to meet his gaze.

"It's okay to look up," he almost guffawed. "No one is going to hurt you."

Jane raised her head. Everyone was smiling, except the lady in red. She looked none too pleased. "Why am I here?" she asked. "If you don't mind me asking . . . sir," she added.

Laughter filled the room. "She said 'sir'!" the big man said. "Oh, that's precious! No one has called me 'sir' in . . . ever!" He wiped his eyes. "Young lady, we don't exactly stand on formality down here. Anyway, you are here because you apparently performed a great service to us, even if you didn't realize it at the time."

"What?" she asked.

"You helped rescue Robbie, one of our own. He had been assaulted by some . . . nemeses of ours, and you distracted them. It gave our rescue party time to get there."

"Assaulted? You mean that dog in the alley?"

A young man sitting at the table with his arm in a sling spit his beverage out his nose while everyone else began to chuckle again. "Dog?!?" he said at last.

"I'm sorry," Jane apologized. "Cat? Gorilla?" Her mouth was still moving but her brain was on a twenty-second delay.

The entire crowd lost all control and began to laugh uproariously. Everyone laughed except for the red-haired beauty, who was noticeably clenching her fists.

"QUIET!" the woman shouted, and the laughter stopped. She paused and glared at the man with the broken arm and then she glared at the large man standing next to her.

"Oh . . . kay," he grumbled. "Looks like Red is getting testy, so we'd better move along." He stared at Jane. "That wasn't a 'dog,' as you put it. Young lady . . . do you believe in magic?"

There had been a lot of questions that she had anticipated, but that wasn't one of them. "No sir."

"Please don't call me 'sir.' My name is Tarloh. And if you don't believe in magic, you will soon. Do you believe in a Supreme Being?" He watched as Jane nodded. "So you can accept that there are powers in the world that you do not understand, that you can't see but believe are still there?" Jane nodded again. "Good." He sighed. "Jane, for the time being, I need you to accept some things on faith. A lot of people believe there is life out there in the universe, but rather than thinking 'outwards,' I need you to think sideways. Have you ever heard of the idea of 'multiple dimensions?'" Another nod. "Excellent. Well, I need you to entertain the idea that these other dimensions are real. And just like the X-Files has told us, there are visitors from these other dimensions among us. This place," he said, waving his finger at the surrounding area, "was buried in an earthquake. An earthquake happens when the plates in the earth's surface shift. Well, the walls between dimensions are not completely solid, and sometimes the plates shift. This causes cracks to form, and things slip through, including life-forms and magical energy, and. . . . . and you don't believe a word of this, do you?"

Jane was just staring at the man, who she now realized was a crazy person. 'Magic? Alternate dimensions? I was born in the dark, but not last night,' she thought.

"We're wasting our time," the red-haired girl said. "She's clueless."

"Red, please keep your tongue in check. We've given her nothing but a hypothetical situation, and a fairly far-out one at that."

Red rolled her eyes.

"Maybe a demonstration might aid in your understanding," Tarloh said. Suddenly, Tarloh's already hairy body seemed to grow even more . . . fur. His brow became furrowed, his nose lengthened and his hand grew some fairly pointy claws. And then he roared. In that moment, he more closely resembled a bear than a man. Then, he changed back. "So, have your beliefs changed in the last few minutes?" he asked.

Jane sat there, her mouth agape. Somewhere in the background, a cricket chirped. Then it chirped again.

"There are a lot of things in this world that are hard to understand or believe in, but maybe . . . just maybe . . . some of the things that go bump in the night are real. Do you know what a lycanthrope is?"

Jane continued to stare, and crickets continued to chirp.

"Oh for the love of . . ." Red started. She glared at the newcomer. "You might use the word 'werewolf,' though that's a bit of a misnomer. Wrap your brain around that and try and keep up."

Tarloh shook his head, noticing that Jane blanched under the heat of Red's gaze. The girl was confused, and terrified, and now she was being attacked. He knew what Red's problem was and that she wasn't actually mad at Jane, but Jane just made too convenient of a target. "Jane, over the history of the world, cracks between dimensions have come and gone. And it seems that there is a certain symmetry, as in there seems to be an alternate 'Earth' in every other dimension. One of those other worlds is called Terra, and it is the dimension that seems to be the closest to this one. A lot of your classic fairy-tale monsters seem to come from Terra. That includes vampires . . ."

Jane gasped.

" . . . trolls . . . "

Jane gasped again.

" . . . and lycanthropes. Over the years, creatures from both worlds have slipped through the cracks, and those cracks closed behind them. Sometimes multiple cracks converge, and the converging point doesn't heal. That point becomes a source of magic in this world. Some people from this world can learn to manipulate this magic. Other people . . . well, exposure to convergence points helps expose certain innate abilities. These abilities can be very powerful and are highly specialized. We call them Talents. Well, when Arthur was using his healing magic on you, he discovered within you the potential for a Talent to manifest itself. So while we had initially been planning on just making you better and getting you back on your feet, we found that you might, if you choose, be a possible ally for us."

"Ally? I can't do anything!" Jane said.

"That I believe," Red muttered.

"Red, can it!" the big man said irritably. In response, Red stood up and stormed off, with the one known as Robbie in hot pursuit. Tarloh put his head in hand and paused. "I'm sorry. She's . . . stressed. Listen, Jane, I know this is a lot to handle, and you probably still don't believe it all yet. It will probably still take you several days to heal, even with Arthur's help. If you have any questions, just ask."

As the meeting broke up, Jane was left in Talia's care. Talia was more than a bit concerned that her young charge wouldn't speak for quite a while. Talia wheeled Jane over to an area where she could see the entire goings-on.

Finally, a thin whisper drifted up from the wheelchair. "Are you all monsters?"

Talia leaned forward, trying to catch Jane's eye, but Jane just stared forward. "That would depend on how you defined monster. But no, not everyone is a lycanthrope. About ten of us are."

"You come from another dimension?"

"No. I'm the second generation. First-generation lycanthropes . . . the ones from Terra . . . they morph into something which is kind of wolf-like but not really. You may have heard that vampires and werewolves create more of their kind by biting them. That isn't true for vampires, but it can be true for werewolves, though the sire has to will the transformation as well as bite the victim. Lycanthropes created in this world tend to take on alternate forms of native species. That 'dog' you helped rescue . . . Robbie . . . well, that was a werewolf. Tarloh is a werebear. Michael, Mindy, and Matthew are all actually Terran. They were out hunting one night and fell through a dimensional portal about twenty years ago. They age more slowly than humans, which is the reason they still look young. All lycanthropes get that bonus. Hell, I'm actually thirty-two," Talia said with a laugh, but her merriment wasn't returned. "Red is werecat of the puma variety. How she and Robbie got bit by the same sire but wound up so different is kind of a mystery. But Red is actually thirty-five, and she looks like a twenty-year-old." Talia placed a hand on Jane's knee, but the girl almost jumped out of her chair, shivering all the while. So Talia pulled her hand away. She knew something else was going on with the girl. "Red and Robbie are ACTUAL siblings by the way. I know she seemed mean, but she cares deeply about the pack and everyone in it."

"The pack?"

"Yeah, the pack. We actually call ourselves the Strays. Lycanthropes are pack creatures and continued to keep that trait even as they evolved. Even the ones that wind up in this world tend to seek out social groups to belong to. It was actually lycanthropes that formed THIS little commune. They brought in others to help out. Like Arthur . . . who happens to be a skilled practitioner of healing magic. He used to be a doctor who succumbed to his own painkillers. We have some hedge wizards, druids, and a bunch of people with Talents. We've got one guy . . . Patrick . . . who can fly, whereas Anya can turn invisible."

"And . . . Arthur . . . thinks I have a Talent? I can't . . ." Jane stopped. She had planned on saying how she couldn't do anything again, but her mind shot back to Red's response from earlier.

"Arthur is rarely wrong. And you generally can't manifest your talent until you've been exposed to a powerful magic source. But no one is going to force you to do that. It will be your decision."

"Talia," Jane started after a pause, "why does Red hate me?"

Talia sighed. "She doesn't hate you. She . . . she's had a lot on her mind. She was up in Los Angeles trying to get information on a tribe of hellspawn that have been causing us some problems as of late . . . those are the things you saw in the alley . . . when Robbie decided to go find them on his own. She feels very responsible for him, and he tends to do things that are rather rash. And she's also mostly responsible for making sure that everyone is clothed, fed and relatively happy, and she wasn't expecting to have another mouth to feed."

Jane blushed and felt herself on the verge of tears again. "I'll get out of here as soon as I can," she said. "I don't want to be a burden. I won't tell anyone . . ."

"No one would believe you anyway," Talia interrupted. "And don't go planning on leaving just yet. Give Red a chance to cool down. She's my best friend, and she isn't normally like that." Talia scooted around until Jane had no choice but to look at her. "Listen. We are a strange group. We steal most of what we need to survive, but we also roam the streets and try to keep them safe. There are some genuinely evil beings out there, and we fight them to the best of our ability. We don't have much, but we tend to have what we need, and you'll never find a tighter group. And you are a young woman who risked her own life to help what she thought was a dog. That means something down here. It means you have a lot of compassion and a lot of courage."

Jane's eyes became very clear. "Or maybe there's nothing in my life that needs to be saved," she muttered bitterly. "I'm sorry, but I'm tired."

Talia stared at her for a moment. "Did you want someone to sleep with tonight? It's pretty common to find a bedmate just to keep warm and . . ." Talia stopped. Jane had gone deathly pale and began trembling when Talia had mentioned sleeping with someone. "Or maybe it's a bit too soon to think about that. We'll get you a bunk in the old lost and found office . . . no one else sleeps in there usually. It'll give you some time alone to think, and it's near the first-aid area and Arthur." Talia wheeled Jane into a small, private room with a cot set up, then brought her plenty of blankets before helping her out of the wheelchair. Jane didn't say a word the entire time.