by Faith Hunter
Grégoire fights Evangelina, with the vampire catching on fire. Jane realizes that Grégoire is using a silvered sword, allowing him to get through the hedge spell, so Jane uses hers for the same purpose, running with her sword in front of her. The pain of cutting through the ward causes Jane to lose her balance, and she lands on top of Evangelina, stabbing her. Jane hears Beast, telling her that she is a killer only, even of her friends. Evangelina rips the necklace chain from her own neck, placing the blood diamond in her wound, but Jane grabs it. The Raven Mocker is now free, but when Evan tosses her another silver knife, Jane uses it along with the blood to stab at the demon. Evan says the binding words, and then there is an explosion and Jane sees golden wings. The injured make their way inside, and Jane believes she knows what the blood diamond truly is: a portal to hell guarded closely by an angel.
A Marriage Ceremony With a Death Sentence at the End: Two days after the battle, Jane is at the hospital seeing the woman who was attacked by the werewolves. Rick has news: he has been offered a job by both Sheriff Grizzard and PsyLED, as an agent covering seven states in the Southeast, and he is leaning more toward the PsyLED offer. Rick reported the dead body at Evangelina’s, which did turn out to be her husband that she had killed, and that sort of put him in the good graces of law enforcement. Jane and Rick use the helicopter to deliver a dead steer to the grindy’s cave. When the two of them arrive, they find the grindy dressed, and she thanks them for the food. Then, to the surprise of them both, one of the grindy’s babies climbs on Rick, having chosen him. She will now be his keeper, ensuring that he does not stray and pass on the were-taint. The grindy also says that if Rick never shifts, he may have a power all his own. On their hike back out, Jane thinks over her own predicament, not sure where she really belongs. Molly’s grief over the loss of her sister keeps her and Jane apart, though Jane gets to talk to Angie on the phone every day. She still can’t connect with Beast with any regularity. And she has decisions to make.
Double-Dead Bodies: The last night of the parley talks gets under way, with Grégoire’s decision being announced. Though denied MOC status (no surprise considering everything that happened), Lincoln is given permission to start three new clans, and in ten years he can reapply. When everyone is checking out of the hotel at sunset, Jane scents someone from the same blood-master whose servant tried to kill her in her room. She warns Derek and Wrassler, who stop the woman to talk. The woman steps back and takes aim, and she has two guys backing her up. Jane shoots the woman in the forehead, but learns quickly that the men are wearing vests. Beast speaks up and tells Jane to use claws, meaning knives. When the fight is over, Derek has been wounded but not seriously. Jane, overjoyed at Beast’s return, realizes that she actually enjoys her crazy life. The question is, what blood-master vamp just declared war on Leo?
Stories:
“Cajun With Fangs” (In Have Stakes Will Travel ): Bitsa, Jane’s motorcycle, seems to be having engine trouble on her way back to New Orleans, so Jane stops in the small town of Bayou Oiseau before daring the trip across a long bridge. Having seen the sign for the Tassin Brothers Auto Fix shop on the interstate, Jane figures the place is at least worth a try. The town has an interesting conglomeration of restaurants, and a lot of windows and doors with crosses. When Bitsa dies, Jane realizes she has no choice but to stop, consoling herself with the thought of trying the food she can smell coming from Boudreaux Meats. Jane steps into the place with a shotgun pointed at her, and then identifies herself to the man holding the weapon. After the man is convinced Jane is who she says she is, he introduces himself as Lucky Landry and says he is a fan of hers. Pleased though also surprised to learn she has fans, Jane accepts Lucky’s offer of fried gator. Beast, who has remained very quiet since the episode with the demon and angel in Asheville, perks up at the mention of eating gator. Jane is disappointed to learn that the Tassin Brothers are off gator-hunting, meaning she isn’t sure how her bike will get repaired, but she gets slightly distracted by listening to the story Lucky tells, of how the town’s long-standing problems between witches and vamps began and has continued into the present. Jane is not surprised to learn that Leo’s uncle Amaury played a role by leaving loose a number of scions not yet out of the devoveo, though he did kill their master. Jane then realizes that Lucky himself is one of the witches, and when she says so, noting that he wants her to get involved, suddenly everything goes black.
When she comes to, in the room of the bed-and-breakfast Lucky got her a room in, Jane finds out that Lucky wants her to rescue his daughter, who has been captured by the local vamps. Somewhat hesitant to involve Leo, since her contract has run out and she has turned in her resignation from his service, Jane nonetheless realizes she doesn’t have much choice. Leo gives her authority, as his Enforcer (an idea and title Jane wishes she had never declared out loud back in Asheville), to execute anyone necessary to complete her mission, and he will make sure the required legal paperwork gets to her. Derek Lee and three of his men arrive the next morning, and they draw up plans for their approach, also making use of a few locals. Determining that they don’t have enough manpower for an all-out assault, Jane decides that she will go in to talk to Clermont Doucette, the head vamp, while Derek and the others sneak up in quieter boats. Jane also warns Lucky to stay out of it.
When she arrives at Doucette’s, she gets in to see Clermont after a brief skirmish, and after bonding over boots and tea, Jane learns that Lucky’s daughter, Shauna, and Gabriel, Clermont’s son, are in love. Jane mentions the problem of witches not being able to beat the devoveo if they get turned, Gabriel loses control and goes after Jane. After another bout of fighting that ends up with a few individuals getting hurt and Lucky butting in, Jane asks if both parties are ready to talk. They agree, and Lucky learns that his daughter is pregnant. When Clermont says that Shauna can be made blood kin, which will keep her alive for about two hundred years, without running the risk of turning her, Lucky agrees to a wedding. The next day there are two ceremonies, held outside in the churchyards, and that night a party with lots of dancing. Jane feels the satisfaction of a job well done that also resulted in her being well paid.
* * *
“Golden Delicious” (in the anthology An Apple For the Creature ): Rick LaFleur, two months after being infected with the were-taint and his life forever changing, is now in the midst of training for a position with PsyLED. His mentor, Soul, an exotic woman of indeterminate origin (Rick’s pretty sure she isn’t human, though she looks like it), has taken Rick to a crime scene for him to evaluate it. With his werewolf-stuck-in-wolf-form companion, Brute, and his grindylow, Pea (on hand to make sure neither the wolf nor Rick passes on the disease to humans), Rick starts his assessment outside, which none of the other trainees have done. Inside, with Brute’s help, Rick determines that the scene contains a salt witch-circle where blood-magic was used, with a scorch mark in the center indicating a likely demon-summoning. Rick then says he is moving from his human senses to enhanced were abilities, and immediately smells werewolf. Getting his automatic panic reaction under control, Rick says that the werewolf present bit one of the witches, likely infecting her. Rick uses the psymeter, which shows nonhuman or paranormal activity, and believes that the reaction of the device means the working is still active. Rick asks for photos from the scene.
As Soul, Rick, and his companions are leaving, Soul gets a call from Mariella Russo, the instructional administrator for the school, who refuses his request to see photos. She says that what they really need from him is the name of the witch who made his music that keeps him from shifting and perhaps getting stuck in cat form because of the tats. Rick can hear the conversation with his enhanced hearing, and he starts at this request, primarily because the creator of the music, Evan Trueblood, is a very unusual and still-in-the-closet male witch. During their conversation, Russo relents and says Rick can have the photos.
Back in his room, Rick looks over the photos of the scene, as well as the files, and discovers that only f
our witches were found, refusing to give up their leader. One of them, a senator’s wife, died in a car accident two days after her arrest. However, Rick surmises that she was likely the witch bitten, and was probably removed to a secure location to try to get her help—the name of Rick’s witch.
The next morning, after being rudely treated by some of the other recruits, Rick gets invited to a table with two friendly women, both of whom really seem to like Brute. During their conversation, Rick says that Brute is a tame werewolf, made that way by an angel. After a long day of physical training and an evening of study, Rick and his two companions head to their room. Brute warns Rick of a problem. It turns out that someone was in their room, left some kind a of black dot on the touch pad of Rick’s laptop, and took his MP3 player with the music that prevents him from shifting. Soul brings a team to check out the room, and luckily Rick has his music on his laptop also, and he drifts off to sleep listening to it.
In the middle of the night, Rick’s cell rings, and Soul tells him that the black dot was LSD. She asks him to meet her so they can talk. On the way there, Brute catches the scent of the person who had been in the room, but Rick has made the mistake of leaving without his music, and feels excruciating pain, blacking out. When he comes to, Soul tells Rick she put his music on an old MP3 player of hers, so he should be fine.
Once again they start off after the intruder. Brute indicates that the person they are tracking had also been at the crime scene. Brute leads them to the office of Mariella Russo, and when they enter, they find one of the female recruits on the floor with her abdomen cut open, and what appears to be a demon feeding off her. Russo gets shot, with Soul making a very unusual move across her desk, and the demon is contained.
The next morning Rick gets called into the chief administrator’s office, and rather than getting fired, which is what he expects, he is told that he will be going out into the field on a job in New Orleans that involves Leo, and that Soul, much to her surprise, will be accompanying him. Rick gives Soul a gift—a gold apple on a chain.
Death’s Rival, Book Five
I’m Gonna Need Some Stitches: Not too thrilled to be on Leo’s Learjet on her way to Sedona, Arizona, Jane is also very puzzled by her new case: figure out how vamps are getting sick (which never happens) and who is behind the problem. Talking on the phone with Reach, Jane learns that two months ago vamp masters started getting ill, each receiving a message from another mysterious, unknown vamp: submit to him by swearing loyalty in a blood ceremony, or face him in a Blood Challenge. Since they knew they couldn’t win while sick, most of the masters had complied and then gotten better. Reach and Jane discuss the distinct possibility that the same vamp who attacked Leo at the hotel in Asheville is the very same one spreading the disease. Reach suggests that since the attack didn’t work, this vamp is using the disease as a way to get back at Leo, by infecting those connected to him. Lincoln Shaddock and the Asheville vamps are sick, and Jane’s current mission (which she agreed to just the day before), going to see MOC of Sedona, Roseanne, to get a sample of her blood so a cure may be developed and to learn what she can about this vamp villain.
When the plane thankfully lands at the airport, Beast makes it clear she wants to go hunting in the area, as there a couple of mountain lions on the loose, but Jane tells her no. Jane gears up with her various weapons, and after a brief exchange with the first mate, Tory, she starts to disembark when Beast warns of danger at the same time Jane scents vamp, blood, and guns. Two men come at Jane, and during the course of the fight, Tory gets involved and is injured. With one attacker dead and one unconscious, Jane checks on Tory, who definitely requires medical attention.
Oh, Goody, I Wasn’t Gonna Get Sucked to Death: The pilot tells Jane that he called the police and 911 for medical help, and he and Jane both work on stabilizing Tory. Jane calls Bruiser to let him know they were attacked by blood-slaves, and he’s not pleased about the involvement of law enforcement (the vamps typically prefer to police their own problems), instructing Jane to leave as soon as she can so as to avoid being taken in for questioning. Bruiser and Jane discuss how the leak could have occurred, and Jane insists that it must not be anyone new. Jane calls Reach to get him to erase the security camera footage. After making sure she’s done all she can for Tory, and when the paramedics arrive, Jane leaves, going to the restroom to clean up, and then meets her driver.
Arriving at Roseanne’s clan home, situated in a canyon, and well aware of the armed-to-the-teeth guards as well as the vamp greeting party after she made her formal introduction at the gate, Jane nonetheless repeats her statement to them all. Roseanne’s heir, Nicolas, notes that Jane smells like a predator, but one that he is unfamiliar with, and of fresh blood. Jane tells him that she was attacked at the airport, adding that she doesn’t think it was one of their people.
Nicolas shows Jane to the library, where she waits for half an hour, then is taken to see Roseanne. The vamp looks worse than in the picture Leo received, and despite what was done to her, she does not divulge the name of her new master, saying, “She may not answer.” When Jane says that Leo would like a sample of Roseanne’s blood so his lab can work on a cure, Nicolas vamps out and comes at Jane, and she puts a gun with silver shot under his chin. Roseanne says she will comply with the request, and Jane draws the blood. Unfortunately the blood continues to seep, but Nicolas is able to get the bleeding stopped. When Jane says she will be leaving, a voice behind her says she will not, and she turns to find a gun pointed at her chest by a human who smells like the new master.
I Started to Squeeze the Trigger: Jane stalks across the room and takes the man down. Nicolas tells Jane to take care of their “guest,” putting an unusual emphasis on the word. Jane realizes that this guy is actually Roseanne’s antidote—she feeds from him to keep from dying. Jane smells the same master on the man that she did on her attacker in the hotel in Asheville, making it pretty clear that the same vamp master is behind that attack and the vamp disease. The big guy she has just taken down also has an amulet (nonactive) on him, and she takes that away. After checking with Roseanne to make sure she’ll be all right after Jane beat up the guy, and being told yes, Jane leaves.
In the car, with the GPS directions for the airport set, Jane texts the pilot to ask if they can use the same plane, and receives the answer yes. After dropping the vials of Roseanne’s blood in a FedEx box, Jane gets on the road. At first Jane thinks she may be getting followed by a couple of other cars, but they turn off. Jane calls Bruiser to give him her report, and during their conversation she determines that she is being followed, by the same two cars she saw before. Jane tosses the phone and floors the car, but ends up driving off the road and down the side of a hill. The airbags deploy, and Jane then passes out. She comes to, hearing Bruiser’s voice calling her name on the cell, but also hearing footsteps coming her way. Jane gets to one of her guns, firing off three shots. Unfortunately her assailant gets off shots also, and one of them hits Jane. She shoots a few more times, and it seems the guy has left. Jane knows she is in trouble—bleeding out, and unable to get to her fetish tooth in her pocket. She thinks of Beast, and Beast comes.
Removing Jane’s clothes and boots from the car to hide them, Beast also tries to pick up the cell phone, out of which she can still hear Bruiser’s voice, but she is unable to wake Jane. After accidentally breaking the phone, Beast decides that may be a good thing, as Jane may not want Bruiser to find her clothes without her. After brushing away her tracks using the clothes, which she then hides, Beast goes hunting for food, grabbing an old goat. After eating and lying in the night air, Beast thinks about how the angel Hayyel had told her he could separate her from Jane and give her freedom, but Beast refused, not wanting to leave Jane. Beast decides to go for a walk, to see if she can find those two male mountain lions.
The Man Who Killed Me: Jane wakes on the pile of her clothes, with no memory at all of her time as Beast. She is pleased to realize that Beast wiped away her own tracks. Finding th
e blood trail of the man she shot, she puts some of the blood/dirt mixture in a test tube to take back with her. Jane catches a ride back to the airport from a trucker, and makes it to the plane, wondering if the pilot (not one of Leo’s regulars) may have been the source of the leak that led to both attacks. After showering and locking herself into the sleeping chamber, Jane gives Bruiser her report, then sleeps until they land in Seattle.
Jane gets to the clan house, which is eerily quiet. Immediately suspicious, Jane goes inside, gun drawn, and smells the sickness of the vamp disease. Going upstairs, Jane finds ten diseased blood-servants and a dead woman, who, upon closer examination, Jane figures out is a Mercy Blade. Jane takes blood from the sick, and finds out from one of them that the Mercy Blade had told them all to fight rather than submit to the vamp-master, and he killed some of the Mithrans, though some got away. Jane picks up a laptop and some cards for a place named Blood-Call.
When she arrives at the private airport terminal, Jane senses something wrong and finds a man tied up in the back room, who tells her that there were three people, one a vamp, and that he heard screaming out at the plane. When Jane goes to investigate, she smells fresh blood, and when she gets inside, she sees blood everywhere.