by Faith Hunter
Skinwalker, Book One
I Travel Light: Jane Yellowrock, vamp killer, recently recovering from a job that almost killed her, arrives in New Orleans to meet with Katie Fonteneau, a vampire who has lived in the area for many years. It seems there is a rogue vamp on the loose in New Orleans, and Katie wants to hire Jane to track it down and kill it—legally, of course. On her way down the street toward Katie’s, on her new motorcycle, Jane notices a guy in a doorway watching her, but he does not seem threatening.
Never having met a “civilized” vamp before, Jane is not sure what to expect. She gets greeted at the door by a big man she nicknames Troll, who takes her proffered card and abruptly closes the door in her face. While waiting for his return, the intriguing guy she knew was watching her earlier pulls his bike up beside hers, and then comes up to wait near her. When Troll returns, Jane goes inside with him, giving up most of her weapons (other than a few she keeps well hidden).
Troll escorts Jane to meet Katie, and all seems to be going well until Katie does not recognize Jane’s scent—other than identifying her as a fellow predator—and vamps out, leaping at Jane, who pulls out her weapons and takes a defensive stance. Jane tells Katie that she isn’t human, but unless Katie plans to tell Jane where her own daytime lair is, Jane will not tell Katie what exactly she is. The two agree to keep their own secrets. Jane and Katie discuss terms, and Jane learns that Katie has provided her with a house that meets all of her requirements (including the large boulders she requested). Jane will receive a twenty percent bonus if she completes her job in ten days, and Katie gives her the folder of crime scene photos and cloths with blood traces.
Okay, I Was Paranoid: Troll and Jane test each other when they leave the room—him wanting to know where she hid her guns, her not telling him—but their interchange ends peacefully, with Troll giving Jane an envelope containing money, her contract, and keys. Feeling pleased that she had successfully stood up to Katie as she walks toward her bike, Jane scents the same guy that she had seen before going inside. Jane realizes that the man had tried to open the locks on her saddlebags, which, unluckily for him, were spelled. After a brief exchange, during which the guy (who Jane thinks of as the Joe, as in an ordinary Joe) says he had hoped he’d get the job Katie was hiring for, Jane rides around the block to look at her new temporary home, which backs up against Katie’s Ladies. Judging the house to be at least two hundred years old, Jane evaluates the security and finds cameras, indoors and in the garden, which she destroys. Next up, a call to her friend, Molly, an earth witch, and a short chat with Angelina, Molly’s very powerful six-year-old witch daughter.
Jane decides to let Beast take over in order to hunt the rogue from the scents on the cloths given to her by Katie. Beast is the consciousness that resides within Jane, the one Jane allows to take precedence when she shifts into animal form. After going through the process of the change out in the garden, Beast eats the meat Jane left for her, and then takes in the scents on the cloth. Beast follows the trail, with Jane’s consciousness keeping her on track as to her goal, and discovers where the attacks took place. Beast believes she smells a “liver-eater,” but Jane has no idea what that means. After being fed a hamburger by a homeless man, Beast heads back to Jane’s house, to the garden, and shifts back into human form.
I’m a Tea Snob: Jane awakens into her own body out in the garden, musing over her history with Beast. She doesn’t know how she trapped Beast within her, but the cat knows and likes to sometimes make her suffer just a little for it. She does remember shifting back and forth between human and panther a few times over the years before she was discovered wandering in the woods at the approximate age of twelve. Given the scars on her body, Jane believes she shifted into human form at that time to heal herself from being shot, just as shifting into Beast form can heal injuries sustained while human. Making her way inside the house, Jane fixes some tea and oatmeal—foods she enjoys after her shift back.
After a phone call to Molly, Jane heads to bed for some much-needed sleep. She awakens at two p.m. to knocking on the door, and sees the guy she thinks of as the Joe standing outside. She opens the door, and after the guy states that she wasn’t home last night, he asks her to go eat lunch with him, also telling her she can call Troll (whose real name is Tom) to find out more about him. After learning that his name is Rick LaFleur, Jane closes the door, calls Tom, and finds out that Rick is his nephew, and recently he has been doing security jobs for the local vampire community. Beast likes Rick; she is impatient for Jane to take a mate.
Rick takes Jane to a restaurant and bar with delicious food and an unusual bartender/cook: Antoine, whose handshake crackles with a searching power up Jane’s arm. Unsure of what she is feeling, Jane is put on her guard, though the man is not threatening.
You Scare the Pants Offa Me: After they leave the restaurant/bar with full stomachs, Jane decides it’s time to see how useful Rick may prove for local information—her interest is only professional, of course. Rick tells Jane that she scares him, as he knows she’s not human, but has no idea what she may be, and he knows an awful lot about her recent activities, thanks to an Internet video that caught Jane and Molly coming out of the mine after killing the family of rogue vamps a few months earlier. Since he knows more about Jane than she feels comfortable with, and he then tries to put his hand on her neck, Jane takes Rick down and plants her elbow in his gut for good measure. Despite his laughter, Jane feels pretty sure Rick will lose interest in her after that.
Jane gets on her bike, Bitsa (so named because she is a combination of bits and pieces), heading out to meet with the butcher and to acquire some clothes more appropriate for the sweltering New Orleans weather. After success on both fronts, Jane returns to her house to get ready for dinner at Katie’s. She then examines closely the paperwork she received from Tom/Troll the night before, which includes her contract and some information on the seven vampire clans of New Orleans. Signing the contract, Jane heads over to Katie’s, and is greeted by Tom at the front door. They briefly discuss Rick, and Tom says he will check with Katie to see if it is okay for Rick to get paid for helping her with her job.
It Was Wicked Sharp: Jane finds herself surprised at Katie’s employees—they do not fit the picture of hookers that she carries in her head. As they are sitting down to dinner, a scream comes from another part of the house. Jane and the girls follow the sound and run to the room where they see Katie vamped out. Tom tells them all to go back to dinner. Partway through the meal, Katie appears, asking Jane to come with her. In Katie’s office, Jane sees Tom with blood on his neck, and Katie, bewildered, says she somehow took too much blood from him. She knows Jane has medical training as an EMT, and wants her to perform a blood transfusion using one of the girls. Jane refuses, but does give Tom an IV for fluids and calls the doctor Katie uses. Jane knows something is off with Katie’s behavior, and the vampire tells her she had a call from Leo Pellissier, Master of the City, about another vampire taken from her lair, and that Leo is on his way over.
When the doorbell rings, Jane arms herself with a couple of Tom’s weapons and sees two men outside. She opens the door, and the Leo’s human servant goes for Jane when he sees her cross and does not recognize her. A scuffle between the three ensues, Jane identifies herself, dubs the blood-servant Bruiser, and Katie comes in, telling the men that the blood they smell is from one of her people she needed to punish. Katie also apologizes to Leo for Jane’s behavior, and though he accepts the apology, Leo warns that nothing like that had better happen again. Katie tells Jane she can interview the girls tomorrow, so Jane heads back to her house to prepare for a shift and a hunt.
Paranoid Sometimes Pays Off: Beast catches scent of the rogue (mad one) in the vicinity of Katie’s, then follows the scent several blocks, coming upon a fresh kill the rogue just committed. Beast notices that the mad one’s wrinkles and rot smell seem to have dissipated after feeding. The mad one escapes up a wall. Beast catches a ride on a truck, following the trail into
the woods. Puzzled by what she finds, Beast decides it is time for Jane to reemerge.
Not sure of her location, Jane gets dressed with the clothes in her pack and heads over to a convenience store. Convincing the clerk to call her a cab, Jane has Rinaldo, the cabdriver, stop at a drive-through before dropping her off at home. Pleased that she has an understanding with Rinaldo to pick her up in the future whenever she calls, Jane is not happy to find Rick on her stoop.
Rick wants to know where Jane was last night. She lets him in the house, but tells him to wait while she showers. To Jane’s surprise, Rick makes tea. He tells her that the rogue killed again last night, and Jane says she knows—that she was tracking him and got there too late, and that the police did not see her because of an obfuscation spell. Rick says he knew the murdered woman. Jane sniffs Rick in a very strange way (Beast-like), and scents the perfume on him that she also got from the cloth, meaning the rogue and Rick had been with the same woman. Wondering what this information means, Jane tells Rick she needs to sleep, and that she will give him some addresses to track down later that evening.
Fly It: Jane leaves a message for Molly, asking her to call and reminding her to check her house wards, which also serve as protection from government agencies finding out about Molly’s family’s power. Jane wakens at three p.m. to knocking—this time it is two NOPD officers at her door, a woman and a man. The two interrogate Jane about her activities, especially relating to what she observed the night before about the woman’s death. The female officer, Jodi, takes a psy-meter out of her pocket, telling Jane that she registers a sixty-two, a powerful reading. Jane passes this off as residual magic left on her from hanging around witches. The male officer shows his true colors as a bigot regarding supernaturals, and ultimately Jodi tells him to leave. Jane and Jodi agree to share information as needed.
After a brief visit and tea with Miz A, who works at Katie’s Ladies, Jane takes off on Bitsa, and finds herself following the trail of the rogue. Ending up back where Beast had come last night, at a small gray house that calls to her, Jane rings the doorbell, and a Cherokee woman answers, speaking to Jane in Cherokee, which somehow Jane is able to understand.
A Warrior Woman: Drinking an ice-cold Coke and eating warm cookies, Jane learns that the woman’s name is Aggie One Feather. Jane asks Aggie about the stories surrounding liver-eaters, and to her surprise, she is told that they are skinwalkers gone evil. During their conversation, Jane finds that bits and pieces of her memories are returning to her, but when Aggie asks her what she is, Jane becomes immediately defensive. Aggie relates some of the liver-eater tales, and offers to allow Jane the use of the sweat lodge if she needs it, saying it will help center her prior to battle, though she believes it unlikely that Jane will take her up on it. When Jane returns to her house, she smells the cloth with the scents once again, and realizes that she also smells someone Cherokee.
After returning home, Jane vaults the wall separating her house from Katie’s, noticing that the camera set to keep an eye on Katie has been removed. From a new scent that Jane detects, she knows that Rick was the one who removed it, and by the older trace, she realizes that the camera was placed there by Bruiser/George, Leo’s primo, which causes Jane to wonder if Leo is spying on his own people. Tom spots Jane coming down from the wall, and lets her know that she has annoyed Katie by missing a meeting with her. Joining the girls for dinner inside, Jane learns some of the background for a few of them, including that Leo sometimes exercises his “dark rights,” giving him first dibs on the girls, but it is not really clear which of those rights (blood or sex) he exercises.
I Really Love Rock and Roll: Enjoying a fun though not particularly informative dinner with the girls, Jane stops by to chat briefly with Tom. When she asks why Leo would have been spying on Katie, Tom says he wouldn’t have been, given the rules of the Vampira Carta. Jane also learns that using the term “vamp” is an insult to vampires, who prefer the term Mithrans. Jane once again reminds herself that she plans to someday find out why vamps react to Christian symbols the way they do. Jane tells Tom that she plans to go out dancing, in order to do some sniffing around.
After dressing in the skirt and blouse she picked up on her shopping expedition, and hiding a few weapons in secret spots, Jane finds Rick and Bliss, one of Katie’s Ladies who is a witch that doesn’t seem to realize it, at her front door, planning to accompany her. When they arrive at the Royal Mojo BluesCompany , Jane takes to the dance floor, joined by several other women. Shortly thereafter, she hears Bliss scream. Taking off to find the girl, Jane ends up in the restroom, having come upon a young rogue feeding off Bliss. Jane battles the vamp who has either escaped or been released before his time, and after the police arrive, Jane leaves to track the vamp, the scent of Bliss’ blood a strong beacon.
Semper Fi: While tracking the vamp through the New Orleans streets, Jane puts in a call to Leo, as he is head of the local vampire council. Speaking to Bruiser, Jane tells him about the attack, and that she is on the trail of the vamp. After getting her location, Bruiser tells her that help is on the way. When she gets to the point where she can smell the vamp all around her, Jane also becomes aware that there are now two, which Beast thinks is its mate. Realizing that she is now the one being hunted, Jane sees a door open in a building ahead, and three heavily armed young men step outside. One of them calls out to her, saying Leo sent them to help. Jane asks if the three can take down the male, which is closest to them, and she will take the female. In the ensuing scuffle, both vamps are killed, but one of the young men is injured, as is Jane, in the arm. After speaking briefly with the leader of the three men, Derek Lee, a former marine, Jane sneaks off so she can shift in order to heal.
WeSa . . . Bobcat: Jane finds a home with a large koi pond to rinse the severed head of the young vamp in, removing her blood. While doing so, she wonders if she did the right thing in this case, killing the young girl, or if she should have let Leo capture and restrain her until her period of madness wore off. Jane heads home.
When Jane arrives back at her freebie house, she immediately senses Leo and Bruiser inside. After a brief discussion, during which Leo makes it clear that he is none too pleased that Derek’s man is injured and Derek now wants to find the vamp responsible for creating the ones killed that night, Jane tosses Leo the head. After getting a container for the head, Bruiser restrains Jane so that Leo can look at her wound. He decides to heal her, and realizes that she is some sort of supernatural creature he cannot identify. During the process of receiving his blood, Jane experiences a memory of her first shift, along with her father. When she comes back to the present, Jane sees Leo staring down at her, in vamped-out mode.
Naked Vamps. And the Food Was Naked, Too: Rather than being afraid, Jane feels relaxed, and even grateful to Leo for returning the memory of her father to her. Jane thanks Leo, but turns down his offer to share his bed. When Leo once again asks Jane what type of creature she is, she says him she will share that information if he will tell her where vampires originated. Leo explains that all supernatural beings (weres and elves also, which Jane is astonished to learn exist) were created by a curse, but is reluctant to say any more. Leo then invites to Jane to attend a vampire gathering where most of the ones in the vicinity will be in attendance. As Leo and Bruiser leave, Jane lies down and thinks over some of what she learned about her own history, understanding that she remained in cat form for a long time, until needing to regenerate and so shifted into human form. Since skinwalkers revert to a remembered age when they shift, they have a longer life span. Jane drifts off to sleep.
When she awakens, Jane decides to visit the church in the strip mall where she bought her clothes. Afterward, she decides to take a ride looking over some of the vampire clan homes—the public ones where they entertained. Her first stop is at the Clan Arceneau location, where she is greeted by a large guy with a big gun. After carefully showing identification, and submitting to a professional search by the big guy’s twin, Jane is allowed to
enter the house and have a chat with the two men, blood-servants to the clan blood-master, Grégoire. Jane learns the difference between blood-servants and blood-slaves, and discovers that the twins are unhappy about the rise of blood donors, as they do not have the same kind of ties and therefore leave both parts of the arrangement vulnerable. On her way out, Jane notices a very revealing painting with the twins, Katie, Leo, and Grégoire, and learns that the twins were born in 1822.
You May Call Upon Me: Jane puts on her one black dress (which travels well), and she and Bruiser share an appreciation for each other when he arrives to pick her up. Jane causes a stir briefly, a situation Bruiser defuses by introducing her as the rogue hunter. Loading her plate with food, Jane wanders the house, meeting up with Bettina, the blood-master of Clan Rousseau, who is very interested in Jane. Ending up in a room with a nice sound system playing salsa music, Jane dances with Bruiser, who comes in to tell her Leo wants to speak with her. Leo observes their very intense dance, and claims Jane for a rumba, which draws an audience. A short time later Jane watches as Leo presents the guest of honor and his biological son, as his heir. The latter does not seem to be a very popular idea with many of the vamps in attendance, a fact that Jane finds interesting and files away for further investigation.
The next day, Jane walks around the Quarter, and spots Antoine. Deciding to follow him, Jane trails the man to the Royal Mojo Blues Company, which Jane now knows is owned by Leo. Observing from a short distance at first, Jane then goes inside the establishment and discovers two things: Antoine is meeting Rick and a woman who looks vaguely familiar, and the woman’s scent identifies her as the one sleeping with the rogue. Jane then realizes she has seen the woman’s picture in the paper—she is the mayor’s wife.
Beast Was Born: Jane heads back to the house and shifts, determining that Beast needs to track those she saw together. Beast tracks the scent of Rick and Anna (the mayor’s wife) to an apartment, and when Beast goes inside, it is obvious the two are having sex. When Rick leaves, Beast follows him, and when he gets on his bike to leave, it occurs to Jane that he is likely heading back home and may come looking for her. Beast races home over the miles, and when Jane emerges, she feels sick and overheated. That much of a run is not good for a cat the size of Beast. After showering, Jane goes through the house following Bruiser’s scent, seeing where he had looked when he was in there during her absence.