by Faith Hunter
After checking and scenting the area, Jane finds a building that she considers a likely prospect. Hicklin, one of Derek’s men, goes inside an art store located in one corner, flirting with the salesgirl for information. He finds out that a very unusual, very old vamp lives in the other section of the building, and Jane feels sure that it must be Renee. Derek’s guys blow the door off, and on the inside Jane and the men find nine vamps chained to cots, but no one else. One cot is empty. Two blood-servants and a vamp come down the stairs, and while they are incapacitated, Jane learns that her theory is correct: Renee, Tristan, and one other male vamp are also witches. Jane also confirms, by smell, that two of the vamps chained to cots also have the witch gene.
Thief-of-Kits. Die. While checking out the rest of the building looking for the captives, Jane finds a group of paintings depicting various scenes, and discovers a bed inside an armoire with Angie’s scent, but no blood. Jane then figures out that the last armoire covers a hidden passageway, which Derek and his men find the door to outside, but the vamps and their hostages are long gone. When Jane gets back home, Evangelina, Evan, and Molly are all there. Jane tells them what she knows, and then Rick arrives with the information that Bettina, when human, was Renee’s slave, then Bethany’s, turned by a member of the Rousseau Clan when she became ill. Jane and all of her company examine the vamp paintings, which tell the story of the experiments. The two witches knock at the door—the same two who had been involved in the taking of the children. The two women say they were approached by a male vampire who blamed Leo for the theft of the witch children, telling the two women he needed their help to get others to safety. Once they realized what was going on, they came over to tell Jane and the others. Apparently Angie did something to one of the vamps that prevented him and the others from killing the two witches. Derek calls to tell Jane that the transponders placed on the cots at the warehouse had been found and removed. Jane leaves, with Rick following.
Will Not Be Caught in Predator’s Stare: Jane and Rick arrive at the vamp cemetery. When Sabina does not answer Jane’s banging, she breaks down the door. Inside the two find a bier with Sabina’s likeness on it, but when they open it, she is not inside. They do find boxes, and one that Jane opens holds the cross she saw Sabina wield when chasing the liver-eater, what she had referred to as the Blood Cross. Suddenly Sabina is upon them, sinking her talons into Jane, accusing her of stealing. Jane explains that she just wants to borrow the cross, to use against the ones holding the children and Bliss.
Sabina then relates the story of the Sons of Darkness to Jane and Rick. Judas, who hanged himself after Christ’s death, was buried, and his sons dug up his body, planning to use the blood of Christ, on his cross, to work magic. The crosses had been broken up and mixed together, and there was no way to know which was which. The sons laid the body of Judas on the pile of broken wood and he rose from the dead, but was a monster with pieces of flesh dropping off. The sons thought they could gain power by drinking his blood and eating his flesh, but instead they became the precursors to vampires, making more of their kind, suffering the devoveo.
After hearing the story, Jane asks if Sabina will bring the cross and stop the rite. She refuses, as she cannot wield it again so soon herself, but after telling Rick to leave she says she will give Jane a sliver of it. She warns Jane to be careful, that it may harm her, and she knows what Jane is. When Jane sees the shape of the sliver, which looks like a stake, she surmises that is the reason wood stakes kill vampires. Sabina also reports that Rafael and Adrianna mind-bonded, giving her access to their thoughts. The two killed her sire and his heir and plan to take down Leo in battle after the full moon, then kill Jane and all of the witches in town. Knowing she needs to warn Leo, but stumped as to how she can do that and save the children, Jane is relieved and appreciative when Rick volunteers to take Jodi and Sloan with him to meet with Leo and give him the news.
Pardon Me If We Don’t Bleed For You, Babe: When Jane arrives home, she tries to grab her supplies (including food for Beast), but Molly and Evan insist on helping. It hadn’t occurred to Jane that she wasn’t really prepared to defend herself and others from interrupting magical rites. Evangelina gives a Jane a necklace that works like a locator so they can track her. She can activate the necklace when she finds the site. The three witches and Derek (who also gives Jane a GPS tracker) and his men will wait together for her signal.
Jane goes back to the City Park, where she knows they will be since the vamps can no longer use the cemetery thanks to Sabina, and shifts. Beast finds blood-servants digging at the site where Jane witnessed the vamp rising, and shortly thereafter a car with vamps and the children pulls up.
I Had the Marines. Ooh Rah: Reluctantly Beast gives way to Jane, though she does feel that she and Jane together are stronger. Jane calls Molly, explaining that there are too many vamps present and that they would sense Molly, Evan, and Evangelina. Molly says they are working on a shield that would keep things like bullets from getting in but would allow them out. Jane and Derek’s group head to the circle, and they see the kids, Bliss, and Bettina. When the vamp witches start the ritual, the bloodred pendant that the bald unnamed brother wears uses the blood of the vamps to begin the working, creating red motes that begin to attack people. One of Derek’s men dies when he falls in the circle and the bald vamp kills him, but Jane notices that Angie is awake. Angie seemingly creates a black mist in her hands, and Jane gets immobilized by an incantation the bald vamp recites and feels as though she is dying, but Angie brings her back. Jane then uses the Blood Cross sliver on the vamps, and they die. The red motes leave the humans when Jane pricks them with it. Angie suggests Jane use the amulet gem to gather and destroy the motes, and when she does, they melt inside the gem.
Hot to Trot? Jane and the others make their way out of the forest, leaving the vamp bodies behind. Bettina was still alive, needing a blood meal, and Adrianna was not true dead, in the hopes that Leo may learn something from her mind. Molly and Evan reunite with their children, and Bruiser arrives with Leo. In a private moment, Bruiser expresses his concern for Jane but says he was not able to come, though he wanted to. Jane understands that he is referring to his bond with Leo, and she decides that she prefers Rick—a human not bound to a vamp. Jane goes to Rick’s for the evening, and gets a call from Bruiser warning her that the remaining renegades who have not yet been caught have sworn to kill her. Jane mails the creepy vamp paintings to Evangelina, assuming that she will most likely destroy them.
A few days after the big battle, Jane receives a letter from Leo, withdrawing the death threat against her, and offering her permanent employment. Not sure whether or not she will take the job, though the money is really good, Jane leaves on a trip with Rick to the mountains.
Mercy Blade, Book Three
I Didn’t Know You Had a Brain: Waking up in her small apartment in the Appalachians, a few weeks after the events of Blood Cross, alongside her now-boyfriend, Rick, Jane muses over her new situation. Between her job working security for Leo Pellissier and Rick’s job as a police officer, they don’t get to see each other quite as often as they would like, and when together, they can’t always talk about their work, which in some cases would be tantamount to sharing secrets. Jane turns on the television to CNN and sees a story from the BBC about an African man, Kemnebi, who claims to be a wereleopard, which he then demonstrates by shifting in front of the camera. Jane watches, mesmerized, and tells Rick about it when he gets up.
Changing the channel to BBC, where a reporter is discussing the story, Jane and Rick see an interview with a man who says he is a werelion, head of both the International Association of Weres and the Party of African Weres. The mention of lions reminds Rick of the incident where Jane saved him from the rogue skinwalker/liver-eater who attacked him as a sabertooth. He does not remember the event clearly, as he was so badly injured, but that much he is sure of. During their conversation, Jane gets the sneaking suspicion that Rick knew about this story before it aired,
and is afraid he may have been working undercover with weres, given his recent schedule. When an interview with Kemnebi comes on, he states that biting or mating with humans is strictly forbidden. An hour later, an interview with the leader of the Lupus Clan of werewolves in the U.S. airs, and the man claims that Leo murdered his grandfather and stole their land, and he plans to prove it. Jane’s phone rings, with a call from Leo.
A Fighting Ring: Leo tells Jane that representatives from the International Association of Weres arrived in D.C. two weeks earlier (which Rick confirms he also knew). Leo wants Jane to return to New Orleans immediately, and to check on a “persona non grata” who may have had contact with the werewolves in the area, and Leo wants him gone—after Jane learns what the guy has to say. After they arrive back at Jane’s in New Orleans, Rick heads out for his own secretive assignment, and Jane gets ready (assembles all her weapons) for her trip outside town to look for the guy Leo wants her to talk to. She arrives at Booger’s Scoot, a biker bar, which, unlike what the name implies, is actually quite clean. Outside Jane has a conversation with a huge guy who never actually identifies himself. When she goes inside, Jane goes up to the bar and speaks to Booger, handing him her card. Jane tells him that Leo sent her to talk to a vamp, but Booger says that vamps don’t frequent his place, though he guesses others may be interested in talking to her. At that point Booger hits a switch that lowers metal screens to protect the bars and windows, making a fighting ring, though with exits.
She Was Wearing a Red Thong: Jane realizes pretty quickly that she is now dealing with a pack of werewolves—which Leo had sent her straight into. The group has only one female. After Jane introduces herself, one of the men comes forward and identifies himself as Roul Molyneux, the alpha of the Lupus Clan of the Cursed of Artemis. Despite her efforts to reason with the man, who refuses to accept her message from Leo to get out of town, a fight ensues with the shifted wolves, with the odds heavily against Jane. Despite taking down a few of the pack, Jane gets injured, and seemingly out of nowhere, a man dressed in black (whom she dubs Zorro, for his skill with a blade) comes to her aid, addressing Roul by name. Jane and Zorro fight together, and finally the wolves depart. Jane feels a whack on the side of the head and passes out.
Yeah. Sure. Strip, Zorro. Jane regains consciousness in a field, sore but not as much as she last remembers. Jane realizes that Zorro transported her to this location on Bitsa, and he tells her that he has healed her as much as he is able, at least ensuring that she does not become infected by the werewolf taint, also commenting that she is not completely human. Jane uses Beast vision to ascertain that he isn’t human either, with tendrils of blue magic surrounding him. Zorro introduces himself as Girrard DiMercy, and explains that he used to be the misericorde for Leo’s clan, a blood-servant who brought peace (meaning death, freedom from suffering) to the long-chained vamps unable to move out of devoveo when turned. During the last vamp war in 1915, Leo’s uncle, then the Master of the City, called Girrard to come and end the suffering of Leo’s daughter, but Leo refused to allow him to do so, fighting Girrard and requiring him to leave this world to heal his wounds. Once Girrard returned, the Masters in power no longer wished for a Mercy Blade, choosing to mete out death on their own, and Leo banished him, as well as the weres who sided with the wrong faction in the war. Girrard states that having to kill their own children is taking a toll on the Mithrans, and that they need to reinstate him. By this time Jane has realized that he is the one Leo sent her to meet with, not the wolves. Girrard suggests that perhaps in her own way Jane serves as a sort of Mercy Blade for the vamps, killing their rogues. With the prodding of a memory glimpse from Beast, Jane denies this and leaves. On her back to the city, Jane gets a phone call from Angelina, Molly’s daughter, who tells her to stay away from “the blue man.”
You Can’t Blame a Vamp-Killer For Trying: Jane goes to give her report on the werewolf incident in person at vamp HQ, noticing that many of her recommended security updates have been implemented. After depositing most of her many weapons in the provided trays and undergoing a pat-down search by Wrassler, Jane goes to see Leo, whose second, Tyler, requires that Jane undergo another search—this one a bit too personal. After making it clear to Tyler that his behavior is unacceptable, Jane confronts Leo with the news about the wolves, which surprises him. Jane tries to find out more about Girrard, but Leo refuses to tell her anything. Unfortunately Jane also has to break the news to Leo that Magnolia Sweets, his former blood-servant and lover, has died (information given to her by Girrard). Leo offers Jane the job of killing Girrard, but she says no. Jane warns Leo that the wolves plan to take him to court to get back their land and prosecute him for murder.
After Leo dismisses Jane, Bruiser takes her downstairs for a chat and gives her a lot of background on the vampire war that ended in 1915. Bruiser’s mother was one of Katie’s Ladies, and was used as a pawn by the mayor’s assistant to gain favor with the Mithrans at a party. Bruiser’s sister was kidnapped and raped by werewolves, though eventually rescued, but not before their mother poisoned her blood with silver, which killed all of the vampire Masters at the gathering. When the heirs took over, they executed the werewolves involved in Bruiser’s sister’s attack (which is actually the sentence for biting humans anyway) and exiled the rest, causing the wolves to also declare retaliation against Bruiser’s family. Leo also made Girrard leave, and Magnolia Sweets left with him, saying she could no longer stay with Leo.
Jane learns that vamps in cities across the country will be hosting parties for delegates from the International Association of Weres, and she is expected to be present and oversee the one hosted by the New Orleans vamp council. Bruiser also tells Jane that the press will be in attendance, which does not please her at all.
You Get to Dress Me: After spending time with Bruiser going over new security precautions necessary in light of the upcoming soiree, Jane heads back to her house. Finding that her current house guest, Molly’s sister, Evangelina, is sleeping, Jane decides to shift so she can finish healing and Beast can hunt. Beast sees a man watching the house—Girrard. Beast lets Jane know that he found her by placing a tracking spell on her. As she usually does, Beast catches a ride on a truck to go outside town to hunt. Excited when she smells deer, Beast is less than thrilled when she smells wolves, and gets to the kill site with a lot of wasted meat and an injured fawn. After dispatching the unfortunate young deer, Beast also scents a large cat, which Jane understands to mean that one of the werecats was watching the wolves.
After shifting back and getting Rinaldo, her regular cabbie, to come pick her up, Jane goes home to get ready for her breakfast date with Rick. However, when she arrives at the restaurant, Jane discovers that Rick was already there earlier—with another woman. Since the description does not fit any of his relatives or work associates, Jane is confused, but thinks it may have something to do with his undercover work.
A Lot of Hooey: As she walks back to her house, Jane thinks about all of the recent events and how they may be related: the unveiling of weres, the return of werewolves to New Orleans, the connection between Leo and Girrard, and wolves and cats showing up in Beast’s hunting grounds. When she gets to the house, Jane calls Derek Lee to arrange for a team for that evening, and then does some research on both weres and wolves. In order to take her mind off Rick, instilled guilt, and the confusion she feels, Jane goes to the dojo for a sparring workout. After stopping by Katie’s briefly, Jane falls asleep, unfortunately assailed by a memory of her mother being raped and her father being killed. When she awakens, Jane gets sick and takes a long shower. Afterward, Evangelina gets Jane dancing to some music, and she eats the tasty dinner her witch housemate cooked, and discovers she feels better.
Die Young Then, Sonny: At the designated time, Bruiser arrives with the limo to pick Jane up for the vamp gathering. Feeling kind of jumpy and not quite herself, Jane realizes that Evangelina worked some kind of magic on her, which Beast helps her fight. Arriving at vamp HQ, Jane is taken
to the room where her crew awaits, and as she is chastising them for making too much noise and not paying attention, she spots Derek up in the ceiling, pointing guns at both her and Wrassler. Derek’s demonstration points out some of the flaws and weak spots in the system, and Jane gets a look on the security monitors at the unusual being the guys saw earlier—a greenish, reptilian-like creature who was placing cameras at various places around the building. Shortly thereafter the representatives from the vampire clans begin arriving—the former eight now condensed into four: Pellissier, Laurent, Bouvier, and Arceneau. Everything becomes eerily still while waiting for Leo to appear, which he does so suddenly that no one sees him arrive.
He Got a Whiff of Me: Leo declares the Mithrans “gathered” (which carries extra meaning for the vamps), the purpose of which is to devise a treaty with the Cursed of Artemis (the weres). Leo also states that the Sons of Darkness sanction this meeting, and that humans have grown so numerous that a treaty is necessary. Kemnebi, the African wereleopard and a woman (introduced as Safia) arrive, and Beast, after scenting them, wonders if they are like Jane. Bruiser tells Jane that Leo wants her to go through the receiving line behind the vampire clans. Jane is pleased when Bethany does not seem to remember her, but Sabina asks her if she still has the piece of the Blood Cross she was loaned. When Leo introduces her to Kemnebi, the man responds by shaking her hand but then immediately asking what she is, scenting at her throat. When Leo more or less offers her up as a bedmate, with a little help from Beast Jane pulls away and somehow manages to leave claw marks on Kemnebi’s arm.
Getting back to her job as security, Jane checks in with her guys regarding the green being, and learns that he is still in his room. After a brief but unsettling run-in with Sabina, who tells Jane of an incident that occurred one hundred years earlier, when some type of cat killed a visiting Son of Darkness, Sabina warns that if such a thing happens again, it will be Jane’s fault. Shortly thereafter, three werewolves in human form drop from the floor above, including Roul Molyneux.
