by Faith Hunter
You Want Me to Shoot Him, Boss? Suddenly Jane and her team find themselves in the midst of vamped-out hosts, werewolves in both human and wolf forms, and upset werecats. Kemnebi declares that he will not negotiate with werewolves, as they are inferior, and were kicked out of Europe long ago. Raol, playing up to the cameras, which love him, takes issue with Kemnebi’s characterization of his species, and once again states his intention of taking Leo to court. Leo responds that the Mithrans at present are not bound by the laws of the United States, but by the Vampira Carta, which, Jane acknowledges to herself, fits the fact that currently vamps do not have status as citizens in the same way humans do. Jane gets notified that a bloody female vamp has appeared in the building, heading down to the ballroom. When she appears, Jane realizes it is Katie, who had been buried in the blood of all eight clans in order to heal during the events of Skinwalker, risen too soon and likely not quite sane. Katie draws power from all of the vamps and weres in the room, and Leo approaches her. Recognizing Leo, Katie allows him to embrace her, at which point he bites her neck. This action provides the impetus for more chaos, with vamps fighting each other, but Jane manages to calm a couple of them down and asks them to go and help Leo, which they do by feeding him. Unfortunately Jane learns that they also have a dead body in Leo’s office—the werecat, Safia, Kemnebi’s assistant. About that same time, the police have arrived, having seen the carnage begin on the live video feed. Puzzled as to who would have killed Safia, given that vampires wouldn’t want her blood, Jane meets with Jodi Richoux, head of the division dealing with supernatural crime, and Jodi passes on the information to the Bureau of Diplomatic Services in Washington, D.C.
Don’t Beat Yourself Up Over It: After moving the human reporters to safety and the werewolves to another room, Jane takes a few moments for herself and grabs some food before heading over to where the coroner, Peter Richoux, Jodi’s witch cousin, is examining Safia’s mauled body. Once approximate time of death has been determined, Jane tells one of her men to focus on security footage for a specific time frame. When Jodi states that they will be placing Katie under arrest while they investigate, Leo asks if they will be able to effectively and safely restrain her, which results in an agreement for Katie to remain where she is, but with law enforcement present. When one of Jane’s guys spots the green guy in the pool with bloody clothes, Kemnebi shares that the creature is a grindylow, a type of pet to the weres, but Jane knows there is more he is not saying. Going over video footage determines that Katie did not kill Safia, but also shows one of Leo’s men, Tyler, in conversation with two werewolves in human form.
Katie Ate Dead Meat: Peter, the coroner, says he needs to do an autopsy on Safia to definitely rule on cause of death (though Kemnebi steadfastly refuses), but was able to ascertain some facts through his exam. Safia was shot, but there is no exit wound, meaning the bullet is still inside her. Peter believes that what actually killed her was bleeding to death from her neck being torn up. One of the techs tells the group that a hidden entrance into the room has been found—a fact Leo had neglected to share. She also mentions that a shell casing was found that may have bearing on another case. In a private conversation with Jodi, Jane learns that Jodi’s unit received a tip a few weeks earlier, which resulted in them reexamining a cold case from the ’sixties. Two of the suspects in those deaths are Leo and Bruiser, news that does not please Jane. Calling her cabbie, Rinaldo, to come pick her up and take her home, Jane mulls over the complete silence from Rick, feeling both anger and frustration. Woken from a deep sleep, Jane finds Bruiser at her door. It seems that his fingerprints have been found on the shell casing in the room with Safia’s body, and he asks Jane if he can lie low at her house for a couple of days. Reluctantly agreeing, but not believing Bruiser guilty of Safia’s murder, Jane tries to sleep. When she cannot relax, she picks up Girrard’s business card and catches a scent that she knows she also smelled during the gathering. When she talks to Girrard on the phone, he is less than helpful.
I Intend to Make You Regret That Decision: When Jane arrives back at the house, Bruiser greets her, striking her as despondent. They discuss dinner, and decide to grill some steaks. Jane asks Bruiser if he knew that Leo was going to offer her up to Kemnebi, and Bruiser says he did not. At that point, Bruiser suggests that he and Jane occupy themselves in her room, which she declines. Beast, however, really likes Bruiser, and comes to the fore, allowing Bruiser to get closer than Jane feels is safe, since she does feel an undeniable attraction to him. After a short time Jane does get Beast to retreat. While the two are grilling the meat, Bruiser asks Jane about the boulders in the yard—the ones she needs for shifts that require extra mass, ones that she included in her contract. Jane gives an answer that has some of the truth, but not all. Jane then asks how old Bruiser was when he first sampled vamp blood, and learns he was seventeen. The price Bruiser has exacted for his answer is a dance, which is getting too hot and heavy when Evangelina thankfully arrives, with Tyler, Leo’s second, in tow. After an exchange in which it becomes clear that the two men do not like each other at all, and Bruiser learns that Leo still has a few tasks for him, Jane retires, only to be woken by a noise.
And He Ripped Off My Shirt: On the floor by the front door is an envelope that someone sent through the mail slot. Jane sees someone running down the street and gives chase. Ending up on Jackson Square, Jane knows she has lost the person she was chasing, but just as she scents him, Leo attacks her. Jane smells old blood on him—Katie’s—which seems to have affected him, and though he injures Jane, Leo suddenly takes off. When she gets home, Evangelina tells Jane to go wash off all of the vamp blood with hot water. Bruiser carries her up to the shower, and after he douses her really well, the two end up in a compromising position, once again interrupted by Evangelina. Once she gets downstairs and determines that the delivered envelope does not contain explosives (but does smell like Girrard), Jane takes it outside to open it. Inside Jane finds three photos: an old one of Leo and Bruiser standing over a dying, partially shifted werewolf, one of Magnolia Sweets, and the third a sheet of four shots—all of them of Rick with another woman in very intimate poses—Safia. While fighting back her pain at Rick’s betrayal, which she feels regardless if it is for work or not, Jane shows the photo taken of him and Leo to Bruiser. Since no one else was there at the time, Bruiser wonders who took the picture, and Jane responds that it has to be someone who wants her to help them figure out the rest of the puzzle they are trying to solve.
Good Nose on Ugly Dog: Determined to distance herself from both Bruiser and Evangelina, and needing to shift to heal from the wounds inflicted by Leo, Jane heads out on Bitsa to find a good location, stopping for a bucket of chicken on the way. Since she wants an extraordinary sense of smell to examine Safia’s body in the morgue, Jane takes along her fetish bone necklace and shifts into a bloodhound. Beast, never pleased when Jane shifts into any other form besides hers, nonetheless grudgingly admits that the dog does indeed have a good nose. Managing to sneak into the morgue, Jane-as-a-bloodhound finds the room where Safia’s body is kept, and opens the drawer with her paws. Jane scents a number of people and creatures on the body: Kemnebi, the female werewolf, Girrard, Katie, and Rick. After narrowly escaping detection and subsequently returning to human form, Jane goes home to look over the files from the woo-woo room at NOPD, discovering one she had never seen before discussing speculations as to the history of weres. She also finds what appears to be a page from a journal, mentioning Magnolia’s disappearance and Leo’s state afterward, but there is no indication as to whose journal the section came from, though they describe themselves as “once Christian.” When she goes online to learn more about the Cursed of Artemis, Jane reads that skinwalkers may be extinct—something that hits home to her, since she may have killed the only other one. One theory also states that the weres and skinwalkers (the weres’ forebears) may have been in conflict. This leads Jane to suspect that Leo knows more about her than she would like.
You Like
the Boy Toy: Jane wakes to a call from Sloan Rosen, one of the other cops working in Rick’s section. He asks Jane if she has seen or heard from Rick, as he hasn’t checked in for over twenty-four hours, though he is supposed to twice a day. Jane realizes that the call is Sloan’s way of telling her to look for Rick, as he must be in trouble. Jane then receives a call from Leo, telling her that Kemnebi’s request that no autopsy be performed on Safia has been granted, and Leo wants Jane to find the killer. Realizing she needs help tracking down Rick, Jane calls Reach, an excellent but very expensive hacker, to locate Rick’s cell, as well as to try to determine where the photos of him were taken. Jane arrives at vamp HQ, and at breakfast gets a whiff of the waiter, sure it is Girrard, glamoured, and takes him down. She demands he take back the face she is used to, guesses that he is an elf, and wants his word he will answer questions. Girrard says he does not know who killed Safia, but that it wasn’t Leo or Bruiser. Jane, Girrard, and Wrassler watch the security feed from the night of Safia’s murder, and by slowing down the feed they see Safia come and go through a hidden place in the brick wall outside. The three then see the face of the man she was with—Rick.
When she leaves HQ, Jane finds an envelope on Bitsa’s seat, which she sticks in her bag without opening. Thinking over her relationship with Rick, Jane realizes that just as Leo owns Bruiser, the NOPD owns Rick. The envelope contains photos—of Roul standing over a dead werelion, and others with a human baby and Safia with kittens, and also a copy of Leo’s edict in 1916 banishing the werewolves from New Orleans. Suddenly Girrard appears in Jane’s room with a sword.
You Belong to Me: With Beast’s aid, Jane takes a few flying leaps, but Girrard (or Gee, as Jane thinks of him) is by that time sitting in the chair in her room, and tells her he is impressed. He asks if she likes the photos he sent, and Jane asks if they are fake, stating that his presence and that of the werewolves at the same time is too coincidental to be real coincidence. Gee explains the role of the Mercy Blade: to bring death to the rogues or scions who cannot move beyond devoveo, and their blood (that of the Blades) aids in bringing the suffering parents out of dolore. This arrangement began with the Sons of Darkness. Gee says he has gone to see Katie. When Jane asks what the reward for the Mercy Blade is, Gee responds that being around the vampires allows his kind to open a passage between worlds—a gateway to their own. Gee says Safia’s lover (he means Rick) likely saw her killed, and that Bruiser didn’t do it. Before he disappears, Gee tells Jane that she is goddess-born.
Jane calls Bruiser, asking questions, and surmises that clan members who had been with Leo since before 1915 would have knowledge of who needed to be killed so it would look as though Leo was trying to remove everyone loyal to his uncle. Jane decides that Tyler may be a good candidate for setting up Bruiser, so she goes to the clan home to search his room when he is not there. Jane hits the jackpot, finding spent shell casings and a gun hidden in a guitar case. Taking photos of the evidence, Jane e-mails them to Jodi, and then learns from Nettie, the housekeeper, that Tyler used to be head of security for Clan Rochefort, coming over from France with Leo’s son’s fiancee, Amitee. When leaving, Jane calls Sloan, who has not yet heard from Rick, but he lets her know that Jodi received her message and has a plan.
Hoping to spot Tyler out on the town, Jane heads over to the Royal MoJo Blues Company. Though she doesn’t see Tyler, she does see Katie, who appears sane. When they talk, Katie tries to hire Jane to kill Leo, for having deprived her of all of the power she gained from the blood of the vamps she was healing in, and when Jane refuses, she also suggests to Katie that she ask Leo to name her his heir.
Woad: After one more dance, Jane leaves the club, feeling clearheaded and slightly relaxed, though disappointed that she didn’t catch sight or scent of Rick or Tyler. Jane thinks about the spell that Gee put on her, and decides that he and Tyler are at the heart of whatever is going on. When she arrives back at the house, she walks in on Bruiser and Evangelina playing what appears to be a very cozy game of Parcheesi—so much so that the pink of the woman’s shirt casts a glow over the two of them. Jane tells Evangelina she needs her help in finding and removing the spell Gee put on her. Evangelina agrees, gathering her tools needed for the ritual, sending Jane into a type of trance. Taking Jane into her soul home, Evangelina tries to get Jane to tell her what she is, especially after Jane says there are always two of them together, but Jane refuses. After discovering the type of spell Gee used, a woad, at the same time as trying to disperse it, Evangelina attempts to attach her own to Jane, which results in Jane destroying both spells with fire.
When she awakens, Jane sees that Evangelina was physically burned on her arms, and she hears the woman tell Bruiser that Jane will be fine, but that she still doesn’t know what Jane is, just what she isn’t. Pretending that she is still asleep, Jane sees the pinkish glow still surrounding Bruiser, and realizes that Evangelina has put a love spell on him. When the two leave the room, Jane does so too, going outside and calling Molly. Jane explains to her friend everything that has happened, and what occurred during the spell-removal session. Molly warns Jane that soon people may discover what she is. The two women discuss the image of an eye that Jane now can see on her palm, part of Gee’s spell, which Molly says should allow Jane to track him. On the phone, Angie tells Jane that the blue man is still watching her, and that she needs to watch out for Bruiser, Rick, and the “Man-Cat” too. Jane spots Gee outside in the spot people always choose to spy on her house from, and discovers that she can now see the layers of his glamours. Jane walks over to Gee, him unaware of her presence.
A Fashionista’s Closet Full of Falling Stilettos: Sneaking up on Gee, Jane notes that he appears to be sleeping, thinking himself invisible. Using one of her blades, Jane slices into the misty sphere surrounding Gee, draws blood, and realizes that she has inadvertently cut into his actual body. The mist closes back up, and Jane gets a look at the form within—some type of creature with wings, one she has seen before in the emblem in the foyer of Leo’s clan home. Back at the house, Jane confronts Bruiser, who seems to know nothing about what Gee really is, but identifies the animal in the design as an Anzu, a mythical beast with an attachment to humans. Jane weapons up and heads over to the vamp cemetery to have a chat with Sabina, figuring that the ancient vampire will have the answers she seeks. Calling Leo to make sure she can get into the property without a problem, Jane is practically speechless with surprise when Leo apologizes for his attack on her earlier, when he was under the influence of Katie’s blood. When she arrives at the cemetery, Jane notices that the angel on top of one of the mausoleums bears a striking resemblance to Gee.
When Sabina appears, Jane asks her about the Cursed of Artemis. Sabina tells Jane that the original woman of the tale, Lolandes, later named Artemis, had a pet hunting bird, which was killed by a wolf in a fight over prey. Lolandes cursed the animal with a disease that affected both brain and body. That night the wolf infected other animals, and on the next bit a human, who also spread the contagion. Feeling guilt over the spread of the disease, Lolandes devised a cure of sorts that would work with all of the weres except the wolves. Jane asks if the treasured hunting bird may have been an Anzu, but Sabina says she does not know. Sabrina abruptly departs, and as Jane gets ready to leave, she realizes she forgot to return the piece of the Blood Cross. Leaving the relic in a bag on a door handle, Jane rides off. When Jane gets back to the house, she finds a file Reach has sent her, with information about Rick’s last location (narrowed down to two spots). Since there is now a full-on storm raging, Jane decides to get some sleep and to go investigate both places the next day.
Dang. Brass Knuckles Are Cool! Deciding to go to church in spite of what she perceives as being her guilt over various aspects of her life, Jane then heads out to check out one of the hotels Reach provided her the address for. When she arrives, Jane smells werewolves and then spots Rick’s bike, which has been sitting in the same place for days. After discussing Rick’s whereabouts with the k
id manning the desk at the hotel and offering a nice payment, Jane breaks down the door and finds two wolves inside, but no Rick, though she can tell he was there recently. She also smells the female werewolf in the same places. Interrogating one of the werewolves—in his wolf form, which proves interesting—Jane learns that a group of wolves left, taking Rick with them, to go and scout out Leo’s clan home. To her horror, Jane reaches the conclusion, confirmed by the wolf, that the female wants to turn Rick. Calling Sloan with the information, and telling him about the two wolves trussed up and waiting for the police in the hotel, Jane leaves to head back to the house and once again tries to figure out all of the connections between the various events of the present and past. Feeling particularly guilty over Rick’s dilemma since she feels as though she should have looked into his situation first, Jane gets more weapons and calls Derek Lee for backup. On her way to Leo’s, Jane notices a vehicle following her. When she rounds the curve in the road, Jane sees werewolves getting out of a truck, some in wolf form and some human.
Killing Teeth Tore Through . . . and Took Me By the Throat: Jane realizes she was somehow set up, since Rick was not with this group of wolves, which was obviously expecting her. While battling the weres, Jane gets shot, manages to break through the throng on Bitsa, finds a place on the side of the road, and shifts into Beast to keep from dying. Beast hides Jane’s guns and clothes in the bushes, then goes in search of food. After snatching a couple of chickens from a farm, Beast goes to Leo’s, coming up on a deputy speaking to Roul on the phone about a stasis spell, the man clearly one of the werewolves. When the deputy drives away, Beast goes inside, finding an almost-dead Nettie on the floor. In the living room she comes upon blood-servants not moving, under the spell the man was talking about. Among the people, Jane and Beast spot Jane’s necklace, the one torn from her neck in the fight with the werewolves back at the bar several days earlier. Figuring out that the wolves had wanted to implicate her in this situation, Jane asks Beast to take the necklace and move it. On the security camera, Beast and Jane see Leo in his lair, injured, and one of her missing stakes is in the room with him, and she also sees the hand of another person in there with him. Beast goes into the barn, looking for a place to wait out the time until sundown when she can shift back into Jane. When leaving there to go back to Bitsa, they see Kemnebi in leopard form outside, and he sees Beast. After shifting back, Jane immediately calls Bruiser, telling him what’s going on at the clan home and her suspicions about Tyler. Jane then leaves a message for Gee, letting him know that Leo may need his help. Riding back to Leo’s, Jane waits for Bruiser.
