by Faith Hunter
Deer Antlers Piercing Through His Shoulders: Jane finds the body of pilot Dan crucified in a horrifying scene, then discovers the new first mate dead on the bed she had slept on, with an envelope with her name on it on his body. The shock of the scene brings another vision to mind, one she can’t place but can’t get out of her head. Going back into the terminal, Jane frees the trussed-up man and borrows his motorcycle to get away. Jane asks the man to wait ten minutes before calling the police. While she’s riding off, it occurs to Jane that if she really wanted to (and part of her does) she could disappear, and she throws away her new cell phone.
As Jane thinks over the last couple of months and her loss of Molly and Rick, she also faults herself for not thinking that someone after her may hurt someone else. Beast’s comments that she is a killer only do not help. Withdrawing five thousand dollars, just in case she needs it, Jane knows she will have to fly on a commercial plane to get back to New Orleans, meaning she can’t take her weapons. She goes to a UPS store, packs everything carefully, and overnights the packages to herself. Jane calls Bruiser from a pay phone to tell him what happened, and after that Reach calls Jane on the same phone, telling her that he has the security tapes—visual proof that she isn’t human. He says if he ever feels threatened he will use them.
After riding around Seattle, Jane heads to the main airport, parking the borrowed bike, and leaves a phone message for the man the bike belongs to as to where he can find it, along with a hundred-dollar bill. While killing time before her flight, Jane opens the note left to her on the first mate’s dead body. In very formal language and script, she is told that she killed the letter writer’s Enforcer (the man from the hotel in Asheville), and that she will die along with her Master, which she assumes means Leo. As she drinks a beer, which the vamp-master smells like, Beast points out that may be important. While mulling over the bits and pieces of information she has, Jane decides to contact Derek Lee to see if one of his guys can find anything on the Enforcer she killed, and to acquire a couple of guys that would work just for her—a pointed comment that doesn’t go unnoticed by Derek.
When Jane gets home, she showers and heads over to see Aggie One Feather, who at first is resistant to help Jane go to water again right then, but then agrees. During the ritual, Aggie, whose face seems to be growing a wolf snout, asks Jane what she is bothered by that she never finished, and Jane says the revenge of the murder of her father and rape of her mother.
I Never Had a Chance to Say Good-bye: Aggie-with-the-snout tells Jane that she was just five, and asks who else she told what was going on. Jane remembers going down the hill to her grandmother’s house, and being put on a horse, and also realizes that her grandmother was also a skinwalker. Then the door opens, interrupting Jane’s vision, and Aggie says she’s sorry she was late getting there. Jane thanks her and says she is done anyway.
Later Jane gets woken up by her phone, with Bruiser asking her to come and help them, as Leo’s clan home is under attack. While Bruiser argues with Leo about how he needs to leave, Jane hears sounds that tell her Bruiser has been hit by a shot. Jane finds her boxes of delivered weapons on the doorstep, and puts some together before heading off. Jane arrives to find emergency vehicles, with Bruiser in one of them. The paramedics allow her to stay with Bruiser because he claims she is his wife and can make legal decisions for him. During their discussion about the letter Jane received, Bruiser loses consciousness. Jane calls Katie, threatening to kill her if she doesn’t send someone to heal Bruiser immediately.
Jane knocks the ambulance driver out of the way to keep him from taking Bruiser to the hospital rather than waiting for the vamp Katie has agreed to send, and ends up getting restrained by law enforcement until they realize what she was doing. Koun, a large Celtic vamp, arrives to help Bruiser, and afterward, he tells Jane she owes him a boon—she must fight in his place, as he is now too weak. Jane agrees, and joins the fight. Vamp Innara is too gun –ho for Jane’s and Derek’s tastes, and they tell her that killing everyone there will not leave them anyone to question. After they bring Innara around to their way of thinking, Jane and Derek decide to use flash grenades. Jane and Girrard the Mercy Blade go into the barn together, and when they come out, they find Innara staking another vamp.
I Whirled and Caught the Naked Man: Since Innara is using a silver-tipped stake, Jane yanks her arm away. Innara responds by going for Jane’s throat, but gets a big surprise from Jane’s silver mesh collar. Jena, Innara’s anamchara, runs over to get Jane, but Jane pushes her away. Examining the vamp that Innara had been staking, Jane smells Leo’s blood on him, and the way she goes about it disturbs Derek, who nonetheless answers Jane’s question about Leo’s whereabouts—he’s been taken. They agree to keep the vamp for questioning, but out of nowhere Grégoire comes flying, attacking the hostage. Jane stops him, explaining what they plan to do. Grégoire says he will bring his silver cages.
At Katie’s, Jane has a brief discussion with Tom, Katie’s blood-servant, and learns that the girls have all been sent away for the night. Jane also sees Bethany, the healer, working on Bruiser. In the parlor, the two cages are in the middle of the room with the vamps inside, and one of them decides to talk. He doesn’t give up his master’s name but swears he doesn’t know where Leo has been taken. Derek switches gears and brings up the name of the Enforcer that Jane shot in her hotel room. The vamp says that the man was there to learn what he could about Leo’s Enforcer (Jane, since she made the mistake of announcing it once) in order to issue a Blood Challenge. According to the Vampira Carta, that is a first step in challenging another master. Katie comes over to Jane, blaming her for the vamp war going on, and Bruiser comes into the room, saying it is not her fault, then collapses. Jane picks him up and carries him to another room, where Katie comes in and tells Bruiser that he will live and still be mostly human.
Your Security Sucks: Katie tells Jane that she knows Jane did not drink from Leo, and wonders why he allowed her to claim the title of Enforcer without doing so, also saying that Jane doing so was like her own situation when she asked to be turned so many years ago. Katie also states that Jane is without protection of the MOC. Jane points out that Leo could have forced her into submission any time he wanted to, yet chose not to, so it must be for a reason. Jane tells Katie to keep both herself and Bruiser alive, and walks out into the assembled group, speaking to both Koun and Derek, and the latter tells her that the blood she sent from Sedona was lost in the fire. Jane replies that she has some at her house from the Seattle clan’s human survivors. Once she gets outside, Jane feels relief that she succeeded in staying alive.
At home, Jane showers, and when she gets out, she hears a noise that lets her know someone is in the house, the scent identifying a human male. Upon examination, it seems the only item missing is the package of blood vials. Mulling over the possibilities for a traitor, wondering who it could be since Leo feeds from his people and would know of their plans, and that Bruiser knows who those people are, Jane yanks open her door to find one of Derek’s guys. After a brief conversation, she knows he is not the one who had been in her house. After he leaves, Jane hears a voice, in the dark, telling her that her house security leaves something to be desired—her new guy, sent from Derek, has arrived: Eli Younger. They discuss terms, which include the following: the house needs a security upgrade, Eli cooks but won’t buy the food, and he has a brother who will be joining them. Jane agrees to his fee, surprised to find herself saying she will be sticking around. Jane turns on the lights so the two can get a look at each other.
If I Lose, the Kid Eats Like a Soldier: With the lights now on, Jane sees that Eli looks at be about mid-thirties, solid, and her height. While preparing tea, Jane asks about Eli’s brother, and learns that his name is Alex, he is a hacker, an eighteen-year-old MIT grad, on probation for breaking into the Pentagon’s system looking for information on why his brother suddenly left the service. Jane deduces that Eli did so because their parents are dead, and if Eli died in comba
t, his younger brother would be alone. Eli calls Alex to come in, and when he does, Beast thinks, Thief. Initially this doesn’t make sense to Jane, but then she figures out that the kid had been looking into her background. She confirms this with Reach, who also caught the kid doing it and burned one of his devices. Reach says that the kid is good for what Jane needs, so she gives him a test: she wants a review of every file on the Seattle laptop, the e-mail address book and business-related messages—in an hour. Jane gets a call from Derek that Leo had been drained by a number of vamps when taken, and they now have a possible location. Jane and Eli prepare to leave.
Jane surveys the outside of the house, confirming that Leo is indeed inside, and she and Eli, along with Derek and his men, prepare to go inside. Jane tells Derek to have the blood-servants ready with cuts on their wrists, so that the starving Leo will go for those areas rather than other places on their bodies. Once inside, Jane finds Leo chained to the wall, thankfully with no signs of having fed from anyone sick, in the room with infected blood-servants and two sick vamps. One of the vamps wants to fight, and Jane takes him out. The blood-servants come in to help Leo.
After they get back to the house, Alex provides Jane with some information on a vamp named Hieronymus, who has also been issued the same challenge by the vamp spreading the disease. Jane tells the two guys they are hired, and will start at noon, and receives a text from Adelaide that her mother and the other vamps in Asheville only have about three days before they die. Jane says she will have something for them in two, a promise she hopes she can keep.
Jane awakens to find Eli working on her safe room, making use of a hidden room she was unaware of—one that has obviously been used recently by either Katie or Leo. Eli takes issue with Jane telling Alex that she will give him ravioli or some similar “treat” when he showers without her having to ask him to, resulting in a trip to the dojo to spar. The winner gets their way regarding Alex and his treats.
Worthy Prey. Will Not Hurt Him Too Bad: Jane’s sensei comes to watch, and he discovers that she has been holding back . In the end, Eli yields, with them striking a bargain over Alex’s food. When they get back to the house, cleaning has been done, and Alex is in the middle of hooking up a large-screen television. He tells Jane and Eli that Bruiser approved his estimate on the upgrade for Leo’s clan home, Katie’s, and her house, all to be connected to vamp HQ when completed. Alex also says that Jane now has letterhead, and that the three of them should be in business together. He reports that he found a connection between Greyson Labs that the dead Enforcer worked for and Blood-Call, a vamp escort service.
Going upstairs to her room, Jane notices that the sheets have been changed and that her weapons are gone. Alex points Jane to the “ordnance room,” where she finds all of her weapons, and Eli’s, clean and organized, also realizing they will be very secure in this location.
Later that night Alex comes to Jane wand Eli with news—he has discovered the name of the vamp who owns Greyson Labs, Blood-Call, and a number of other companies—Lucas Vazquez de Allyon, a twelve-hundred-year-old vampire practicing Naturaleza (feeding from and killing humans at will). Reading through all of the information, Jane knows it all fits, but she still does not have absolute proof. She puts together a report for Leo, which she e-mails to both him and Bruiser, and then calls the latter. Bruiser sounds very different than usual but says he likes the way he feels. Leo would like Jane to be there for the questioning of the vamp they brought back from where Leo was held, in one of his lairs, so she heads out to the Warehouse District. Jane receives a very friendly greeting from Bruiser—a very expressive kiss—but when they go inside the building, things change.
But He Didn’t Let Me Go: Bruiser whispers, “No,” but holds Jane’s arm. Katie grabs her other arm, Sabina holds her head back and removes her protective necklace, and Leo appears, saying that Jane will now be bound to him as the Vampira Carta specifies. Bruiser begs Leo to stop, but he is unable to act. Leo forces Jane to drink some of his blood and then takes some of hers. Katie also drinks briefly from Jane, tying the two of them as well in her position as Leo’s heir. Jane can now hear Leo’s thoughts, and those of Sabina, who asks Jane about the lion bones and “says” that Jane’s enemy will know her by her scent. As they discuss what Jane is, she realizes that Sabina actually knows but has not shared the information. Jane tells Leo she would have done her job without being forced, and tells him that if he ever does this again, she will kill him.
Upset, Jane rides into the swampy area that Beast likes to hunt in, and Beast tells her to shift. When Beast emerges, she sees a black thing in her mind, connected by a chain to Jane, and Beast knows it is Leo’s control. She pokes at the chain, which isn’t very strong, and surmises that after about five shifts she can break it. Beast tries to cheer Jane up by telling her that tonight she lost to a pack with a strong alpha, but that later the pack will be smaller and not so strong, so she must keep fighting. Beast then sends Jane to sleep.
When she wakes up, Jane knows she needs to go see Aggie. Upon Jane’s arrival, Aggie says her mother asked for Jane that morning because of a dream she had. After giving the two women presents she got for them in Asheville, Jane hears about the dream: a white man hanging over a fire, being poked at by an old woman. Aggie’s mother tells her to think upon this while going to water.
Bitsa Alone Could Wake the Undead: In the sweathouse, Aggie tells Jane that she carries anger around with her in her soul home. Jane tells Aggie about killing a man, and when she describes the event, Aggie points out that perhaps the man was there to kill her in order to skip the Blood Challenge. When Jane tells Aggie about the forced feeding by Leo, Aggie says that Jane stayed even after knowing the meaning of some of the parts of the Vampira Carta that she didn’t initially understand. Aggie tells Jane that the anger is deeper than those things, that it has influenced all of her decisions, and Jane responds that she believes it is because she swore to avenge her father and mother but never did. In order to help retrieve the memories, Aggie gives Jane something to drink, and then she sees more than just the woman poking the dead man with the stick—she knows her grandmother killed that man, and that she, as a five-year-old child, helped kill the other.
Afterward, Jane cleans up and rides home, thinking over what she has learned about herself. Jane realizes that she has followed the path she chose because of being a skinwalker—a protector. This is why killing comes naturally to her. However, the duties of a skinwalker do not mesh well with the Christian rules ingrained in her, causing her distress and guilt. Jane feels as though this understanding about herself gives her the chance to choose what she will do with her life, how she will handle problems.
Arriving at the house, Jane smells grilling steaks, as well as her housemates and Bruiser. After changing, Jane confronts Bruiser, who tries to apologize and explain that he was under compulsion, and even though he was beaten up for attacking Leo after she left, Jane is not ready to accept his apology. Bruiser also says that after seeing Jane’s report and remembering problems with an old Spanish Mithran who goes by his last name, de Allyon, in the past, Leo knew he needed Jane. Calling him George rather than his nickname, Jane tells him to leave.
Eli and Jane discuss the connections between de Allyon and Blood-Call, how it may have been the way some were infected. Jane calls the Seattle clan home and finds out that the sick humans were cured. Early in the morning Jane gets a call from Bruiser, reporting that de Allyon has declared a blood-feud with Leo, which predates the Vampira Carta and is not subject to the rules of a Blood Challenge. De Allyon claims he can do this because Jane killed his Enforcer unprovoked, and when she takes issue with that, bringing up some of the points Aggie made, Leo says they have no evidence of that, other than a police report that they do accept as valid in Mithran affairs. The blood-feud also means that everyone on the one side may be killed, so it becomes clear to Jane why Leo bound her when he did. After she gets off the phone, Jane finds Eli in her room, saying there is a man across the
street watching them. Jane says she knows, but she doesn’t seem to care, more bothered by the slight attraction she and Eli seem to have for each other. Bruiser calls again and says that one of the captured vamps being kept at Katie’s has been healed by Sabina, wants to join with Leo, and they need Jane to go talk to him to find out de Allyon’s plans.
Free Dick Dot Com: Jane finds Callan, the vamp, over at Katie’s Ladies, and learns from him that de Allyon had one woman that he had people fed from, but he never let her out of his sight. Realizing that she won’t get much more out of the guy, Jane leaves. At home, Jane looks up the Vampira Carta, and thanks to a translation program Eli tells her about, she can read the codicils that are in Latin. The Blood Challenge was developed in response to a terrible blood-feud that resulted in the deaths of two thousand humans and vampires in the tenth century. Alex tells Jane he has found records of some property recently purchased by de Allyon. Jane and Eli have a discussion about Alex, in which Jane tells him that he needs to show his appreciation for his younger brother rather than just always bossing him around.
Later that evening, Alex tells Jane and Eli that he has figured out how de Allyon is indeed using Blood-Call to infect the other vamps. After hearing his explanation, Jane calls a meeting at Katie’s with a group of vamps and humans. Alex explains that a virologist at Greyson Labs contracted a rare strain of Ebola, and two weeks later de Allyon bought the lab, the woman also vanishing. A few years earlier, one of de Allyon’s other labs had found a chemo drug that worked with a deactivated virus, and Alex believes that one of the scientists discovered that the drug gave vampires a high, and then soon after realized that it could be combined with the Ebola strain. The vampires end up craving the drug but also get sick. When humans are infected, they eventually develop antibodies, so they get better, as do the vamps who continue to feed from them. In answer to a question from Grégoire, Alex says that most of the humans at Blood-Call are healthy, and that the cities are specifically targeted. Jane asks who in Asheville used Blood-Call, and Leo says there will be an investigation.
