by Faith Hunter
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 kid 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.
Dry Cleaning Bills Are Outrageous in My Line of Work: Bruiser arrives with Evangelina and two men that Jane pegs as lawyers. All five of them discuss whether to call the police, drop the spells and risk having humans die, and how to go about aiding Leo. Looking at the security monitor console, Bruiser determines that Tyler was the one who let the werewolves in, and sends a team to track the man down. Bruiser goes and picks up Sabina, along with a few other trusted vamps, and Bruiser, Jane, and Sabina head down the stairs into Leo’s lair. Upon entering, they see two things: Leo’s bed is covered in blood, with Jane’s missing stake at his feet, and the hand visible in the monitor, caught in the trap of the hedge of thorns spell, is that of Girrard.
Rock and Roll, Legs: Examining Girrard’s position, Jane states that he was either defending Leo or running away from the scene when the hedge spell activated. When the stasis spell drops, Girrard lands on the floor, and Jane gets on top of him to hold him in place until they find out what happened. When Leo drinks enough from Sabina to be able to speak, he says that Girrard saved him, killing a werewolf in the process. Girrard tells Jane that he had been watching the clan home, and that his presence within the hedge-of-thorns spell kept Leo alive. After the police arrive with a warrant for Tyler’s room, they find the evidence that he framed Bruiser, and the werewolf deputy gets questioned.
Jane asks Bruiser to get her access into vamp HQ, the place where everything started, and when she arrives Wrassler tells her of another secret entrance to the office where Safia was killed. When she asks to look at the room the grindylow stayed in, they find it trashed, and with claw marks similar to those on Safia’s neck, which leads to Jane to guess at the true role of the grindylow.
Speculating as to what may have transpired, Jane and Wrassler go to watch the security feeds from several hours prior to the party and hours after, and they piece together some of the story. It seems that Safia and the female werewolf knew each other, and Jane confirms with Sloan that Safia introduced Rick to the female werewolf before the party. Given Rick’s blood in the passageway, it seems clear that someone took him out that way. Jane spots Booger, the bar owner from her first encounter with the wolves, and knows where to look for Rick.
Near the bar, Jane finds the werewolves’ camp. She sees the female washing off, and when the woman turns her way Jane recognizes her—Magnolia Sweets. Other pieces begin to fall into place, as Jane figures out that Tyler is really Terrance, Magnolia’s son. Jane leaves a voice mail message for Girrard, telling him that she has figured things out, and gives him her location. Girrard calls Jane back, and they discuss what happened in the past, that Magnolia had been bitten by a werewolf in the vamp war, did not tell him until it was too late to cure her, and so she left with Girrard. Jane says she wants Girrard to act as Mercy Blade for Magnolia, and to try to cure Rick. Derek Lee and his crew arrive, and the group prepares to go in.
Pick a Target. Aim. Shoot: The team attacks, and Jane sees Booger, Tyler, and Raol all go down. With Derek, Jane heads over to an outbuilding, in which she finds Rick lying on a cot, naked, bruised, and bloody. Magnolia lies next to him, with her throat torn out, the grindylow having done its job of execution for the breaking of were-law by biting a human. Jane carries Rick out to the van, and they take him to Leo’s for Girrard to work his magic.
Two weeks later Jane is still haunted by the bloodbath of that night, and Rick has not been in touch with her, even refusing to see her. Jane determines to not return to New Orleans after her vacation back in the mountains of North Carolina, spending some time with Molly. As she gets on Bitsa to leave, she hears another bike coming. The rider stops half a block away, and Jane scents Rick, realizing that he had been bitten and infected by Safia well before Magnolia got to him. Beast tells Jane that she smells black leopard, big-cat.
Novella and Stories:
Easy Pickings
Faith’s Note: This crossover story with C. E. Murphy features Jane joining forces with Joanne Walker, and takes place in an alternative history timeline that does not affect t
he rest of the Jane Yellowrock series timeline.
Joanne Walker takes in the sights and sounds of New Orleans for the first time, feeling the pull in her stomach that signifies something magical is going on. She spots a tall woman across the crowd, one dressed all in leather with yellow eyes. Using her Sight to look more closely, Joanne notices two things about the unusual woman: her aura is beautiful, composed of both earth colors and darkness, and there are two souls sharing one body. Joanne thinks she now knows why she is in New Orleans.
Jane Yellowrock knows that something does not feel right about New Orleans. She felt it while in Beast form just outside the city, and now in on the streets she knows so well Jane is positive something is off—the Royal Mojo Blues Company bar is now the Vamp Mojo, a blood bar, and the sign is not a new one. Jane can scent Leo and Katie inside the building, but they too are different. Then Jane spots a woman who seems out of place, goes up to talk to her, and gives her a good sniff.
Both women are surprised at their own words when they introduce themselves: Joanne as a shaman, and Jane as a skinwalker. Joanne tells Jane that her magic pulled her there to the city for some reason, and Jane points out the yellow-orange light shooting up between some buildings, which Joanne confirms is magic, and tells Jane that what she smells is brimstone.
As the two women make their way toward the area, Joanne learns that in this reality, and Jane’s, vampires and weres exist. Then they spot a creature with gills, horns, and a terrible stench. Joanne sets up a protective shield for the people, and when the monster attacks, Jane uses her guns. Joanne uses a magical net to yank the monster off its feet, but it then chases her through a doorway, and Jane notices Joanne now has a sword. When Jane runs through the doorway, she feels agonizing pain and shifts into Beast, who catches the creature and kills it. The doorway was a portal that Joanne created to lead the monster away from where it could harm people.
When she comes face-to-face with Beast, Joanne figures out that the mountain lion she sees is Jane, and it turns out that Joanne can hear Beast’s thoughts so they are able to communicate. While Beast eats and Joanne watches, a very tall, very handsome dark-skinned man with a Cajun accent shows up, introducing himself as Lazarus, asking to be called Laz. Jane returns in her human form, immediately distrustful of the new arrival. Joanne examines him with her Sight, and sees a maze of magic running through him, and when she asks Laz what he is, he replies that he is a gateway. While the two women debate what to do next—try to leave this world (Jane) or figure out what is going on (Joanne), Laz makes himself into a portal back to where they started.
Jane, not caring for the way Laz smells, suggests that perhaps he is responsible for bringing them to this world, and takes him down with her blade at his throat. Laz insists that he was also pulled here somehow. Not really satisfied with his answer, Jane nonetheless lets Laz up, partly because she’s starving. The trio go to a diner—the one that in Jane’s world used to be Antione’s. After eating a lot of food, and trying to determine what the Antoine of this world is, the three go up to speak to him. Jane tells Antoine that Evangelina Everhart suggested they come there, and he replies that they should have reported to Amaury first. When they leave, Jane tells the others that in her world, Amaury died in the ’forties.
Jane, Joanne, and Laz arrive at Vamp Mojo to meet with Amaury, and also find Leo and Katie, both of whom appear considerably different than the ones Jane knows. The very arrogant Amaury tells the trio that all of the magic users in the area are under his control, his payment for saving the city from Katrina. Jane tells him that something pulled all three of them there, and Amaury says that a voodoo woman made a mistake when crafting a love spell, which resulted in a rift. The visitors wisely do not add that they were pulled there from other worlds.
After they get outside, Joanne reports that Amaury is a mass of evil, and is pulling on the power of everyone in the city. Knowing that they need to get to the bayou quickly to find the voodooine, Jane decides stealing a car is their best option. When they arrive at the location, a large power drain destroys the car shortly after they all get out of it. Laz somehow manages to contain the explosion, claiming that he’s using earth magic. The heavy doses of magic flying around have forced Jane to shift into Beast again, and she leaves the others. When Joanne ends up taking a few swipes at Laz with her sword—when not meaning to, or trying to—she realizes that she is being controlled by voodoo. While Joanne and Laz try to deal with their situation, Beast spots the voodoo woman and attacks her, holding her down by the throat until the others get there, the spell on Joanne now broken.
From the woman, who claims that the black magic is coming from Amaury, not her, and Jane, back to herself, realizes that the woman, Serena, has a baby. Amaury has taken Serena’s baby until is able to perform a love spell on another vampire’s human wife, but since she was unable to do so, she opened up the rift in order to bring through the demon to kill Amaury. Joanne tells Serena that she brought the three of them through as well. Serena says she even prayed to Papa Legba, and begs her visitors to help her get her child back, to which they agree. When Joanne points out that their transportation no longer exists, Laz creates a portal that transports all four of them to just outside Vamp Mojo.
Along with werewolves and witches, two tall creatures seemingly made out of swamp material appear, which when Joanne examines them with her Sight, she knows that they are actually constructed of the winds and water of Katrina, which Amaury had somehow managed to trap and contain. Fighting off the various attackers, the four eventually make it inside the bar. While they are fighting off a few vamps, Amaury appears, then disappears. Laz says he hears the baby, and when hearing the wind outside, Joanne speculates that the Katrina force is about to be set free. Since Amaury is not a witch and wouldn’t be able to control that much power, Joanne suggests that he must be using some sort of focus, and Jane thinks it may be an amulet. Leo and Katie say they will help them, as Amaury is killing them by siphoning off their power.
Laz says he will take the amulet, once they find it, since it can’t be destroyed without causing all sorts of problems. Joanne, via her Sight, finally determines what Laz really is, but when the baby cries, they all head off in the direction of the sound. When they arrive, Amaury has a knife to Serena’s throat—a knife he seems to be having difficulty controlling. Joanne figures out that the knife is the amulet, and telling Jane to get the baby and Serena, she calls upon her snake spirit to lend her speed, and she goes after Amuary, slicing off his hand, and then kills him. The storm hits hard inside the room, but Laz manages to contain it. Serena then knows exactly who Laz really is: Papa Legba, a voodoo legend, brought to New Orleans years ago with the slaves. Leo wants the knife-amulet, but Laz/Legba says he will keep it safe.
Though Jane wants to send Laz back to where he came from, he points out that they might have trouble sending him there. He says he will make doorways for both Jane and Joanne to return to their worlds. The two women leave briefly to discuss the situation, and determine that New Orleans is likely safer with Laz there keeping Katrina under control. Since Jane is weak from multiple shifts, Joanne lends her some of her energy so she can make it through the portal. Joanne gets a glimpse of Jane’s soul home. Before having Laz send them back, Joanne gives Jane one of her earrings, hoping that it will serve as a connection if they ever need or want to see each other. Jane reciprocates by giving Joanne one of her hair sticks. The two women part, going back to their respective worlds.
“Blood, Fangs, and Going Furry”: Rick LaFleur had suffered terribly during that first night of the full moon, unable to shift into his cat. Kemnebi had refused to help him, but Gee DiMercy told him that Jane may be able to help. This did not make any sense to Rick, but he was willing to try, so he rides his motorcycle to Jane’s street, determined to see her. When he arrives, Jane is outside, and she walks over to him. With his voice barely human and difficult to understand, Rick tells Jane about this problem, and that they let him go because he hit Leo. The n
ext thing Rick knows, Jane tells him she’s sorry and then punches him.
When Rick wakes up, he’s being sprayed with water, in a cage, with a tranquilizer dart in his rear end. Jane is there, and tells him that she got permission to keep him in the warehouse until the three nights of the full moon are past. After giving him food and clothes to get dressed, Jane tells Rick that five witches are coming to help him through his shift. Given his experience with witches, Rick is not thrilled to hear this, and he asks Jane to stay while the women are there.
Leo comes into the room, and Rick apologizes for having hit him. Leo tells Rick that since he has provided Rick with his blood a few times to save his life, he is able to feel Rick’s pain. Leo says that neither his blood nor Gee’s help can save Rick from the were-taint, which is why he called the witches, and he assures Rick that he can be drugged throughout the process. George Dumas, Leo’s primo, is operating the tranquilizer gun and will give Rick a dose whenever he asks. The witches arrive, and the painful night of hell begins.
At dawn, Rick awakens to Kemnebi taunting him, when seemingly out of nowhere Jane knocks the man to the floor, putting a knife to his throat. George tries to break up the fight, but Jane demands that Kemnebi recognize her as alpha. Though he tries to say it is only for now, Jane forces him to acknowledge her as alpha forever, and then points out that the whole exchange has been recorded, giving his statement legal status among weres. Jane tells Kemnebi that he will take care of Rick, teaching him how to shift and how to be a were. She claims Rick as under her protection. Rick gets another dose of pain medication.
