by Faith Hunter
Rather than getting some much-needed sleep, Jane turns on the television for a weather update, but instead sees a report from some hikers about a campsite they stumbled upon that seemed to be the scene of a massacre. Jane calls Grizzard, gets permission to join in the search, and finds the site that law enforcement is hunting for. With a little help from Beast, Jane puts together the sequence of events: this site was the first place the werewolves killed when they arrived, in a mad frenzy, followed by the others, which were the more recent after the werewolves gained control. Jane asks Sheriff Grizzard if he likes cats.
Be Polite to the Nice Pussycat: Kind of surprised by Grizzard allowing Kemnebi in big-cat form to come and work the scene, Jane takes a nap in her SUV while awaiting his arrival. Rick drives up with Kemnebi already in leopard form, but he will not permit anyone to put the collar on him that the sheriff insisted upon. After he is done looking over the scene, Kem-cat answers questions for Rick, and then agrees to show Rick and Jane the older trail the werewolves took. Grizzard says that PsyLED called him about Rick. After tramping around in the woods in the drenching rain for hours, the trio ends up back at the vehicles. When Kemnebi resumes human form, he tells Jane and Rick that the grindylow is behaving differently than usual, resting a lot, may perhaps be sick—a proposition that seems to please Kemnebi, grieving the loss of Safia. When he says that the grindy never rests when humans are in danger, Jane realizes that the reason it didn’t get to Rick sooner when the werewolves had him was that Kemnebi caged the grindy in his room at the hotel. When Jane says this, Kemnebi’s hands change into clawed paws, and Jane’s do the same, with Beast taking control and latching on to Kemnebi’s neck.
Is This a Proposal or Something? Kemnebi submits to Jane/Beast, and Beast relinquishes control to Jane. Though surprised that Beast can do a partial shift, Jane is very pleased when she sees her hands and mouth are back to her human form. Jane tells Rick to let Kemnebi know that if he tries to kill Rick, she will kill him, because he belongs to Beast. When she arrives back at the hotel, Jane is shaky, soaked, and laughing uncontrollably until she eats more.
After warming up and calming down, Jane heads over to Molly’s house, not sure of the reception she will receive. Molly’s husband, Evan, resents Jane for placing his children and his wife in danger with the vamp-witches in New Orleans. When Jane arrives, Angelina rushes out the door to meet her, but Evan bars her way. Jane hands Evan the scarf she took from Evangelina, and tells him that if what he smells is important, they all need to talk. Evan replies that he smells Evangelina and blood-magic. Jane shares the information about the spells Evangelina has been casting, and the fact that she stole the blood diamond from Jane and has been using it. Evan faults Jane for not destroying the diamond, but she asks how was she supposed to do so, and when Evan says he doesn’t want her there, Jane starts to go, telling him that he can figure out what to do on his own. Evan calls her back, admitting her has seen the changes in Evangelina too, realizing that they can’t be real. When Jane and Evan try to talk to Molly about her sister, she refuses to listen and keeps repeating the same phrase over and over again, and makes mention of vampires having taken Evangelina’s family, something Jane and Evan had never heard before. Evan tries to break the spell on Molly, but is unable to, saying he will have to look into how to do so. Angie has a bad dream, which she says was about a green frog eating a deer, and Evan says she has been having those a lot lately. Jane leaves.
And If the Fangheads Kill Them? Jane goes to the café owned by Molly and her sisters, and find Amelia and Regan, the two humans in the bunch, working. Jane warns the two women to watch out for the werewolves who may be attempting to turn witches, and they respond by pulling out a shotgun and two handguns, all loaded with silver. Jane opts to not tell Regan and Amelia about the situation with the rest of the sisters for now. When leaving, Jane gets a call from Rick, asking her to join him at a local restaurant. When she arrives, Jane scents werewolves but can tell they left a while ago. Local law enforcement, whose chief of police is not particularly fond of Jane, joins her and Rick at their table, and Rick tells them they have permission to watch the security footage. Jane recognizes Fire Truck, one of the werewolves she tangled with in New Orleans, and the second one is the other she left for the cops. The chief worries about Rick’s status after having been tortured by the werewolves, but Jane assures him that the Mercy Blade took care of the werewolf taint. Jane tells the police chief to call her if his officers spot the werewolves, and she will call the vamps to come and take care of them. Jane goes back to the hotel and finds a spot on the map that hasn’t been searched yet. Grabbing her go-bag, Jane heads to an area down the mountain from Molly’s to shift. Beast surprises Jane by opening the door of the SUV with her paws, to put away Jane’s blanket and necklace and to get to the meat Jane forgot to leave outside. Beast finds the scent of the wolves, and the site of a recent deer kill. The Beast scents Molly and Angelina.
Molly Can Kill Cow? Beast checks the perimeter of Molly’s house, ensuring that all are safe and snug inside. Satisfied, she once again follows the werewolf scent, going by Molly’s sisters’ houses, all protected by wards, smells the grindy, and Evangelina. Ending up at a big house, which Jane guesses may be the Everhart family home, Beast/Jane sees Evangelina come outside, naked, with a bowl, full of blood that smells odd, and the blood diamond. Jane guesses that the blood is spelled. Beast sneaks into the house while Evangelina is engaged in her ritual, and finds a room upstairs with a dead body in a rug, the pictures from the vamp-witches that Jane had given Evangelina to destroy, a summoning circle with a creature Jane fears is a demon, and a room with two werewolves in cages—the same two who have been on the rampage. The werewolves have cuts that haven’t healed, and Beast also smells Lincoln Shaddock. Beast sneaks away while Evangelina is now sleeping, and Jane says she needs to research demons.
Want to Play? Back at the hotel Jane calls Evan with her new information, and he gruffly tells Jane to stay out of it. Jane then does some research on demons, trying to figure out how everything ties together and what Evangelina may be trying to accomplish. While asleep, Jane has a very nice dream about Rick joining her in her bed. When she wakes up, she discovers she isn’t dreaming. Rick wants to “play,” though he can’t have intercourse because he would pass on the were-taint. After a round of fun, Jane notices the Rick’s cat tattoos are imbued with magic, and he explains how the witch Loriann was forced to use the magic (story told in “Cat Tats”) by an unbalanced vampire. Jane says that may be why he has been unable to shift, and Rick replies that he agrees, and he is worried that if he does, he will be bound into cat form. Later, Kemnebi calls and asks if Jane would like him to go along to the grindy’s lair, which Jane believes she has located. While getting ready for the hunt, Jane sees she has received three messages from Angelina but does not check them, as Evan told her to stay out of the situation. Rick arrives with Kem-cat, and he and Beast (within Jane) do not care for each other but manage to not get into another scuffle. When they arrive at the spot they are looking for, they smell rotten dead meat and old blood.
Get Your Own Damn Shoes: Two miles later the trio find themselves at a cave, inside which they discover the grindy and several babies, and the protective mother gets upset enough that they all back off. Outside, Kem-cat takes off to hunt, and Jane and Rick wait for him to return. When the big cat comes back, he is dragging a bear carcass with him, which he takes into the cave. Jane is surprised at Kem-cat offering the grindy assistance, given that he is so angry with it, but Rick replies that he believes there is some sort of metaphysical connection between the two species. When Kemnebi returns in human form, he says he had no idea the grindy was even female, let alone pregnant. When he tries to order Rick around, Jane tells Kemnebi that Rick is not his slave.
Back at the hotel, Lincoln is once again a no-show. Jane gets a call from Bruiser, who tells her she needs to go and help out at Lincoln’s home, and explains to her how her rash behavior of claiming she is Leo’
s Enforcer could be a problem. Adelaide then calls, telling Jane that someone let out the chained scions, who attacked Sarah, a young human woman. Jane opens her door to leave, and Grégoire is there, with Brandon and Brian, and he has a gift from Leo—a replacement for Jane’s silver mesh collar that was destroyed by the werewolves in New Orleans—silver, which Grégoire, like Leo, is able to touch. After an uncomfortable interchange, during which Grégoire demonstrates his power, he also reminds Jane that she has not yet brought him the witch who spelled Lincoln. Jane wonders to herself why Grégoire is not MOC in New Orleans, and how she is going to get out of presenting Evangelina to him.
Things Had Just FUBARed: Jane arrives at Lincoln’s to find Sheriff Grizzard and another officer, Sheriff Scoggins of Madison County, both there to help. Jane gives them both blades to use, and they all go inside. Jane explains that she will not kill any of the young vamps if Sarah is able to be turned and does not die. She wants the vamps immobilized with stakes in their stomachs, also using silver mesh nets to capture them. A flash grenade gets thrown in first to stun them, and then the melee begins. Jane gets badly injured in one leg but plans to shift soon and heal. Adelaide figures out that once scion got away—Thomas, who is unfortunately a Naturaleza, one who believes that vampires have the right to hunt and kill humans. Leo calls almost immediately, which Jane assumes means he has cameras there, and after taunting her over the Enforcer situation, he tells her that she has his permission to execute Thomas, though he is not technically a rogue, an act permitted under the Vampira Carta.
You Are Dead Meat: While driving, Jane calls Reach to ask him to look up everything he can find on Thomas Stevenson, and after she hangs up she gets a call from Angelina from Molly’s phone. The little girl says her parents are sleeping and can’t be woken up, and she and Little Evan both feel bad. Jane says she will get there as quickly as she can. Keeping Angie talking, Jane learns that Molly’s earrings, a gift from Evangelina, are the spelled items causing trouble, and Angie says she knows not to touch them, because her angel told her not to. Jane tells Angie to get Little Evan and wait in the van for her to arrive. After trying to reach Molly’s sisters by phone, she is unable to get through to anyone until she tries the two humans, Amelia and Regan. After she explains briefly what is going on, Regan and Amelia agree to meet Jane at the house. Though she has no powers of her own, Regan believes she can remove the spell, set with blood, by using some of Molly’s blood again to counteract it. While waiting for the spell removal to take effect, Jane holds Angie and tells her that never again will she put off listening to her messages or answering her calls. When they are awake, Evan asks Jane to tell Molly and the other two sisters everything, and Evan confirms that Evangelina is indeed involved with demons.
Bloody, Damaged Jeans and Nefarious Intentions: Molly and Evan ask Jane to take pictures of the demon and the ward, cautioning her to stay well away from it while doing so. Jane agrees to do as they ask, but she shifts first to heal her leg wound. While eating a big post-shift breakfast, Jane gets a call from Bruiser, learning that Evangelina had been banished from the witch/vamp parley talks in New Orleans when Leo learned that she had been working with the werewolves (information gathered from a captive werewolf that no one had bothered to tell Jane about, a plan put in action with the help of Derek).
When arriving at Evangelina’s house, Jane briefly contemplates injuring Evangelina and then taking her to Grégoire, but while she is considering it, the witch comes outside, gets in her car, and leaves. When she goes up to the house, Jane feels a strong compulsion to enter. Realizing that she is feeling the effects of a spell, Jane goes back to her vehicle to get the scarf with Evangelina’s hair in it, hoping to counteract the spell. This approach works, and Jane makes her way downstairs, where she finds the demon much more clearly materialized, and looking like a bird/human hybrid. The demon has been feeding on the two werewolves (in human form) while they are still alive, now inside the ward too. Jane makes the mistake of talking to the demon, who seems to know an awful lot about her—things she does not remember herself. With Beast’s help, Jane backs away to a safe distance. Before she leaves the room, Jane hears Lincoln’s voice, asking her to tell Leo he is sorry, that when the moon is full Evangelina plans to sacrifice him, bind the demon, and come after Leo. Lincoln does not know why, but has heard the witch say “Shiloh.” Knowing she needs help but not knowing which colleagues she can really trust, Jane heads back to the hotel.
After a call to Aggie One Feather about the demon, who says she will consult with her mother, and perusing her Bible for comfort and inspiration, Jane looks at the files Reach sent her on Evangelina. The witch’s daughter, Shiloh, ran away at age fifteen, to New Orleans, and was last seen being pulled into a car, presumably killed by the witch-vamps. Jane figures that Evangelina holds Leo responsible, and that the missing husband, Marvin, who hasn’t been heard from in years, may be the body in the carpet Beast discovered in the house. Jane sends Evan the information about Shiloh, leaving out her suspicions about Marvin for the time being.
Eat Humans When They Go to the Dark Side: Jane calls Bruiser, and learns that it was him (under a spell, Jane thinks) who suggested that Lincoln’s request for MOC status should be entertained, all part of Evangelina’s plan to kill Leo. Molly calls and asks Jane to meet her and her witch sisters at Evangelina’s house, as she will be out all afternoon teaching a cooking class. The sisters get the spell around the house down and then go downstairs with Jane. The demon has killed the smaller werewolf, and when the sisters try to bind it, the demon breaks the circle in an effort to get out. after making them all leave, Jane shifts into Beast, who uses some of Lincoln’s blood (he is laid out on the floor) to repair the fissure in the circle. Jane wonders how Beast knew what to do to close the circle back up when she herself did not, and why Beast wasn’t pulled into the circle that affects the two-natured. When Beast goes outside, Jane’s identity as a skinwalker gets revealed to the sisters. When they all hear a car, Molly states that Evangelina likely felt the disruption of the garden circle and is coming home early.
If He Moves, You Can Eat Him: Beast watches as Evangelina battles with her sisters who are pulling power and energy from the environment around them. Carmen gets burned and Liz is pinned by a boulder. Beast jumps on Evangelina, taking her down with her jaws on her throat, wanting to kill. Jane stops Beast from killing. Angelina removes the blood diamond from Evangelina’s neck, tells Beast that the witch is now sleeping. Beast and two other sisters remove the stone from Liz, and Beast helps Angelina understand that she can use the blood diamond to help heal Carmen.
Soon Evan arrives, taking Evangelina into the house, and going downstairs with Beast to look at the demon. They find Lincoln chained but outside the circle. Evan saws off the chain, with an admonition not to bite him, and when Lincoln agrees, he shares some information. Though Evangelina wants to use the demon, it has plans for her—wishing to possess a two-natured being that he can control by killing off one of the two parts. Neither weres nor humans meet the demon’s needs, and vamps are as dead to it. So it wants a witch. When Evan says that they need to find a way to bind and banish the demon, Angie, who sneaked downstairs, tells her father that he should ask her angel. Evan takes Angie upstairs to talk and tells Beast to keep an eye on Lincoln.
Sharing the Moon-Call: Beast listens in on the discussion upstairs, when Angie is asked about her angel. She says his name is Hayyel, and that he used to be Jane’s until she became Angie’s godmother. Angie tells her parents how they can bind the demon. Molly and Evan discuss how they will get enough power going, and know they have to use their children also. After sunset when Jane reemerges, Rick and Kemnebi arrive at the house, and when Evan sees Rick’s cat tats glowing, he tells Rick they need to talk later. Aggie One Feather calls. The name of the demon is Kalona Ayeliski, the Raven Mocker, and it is actually a sort of demon/witch/shape-shifter hybrid that can’t be killed. The demon does not like having his name known or spoken aloud. Everyone gathers
in the basement, and those not taking part in the ceremony still donate blood to the cause. When Evan gets Jane’s and says the demon’s name, it screams.
Threw Her Over the Railing: As the witches begin chanting, then saying the angel’s name, Lincoln runs out of the room. A big flash of light hits the hedge-of-thorns spell over the circle and a winged being grapples with the demon. Molly throws the blood over the circle, saying the binding words, and suddenly the light disappears. The circle, the angel, the demon, the dead werewolf are all gone. The other werewolf is now a big white wolf, and Kemnebi is in his cat form, yet different, with no spots visible. Rick is almost shifting, only restrained by his tats. It seems all of the two-natured were affected by what happened, except for Jane, who feels empty, and when she calls to Beast, she gets no response. Hearing a door slam, Jane races upstairs to find Evangelina gone, Pickersgill, Lincoln’s second, staked but alive, and the blood diamond gone once again. Pickersgill says Lincoln staked him and went with Evangelina. Molly thinks that Evangelina disrupted the spell before the binding completed. Jane still can’t get an answer from Beast, and mourns her loss.
Jane blames herself for Evangelina once again getting the blood diamond. Deciding she can make use of her time by going after Stevenson, the escaped Naturaleza scion, Jane tracks down some of his properties. She finally decides the most likely place is one difficult to sneak up on, unless doing so by water. Jane calls the paddlers, Dave and Mike, to take her to Stevenson’s house, which Reach had sent a diagram of. Blasting her way through a big window in the front room, realizing she has some Beast-like strength though she still can’t hear her cat, Jane finds Stevenson, upstairs, covered with the pinkish tinge of a spell, with a teenaged girl, whom he casually throws over the side.
