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After the satisfaction of killing and eating a small deer, Beast makes up her mind that Jane needs to go see Aggie, so she chooses the woods there to shift back. After putting on her clothes, Jane goes to Aggie’s, who asks if she is there to go to water. Jane agrees, not really knowing what else to say, and Aggie, her mother, and Jane head out in a small jeep. After a bumpy trip, the ritual begins, which includes a highly unpleasant herbal cleansing, native tobacco, and submersion in a muddy bayou. When Jane emerges, she feels unfettered, and the three women head back.
Would Little Evan Go Crunch? When cabbie Rinaldo drops Jane off at home, she gets greeted by Molly and the kids, with Angelina asking about her swim with the ladies, and telling her about some situation two of Molly’s witch sisters were in. When questioning the little girl, Molly and Jane learn that she both sees and hears people, further demonstrations of her way-too-early power. Jane leaves to go back to look around in Room 666 at the NOPD, and Rick lets her in. Jane learns, from a file marked LEGENDS, that the Sons of Darkness professed to be the first vamps, and that there were claims that witch blood could bring new vamps out of “devoveo. ” She also discovers from Rick that the detective who had done a lot of the earlier research was Jodi’s aunt, which makes Jane feel kind of used. When she leaves, Rick asks Jane out on a date, an invitation she accepts.
Bruiser meets Jane over at the vamp cemetery. She wants to look around, since many new-vamp attacks on humans occurred close to there. When Jane tells Bruiser about the crosses at the rising site where she saw the young female vamp come up, he finds it hard to believe, but Jane insists that vamps are believers. Jane finds a blood rite circle—an old one, involving both vampires and witches, as well as two others. When she is finished, she finds out from Bruiser that devoveo refers to the ten-year period of partial insanity when vamps are first turned. Bruiser gives Jane a box from Leo, which contains the fetishes (saber-toothed lion bones and teeth) used by the skinwalker masquerading as Leo’s son. Jane still needs to find out about the use of witch blood to stave off madness in young vamps, and is sure that a small group of vamps and witches have been working together for a long time.
Nap Time, Aunt Jane: When she gets home, Jane finds her new leathers have been delivered, and that Molly and the kids are over at Katie’s. When they get back, everyone takes a nap, from which Jane gets woken by a call from Tom, asking if Bliss is there. The witch is gone, and Jane has a bad feeling about it, especially when she hears that the security tape shows interference. Jane rushes over to Katie’s, looks and sniffs around, smelling the rogue-maker in the backyard along with witch magic, and then finds a spelled area outside that leads to an alley where Jane scents Bliss’ blood. Then Jane hears Molly yell her name.
They Should All Be Staked: Jane races to the house, smelling vamp, witch, and Molly. Inside, she finds her friend in a pool of blood, telling her that Angie and Little Evan have been taken. Jane calls 911, and calls Leo, begging for help. Bruiser says he will bring Bethany and meet them at the hospital. While the staff, specially trained in dealing with supernaturals, works on Molly, Bethany and Bruiser arrive, causing a stir. One detective, a bigot against witches, gets some special treatment from Bethany, who then heals Molly. After being assured Molly is resting and stable, Jane goes home to shift, allowing Beast to evaluate the many scents. When she does so, Beast refers to three vampire witches, and that confuses Jane. After determining where the children were taken away in a car, Beast goes back to allow Jane to return. After showering, Jane hears the wards go off, and smells vamp.
Hedge of Thorns: Having come through the side door, Leo, fully vamped out, looks around, sniffing the blood. Jane believes he is there to kill her, but when she mentions that the children have been taken, Leo seems to regain control, telling Jane to get dressed and he will make tea. He also says that the vamps who broke into Jane’s house were part of the Rousseau Clan, but not any who actually live there. Though she hates remaining idle while the children are missing, Jane decides she needs to hear what Leo has to say, and that there is a risk in just storming the Rousseau Clan home. Bruiser also arrives.
Leo wants to know why Jane has been asking about devoveo, and she explains that the word came up in her research, though she does not mention Room 666. During her explanation, Jane refers to the witch blood curing devoveo, and the Sons of Darkness. At the reference to the Sons, Leo goes still and then attacks Jane, ripping at her neck. She manages to get a few of her hair sticks in him to slow him down, and then runs outside. Weak from blood loss, Jane is unable to shift, but Beast tells her to touch the saber-tooth bones in the box, and she changes. Beast notices that a red ward surrounds them, which Jane says is the hedge of thorns. The big cat watches Bethany arrive to heal Leo, and overhears their discussion about Jane. Leo suggests she is a were, but Bethany disagrees, also saying that Jane is not their enemy.
After coming into herself again, Jane sees the scorched earth where the ward had gone up, and she is pretty sure it was triggered by her blood soaked into the ground. Realizing her gold nugget necklace is missing, Jane is relieved to find it inside. Talking to Molly on the phone, Jane finds out that the reason she and the children didn’t leave when Jane first suggested it was a vision Angie had, warning that a man would get them on the road. Jane returns to the City Park site of the young vamp rising she witnessed, and scents the vamp who had taken the children and Bliss. Surmising that the rogue-maker and his group would move somewhere they felt safer, Jane heads to the vamp cemetery. When she starts checking the place out, Jane gets the feeling something unpleasant is about to happen.
They Killed Me Already: Jane comes across a site that she missed before, since it was likely spelled, and wonders about the connections between vampires, witch children, and leaving newly turned vamps buried longer. Then Jane witnesses another rising—a male this time—and he attacks. After they scuffle , he surprises Jane by speaking to her, which new vamps aren’t supposed to be able to do, and he understands Jane when she speaks to him. Suddenly Jane begins to make sense of what has been going on: the new vamps were being kept in the ground longer, bound by a stasis spell, to see if that would cure their insanity, which was why the missing witch children and new young rogue dates didn’t match up. Jane also fears that the use of crosses may be part of the experiment—to see if an immunity can be built.
Jane talks to and reasons with the vamp, who even knows his name, and calls Bruiser to bring someone to feed him. The new vamp loses control and Jane ends up staking him—an unfortunate development, since he was her only lead to his creator. Bruiser tells Jane to not cut off the vamp’s head yet, so Sabina can try to figure out why he was so unusual. Jane carries the body to the chapel, and Sabina greets her by referring to her as a creature. When Jane describes to Sabina what has been going on with the vamps and witches, at first the old vampire is reluctant to believe her, but then identifies the scent as belonging to one she killed long ago, of the Rousseau line. When Jane says she witnessed Sabina holding a cross to fight off the liver-eater, Sabina grabs her by the throat.
Our Sin Has Multiplied: While Jane struggles for breath, she calls upon the serenity she achieved when she went to water with Aggie, and manages to get out the words that she seeks absolution. Sabina seems affected by Jane’s state of calm, and asks to see the site of the rising. On the way there, Sabina refers to the Blood Cross. Though she is unable to stay long because of the many crosses, Sabina says that the sire is definitely Rousseau. When Jane returns to the chapel to hear what else Sabina has to say, she learns a lot. The Sons of Darkness created the vampire race, but also foretold a savior, telling Jane that if she turns out to be that person, she will be told the whole story. Years ago Clan Rousseau did not accept that Mithrans carried blood guilt or passed it down to their scions, but believed in the Naturaleza way of hunting and killing humans. The ones following that belief were killed, but Clan Rousseau has been plagued by insanity, causing some to be long-cha
ined.
Jane leaves to go visit Molly, and during her brief time there something very unusual occurs: Beast takes over to comfort Molly, speaking in a slightly different voice and in the form of speech she uses in Jane’s mind. Molly realizes what is going on and is kind of thrilled, but Jane is disturbed by Beast telling her that she is only good for killing. Deciding she wants to get some answers, Jane goes to see Bruiser, but stops at the Rousseau Clan home on the way. The place appears empty, and it looks as though force was used. Jane reports this to Bruiser.
Three Hundred Years, Give or Take a Few Decades: At Jane’s insistence, Bruiser fills her in on some of the history of the Rousseau Clan, which has its roots in Haiti and the revolution there. Surviving clans relocated to America in 1791, and some of them practiced blood-magic. After the purge, which was supposed to get rid of all of those using the prohibited magic and experiments to remove the tendency to insanity among the Rousseau Clan, it seems that two of the clan, Renee and Tristan Damours, are still around, though staying out of the public eye.
After verifying that she can get in, Jane heads over to Room 666 to do more research. Lack of sleep and anxiety over the missing children cause Jane to break down in front of Rick, who comforts her, then kisses her, which Jane realizes she enjoys. Jane learns more from the files about Renee, and then heads home to get some much-needed sleep. She wakes to knocking on her door, and finds Evangelina, Molly’s sister. Over tea and cookies the women discuss what is going on, both very puzzled over the involvement of witches in what the rogue vamps are doing.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Jane attends a meeting called by Jodi in Room 666, with Rick and a cop she doesn’t know also present. Jodi’s “reward” from her jealous boss for being granted access to a vamp council meeting (with Jane in Skinwalker): the witch children cases, current and cold. Jane shares what she knows, and learns that a local gang, the Crips, may be involved in the whole situation. Sloan, the cop she doesn’t know, served undercover with the gang. In a brief conversation with Rick, two things happen: Jane makes a connection between Leo, Derek, and the Crips, and she insults Rick by asking him if he has been asked by Leo to seduce her. Jane meets with Derek and some of his crew, who will be joining Jane for a visit to the Warehouse District to track down the rogue-maker.