Page 17
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 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 the rest of the Jane Yellowrock series timeline.