The Jane Yellowrock World Companion

Page 20

 

  Wrong Century, White Boy: Hauled into the police station for questioning since she shot a man, Jane repeats countless times that she does not know the man, or why he was sent to her room. Eventually Jane gets released, at the same time her lawyer arrives—Brandon, one of Grégoire’s blood-servant twins, along with an elegant woman, blood-servant to Lincoln, Adelaide Mooney. In a Volkswagen limo with some very cool firearms inside, the three go to Lincoln’s barbecue restaurant for an early dinner. Adelaide seems to be particularly interested in what Jane “is,” and Brandon chimes in that no one knows. Jane makes it clear that it’s no one’s business. Derek and Wrassler join the trio at the restaurant, and Jane explains clearly what is going on with the werewolves, and lets the others know that Kemnebi is in the area too. Jane states that man who attacked her is a blood-servant that Brandon and Adelaide say they don’t know, which means another vampire may be interested in the parley. Saying she needs to be away for a time, Jane confirms with her team that they can handle security without her during that time. When Jane excuses herself to use the restroom, Adelaide follows her.

  I Sleep With Vamps for a Living: While the two women are washing their hands, they have a conversation that leads to discussing friendship, and the difficulties of being tall women who feel as though they are isolated by how they look and what they do. Jane realizes that Adelaide is actually making overtures of friendship, and decides to accept. Adelaide gives Jane the number of her transportation service, telling her she can use it whenever she likes, but cautioning that since they report to her every location they visit, if it’s somewhere Jane wishes to keep private, she will want to make other arrangements.

  Returning the hotel, Jane learns that the man she shot died from his wounds. This news shocks Jane, as she has never killed a human before. As she tries to process the information, she also finds out that her new room is once again adjacent to the blood twins. When getting ready to leave, Jane finds Brian outside her door. At first she is thinking he means to keep her inside, but he tells her that he just wants her to listen to what he has to say. Brian relates the story of how many years ago he killed a man in defense of Grégoire, despite the vampire’s edict against killing humans. He tells Jane that what she did was in self-defense, and he thanks her for giving a little piece of her soul in defense of Grégoire too, as well as Brian and Brandon. Jane then visits a church.

  Streams Talking Softly in Mountain-Water Tongue: Jane goes to church, and thinks about the two parts of her, how to bring them together and meld them into one, but realizes that she can’t do it now. Afterward, Jane goes into the woods to shift into Beast, and the big cat finds another werewolf kill site, and one place where a man was bitten but got away, now presenting a danger to others. When she comes back to herself, on a boulder out in the river, thanks to Beast, Jane goes to the police department to report the deaths she discovered, also realizing too late that her tracks as Beast will likely be visible. Sheriff Grizzard is pleased that it sounds as though the new sites are in a different county.

  Who? Bit? You? Sheriff Scoggins and her men find the site Jane described, and Jane says she will look into having the vamps supply the money needed for silver shot for law enforcement. Despite wishing to avoid running into Evangelina, Molly’s sister who put a spell on Brusier in New Orleans, Jane goes to Seven Sassy Sisters Herb Shop and Café for breakfast, and immediately gets engulfed with hugs. All goes well until Evangelina arrives, looking considerably slimmer and many years younger, and Beast reacts as though in defense. Evangelina spells everyone, including her own sisters, but with Beast’s help Jane fights off the effects, and as it turns out, Little Evan is also immune to his aunt’s machinations. When Jane gets up close to Evangelina again, she sees two puncture marks on the witch’s neck, and she admits that Lincoln Shaddock has bitten her. Evangelina leaves, but even after she goes, effects of the spell remain. Jane keeps the scarf and a few hairs she pulled from Evangelina in the struggle. The door to the café opens, and Rick comes in.

  Tag Team Sex? That’s the Best You Could Come Up With? In spite of the attentions of Molly’s sisters, Jane and Rick manage to have a conversation, in which he says that he misses the company of human females, sober people, and mostly Jane. Rick also shares that he has received some phone calls in the last twenty-four hours, which is odd since no one had his number. Jane realizes that Leo was able to trace Rick through her call history. Rick tells Jane one of the calls was from a man who identified himself as Smith Jones, saying he had a job for Rick—to get close to Jane so she could get him in with the vamps, but Rick refused. Rick and Jane both think the man is PsyLED, though he claimed to be part of an organization that doesn’t exist yet. Rick also wonders why Evangelina just disappeared from the vampire/witch restitution talks without any explanation. Jane, feeling pretty sure that Evangelina may have followed either her or Grégoire back to Asheville and the talks, and then found out from Rick that rather than Grégoire, Leo was supposed to come himself. Jane also learns that a copy of Magnolia Sweets’ diary was delivered anonymously to NOPD. Bruiser also called Rick, asking him if he and Jane are still involved, because he wants to court her. Jane leaves before finding out what Rick answered.

  Back at the hotel, Jane does some research on spells and the grindy’s whereabouts, then takes part in a sparring match with Brandon and Brian. At the end of the session, Derek Lee is there observing, and Jane knows he is very suspicious of her. Later the Mercy Blade, Gertruda, arrives. When Lincoln Shaddock is half an hour late for the evening’s meeting, Jane gets worried and calls Adelaide, who calls her back with Lincoln’s location. Jane and some of her team head over to the barbecue joint.

  You’ll Be True-Dead: When arriving at the restaurant, Jane and her team see Lincoln and Evangelina dancing, and Jane sees them both covered by the rosy glow of a spell. When she notices a red mote come from Evangelina and go into Lincoln, Jane calls Bruiser to ask him to look for something in a box at her house in New Orleans. While waiting for Bruiser to call back, Dacy, Lincoln’s heir, and another vamp come in, asking if Jane and her team plan to mess with Lincoln. When Jane tells them about the spell, the two leave her to her plans. When Bruiser calls back, Jane’s suspicions are confirmed: Evangelina took the blood diamond, the one that uses blood-magic powered by the deaths of countless witch children, which also siphons the power of other witches. Making plans with Derek and the men, Jane propels herself in between Lincoln and Evangelina, staking the vamp in the stomach to immobilize him yet making it obvious she is not trying to kill him. While Derek and the others stay with Lincoln, Jane lands on top of Evangelina, keeping her down, demanding that she release Lincoln from the spell. Jane then identifies herself to those in the room as Leo’s Enforcer, and that she expects to be obeyed, and they all stand down. Evie tells Jane that her “ends justify the means,” and says she will kill Jane. After Jane releases her, Evie runs out, and Jane commands Lincoln to go and beg forgiveness of Grégoire, and warns him that she will not be so understanding next time. Lincoln agrees, though he doesn’t seem to know what he did, and does go make his apologies to Grégoire. Jane is disturbed by Grégoire’s demand that after the talks are over she bring him the witch responsible. Jane does call Reach to have him look into Evangelina’s financial information.

  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.