Sabina then relates the story of the Sons of Darkness to Jane and Rick. Judas, who hanged himself after Christ’s death, was buried, and his sons dug up his body, planning to use the blood of Christ, on his cross, to work magic. The crosses had been broken up and mixed together, and there was no way to know which was which. The sons laid the body of Judas on the pile of broken wood and he rose from the dead, but was a monster with pieces of flesh dropping off. The sons thought they could gain power by drinking his blood and eating his flesh, but instead they became the precursors to vampires, making more of their kind, suffering the devoveo.
After hearing the story, Jane asks if Sabina will bring the cross and stop the rite. She refuses, as she cannot wield it again so soon herself, but after telling Rick to leave she says she will give Jane a sliver of it. She warns Jane to be careful, that it may harm her, and she knows what Jane is. When Jane sees the shape of the sliver, which looks like a stake, she surmises that is the reason wood stakes kill vampires. Sabina also reports that Rafael and Adrianna mind-bonded, giving her access to their thoughts. The two killed her sire and his heir and plan to take down Leo in battle after the full moon, then kill Jane and all of the witches in town. Knowing she needs to warn Leo, but stumped as to how she can do that and save the children, Jane is relieved and appreciative when Rick volunteers to take Jodi and Sloan with him to meet with Leo and give him the news.
Pardon Me If We Don’t Bleed For You, Babe: When Jane arrives home, she tries to grab her supplies (including food for Beast), but Molly and Evan insist on helping. It hadn’t occurred to Jane that she wasn’t really prepared to defend herself and others from interrupting magical rites. Evangelina gives a Jane a necklace that works like a locator so they can track her. She can activate the necklace when she finds the site. The three witches and Derek (who also gives Jane a GPS tracker) and his men will wait together for her signal.
Jane goes back to the City Park, where she knows they will be since the vamps can no longer use the cemetery thanks to Sabina, and shifts. Beast finds blood-servants digging at the site where Jane witnessed the vamp rising, and shortly thereafter a car with vamps and the children pulls up.
I Had the Marines. Ooh Rah: Reluctantly Beast gives way to Jane, though she does feel that she and Jane together are stronger. Jane calls Molly, explaining that there are too many vamps present and that they would sense Molly, Evan, and Evangelina. Molly says they are working on a shield that would keep things like bullets from getting in but would allow them out. Jane and Derek’s group head to the circle, and they see the kids, Bliss, and Bettina. When the vamp witches start the ritual, the bloodred pendant that the bald unnamed brother wears uses the blood of the vamps to begin the working, creating red motes that begin to attack people. One of Derek’s men dies when he falls in the circle and the bald vamp kills him, but Jane notices that Angie is awake. Angie seemingly creates a black mist in her hands, and Jane gets immobilized by an incantation the bald vamp recites and feels as though she is dying, but Angie brings her back. Jane then uses the Blood Cross sliver on the vamps, and they die. The red motes leave the humans when Jane pricks them with it. Angie suggests Jane use the amulet gem to gather and destroy the motes, and when she does, they melt inside the gem.
Hot to Trot? Jane and the others make their way out of the forest, leaving the vamp bodies behind. Bettina was still alive, needing a blood meal, and Adrianna was not true dead, in the hopes that Leo may learn something from her mind. Molly and Evan reunite with their children, and Bruiser arrives with Leo. In a private moment, Bruiser expresses his concern for Jane but says he was not able to come, though he wanted to. Jane understands that he is referring to his bond with Leo, and she decides that she prefers Rick—a human not bound to a vamp. Jane goes to Rick’s for the evening, and gets a call from Bruiser warning her that the remaining renegades who have not yet been caught have sworn to kill her. Jane mails the creepy vamp paintings to Evangelina, assuming that she will most likely destroy them.
A few days after the big battle, Jane receives a letter from Leo, withdrawing the death threat against her, and offering her permanent employment. Not sure whether or not she will take the job, though the money is really good, Jane leaves on a trip with Rick to the mountains.
Mercy Blade, Book Three
I Didn’t Know You Had a Brain: Waking up in her small apartment in the Appalachians, a few weeks after the events of Blood Cross, alongside her now-boyfriend, Rick, Jane muses over her new situation. Between her job working security for Leo Pellissier and Rick’s job as a police officer, they don’t get to see each other quite as often as they would like, and when together, they can’t always talk about their work, which in some cases would be tantamount to sharing secrets. Jane turns on the television to CNN and sees a story from the BBC about an African man, Kemnebi, who claims to be a wereleopard, which he then demonstrates by shifting in front of the camera. Jane watches, mesmerized, and tells Rick about it when he gets up.
Changing the channel to BBC, where a reporter is discussing the story, Jane and Rick see an interview with a man who says he is a werelion, head of both the International Association of Weres and the Party of African Weres. The mention of lions reminds Rick of the incident where Jane saved him from the rogue skinwalker/liver-eater who attacked him as a sabertooth. He does not remember the event clearly, as he was so badly injured, but that much he is sure of. During their conversation, Jane gets the sneaking suspicion that Rick knew about this story before it aired, and is afraid he may have been working undercover with weres, given his recent schedule. When an interview with Kemnebi comes on, he states that biting or mating with humans is strictly forbidden. An hour later, an interview with the leader of the Lupus Clan of werewolves in the U.S. airs, and the man claims that Leo murdered his grandfather and stole their land, and he plans to prove it. Jane’s phone rings, with a call from Leo.
A Fighting Ring: Leo tells Jane that representatives from the International Association of Weres arrived in D.C. two weeks earlier (which Rick confirms he also knew). Leo wants Jane to return to New Orleans immediately, and to check on a “persona non grata” who may have had contact with the werewolves in the area, and Leo wants him gone—after Jane learns what the guy has to say. After they arrive back at Jane’s in New Orleans, Rick heads out for his own secretive assignment, and Jane gets ready (assembles all her weapons) for her trip outside town to look for the guy Leo wants her to talk to. She arrives at Booger’s Scoot, a biker bar, which, unlike what the name implies, is actually quite clean. Outside Jane has a conversation with a huge guy who never actually identifies himself. When she goes inside, Jane goes up to the bar and speaks to Booger, handing him her card. Jane tells him that Leo sent her to talk to a vamp, but Booger says that vamps don’t frequent his place, though he guesses others may be interested in talking to her. At that point Booger hits a switch that lowers metal screens to protect the bars and windows, making a fighting ring, though with exits.
She Was Wearing a Red Thong: Jane realizes pretty quickly that she is now dealing with a pack of werewolves—which Leo had sent her straight into. The group has only one female. After Jane introduces herself, one of the men comes forward and identifies himself as Roul Molyneux, the alpha of the Lupus Clan of the Cursed of Artemis. Despite her efforts to reason with the man, who refuses to accept her message from Leo to get out of town, a fight ensues with the shifted wolves, with the odds heavily against Jane. Despite taking down a few of the pack, Jane gets injured, and seemingly out of nowhere, a man dressed in black (whom she dubs Zorro, for his skill with a blade) comes to her aid, addressing Roul by name. Jane and Zorro fight together, and finally the wolves depart. Jane feels a whack on the side of the head and passes out.