If I Lose, the Kid Eats Like a Soldier: With the lights now on, Jane sees that Eli looks at be about mid-thirties, solid, and her height. While preparing tea, Jane asks about Eli’s brother, and learns that his name is Alex, he is a hacker, an eighteen-year-old MIT grad, on probation for breaking into the Pentagon’s system looking for information on why his brother suddenly left the service. Jane deduces that Eli did so because their parents are dead, and if Eli died in combat, his younger brother would be alone. Eli calls Alex to come in, and when he does, Beast thinks, Thief. Initially this doesn’t make sense to Jane, but then she figures out that the kid had been looking into her background. She confirms this with Reach, who also caught the kid doing it and burned one of his devices. Reach says that the kid is good for what Jane needs, so she gives him a test: she wants a review of every file on the Seattle laptop, the e-mail address book and business-related messages—in an hour. Jane gets a call from Derek that Leo had been drained by a number of vamps when taken, and they now have a possible location. Jane and Eli prepare to leave.
Jane surveys the outside of the house, confirming that Leo is indeed inside, and she and Eli, along with Derek and his men, prepare to go inside. Jane tells Derek to have the blood-servants ready with cuts on their wrists, so that the starving Leo will go for those areas rather than other places on their bodies. Once inside, Jane finds Leo chained to the wall, thankfully with no signs of having fed from anyone sick, in the room with infected blood-servants and two sick vamps. One of the vamps wants to fight, and Jane takes him out. The blood-servants come in to help Leo.
After they get back to the house, Alex provides Jane with some information on a vamp named Hieronymus, who has also been issued the same challenge by the vamp spreading the disease. Jane tells the two guys they are hired, and will start at noon, and receives a text from Adelaide that her mother and the other vamps in Asheville only have about three days before they die. Jane says she will have something for them in two, a promise she hopes she can keep.
Jane awakens to find Eli working on her safe room, making use of a hidden room she was unaware of—one that has obviously been used recently by either Katie or Leo. Eli takes issue with Jane telling Alex that she will give him ravioli or some similar “treat” when he showers without her having to ask him to, resulting in a trip to the dojo to spar. The winner gets their way regarding Alex and his treats.
Worthy Prey. Will Not Hurt Him Too Bad: Jane’s sensei comes to watch, and he discovers that she has been holding back . In the end, Eli yields, with them striking a bargain over Alex’s food. When they get back to the house, cleaning has been done, and Alex is in the middle of hooking up a large-screen television. He tells Jane and Eli that Bruiser approved his estimate on the upgrade for Leo’s clan home, Katie’s, and her house, all to be connected to vamp HQ when completed. Alex also says that Jane now has letterhead, and that the three of them should be in business together. He reports that he found a connection between Greyson Labs that the dead Enforcer worked for and Blood-Call, a vamp escort service.
Going upstairs to her room, Jane notices that the sheets have been changed and that her weapons are gone. Alex points Jane to the “ordnance room,” where she finds all of her weapons, and Eli’s, clean and organized, also realizing they will be very secure in this location.
Later that night Alex comes to Jane wand Eli with news—he has discovered the name of the vamp who owns Greyson Labs, Blood-Call, and a number of other companies—Lucas Vazquez de Allyon, a twelve-hundred-year-old vampire practicing Naturaleza (feeding from and killing humans at will). Reading through all of the information, Jane knows it all fits, but she still does not have absolute proof. She puts together a report for Leo, which she e-mails to both him and Bruiser, and then calls the latter. Bruiser sounds very different than usual but says he likes the way he feels. Leo would like Jane to be there for the questioning of the vamp they brought back from where Leo was held, in one of his lairs, so she heads out to the Warehouse District. Jane receives a very friendly greeting from Bruiser—a very expressive kiss—but when they go inside the building, things change.
But He Didn’t Let Me Go: Bruiser whispers, “No,” but holds Jane’s arm. Katie grabs her other arm, Sabina holds her head back and removes her protective necklace, and Leo appears, saying that Jane will now be bound to him as the Vampira Carta specifies. Bruiser begs Leo to stop, but he is unable to act. Leo forces Jane to drink some of his blood and then takes some of hers. Katie also drinks briefly from Jane, tying the two of them as well in her position as Leo’s heir. Jane can now hear Leo’s thoughts, and those of Sabina, who asks Jane about the lion bones and “says” that Jane’s enemy will know her by her scent. As they discuss what Jane is, she realizes that Sabina actually knows but has not shared the information. Jane tells Leo she would have done her job without being forced, and tells him that if he ever does this again, she will kill him.
Upset, Jane rides into the swampy area that Beast likes to hunt in, and Beast tells her to shift. When Beast emerges, she sees a black thing in her mind, connected by a chain to Jane, and Beast knows it is Leo’s control. She pokes at the chain, which isn’t very strong, and surmises that after about five shifts she can break it. Beast tries to cheer Jane up by telling her that tonight she lost to a pack with a strong alpha, but that later the pack will be smaller and not so strong, so she must keep fighting. Beast then sends Jane to sleep.
When she wakes up, Jane knows she needs to go see Aggie. Upon Jane’s arrival, Aggie says her mother asked for Jane that morning because of a dream she had. After giving the two women presents she got for them in Asheville, Jane hears about the dream: a white man hanging over a fire, being poked at by an old woman. Aggie’s mother tells her to think upon this while going to water.
Bitsa Alone Could Wake the Undead: In the sweathouse, Aggie tells Jane that she carries anger around with her in her soul home. Jane tells Aggie about killing a man, and when she describes the event, Aggie points out that perhaps the man was there to kill her in order to skip the Blood Challenge. When Jane tells Aggie about the forced feeding by Leo, Aggie says that Jane stayed even after knowing the meaning of some of the parts of the Vampira Carta that she didn’t initially understand. Aggie tells Jane that the anger is deeper than those things, that it has influenced all of her decisions, and Jane responds that she believes it is because she swore to avenge her father and mother but never did. In order to help retrieve the memories, Aggie gives Jane something to drink, and then she sees more than just the woman poking the dead man with the stick—she knows her grandmother killed that man, and that she, as a five-year-old child, helped kill the other.