So Let’s Get It On, Baby: When she arrives back at the house, Jane confronts Francis. Soul is there, and tells Jane to not hurt the vampire anymore—until he starts talking about how he enjoys killing women and children. At that point, Soul leaves Jane alone once again with Francis, and Jane breaks the news to the vamp that Esther is dead, also informing him that she is the one who killed de Allyon. Jane asks who would now be in charge, and Francis responds that there are three possibilities, and the two bargain regarding names for food until they strike a deal. Francis gives Jane the name of Charles Scarletti, the vamp whose primo Misha was going to meet with, and also refers to those closest to Hieronymus, which Jane takes to mean his sons, Zoltar and Narkis. After dosing Francis with the vamp cure, Jane finds out from Eli that Scarletti was one of the dead vamps found at Esther’s. Jane reluctantly calls Bruiser to ask about the use of vampire blood to cure leukemia, and after checking, he replies that there have been mixed results. After letting Bruiser know that Reach was likely listening in on their call, Jane and Eli decide to spar in the gym above the garage. All goes well, until Rick walks in on Eli helping Jane up and misinterprets what he sees. The grindy stops Rick before he can hurt Eli, and he apologizes, saying he didn’t have his calming music with him. After everyone calms down, Jane determines that the best approach is to focus their efforts on finding the vampires who took the witches. However, Jane, Eli, and Bobby end up taking Charly to the hospital to see her doctor for much of the day. Meanwhile, the Kid has found a local tech guy, Bodat, who has a lot of information regarding the local vamps. From Bodat Jane learns that Esther and Silandre used to be singing partners and lovers, and Jane asks the two young men to look for a connection between the two female vamps and Hieronymus’ sons. Back at the house, Soul offers to help locate Misha with her magic. Using three of Misha’s hairs from a brush, Soul does her ritual and identifies the direction Misha is in, within ten miles. The two women hear Bobby wailing, and race to him.
The Idea of You Shackled and Bound Is Appealing: The two women find Bobby standing in the middle of his room, with his arms outstretched toward the window. Jane takes his hands and feels a huge shock, magic running through her. With Beast’s help Jane knocks the magic out of herself. Soul explains what Misha meant by calling Bobby a dowsing rod—he is attracted to magic, and she believes they can help track Misha that way. The group gets together over food in the dining room to discuss what they have learned and to devise a strategy. Combining the directional clues from Soul and Bobby with land records of property owned by Silandre, they also learn that Silandre and Leo had a relationship prior to the Civil War. Suddenly Bruiser appears, which pleases Beast, though Soul’s reaction to him makes Beast unhappy. Then Sylvia, the sheriff, arrives, and reports the number of dead at Esther’s, as well as that more witches have gone missing. Relationship overload causes Jane to leave the room, and Rick follows her outside, suggesting they both go look at the home of the missing witch family they just heard about. An examination of the house turns up scorched areas where the wards protecting the place had been blown out. After an uncomfortable personal conversation, Jane goes outside, and when Rick joins her he discovers that she has taken amulets from the crime scene. What she does not show Rick is the picture of a Native American woman that she also took because she was sure the photograph was calling out to her for some reason.
Make Ceremony With Me: In her room Jane looks over the photograph she removed from Esther’s house, and the style of the frame causes her to reminisce about the past. Owing to the binding he shares with Beast, Jane senses that Leo is about to call. He takes issue with the way Jane has redone some of the house in New Orleans—he particularly does not care for the silver now occupying his lair. After a brief conversation, Jane realizes that Beast had not gone all soft and gushy at the sound of Leo’s voice, which makes her realize that perhaps her cat has learned to withstand some of the magic used against her. The fear of the binding to Leo is what has prevented Jane shifting for months, and this new discovery leads to her decision to do so now. The first thing Beast notices is that Jane’s working out over the last few months has resulted in her becoming a bigger and stronger cat, and she is very pleased. The second thing she notices is that Bruiser watched the shift, and that he is now somehow different—no longer bound to Leo as he was. This amuses Beast. Wishing to head to the river to hunt, Beast catches a ride on the top of a truck. In order to get down to the level of the river, Beast jumps down by way of some trees, for which Jane chides her. After catching and eating some water birds, Beast smells smoke and sees a Native American woman sitting at a fire. Jane says that the woman is the one in the picture she found. The woman addresses Beast as Skinwalker, and says she must meet her at a church at dawn, in human form. When the woman disappears, Jane realizes she was never really there. Beast decides that it would be better for Jane to make the climb up the hill, so she makes the shift back. Once she is dressed and at the top of the riverbank, Jane calls Eli to come pick her up and to bring food. When they arrive at the church, Jane goes inside and meets the woman from her vision and the photograph, who introduces herself as Kathyayini. The old woman says her son married an Achee woman, the family of witches that was just abducted, and she tells Jane that she sees many types of magic surrounding her. She can also see the shadow of Leo in Jane’s soul house.
Try Not to Poison Me: Kathyayini gives Jane two riddles, which she does not understand, about cold iron, cursed trees, blood, red iron, and a dark light buried under the ground. When Jane wants to leave, Kathyanini tells her that they are in a place that does not exist here, there, or in between, but she throws Jane a coin. When she leaves the church, Jane walks into fog, and when Eli finds her, he wants her to identify herself. Apparently he saw two earlier versions of Jane that required staking, at which time they disappeared. On the way back to Esmee’s, Jane looks over the coin and discovers a dragon’s head. When they get back to the house, the Kid tells Jane what he found out about her coin, that it is a Greek sea serpent. While Jane and Eli were gone, the Kid has also gathered addresses of vamps on Jane’s kill list to see which were properties owned by either Silandre or Esther. When Rick and Soul join them in the dining room for breakfast, Rick receives a call from someone named Monica, and in spite of herself, Jane becomes jealous. Leaving the house to go outside, Jane pays a visit to Francis, but she doesn’t get much out of him other than that the leader of the Naturaleza would need to be able to communicate with the others telepathically. Jane leaves to take a shower, but when she gets out, Bruiser is in the bathroom. He and Jane have a much-needed conversation, during which Bruiser says he would even give up his freedom to keep her from being hurt, and tells her that she may ask him twenty questions. The first two: what does he mean about now having freedom, and what exactly is he now—he no longer smells the same—?
You’re a Gun Whore: Bruiser tells Jane that he is an Onorio, a being that has many of the benefits of being a vampire (long life, speed, seeing in the dark) but is not actually one. Most blood-servants do not survive the process, but he did, as well as Grégoire’s B twins. During their discussion, Jane muses over the state of the new, insectoid vamps: they were first transformed into vampires, became Naturaleza, then got the vamp plague, and somehow witches and magic got involved. Eli comes to get Jane for their search, and she gathers up her weapons. When she asks Eli to help her get some of the weapons adjusted, Rick happens to walk in, and Eli points a gun at him, not wanting a repeat of their last encounter. The grindy latches on to Rick, and Jane and Eli leave.