Jane Yellowrock World Companion Read online

  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.

  Maggots. I Hate Maggots. Heading back to Under the Hill to check out addresses the Kid provided them with, Jane and Eli find nothing at the first two, but the third, an old warehouse, proves to be a location of more dead bodies. After they both do a perimeter search of the building and meet up again, Jane states to Eli that she doesn’t understand why so many humans are being killed, given that they are the Naturaleza’s food supply. After Eli kicks the door in and drops a sleepy-time grenade inside, he surmises that perhaps this group does not have a typical vamp hierarchy to keep them in line. Jane also worries that the new vamps may have a higher rising-on-the-third-day-as-revenants rate, which can only be avoided by beheading, so she texts Rick and Eli texts Sylvia to let them know that the bodies they took need to be dealt with by that method. Jane and Eli hear thumps on the floor, as the gas begins to work, and Jane wonders if perhaps all of the new vamps are revenants of a sort. The search of the warehouse turns up many dead humans, but they do find a few alive that they plan to return for. Upstairs Jane and Eli find three vamps. After they dispatch the first two vamps, the third attacks Jane, tearing into her arm and breaking the bone. Eli kills the attacking vamp, and Jane goes into shock.

  I Know I’ll Have to Choose: When Jane regains consciousness, she finds Eli removing her boots. He has called Rick, who told him that Jane needed to shift in order to heal, and that she has to be naked to shift. Before shifting, Jane asks Eli if he took pictures of the dead vamps. Both Eli and Rick refer to Beast as Jane, which she does not appreciate. After eating the raw meat brought to her by Rick, Beast decides to have some fun and smacks Rick’s wolf partner in the nose with her paw, drawing blood. The grindy seems upset, but Beast thinks the were blood will not hurt her when it’s only in her stomach, and then wonders if it will hurt her at all, even in a cut. The angel Hayyel did something to both the wolf and to Beast—something Jane does not know, or anyone else. Since the mention of a leash does not elicit a positive response, Eli suggests that someone carry Beast down to the car, and she chooses Rick. Jane remerges in the back of an SUV with clothes that smell like Rick nearby. After getting dressed, she has a conversation with Eli about the two men who want her, and she explains that Beast actually wants both of them, not one or the other. Eli and Jane decide to go back to work after eating, and head to the morgue. On the way, Jane suggests that perhaps the insectoid, spiderlike vamps are Naturaleza revenants. When they arrive, they discover that Sylvia never received Eli’s text regarding beheading, and when they race inside to answer a distress call from one of Sylvia’s cops, they find two dead humans and a vamp who attacks Sylvia.

  The Bad Men Are Gone: Jane and Eli fight off the first wave of vamps, without any damage to Sylvia, and after killing a number of vamps they manage to trap all but one in the cold room. Eli beheads the one remaining vamp, and Jane hears a sound. A little girl is hiding behind the body of a security guard. Before they leave, Eli tosses a grenade into the cold room to kill the trapped vamps, and shortly thereafter a woman from social services picks up the little girl. Beast’s reaction to the child makes it clear to Jane how much Beast wants children. Sylvia approaches Jane, taking her to task for taking crime scene photos so she could get paid. After a brief argument, during which Jane also assures Sylvia that she and Eli are friends and family only, the women part with a handshake and an understanding. Eli and Jane go to check out more of the addresses given to them by the Kid, but they don’t find anything. When they get back to Esmee’s, Bobby is waiting for Jane, telling her about a dream he had about a lion, and he thought it was her. When Bobby’s description of the dream changes to him telling Eli about how Jane protected him when they were younger, it occurs to Jane that they have never met Lotus, Hieronymus’ heir, but they should have. She also realizes that when Francis said that Hieronymus had been betrayed by those closest to him, she just assumed the vamp meant Hieronymus’ sons. Jane asks the Kid to look for more connections between the female vamps.

  I Look Like a Well-Dressed Street Person: Charly wakes Jane up with the statement that it’s Sunday, and they need to go to church. Despite Jane’s initial protests, she agrees and borrows a skirt from Esmee, who tells Jane to go ahead and give some of the darkness she feels to God. The group arrives at the huge church, and Jane muses over the connection between Christianity and the creation of vampires. After communion, Jane’s thoughts wander, and she snaps back to reality when she notices Charly up front with the microphone. The girl tells the congregation her mother is missing, kidnapped by vampires, and that she has leukemia. After the service, they all return back to Esmee’s. When Jane awakens from a nap, she senses that Rick is there. During their brief conversation, Rick finds out that Jane and Bruiser have not slept together, and Jane finds out that Monica, the caller she was jealous of, is Rick’s younger sister. After Rick leaves, the Kid comes to Jane’s door and tells her to come to the breakfast room to hear what he found. It turns out that up until the nineteen forties, Hieronymus and Lotus owned property together, but that at that time Hieronymus chose not to include Lotus any longer. The female vamp went into business with Silandre and Esther, and Jane figures they waited until de Allyon came along to wrest control away from Hieronymus.

  I’ll Get Well Later: Eli and Jane go back to Silandre’s, where they meet a young woman named Nostrana, who says she works for Silandre a few days a week. Silandre is not there, nor has she been recently, and while Jane is commenting upon the oddity of a witch (Nostrana) working for a vamp, the coin in her pocket suddenly becomes hot, as does the pocket watch, which also smells of old blood. After the heat dissipates, Jane and Eli leave to return to Esmee’s. Jane plans to go talk to Francis, as she believes he has something on his body that enables him to heal without ingesting much blood. She believes that this same type of focus powered by a witch circle may be what allowed de Allyon to operate as Naturaleza when other vamps were Fame Vexatum. After two minutes in the sun, Jane finds an amulet on Francis, which she confiscates. Jane decides to take Bobby for a ride to see if he can locate Misha. During their conversation, and while Bobby is scanning the area, Jane learns that Misha is a witch—as is Charly. They wear jewelry that holds spells to hide them from detection. However, Jane realizes now why Lisha was taken. When Bobby holds one of the pocket watches, it burns his hand. Soul suggests via text that Bobby should be placed within a circle with the watches so they can’t hurt him. Bobby insists they make a circle in the sand, and with the three watches, Bobby determines the house where Misha is being kept.

  Close Your Mouth, Girl. Mosquitoes Will Fly In: Jane uses her knife to break the circle, and Eli attends to Bobby’s hands, telling him he’s a hero. Jane texts the Kid to have him get the team to meet her and Eli at the house Bobby identified. Bobby wants to go in with Jane and Eli, but the latter convinces him that he can best help by staying outside with a phone so he can call any other backup needed. Looking at the house with Beast-vision, Jane can see the writhing magic surrounding the building, the wards protecting it even involving the houses on either side. When the rest of the team arrives, Jane suggests that she can shift into bird form and dive down into the house from the top. After examining the possibilities, Bruiser asks Soul if she can make a death charm for him and Jane so they can trick the wards and get through. Soul agrees, say
ing she can have one completed by dawn. Eli and Jane join the others back at the warded house, and learn that Soul was unable to make a charm that can withstand the magic used on the house, but says that she herself is a magic that can survive the wards. Jane guesses correctly that Soul’s new plan is for her and Jane to get into the house via zip line. Eli and Jane planned for explosives to be planted on the outside, and if Jane shifts, her clothes and weapons will be dropped down by Soul. When a hole is blown in the roof, the others should also be able to get through. Jane and Soul prepare to descend, the two of them close together so Soul’s magic can work.

  “Thank You,” the Corpse Croaked: Jane sees Soul deteriorate before her eyes, and the two begin their descent. After they both arrive intact and Soul looks like herself again rather than a rotting corpse, Jane says she wants to trade secrets, as she has no idea what Soul is. Soul responds that perhaps they will talk sometime. Jane changes clothes into her leathers and unpacks explosives. After Soul and Jane don their hard hats and plug their ears, Jane signals for the explosives to be set off. With Rick and Bruiser now joining them, all four drop into the attic. The floor collapses, and Jane finds Bruiser fighting two buglike vamps: one resembling a hornet, the other a spider. Jane tells Bruiser to aim for the amulets they wear, and Rick is down. After both vamps are dead and their amulets removed, Jane checks on Rick, who is alive but without his headphones. Soul replaces them, bringing Rick back under control. A search of the house results in no witches, just black painted arcs on the floors of the rooms, but they do find more dead humans, including children. The sight of the latter enrages Beast, and Jane attacks the bug-vamp in the room. After killing the last of the vamps and dragging a body outside to the sun, the group finds themselves face-to-face with cops with their guns drawn. Despite her deafness from the explosions, Jane manages to explain who they are and what happened. When she examines the amulets she has just taken, the pieces draw together as though magnetic. Jane decides she needs to go see Kathyayini again, so the Kid drives her to the spot where the church appeared before, and Jane takes out the coin.

  Vampire Blood. Mixed With Something: After they arrive at the location, Jane tells the Kid to wait for her, but if she isn’t back in an hour to get Eli to bring Soul there to look for her. While she waits for something to happen, Jane examines the coin, realizing that what she thought was copper is actually old vampire blood. When she adds her blood to the coin, the discs she brought along join together on the ground in front of her, and the combination makes the amulets glow. When Kathyanini appears, Jane tells her what she has figured out: de Allyon, as a conquistador, used the power of skinwalkers and used their blood to make amulets. At some point de Allyon figured out how to used the amulets as focuses for power to keep the other vampires in the United States out of his business while he practiced Naturaleza in Atlanta. Then he came up with a plan to make vampires sick, but Leo and Jane put a stop to that. After Jane killed de Allyon, his heir started using the amulets and a witch circle to make superstrong vamps, but they are ending up with mutants. Kathyanini suggests to Jane that she plays a role in everything that has happened, that it was all part of a plan. The old woman disappears, and Jane goes outside to find the Kid, asking him to take her to the old saloon where she and Eli rescued the three women. Stepping into the witch circle in front of the fridge, with the amulets, and pressing the discs into the bloody cloth, Jane lands in a small room, realizing she has been transported by a spell. She can hear the others in her team through the walls, so she knows she is back in the house they just raided at dawn. Jane steps on the handle for a trapdoor and notices that the pocket watches all say twelve. Jane lifts the handle.

  That Was Before I Killed Her Sister: The door opens easily, and Jane goes down steps into the crawl space. Aside from the few bones she saw at first, Jane now sees live women, buried in sand in various stages. The witches are all glowing with power. Jane spots Misha but is reluctant to touch her, as she doesn’t know what might happen. It becomes clear to Jane that the earth is actually swallowing the women, which explains why they are in various stages of submersion in the dirt. Eli calls Jane, and she explains where she is and what she sees. Jane asks to have Soul come through the circle to see if she can figure out what is going on, and to have Rick call Evan Trueblood to tell him to take the call from Jane she is going to make. While she waits a few minutes before calling Evan, Jane notices that the witch bodies are laid out in a pattern. When she calls Evan, she tells him where she is and what she sees. After Evan snipes at Jane, she tells him off, and then they get back to the matter at hand. Evan wants to know everything she knows about the spell. After telling her that he is working for Leo, though he didn’t at first realize it, Evan says he’ll call her back shortly. Soul arrives and asks if the women are wearing iron. Jane says that the clocks on their chests contain an iron disc with blood, probably de Allyon’s. Jane tells Soul about the ugly necklace that Hieronymus wears, out of character with everything else about him and his home, and believes that it may be at the center of everything, though the vamp master may not even know it. Jane decides she needs to go get the necklace. When she goes up the stairs, she is relieved that she ends up back where she started. She calls Eli, telling him she is going for supplies, and to see a preacher.

  Cat Reflexes, One; Blood-Servant Reflexes, Zero: After gaining admittance to the office of Preacher Hosenfeld (from the church she had visited with Charly earlier), she explains that she is trying to get the girl’s mother back. The preacher grills Jane about her faith and beliefs, and then agrees to help in more ways than just letting Jane use the holy water from the baptismal font. Jane and company storm Hieronymus’ home, which has been bombarded with sleepy-time gas, and Jane has to knock out Clark, the primo. The Kid has them patched in to the house’s intercom system, and Bruiser makes the announcement that he is there as Leo’s enforcer to search out and stop Naturaleza, and those who do not fight will not be harmed. The group does receive resistance from some blood-servants, who are dealt with through the use of rubber bullets. They find a lot of humans prone from the gas, but until they get upstairs they don’t see any vamps. Jane gets to use the holy water on a couple of vamps, which has the desired effect. After battling a few more vampires, Jane and the guys find Hieronymus downstairs, being protected by five of his people. The necklace is now burned into his flesh. Jane tells him that the Naturaleza tagged him without him knowing it, and that it is controlling him. He tells Jane to take it off him, in spite of what it may do to him. When Jane removes the necklace, there is a power surge and Jane feels as though she is falling.

  Mr. Prepared for Anything: Jane seems to be in a tunnel, and walks into a room with an old Native American woman—her grandmother. The woman tells her that she has done well to let love into her life and heart, as it will prevent her, at least for the time being, from becoming the monster she may have become from having killed a man as a child, the man who killed her father. When she asks the older woman if she became a liver-eater, the woman shifts and leaps at Jane, but then she abruptly appears back at Hieronymus’ home, in the same room she left from. When Jane asks Hieronymus why he allowed her to take the necklace, he explains by recounting (after making the rest of her group leave the room) the Mithran creation story, which she already knows, but with an addendum she doesn’t: when the outclan priestesses took the wood of the crosses to create weapons used against the Mithrans, the Naturaleza took the iron and forged weapons to bind and control. Two tribes formed, one Naturaleza and one Fame Vexatum. After many years of war, some of the Naturaleza came to the new world, including de Allyon. When Hieronymus hears what is going on with the witches, he tells Jane that she must take Lotus’ head before midnight when the working is complete, and that he wants the blood-iron. As they drive away from Hieronymus’ house, Jane muses over the fact that in spite of all of their research, done properly, Hieronymus had known all along where Lotus was but could not tell her because of the binding. She sees this as a lesson to save the
Master first. Later that evening, Jane and Bruiser sneak out of Esmee’s (they don’t want the others along, because they probably wouldn’t survive), heading for the house where they had found Esther beheaded. Jane had Leo call in Evan Trueblood, because she knew Evan wouldn’t have come if she asked. When he arrives, Evan blames Jane for too many people knowing that he is a warlock, and that his daughter is a gifted witch. Jane vows that when too many people find out, she will be there to guard them. Jane places the fused discs in one of Evan’s hands, and the sliver of iron in the other, as he told her to. In the basement, Jane places a sheet on the floor and makes a circle, which Evan gets into before she closes it. Evan plays flute music for five minutes, and when the discs move until they point into a direction that Evan says is the vampire lair. Bruiser tears down the shelves that hide the door, and when he opens the door, Silandre and Lotus both come out, going toward Evan. He scratches both of them with the iron, and they both fall to the floor in some sort of binding, unable to move. Jane hears moaning from the hole leading to the lair.