Epilogue: Eli, in his military uniform, presents Bobby with a purple heart medal (one of his) for his service. Jane, Misha, and a healthier Charly are all in attendance.

Story:

“The Devil’s Left Boot” (in the anthology Kicking It): Liz and Cia Everhart are working at the Seven Sassy Sisters Café and Herb Shop that they own and operate with their four remaining sisters—Evangelina having been killed recently because of her involvement with a demon. Liz feels grief over the loss of her sister and coven leader, and actual physical pain from the same sister having tried to kill her with a boulder, but healing from both is taking a while.

Liz sees a bright red car pull up in front of the restaurant, and when she sees who gets out of it, she calls to Cia. The women are surprised and dismayed to see their biggest tormenter and foe from high school, Layla, on her way in, holding a pygmy goat in her arms. Using the formal forms of both sisters’ names, Layla says that she requires help, saying that she brought the goat as a sacrifice. Cia tells Layla that they don’t do blood-magic, and to get out, but the woman starts to cry, saying her mother has disappeared and the police aren’t taking the situation seriously. Softening a bit at Layla’s plight, Liz and Cia decide to hear her out.

Layla’s mother, Evelyn, missed an important work meeting, prompting her boss to check with Layla, who found her mother’s clothes, purse, and cell in a strange pile on the floor at her house. Layla says she can pay them, and after seeing the stack of bills she has, Cia states the fee of one thousand dollars for trying to locate her, and two thousand more for success, regardless of the state she may be in when they find her (which she points out is Jane Yellowrock’s fee). Agreeing to the terms, Layla says she will meet the two sisters at her mother’s house. When Cia brings up her cleverness at citing Jane’s fees, Liz almost tells Cia what she has kept from her—Jane is in town for the hearing over Evangelina’s death.

When they arrive at Evelyn’s house, the outside does not look disturbed at all. The inside of the house is spotless, meticulously kept. When they go into the missing woman’s bedroom, they find the pile of clothes, which appear to have been removed while she was turning in a spiral. Oddly, they find only one boot, the other not being with the clothes or in the closet. Under the boot, Liz finds dried blood, and Cia finds some small figurines and blood, likely from old magical workings. The sisters determine that the boot is actually in the middle of a pentagram, and they think that someone literally whisked Evelyn away using magic. They say that they can try to do a finding spell, but leave it up to Layla whether she wants them to do so, or call the police and PsyLED to get involved. Layla chooses Liz and Cia, as well as the police already involved.

Since they don’t want to disturb any residual magic left at Evelyn’s, the sisters go to Layla’s apartment to do some research, trying to find out where may be a good location for their spell. They hit on a good possibility—a property owned for over a hundred years by the family of the developer Evelyn works for, and the last place she stopped before going home the day she disappeared. Liz tells Layla to call both the police and PsyLED, letting each agency know that the other had been called, hopefully resulting in faster results.

Liz and Cia set up their circle on the property, feeling the power of the place (which even seems to heal Liz’s ribs). Both women sense that their magic seems more powerful. They call out Evelyn’s name, along with a ritual word, and two people appear within the circle—one of them Evelyn, and the other a female vampire. Cia calls down a hedge of thorns spell to keep the vampire from getting loose. The vampire seems unhinged, and says she wants her shoe, pointing at the boot, and then bites Evelyn, which she obviously has been doing quite often, given the woman’s condition.

Liz suggests that they call Jane for help, having to finally tell Cia about Jane being in town for the trial. Liz explains that she kept the information from her sister during the time of the moon when she is most powerful but sometimes unstable. Liz says Evelyn is their responsibility, but the vampire is Jane’s. Cia then says that, really, stopping Evangelina was their responsibility, but they passed it to Jane, who did her duty.

After making sure the hedge spell is in place and very strong, Liz and Cia call Jane from the car. Jane says she will be there as quickly as she can be. While Liz is talking to her, Cia looks up more information about the area, especially curious since the magic of both women had been so much stronger there than it should have been, learning that the place was the site of a town where everyone disappeared in 1890. An old picture from the time period shows a woman who looks like the vampire they contained. Jane tells the witches to stay put.

Jane arrives with several vampires, including Lincoln Shaddock and Dacy, his heir, and reports that the sisters stumbled upon something the vamps want to keep quiet—the female vampire, Romona, never came out of the devoveo, and since her husband couldn’t bring himself to have her killed, she escaped and killed everyone in the town. Unfortunately Romona also used blood-magic, being a witch vampire, and the two sisters know that they need to get cleansed and purified soon, since they used some of the that magic unknowingly.

The vamps have agreed that Romona faces true-death at Jane’s hand, and they will pay a steep fee to the sisters if they do not talk about the secret of the town. Liz and Cia agree, as long as Evelyn survives. Romona’s husband distracts her with shoes, and when Cia brings down the hedge, Jane kills the rogue vampire. Dacy gives Evelyn enough blood to ensure that she will survive, and the sisters give their word they will not speak of the town unless someone else’s life is in danger, or the vampires tell them they can talk about it. Jane tells Lincoln to pay the sisters, and when they get to the car they find one hundred thousand dollars in the envelope.

After returning Evelyn to her daughter, Liz and Cia head home. Cia tells Liz that when Evangelina threw the boulder on her, she was unable to move it and that Jane, in her cat form, was the one who did. The two women agree it is time to forgive Jane. They also agree that they really need to get cleansed of that addictive blood-magic.

Beneath a Bloody Moon

A Jane Yellowrock Novella

By Faith Hunter

Faith’s Note: This novella takes place (in the Jane Yellowrock timeline) after Blood Trade, after the short “The Devil’s Left Boot” in the anthology Kicking It and before Black Arts. It takes place over two days, in February, before Mardi Gras.

“Jane.”

I turned to the side and pulled the cell closer to my ear so my partners couldn’t see the stupid smile on my face. Deep inside, my Beast rolled to her paws, gathered them tight beneath her, and started to purr. I could hear her response in the tone of my voice when I drawled, “Ricky Bo LaFleur, as I live and breathe.”

He chuckled. “You’ve been in New Orleans too long if you’re picking up the lingo and the accent.”

Too long without you. But I didn’t say it. I was getting smarter. Finally. Our jobs and his little problem meant stealing moments when we could, and none of them were particularly satisfying. Rick is a special agent with PsyLED, the Psychometery Law Enforcement Department of Homeland Security, and so some things he can’t share. His job takes him all over the Southeast. My job means traveling too, hunting and killing rogue-vampires or keeping the secrets of the sane ones, so ditto on the not sharing. It puts a barrier between us.

The relationship—if I could call it that—with Rick was still wobbly: bruised by miscommunication, stupid accusations, big-cat pheromones, and worse, the tattoo spells that kept my werecat sorta-boyfriend in human form. Oh. And the were-taint that was said to be communicable by, um, having fun. Okay, maybe “relationship” was too strong a word nowadays. I pulled my hip-length hair across my shoulder as I walked out the side door and onto the porch. “So, where are you?”

“Too far for a meet and greet. I hope to get your way soon and make up for lost time, if you still have room for me with all the new men in your life.”

“New men?” Incredulity laced the word.

“The Younger brothers?”

I’m not the most man-savvy gal in town, but even I detected the hint of jealousy in his tone. “Partners, Ricky Bo. Not hanky-panky.”

“Good.” His voice dropped into the big-cat-purr register, more vibration than note. “I was kinda hoping you’d save all the hanky and the panky for me.”

“I was leaning that way. But for that to work, we need to cross paths sometime. You suck at the boyfriend stuff almost as much as I suck at the girlfriend stuff.”

“Soon,” he promised, “we’ll remedy that. But meanwhile, would you be interested in a side job for Uncle Sam?”

I sat on the edge of the porch, my legs in the weak March sun, feet in the lemon thyme ground cover. The smell wafted up from my feet and tickled my nose. “PsyLED?” The arm of the government that employed Rick seemed more likely to want me on a dissection table than on their payroll. Of course, maybe not. They had hired Rick. “Do they know . . .” About me? Not said aloud.

“That I’m dating a statuesque Cherokee? I told them all about us. They’re good with it.”

The subtle emphasis on statuesque Cherokee told me that he was keeping my secret. Not that my being a skinwalker would be secret for long. Not now that I had been outted to the paranormal world in such a spectacular way—by changing to one of my animal forms in the back of a car—in front of numerous people, including the vampire Master of the City of New Orleans, Leo Pellissier. It was the only thing that had saved my life. But yeah. My anonymity wouldn’t last long. “Why don’t you do it, what’s the job, how dangerous, and how much?”

“You don’t have to sound so suspicious,” he chuckled, “because this one is boring and the pay sucks.”

“Oh, well, as long it’s all that.”

“And more, Jane. Seriously, though, there have been a number of wild dog attacks west and south of you.” His tone changed and I couldn’t tell at first why. “They’ve been going on for four months with increasing severity. All on the full moon. All the victims died. Eaten.”