Five golden rings . . . (Thinks hard.) Beast does not want gold. Does not taste good. Should not be part of feast song.

Four calling birds are tasty! But loud birds would tell other prey Beast was near. No. Do not want Calling Birds. Want geese! More-than-five geese! (Looks at writer.) WANT GEESE!

Three French hens are full of fat and slow to fly. Easy to catch! But only three. Want more-than-five geese!

Two turtledoves are small mouthful. Crunch and gone. Good, but six geese are better! Beast thinks more-than-five! Like geese!

And a partridge in a pear tree. (Thinking hard.) Do not want bird in tree. Would fly away before Beast could get there. Beast likes six geese a-laying. Thinks this is more-than-five geese. Could get eggs too. Eggs are tasty. Chomp through shell and lick insides from ground. Good winter food. (Sits up and stares at writer.)

Want six geese a-laying. Want them now!

Writer raises eyebrows. Looks amused.

Beast growls low.

“Hey. I put you in the books,” Writer says, “I can take you out of the books. Be nice.”

Beast chuffs with displeasure, but will not growl again. Sits and looks away, stares into distance, tail twitching, not looking at writer. Mad at writer. Want geese!

Writer sighs.

Beast Haiku

Writer says to write haiku. Beast cannot count to more-than-five, so writer will help on line two.

Beast is good hunter.

Beast hunts bisons in Beast dreams.

Beast eats bison heart.

(Beast is great poet! More hunting number poems later! Beast is napping now on warm rock in sun.)

Leo predator

is fierce, strong, bloodthirsty vamp.

Want Leo as mate.

Writer is mad. (Chuffs with laughter.) Beast likes making Writer mad. Beast is good poet-with-numbers called haiku.

Writer is home now.

Home from big city New York.

Did not bring home cow.

Politician’s words

fighting hunting debate words

Beast would rather sleep.

(Writer is laughing. I do not understand.)

Beast naps on warm rock.

Sun heats Beast pelt and Beast purrs.

Too warm to hunt now.

(Beast is sleepy poet-of-numbers.)

Sun is warm on Beast.

Rolls over, sun on belly

Beast stretch out in sun

(Thinks.) Did Beast count right?

JY Companion Guide Major Character List

Aggie One Feather: An elder of the People, mid-fifties, black hair without any gray; her parents are both Wolf Clan; serves as counselor for Jane; first appears in Skinwalker.

Angelina Everhart Trueblood: Daughter of Molly Everhart and Evan Trueblood, six years old with strawberry blond hair; has the witch gene from both parents, which means many people and organizations would want her; given her parents, the extent of Angie’s powers are not yet known; first appears in the story “Kits,” first book, Skinwalker.

Antoine: Male witch; first appears in Skinwalker; dies in Skinwalker when attempting to kill the liver-eater/rogue skinwalker masquerading as Leo’s son.

Bethany: Mithran Outclan healer/shaman, black-skinned, former slave, mentally and emotionally unbalanced; first appears in Blood Cross.

Bobby Bates: Jane’s friend from the Christian children’s home, childlike mentality but later discovered to have a unique magical ability; has bright red hair and freckles; first appears in the story “The Early Years,” but plays a significant role in the plot of Blood Trade.

Brandon and Brian: Grégoire’s twin primos. First appear as Big-Gun Red Shirt and Big-Gun Navy Shirt in Skinwalker. They are onorios.

Bruiser: see George Dumas.

Derek Lee: African-American former marine that Jane meets while tracking a rogue vamp; does work for Leo; first appears in Skinwalker.

Eli Younger: Former Army Ranger hired by Jane, along with his younger brother, Alex, as her private team; first appears in Death’s Rival.

Esmee: Elderly but very feisty woman with bright red hair whose home in Natchez Jane and her team rent out briefly in Death’s Rival, but she returns for a larger role in Blood Trade.

Evan Trueblood: Male witch, six foot four and burly, red hair and beard, brown eyes; married to Molly Everhart Trueblood, Jane’s best friend; first appears in the story “Kits,” first book, Skinwalker.

Evangelina Everhart Stone: Molly’s oldest sister and coven leader who develops a demon addiction; first appears in the story “Signatures of the Dead,” first book, Skinwalker; dies in Raven Cursed at Jane’s hand.

George Dumas/Bruiser: Leo’s primo blood-servant, six feet four inches tall, muscular, lithe, brown eyes and hair, over one hundred years old; first appears in Skinwalker. Came to the Americas in the early nineteen hundreds.

Girrard DiMercy (Gee): A Mercy Blade, a creature who performs the task of killing scions unable to emerge from devoveo; his blood aids the parents to overcome dolore; uses glamours to hide his true face, as he comes from another dimension; first appears in Mercy Blade.

Grégoire: Blood Master of Clan Arceneau; looks as though he was turned as a teen, though it happened in the time of Charlemagne, blond; first appears in Skinwalker, when he is held captive by the liver-eater. He is the premier soldier and warrior of the United States Mithrans. He also has three primos, two of whom later turn out to be onorios.

Hieronymus: Master of the City of Natchez and surrounding area; first appears in Blood Trade, though mentioned in Death’s Rival; tall. He was turned with a condition called Alopecia totalis, and the vampirism has not fully healed him, leaving him mostly hairless.

Jane Yellowrock: Cherokee skinwalker, six feet tall with long dark hair that she braids and wears in a queue when fighting, golden eyes that glow; in addition to her skinwalker ability, Jane has the soul of a mountain lion that she captured within herself at the age of five in an accidental act of black magic; Jane walked out of the woods at the approximate age of twelve, scared, scarred, with no memory of anything at all; spent the next six years in the Bethel Nondenominational Christian Children’s Home (also referred to as the children’s home).

Katie: Katherine Louisa Dupre—true legal name; also Katie of Katie’s Ladies; has also been known to the world as Katherine Fonteneau, Katherine Pearl Duplantis, Katherine Vuillemont, among others; a registered Republican, votes religiously, pardon the term; sits on the local Vampiric Council; eyes are a sort of grayish hazel. She is Leo’s heir, blond, owns the house Jane lives in while working in New Orleans; is small, slender, and ash-blond; first appears in the short story “Cat Tats,” and next in the first book, Skinwalker.

Kemnebi: first appears in Mercy Blade as an emissary from the International Party of Weres to the U.S.; African black wereleopard whose mate, Safia, is killed by the grindylow in Mercy Blade for attempting to turn Rick LaFleur; Jane claims alpha status over Kemnebi in “Blood, Fangs, and Going Furry,” forcing him to be Rick’s mentor to learn about life as a were, despite Kemnebi’s hatred of Rick.

Kid (Alex) Younger: Eighteen-year-old computer genius and MIT graduate on probation for hacking into the Pentagon’s system; first appears in Death’s Rival when he and his brother, Eli, are hired by Jane to be her private team.

Leo Pellissier: Master of the City of New Orleans and a large portion of the Southeastern United States, shoulder-length black hair, black eyes; binds Jane to him through blood in Death’s Rival, for his own purposes. Later, by accident, he binds Beast while trying to save Jane’s life when she is shot and dying; first appears in the story “Cat Tats,” first book, Skinwalker.

Lincoln Shaddock: Asheville Blood Master vampire who petitions for Master of the City status in Raven Cursed; some of his scions have come out of devoveo much earlier than the usual time, the most recent taking just two years; is spelled and used by Evangelina Everhart throughout Raven Cursed.

Misha: a woman, now a reporter, who was in the children’s home with Jane; first appears in Blood Trade, when she was captured because of her magical abilities.

Molly Trueblood: Jane’s best friend; earth-witch, curly red hair; first appears in the story “Kits,” first book, Skinwalker.

Reach: computer expert and hacker who can find just about anything; first appears in Mercy Blade, though we never see him physically.

Rick LaFleur: Black hair, Cajun, six feet tall; in a relationship with Jane at the end of Skinwalker; at the beginning of Mercy Blade, this relationship is cut short because of his undercover work that leads to his being bitten by Safia, a wereleopard; first appears in the story “Cat Tats,” first book, Skinwalker.

Jodi Richoux: New Orleans Police Department detective, in charge of the supernatural crime unit, blond; her mother is a witch; her aunt was a witch and a cop; first appears in Skinwalker.

Sabina: Mithran Outclan priestess, wears a nun’s habit, pale skin with dark eyebrows and eyes; first appears in Skinwalker. Sabina is the keeper of a sliver of the item that made the Mithrans.

Safia: wereleopard mate to Kemnebi; first appears in Mercy Blade; killed by the grindylow in Mercy Blade for biting and infecting Rick LaFleur in an attempt to turn him.

Soul: Rick’s mentor and supervisor in PsyLED; looks human but isn’t, though no one (other than her supervisor) seems to know what she is, exotic-looking; first appears in the story “Golden Delicious,” but plays a significant role in Blood Trade.

Sylvia Turpin: Adams County sheriff (Natchez area), brilliant blue eyes, fair skin, and dark red hair; starts a relationship with Eli Younger; first appears in Blood Trade.

Tom/Troll: Rick’s “uncle”, Katie’s blood-servant who runs her household at Katie’s Ladies and has been with her for seventy-nine years, bald and muscular; first appears in Skinwalker; distant relative of Rick LaFleur.

Wrassler: Security guard at the clan council house; first appears in Blood Cross under the Jane-given moniker WWF.

First Sight

By Faith Hunter

Faith’s note: I love seeing Jane from the point of view of other characters. It is refreshing and often eye-opening. Bruiser is a huge fan favorite, and about half of the romance readers want Jane to end up with him and about half want her to end up with Ricky Bo. While I’ve written stories from Rick’s POV before, I’ve never written one from Bruiser’s, and decided to try my hand at it in a scene stolen and reworked from Skinwalker. I discovered a lot about Bruiser. And I like him a lot better than I expected. I hope you enjoy.