Faith Hunter: Jane Yellowrock World Companion

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.

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.

I wasn’t fond of doors without peepholes, which was surely quite telling about my age. I also found it difficult to remember security cameras were everywhere, even over the door to Katie’s Ladies. I resisted the urge to look up and wink at the camera, as Katie herself was unlikely to be watching the security display screens and I had no desire to flirt with Tom, her muscle.

The door opened and . . . everything changed. A woman—an Amazon—stood there, needle-thin, muscled, balanced, and ready, dressed in jeans and leather, black braids to her bum, a gun held low at her side, and a glowing cross in her other hand. I was inhaling when the door opened and I caught her scent. All I could think was predator . Without thought, training and muscle memory pulling me forward into the moves, I drew a knife and attacked.

She sidestepped fast—faster than human—and stuck out a foot. I tripped over it. Felt myself falling forward, prey to the oldest trick in the book. I cursed under my breath as she landed on me, riding me down. We hit and I could hear her heart pounding. She growled. We bounced, me on bottom, her knee landing against my spine just as Leo’s weight fell onto us.