Blood in Her Veins

Blood in Her Veins (2016) Faith Hunter

Wesa and the Lumber King
The Early Years
Snafu
Cat Tats
Kits
Haint(s)
Signatures of the Dead
First Sight
Blood, Fangs, and Going Furry
Dance Master
Golden Delicious
Cajun with Fangs
The Devil’s Left Boot
Beneath a Bloody Moon
Black Water
Off the Grid
Not All Is as It Seems
Cat Fight
Bound No More

This is another collection of Jane Yellowrock stories–almost all the stories in one place, plus two new novellas, and a couple shifted POV stories. If you have the other short story collections, you might be hesitant to buy another collection, but I think that is worth it for the two novellas. (And it’s not really her fault that her short stories have been collected in bits and pieces prior to this.)

Wesa and the Lumber King is a Beast story, from before Jane’s coming out of the woods.

The Early Years is the story of Jane rediscovering her abilities and Beast.

Snafu is Jane’s interview for her internship, and the start of her PI career.

Cat Tats is the story of how Rick LaFleur got his tattoos.

Kits is a Jane and Molly story, told from Jane’s point of view.

I looked at woman. She looked at me. At necklace on my neck. Jane’s necklace.

“Jane?” she whispered. “Oh my God. Jane.”

I hacked. Not God. Not Jane. Beast.

Beast has some of the best lines.

Haint(s) is where Jane and Molly meet Brax, and Jane helps Molly remove a Haint.

(H)aint being a term applied, in this part of the woods, to a form of poltergeist, or supernatural energy that usually manifests around a person instead of around a place.

Signatures of the Dead is the first Jane Yellowrock story I read, and the reason I got the first book. It’s told from Molly’s point of view.

First Sight is a short of the first meeting between Jane and Bruiser, from George’s POV.

Blood, Fangs, and Going Furry is Rick’s first full moon after being bitten.

Dance Master is another short from Bruiser’s POV.

Golden Delicious sees Rick at PsyLED training camp, and how he learns to work with Brute and Pea. This is a story that makes me like Rick, when I’m generally meh about him.

Soul lifted her eyes to Rick. “Please go back to your quarters.” Rick ejected the magazine of Soul’s .22 and put the safety on before setting the gun on the desktop. He and his unit backed out.

Cajun with Fangs is a story I’d read before and quite liked–it finds Jane dealing with a war between the vamps and the witches in a small, isolated town.

TASSIN BROS AUTO FIX, OPEN SIX DAYS A WEEK, EXCEPT IN GATOR-HUNTING AND FISHING SEASON, which sounded better than nothing.

Very isolated.

Beast perked up at the description of the food. Gator. Human killed gator? Human man is good hunter! Hungry for gator. And the picture she sent me was a whole gator, snout, teeth, feet, claws, tail, skin, and all, crusty with batter. I chuckled and sent her a more likely mental picture. Inside she huffed with disappointment.

Again, Beast gets all the best lines.

The Devil’s Left Boot is a story told from the POV of Molly’s twin sisters, Liz and Cia, who are struggling to get past the death of Evangelina.

The house was free of dust, piles of mail, and accumulated rubbish. There were no coats tossed over chair backs. No shoes in a corner or slippers by the front door or gloves on a side table. No clutter. The framed art consisted of impersonal prints that a decorator might have chosen. There were no photos or mementos anywhere. No plants to water. No dog or cat bowls. The house was something for a magazine shoot, not a place to relax, to live.

I know that house, and it really isn’t a place to live.

Beneath a Bloody Moon is another story I read before and quite liked. It finds Jane, Eli, and Alex looking into a series of maulings in Chauvin. It also introduces us to a character we’ll get to meet again.

Jane also changes into a dog, which Beast never much cares for.

As we took off from the dock, I stretched out on the seat I had claimed, closed my eyes, let my tongue loll out, and took in the wind. It buffeted my facial hair, flopped my ears back, caressed my face, and filled my nose with goodgoodgood smells, and I was in doggy heaven.

But, Beast gets her revenge.

Stepped from airboat and into water. Lay down and rolled in water over rock called cement. Mud and blood came loose from coat. Rolled into water and rolled. Rolled. Stood and walked to shore. Walked to the Kid. And shook water from pelt.

Black Water finds Jane back in Chauvin, and continuing to accept her relationship with Eli and Alex.

“They’re your brothers, dear,” Clara said, assuming. “Brothers are like that. They have to protect their sisters.”

I started to say that we weren’t family, but we were all three orphans. We lived together. We did sorta physically resemble each other: Eli and Alex were mixed race, and I was Cherokee, giving us all dark skin and hair. We were more than friends. Family. “Yes,” I said. “My brothers are pains in the neck.

Off the Grid is another story I read previously, and one that introduces a new character that is getting her own series: Nell Ingram.

(B)est of all, she knew where the armaments were stored. “They keep ’em here”— she tapped the uneven rectangle that represented a building—“ which is right next to the nursery. They know no one’s gonna blow up the weapons and risk killing all the children.”

“Yeah. That’s”— I thought through possibilities and discarded cruel, insane, and evil, to choose—“ not unexpected.”

Here’s your truth from this story:

(PI) Security was so much easier in the modern day, with access to so many public records protected by such poor security.

Nell has a pretty awful past, and there are some horrific events that we come upon after in this story, but they do get to rescue the people to whom the horrible things happened.

Not All Is as It Seems is a Molly and Angie story, and I quite liked the secondary characters here, although I do think that Angie is written younger than her age.

Cat Fight brings up quite a few questions and new plot twists (but not in a way that makes me want to hurt–more like real-life where you learn things, and sometimes it takes years before you learn the whys and the hows, and sometimes you never learn.

Also, we get more Edmund Hartley.

I topped off my mug and added the secret ingredient. “I’m having tea. Want a cup?”

Edmund looked at my mug and stuck his nose in the air.

“Not if it has . . . Is that Cool Whip on top?” I hid a grin.

“That sounded like a tea snob’s outrage.”

“Good God, woman. It’s a sacrilege.”

He raised his brows. “Doesn’t like Mithrans, I take it?”

“Not fond of anyone one but military boys.”

“I fought in the Civil War. Does that count?”

“Confederate?”

“No.”

“I’d keep it to yourself, then,”

It also takes us back to revist the town from Cajun with Fangs. I’m still waffling on how I feel about this story. I like the Edmund bits, but wasn’t sure about the main plot line.

Bound No More brings Molly and Angie back to Jane, and this is another story I wasn’t sure about. Again, Angie strikes me as acting and speaking too young for her age, which bothers me. Especially since she’s so powerful. So I’ll think about this one a little more.

But all in all it’s a good collection, and worth reading for the bits and pieces dropped here and there.
Rating: 8/10

Published by Roc

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