Skinwalker Jane Yellowrock has been enforcer to Master
Vampire Leo Pellisier long enough to know that the Master
of
the City of New Orleans is keeping some deep, dark
secrets.
The most damaging and deeply held of these secrets is that
of the vampire he keeps chained in a subterranean chamber.
Joses BarJudas/Joseph Santana is an ancient power in the
vampire world. He is a former witch turned vampire, and
his
blood is highly prized for the magical powers it imbues in
those who drink of it. As DARK HEIR begins, a fight has
broken out in Leo's compound as a diversion while Santana
makes his escape. After escaping, he goes on a bloody
rampage, killing and draining many humans and vamps in the
process of trying to heal himself.
Jane is contracted to hunt Santana down, but is put in a
compromising position. The humans want Santana to be
killed
'true dead', while her vampire boss Leo wants him and his
magical blood back in his prison and under his control.
The
killing spree has raised the tension between humans and
vamps in New Orleans to a dangerous level. Adding that to
the longtime feud Leo is having with the European vamps
wanting to take over his holdings; and the whole matter is
close to boiling over into outright war with one faction
or
the other.
DARK HEIR pulls in the continuing plotline threads from
previous books in the Jane Yellowrock series. Jane
and
'Beast', her animal form, don't have as much interaction
with each other as usual. I missed that, but the lack is
made up for somewhat with changes in her other
relationships. She is continuing to solidify her familial
bond with the Younger brothers, her co-workers in
Yellowrock
Security. There is a lot of interaction with Eli Younger
especially, while they are tracking down Santana. These
interactions are both humorous and meaningful to the
characters. Jane's love affair with George, Leo's former
primo, is also going well, if not yet getting much deeper
emotionally.
Master Vampire Leo is his usual enigmatic self. He shares
only what he considers strictly necessary with Jane, and
keeps far too much crucial information from her until it
is
almost too late. As always, there is a good deal of
vampire
politics-as-usual with the European vamps and the other
clans. No one does back-stabbing, bloody, and deadly
politics quite like Faith Hunter's vampires. The practice
of
magic is increasing in these books as the series
progresses,
something I'm not sure I'm completely on board with. I
miss
the badass Jane (and Beast) who took on missions and the
bad
guys without the aid of quite so much dark magic.
DARK HEIR is the 9th book in Faith Hunter's always
excellent
Jane Yellowrock series. The books in this UF series
build
on each other, and are not always easy to follow
standalone.
Shapeshifting skinwalker Jane Yellowrock is the best in the business when it comes to slaying vampires. But her latest fanged foe may be above her pay grade… For centuries, the extremely powerful and ruthless vampire witches of the European Council have wandered the Earth, controlling governments, fostering war, creating political conflict, and often leaving absolute destruction in their wake. One of the strongest of them is set to create some havoc in the city of New Orleans, and it’s definitely personal. Jane is tasked with tracking him down. With the help of a tech wiz and an ex-Army ranger, her partners in Yellowrock Securities, she’ll have to put everything on the line, and hope it’s enough. Things are about to get real hard in the Big Easy.