Werewolves, Vampires, and Fae
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Vampires, with their elaborate power structure and organization
including the Seethe and the menageries of the strongest vampires
• Fae—including gremlins, forest fae, selkies (seal fairies), ogres,
and metalsmiths
• Ghosts
• Witches—magically talented and economically driven
• Sorcerers
• Demons
All of Briggs’s preternatural characters are fully contemporary, use the
Internet, may sell items on eBay, are well educated with degrees in teaching or
research, and reflect diversity of race, ethnicity, and lifestyle. They fit into
contemporary society better than Anne Rice’s famous vampire Lestat who
confesses, in The Tale o f the Body Thief that common items found in a WalMart or drugstore leave him “enthralled for hours on end” despite having lived
through two centuries of the Industrial Revolution (Rice 15). The werewolves
have diverse backgrounds and talents, with their human characters holding
research or teaching posts, owning small businesses, being employed as
computer geeks, practicing medicine, or dabbling in national politics. One
wolf/human character is gay; another was bom to a Chinese mother and an
African father. While the wolf pack structure is the dominant hierarchy, Alpha
werewolves meet twice a year at corporate headquarters, providing a distinctly
civilizing but ironic approach to werewolf organizational life.
Several motifs are woven throughout the three novels that complement the
focus on evil and love. Most important is the interrelationship of power, control,
and dominance. First, each of the preternatural species has its own unique source
of power—physical or emotional/mental—and can use this power to control or
dominate other characters. Power is also derived from sources of magic, the
dominance of the species, or the assumed role of one of the creatures (such as
the Alpha wolf of the pack or the Mistress of the vampire Seethe). Power can
also be harnessed from the species when the leader needs more force and energy
to overpower the enemy.
The need for control is a second critical motif. Mercy has a great need to be
in control of her person, life, and destiny. Her desire for control may evolve
from an appreciation of her uniqueness. There are no other known coyote shapeshifters, a notion that makes her both proud and wary. So Mercy works very
hard to retain her individual identity instead of becoming the possession of a
werewolf. Throughout these three novels, she resists the relatively chaste but
intense advances of werewolves Dr. Samuel Comick and Alpha pack leader
Ada m Hauptman, each of whom want Mercy as a mate. As we learn in the third
novel, Iron Kissed, a wolf that declares a mate does not necessarily love the
creature in human terms, a factor that has haunted Mercy since she first fell in
love with the werewolf Samuel as a teenager.
Dominance is the third of the interrelated motifs of power and control. Just
as each wolf pack has a dominant Alpha, with a dominant leader or Marrock