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exacerbated the woman’s terror. More importantly, he had bloodlust, an out-ofcontrol need to feed and kill, “cutting her a little at a time so that it would take
longer to die” (BB 88).
As the summer progresses, many unexplained murders have occurred in the
tri-city area. Mercy’s reflection on Edmund Burke’s words from Reflections on
the Revolution in France—“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good
men to do nothing”—serves as her framework to attack evil (BB 29). Mercy’s
sense of justice requires that she actively pursue and kill the vampire Littleton.
She also has the approval of Marsilia, the vampire queen, since Littleton and his
evil acts are out of control, creating havoc that even the vampires cannot
manage. Marsilia tells Mercy that there is no choice—only by killing the host
will the demon/sorcerer be eradicated. Again, in the tradition of classic vampire
lore, the fae Zee outfits Mercy with her own “super-hero vampire/sorcerer
slaying kit”: a stake made out of Rowan wood (a wood of the light), a knife, and
a special medallion with Drachen (Dragon) embossed upon it. According to Zee,
the only sure way to kill a vampire is to take him, cut off the head, and bum the
body to ashes, thus partially mirroring Bram Stoker’s vampire-killing recipe
(Stoker 231). And to eliminate the evil, Mercy has to not only kill Littleton, but
also his maker, the vampire Andre.
Interestingly, as the mystery of the vampire/sorcerer/demon evil evolves,
Briggs is able to provide counterbalance to this vampire evil. We leam that
Stefan, Mercy’s vampire “friend,” is one of the few in the vampire community
who is strong enough to live outside the Seethe. Stefan’s menagerie is large—at
least 14 persons—but the reader leams that seven creatures are needed to
provide a six-month food supply, and a flock of less than 12 leads to death,
presumably because times between feeding cannot be sufficiently long. With a
good food supply and vampire self-control (light feeding), the menagerie can be
healthy, at least as far as vampires are healthy. Briggs also portrays Stefan as an
enlightened vampire since he was able to keep one of his menagerie in remission
from leukemia by feeding on her then giving some blood back to her. His long
term interest is to “look for ways for vampires to benefit the human race”
through blood exchanges of some blood-borne diseases. This ironic portrayal
helps to build the picture that Stefan is a “less evil” vampire, one on whom
Mercy can count for help.
Throughout the unraveling of the actions associated with the discovery of
Littleton’s maker, the injuries to the werewolves as they fend off vampire magic
and evil, and the killing of both Littleton and his maker Andre, the tense
triangulation among Mercy, Samuel, and Adam (the Alpha werewolf neighbor)
increases. Samuel has now received his Washington medical license and has
officially moved into the second bedroom of Mercy’s trailer. As a healer and a
dominant lone wolf, his desires for Mercy are often subsumed into protection.
Adam’s desire for Mercy is linked to protecting his territory as well as being a
strong, dominant Alpha. Initially Adam declares Mercy as his mate to the pack,
softening the message that it is really for Mercy’s protection. Later, after a few