Werewolves, Vampires, and Fae
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dates, Mercy puts distance between herself and Adam: “falling in love with a
werewolf is not a safe thing to do—but falling in love with an alpha is worse”
(BB 43). Mercy’s need for control and to be her own self are key reasons for not
submitting to either Samuel or Adam.
At one point, after a harrowing experience with the vampires and concern
that Littleton would come after her, Mercy tells Adam to call off the werewolf
guards that he has protecting her. In the workout scene that follows, Mercy is
almost ready to submit to Adam—but efforts are interrupted by Adam’s human
teenage daughter. The tension continues between Mercy’s desire for control of
herself and her identity—and Adam’s need to be dominant and in control, both
as a wolf and a human. Finally, Adam proposes to let Mercy be in charge—to
determine all rules of engagement from movie selection to other joint activities.
But Mercy realizes that Adam’s delegation of control is a ruse, affecting her free
will, only because Adam finds he cannot be in control of his predatory nature
around Mercy. However, as Briggs develops the series, Mercy’s understanding
of love matures, becoming more realistic and deep, even as she protects her
uniqueness in the Adam relationship.
Briggs’s third novel, Iron Kissed, focuses on the fae, a diverse group of
fairies that came out to the public several years before the werewolves most
recently did. Although fae can live freely in the open, thanks to their “glamour”
or disguise that permits them to be seen as humans, many live on reservations
established by the government, overseen by the Bureau of Fae Affairs (BFA).
Mercy’s former boss Zee is at the center of the magic and evil in this mystery.
According to traditional lore, most fae are killed by contact with iron. Clearly
this was not so for Zee, who made his living as a VW mechanic before selling
his garage to Mercy.
But the magic and evil that permeate this novel reach far back into the
legends of fairydom. Because of the recent murders of seven fae on the Walla
Walla reservation, Zee and the Council of the Gray Lords request Mercy’s help
to investigate the violence. Along with Zee, Mercy goes to the reservation, shifts
to coyote, and begins a series of observations that place her in the midst of fairy
magic and evil. Suddenly a back yard becomes a primordial forest; a master bath
is transformed to an ocean inhabited by a very nasty sea fae or selkie. The sense
of evil is enhanced through Mercy the coyote as she smells fresh blood,
decaying fish, brine, and rot. Most likely Mercy enters these location warps by
penetrating their glamour since glamour’s weakness is scent. And with the
coyote’s keen scent, Mercy quickly deduces that a BFA agent has performed all
of the murders.
When Zee is picked up by the human police for the murder of the BFA
agent/killer, Mercy plots to prove Zee’s innocence, particularly since anti-fae
sentiment escalated with the murders by the Littleton/demon/sorcerer creature.
To protect their community and dissuade Mercy from further interference, the
Gray Lords bombard Mercy with many types of magic—a mysterious walking
stick that shows up at her side at unusual times, a raven/Great Carrion Crow