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Popular Culture Review
over a larger territory of wolves, vampires have a Mistress over a seethe of
creatures. Faes are more diverse, but dominance is upheld by the Gray Lords—
or by magic, especially if the magic falls to nefarious humans or other creatures.
Depending on the situation, vampires and faes can become dominant over
werewolves, significantly thwarting werewolves’ natural drive for power,
control, and dominance. For the most part, issues of werewolf dominance
provide the greatest tension. Werewolf Alpha Adam Hauptman is a dominant
wolf, leader of the Columbia Basin Pack, but he is also wary of Dr. Samuel
Comick, another dominant but lone wolf who long ago declared his desire for
Mercy to be his mate. Clearly, werewolf hierarchy is bound by the pecking order
of dominance. Dominant female werewolves, though rare, are relegated to the
order of their mates.
With the issues of power, control, and dominance as a backdrop for the
themes of love and evil, we can now briefly discuss each of the three novels and
how love and evil play a role in each. Early in the first novel, Moon Called,
Mercy states that werewolves are not evil—“at least no more evil than
grizzlies,” setting the stage for the intense evil that she describes in Blood Bound
and Iron Kissed. Yes, werewolves hunt, are powerful fighters, can kill, are “hot
tempered and aggressive, but they aren’t evil. . . ” (MC 39). The nature of evil in
Mercy’s world includes attacks on innocents. Although not expressly stated, a
Chicago werewolf who was trying to create young new werewolves was evil
because the new werewolves had not been appropriately moon called,
socialized, and educated about their lot. Vampires are evil because they “take
their battles to the innocents” (MC 152). Protection against vampire-derived evil
includes wearing symbols of faith (crosses, a necklace of a lamb, a church) and
wielding a dagger. A firm believer in evil’s existence, Mercy regularly prays and
attends a small nondenominational church. When Samuel and Mercy first visit
Marsilia, the Mistress of the vampire seethe, the magic spell placed on Samuel
permits Marsilia to feed on the werewolf with little resistance. Vampire feedings
are portrayed as the quintessential evil because those creatures feed upon those
who give no consent to the invasion of body and soul.
However, as narrator, Mercy does not acknowledge the werewolf evil that
occurs when the turncoat werewolf, Gerry, son of poorly adapting werewolf
veterinarian Dr. Carter, tries to instigate a fight between the Marrock and Adam.
If such a fight had occurred, whoever would have won would have done so
through the magic of a witch.
Briggs portrays an interesting, one-dimensional, aspect to love in the Mercy
series, particularly in the first novel. Although Mercy declares her love for
Samuel early in Moon Called, she clarifies that this love no longer exists,
despite the strong attraction that she has to Samuel. Her understanding of love,
at this point, is immature, based on human beliefs about true love, idealized
love, and soul mates. Mercy’s conflict with love versus desire is related to the
biology of werewolf reproduction. Because human females miscarry over half of
the children fathered by a werewolf, they can carry to term only those babies