Popular Culture Review Vol. 20, No. 2, Summer 2009 | Page 56

52 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