Hunter's Prayer by Lilith Saintcrow

Jill Kismet is a hunter, a human whose made a pact with an infernal creature to hunt and destroy other creatures that plague humans. The church doesn't like hunters, saying that they are inevitably hellbound, but quietly trains some of them to take care of the things that would plague and even destroy it.

In the last book, Jill met a werecougar named Saul who has since become her lover, and she feels safe in his arms. He wants her to meet his people, which tells her he is serious about her, and she agrees. But business, hunting business, has picked up, and she hasn't had a break in almost six months. Saul can be her backup, but he's only Were and can't be her apprentice, so she's had to soldier on alone.

Lately, someone or something has been hunting in Santa Luz, Jill's hometown, and whatever it is, it's been eating whores, leaving only their extremities, and taking the eyes from their heads. Jill doesn't know why, but the carnage it leaves behind is enough to make even a hardened hunter like her lose her lunch.

In canvassing the street, they find a single man who has seen the last body being dumped, and he's scared. He says that the body was dumped by someone in a van- more than one someone. He saw two of them, a woman with red hair, and a creature that was like a were, and who smelled like a dog vomiting in a whorehouse. A very large, very big creature.

Not long afterwards, they find another body, and it's of another whore who worked for the same pimp as the first girl. Jill visits the pimp and he tells her he doesn't know anything. But the first girl was pregnant and he sent her to an abortionist with an office not far away.

Jill and Saul go visit the Doctor's office, but it is closed. They are soon diverted by a new mission: a possessed divinity student at the Catholic Church. Jill manages to drive out the spirit, but something bothers her about such a spirit being able to manifest in a place where it should be repelled, and she soon discovers that the boy is brother to a woman who is a priestess of a Chaldean cult called the Sorrows. The boy was raised in a Sorrows house, thus already tainted and ripe for possession.

But when his sister visits Jill and tells her that there is a rogue Sorrow running around trying to summon one of the imprisoned Chaldean Elder Gods, Jill discounts it because everything a Sorrow priestess says is a lie. But when it turns out to be true, and the creature is found to be a Wendigo, Jill will have to turn to the unlikeliest of allies to head off a supernatural invasion of Santa Luz and rescue a bunch of child prostitutes headed for being sacrificed in the ceremony. But can Jill do so without herself being sacrificed herself?

As a follow-up to the first Jill Kismet book, I really enjoyed Lilith Saintcrow's new heroine. Jill Kismet isn't as bitchy or abrasive as Dante Valentine and seems to actually live a somewhat more centered life than Dante. But they both have High-stakes jobs with lots of bad things, and both have found some sort of love. And they appear tough and hardened on the outside but both seemed to live in deathly fear of being abandoned by the one they loved.

But here, Jill is facing up to something that is both a fear and a hatred. Jill hates the Sorrows, as one of their number killed her Hunter Mentor. At the same time, she must face the woman who both killed him and got away, along with a monster that nearly chewed her up and spit her out- and the Hellbreed Pericles who she both hates and fears, has tacked himself to her for the ride. But is it because he wants to demand more of her for the power he has gifted her, or is it because he is actually worried about her?

Aside from Jill's sometimes needy attitude, she really is more of a cool action girl, but when combined with her emotional neediness and the way she clings to Saul emotionally, it worries me. It reminds me a little too much of how Bella became so emotionally fragile in the Twilight series when Edward left her. It's not good to be so emotionally dependent on someone, and I have a feeling that she'd fall apart if Saul ever died or left her. It rather sits uncomfortably for me with the rest of her, but I still enjoy the books and am looking forward to the next one.