Demon Mistress by Yasmine Galenorn

Menolly D'Artigo is a spy extraordinaire and half-fey, half-human. Long ago, a blunder put her into the reach of a vampire named Drudge, who killed her and drank her blood, turning her into a vampire just like him. His cruelty and torture of her nearly broke her will, but she managed to escape and return to her sisters and their friend and housekeeper, Iris Kuusi, a Finnish House Sprite.

It took her a while to adjust to what she is, but Menolly finally adapted, becoming a member of Vampires Anonymous, a vampire support group and finally trusting herself to find love with Nerissa Shale, a female werepuma who happens to head a local women's shelter.

But events start breaking up at Menolly's life once again as she recieves a more than hearty dose of crap from the universe. First, the founder of the VA, Wade Stevens, throws Menolly out of the group because she killed her sire, and her act of violence has made it likely unless Wade can distance himself from her, that he won't be set up as nominal leader of all the Vampires in the United States. Menolly is furious, to put it mildly, that Wade is kicking her to the curb like this after all she has done for Vampires Anonymous and when the next dose of crap arrives, it really floors her.

Her lover, Nerissa, has been asked by the Puma clan to take the place of another Were who was running for a spot on the City Council. He was extensively injured in the D'Artigo sisters last job, and if Nerissa refuses the suggestion of her clan, she won't be kicked out, but she will be effectively shunned. Nerissa doesn't want to run, but really, she's not being given a choice. So in addition to losing the support of VA, Menolly will now be out the attentions of her lover, because she'll be so busy fundraising and shmoozing the right people.

Menolly isn't upset at Nerissa, but more at her clan, who are forcing her into a position she doesn't want to be in. But she is definitely supporting her lover, and while they may not be able to be together, Menolly knows that Nerissa, being a were, needs the sensuality and body-time, so tells her she can take other lovers while they are apart- Menolly, who needs the same, can also do so. Nerissa agrees, but asks for an exclusivity pact- they will be each others only female lovers if they need someone else, they'll go to a man, not another woman.

Menolly is touched, and agrees. Meanwhile, the sisters have been cleaning out some of the back storage rooms in the Wayfarer Bar and Grill, now owned by Menolly. There, they find a room formerly inhabited by the first elven Bartender at Wayfarer, Sibele. But nobody seems to know what became of her. She had a boyfriend, but just seems to have vanished one day.

Meanwhile, her sister Delilah's lover Chase, a human cop, needs the sister's help to put down an attack by demons that just seemed to show up in a fae nightclub. The sisters and their lovers charge to the scene and manage to chase off the demons, but when Delilah collapses after the fight, they realize these demons are, unusually, from the astral plane and must be fought there to keep them from their victims.

Since their magical protections don't reach to the Astral Plane, they must put Delilah into a magical prison for her own safety- one cut off from everywhere- even the Astral Plane, while they find out who summoned the Demon from the Astral.

Their trail leads them to a fraternity whose members seem to be just ordinary kids- when they aren't raping women with a new drug called Z-fen. And the man in charge is just too arrogant and superior to be believed- but he's also the man from Sibele's diary, the one who was watching her- and stalking her. And now he smells of demon.

The sisters want justice for Sibele, and to keep this apparently demonic fraternity from summoning any more demons from the Astral- or anywhere else. But with all the balls they are keeping in the air right now, can they keep themselves safe from attacks by Demon Wing while ensuring that the demonic frat boys go down, hard? Or will the summoning of the same astral demon- or even worse, Demon Wing, wipe them right off the map?

This is the third of the second trilogy in the otherworld series, and it looks like we might have one more to go after this, at least if Yasmine Galenorn's website is any guide, and I just can't get enough of the D'Artigo sisters. And this one has enough plot to satisfy even the most jaded. So many plots start, end or are changed by the actions in this book. Even Menolly herself changes: she finally takes her hair out of the cornrow braids she's sported up until now.

And though she has finally found love with Nerissa, their being apart, and both of them being persons/races of intense sexuality, they know they won't be able to stay completely faithful while apart, so they don't even try, and Menolly does take a lover, a sex demon named Rozuriel. And maybe this is for the best, because Menolly seems to be finally coming to terms with being a vampire and drinking blood. Or is she?

I enjoyed this book a lot. It's always fun reading about the D'Artigo sisters, and I hope there are more than just three books to go, because I will always want to read more. It's a curse- my sickness, but I wouldn't give it up- not when I get to read books and series like this. Highly recommended.