Undead and Unforgiven

Titles by MaryJanice Davidson

UNDEAD AND UNWED

UNDEAD AND UNEMPLOYED

UNDEAD AND UNAPPRECIATED

UNDEAD AND UNRETURNABLE

UNDEAD AND UNPOPULAR

UNDEAD AND UNEASY

UNDEAD AND UNWORTHY

UNDEAD AND UNWELCOME

UNDEAD AND UNFINISHED

UNDEAD AND UNDERMINED

UNDEAD AND UNSTABLE

UNDEAD AND UNSURE

UNDEAD AND UNWARY

UNDEAD AND UNFORGIVEN

 

DERIK'S BANE

WOLF AT THE DOOR

 

SLEEPING WITH THE FISHES

SWIMMING WITHOUT A NET

FISH OUT OF WATER

Titles by MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi

JENNIFER SCALES AND THE ANCIENT FURNACE

JENNIFER SCALES AND THE MESSENGER OF LIGHT

THE SILVER MOON ELM: A JENNIFER SCALES NOVEL

SERAPH OF SORROW: A JENNIFER SCALES NOVEL

RISE OF THE POISON MOON: A JENNIFER SCALES NOVEL

EVANGELINA: A JENNIFER SCALES NOVEL

Anthologies

CRAVINGS

(with Laurell K. Hamilton, Rebecca York, Eileen Wilks)

BITE

(with Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Angela Knight, Vickie Taylor)

KICK ASS

(with Maggie Shayne, Angela Knight, Jacey Ford)

MEN AT WORK

(with Janelle Denison, Nina Bangs)

DEAD AND LOVING IT

SURF'S UP

(with Janelle Denison, Nina Bangs)

MYSTERIA

(with P. C. Cast, Gena Showalter, Susan Grant)

OVER THE MOON

(with Angela Knight, Virginia Kantra, Sunny)

DEMON'S DELIGHT

(with Emma Holly, Vickie Taylor, Catherine Spangler)

DEAD OVER HEELS

MYSTERIA LANE

(with P. C. Cast, Gena Showalter, Susan Grant)

MYSTERIA NIGHTS

(includes
Mysteria
and
Mysteria Lane,
with P. C. Cast, Susan Grant, Gena Showalter)

UNDERWATER LOVE

(includes
Sleeping with the Fishes, Swimming Without a Net,
and
Fish out of Water
)

DYING FOR YOU

UNDEAD AND UNDERWATER

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

This book is an original publication of Penguin Random House LLC.

Copyright © 2015 by MaryJanice Davidson.

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-40724-4

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For more information, visit
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.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Davidson, MaryJanice

Undead and unforgiven / MaryJanice Davidson.—First edition.

p. cm. — (Undead/Queen Betsy ; 14)

ISBN 978-0-425-28293-9 (hardcover)

1. Taylor, Betsy (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Sinclair, Eric (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 3. Vampires—Fiction. 4. Hell—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3604.A949U5254 2015

813'.6—dc23

2015025111

First edition: October 2015

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

For my son, William, who came up with the idea that Hell isn't eternal punishment from which there is no parole. “It's more like jail. Or detention! You can get out, but you have to behave.”

And for my daughter, Christina, who grew up despite direct orders to the contrary. Sure, she's a legal adult and can function quite well on her own even though in my mind she turned five last week, but
I'm not old, dammit!

Cow Town in Hastings, Minnesota, is a thing. It's named for a part of the town that was once all farmland and cow paths. We were lucky enough to live there for a few years when our children were small. Our first night in the new house we went to sleep with the gentle lowing of bovines in the background, which aggravated my city-boy husband beyond belief. “Shut up! Damned cows!” I laughed until I snored.

I have nothing against Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville, Minnesota; my son was born there! It's one of the few hospitals in the Twin Cities area I'm familiar with, so I use it whenever a character needs to be hospitalized. It's why Marc worked there, Jessica had cancer there, the Antichrist volunteered there, and Tim Andersson (you'll meet him in the prologue) died there. Again: great place; they took excellent care of me, and also my baby, who was so fat and sweet tempered, the resident used to lug him around with her on rounds. (This was fine with me: More sleep, please! Also more pudding. Thank you.)

The midnight blue Armani suit Tina wears to the meeting in Hell costs $1,250 and it is glorious.

Unlike Marc, I don't have anything against Kristen Stewart. It's just I really, really liked Ravenna, the wicked queen, from
Snow White and the Huntsman.
I had little to no interest in what Snow White was doing, but couldn't look away from the queen. (Also, I knew how it would end, so there was no
need
to root for Snow Stewart.)

Cinnamon Churros vodka is a thing. Thanks, Smirnoff!

Betsy is not alone in thinking
The Lego Movie
sucked. It did. Terrible. I've said it before, when the monstrosity known as the Transformers franchise took over, and I'm saying it again now: never see movies based on toys or games. Lego, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Battleship, Ouija, Barbie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . . . no. Stop the madness. There is one—
one—
exception: the Toy Story franchise. Hey, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Forepaugh's is a real restaurant in St. Paul and several people are convinced it's haunted. The food is divine, though the story behind the resident ghost is sad: she killed herself after she found out she was pregnant by her married boss. Try the deconstructed banana cream pie.

The Griggs Mansion, just up the street from Betsy's mansion, is considered to be the most haunted house in St. Paul. It has creeped any number of people out, including skeptical journalists, and I have to say, the pattern of owners has been pretty interesting. They move in, redo the place, then move out within a year or two. The last owners had to keep dropping the price to unload the thing (in 2012), because potential buyers were horrified of the thought of spending a single night there, never mind living there for a decade or so.

Sinclair's buddy Lawrence Taliaferro was a legit fella and pretty cool, too. Born in 1794, he was an army officer from Virginia who served as an Indian officer at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and had an interesting part to play in the Dred Scott slavery legal battle some years later.

His job was to mediate between the traders, the Native Americans, and the United States. Shockingly, all three entities were seldom on the same page, but he worked hard and did his best to look out for everyone's best interests.

The Native Americans called him “No-Sugar-in-Your-Mouth,” a reference to how he dealt fairly with them and never made a promise he couldn't keep. He had an almost impossible job but didn't shirk, and for a while things were pretty peaceful. Toward the end of his time there, he helped draft the 1837 treaty, negotiating what he felt would be fair terms for all involved. The U.S. government, however, decided “signed treaty” meant “thing we don't actually have to do” and failed to hold up their end. The Native Americans were ruined, Taliaferro even more disillusioned (like
that
was possible), and he resigned in disgust not long after.

He probably thought, once away from Fort Snelling, that life would settle down, but that's because he had no idea who Dred Scott was. A Virginian by birth, Taliaferro owned a slave named Harriet Robinson, who was in love with another slave, Dred Scott. Not only did he give them permission to marry, he officiated. (He was a justice of the peace in the territories.)
They're in love, that's great
, he probably thought.
W
hat's the worst that can happen? It certainly won't lead to a landmark Supreme Court decision that hastens the Civil War, right?

Yeah, so.
That
happened. Dred Scott, as we know, lost before the Supreme Court, but part of the reason he fought for his freedom in the first place was because Taliaferro had married him to a (later) freed black woman in a free state.

Taliaferro kind of disappears from the history books after that, which I found intriguing. And so Sinclair's bestie was born! You can learn all about him and other fascinating/sad/amazing bits of Minnesota history at Fort Snelling, which still stands today, and welcomes tourists.

Cutco knives are wicked sharp! My daughter sold them for about a year and I have to say, they're terrific. Betsy is right to be impressed at how much easier it is to decapitate someone with the right tool.

Finally, betrayal isn't cool, even if you're the Antichrist and think you're totally justified.