Huntress is a young adult Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy novel by L. J. Smith. It's the seventh book in the Night World series and was published in September 1997. It was later reissued in the omnibus Night World 3, along with Black Dawn and Witchlight.
Jez Redfern is proud to be part of the most prestigious lamia family in the Night World...until the fateful day she learns the truth of her heritage. While her father was a lamia, her mother was in fact a human and Jez herself is a hybrid, her existence both believed impossible and condemned by the Night World. Stricken with guilt over her previous persecution of humans, Jez abandons her old life and moves in with her late mother's human family, while secretly working with Circle Daybreak to protect humans from dangerous Night People.
Jez finally receives her shot at redemption when she's tasked with finding one of the four Wild Powers, people with extraordinary abilities who are prophesised to be able to save the world and bring unity between humans and Night People...provided the Night World supremacists don't get to them first. Jez has her work cut out for her though, as tracking the Wild Power will mean having to work with her old vampire gang, who may not be best pleased to see her a year after she walked out on them. Her sharp-eyed human cousin Claire is also certain she's up to something, with Jez doing her best to keep her out of trouble. And if any of her old gang - even her childhood friend Morgead Blackthorn - figure out her true nature, she's as good as dead.
Not to be confused with Night Huntress (which also stars a red-haired half-vampire), Vampire Huntress Legend, or the DC character.
Tropes found here include:
- Asshole Victim: Jez and her gang hunt a group of skinheads, whom Jez says murdered an innocent person not long ago (it's implied the murder was racially-motivated). It's indicated that the gang often chooses these kinds of people to hunt. Jez does still feel uncomfortable when the leader begins pleading for mercy and she ultimately decides to let them all go, though they come off as pathetic more than anything.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Jez's gang believes in this, respecting strength and combat prowess. It's implied that the reason Jez recently took over leadership from Morgead is because she proved herself stronger and she's keen not to show weakness in front of them (including not flinching when a skinhead shoots her in the arm). A year later, when Jez needs to get back into the gang to find the Wild Power, Jez challenges Morgead to a fight, knowing it's the only way she'll ever be accepted back. This poses a problem though, as Jez hasn't been drinking blood or using her vampire abilities for around a year, putting her at a disadvantage.
- But I Can't Be Pregnant!: Uncle Bracken tells Jez that it came as a complete shock to her parents when her mother became pregnant, as they had no idea lamia could conceive with humans.
- Continuity Cameo: In the ending, it's mentioned that Rashel Jordan and Quinn were part of the mission that got Jez's gang and uncle Bracken out of San Francisco to protect them from the Night World
- Continuity Nod: Lily Redfern is described as having faint burn scars, a nod to her having narrowly escaped the mansion fire in The Chosen several months back.
- Did Not Die That Way: Jez grew up believing her parents were murdered by vampire hunters when she was four. When she's sixteen she learns that her parents were in fact killed by other vampires, who had targeted her family because her lamia father married her human mother (which is forbidden by Night World law) and Jez herself is a lamia-human hybrid (which her parents' murderers saw as an abomination). Her paternal uncle, who raised her, didn't tell her the truth to protect her, but she eventually starts to suspect it and he tells her everything when she asks.
- Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: A group of vampires who learned Jez was a human-lamia hybrid attempted to kill her just for existing, when she was four. Although Jez is a threat to her plans, her ancestor Lily also wants Jez dead for being a "mongrel".
- It Was with You All Along: Jez and her allies have spent nearly the entire book searching for the Wild Power. In the climax it's revealed that Jez herself has been the Wild Power all along and she finally consciously uses her powers to defeat Lily and her minions.
- Milholland Relationship Moment: Jez eventually confesses to Morgead she's working with Circle Daybreak and she's half-human, expecting he will turn on her. To her shock, Morgead says it doesn't matter to him because he loves her and will always stand by her; he's mostly just mad at her for abandoning him for a whole year and not trusting him enough to tell him the truth sooner.
- Red Herring: There are several misleading clues as to the Wild Power's identity:
- It's initially believed it must be Iona Skelton, a young girl trapped in a burning building who was shielded from the flames by blue fire. However, Iona isn't the Wild Power, though she is an Old Soul, potentially one of the oldest ever encountered. In her current life, Iona is far too young to be the Wild Power, though; the prophecy indicates they're all seventeen-years-old in 1997, as they were "born in the year of the Blind Maiden's vision" (Aradia, the "Blind Maiden", is currently nineteen and first had a vision when she was about two).
- Claire has been present every time blue fire was used; she was watching the news coverage of Iona's rescue from the fire when the blue fire was seen and blue fire was used to save her when she fell in front of a train. This convinces the group she's the Wild Power...though they don't realize that Jez was also with Claire at the time.
- Spotting the Thread: One of the reasons Morgead figures out that Jez is a Daybreaker before she tells him herself is because of her use of the phrase "Oh my goddess", as opposed to "oh my god"; he notes that this is a phrase more commonly used by witches and thus Jez must've been spending a lot of time around them.
- Teens Are Monsters: Jez and her gang are teenaged vampires who enjoy tormenting and killing humans for sport. While they tend to go after scummy people like racist murderers, their actions are still depicted as disturbing. Jez in particular is horrified at herself when she learns she's half-human, as she'd previously justified her actions as her being a predator taking her place in the 'natural' order of things, but she believes this doesn't apply if she's human herself.
- Time Skip: The first few chapters take place one year before the events of the rest of the book.
