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The main protagonist of the Mercy Thompson Series, Mercedes "Mercy" Athena Thompson Hauptman is a coyote Walker, the proprietor of Mercy's Garage, mate to Adam Hauptman, and adoptive daughter of the Marrock.

Appearance[]

Mercy is described in the novels as being of average height, around 5'6", and average weight with long, straight, dark brunette hair (often kept in braids). She has a muscular build from running daily and karate training, tanned skin, and mostly Anglo features from her mothers side. Identifying marks include a tattoo of a coyote paw print on her belly, below her navel, buckshot scars on her behind, and a white burn mark on her right cheek that looks like war paint. In coyote form, she weighs 32 lbs. Her fingernails are kept short and she smells of the strong orange hand soap she uses. She cannot wear rings as a mechanic, so she wears a chain with her wedding ring, Adam’s dogtag, and a silver Lamb charm, instead of a Christian cross. See Mercy depicted on the cover of Homecoming - artists Francis Tsai and Amelia Woo

Mercy (art by francis001)

Mercy, Homecoming cover

Personality[]

Mercy is described as being stubborn, headstrong, independent, hardworking, thoughtful, and caring. She doesn't like letting people she cares about be in danger alone but at the same time has trouble accepting help from anyone even when she needs it.

History[]

Early Life[]

The daughter of a Blackfeet Indian and a white teenage mother (Margi), Mercedes lived with her mother for the first few months of her life. When Mercy was three months old, her mother came across a coyote pup in Mercy's crib. At this development Margi sent Mercy to Aspen Creek to be raised by a friend of her grandfather's brother, Bran Cornick.

While in Aspen Creek Mercy grew romantically close to Samuel Cornick, the Marrok's son. Mercy loved Sam, and while Sam may have indeed loved her, he was more interested in the possibility of the two of them being able to have children, something female werewolves are incapable of. At some point, the two planned to run away together, until Bran Cornick (the Marrok) warned Mercy off.

Mercy left Aspen Creek and lived with her mother's family for two years (from age 16 to 18) in Eugene, Oregon. After which she attended university and had some adventures with her friend Char. Mercy obtained a BS in History, which she dusts off twice a year.

Middle Life[]

When Mercy arrives in the Tri-Cities she meets Tad (Zee's nine-year-old son) when she walking into the Garage looking for a fan belt for her Jetta. Tad gives her a job, which Zee isn't too pleased to find out about. In-fact Zee fires Mercy three times in her first month of working for him. He eventually hires Mercy back when he finds her working at the local Burger King. When Zee is forced to retire and move to the Walla Walla Fae Reservation he loans Mercy the money to purchase the garage from him.

Books[]

Moon Called[]

Mercy's life is not exactly normal. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf, her former boss is a gremlin, and she's fixing a Volkswagen bus for a vampire. But then, Mercy isn't exactly normal herself. She's a walker, not only capable of shifting into coyote shape at will but also possessed of a sharp nose for scenting other creatures and an ability to sense magic when it is at work. So when a teenage werewolf approaches Mercy asking for work, she knows what he is immediately. She also knows it would be more prudent to refuse him, but he looks so desperate that she hires him anyway. Turns out the werewolf, who goes by Mac, has escaped from a laboratory where he was being experimented on. When bad guys show up looking for him and Mercy kills one of them, also a werewolf, she realizes it's time to turn the matter over to the local Alpha werewolf, who also happens to be her next-door divorced neighbor Adam.

Mercy carrying Adam

Mercy Carries Adam when she arrives in Aspen Creek

Before you can say “from the frying pan into the fire,” things go awry and Mercy finds and just barely saves a wounded Adam, whose fifteen-year-old daughter Jesse has been kidnapped by the same people who came after Mac. To help Adam heal, Mercy must take him to Montana, and the pack of werewolves who raised her. There we meet Bran, leader of all the North American werewolves, whose son Samuel is the man whom Mercy once loved and lost. Eventually, Adam, Samuel and Mercy return to the Tri-Cities to search for Adam's missing daughter. In the process they have encounters with fae, vampires, other werewolves, and a witch or two. Mercy must contend not only with all these creatures but with Adam and Samuel's interest in her and the territorial contentiousness that results from it.

Blood Bound[]

In Blood Bound we learn that Mercy is somewhat resistant to some magics such as vampire compulsion or werewolf pack control. Because of her magic resistance, vampire friend Stefan calls upon her to deliver a message to a visiting vampire who has failed to pay the proper respects to Stefan’s seethe. Stefan is fearful that the visiting vampire has some type of magic that can compel him to do things he wouldn’t ordinarily do and that Mercy is hopefully immune and will be able to report back to his seethe should anything happen to him. Of course, things go badly and soon Mercy is wrapped up in a hunt for a vampire/sorcerer who is causing the Tri Cities area to have an increased rise in violence, harming werewolf friends, and endangering lives of innocents. To complicate things, her feelings for Adam, the local Alpha, are scaring her and her feelings for Samuel, an old flame, appear unresolved. Throw in a bit of vampire, fae, and werewolf politics.

Iron Kissed[]

In Iron Kissed we find Mercy at a crossroads in her relationships with the two men in her life, Samuel and Adam Hauptman. Both are extremely dominant werewolves, although Samuel is a lone wolf and Adam is the alpha of the Tri-Cities werewolf pack. Mercy must decide which one she loves more because Adam has declared his feelings for her and her lack of definitive response is weakening the pack. When her mechanic mentor, Siebold Adelbertsmiter a.k.a. Zee, calls upon her to repay a favor to the Fae, she is grateful for the distraction. There have been several unsolved murders on the Fae reservation and the magic on which the fae can call without incurring the wrath of the Grey Lords has been insufficient in finding the perpetrator. Mercy is called in to use her nose to see if she can find an identifying scent of the murderer.

She finds their murderer, and identifies him to Zee. Shortly thereafter she learns that Zee was caught by police at the house of the Fae's killer, with the body of the murderer, and as such is charged with murder. The Fae want a quick cover-up so as not to arouse anti-fae sentiments, and Zee wants Mercy out of it so that she will not anger the Grey Lords and get herself in more trouble. Regardless, Mercy throws herself into finding the real killer and exonerating Zee. Mercy eventually figures out who did the killing but not before something tragic befalls her. In order for her to move on, she must come to terms emotionally and physically with this tragedy.

Bone Crossed[]

Bone crossed begins with the arrival of Stefan, Mercy's vampire friend, on the floor of her living room, flayed, starved, and barely recognizable. He warns her that Marsilia, the Mistress of his seethe, is aware of her involvement in the death of one of her get, Andre, and tells her to run. The Mistress has had a pair of crossed bones placed on Mercy's door, magicked so they can't be removed, as a sign to other vampires and minions that she is a traitor. While Stefan is recovering, he accidentally floods Mercy's mind with his, reliving the deaths of his menagerie, and Adam brings her into the pack to snap her out of it. The vampires place a magical trap in Uncle Mike's, the fae tavern, that kills one of the pack, though she is revived. The wolves need to negotiate peace with Marsilia, and Mercy needs to get out of town. Amber, a friend of mercy's from college shows up to ask Mercy if she will come to their house to investigate her son's claims that there is a ghost in the house. Mercy discusses it with Adam, Samuel, and Bran, who tell her that there is only one powerful supernatural creature in Amber's home city of Spokane, the vampire Jim Blackwood, called The Monster.

They believe that he will not notice her, so she will be safe there. Unfortunately, he is one of Amber's husband's biggest clients, and he has an invite to the house, including dinner the first day she's there. In the two nights she is at the house, he bites her and exchanges blood with her twice, claiming her as one of his "sheep," of which she learns Amber is another. The second night she wakes in the middle of the night to find Stefan there, and Amber's son Chad in a room full of frost, frozen to his bedclothes, and not breathing. They save Chad and advise the family to run, heading back to the Tri-Cities. Stephan exchanges blood with Mercy to claim her from Blackwood. When they get back, two rebellious vampires from the seethe (not made by the Mistress and not easily disposed of because of who their maker is) come to Stefan separately to ask him to help them remove Marsilia. He refuses, keeping his word to the Mistress. Shortly after they both have made their requests, Marsilia summons the wolves and Mercy to a 'meeting' to discuss peace. At the meeting she questions Bernard and Estelle, the rebellious vampires, with an old chair that detects whether the person sitting in it is being truthful. Then she questions Mercy and Stephan, her questions proving that he is no longer hers: this makes his testimony that of a third party, and she uses it to have Estelle killed and Bernard returned to his maker. Soon after Mercy returns home, Amber's husband Corban appears and stuns Mercy with a taser, and brings her to Blackwood because The Monster has Chad. He has killed Amber, but keeps her animated corpse around to do chores. Mercy, Chad, Corban, and a tree fae called Oakman are kept in cages under the house. Blackwood can absorb the power of whatever person/creature he feeds on.

The Oakman allows him to be active in daylight, and Mercy's walker blood will allow him to command ghosts. Stefan finds her, and she convinces him to save Chad, on the condition that should she survive, he will be forgiven for the deaths of the two people he had killed in Blood Bound. The fae walking stick shows up and Mercy gives it to the Oakman on his request. She escapes her cage, and while she is fighting Blackwood, the fae throws it at the vampire's back, staking him. Stefan and Mercy return to the Tri-Cities, where Stefan learns that Marsilia did not kill his people, but merely cut his ties to them so that he would think them dead. He agrees to return to the seethe.

Silver Borne[]

When mechanic and shapeshifter Mercy Thompson attempts to return a powerful Fae book she'd previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore locked up and closed down. It seems the book contains secret knowledge-and the Fae will do just about anything to keep it out of the wrong hands. And if that doesn't take enough of Mercy's attention, her friend Samuel is struggling with his wolf side-leaving Mercy to cover for him, lest his own father declares Sam's life forfeit. All in all, Mercy has had better days. And if she isn't careful, she might not have many more to live...

River Marked[]

Car mechanic Mercy Thompson knew there was something different about her, and not just the way she can fix a VW engine. Mercy is a shapeshifter, a talent she inherited from her long-gone father. She's never know any others of her kind. Until now.

An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River-one that her father's people may know something about. And to have any hope of surviving, Mercy and her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will need their help...

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Frost Burned[]

Mercy and Jesse are involved in a car accident on Black Friday, caused by what Mercy at first thought was a panic attack. Unable to contact Adam or the rest of the pack, it quickly becomes apparent that there was a more sinister cause for her 'panic attack' most likely due to pack bonds.

Ben and Gabriel are at the garage when they get there and tell them that the pack was attacked and taken by people that claimed to be federal agents. Their cellphones were being tracked so even pack members who were not at Adam's house had been tracked down. They head to Samuel's house but only Ariana is there.

Mercy contacts Adam through her mate/pack bonds and discovers their kidnappers are trying to blackmail Adam into killing Senator Campbell. Things take a turn for the worse and Peter, the only Submissive and Heart of the Pack, is killed by 'Mr. Jones'. Coming back to herself Mercy leaves with Ben, Jesse and Gabriel while Ariana makes plans to travel to Montana to contact Bran and Samuel.

Mercy leaves Jesse and Gabriel with Gabriel's estranged mother to keep them safe. She and Ben then travel on to Kyle's house to determine what has happened to them. Contacting Stefan they both get there and rescue Warren's mate who was being held hostage.

Night Broken[]

An unexpected phone call heralds a new challenge for Mercy. Her mate Adam's ex-wife is in trouble, on the run from a stalker. Adam isn't the kind of man to turn away a person in need -- and Mercy knows it. But with Christy holed up in Adam's house, Mercy can't shake the feeling that something about the situation isn't right.

Soon her suspicions are confirmed when she learns that Christy has the furthest thing from good intentions. She doesn't want Adam back, but she doesn't want Mercy to have him either, and she's willing to do whatever it takes to break them up, including turning Adam's pack against Mercy.

Mercy isn't about to step down without a fight, but there's a more dangerous threat circling. Christy's stalker is more than a bad man -- in fact, he may not be human at all. As the bodies start piling up, Mercy must put her personal troubles aside to face a creature with the power to tear her whole world apart.

Fire Touched[]

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When a troll attacks people on the the Cable Bridge the pack arrives to help the police per their request. After killing it with Tads' and Joels' help, and meeting a strange and dangerous young seeming boy named Aiden, Mercy declares the Tri-Cities a safe haven under the packs protection. After a meeting with the pack Bran calls and because of the declaration tells them that he has to cut ties with them to prevent the possibility of going to war with the fae. Later after sealing a deal about visiting vampires with the Seethe Adam and Mercy go to meet a vampire who turns out to be Thomas Hao who is escorting his fae friend Margaret Flanagan...

Silence Fallen[]

Storm Cursed[]

Smoke Bitten[]

Graphic Novels[]

Homecoming[]

Set before Moon Called.

Showing the events of when Mercy Thompson first moved to the Tri-Cities area of Washington. Originally there for a job interview for teaching geography, she is put off and storms out when it becomes clear the staff are more interested in if she has the ability to coach the children in sports.

From there she experiences her first meetings with characters that have become dear to the readers throughout the series, from saving a young Tad from an undead customer, to getting involved in a 'gang war' between two werewolf pack, one of which being the prominent character Adam Haupman's.

And throughout all this she has to deal with her mother interfering with her life.

Hopcross Jilly[]

Set between Frost Burned and Night Broken.

Focuses more around Mercy's step-daughter Jesse.

Powers & Abilities[]

She can change between human and coyote form easily. In coyote form, she is capable of running at fast speeds and has increased sight in the dark. In both human and coyote form, she has an increased sense of smell and a resistance to some forms of magic. It has been shown that she has the ability to see (and control) ghosts. It is explained that this is the reason Walkers are so rare. Vampires have hunted them down to prevent them from being "Vampire Hunters" Because where ever vampires live there are usually ghosts of victims to reveal them.

Hand-to-Hand: Mercy is a practitioner of Shi She Kai Kan (a form of karate) and is proficient enough to have a brown belt (the second highest rank) by River Marked.

Marksman: Mercy is an capable enough marksman to shoot a werewolf in the throat across a large garage with a handgun in Silver Borne and disable another werewolf from maybe a football field away with a rifle with no scope in Homecoming.

Trivia[]

  • She works as an auto mechanic and is a deliberate bad neighbor, keeping increasingly decrepit and dismantled cars on her lawn to irritate Adam.
  • There is a 17 year age difference between Mercy and her mother.
  • Due to confusion with some readers mistaking Mercy and her kind for Navajo Skinwalkers, Patricia Briggs has made an effort to make a difference clear by calling Mercy a "Dead Walker" in later books since Silence Fallen.
  • Throughout most of the books Mercy drives a white VW Rabbit, which she trades up to a Jetta when the Rabbit is totaled. In the early novels, she uses a second Rabbit as a parts car, which she parks in her backyard to annoy her neighbor and love interest Adam Hauptman.
  • Mercy restores several cars during the series starting with a Karmann Ghia, which is getting a new upholstery throughout Iron Kissed. There's some small amount of debate about whether to fully restore it to factory, or upgrade it to some sort of modernized hot-rod.
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