of the Carlson girls whom he met in Way of the Wolf. At this point, Valentine is a loner scratching out an existence in the borderlands. A group of Southern Command Cats track him down and recruit him for a special mission. Even though Southern Command has faced several victories in the years since the Counter Attack and the alliance with the Texas freehold, the lack of Lifeweavers is making the situation precarious. The Lifeweavers who were previously allied with the free territories were either all captured or killed, and have yet to return to the Ozarks. Valentine is charged with a mission to seek out remaining Lifeweavers and to entice them into coming to the Ozarks. Valentine reluctantly accepts the mission after the Cats use his "son", a Reaper born to William Post's wife Gail, Blake as leverage. He then enlists in another of the free territories, Pacific Command, where he finds out that their success is due to killing the Seattle Kurian's population (therefore denying the Kurian their auras). When he deserts and goes against Pacific Command, he ends up joining the "Quislings" and killing Pacific Command's leader, who turns out to be a Lifeweaver/Kurian. After this is completed the rest of Pacific Command joins him and he succeeds in subduing one of the biggest "Vampires" on the west coast, Seattle, as well as rescuing a number of lifeweavers. Fall With Honor Valentine is again residing within Southern command as a teacher and laborer at a remote outpost. He is recruited by Dots Lambert (now a colonel) to start up a unit of men and women that were born and lived in the Kurian Zone. Without enough volunteers, he enlists ex-Quislings. The unit is to be part of an expedition to start a new freehold in the Appalachian mountains, dangerously close to the Kurian strongholds on the Atlantic seaboard. Valentine, and the top brass organizing the project, are also motivated by the rumors of a resistance that is having success in the region and is led by a golden Grog. The invasion starts out well. The expedition wins battles as they move through Kentucky and allies with several Legworm clans. However, when they meet up with the resistance, the meeting turns out to be a Quisling ruse and the expedition's leadership is ambushed in the middle of a feast. Southern Command is forced to retreat with supposedly elite