Anita Blake
Encyclopedia
Anita Blake is a fictional character
in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton
. Subsequently, she has also appeared in the Dabel Brothers/Marvel Comics
adaptation of her first novel, Guilty Pleasures.
The series takes place in a parallel fantasy world where vampires, shape shifters, werewolves, faeries, etc. exist. Her night job, and primary source of income, is the legal profession of re-animating the dead. As an "animator" in a parallel St. Louis, her job entails using magical abilities to bring temporary life to dead bodies in order to question them for legal purposes. She is a necromancer, which allows her to control the dead, including vampires and zombies, but not ghosts and ghouls. She is also a licensed vampire hunter/executioner, with eventual empowerment as a federal marshal. In her world this profession involves tracking down and killing vampires who have murdered humans. She is also held in retainer for the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team (RPIT, pronounced Rip-it), which investigates supernatural crimes committed involving magic, vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures.
A strong protagonist in the series, Blake is very direct, flippant, and highly competent in the professions she is involved in. She is trained in judo, kenpo and knows how to use several weapons, but is most efficient with guns (as the series begins, the Browning Hi-Power
is her carry gun of choice, though later in the series she switches to the Browning BDM
). She is also a devout Christian which often creates moral dilemmas for the character. She is currently of the Episcopal faith, having left Catholicism since the Catholic Church has excommunicated all animators. She is of mixed heritage, her mother having been Mexican
and her father's family German
.
. Born a necromancer
with the power to raise and control zombies as well as power over other forms of undead, Anita leads a complicated life. Her main job is as an animator for "Animators, Inc.", a St. Louis-based business that raises the dead for the right price. Anita is also a licensed vampire executioner (known to vampires as "The Executioner"), a consultant for Regional Preternatural Investigation Taskforce (RPIT), the area's police division in charge of preternatural crimes. She has also been given the status of a federal marshal, as a result of a law passed in Congress.
Anita is hardboiled
, flippant and stubborn. Like Kinsey Millhone
and V.I. Warshawski, she has major emotional issues, is frequently the only female in macho
situations, and tends to come across as quite prickly and difficult. Like Spenser
and Matthew Scudder
, she plays knight errant, championing vulnerable characters who ask for her help. Anita also lacks tact, loses her temper, is insubordinate, and tends to be quite hypocritical in many regards.
In discussing the genesis of the character, Hamilton has said the following:
moment occurs and Anita either discovers new abilities, further develops existing abilities, or both. The below summary encompasses all the books; her abilities in early books are much more limited.
, Anita's blood test revealed that whilst she is not a lycanthrope, she is a carrier of at least four, possibly five, types of the lycanthropy virus: wolf, leopard, lion (as a result of her violent contact with the panwere Chimera), and two so far unidentified but potentially tiger (this may be as a reaction to the machinations of the Mother of All Darkness), snake (as a result of being bitten by Chimera in his weresnake form), or lamia (as a result of the attack by Melanie). This is considered unusual because one type of lycanthropy usually provides immunity to the other forms. This method of thinking, as of The Harlequin, has resulted in the injection of a rare feline lycanthropy to combat a recent infection due to attack. Because the viruses counteract one another this would result in an infection-free blood test. The same may be true for the reptilian strain Anita may have.
One exception to the viral immunity/nullification was Chimera, who had multiple forms of lycanthropy and first used the term panwere to describe himself (Narcissus in Chains). One hypothesis about Chimera's condition is that because he was infected by multiple forms of lycanthropes before his first change, he thus developed the transformative abilities of each virus; this directly contrasts the medical procedure of deliberate infection used in The Harlequin. Another hypothesis is that Chimera had somehow contracted a mutation (or caused the mutation) of the virus allowing all others to coexist without nullifying one another. Anita may have inherited this mutation from Chimera. Another hypothesis is that Chimera's feelings about his transformation caused his split personality and therefore allowed the multiple virus to exist together, which also caused the problems down the road.
The author of the series, Laurell K. Hamilton, has a degree in biology, and said during a Barnes and Noble Studio podcast that she finds that degree very useful in maintaining the realism of her various wereanimals.
Anita's formative experiences appear to be a series of traumas. In particular, Anita has never fully recovered from her mother's death in a car accident when Anita was eight. (In The Laughing Corpse, she is upset that no one protects the niece and nephew of John Burke at their father's funeral when their mother is hysterical and throws herself on the coffin.) Her father remarried a few years after, and had a son. Anita did not feel she "fit in" with her blond father, stepmother, stepsister and brother Josh. She clashed with her stepmother, Judith, over her "unladylike" interests, independence, and necromancy. Anita's powers manifested during adolescence, causing various dead animals to reanimate and visit Anita's home. Distraught and worried, Anita's family sent her to therapy. The therapist refused to believe that Anita was not doing it on purpose to torment her father and stepmother for marrying. Embarrassed, Anita's father asked her maternal grandmother, Grandmother Flores, to teach Anita how to "turn off" her abilities. Flores believed that training a necromancer in vaudun ritual would lead to evil and encouraged Anita to remain Roman Catholic
. Later, when the Pope excommunicated
all animators, Anita became an Episcopalian.
Anita majored in preternatural biology in college, earning a bachelor's degree. While in college, her rich fiancee's parents convinced him to break their engagement because Anita's mother was Mexican. Because all the pictures of Anita's mother were in storage or Anita's bedroom, her fiance's mother thought the family was embarrassed and trying to hide Anita's heritage. As a child, Judith was always quick to tell people that Anita's mother was Mexican. Hurt by the breakup, Anita decided to forego additional sexual experiences until marriage. She also accidentally raised a college professor who committed suicide and sought her out in her dorm room.
After graduation, Anita was recruited by Bert Vaughn to join Animators, Inc. as a professional zombie animator. She was also trained by Manny Rodriguez and became a licenced vampire executioner. At some point (revealed in the comic book "First Death") she became associated with Edward, and she, Manny and Edward were involved in at least one dicey confrontation with vampires—a battle against Valentine and his kiss in which Anita received a number of severe scars, including a cross-shaped brand on her arm, put there by some of the vampires' human thralls. The series begins some time after that confrontation, shortly after the legalization of vampires.
, another master vampire, is interested in Anita and gives her two of the four marks necessary to make her Jean-Claude's "human servant". While Anita can usually guess the age of vampires, she cannot get a read on Jean-Claude's age. Anita identifies the murderer, but by that point has sufficiently antagonized Nikolaos and her underlings that she expects to be killed. With help from Edward, a human associate who specializes in assassinating supernatural targets, and Rafael the Rat King, Anita kills Nikolaos and many of her followers. To her surprise, Jean-Claude becomes the new Master of the City.
during most of the book. To save her own life, Anita performs a human sacrifice in order to raise an entire graveyard, and using the zombies as a weapon, kills two people. This is the first time Anita uses magic to kill a person. At the end, however, Jean-Claude informs Anita that even he can feel her power calling to him. This means that she is not just an animator, with power over dead bodies, but a necromancer, with power over all the (un)dead.
.
Anita is contacted by a representative of Humans First, a rival master vampire named Mr Oliver, and Edward: all want to know the identity and daytime resting place of the Master of the City. Anita initially resists, but becomes angry enough with Jean Claude to tell Mr Oliver. Deciding in the end that Jean Claude is the lesser of the two evils, she and Edward help defeat Mr Oliver. In the end, the vampire marks were removed; Jean Claude admits that Anita is not his human servant. Anita also obtains her apprentice, Larry Kirkland.
Anita and Richard have their first date in this book. At the end of the book it is revealed that Richard is a werewolf.
. Area shapeshifters, including Marcus (Ulfric of the local werewolf pack) and Rafael the Rat King, want Anita to find a serial killer who is targeting lycanthropes. Anita meets other shapeshifters, including Raina and Gabriel, and learns more about werewolf culture
while resolving these issues.
The love triangle
between Anita, Richard, and Jean Claude continues in this book. Anita agrees to officially date both Richard and Jean Claude. She becomes engaged to Richard, even as she realizes they have serious differences — and not just because he's a werewolf.
, where she quickly becomes enmeshed in a series of supernatural murders and disappearances. Anita's relationship with Jean-Claude takes a large step forward in this novel. For the first time, Anita begins to see Jean Claude as a person, not just a source of information. Her role as Larry's mentor is also further developed and she is forced to relive the trauma of her mother's death. Near the end of the novel, Anita recognizes a new power and has the opportunity to utilize it.
The Killing Dance is also a turning point for the series in several other ways:
Anita is also pulled further into the lycanthrope world when she discovers the local wereleopards need her to take their former leader's place as protector.
Also during Blue Moon:
Anita acquires a new power from the vampire Obsidian Butterfly. She is nearly killed by another vampire; her "closing" of the marks with Jean-Claude and Richard has weakened her abilities, making her more vulnerable to metaphysical attacks. By the end of the book Anita is convinced that she needs to return to her relationships with Jean-Claude and Richard.
Anita helps Damian to regain his sanity, assuming her position as Damian's master and rendering him the first "vampire servant" in centuries. She also comes close to reconciling with Richard, but Richard ultimately leaves her after she uses the ardeur to feed on him, declaring that, like Anita herself, he will not allow himself to be used as food. Anita accepts Micah as her lover and Nimir-Raj. Micah, who appears willing to accommodate any desire of Anita's, becomes part of a ménage à trois
with Jean-Claude, allowing Jean-Claude to feed on him.
Anita accepts that her romantic relationship with Richard is finally over. She is still the Lupa of the Thronos Rokke clan, but also becomes its Bolverk.
Anita is not herself a wereleopard, but her affinity with the leopards apparently means that they are her animal to call as if she were herself a master vampire. Anita and Micah are happily leading their wereleopards and living together with Nathaniel, who also acts as Anita's pomme de sang, feeding off his lust, although they have not yet had intercourse. Anita, Micah and Jean-Claude also act as a happy threesome, but, being Anita, she doubts that happiness can last long. The themes of complex relationships and increasing power are continued in subsequent books in the series.
Anita and Jean-Claude outmaneuver Belle Morte by taking Asher
to their bed in a ménage à trois, making Asher their lover and therefore immune to most of Belle Morte's advances. More alarmingly, Anita begins to believe that Belle Morte is planning a war against the Mother of Darkness, the oldest and most powerful of the world's vampires. Although Anita and Jean Claude do their best to avoid that conflict, the Mother of Darkness is beginning to awaken from a centuries-long sleep, and seems interested in Anita.
Anita realizes that she is evolving into that which she once hunted. In Cerulean Sins, she muses: "One of my favorite things about hanging out with the monsters is the healing. Straight humans seemed to get killed on me a lot. Monsters survived. Let's hear it for the monsters."
Anita makes considerable progress with her metaphysical problems as she learns that she can partially control the ardeur by drawing power from others' lust and by ensuring that her other desires, such as physical hunger, do not go unfulfilled. However, she accidentally forms another triumvirate with Damian and Nathaniel, this time with her (not Jean-Claude) as the power focus.
Anita's personal life resolves in a number of ways. She "accidentally" has sex with Damian with unusual concequences. She accepts Nathaniel as the fourth of her concurrent lovers, and she and Richard also agree to renew their relationship. Although Nathaniel and Micah appear to accept or want Anita as their only lover, Anita reluctantly agrees to accept Richard's decision to date other people, and allows Jean-Claude to begin feeding his lust from others, at least psychically.
A blood test reveals that Anita carries four strains of lycanthropy: wolf, leopard, lion, and one unknown strain. However, she is not a lycanthrope despite being a carrier.
The evidence that Anita may become a shape-shifter is growing; whether she will be wolf, lion, leopard, or something else is unknown. She resists changing shape by "giving her beast" to a lycanthrope. Because she can only give "her" lion to a werelion, this brings her into more contact with the local werelion pride.
Jean Claude and Anita determine that the ardeur is "seeking" food: specifically it may have shaped Anita's, Micah's, Nathaniel's, and Damian's personalities to make them more compatible partners for one another. It also encourages the visiting Master of the City of Chicago, who had been exiled by Belle Morte, to maneuver Anita and Jean Claude into feeding her ardeur on him. Anita is surprised that feeding on the Master of the City allows them to feed on his vampires and wereanimals as well.
In her personal life, Anita wrestles with her jealousy of her lovers taking other lovers, particularly in the case of Jean-Claude and Asher. She also accepts that she is a succubus and a vampire, in that she feeds off others.
The Harlequin exists to police and punish vampire leaders who violate various rules, such as Malcolm's resistance to the blood oath. It was formed by the Mother of All Darkness, modeled in style on the Commedia dell'arte
and by action on the wild hunt
. It is composed of very old and powerful vampires who are capable of not just manipulating the behaviors and emotions of humans or younger vampires and lycanthropes, but of Jean-Claude, Anita, and Richard. Under this influence, Richard and Jean-Claude nearly kill each other, and Anita must also be repeatedly resuscitated. Anita keeps them alive by feeding on first Rafael (and through him, all the wererats in the city); Belle Morte; and later, all the swanmanes in the US via Donovan. Anita's second triumvirate also comes through, with Nathaniel and Damien "eating for five" so as to provide healing energy to Anita—and the others through her.
However, The Harlequin appears not to be following its own rules, so by vampire law Jean Claude's people can strike back. Edward doesn't actually kill a Harlequin, Anita does through a psychic link that she accidentally creates while trying to remove a sort of vampire spell that one of the Harlequin has put on her in order to keep track of her and Jean Claude's etc. movements. They subsequently end up killing the "human servant" of that vampire after Anita has fed off of Donovan the king of the swan manes. They recover in time to face off with the remaining members in Malcolm's Church of Eternal Life. They not only succeed, but determine that The Harlequin members were planning to take over Jean-Claude's territory and not operating on official Council orders.
Additionally, Anita almost allows the Mother of Darkness to become a full flesh being by allowing her anger to fester.
Anita also leaves her former allies, the werelions, to potential death. At a point where Anita and many of her other allies were injured, she asks to have sex with the werelion Rex Joseph so that she could gain the power to heal without the Munin. The Rex refused because he is married and values being faithful to his wife. Also there were rumors spread about Anita by the lions she refused because they weren't powerful enough for her inner lion. In a scene reminiscent of The Godfather
series, Anita decides that this is a betrayal of their alliance and decides to abandon Joseph in favor of another werelion.
Things get even more complicated when Jason is constantly being mistaken for the son of the towns local celebrity, Governor Summerland. Not only do Jason and Anita find themselves in the middle of a media frenzy, but also they are threatened by the complicated vampire-human love triangle that has been plaguing the Summerland family (and most recently Keith Summerland) for generations. When the danger and the news coverage hit a climax at the same time, Anita and Jason are left carefully maneuvering around truck loads of drama and politics, not to mention they are just trying to survive. Jean-Claude's reputation, the American weretiger population, Jason's family values, Keith's impending marriage, and the Governor's bid for president are the least of their problems and just the tip of the metaphysical iceberg.
When a vampire serial killer sends Anita Blake a grisly souvenir from Las Vegas, she has to warn Sin City's local authorities what they’re dealing with. Only it is worse than she thought. Ten officers and one executioner have been slain—paranormal style. Anita heads to Vegas, where she's joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward. It is a good thing he always has her back, because when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses "tiger" too strongly to ignore it. The weretigers are very powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone important the wrong way just got a lot higher.
Anita is contacted by two wealthy clients, both wanting their deceased spouses raised but for very different purposes. Anita denies both, as the purpose of each request repulses her. Later she is a held at gunpoint by a pair of professional Werelion thugs who have sharpshooters monitoring her loved ones. Their purpose is to bring her to their client, but it isn't the one she thought it would be.
Anita ends up gaining a "slave" after her Ardeur is purposely used to break one of the werelions' will, gaining her another man in her life. Nicky became her Bride.
The title of Flirt is about when she is instructed by Nathaniel on how to flirt with a waiter.
Anita Blake is back in St. Louis and trying to live a normal life-as normal as possible for someone who is a legal vampire executioner and a U. S. Marshal. There are lovers, friends and their children, school programs to attend. In the midst of all the ordinary happiness a vampire from Anita's past reaches out. She was supposed to be dead, killed in an explosion, but the Mother of All Darkness is the first vampire, their dark creator. This dark goddess has reached out to her here-in St. Louis, home of everyone Anita loves most. The Mother of All Darkness has decided she has to act now or never, to control Anita, and all the vampires in America.
The Mother of All Darkness believes that the triumvirate created by master vampire Jean-Claude with Anita and the werewolf Richard Zeeman has enough power for her to regain a body and to immigrate to the New World. But the body she wants to possess is already taken. Anita is about to learn a whole new meaning to sharing her body, one that has nothing to do with the bedroom. And if the Mother of All Darkness can't succeed in taking over Anita's body for herself, she means to see that no one else has the use of it, ever again. Even Belle Morte, not always a friend to Anita, has sent word: "Run if you can..."
"Anita is upstate with Edward as US Marshals, trying to catch a serial killer that is killing weretigers across the country. Anita and Edward both know that the Harlequin still loyal to the Queen of Darkness are killing the Were Tigers, but they can't tell the police because they know that anyone who mentions the Harlequin without being invited, will be hunted down and killed, and there are too many secrets from the other police. Anita can't explain everything, but because the Harlequin met each other masked, even the Harlequin on her side don't have faces or names to give to the police. Anita and Edward know everything, and nothing that will help catch the killers. Edward begins to think that the killers are a trick to try and lure Anita away from Jean-Claude and all his bodyguards, so that the Mother of all Darkness can either have her kidnapped to try and takeover her body, or kill her. Edward will propose to set a trap to lure the Harlequin in so they can try and take Anita. He bets that he, Anita, some guards from home and other Marshals will be better than millennium old vampire assassins. The vampires call Anita, the Executioner, and call Edward, Death, but can even Death and The Executioner win against the Harlequin?"
Anita Blake's first comic book appearance was in the Dabel Brothers Marshal: Tranquility #1 released April 2006
Anita also appears in the Marvel Comics/Dabel Brothers adaptation of Guilty Pleasures. Each issue contains roughly 40 pages of the novel adapted into a 28 page comic book. Hardcover collections of the adaptation are available.
There is also a two-issue story, "First Death", which is set two years prior to Guilty Pleasures and fills in the details of her encounter with Valentine and Edward mentioned in Guilty Pleasures as well as showing how she attained the cross scar.
Marvel Comics has completed an adaptation of the second Anita Blake book, The Laughing Corpse, and is currently working on an adaptation of the third book, Circus of the Damned.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton
Laurell K. Hamilton
Laurell Kaye Hamilton is an American fantasy and romance writer. She is the author of two series of stories. Hamilton is known for her New York Times-bestselling Anita Blake series, featuring a professional zombie raiser/supernatural consultant for the police as the protagonist in a world where...
. Subsequently, she has also appeared in the Dabel Brothers/Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
adaptation of her first novel, Guilty Pleasures.
The series takes place in a parallel fantasy world where vampires, shape shifters, werewolves, faeries, etc. exist. Her night job, and primary source of income, is the legal profession of re-animating the dead. As an "animator" in a parallel St. Louis, her job entails using magical abilities to bring temporary life to dead bodies in order to question them for legal purposes. She is a necromancer, which allows her to control the dead, including vampires and zombies, but not ghosts and ghouls. She is also a licensed vampire hunter/executioner, with eventual empowerment as a federal marshal. In her world this profession involves tracking down and killing vampires who have murdered humans. She is also held in retainer for the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team (RPIT, pronounced Rip-it), which investigates supernatural crimes committed involving magic, vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures.
A strong protagonist in the series, Blake is very direct, flippant, and highly competent in the professions she is involved in. She is trained in judo, kenpo and knows how to use several weapons, but is most efficient with guns (as the series begins, the Browning Hi-Power
Browning Hi-Power
The Browning Hi-Power is a single-action, 9 mm semi-automatic handgun. It is based on a design by American firearms inventor John Browning, and completed by Dieudonné Saive at Fabrique Nationale of Herstal, Belgium. Browning died in 1926, several years before the design was finalized...
is her carry gun of choice, though later in the series she switches to the Browning BDM
Browning BDM
The Browning BDM is a semi-automatic pistol designed and manufactured by the Browning Arms Company up until production ceased in 1998. Similar in appearance to Browning's P-35 model "Hi-Power" pistol, the BDM was actually a new design created to compete in service trials as a standard issue pistol...
). She is also a devout Christian which often creates moral dilemmas for the character. She is currently of the Episcopal faith, having left Catholicism since the Catholic Church has excommunicated all animators. She is of mixed heritage, her mother having been Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
and her father's family German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
.
Character
Anita Blake (as of Danse Macabre) is a twenty-four year old resident of St. LouisSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. Born a necromancer
Necromancy
Necromancy is a claimed form of magic that involves communication with the deceased, either by summoning their spirit in the form of an apparition or raising them bodily, for the purpose of divination, imparting the ability to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge...
with the power to raise and control zombies as well as power over other forms of undead, Anita leads a complicated life. Her main job is as an animator for "Animators, Inc.", a St. Louis-based business that raises the dead for the right price. Anita is also a licensed vampire executioner (known to vampires as "The Executioner"), a consultant for Regional Preternatural Investigation Taskforce (RPIT), the area's police division in charge of preternatural crimes. She has also been given the status of a federal marshal, as a result of a law passed in Congress.
Anita is hardboiled
Hardboiled
Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined...
, flippant and stubborn. Like Kinsey Millhone
Kinsey Millhone
Kinsey Millhone is the name of a fictional private investigator created by Sue Grafton for her "alphabet mysteries" series of novels. Millhone appears in a number of short stories written by Grafton. Grafton's mystery novels featuring Millhone are set in 1980s Santa Teresa, a fictionalized town...
and V.I. Warshawski, she has major emotional issues, is frequently the only female in macho
Machismo
Machismo, or machoism, is a word of Spanish and Portuguese origin that describes prominently exhibited or excessive masculinity. As an attitude, machismo ranges from a personal sense of virility to a more extreme male chauvinism...
situations, and tends to come across as quite prickly and difficult. Like Spenser
Spenser (fictional detective)
Spenser is a fictional character in a series of detective novels initially by the American mystery writer Robert B. Parker and later by Ace Atkins...
and Matthew Scudder
Matthew Scudder
Matthew Scudder is a fictional private investigator, the most famous and enduring creation of American crime writer Lawrence Block.Scudder debuted in 1976's The Sins of the Fathers as an alcoholic ex-cop who had recently quit the NYPD and left his family after accidentally causing the death of a...
, she plays knight errant, championing vulnerable characters who ask for her help. Anita also lacks tact, loses her temper, is insubordinate, and tends to be quite hypocritical in many regards.
In discussing the genesis of the character, Hamilton has said the following:
I started reading a lot of hardboiled detective fiction—Robert B. ParkerRobert B. ParkerRobert Brown Parker was an American crime writer. His most famous works were the novels about the private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the late 1980s; a series of TV movies based on the character were also...
in particular—and I read a lot of strong female protagonists. But there was one problem, a difference between the male and female protagonists of the different series—even the strongest of the women did not get to do some of the things the men got to do. The men got to cuss, the women rarely; the men got to kill people and not feel bad about it, if the women killed someone they had to feel really, really bad about it afterward and it had to be an extreme situation; the men got to have sex, often and on stage and very casually, but if the women had sex it had to be offstage, very sanitized. I thought this was unfair.
Knowledge & Abilities
In almost every book, a deus ex machinaDeus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
moment occurs and Anita either discovers new abilities, further develops existing abilities, or both. The below summary encompasses all the books; her abilities in early books are much more limited.
- Necromancer: Anita is one of the most powerful animators operating commercially. She can raise zombies, sense the dead, raise vampires in daytime, sense vampires and lycanthropes, estimate their power level, the approximate age of vampires, has good night visionNight visionNight vision is the ability to see in low light conditions. Whether by biological or technological means, night vision is made possible by a combination of two approaches: sufficient spectral range, and sufficient intensity range...
and can resist (at least partially) mental influence from vampires. Particulars that set her apart from other animators:- Anita's zombies look lifelike and can fool the untrained eye, including "healing" any sign of decay or injury. As she grows in power, they appear truly human.
- She can raise zombies that are centuries dead whose bodies have turned to dust and bone fragments, her powers reforming the body from these remains, and in later books can do so without human sacrifice. Once raised, the zombie is usually under her control, until she returns it to the ground.
- She is one of the few animators who can act as a "focus" to combine the powers of multiple animators.
- In Bloody Bones and The Killing Dance she raises vampires (during daylight) as if they were zombies. According to Jean-Claude, this is a rare ability. After raising a vampire, she can heal any wounds as if it were a zombie.
- In book 14 she is able to heal a vampire without raising it first.
- Her necromancer abilities refer to the ability to control all types of undead. In Bloody Bones, she controls the vampire she raised during the day; in Blue Moon, she realizes she has some measure of control over Damian.
- Anita is also able to call and control the spirits of dead werewolves (munin). She has particular affinity for the spirit of Raina and can channel Raina's healing abilities (Burnt Offerings and later).
- Combat Training: Anita has a black belt in Judo as of the first book. In Obsidian Butterfly she is also studying Kenpo Karate. She works out regularly with her best friend Ronnie "to be able to out run the bad guys" when she needs to. She credits Edward for much of her training in weapons, primarily handguns and knives.
- Detective Training: Though she rarely uses these skills in later novels, Anita has been involved with many investigations with RPIT and, in the later books, with the FBI. Her police contact, Rudolph Storr, routinely requires her to engage in independent crime scene reconstructionCrime sceneA crime scene is a location where an illegal act took place, and comprises the area from which most of the physical evidence is retrieved by trained law enforcement personnel, crime scene investigators or in rare circumstances, forensic scientists....
in order to obtain an analysis—Anita's reconstructions are almost always correct and frequently include insights that the police have missed. Anita thinks like both a cop and a monster, according to some, which is what makes her so insightful.- As of Cerulean Sins, she has Federal Marshal status which allows her to now enter any preternatural crime scene she so desires, or follow a vampire or other non-human crime suspect across state lines.
- Supernatural Experience: Anita holds a bachelor's degree in preternatural biology and is a trained vampire executioner. She also has a well-worn two-semester background in comparative religion. These courses often told her useful tidbits about other cultures/mythologies, and throughout the series she learns vastly more about vampiresAnita Blake mythologyIn the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels, author Laurell K. Hamilton has developed a detailed mythology. Her series is an alternate history that assumes that the supernatural is real, and that vampires, lycanthropes, and other supernatural beings live alongside humans in a society that...
, lycanthropesShapeshifters (Anita Blake mythology)Numerous different types of shapeshifters exist in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter universe, including werewolves and wererats. Anita distinguishes between lycanthropes, which include solely persons infected by contact with another lycanthrope's bodily fluids, and shapeshifters, a class that...
, and otherAnita Blake mythologyIn the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels, author Laurell K. Hamilton has developed a detailed mythology. Her series is an alternate history that assumes that the supernatural is real, and that vampires, lycanthropes, and other supernatural beings live alongside humans in a society that...
preternaturalPreternaturalThe preternatural or praeternatural is that which appears outside or beyond the natural. In contrast to the supernatural, preternatural phenomena are presumed to have rational explanations that are, as of yet, unknown....
creatures. RPIT relies on her for information about a wide variety of supernatural entities.
- Human Servant: In books 1-3 and 6+, Jean-ClaudeJean-ClaudeJean-Claude is a fictional character in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Within the novels, Jean-Claude's role is as one of the primary love interests of the series heroine, Anita Blake....
has marked Anita with three of the four marks necessary to make her his human servantAnita Blake mythologyIn the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels, author Laurell K. Hamilton has developed a detailed mythology. Her series is an alternate history that assumes that the supernatural is real, and that vampires, lycanthropes, and other supernatural beings live alongside humans in a society that...
. This grants Anita superhuman strength, healing, increased resistance to vampires' abilities, and an almost complete resistance to Jean-Claude's mental influence, as well as a psychic connection to Jean-Claude himself. In books 12+, Anita has given Damian, her vampire servant, the fourth mark. This does not interfere with Jean Claude's marks. It is uncertain if this unconventional fourth mark grants Anita immortalityImmortalityImmortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
.
- Triumvirate member: Anita is a member of a "triumvirateAnita Blake mythologyIn the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels, author Laurell K. Hamilton has developed a detailed mythology. Her series is an alternate history that assumes that the supernatural is real, and that vampires, lycanthropes, and other supernatural beings live alongside humans in a society that...
" with Jean-ClaudeJean-ClaudeJean-Claude is a fictional character in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Within the novels, Jean-Claude's role is as one of the primary love interests of the series heroine, Anita Blake....
and Richard ZeemanRichard ZeemanRichard Alaric Zeeman is a fictional character in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Character introduction:...
(The Killing Dance). At first the only effect is their powers boosting when they are together, and more so when touching. (The usefulness of the triumvirate varies with the interpersonal conflicts between Richard, Jean-Claude, and Anita.) Some results that developed in Narcissus in Chains and later novels:- Anita, Jean-Claude, and Richard are all telepathically and metaphysically linked. They can speak mind-to-mind, share dreams, and draw on each others energy and abilities.
- Each is becoming more like the other.
- Anita has developed several powers similar to those of vampires and lycanthropes.
- In Incubus Dreams Anita, Damian and Nathaniel create another triumvirate with Anita as the center.
- Vampire Powers: The combination of her necromancy and her membership in the triumvirate has caused Anita to develop a series of powers formerly seen only in vampires, including the following.
- Anita has the ability to copy vampire powers that are used against her — sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently (Narcissus in Chains).
- Ardeur (Narcissus in Chains) (spelling varies, depending on the book). Anita developed this power after Jean-ClaudeJean-ClaudeJean-Claude is a fictional character in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Within the novels, Jean-Claude's role is as one of the primary love interests of the series heroine, Anita Blake....
married the marks between himself, Anita and Richard. The ardeur has proven in later books to manipulate the personalities of Anita and those around her, as well as to be addictive to some characters (such as London). The ardeur seems to be the main source of most of Anita's powers, as new powers arise anytime Anita gives in to the ardeur. At the end of Blood Noir Anita gained the ability to feed off of anger/rage. This is a power belonging only to her because Jean-Claude and Richard cannot touch it. She is also able to feed from sex/lust. - Power draining: Anita has copied, apparently permanently, Itzpapalotl's ability to drain the life energy from her victims and, if she chooses, to use that energy to heal another (Obsidian Butterfly).
- Harm from a distance—the ability to turn a person's aura against them, usually resulting in cuts (Burnt Offerings, Incubus Dreams). Jean-Claude had studied how this worked but did not have the ability. Anita has the ability, and Jean-Claude used their metaphysical connection to "show" her how to use it. (this ability was also used against Anita in Bloody Bones).
- Animals to call—leopards (Narcissus in Chains), lions (Danse Macabre), tigers (Blood Noir), wolves (Blood Noir) and possibly others.
- Power to bind vampire and animal servants: Anita has the power to bind a vampire servant and an animal servant. She inadvertently used this power to attract a vampire servant, Damian (Blue Moon), and formed a second triumvirate between them and Nathaniel (Incubus Dreams) which presumably has increased her power further. In Blood Noir Anita bonds Jason to her apparently as a second animal servant, her wolf. At the same time, she apparently makes Crispin, a white weretiger stripper from Las Vegas, her third animal servant, her tiger.
- An additional ability Anita has developed is to ‘roll’ a person much like a vampire does. She can do this to some extent just with her eyes but to fully ‘roll’ a person it would appear she needs to feed the Ardeur off them. This ability makes a person enthralled to Anita. In "Flirt" Anita intentionally ‘rolled’ a person completely. Leaving nothing behind, the ‘thrall’ now seems to live to serve her every desire.
Biology
During a period of hospitalization at the end of the novella MicahMicah (novel)
Micah is the thirteenth in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:Micah represents a side-adventure of Anita Blake...
, Anita's blood test revealed that whilst she is not a lycanthrope, she is a carrier of at least four, possibly five, types of the lycanthropy virus: wolf, leopard, lion (as a result of her violent contact with the panwere Chimera), and two so far unidentified but potentially tiger (this may be as a reaction to the machinations of the Mother of All Darkness), snake (as a result of being bitten by Chimera in his weresnake form), or lamia (as a result of the attack by Melanie). This is considered unusual because one type of lycanthropy usually provides immunity to the other forms. This method of thinking, as of The Harlequin, has resulted in the injection of a rare feline lycanthropy to combat a recent infection due to attack. Because the viruses counteract one another this would result in an infection-free blood test. The same may be true for the reptilian strain Anita may have.
One exception to the viral immunity/nullification was Chimera, who had multiple forms of lycanthropy and first used the term panwere to describe himself (Narcissus in Chains). One hypothesis about Chimera's condition is that because he was infected by multiple forms of lycanthropes before his first change, he thus developed the transformative abilities of each virus; this directly contrasts the medical procedure of deliberate infection used in The Harlequin. Another hypothesis is that Chimera had somehow contracted a mutation (or caused the mutation) of the virus allowing all others to coexist without nullifying one another. Anita may have inherited this mutation from Chimera. Another hypothesis is that Chimera's feelings about his transformation caused his split personality and therefore allowed the multiple virus to exist together, which also caused the problems down the road.
The author of the series, Laurell K. Hamilton, has a degree in biology, and said during a Barnes and Noble Studio podcast that she finds that degree very useful in maintaining the realism of her various wereanimals.
Character biography
Anita was born with the talent to be a necromancer.Anita's formative experiences appear to be a series of traumas. In particular, Anita has never fully recovered from her mother's death in a car accident when Anita was eight. (In The Laughing Corpse, she is upset that no one protects the niece and nephew of John Burke at their father's funeral when their mother is hysterical and throws herself on the coffin.) Her father remarried a few years after, and had a son. Anita did not feel she "fit in" with her blond father, stepmother, stepsister and brother Josh. She clashed with her stepmother, Judith, over her "unladylike" interests, independence, and necromancy. Anita's powers manifested during adolescence, causing various dead animals to reanimate and visit Anita's home. Distraught and worried, Anita's family sent her to therapy. The therapist refused to believe that Anita was not doing it on purpose to torment her father and stepmother for marrying. Embarrassed, Anita's father asked her maternal grandmother, Grandmother Flores, to teach Anita how to "turn off" her abilities. Flores believed that training a necromancer in vaudun ritual would lead to evil and encouraged Anita to remain Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. Later, when the Pope excommunicated
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
all animators, Anita became an Episcopalian.
Anita majored in preternatural biology in college, earning a bachelor's degree. While in college, her rich fiancee's parents convinced him to break their engagement because Anita's mother was Mexican. Because all the pictures of Anita's mother were in storage or Anita's bedroom, her fiance's mother thought the family was embarrassed and trying to hide Anita's heritage. As a child, Judith was always quick to tell people that Anita's mother was Mexican. Hurt by the breakup, Anita decided to forego additional sexual experiences until marriage. She also accidentally raised a college professor who committed suicide and sought her out in her dorm room.
After graduation, Anita was recruited by Bert Vaughn to join Animators, Inc. as a professional zombie animator. She was also trained by Manny Rodriguez and became a licenced vampire executioner. At some point (revealed in the comic book "First Death") she became associated with Edward, and she, Manny and Edward were involved in at least one dicey confrontation with vampires—a battle against Valentine and his kiss in which Anita received a number of severe scars, including a cross-shaped brand on her arm, put there by some of the vampires' human thralls. The series begins some time after that confrontation, shortly after the legalization of vampires.
Book 1: Guilty Pleasures
The first novel, Guilty Pleasures, introduces Anita and her world. Anita is blackmailed by Nikolaos, the vampire Master of the City, into investigating a series of vampire murders. During the course of this investigation, we learn that Jean-ClaudeJean-Claude
Jean-Claude is a fictional character in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Within the novels, Jean-Claude's role is as one of the primary love interests of the series heroine, Anita Blake....
, another master vampire, is interested in Anita and gives her two of the four marks necessary to make her Jean-Claude's "human servant". While Anita can usually guess the age of vampires, she cannot get a read on Jean-Claude's age. Anita identifies the murderer, but by that point has sufficiently antagonized Nikolaos and her underlings that she expects to be killed. With help from Edward, a human associate who specializes in assassinating supernatural targets, and Rafael the Rat King, Anita kills Nikolaos and many of her followers. To her surprise, Jean-Claude becomes the new Master of the City.
Book 2: The Laughing Corpse
In The Laughing Corpse, Anita assists the police in investigating a series of murders where animators are key suspects, leading to an exploration of various types of zombie raisers. With Anita fast becoming a target from both a power hungry Vaudun Priestess and a millionaire wanting Anita to raise his ancestor Anita is forced to continue her investigation. Anita avoids Jean-ClaudeJean-Claude
Jean-Claude is a fictional character in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Within the novels, Jean-Claude's role is as one of the primary love interests of the series heroine, Anita Blake....
during most of the book. To save her own life, Anita performs a human sacrifice in order to raise an entire graveyard, and using the zombies as a weapon, kills two people. This is the first time Anita uses magic to kill a person. At the end, however, Jean-Claude informs Anita that even he can feel her power calling to him. This means that she is not just an animator, with power over dead bodies, but a necromancer, with power over all the (un)dead.
Book 3: Circus of the Damned
Circus of the Damned opens with Anita and Jean Claude discussing their relationship (or lack thereof). Jean Claude wants Anita to accept that she is his human servant; Anita wants Jean Claude to leave her alone. Anita meets some of Jean Claude's other vampires and hangers-on, including a human named Richard ZeemanRichard Zeeman
Richard Alaric Zeeman is a fictional character in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Character introduction:...
.
Anita is contacted by a representative of Humans First, a rival master vampire named Mr Oliver, and Edward: all want to know the identity and daytime resting place of the Master of the City. Anita initially resists, but becomes angry enough with Jean Claude to tell Mr Oliver. Deciding in the end that Jean Claude is the lesser of the two evils, she and Edward help defeat Mr Oliver. In the end, the vampire marks were removed; Jean Claude admits that Anita is not his human servant. Anita also obtains her apprentice, Larry Kirkland.
Anita and Richard have their first date in this book. At the end of the book it is revealed that Richard is a werewolf.
Book 4: The Lunatic Cafe
In The Lunatic Cafe Edward asks Anita's help in identifying two killers: shapeshifters who starred in a snuff filmSnuff film
A snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend, whose...
. Area shapeshifters, including Marcus (Ulfric of the local werewolf pack) and Rafael the Rat King, want Anita to find a serial killer who is targeting lycanthropes. Anita meets other shapeshifters, including Raina and Gabriel, and learns more about werewolf culture
Shapeshifters (Anita Blake mythology)
Numerous different types of shapeshifters exist in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter universe, including werewolves and wererats. Anita distinguishes between lycanthropes, which include solely persons infected by contact with another lycanthrope's bodily fluids, and shapeshifters, a class that...
while resolving these issues.
The love triangle
Love triangle
A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
between Anita, Richard, and Jean Claude continues in this book. Anita agrees to officially date both Richard and Jean Claude. She becomes engaged to Richard, even as she realizes they have serious differences — and not just because he's a werewolf.
Book 5: Bloody Bones
Bloody Bones sees Anita travel to Branson, MissouriBranson, Missouri
Branson is a city in Taney County in the U.S. state of Missouri. It was named after Reuben Branson, postmaster and operator of a general store in the area in the 1880s....
, where she quickly becomes enmeshed in a series of supernatural murders and disappearances. Anita's relationship with Jean-Claude takes a large step forward in this novel. For the first time, Anita begins to see Jean Claude as a person, not just a source of information. Her role as Larry's mentor is also further developed and she is forced to relive the trauma of her mother's death. Near the end of the novel, Anita recognizes a new power and has the opportunity to utilize it.
Book 6: The Killing Dance
Anita is the target of a half-million dollar contract killing. The Killing Dance provides a notable turning point in her relationships with Jean-Claude and Richard. Richard, with his desperate attempts to remain "human", represents the side of Anita that rebels against the "darker" elements of her nature, while Jean-Claude, who has long accepted his demons and draws his powers from death, represents the part of her that accepts them. Anita is also pushed into the role of "Master of the City's girlfriend" in the press for PR purposes. Ultimately Anita realizes that Richard's desire to remain "nice" and "normal" had placed himself and the others in even more danger, and she runs to Jean-Claude, who is at least able to protect himself from danger.The Killing Dance is also a turning point for the series in several other ways:
- Anita has accepted being Jean-Claude's "declared human servant" at the beginning of the book.
- Anita and Richard form a vampire triumvirate with Jean Claude, accepting the first three "marks". In addition, Jean Claude and Richard announce that they are allies within the supernatural community. Taken together, these changes make it impossible for Anita to separate her life completely from Jean Claude or Richard.
- Anita kills the werewolf lupa Raina and the wereleopard leader Gabriel in self-defense, resolving some unsettled conflicts from The Lunatic Cafe.
- Richard becomes the Ulfric, or leader, of his pack.
- Anita and Jean-Claude become lovers.
- Richard eats Marcus.
Book 7: Burnt Offerings
In Burnt Offerings Anita and Richard help Jean-Claude fend off a challenge from the Vampire Council. Anita's metaphysical ties to Jean-Claude and Richard are strengthened during this battle; she "feels" his beast inside her. Richard affirms that he considers Anita the lupa of his pack, although they do not reconcile romantically.Anita is also pulled further into the lycanthrope world when she discovers the local wereleopards need her to take their former leader's place as protector.
Book 8: Blue Moon
In Blue Moon, Anita juggles being a leader among both the werewolves and the wereleopards while investigating why Richard was framed for rape. Anita and Richard reconcile during the book, with Richard offering to accept Anita's continued involvement with Jean Claude as long as Anita accepts that Richard isn't monogamous either.Also during Blue Moon:
- Anita acquires a magical mentor, the WiccaWiccaWicca , is a modern Pagan religious movement. Developing in England in the first half of the 20th century, Wicca was popularised in the 1950s and early 1960s by a Wiccan High Priest named Gerald Gardner, who at the time called it the "witch cult" and "witchcraft," and its adherents "the Wica."...
n Marianne. (Marianne is not a lycanthrope but works with the local werewolf pack in Tennessee.) - Marianne and her pack's Ulfric, Verne, begin teaching Anita how to be a better leader of the wereleopards.
- Anita's faith in God, and herself as a Christian, is reaffirmed when she faces down a demon with prayer and Bible recitation.
- We learn Damian is showing signs of being Anita's vampire servant and that Jean Claude gains power from sex. The latter frightens Anita enough that she demands a break from both Jean Claude and Richard; Marianne helps her to temporarily close off her metaphysical "marks" to them.
Book 9: Obsidian Butterfly
Anita travels to New Mexico in Obsidian Butterfly to help Edward, aka Ted Forrester, investigate a series of supernatural attacks. To Anita's shock, she discovers that "Ted" has a fiancee, Donna, who is a new age bookstore owner. Donna does not know Edward is an assassin. Donna becomes a target by trying to stop an unauthorized (but profitable) archaeological dig. Before this is resolved, Donna's children are kidnapped and abused. Becca's hand is broken, and 14-year-old Peter is raped. Anita is glad that she does not have children, and worries that Peter and Becca will not recover.Anita acquires a new power from the vampire Obsidian Butterfly. She is nearly killed by another vampire; her "closing" of the marks with Jean-Claude and Richard has weakened her abilities, making her more vulnerable to metaphysical attacks. By the end of the book Anita is convinced that she needs to return to her relationships with Jean-Claude and Richard.
Book 10: Narcissus in Chains
Narcissus in Chains opens with Anita's decision to re-establish her relationships with Jean-Claude and Richard. She discovers that her lengthy separation has caused significant damage to several of her friends and allies, both emotionally and also in terms of their supernatural powers. A number of complications to her attempts to repair this damage arise:- Anita is accidentally but gravely injured by one of the wereleopards and develops secondary signs of lycanthropy.
- Anita develops the ardeur, a rare power seen only in vampires of Belle Morte's bloodline, after Jean-Claude used it to "feed" through her. Although this power allows Anita to draw energy from lust, it also requires her to have sex multiple times per day, at least in its early stages.
- In Anita's absence, Damian, her vampire servant, has become a feral killing machine.
- Richard has attempted to substitute democracy for the strictly hierarchical nature of the local werewolf pack. Jacob, a new werewolf in town, seeks to take advantage of this chaos by planning to kill first Sylvie, then Richard. The eventual split would probably destroy the pack.
- A new alpha wereleopard, Micah has arrived with his pard of wereleopards, and seeks to merge groups with Anita and become her Nimir-Raj and mate.
- Micah and Anita have sex within hours of meeting her because of the unexpected appearance of the ardeur in a shower scene.
Anita helps Damian to regain his sanity, assuming her position as Damian's master and rendering him the first "vampire servant" in centuries. She also comes close to reconciling with Richard, but Richard ultimately leaves her after she uses the ardeur to feed on him, declaring that, like Anita herself, he will not allow himself to be used as food. Anita accepts Micah as her lover and Nimir-Raj. Micah, who appears willing to accommodate any desire of Anita's, becomes part of a ménage à trois
Ménage à trois
Ménage à trois is a French term which originally described a domestic arrangement in which three people having sexual relations occupy the same household – the phrase literally translates as "household of three"...
with Jean-Claude, allowing Jean-Claude to feed on him.
Anita accepts that her romantic relationship with Richard is finally over. She is still the Lupa of the Thronos Rokke clan, but also becomes its Bolverk.
Anita is not herself a wereleopard, but her affinity with the leopards apparently means that they are her animal to call as if she were herself a master vampire. Anita and Micah are happily leading their wereleopards and living together with Nathaniel, who also acts as Anita's pomme de sang, feeding off his lust, although they have not yet had intercourse. Anita, Micah and Jean-Claude also act as a happy threesome, but, being Anita, she doubts that happiness can last long. The themes of complex relationships and increasing power are continued in subsequent books in the series.
Book 11: Cerulean Sins
In Cerulean Sins Anita assists the police in tracking a lycanthrope serial killer. This is complicated by her close relationships with the "monsters" which puts her at odds with Rudolf Storr, the head of RPIT, a good friend of Anita's, who attempts to have Jason committed to a secure lycanthrope facility. While interrogating Jason, suspected of the lycanthrope serial killer by Dolph, Dolph ends up in a fierce argument with Anita, who came to take Jason home, because she knows he is innocent. Dolph, lost in his anger of having his son marrying a vampire, admits on tape that he thinks Jason should be arrested and put in a secure facility just for being a lycanthrope, which is prejudiced and can cost Dolph his job. Anita tries to make him realize what he's saying before it is too late, but fails and Dolph ends up on a two-week leave because of prejudice of the lycanthrope race. Anita worries that Dolph might lose his job, because his prejudice may cause every case he has worked on containing lycanthropes to be looked over from the very beginning.Anita and Jean-Claude outmaneuver Belle Morte by taking Asher
Asher (Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter)
Asher is a fictional character in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels. Asher is a Master Vampire, and the lover of Jean-Claude and Anita Blake....
to their bed in a ménage à trois, making Asher their lover and therefore immune to most of Belle Morte's advances. More alarmingly, Anita begins to believe that Belle Morte is planning a war against the Mother of Darkness, the oldest and most powerful of the world's vampires. Although Anita and Jean Claude do their best to avoid that conflict, the Mother of Darkness is beginning to awaken from a centuries-long sleep, and seems interested in Anita.
Anita realizes that she is evolving into that which she once hunted. In Cerulean Sins, she muses: "One of my favorite things about hanging out with the monsters is the healing. Straight humans seemed to get killed on me a lot. Monsters survived. Let's hear it for the monsters."
Book 12: Incubus Dreams
In Incubus Dreams Anita assists the police in finding a group of vampires that are killing strippers, eventually going into their condo with a SWAT team.Anita makes considerable progress with her metaphysical problems as she learns that she can partially control the ardeur by drawing power from others' lust and by ensuring that her other desires, such as physical hunger, do not go unfulfilled. However, she accidentally forms another triumvirate with Damian and Nathaniel, this time with her (not Jean-Claude) as the power focus.
Anita's personal life resolves in a number of ways. She "accidentally" has sex with Damian with unusual concequences. She accepts Nathaniel as the fourth of her concurrent lovers, and she and Richard also agree to renew their relationship. Although Nathaniel and Micah appear to accept or want Anita as their only lover, Anita reluctantly agrees to accept Richard's decision to date other people, and allows Jean-Claude to begin feeding his lust from others, at least psychically.
Book 13: Micah
Anita's relationship with Micah is focused on specifically in the novel of the same name. Anita also continues to wrestle with her recent increase in power, first attempting to deal with the ardeur and second, wrestling with the vast increase in her own powers as a necromancer. Anita is now so powerful that her attempt to raise a single person threatened to raise every corpse in the cemetery.A blood test reveals that Anita carries four strains of lycanthropy: wolf, leopard, lion, and one unknown strain. However, she is not a lycanthrope despite being a carrier.
Book 14: Danse Macabre
Danse Macabre sees a possible pregnancy threatening to derail her life, even as she prepares to help host several visiting Masters of the City in honor of the finale performance of the vampire ballet troupe Danse Macabre.The evidence that Anita may become a shape-shifter is growing; whether she will be wolf, lion, leopard, or something else is unknown. She resists changing shape by "giving her beast" to a lycanthrope. Because she can only give "her" lion to a werelion, this brings her into more contact with the local werelion pride.
Jean Claude and Anita determine that the ardeur is "seeking" food: specifically it may have shaped Anita's, Micah's, Nathaniel's, and Damian's personalities to make them more compatible partners for one another. It also encourages the visiting Master of the City of Chicago, who had been exiled by Belle Morte, to maneuver Anita and Jean Claude into feeding her ardeur on him. Anita is surprised that feeding on the Master of the City allows them to feed on his vampires and wereanimals as well.
In her personal life, Anita wrestles with her jealousy of her lovers taking other lovers, particularly in the case of Jean-Claude and Asher. She also accepts that she is a succubus and a vampire, in that she feeds off others.
Book 15: The Harlequin
The Harlequin shows Anita and Jean Claude coping with a threat from Vampire Council enforcers. Desperate, Anita calls Edward for assistance. Edward arrives the same day, bringing Olaf and Peter (now 16), who we last saw in Obsidian Butterfly.The Harlequin exists to police and punish vampire leaders who violate various rules, such as Malcolm's resistance to the blood oath. It was formed by the Mother of All Darkness, modeled in style on the Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked "types" which began in Italy in the 16th century, and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. The closest translation of the name is "comedy of craft"; it is shortened...
and by action on the wild hunt
Wild Hunt
The Wild Hunt is an ancient folk myth prevalent across Northern, Western and Central Europe. The fundamental premise in all instances is the same: a phantasmal, spectral group of huntsmen with the accoutrements of hunting, horses, hounds, etc., in mad pursuit across the skies or along the ground,...
. It is composed of very old and powerful vampires who are capable of not just manipulating the behaviors and emotions of humans or younger vampires and lycanthropes, but of Jean-Claude, Anita, and Richard. Under this influence, Richard and Jean-Claude nearly kill each other, and Anita must also be repeatedly resuscitated. Anita keeps them alive by feeding on first Rafael (and through him, all the wererats in the city); Belle Morte; and later, all the swanmanes in the US via Donovan. Anita's second triumvirate also comes through, with Nathaniel and Damien "eating for five" so as to provide healing energy to Anita—and the others through her.
However, The Harlequin appears not to be following its own rules, so by vampire law Jean Claude's people can strike back. Edward doesn't actually kill a Harlequin, Anita does through a psychic link that she accidentally creates while trying to remove a sort of vampire spell that one of the Harlequin has put on her in order to keep track of her and Jean Claude's etc. movements. They subsequently end up killing the "human servant" of that vampire after Anita has fed off of Donovan the king of the swan manes. They recover in time to face off with the remaining members in Malcolm's Church of Eternal Life. They not only succeed, but determine that The Harlequin members were planning to take over Jean-Claude's territory and not operating on official Council orders.
Additionally, Anita almost allows the Mother of Darkness to become a full flesh being by allowing her anger to fester.
Anita also leaves her former allies, the werelions, to potential death. At a point where Anita and many of her other allies were injured, she asks to have sex with the werelion Rex Joseph so that she could gain the power to heal without the Munin. The Rex refused because he is married and values being faithful to his wife. Also there were rumors spread about Anita by the lions she refused because they weren't powerful enough for her inner lion. In a scene reminiscent of The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
series, Anita decides that this is a betrayal of their alliance and decides to abandon Joseph in favor of another werelion.
Book 16: Blood Noir
Released May 27, 2008:Jason Schuyler is a werewolf. He's also one of Anita Blake's best friends, and sometimes her lover. And right now he needs her—not to be a vampire hunter. or a federal marshal, or a necromancer, or even for her rank in the werewolf pack, but because his father is dying. He needs Anita because she's a pretty woman who loves him, who can make him look like an everyday guy, who agree to go home with him and help him say good-bye to the abusive father he never loved. The fact that Jason is about as much an everyday guy as Anita is a pretty woman is something they figure they can keep under wraps for a couple of days in a small town. How hard can that be?
Really by now, Anita Blake should know better.
Marmee Noir, ancient mother of all vampires, picks this weekend to make a move. Somehow she has cut the connection that binds Anita and Jean-Claude, leaving Jean-Claude unable to sense what is happening. Dangerous even as she sleeps, buried in darkness for a thousand years somewhere beneath the old country of Europe, Marmee Noir reaches out toward power. She has attacked Anita before, but never like this. In Anita she senses what she needs to make her enemies tremble...
- From the inside cover of Blood Noir
Things get even more complicated when Jason is constantly being mistaken for the son of the towns local celebrity, Governor Summerland. Not only do Jason and Anita find themselves in the middle of a media frenzy, but also they are threatened by the complicated vampire-human love triangle that has been plaguing the Summerland family (and most recently Keith Summerland) for generations. When the danger and the news coverage hit a climax at the same time, Anita and Jason are left carefully maneuvering around truck loads of drama and politics, not to mention they are just trying to survive. Jean-Claude's reputation, the American weretiger population, Jason's family values, Keith's impending marriage, and the Governor's bid for president are the least of their problems and just the tip of the metaphysical iceberg.
- It is revealed why Jason's dad gave him such a hard time growing up.
- Marmee Noire rolls Anita for two days, causing her to have sex with two weretigers Crispin, a 21-year-old white tiger which becomes her tiger to call and Alex Pinn, son of the queen from the red-tiger-clan.
- Jason becomes Anita's wolf to call.
- Richard is released from the anger he inherited from Anita, but inherits his own version of the Ardeur instead.
- Anita releases Richard from his anger and feeds on this anger, gaining yet another new ability.
- Anita begins to doubt her feelings towards Jason.
Book 17: Skin Trade
Released on June 2, 2009.When a vampire serial killer sends Anita Blake a grisly souvenir from Las Vegas, she has to warn Sin City's local authorities what they’re dealing with. Only it is worse than she thought. Ten officers and one executioner have been slain—paranormal style. Anita heads to Vegas, where she's joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward. It is a good thing he always has her back, because when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses "tiger" too strongly to ignore it. The weretigers are very powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone important the wrong way just got a lot higher.
- Marmee Noir supposedly meets her end in this book through a bomb that blows up her physical form. It is also revealed that she used to be part shapeshifter, part necromancer.
- Vittorio reappears and turns out to be more old and powerful then previously thought, the old love of Marmee Noir, Father of the Day as she was Mother of the Night. He tries to make Anita his human servant but is unsuccessful. He is killed in the end by the weretigers of Vegas with Anita's help.
- In this book we also find out that Requiem has requested Jean Claude to move to another town where he will be away from Anita and be able to maybe become second-in-command of a city.
- Anita meets another 'living' vampire who is a member of the Vegas SWAT team. Nicknamed 'Cannibal' he feeds off memories from people he touches. When he touches Anita, she temporarilly steals his power and is able to also feed off of one of his memories. At the end of the book we discover that he can use his power to wipe out all of the memories of a person so that they are a blank slate, his victim end up lying on the floor with a blank look in her eyes.
- Olaf returns in this book as US marshal Otto Jeffries and he hints that he would be willing to try to have a 'normal' romance with Anita, but he still creeps her out too much for anything to really develop.
- Anita had sex with Wicked and Truth to feed the ardeur and Anita asks the brothers to kill her if the Mother of Darkness possesses her or if the ardeur overcomes her.
Book 18: Flirt
Released February 2, 2010.Anita is contacted by two wealthy clients, both wanting their deceased spouses raised but for very different purposes. Anita denies both, as the purpose of each request repulses her. Later she is a held at gunpoint by a pair of professional Werelion thugs who have sharpshooters monitoring her loved ones. Their purpose is to bring her to their client, but it isn't the one she thought it would be.
Anita ends up gaining a "slave" after her Ardeur is purposely used to break one of the werelions' will, gaining her another man in her life. Nicky became her Bride.
The title of Flirt is about when she is instructed by Nathaniel on how to flirt with a waiter.
Book 19: Bullet
Released June 1, 2010.Anita Blake is back in St. Louis and trying to live a normal life-as normal as possible for someone who is a legal vampire executioner and a U. S. Marshal. There are lovers, friends and their children, school programs to attend. In the midst of all the ordinary happiness a vampire from Anita's past reaches out. She was supposed to be dead, killed in an explosion, but the Mother of All Darkness is the first vampire, their dark creator. This dark goddess has reached out to her here-in St. Louis, home of everyone Anita loves most. The Mother of All Darkness has decided she has to act now or never, to control Anita, and all the vampires in America.
The Mother of All Darkness believes that the triumvirate created by master vampire Jean-Claude with Anita and the werewolf Richard Zeeman has enough power for her to regain a body and to immigrate to the New World. But the body she wants to possess is already taken. Anita is about to learn a whole new meaning to sharing her body, one that has nothing to do with the bedroom. And if the Mother of All Darkness can't succeed in taking over Anita's body for herself, she means to see that no one else has the use of it, ever again. Even Belle Morte, not always a friend to Anita, has sent word: "Run if you can..."
Book 20: Hit List
Released on June 7, 2011."Anita is upstate with Edward as US Marshals, trying to catch a serial killer that is killing weretigers across the country. Anita and Edward both know that the Harlequin still loyal to the Queen of Darkness are killing the Were Tigers, but they can't tell the police because they know that anyone who mentions the Harlequin without being invited, will be hunted down and killed, and there are too many secrets from the other police. Anita can't explain everything, but because the Harlequin met each other masked, even the Harlequin on her side don't have faces or names to give to the police. Anita and Edward know everything, and nothing that will help catch the killers. Edward begins to think that the killers are a trick to try and lure Anita away from Jean-Claude and all his bodyguards, so that the Mother of all Darkness can either have her kidnapped to try and takeover her body, or kill her. Edward will propose to set a trap to lure the Harlequin in so they can try and take Anita. He bets that he, Anita, some guards from home and other Marshals will be better than millennium old vampire assassins. The vampires call Anita, the Executioner, and call Edward, Death, but can even Death and The Executioner win against the Harlequin?"
Novels
- Guilty PleasuresGuilty Pleasures (novel)Guilty Pleasures is a horror/mystery novel by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:Guilty Pleasures introduces the character of Anita Blake, vampire hunter, and her world, an alternate history where magic, vampires, werewolves and other supernatural elements exist...
(1993) ISBN 0-515-13449-X - The Laughing CorpseThe Laughing Corpse (novel)The Laughing Corpse is the second novel in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:...
(1994) ISBN 0-425-19200-8 - Circus of the DamnedCircus of the Damned (novel)Circus of the Damned is third book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:Circus of the Damned continues the adventures of Anita Blake...
(1995) ISBN 0-515-13448-1 - The Lunatic CafeThe Lunatic Cafe (novel)The Lunatic Cafe is the fourth in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:The Lunatic Cafe continues the adventures of Anita Blake...
(1996) ISBN 0-425-20137-6 - Bloody BonesBloody Bones (novel)Bloody Bones is the fifth in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:Bloody Bones continues the adventures of Anita Blake...
(1996) ISBN 0-425-20567-3 - The Killing DanceThe Killing Dance (novel)The Killing Dance is the sixth in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:The Killing Dance continues the adventures of Anita Blake...
(1997) ISBN 0-425-20906-7 - Burnt OfferingsBurnt Offerings (novel)Burnt Offerings is the seventh in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:...
(1998) ISBN 0-515-13447-3 - Blue MoonBlue Moon (novel)Blue Moon is the eighth in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:...
(1998) ISBN 0-515-13445-7 - Obsidian ButterflyObsidian Butterfly (novel)Obsidian Butterfly is the ninth in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:...
(2000) ISBN 0-515-13450-3 - Narcissus in ChainsNarcissus in Chains (novel)Narcissus in Chains is the tenth book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:...
(2001) ISBN 5-558-61270-3 - Cerulean SinsCerulean Sins (novel)Cerulean Sins is the eleventh in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:Cerulean Sins continues the adventures of Anita Blake...
(2003) ISBN 0-515-13681-6 - Incubus DreamsIncubus Dreams (novel)Incubus Dreams is the twelfth in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:...
(2004) ISBN 0-425-19824-3 - MicahMicah (novel)Micah is the thirteenth in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:Micah represents a side-adventure of Anita Blake...
(February 2006) ISBN 0-515-14087-2 - Danse MacabreDanse Macabre (novel)Danse Macabre is the fourteenth book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton....
(June 2006) ISBN 0-425-20797-8 - The HarlequinThe Harlequin (novel)The Harlequin is the fifteenth book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton; it was released June 5, 2007....
(2007) ISBN 978-0-425-21724-5 - Blood NoirBlood Noir (novel)Blood Noir is the sixteenth book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:"Jason Schuyler is a werewolf. He's also one of Anita Blake's best friends, and sometimes her lover...
(2008) ISBN 978-0-425-22219-5 - Skin TradeSkin Trade (novel)Skin Trade is the seventeenth book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:...
(2009) ISBN 978-0-425-22772-5 - FlirtFlirt (novella)Flirt is the eighteenth book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:...
(February 2010) ISBN 978-0-425-23567-6 - BulletBullet (novel)Bullet is the nineteenth book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. It debuted at #2 on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction Best Seller List.-Plot introduction:...
(June 2010) ISBN 978-0-425-23433-4 - Hit List (June 7, 2011) ISBN 978-1-101-51550-1
Short story collections
- Out of This World (2001) ISBN 0-515-13109-1 (Contains chapters from Narcissus in chains) (Magic Like Heat Across My Skin) and other short stories by other authors)
- Cravings (2004) ISBN 0-515-13681-6 (Contains the first 3 chapters of Incubus Dreams and 3 short stories by other authors)
- Bite (2004) ISBN 051513970X (Contains an original Anita Blake short story (The Girl Who Was Infatuated with Death-occurs in the interval between Blue Moon and Obsidian Butterfly) and 3 short stories by other authors)
- Strange Candy (2006) ISBN 0-425-21201-7 (Contains an original Anita Blake short story (Those Who Seek Forgiveness-the very first story ever to include Anita Blake) and other short stories by the same author)
Comic books
Anita also appears in the Marvel Comics/Dabel Brothers adaptation of Guilty Pleasures. Each issue contains roughly 40 pages of the novel adapted into a 28 page comic book. Hardcover collections of the adaptation are available.
There is also a two-issue story, "First Death", which is set two years prior to Guilty Pleasures and fills in the details of her encounter with Valentine and Edward mentioned in Guilty Pleasures as well as showing how she attained the cross scar.
Marvel Comics has completed an adaptation of the second Anita Blake book, The Laughing Corpse, and is currently working on an adaptation of the third book, Circus of the Damned.