Guilty Pleasures

The first novel in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series is set in a version of St. Louis where vampires, zombies, and other supernatural creatures exist openly, two years after a landmark court case legalized vampirism. Anita Blake works at Animators, Inc. as an animator, a person with the rare ability to raise the dead. She also consults for the police on supernatural cases and has earned the nickname "The Executioner" for her record of legally sanctioned vampire kills. The story begins when Willie McCoy, a petty criminal Anita knew before he became a vampire, asks her to investigate the murders of four vampires in the District, St. Louis's vampire entertainment area. The victims' hearts were torn out and their heads cut off. Anita refuses, insisting she does not work for vampires.

Monica Vespucci, a coworker of Anita's friend Catherine Maison, lures Anita and Catherine to a bachelorette party at Guilty Pleasures, a vampire strip club in the District. Jean-Claude, the club's owner and a master vampire, a vampire of exceptional age and power, persuades Anita to surrender her silver crucifix. Her police beeper summons her to Hillcrest Cemetery, where Sergeant Rudolf "Dolph" Storr of the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team shows her a groundskeeper killed by ghouls, undead scavengers, in an unprecedented attack.

When Anita returns to the club, she discovers that Aubrey, a vampire who performs at Guilty Pleasures, has placed Catherine in a deep trance, giving him permanent psychic control over her. Jean-Claude reveals the terms: Anita must investigate the vampire murders, or Aubrey will destroy Catherine. Monica is exposed as the person who deliberately lured them to the club.

Jean-Claude takes Anita to meet Nikolaos, the master vampire who rules the city. After Aubrey knocks Anita unconscious, she wakes in a dungeon beneath the Circus of the Damned, a supernatural entertainment venue. Jean-Claude has healed her concussion by sharing his life-force, constituting the first vampire mark: the first step in making her his permanent human servant. This grants Anita immunity to vampiric mental powers but creates an unbreakable bond. Nikolaos sends wererats, humans who can transform into rat-like creatures, to terrorize Anita. The Rat King, their leader, stops the attack and declares his independence from Nikolaos.

Nikolaos reveals herself as a girl who died at 12 or 13, with 1,000 years of accumulated power. She unleashes a devastating psychic assault that brings Anita to her knees. Anita breaks free only by smashing her fists into the stone floor until they bleed. Nikolaos discloses that 10 vampires total have been murdered, including two master vampires more powerful than Jean-Claude. A fellow animator named Zachary presents a zombie witness to one of the murders but abuses it until its mind shatters.

As Anita flees, a supernatural battle erupts between Jean-Claude and Nikolaos. Two points of blue fire, Jean-Claude's eyes, pass through Anita, constituting the second vampire mark, which allows him to enter her dreams and draw energy from her. Near the exit, Valentine, a vampire who preyed on children and whose face Anita scarred with Holy Water two years earlier, confronts her and promises revenge.

At home, Anita finds Edward, a professional assassin she considers the most dangerous person she knows. Edward hunts vampires and lycanthropes, shapeshifting creatures such as werewolves. He wants the location of Nikolaos's daytime resting place. Anita refuses. He gives her a few days but promises to use force if necessary.

Anita enlists allies. Ronnie Sims, a private investigator and close friend, looks into Humans Against Vampires (HAV) for connections to the murders. Phillip, a scarred performer at Guilty Pleasures who serves as the vampires' daytime liaison, reveals that the murdered vampires may have attended "freak parties," gatherings involving blood-drinking, and takes Anita to one. At the party, Anita finds Zachary failing to raise a zombie while vampires threaten his life. She shares her animating power to help, and during the ritual she realizes Zachary is dead himself, sustained by a gris-gris, a voodoo charm that requires him to kill others to maintain his semblance of life.

Nikolaos appears at the party and demands to taste Anita's blood, growing suspicious when she notices Anita can see through her glamour, a supernatural disguise masking her true appearance. Members of the Church of Eternal Life, a vampire-led church, raid the party, and Anita escapes. The next morning, the latest victim is identified as Theresa. Anita and Ronnie visit the church, suspecting a connection to the killings. That evening, Anita returns for an appointment with Malcolm, the church's leader, and finds a suspicious planner entry linking a name resembling Edward's to a date two days before the first murder. Outside, a man with vampire bite marks tries to shoot Anita. Ronnie pushes her to safety, and both women return fire, killing the attacker.

Nikolaos captures and tortures Phillip to punish Anita and prove Jean-Claude cannot protect those under his care. Anita races to the Circus and finds Phillip chained and covered in bite wounds. Nikolaos orders Aubrey and Valentine to kill him. Anita stabs her guard with a hidden knife and rushes in, but she is too late: Aubrey has torn out Phillip's throat. In cold fury, Anita drives her silver knife into Aubrey's heart, and he collapses. Nikolaos overwhelms Anita's mind, and she blacks out.

Anita wakes with fang marks on her neck. Edward helps her purify the bite with Holy Water, breaking Nikolaos's hold. She arranges for Rafael, the Rat King, to guide her and Edward through tunnels into Nikolaos's lair. He agrees, wanting his people free of the master's influence. Before the assault, Zachary ambushes them at a cemetery where they have gone to lay a zombie to rest. He confesses to being the vampire murderer, killing vampires to feed his gris-gris. Bullets cannot kill him since he is already dead. He sends ghouls after them, but Anita drives the creatures back by setting fire to a maintenance shed. She calls Dolph to report Zachary as the murderer.

The wererats guide Anita and Edward into the lair, where they find five coffins. Edward kills Valentine with silver nitrate. Anita destroys Aubrey with a shotgun when he awakens and attacks. Nikolaos's coffin is empty: Her 1,000 years of age make her immune to daylight's paralysis.

Nikolaos appears with Burchard, her 600-year-old human servant, and Zachary. She reveals Zachary has raised Phillip from the dead as a zombie and forces Anita to fight Burchard with knives while holding Edward hostage. When Anita announces she knows the murderer's identity, Zachary panics and fires at her. Nikolaos seizes Zachary and tears out his throat. While Burchard is distracted, Anita stabs him fatally.

Edward empties a gun into Nikolaos, but she does not slow. Anita picks up Burchard's sword and strikes Nikolaos in the neck, then drives the blade through her chest, pinning her to the wall. The master vampire dies. Anita destroys Zachary's gris-gris by smearing her human blood onto it, the one substance that breaks the charm's power. Zachary dies permanently.

Anita frees Jean-Claude from a punishment coffin and punches him for marking her without consent. He declares himself the new master of the city. Anita finds Phillip's reanimated body showing flickers of awareness and terror. She gently lays him back to rest, and he sinks into the earth. She kneels beside his grave and weeps.

Jean-Claude sends Anita white roses with a card inviting her to go dancing. She writes "No" on the card and returns it, affirming her identity: She is The Executioner, and she does not date vampires.