Anita Blake doesn't work for vampires even if it was Willie McCoy asking. But when the vampires use her friend against her, Anita has no choice. Nikolaos, Master of the City, wants Anita to find out who's killing off the city's master vampires and it doesn't seem to matter that she's already working on the case with the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team a.k.a. RPIT (pronounced rip-it) better known as the Spook Squad. In between raising the dead, her day-time job... well it's really a night-time job, and helping the police Anita tries to figure out what's strong enough to kill master vampires. All the while dodging vengeful vampires, killer zombies and the amorous intentions of one very sexy vampire named Jean-Claude. But when push comes to shove Anita pulls out all the punches, with the help of Edward, a former hit-man turned preternatural bounty hunter and all around bad dude, she fights not only to destroy the serial killer but the crazy Master of the City.

"The older the zombie, the bigger the death needed to raise it." After a few centuries, the only death "big enough" is a human sacrifice. I know, because I'm an animator. My name is Anita Blake. Working for Animators, Inc., is just a job - like selling insurance. But all the money in the world wasn't enough for me to take on the particular job Harold Gaynor was offering. Somebody else did, though - a rogue animator. Now he's not just raising the dead... he's raising Hell. And it's up to me to stop it.

"Most women complain that there are no single, straight men left. I'd just like to meet one that's human." I'm Anita Blake, expert on creatures of the night. I've dined with shapeshifters, danced with werewolves, and been wooed - but not won - by Jean-Claude, the Master Vampire of the City. And now a darkly dangerous vampire named Alejandro has hit town. He too wants me for his human servant. A war of the undead has begun. Over me. I would be flattered. If my life weren't at stake.

"You don't volunteer for slugfests with vampires. It shortens your life expectancy." And you don't fall in love with a werewolf. It interferes with your work. Especially when you're a preternatural expert, like me. My business brings me up close and personal with all shapes and sizes of monsters. And not all of them want to kill me. Take, for instance, the local pack of lycanthropes - that's werewolves to you. A number of them are missing, and they've come to me for help. Maybe because I'm dating the leader of the pack. I've survived a lot - from jealous vampires to killer zombies - but this love thing may kill me yet.

"When the monsters are involved, it's never just one dead body. One way or another the dead multiply." First, there was the dead in the graveyard, two-hundred years dead. I'd been hired to raise them to settle a dispute over who owned the land they were buried in. Then there was the three dead teenagers in the woods, slaughtered in a way I had never seen before. And then they found the dead girl, drained of blood and left in her bed. I knew what that meant, all right. It didn't take a degree in preternatural studies to figure out that sometihing was very wrong in and around Branson, Missouri. And I was right in the middle of it. My name is Anita Blake. Welcome to my life.

"These days my life is a cross between preternatural soap opera and an action-adventure movie. Sort of As the Casket Turns meets Rambo." The first hit man came after me at home, which should be against the rules. Then there was a second, and a third. Eventually, I found out that the word on the street was that Anita Blake, preternatural expert and vampire killer extraordinaire, was worth half a million dollars. Dead, not alive. So what's a girl to do but turn to the men in her life for help? Which in case, means an alpha werewolf and a master vampire. With professional killers on your trail, it's not a bad idea to have as much protection as possible, human or otherwise. But I'm beginning to wonder if two monsters are better than one.

"You can't trust anyone who sleeps with the monsters." That's what I've always said. That's what I've always believed. But now I'm the one sharing a bed with the Master Vampire of the CIty. Me, Anita Blake. The woman the vampires call the Executioner. From part of the solution, I've become part of the problem. So it hits close to home when an arsonist begins to target vampire-owned businesses all over town - an arsonist who seems to want to destroy more than just property. It's the monsters who are in danger now. And it's up to the Executioner to save them from the inferno.

When Anita got the call that her ex-fiancé Richard had been thrown in jail for assaulting a woman. Since there's only five days till a blue moon (a second full moon during the moon) and Richard's trying to keep being an alpha werewolf a secret, she has to hurry. But when she's denied safe passage by the local Master of the City, she's forced to take an escort/delegation of vampires, wereleopards and a werewolf. Once she arrives all breaks loose. While Anita tries not to get killed by the corrupt local cops, she also tries to figure out why someone wants to pin several gruesome killings on trolls. Oh yeah and she tries to learn all she can about werewolves, wereleopards, her growing powers and deal with her relationship with Richard.

Whenever the phone rings before dawn something big is probably up, and the fact the Anita Blake has been up all night dealing with zombies doesn't make this call an exception. "Ted Forrester needs backup from Anita Blake, vampire executioner," Edward tells her, using the psedonym he keeps for those rare times when he needs a legal identity. And she owes him a favor. So by noon she's on a plane to Santa Fe, sun-drenched town of wealthy retirees, where in the last two weeks twelve people have been murdered. The dead ones had it easy; other victims have been completely flayed, but kept horribly alive by magic. Seeing them in the hospital, Anita feels uncharacteristically shaken. Edward's "Ted Forrester" identity has her nearly as spooked as the crimes: he's working with the local police, courting a likable widow with two kids, and generally making like a good ol' boy. Anita knows the real nature he's hiding beneath his mask of normality - and she finds "Ted" perhaps more frightening thean Edward. But she must put aside her fear to help Edward hunt down the greatest evil she has ever encountered. It's ancient and devious - and, in the end, she will have to face it alone.

Having survived a supernatural onslaught unlike any she'd ever faced before doing it without the two men in her life. Six months have passed since AnitaBlake has seen either Jean-Claude or Richard. Six months of celibacy. Six months of indecision. Six months of danger. For her body carries the marks of both vampire and werwolf, and until the triumvirate is consummated, all three remain vulnerable. But when a kidnapper targets innocents that Anita has sworn to protect, she needs all the help she can get. In an earth-shattering union, Anita, Jean-Claude, and Richard merge the marks - and melt into one another. Suddenly, Anita can harness both their powers. She can feel their hearts... hear their thought... know their hungers. Nothing can save Anita from a twist of fate that draws her ever closer to the brink of humanity - to finally surrender to the bloodlust, the beast, and the desire transforming her body and consuming her soul.