Welcome! You will find some unusual....ah....partners here. This is the dance hall, but beware - some of the patrons have fangs!

Those Who Lead.....

(Major Characters)

• Anita Blake - Zombie Queen. Lupa. LÈoparde LionnÈ. The Executioner. She loves a master vampire and an alpha werewolf. She raises zombies for a living and works with the police on prenatural investigations during her spare time. She collects stuffed penguins. Anita is outspoken, overly suspicious, and in over head with creepy, crawly monsters. She's a vampires human servant, a necromancer, and not much of a cook. Not to mention a part of a triumvirate. Incredibly loyal, Anita will kill to protect those she loves. Accused of being trigger happy, Anita never leaves home without her gun. She's had some problems as of late, one of the more unusual of them being the fact that she is haunted by the munin (think "ghost") of the old werewolf lupa, Raina.

• Richard Zeeman - He's an alpha werewolf, leader of the pack. Tall, dark, and incredibly handsome Richard loathes himself, his beast. Richard is a nice guy, a Jr. High School teacher. He doesn't want to hurt anyone, but he can't control the pack without bruising a few bodies. He's bound to Jean-Claude and Anita for an eternity which, as Anita so quaintly put it, is "a long time to bitch at each other."

• Jean-Claude - Jean-Claude is incredibly handsome, even for a vampire. Probably because his line is descended from Belle Morte, Beautiful Death. He is the Master of the City. He's managed to make Anita Blake his human servant twice(long story.....) though he's ended up a part of a triumvirate with Richard Zeeman, alpha werewolf, in the process. The wheels are always turning in Jean-Claude's head. Power and prestige are the least of his goals. He destroyed the Council member Earthmover. The triumvirate has given Jean-Claude more power than even he hoped and it seems highly unlikely anyone will challenge him for his position.

• Edward - If Anita is The Executioner then Edward is Death. He started as an assassin who killed humans, but they were too easy so he moved on to lycanthropes and vampires. Edward is cold and calculating. He'll do anything for money. His values are a little odd, but he follows his own set of rules to a tee. Edward is vindictive as hell and very dangerous. However, he seems to have a sort of affection for Anita; After all, he turned down half a million dollars that was offered to him to kill her. But that was then. Should Edward have to, he wouldn't be above torturing or even killing his only friend. He may not enjoy it, but he would do it. Edward is also known as Ted Forrester, a legal bounty hunter. Whether this is his real name or not has yet to be seen.

• Asher - Asher and Jean-Claude traveled in Europe years ago with Asher's human servant, Julianna. It was the closet thing Jean-Claude ever had to a family. Asher had a grudge against Jean-Claude because Jean-Claude was unable to help Asher and Juliana when they taken by the church. Juliana was burned as a witch, but Jean-Claude managed to save Asher who was hideously disfigured by holy water being pored drop by drop onto his flesh in an attempt to "save" his soul. Asher is working on over coming his anger towards his former friend. It was Anita who convinced Asher to give up his grudge and he stayed behind in St. Louis after the Council left.

• Larry Kirkland - Larry is an animator and vampire executioner wanna-be. Anita is desperately trying to talk him out of it while teaching him the ropes. He's her side kick. Larry isn't much of a shooter, but he has backed Anita up in some dangerous situations including when she went up against Serephina and Xavier. He has several scars and has taken a lot of falls, but still wants to slay vampires for a living.

• Jason - A member of Richards pack and Jean-Claude's wolf Jason's loyalties are divided between his Ulfric and Master. Jason serves as a snack to the vampires, Jean-Claude especially. He's into tight leather and has a recent fear of people(vampires.....) rotting on him. Jason likes to tease Anita and has been tempted to take a bite out of her on several occasions.

• Rafael - Rafael is the rat king. He helped Anita break into Nickolaos' lair and she is under his protection. The two have a strange friendship formed mostly of violence. Anita saved Rafael from the Council after they skinned him.

• Rudolf Storr - He's the of RPIT and commonly called Dolph. He's trying to learn all he can form Anita in order to be a better cop(he is in the prenatural crime unit, so he needs some help) Dolph is tough as nails tries to follow the book. He trusts Anita less since he found out she was sleeping with a vampire.

Those Who Follow.....

(Not-So-Major Characters)

• Damian - Damian is ancient, but will never be a master. Anita accidentally raised him as a zombie. That bond helped her to save his life later on. Damian is terrified of Anita and the hold she has on him. However, that hold has caused Damian to fall for savvy necromancer. This could cause an uncountable number of problems because Anita isn't interested in him and she is dating Damian's master.......

• Jamil - Jamil is Richard's Sk–ll, his top enforcer. Jamil was an enforcer for Marcus before that. Richard left him alive to help smooth over the transition from Marcus' reign to Richard's. Jamil is dangerous and deadly. Richard earned his respect after he kept him alive after Marcus' death.

• Shang-Da - Along with Jamil, Shang-Da is one of Richard's enforcers. He's loyal to the death and has recently warmed up to Anita. He transferred from a San Francisco pack and is rather comfortable with guns.

• Louis "Louie" Fane - Louie is a wererat and Richard's best friend. He risked his life and secret to save Anita from the vampire Gretchen. Louie is currently dating Anita's best friend Veronica "Ronnie" Sims.

• Veronica "Ronnie" Sims - Ronnie is Anita's best friend. They work out on weekends and go shopping together. Ronnie has become more a shooter since knowing Anita(both times she has killed someone has been to save Anita's life) Ronnie is a private detective and is dating Richard's best friend, Louie Fane.

• Sylvie - Sylvie is Richard's Geri, second in command. She achieved this position by killing the first person she challenged. Everyone else just stepped aside and let her climb the ladder rather than risk losing their lives. After Anita saved her form the Council Sylvie promised not to challenge Richard. Sylvie is currently dating a fellow lycanthrope, Gwen.

• Gwen - Gwen is a werewolf and Sylvie's girlfriend. She also happens to be a psychologist.

• Stephen - Stephen is a member of Richards pack and is on the bottom of the power structure. He is a stripper at Guilty Pleasures and has a twin brother, Gregory, who is a wereleopard. Stephen is under Anita's protection.

• Gregory - Gregory is Stephen's twin brother. He's also a wereleopard. Gregory has done a lot of bad things, mostly while working under Gabriel. He handed his own brother over to Raina to be tortured. However, after finding out that Anita was the new Nimir-ra he refused to rape Sylvie, the wolves Geri.

• Nathaniel - As member of the pard Gabriel made him into a prostitute and he was very good at it. Nathaniel needs someone to tell him what to do. He accepts Anita as Nimir-ra and would like to have sex with her, though Anita refused him. In order to help him Anita used Raina's munin to heal him. Though he's a bit of a wimp, Nathaniel is loyal to Anita.

• Willie McCoy - Anita knew Willie before he became a vampire and she has feelings for him. He's her friend. Willie is one of the vampires Anita accidentally called from his coffin. Unlike Damian, this hasn't seemed to affect him any. Willie is dating Hannah, a fellow vampire.

• Hannah - Hannah is Willie McCoy's vampire girlfriend.

• Catherine Maison - Catherine is a lawyer and one of Anita's friends. It was because of Catherine that Anita agreed to help Nickolaos - Anita didn't want to see her friend hurt. Anita likes her so much she even wore a puffy pink dress to Catherine's wedding.

• Zane - Zane took over after Gabriel died, but lacked the power to keep the pard together. He cried tears of joy when Anita came to the hospital to save Nathaniel. She is his Nimir-ra and Zane is quite willing to lay down his life for her.

• Zerbrowski - A member of RPIT Zerbrowski is known for his sense of humor. He's always pulling Anita's chain and, even though he's married, flirts shamelessly. The two are friends.

• Cherry - Christine "Cherry" is a wereleopard, a member of the pard. Before it was common knowledge that she was a shape shifter Cherry was a nurse. Her abilities have come in useful on several occasions, including one nearly fatal shooting incident where she saved the life of fellow pard Zane. Cherry is very loyal to her fellow wereleopards and accepts Anita as her Nimir-ra, though she doesn't understand why Anita took the job.

• Bert Vaughn - He's the head of Animators, Inc. To Anita, her boss is a pain in the ass. He'll do almost anything for money and is always handing Anita cases that are out of her job description. Bert is a great business man, but knows shit about raising the dead. He threatens to fire Anita on a regular basis, but can't because she's the reason everyone comes to Animators, Inc. Anita spends a good deal of time trying to annoy Bert.

• Tammy Reynolds - Tammy is a witch who also happens to be a cop. She works with RPIT. Her and Anita don't get along too well. She is currently dating Larry Kirkland.

• Malcolm - He's the undead Billy Graham. Malcolm is the head of The Church of Eternal Life, one of the fastest growing religions in the country. He doesn't condone killing and is a master vampire.

• Monica Vespucci - Monica betrayed Catherine to the vampires and Anita's never forgotten it(in fact, she threatened to kill Monica after that) Monica was married to Robert, one of Jean-Claude's vampires, and is pregnant with his baby.

• Buzz - Buzz is a bouncer at Guilty Pleasures. He is a vampire.

• Lillian - She's a wererat and a doctor. She spends a lot of time patching up her fellow lycanthropes in secret so that their identities don't get out.

• Charlotte Zeeman - Richard's mother is loud and wears the pants in the family. She's very protective of her children and doesn't always listen to reason.

• Daniel Zeeman - Daniel is Richard's baby brother. He was one of the first to know that Richard was a lycanthrope.

• Dead Dave - Dave was kicked off the police force after he, well, died. He now runs a bar in the vampire district. Dave is bitter about being kicked off the force, but still likes to help out. He tries to help Anita as much as possible and the police watch out for him since he use to be theirs(His bar was given a uniformed guard when HAV was out to destroy all vampires on the anniversary of the Day of Cleansing)

• Vivian - A member of the wereleopards and Stephens new girl friend Vivian is very timid. She suffered greatly at the hands of Padma and his son during the Council's visit.

• Mrs. Pringle - Mrs. Pringle was Anita's neighbor when she was living in her apartment. She was elderly and the two were friends. Mrs. Pringle's dog once alerted Anita to a hitman waiting in her apartment.

• Gretchen - Gretchen was brought over by Jean-Claude. She loves him, but the sentiment is not returned. She attacked Anita in an attempt to get her to stay away from Jean-Claude. As punishment her master confined her to a coffin lined with crosses.

• Padma - A member of the Council Padma has the ability to control all lycanthropes, making him very dangerous. He gave up his only son to appease Anita's anger.

• Balthasar - The human servant to The Traveler. They are lovers.

• The Traveler - A member of the Council. He has the ability to enter other bodies and take control. He was very impressed with Anita who not only broke his hold, but was naive enough to appeal to his sense of honor as a "ruler" of vampire kind.

• Melanie - Melanie is a lamia, one of the last of her kind. She was a servant(slave?) to Oliver before his death.

• John Burke - John is an animator at Animators, Inc. He and Anita are almost equal in power, but customers prefer Anita over him and it hurts his ego. The two of them tried dating for a while, but things didn't work out - John couldn't handle the fact that Anita is a female version of him. John practices voodoo. His late brother, Peter Burke, was also an animator at Animators, Inc.

• Verne - Ulfric to the Oak Tree Clan in Tennessee.

• Marianne - She is the clan witch to Verne's pack and helps Anita learn to control the munin.

Those Who Will Never Dance Again.....

(The Deceased)

• Phillip - Phillip was a striper at Guilty Pleasures. He was attacked at a young age by a vampire called Valentine. Because of that attack Phillip became a vampire junkie. Nickolaos ordered him to seduce Anita, but it didn't work. Anita did begin to have feelings for him, but he was killed by Nickolaos and later raised as a zombie. Anita laid him to rest and sometimes has nightmares about his throat being slit.

• Valentine - Valentine was responsible for some of Anita's worst scars. He also jumped the Guilty pleasure stripper Phillip when he was young and made him a vampire junkie. Valentine and Anita had believed each other dead until they ran into one another at the Circus of the Damned. Valentine is now dead.

• Yvette - Psycho vampire. 'Nuff said.

• Oliver - Known to the vampire world as "The Earthmover" Oliver wanted to go back to the days when vampires were hunted because he feared that legalization would lead to too many vampires and not enough....food. He was killed during a battle between Jean-Claude's forces and his own.

• Karl Inger - Karl was Oliver's human servant.

• Alejandro - Alejandro was an Aztec master vampire who worked with Oliver. He managed to make Anita Blake his human servant, erasing Jean-Claude's first marks. Anita risked her life and, rather than kill Jean-Claude, ripped Alejandro's heart out and crushed it. Edward performed CPR on her until the paramedics arrived and she was saved.

• Marcus - Marcus was a surgeon and in love with Raina. He was the werewolves Ulfric before Richard. He tried to have Anita killed while she was dating Richard to make his opponent easier to kill(Richard would be grieving during the battle) As it is, Marcus was killed by Richard and eaten by the pack.

• Raina - Raina was one sick puppy. She loved sex and been with almost every man in the pack as well as a good deal of the pard. She masterminded a series of pornographic films starring lycanthropes as well as one snuff film. She tried to make a second snuff film with Anita as the star, but Anita managed to escape and kill Raina. Raina owned the Lunatic Cafe, an unofficial meeting place for lycanthropes and a werewolf hangout. She was incredibly powerful, using sex as her main tool of manipulation. Raina now exists as a munin (a type of ghost) and occasionally torments Anita.

• Gabriel - Gabriel was the leader of the pard. He was into pain - it turned him on. Knowing this Anita managed to convince him to free her during a jam and she killed him. Gabriel starred in many of Raina's porno films and pimped out the wereleopards as he saw fit.

• Robert - Robert worked for Jean-Claude, but had a tendency to mess up an awful lot. He was killed, but before he died he married Monica Vesspucci and got her with child.

• Fernando - He was Padma's son and tortured quite a few of the lycanthropes. He also raped Sylvie, the werewolves Geri. Anita turned him over to the wolves for punishment.

• Liv - Liv betrayed Jean-Claude and his people to the Council. Anita gave her over to Sylvie so that the werewolf could kill her.

• Alfred - Starred in a snuff film. Anita killed him to prove to Marcus that she wasn't bluffing. The pack ate him.

• Theresa - Theresa worked for Nickolaos, but was killed by the vampire serial murderer.

• Elizabeth - She ruled the wereleopards before Gabriel. She turned him over to "the dark side" ;-)

• Nickolaos - She was over a thousand years old, a child vampire with the ability to call rats. She was dangerous, demanding, cruel, and insane. She was Master of the City before Jean-Claude. Anita and Edward broke into her lair and destroyed her.

Quite a crowd, isn't it? See someone whose missing?

Please inform the management by writing to celesstar@aol.com.

**NOTE** I have yet to include the patrons from "Obsidian Butterfly" of "Narcissus In Chains"

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