Guilty Pleasures (Book)

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Vampire
Willie McCoy

Jean Claude

Buzz

Robert

Malcolm

Nikolaos (DEATH)

Aubrey (DEATH)

Theresa (DEATH)

"Black Vampire" (DEATH)

Valentine (DEATH)

Lucas (mentioned, killed by Zachary)

Maurice (mentioned, killed by Zachary)

Jack in the box (mentioned)

Dead Dave (mentioned)

Human
Anita Blake

Phillip (DEATH)

Bert Vaughn

Mrs Grundick (mentioned)

Albert Grundick (mentioned)

Craig

Ronnie Sims

Monica Vespucci

Catherine Maison

Holy Item check girl

Rudolf Storr

Zerbrowski

Burchard (DEATH)

Winter (DEATH)

Edward

Judith Blake (mentioned)

Josh Blake (mentioned)

Jamison Clarke

Raymond Fields (mentioned)

Mary

Mrs Franks and son

Rebecca Miles

Beatrice

Luther

Charles Montgomery (mentioned)

Manny (mentioned)

Rosita (mentioned)

Mrs Pringle

Rochelle

Madge

Harvey

Crystal

Darlene

Beverly Chin

Bruce

Clive Perry

Betty

Thomas Jensen (mentioned)

Iris Jensen (mentioned)

Estelle Hewitt

Lycanthrope
Louie Fane (Rat)

Rafael (Rat King)

Lillian (Rat)

Irving Griswold (Wolf)

Other
Zachary (DEATH)

Custard

Plot
Anita is coerced into working with the Master Vampire of St. Louis to discover who is killing her vampires.

This adventure turns her life upside-down, when she is thrust head first into the metaphysical world

Major Points

 * Anita is revealed to work for RPIT
 * Anita works for Animators Inc
 * Willie McCoy was sired into a vampire before this story
 * Albert Grundick died before this story, and was raised by Anita on his wife's request
 * Monica invites Anita to Catherine's bachelorette party, which is being held at Guilty Pleasures
 * Jean Claude owns and runs Guilt Pleasures
 * Anita is called to investigate a ghoul attack at a cemetery
 * When she returns to the club, she finds Aubrey has hypnotized Catherine
 * He and Jean Claude take Anita to see Nikolaos
 * Monica was in on the plan to get Anita to help the vampires
 * Theresa tries to trick Anita into thinking she is Nikolaos, but Anita sees through it very quickly
 * Aubrey attacks Anita, which forces Jean Claude to give her the first mark to save her life
 * The Wererats attack Anita on Nikolaos' orders, as they are her animal, but Rafael forbids them from harming her. They were only meant to scare her anyway
 * Anita meets the real Nikolaos and is overwhelmed by her power, easily estimating her age as over 1000. She agrees to help Nikolaos
 * Nikolaos reveals that there have been 10 vampire murders before the story began, 2 of whom were masters
 * Its revealed that Jean Claude suggested Anita for this job
 * Zachary raised a witness to the second murder as a zombie for questioning, but he tortured it so he couldn't say that Zachary killed them
 * Nikolaos is angered by this and sends Anita and Zachary away.
 * Nikolaos finds out that Jean Claude has been hiding how strong he is from from her, so she punishes him by placing him in a cross-wrapped coffin
 * Anita discovers that Nikolaos' daytime sleeping location is under the Circus of the Damned
 * Nikolaos has ordered that no vampires can hurt Anita until after she has solved the case
 * Valentine approaches Anita and reveals that he is a vampire whom she had tried to kill 2 years earlier with Edward
 * Anita gets home and finds Edward there, he tries to get Nikolaos' location from her, but she doesn't give it. She asks Edward to get her a sawed off shotgun, just in case
 * Jean Claude starts invading Anita's dreams through the second mark, and says he had no choice
 * Anita Wakes up to Ronnie ringing the door, Anita asks Ronnie to ask around the hate groups, such as HAV or The League of Human Voters
 * Anita starts realizing that she's eating earlier than normal, and more than usual during the day (due to the second mark)
 * Anita heads into work where she is told that Nikolaos has paid for her services, but Anita tells Bert to never assign her a case with Vampires without permission again
 * Anita tries to get a mother to prevent her son from joining the Church of Eternal Life, but fails
 * Phillip picks up Anita from work, so he can watch over her for Nikolaos
 * They go to lunch, where they start looking over the victim files, during which time Anita learns that Phillip knows some of the victims or their families
 * They head out to see Rebecca Miles, the "property"of Maurice, the first victim, who Phillip knows
 * Rebecca is afraid of Anita, due to her reputation as a vampire killer
 * Rebecca tells Anita and Phillip that she and Maurice were at a Freak Party the day he died, which leads Anita to believe that the others may have been to one as well
 * Anita decides to attend a party, which Phillip decides to accompany her to. There is one that night
 * Anita goes to Dead Dave's Bar to get information on Phillip, to see if she can trust him
 * Ronnie calls and says she has a lead about HAV, and will follow it, it is designed to kill vampires
 * Anita gets home after shopping for clothes for the party. She receives the shotgun, which Edward had delivered earlier. Edward left a note saying she had 24 hours left
 * Anita picks up Phillip outside Guilty Pleasures that night
 * He tries to hit on Anita a few more times, but she keeps blocking his advances
 * They arrive at the party, where she is instantly freaked out (pun intended)
 * Anita realises that Phillip is working under someone's orders, he says that he's supposed to keep her safe
 * Edward and Darlene walk into the party, and pretends to be a freak, and very friendly towards Anita
 * Phillip resists Darlene's advances, and goes to the bathroom, proud. He tries it on with Anita again, but reveals its because Harvey is watching from the window. He marks Anita by biting her so she'll seem like a Freak as well
 * Anita steps outside for some air, and notices some power near-by
 * Anita finds Zachary and Nikolaos' Kiss (no Nikolaos though) beside a grave, Nikolaos has ordered Zachary to raise a 100 year old corpse for her, and if he fails the vampires can kill him (as a punishment of course)
 * Anita intervenes when it becomes apparent that Zacahary cannot raise the zombie
 * Anita reveals that she can act as a focus for other animators
 * Anita assists Zachary to raise the corpse, she notices that he wears a gris-gris which needs specific types of blood
 * Anita suddenly remembers that she attended Zachary's funeral, and that he was a zombie of some sort, and why he couldn't raise the zombie on his own, and so Anita had to feed the zombie, since Zachary has no life to share
 * Anita leaves, and the vampires start to assault the zombie.


 * Nikolaos appears from the trees with Willie, Anita realizes that she can see through Nikolaos' illusions, and can see her true form


 * Nikolaos says that she'll have her zombie kept safe as long as she can taste Anita, Anita agrees. Nikolaos has Theresa chase off the other vampires, and has Zachary return the zombie to the grave


 * Anita accidentally lets it slip that she can see Nikolaos' imperfections, and that she has vampire marks (Nikolaos gets angry)


 * Phillip appears and tells Nikolaos to leave Anita alone, but was subdued by Willie on Nikolaos' orders


 * Some Church of Eternal Life extremists attack the party, Nikolaos leaves on her own


 * Anita, Phillip and Willie leave in Anita's car, on the journey Phillip comes clean with Anita, and says that Nikolaos ordered him to seduce Anita, but failed


 * Willie drops Phillip off at Guilty Pleasures, Willie gets out at some point, and Anita gets home


 * Anita checks her messages, first says that Ronnie has a meeting with a HAV meeting for Anita the next day, and Edward tells her that time is running out


 * Jean Claude tells Anita that they must kill Nikolaos before long in her dream


 * The next morning Dolph calls Anita and says theres another murder near the Circus of the Damned. Anita identifies the body as Theresa


 * Anita arrives at Ronnie's office and meets with Beverly Chin, a H.A.V. member and a friend of Anita's


 * Beverly says she'll find out what she can, but just for Anita's sake


 * Anita and Ronnie decide to head to the Church of Eternal Life to see if they are involved (after the events of the freak party)


 * When they get there, Anita arranges a meeting with Malcolm for that night. As they go to leave, thye are ambushed by a 2 bite mark human, who ries to kill Anita, but Ronnie kills him first. Bruce says that the attacker isn't a member of the church
 * Anita returns to the church that night to see Malcolm
 * During their meeting, Malcolm realizes that Anita has been marked, but doesn't pry into it, he says that he'll look into the matter and keep her informed. Anita also sneaks a look into Malcolm's appointment book and thinks that Edward met with Malcolm before, and that they are killing the vampires together
 * Anita doesn't want to go home since Edward would be coming that night, she checks her answer machine messages from a payphone, Willie called to say that Phillipw as being tortured, then Nikolaos called to taunt Anita into coming, Edward picks up the phone (was in the house) and offers Anita some help, which she declines. Willie is captured by Nikolaos at this point as well
 * Anita heads to Circus of the Damned alone, since she has no proof to get the police involved, when she gets there, Winter frisks her and takes her weapons (bar her ankle sheath) and she finds Phillip is being tormented by Nikolaos and her kiss
 * Anita asks to speak with Phillip in private before meeting with her, to which Nikolaos agrees. Phillip tells Anita that they took him from Guilty Pleasures, Robert tried to save him, but failed. Anita promises to save Phillip, and leaves him to meet with Nikolaos
 * Anita meets with Nikolaos, where Nikolaos says that Jean Claude should be getting weaker in his coffin, but he hasn't, so she knows for a fact that Anita is his human servant, she also tells her that she is punishing Phillip for protecting her the other night. She also explains about what the marks do, so as to torment Anita, and that Willie is now in a coffin as well for punishment. She is also having to work on hiding her scars etc from Anita
 * Nikolaos decides to show the vampire community that she is stronger than Jean Claude by attacking things that are his, by killing someone shom he has put protection one (Phillip) and his human servant (Anita). So she has Aubrey kill Phillip. Anita goes to stop them when Winter steps in the way, Anita stabs him in the groin with her ankle blade (which kills him)
 * Nikolaos attacks Anita with wind, but Anita gets to the room with Phillip in it and see's that he is dead. She attacks Aubrey with her knife (doesn't kill him). Nikolaos gets to the room, Anita tries to outrun her, but Nikolaos catches her and bites her after causing immense fear in her
 * Anita wakes up in Jean Claude's room in Guilty Pleasures with her weapons returned, Robert tells her that Nikolaos dropped her off there. Anita has a tantrum in the bathroom over what happened, even blaming Robert. Anita decides that Nikolaos has to be killed
 * As she leaves the club, Edward finds her and tells her to tell him where Nikolaos is. Anita agrees, but on the condition that she can help kill her as well
 * They go back to Anita's apartment and clean Anita's bite mark, so Nikolaos can't control her. Afterwards Edward looks after her whilst she sleeps for a while
 * Nikolaos invades Anita's dream by making her think that Jean Claude is trying to add another mark. Anita wakes up 4 hours before dusk
 * Anita calls Catherine to make sure she's safe, but is told that she's out of town on work for a week, she then calls Irving Griswold and asks for him to set up a meeting with some wererats, he says he'll see what he can do
 * Bert calls Anita and tells her that Thomas Jensen is ready to put his daughter back into her grave now, and he'll only let Anita do it, Anita says she has to do it, so her and Edward head out to the cemetary
 * In the cemetary they are waiting since Mr Jensen is late, when Anita notices a Ghoul on her car. Zachary appears and reveals that he cntrols the ghouls, and Anita now realises that he is the vampire killer and needs the blood for his gris-gris. It's also revealed that Mr Jensen was just a lure, and that he was the one who told the two-biter who tried to kill Anita earlier to attack her, supposedly on Nikolaos' orders. Edward shoots Zachary, but he reveals that he's immune to bullets. Zachary has her ghouls attack Anita and Edward as he leaves
 * Anita distracts the ghouls by shooting a chicken (was to be used for the reburial) the ghouls attack it and eat the chickens as food. Anita and Edward get to the maintenance shed and try to barricade the door. Edward offers to shoot both of them to avoid being eaten alive, Anita declines and remembers that she has matches (from the club). She splashes gasoline on the door and lights it up with a match. The shed fills with fire, and Anita makes a make-shift torch out of Edward's shirt on a garden fork. They escape the shed, which the Ghouls have ran from, due to their fear of fire, and the shed explodes (due to the stuff in the shed)
 * They reach the car, after grabbing Anita's animation gear, kill one ghoul who had lingered using the flaming torch. The drive away in the car, and decide that Anita's apartment is probably not safe anymore (they decide to stay at Edward's hotel room that night.
 * Anita's beeper goes off and she goes to check on the number from a payphone, she gets a message that Irving has set up the meeting with the Wererats that night in order to ask them for help. She then calls Dolph and tells him everything about who the killer is and all the problems she's had, and that she'll give an official statement the next day
 * Anita and Edward meet with Rafael and Louie at a Denny's, they agree to get Anita into the lair from a back way the next day, but they can't help her directly due to them being her animal to call
 * Anita and Edward go to Edward's hotel and sleep, the next day Edward teaches Anita how to use a shotgun properly. That night they go caving with the wererats. The wererats insisted that they not use torches etc until after the rats had shifted into their beastial forms (to hide their identities). 2 hours later they arrive in the dungeons of the lair. The rats say they'll stay until wither Anita or Nikolaos is dead, but they won't help.
 * They sneak into the coffin room, where Edward shows Anita that Silver Nitrate filled syringes can kill vampires quickly, and without much noise. Edward kills Valentine, Anita kills the Black Vampire. Edward tries to kill Aubrey, but he wakes up and tries strangling Edward. Anita shoots his head and heart out with the shotgun, killing him. They open Nikolaos' coffin and find it empty. Nikolaos appears behind them with Burchard and Zachary. Anita and Edward are disarmed, and Nikolaos is obviously angry about her kiss being destroyed
 * Nikolaos reveals that she had Zachary revive Phillip, so she can watch him attack Aubrey (since Aubrey killed him) and she wanted to see Phillip get killed again and again. She then tries to control Anita through her bite, but discovered that Anita had cleansed it already, she then says that next time she'll keep Anita with her next time, so she can make her Theresa's replacement in her new kiss.
 * Anita is given her knives back, so she can fight Burchard (to entertain Nikolaos, and as a lesson in true swordsmanry, after she killed Winter with the blade earlier). She has to fight, or Nikolaos will kill Edward. Both she and Burchard hurt eachother during the fight, but Anita distracts him when she says she knows who the killer is. Nikolaos demands she tell her who it is, and Zachary goes mad, and tries to shoot Anita. Nikolaos attacks Zacahary by tearing out his throat.
 * Burchard is distracted by this, so Anita stabs him repeatedly, Killing him. Nikolaos is livid at his death, and attacks Anita with a full fury. Edward shoots her in the back, to which she attacks him, by biting him. Anita rushes her with a sword and chops her up repeatedly, killing her.
 * Rafael comes in, shocked that she's finally dead. Doctor Lillian heals Edward up, and Anita goes to Zachary, spilling some of her blood on his gris-gris, which negates its powers, killing him. Anita takes the gris-gris with her to destroy it later. Lillian fixes up Anita's wounds. She then goes and finds Jean Claude and Willie. When she finds him, Jean Claude reveals that due to Nikolaos' death, he is the new Master of the City, Anita tells him to leave her alone
 * Anita goes to Phillip, who is traumatized, she explains that he is dead, to which he is scared of, and asks her to put him back
 * Phillip's body was moved to a local cemetary, which Anita visits whenever she can

Interesting Notes

 * The book is named after the Strip Club introduced here
 * Anita says that she does't work for Vampires, this is contradicted in pretty much every book afterwards