Originally published by Ace in paperback 10/96.

Summary

In Laurell K. Hamilton's New York Times bestselling novels, Anita Blake, vampire hunter and animator, takes a bite out of crime—of the supernatural kind. But even someone who deals with death on a daily basis can be unnerved by its power...

Hired to raise two-hundred-year-old corpses to settle a land dispute, Anita heads to a boneyard outside of Branson, Missouri. But there are more recently dead bodies clamoring for her attention. Three teenagers are found in the woods, slaughtered in a way she has never seen before. Then a girl is found, drained of blood and left in her bed. It doesn't take an expert to realize that all is not well in and around Branson. But luckily for the locals, Anita is an expert—in just the kinds of preternatural goings-on that have everyone spooked.

And she's got an "in" with just the kind of creature who can make sense of the slayings: a sexy master vampire known as Jean Claude...