Crimson Death

Crimson Death
Author	Laurell K. Hamilton
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
Genre	Horror, Mystery, Erotic
Publisher	Berkley
Publication date	October 11, 2016
Media type	Print
Pages	720 p.
ISBN	9781101987735
Previous	Wounded (eShort)
Next	Serpentine

Crimson Death is the 25th book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Synopsis

In her twenty-fifth adventure, vampire hunter and necromancer Anita Blake learns that evil is in the eye of the beholder…

Anita has never seen Damian, her vampire servant, in such a state. The rising sun doesn’t usher in the peaceful death that he desperately needs. Instead, he’s being bombarded with violent nightmares and blood sweats.

And now, with Damian at his most vulnerable, Anita needs him the most. The vampire who created him, who subjected him to centuries of torture, might be losing control, allowing rogue vampires to run wild and break one of their kind’s few strict taboos.

Some say love is a great motivator, but hatred gets the job done, too. And when Anita joins forces with her friend Edward to stop the carnage, Damian will be at their side, even if it means traveling back to the land where all his nightmares spring from...a place that couldn’t be less welcoming to a vampire, an assassin, and a necromancer.

Ireland.

Plot

Anita, Nathaniel, and Damian start to fix their triumvirate because Damian believes it's making him sick. Nathaniel ends up taking control of the connection, and accidentally rolls both Anita and Damian when they have sex together. They all gain power, and Damian loses his inability to disobey Anita's commands.

At the same time, Anita is trying to help Edward to help Irish authorities with their newfound vampire problem, and is eventually invited to Ireland to provide assistance in person despite their misgivings about necromancy. She takes along an entourage that includes both Damian and Nathaniel, but not a single wererat. Rat is her first voluntarily gained beast (one that doesn't sit well with the pre-existing ones), and she has a pact with Rafael to make him her animal to call, but hasn't had an opportunity to do so yet.

Anita finds the Irish police's attempts to treat vampires as just a medical emergency frustrating, and they find her unnecessarily bloodthirsty, but she's helpful enough that they don't send her immediately back. After they realize that She-Who-Made-Damian a.k.a. M'Lady is actually behind the attacks instead of having someone invade her territory, she calls all the newly made vampires out into sunlight and attacking people, and Anita's group struggles to contain at least part of the chaos.

Afterwards, when politicians take over and there isn't more for Anita to do, she goes off to a hotel with Domino to feed the ardeur in order to gain some of her strength back. Ethan takes the adjoining room as their bodyguard, but is unable to prevent an attack from members of the Harlequin that have chosen to follow M'Lady instead of Anita and Jean-Claude. Domino gets killed in the struggle, and Rodrigo force-feeds Anita some of the blood because he's sadistic and finds it funny at the time. It causes Anita to metaphysically marry a clan tiger, fulfilling the prophecy, and makes her the true heir of the Mother of All Darkness and the Father of the Dawn. Even drugged, and moments before losing consciousness, Anita manages to bind Rodrigo as her leopard Bride, and through him the other two siblings of their triplet, Rodina and Ru.

M'Lady appears in Anita's dream, but she manages to break free of it, only to find herself manacled within M'Lady's stronghold and unable to use her metaphysical ties to call help. Anita learns that everything from Damian's sickness to the vampire infestation in Dublin has been M'Lady's plot to bring Anita close enough to steal from within her the rest of the power of Marmee Noir, as part of it went to M'Lady as well. Anita manages to resist M'Lady's powers but not the fear her sadism and sheer hatred causes, especially after she has Nathaniel and Damian brought in and promises to ruin their beauty. She cuts off Nathaniel's long braid, and then leaves Anita and Nathaniel hanging to await their fate in order to build up their fear.

They manage to free themselves and take out their guards, and then the triplets help them to escape. Their pursuers reach them at the nearby village, where Damian joins them after escaping on his own and killing M'Lady's animal to call. While Anita is unable to raise the dead thanks to Ireland's wild magic, she is able to use the power of their triumvirate to help her take control of the numerous ghosts of the old gaol where the vampires had been killing people for centuries. M'Lady's human servant is killed in the fight as well, and losing both of her servants is finally enough to kill her. Rodrigo sacrifices himself for Anita, but Rodina and Ru come to St. Louis as Anita's Brides.

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Timeline

Crimson Death takes place in July, two months after Dead Ice (May) and "Wounded" (also May), and seven or eight months after Affliction (November or December). It covers four days, from a Friday morning at 5am to a Monday evening.

Time markers:

• Time of year: July. Crimson Death, chapter 38: "It felt like autumn although I knew it was still July here, just like home." Chapter 38: "I'd have liked to ask someone if it was always like this in July..."
• Day of week: The second day is a Saturday. Crimson Death, chapters 16 and 17.
• Time since previous novels:
  • The year following Affliction (November or December). Crimson Death, chapter 09: "You raised every cemetery and lone body in and around the city of Boulder, Colorado last year..." Chapter 20: "There are videos all over the Internet showing the zombies in Boulder, Colorado, last year." Chapter 20: "When you slew the Lover of Death for well and good last year..." Chapter 24: "I've been carrying hyena lycanthropy for months now..."

Other time-related information:

• Nathaniel Graison is 24 years old. Crimson Death, chapter 33, Anita says to Nathaniel: "You're not even twenty-five yet." Note that Nathaniel's age was given as 23 in Dead Ice, although he should have been 24 by then, as he should be 24 in this novel.
• Dev is 23 or 24 years old. Crimson Death, chapter 33: "Yeah, well, I'm not twenty-five yet, so I get to make stupid choices." Dev was 23 in Affliction, which takes place seven or eight months earlier, so he could still be 23 if his birthday is between July and November.
• Cynric is 19 years old. Crimson Death, chapter 28. Note that there is an inconsistency in chapter 20 when Anita refers to him as being 20 years old. Based on his age in previous novels, he should be 19.
• Peter Parnell is 19 years old. Crimson Death, chapter 19. Note that there have been some inconsistencies with Peter's age in the series.

Characters

Appeared

• Anita
• Damian
• Nathaniel
• Edward
• Domino
• Nicky
• Dev
• Jean-Claude
• Micah
• Ethan
• Richard
• Cardinale
• Angel
• Pride

Guards, non-Harlequin:

• Bobby Lee
• Ricky, one of the new guards
• Roger, one of the new guards
• Harris, one of the new guards
• Barry, one of the new guards

Harlequin members under Jean-Claude:

• Echo, vampire, Fortune is her animal to call, Anita's lover, head of security at Danse Macabre
• Fortune, blue weretiger, Echo is her vampire master, Anita's lover
• Magda, werelion, Giacomo is her vampire master, Anita's lover
• Giacomo, vampire, Magda is his animal to call
• Jake, werewolf
• Scaramouche, a wererat who spars with Nicky, is powerful enough to shift just his claws, wants to be Anita's rat to call
• Pierette, wereleopard, Pierrot is her vampire master
• Pierrot, vampire, Pierette is his animal to call
• Hortensio, his vampire master is Magnifico
• Magnifico, vampire, Hortensio is his animal to call
• Kaazim, werejackal

Nolan's team:

• Captain Brian Nolan, an acquaintance of Edward
• Donahue "Donnie"
• Brennan
• Griffin

Irish law enforcement:

• Inspector Rachel Sheridan
• Superintendent Pearson
• Inspector Luke Logan

Moroven's people including the roane/selkies:

• Moroven aka Nemhain, Damian's creator and the master vampire of Ireland
• Rodrigo, Rodina, and Ru - triplets and Harlequin members. Rodrigo is a wereleopard, he attacks Anita at the hotel.
• Roarke aka Moran, a roane, Moroven's animal to call, he tries to help Anita
• Riley, a roane, the great-great-great-grandson of Roarke, he tries to help Anita
• Hamish, a wereanimal, attacks Anita at the hotel
• Keegan, Moroven's human servant
• Barnabas, one of the guards, he is attacked by Nathaniel
• Tommy, one of the guards, Anita uses her power to drain life energy from him
• Bachman, a vampire, the one who was tearing people apart in Dublin

Mentioned

• Claudia
• Rafael
• Donna
• Peter
• Becca
• Envy, mentioned as being trained specifically for Belle Morte's line along, as were Dev and Pride
• Nilda, a werebear and member of the Harlequin, she's been in a relationship with Ethan