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Flirt is the eighteenth book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Synopsis[]

When Anita Blake meets with prospective client Tony Bennington, who is desperate to have her reanimate his recently deceased wife, she is full of sympathy for his loss. Anita knows something about love, and she knows everything there is to know about loss. But what she also knows, though Tony Bennington seems unwilling to be convinced, is that the thing she can do as a necromancer isn't the miracle he thinks he needs. The creature that Anita could coerce to step out of the late Mrs. Bennington's grave would not be the lovely Mrs. Bennington. Not really. And not for long.

Plot[]

Flirt begins with Anita meeting Tony Bennington, a potential client that wished for Anita to resurrect his dead wife, Ilsa, who died in an explosion. Adamant that Anita in the only animator in the U.S. that can bring her raise her as a zombie, Bennington tries to convince Anita to take the job, but ultimately she declines. As she is guiding her client out of the office, Jason, Nathaniel and Micah come to pick up Anita for lunch. Bennington introduces himself to the three and talks about his wife and the fact she loved visiting Guilty Pleasures. After Bennington leaves the four take Anita to lunch and Jason and Nathaniel try to cheer her up by flirting with one of the restaurants waiters.

Two weeks later, Anita is in another meeting with a potential client, Natalie Zell, a rich woman that wished for Anita to raise her dead husband so that she can punish him for his infidelity and not having had children with her. Outraged by Natalie Zell's motives, Anita declines to do the job even for two million dollars and kicks the woman out of her office.

At lunch she returns to the restaurant she visited two weeks earlier and again flirts with the waiter, named Ahsan. Just as she is preparing to leave, she feels the power of a shapeshifter. A werelion joins Anita at her table and the two are at a standoff until a second werelion comes. The two, Jacob and Nicky, show her pictures of Micah, Nathaniel and Jason and threaten that unless she raises a zombie for their client, they will kill her lovers. The three leave the restaurant and go to a rented SUV where Nicky pats Anita down and takes her weapons. Because Anita's lioness is her only unmated beast, she reacts strongly to the two alpha werelions.

Anita is taken to a house, and is surprised to discover that Jacob's client is Tony Bennington. Even before his request was declined, Tony hired Jacob's pride to follow Anita and her lovers and force her to do the job. Because she has problems controlling her beast, Jacob sends Bennington away to protect him. The lioness entices Jacob and Nicky intro fighting each other to become Anita's mate. Seeing a chance to kill Bennington and eliminate the source of the money, Anita runs after him while the two werelions fight. She is stopped by Silas, another one of Jacob's pride. Silas is gravely wounded, but Anita is knocked unconscious.

A few hours later Anita wakes up in an old shack in a cemetery. She is guarded by Nicky who is afraid of her, believing that she has rolled his mind. Because she had to heal from the wound Silas inflicted, and is cut off from the powers of Jean-Claude and the rest of her people, Anita calls the ardeur and tries to feed on Nicky. She is stopped by Jacob and Ellen, the pride's witch. Anita tries to use Nicky as a doorway to feed on Jacob and Ellen, but Ellen uses her powers to protect herself and Jacob. After she faints a second time, Jacob agrees that Anita feed on a very willing Nicky. During the feeding, Anita decides to completely roll Nicky, making him her "slave" or bride.

Re-energized, Anita prepares to raise Ilsa. At the grave she sees the wounded Silas, who is enraged that Jacob permitted Anita to roll Nicky. Silas tries to shoot her, but is himself shot by Jacob. Because the hooker Silas was supposed to bring as a human sacrifice died, Anita proposes using Silas as the White Goat. Because Silas was more than human, Anita raises Ilsa and then the entire cemetery, breaking the magic circle that was preventing her from reaching out to Jean-Claude. As the circle crashes, Jacob senses that his men have been caught by Jean-Claude and that he is very close to the cemetery. Jacob asks and receives his money from Bennington and allows Anita to kill him using the zombies she raised. Anita lets Jacob leave with Ellen. Shortly after Jean-Claude's people arrive, along with Jason, Nathaniel and Micah.

After speaking with the three, Anita decides to take Nicky with her and they all leave for the hotel were Jean-Claude and the rest of the vampires have taken shelter.

Timeline[]

Flirt takes place over two weeks in the summer, within a few weeks or a couple months of Skin Trade which took place in August.

Time markers:

  • Flirt, chapter 04: "I was out the doors, slipping my sunglasses on against the bright summer sun."
  • Flirt, chapter 06: "A few night insects called, sluggish in the unusually cool summer temperatures."
  • Flirt, chapter 06: "I breathed in the scent of his skin, and it was all mixed together with the trees and the grass, and the distant scent of water on the summer air. He smelled like outside, like the summer had seeped into the pores of his skin and made him sweet and fragrant with its warmth."
  • Flirt, chapter 07: "My bare arms were warm in the summer night."
  • Flirt, chapter 07: "His hips moved with me, his legs pushing into the ground to give him more movement, and we began to dance together up against the wall in the summer dark."

Other time-related information:

  • Nathaniel is 21. Flirt, chapter 02: "It made him look younger than twenty-one..." Nathaniel was also 21 in Blood Noir, so this takes place in the same summer as Blood Noir and Skin Trade.

Characters[]

Main characters[]

New characters[]

  • Nicky, a werelion of Jacob's pride, he is completely rolled by Anita
  • Jacob Leon, the Rex of his pride, he is hired by Tony Bennington
  • Ellen, a werelion and witch of Jacob's pride
  • Silas, a werelion of Jacob's pride
  • Natalie Zell, wants Anita to raise her husband so she can cut him up with an axe
  • Tony Bennington, wants Anita to raise his wife
  • Ahsan, a waiter
  • Unnamed prostitute, she is kidnapped, drugged, and accidentally killed by Silas

Navigation[]

Anita Blake Series
Novels

01. Guilty Pleasures • 02. The Laughing Corpse • 03. Circus of the Damned • 04. The Lunatic Cafe • 05. Bloody Bones • 06. The Killing Dance • 07. Burnt Offerings • 08. Blue Moon • 09. Obsidian Butterfly • 10. Narcissus in Chains • 11. Cerulean Sins • 12. Incubus Dreams • 13. Micah • 14. Danse Macabre • 15. The Harlequin • 16. Blood Noir • 17. Skin Trade • 18. Flirt • 19. Bullet • 20. Hit List • 21. Kiss the Dead • 22. Affliction • 23. Jason • 24. Dead Ice • 25. Crimson Death • 26. Serpentine • 27. Sucker Punch (novel) • 28. Rafael • 29. Smolder • 30. Slay

Short Stories Magic Like Heat Across My SkinBlood Upon My LipsThe Girl who was Infatuated with DeathThose Who Seek ForgivenessSelling HousesBeautyDancingShutdownA Girl, a Goat, and a ZombieWoundedSweet Seduction
Comics The First DeathGuilty Pleasures & HandbookThe Laughing CorpseCircus of the Damned
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