Assassins are coming to St. Louis to kill master vampire Jean-Claude, necromancer Anita Blake, and werewolf Richard Zeeman. Anita knows they're coming, but even being forewarned doesn't mean the triumvirate will win.

A favor for Jason, vampire hunter Anita Blake's werewolf lover, puts her in the center of a fullblown scandal that threatens master-vampire Jean-Claude's reign and makes her a pawn in an ancient vampire queen's new rise to power.

Anita Blake is back! When Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, is asked to reanimate the body of a long-dead corpse it seems like just another case. But the corpse may hold the secret to an ancient crime that not everyone wants to be remembered . Now an unknown and terrifying menace moves to stop her investigation. Anita must employ all her deadly skill if she is to find the answers she needs and strike her enemies down.

These days, Anita Blake is less interested in vampire politics than in an ancient, ordinary dread she shares with women down the ages: she may be pregnant. And, if she is, whether the father is a vampire, a werewolf, or someone else entirely, she knows perfectly well that being a Federal Marshal, known for raising the dead and being a vampire executioner, is no way to bring up a baby.

A gory medley of vampires, werewolves and other assorted shapeshifters feature prominently in Anita Blake's life ... and that's just her friends. When the police draft in Anita Blake to help solve a particularly grisly preternatural case, she will need to call on all her famous toughness. However, with clients clamouring for her to raise more dead and the partly human clamouring for her affections it seems unlikely that she will get much time to dwell...

"The wedding of the century between vampire hunter Anita Blake and the vampire king of America Jean-Claude is almost here, but an ancient evil arrives in St. Louis and even Jean-Claude's unmatched power isn't enough to save them. Only with the return of a lost love can they hope to combat the monster and save their loved ones and every vampire in the country from being consumed by darkness"--

"Evil continues to rain down on a vampire hunter and those she most cherishes in this new, gripping novel in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series by New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton. Anita Blake is finally ready to marry Jean-Claude, the vampire king of America. But first, they must tackle a new, daunting challenge: her family. And with the ancient evil that cast a shadow on St. Louis still lurking and threatening to destroy...

Anita Blake is about to face the challenge of her life. Into her world-a world already overflowing with power-have come creatures so feared that powerful, centuries-old vampires refuse to mention their names. It is forbidden to speak of The Harlequin unless you've been contacted. And to be contacted by The Harlequin is to be under sentence of death. Long-time rivals for Anita's affections, Jean-Claude, Master Vampire of the City, and Richard, alpha-werewolf,...