Smolder

Anita Blake has spent years hunting down the dead for a living, and as a Preternatural U.S. Marshal she is used to putting monsters in the ground. Now she faces an enemy that threatens to wipe out everything she cares about. Her engagement to Jean-Claude, the newly crowned vampire king of America, has left her caught between two worlds. Many humans believe she has switched sides, while many vampires worry that their ruler has come under the sway of the most powerful necromancer in a thousand years. The wedding plans are in full swing, right down to the suit fitting for Edward, who works as U.S. Marshal Ted Forrester and is to serve as best man, when the police call her to a savage murder scene. The killing is tied to a string of attacks across the country that have claimed both vampire and human victims. The press has named them the Sunshine Murders, and Anita is asked to help make sense of them. Catching a killer turns out to be only part of the problem. An ancient evil has come to St. Louis with the aim of taking Jean-Claude's crown, his life, Anita, and everything the two of them hold dear. Jean-Claude's new royal power and Anita's gift for raising the dead are not enough to stop it alone. To survive, the two of them must fully embrace the bond of their triumvirate. If they fail, a primeval darkness will spread across the country, taking hold of the vampires first and then the humans. Smolder is an installment in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, and it pits the pair against a force that only the strength of their bond may be able to defeat.