The following is a list of fictional characters in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels. The title character, Anita Blake starts as a human with the power of necromancy. She joins the organization Animators, Inc. as an animator: a person who raises zombies) and a vampire executioner. In later volumes, she acquires some powers that are commonly associated with vampires. She contracts the lycanthropy viruses which makes her associate with were-creatures. She also grows powers as a succubus.

Human organizations

Animators, Inc.

Bert Vaughn Bert is the founder and managing partner of Animators, Inc. Over 6 feet tall and built like a former athlete, Bert is an unscrupulous boss who is inclined to sign the animators up for almost any job if the price is right. He and Anita often clash over Bert's choices of potential clients and jobs for Anita. As of Cerulean Sins Bert's status was downgraded to business manager and most of the animators were upgraded to full partners. In previous books Anita had often thought about taking her business and clients away from Bert's micromanaging and attempts to schedule animators for jobs they deemed unethical or too dangerous.

Appearances: Most of the books.

Charles Montgomery Charles is another animator who works for Animators, Inc. Because he is large and heavily built, Anita has asked him on at least one occasion (e.g. the Laughing Corpse) to serve as an unsubtle threat to ward off unwelcome attention in dangerous places. Charles is, however, nonviolent, and not suited to backing up the threat that his size and protective demeanor would otherwise indicate. Appearances: Laughing Corpse.

Craig Craig is the night secretary at Animators, Inc. Appearances: Guilty Pleasures, The Lunatic Cafe.

Jamison Clarke Jamison is an animator at Animators, Inc. He is a thin African-American with curly red hair and green eyes, who typically clashes with Anita over Anita's side job as vampire executioner. Unlike Anita, Jamison believes that vampires are essentially people, and disapproves of executing them without trial. Appearances: Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse.

John Burke Six feet tall with movie-star good looks and a white streak in his dark hair, John Burke is a powerful animator, vaundun priest, and vampire hunter. He was originally active in New Orleans, Louisiana, but moved to Saint Louis after his brother Peter (who could also raise zombies) was killed in that city. Burke also stated that the New Orleans police and he had had a "misunderstanding" over Burke's involvement in a series of murders. After moving to Saint Louis he and Anita dated briefly, and he accepted a job at Animators, Inc.

Appearances: The Laughing Corpse, Circus of the Damned.

Lawrence Kirkland Five foot four and red-haired, Larry Kirkland reminds Anita of Howdy Doody. Larry first joined Animators, Inc. as a twenty-year-old co-op student and wants Anita to teach him to be a vampire hunter. Anita feels very protective towards Larry and doesn't want to see him killed. Larry is very powerful, probably a necromancer in his own right. Later married to Tammy Reynolds of RPIT. They have one child a girl, called Angel. Currently, he is a fully licensed vampire executioner, and the first to hold dual agency with the federal marshal service and the FBI.

Appearances: Circus of the Damned, Bloody Bones, Burnt Offerings, Micah, Incubus Dreams., Kiss the Dead, Dead Ice

Manny Rodriguez

An older, Mexican animator/vampire executioner, Manuel "Manny" Rodriguez is an animator at Animators, Inc., and was Anita's mentor, but is largely retired. Manny was present when he and Anita confronted Valentine's nest, before the events of Guilty Pleasures. Before his marriage and conversion to Christianity Manny was a vaundun priest who was involved with Dominga Salvador. At the request of his wife, Anita does not go hunting with Manny anymore, because he has a family to provide for.

Appearances: The Laughing Corpse (first mentioned in Guilty Pleasures).

Mary Mary is the day secretary at Animators, Inc. First appearance: Guilty Pleasures

RPIT The Regional Preternatural Investigative Team (RPIT, pronounced rip-it), also known as the "spook squad"

Clive Perry An extremely polite member of RPIT. African American. Anita has no idea what he did to get put on the squad (generally it's a punishment).

Dolph

In "Guilty Pleasures" Rudolph "Dolph" Storr is a Sergeant and is head of the RPIT. Six feet eight inches tall and built like a wrestler. He is normally extremely "by the book" and clean cut, with close cropped black hair and a neatly knotted tie and jacket, even at 4 a.m. crime scenes. At that point, Dolph was such an excellent police officer that Anita wondered what he had done to be assigned to RPIT, a low-status position within the police force.

Prior to the series and throughout the earlier books, Dolph was a friend and mentor to Anita. In the later books, Dolph and Anita's relationship has become strained, in part because Anita no longer believes that all vampires and shapeshifters are monsters, but Dolph still does, leading to distrust over Anita's increasingly close relationships with the various vampire and lycanthrope communities in St. Louis. Their relationship has also been strained by Dolph's personal situation; his son Darrin is married to a vampire (and possibly becoming one), and Dolph and his wife Lucille are grieving over the prospect of a life without grandchildren. (Dolph's younger son, Paul, cannot have children).

In the later books of the series, Dolph's personal problems and conflict with Anita appear to come to a head. This occurs because Dolph's son is dating a vampire and Dolph is afraid he will decide to join the Church of Eternal Life to stay with her. Dolph manhandles Anita at a crime scene, attempts to have Jason Schuyler locked up in a secured facility simply for being a werewolf, and is temporarily relieved of duty. Although Dolph is now back on duty, he and Anita are approaching their relationship carefully.

Appearances: Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse, Circus of the Damned, The Lunatic Cafe, Bloody Bones, The Killing Dance, Burnt Offerings, Blue Moon, Narcissus in Chains, Cerulean Sins, Incubus Dreams, The Harlequin, Kiss the Dead.

Tammy Reynolds A Christian witch, married to Larry Kirkland and has a daughter named Angel with him. She is the first detective witch and she chose to work with RPIT. Being a witch, she knows more about detailed spells or rituals than Anita does. Anita knows the basic ideas behind stuff, she says she took a few general classes in college. Tammy is five foot ten inches in height, somewhere around Anita's age, but she still has an innocence like Larry does which is slowly being worn away with police work. She and Anita don't always see eye to eye.

First appearance: The Killing Dance, Burnt Offerings, Cerulean Sins, Kiss the Dead

Zerbrowski Another friend and member of the spook squad, Sgt. Zerbrowski is the stereotypical rumpled, smart-alec, but highly competent detective and a loyal friend to Anita. He makes wisecracks about Anita's personal life and is a cheerful lech, making several inappropriate comments, but never really meaning any of them. Anita has told him he has very slight psychic abilities; but he is almost a null. His car is what Anita calls "a toxic waste zone" and his appearance is usually mismatched and unruly. Anita, along with almost everyone else, is surprised that he got Katie to marry him. Appearances: Most books.

Vampire groups

St. Louis vampires

Aubrey Centuries old (500–550) but not a Master, Aubrey was a very powerful lieutenant of Nikolaos. Aubrey was partially insane as a result of punishments received from Nikolaos. At her orders, he blackmailed Anita by enthralling ("deep rolling") and threatening to kill Anita's friend Catherine. Ultimately, Anita killed Aubrey with a silver-loaded shotgun.

Appearance: Guilty Pleasures.

Asher

Asher is a Master Vampire of Belle Morte's line, and the lover of Jean-Claude and Anita Blake. Asher was formerly part of a menage-a-trois with Jean-Claude and Asher's human servant Julianna, until the Church burned Julianna at the stake as a witch and tried to "burn the devil" out of Asher with holy water in a form of Chinese water torture. The holy water left Asher badly scarred, and for many years he blamed Jean-Claude for rescuing him too late, and for failing to save Julianna.

Anita was able to see beyond the terrible scarring and came to love him, overcoming Asher's hatred for Jean-Claude (though Asher still carries heavy emotional baggage). Asher is now Jean-Claude's second-in-command. His main vampiric power is fascination: people who are caught by his gaze are fascinated by him and can't look away; Belle Morte said people he rolls completely become "love-besotted fools" and follow him around; his bite is orgasmic, and his victim can have flashbacks of the orgasm hours or days later. Asher acquired Hyena as animal to call in Danse Macabre.

Bartolome Formerly heir to a huge fortune, Bartolome is of Belle Morte's bloodline and a child vampire around the age of 12 or 13. At the end of Cerulean Sins, he chose to stay to help undo the damage he and Valentina inflicted on Gregory and Stephen thanks to Musette. For the most part, he is rather well-adjusted given the propensity of prepubescent vampires to go insane over time. He speaks fluent Spanish and English. He came along with Musette to St. Louis purely out of boredom.

Appearances: Cerulean Sins

Byron Byron is an English vampire who was turned at 15 but, due to bulking up (exercising) his musculature, can pass for 18. Anita used Byron to feed the ardeur once (since he prefers males to females) although he regards himself to be bisexual. Byron was saved by Jean-Claude upon his master being killed by the Harlequin instead of being left to Belle Morte. Byron uses endearments such as Duckie and Lover towards Anita.

Appearances: Incubus Dreams, Danse Macabre, The Harlequin

Buzz "Buzz the vampire" is a heavily muscled vampire bouncer at the club Guilty Pleasures. Approximately 20 years dead, Buzz doesn't display the inhuman mannerisms of older vampires. Buzz typically guards the entrance while wearing a T-shirt (regardless of weather conditions) and enjoys flashing his fangs, as well as, flirting with the girls he meets. Buzz engages in bodybuilding in order to enhance the development of his superhuman strength.

Appearances: Guilty Pleasures, The Lunatic Cafe, Incubus Dreams.

Damian Damian is a green eyed, red haired Viking vampire. Through a series of accidents and emergencies, he became Anita's vampire servant (similar to the role of a vampire's human servant) and eventual lover, and as Anita's vampire servant, Damian became a member of Anita's second triumvirate with Nathaniel.