Anita Blake is a St. Louis vampire executioner and necromancer in the universe of the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels and comic books created by Laurell K. Hamilton.  Blake raises zombies in her day job at Animators, Inc. under the purview of her employer, Bert Vaughn.  Additionally, she assists the police in investigations with preternatural elements and is a Federal Marshall who executes vampires and other creatures who use magic to commit crimes.

Anita Blake made her debut in the novel Guilty Pleasures, where she animated zombies, investigated the crimes of a serial killer, and helped vampire Jean Claude defeat the current Master of the City, Nikolaus, in order to allow Jean Claude to take her place.  She has had relationships with multiple other characters in the series, the most lengthy of which were with Jean Claude and Richard Zeeman.  Throughout the series, she became Bolverk and Lupa to a werewolf pack led by Zeeman, and Nimir-Ra of a wereleopard clan, as well as Jean Claude’s human servant.http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/

Anita Blake is of German (her father) and Mexican (her mother) descent.  She was raised Catholic, but has converted to Episcopalian after the Catholic Church excommunicated those who work with the dead, including animators and necromancers. Her mother died in a car accident when she was eight, and that loss has left her open to corrupting influences from mother-like vampires during the series.  Her father remarried, and she was raised by him and her stepmother, Judith, with whom she did not get along well. She has one half-brother. At adolescence, on discovering her powers of necromancy, she moved to her maternal grandmother’s home, where she lived until college. She has a bachelor’s degree in preternatural biology.

Following college, Blake went to work for Bert Vaughn at Animator’s Inc., working with him to raise zombies.  He offered her services to the police as a preternatural expert and she began working with them on crimes with magical aspects.  During the course of the series, Blake becomes infected with ardeur from her vampire lover, Jean Claude, which causes her the need to feed on the lust of others several times a day.  During a battle with a chimera lycanthrope, she becomes a carrier of multiple types of lycanthropy, though does not become a lycanthrope herself.http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/

"Love sucks. Sometimes it feels good. Sometimes it's just another way to bleed." — Incubus Dreamshttp://www.amazon.com/Incubus-Dreams-Anita-Vampire-Hunter/dp/0515139750/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295386428&sr=1-1#reader_0515139750

"Maybe they know what I know, that the true way to a man's heart is six inches of metal between his ribs. Sometimes four inches will do the job, but to be really sure, I like to have six." — Narcissus in Chainshttp://www.amazon.com/Narcissus-Chains-Anita-Vampire-Hunter/dp/0515133876/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295402612&sr=1-1#reader_0515133876

"People are supposed to fear the unknown, but ignorance is bliss when knowledge is so damn frightening." — The Laughing Corpsehttp://books.google.ca/books?id=p3QxqJef_XEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+laughing+corpse&hl=en&ei=v0Y2Te-KAYOssAOLxJmCAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

"Sometimes it's not the optimist you need, but another pessimist to walk beside you and know, absolutely know, that the sound in the dark is a monster, and it really is as bad as you think. " — Blood Noirhttp://www.amazon.com/Blood-Anita-Blake-Vampire-Hunter/dp/B003B3NW44/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295402831&sr=1-1#reader_B003B3NW44

"One thing I've learned about vampires--they keep pulling new rabbits out of their cloaks. Big, fanged, carnivorous bunnies that'll eat your eyeballs if you're not paying attention" — Bloody Boneshttp://books.google.ca/books?id=J-bhfFkyBzIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bloody+bones&hl=en&ei=i0Q2TbqLJYm6sQPCr4TiAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

"Everyone has their weaknesses. Some people smoke. I collect stuffed penguins. If you won't tell, I won't." — Guilty Pleasureshttp://www.amazon.com/Guilty-Pleasures-Anita-Vampire-Hunter/dp/0425197549/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295403025&sr=1-1#reader_0425197549

"He was twenty. I remembered twenty. I'd known everything at twenty. It took me another year to realize I knew nothing. I was still hoping to learn something before I hit thirty, but I wasn't holding my breath." — Circus of the Damnedhttp://books.google.ca/books?id=eTUji9WU6XYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=circus+of+the+damned&hl=en&ei=1kg2TZCPNJS4sQPx8aSYAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

"Never trust people who smile constantly. They're either selling something or not very bright." — Burnt Offeringshttp://books.google.ca/books?id=WHHzd6q-yEcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=burnt+offerings&hl=en&ei=LUk2TfmFBImesQP5stHYAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

"Accidental sex. He made it sound like I fell down, and there just happened to be an erection in the way." — Incubus Dreamshttp://www.amazon.com/Incubus-Dreams-Anita-Vampire-Hunter/dp/0515139750/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295386428&sr=1-1#reader_0515139750

"I didn't know what to say to that, so I kept my mouth shut. When in doubt,shut the fuck up." — Skin Tradehttp://www.amazon.com/Trade-Anita-Blake-Vampire-Hunter/dp/0515148059/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295403506&sr=1-1

"I try to be a good cop. I try to be a good little soldier and follow orders up to a point. But in the end I’m not really a cop, or a soldier. I am a legally sanctioned murderer. I am the Executioner." — Skin Tradehttp://www.amazon.com/Trade-Anita-Blake-Vampire-Hunter/dp/0515148059/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295403506&sr=1-1

"I could probably have made the head shot from the railing, but with an unfamiliar gun, it was too risky. I didn't want to accidentally shoot the woman in the head. Killing the hostage is always frowned upon." — The Killing Dancehttp://www.amazon.com/Killing-Dance-Anita-Vampire-Hunter/dp/0515134511/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295403364&sr=1-1#reader_0515134511

"Put any woman in an area run mostly by men and rumors will fly. Unless you make it very clear that you are off limits, there is also a certain competitiveness that sets in. Some men are either trying to run you out of town or get into your pants. They don't seem to know any other way to deal with a woman. If you're not a sexual object, you're a threat." — Obsidian Butterflyhttp://www.amazon.com/Obsidian-Butterfly-Anita-Vampire-Hunter/dp/0441006841