Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter: The First Death – Issue 2A

Sean’s attack on Anita accomplishes nothing but his own death. Anita later joins with her mentor, Manny, and they go to the day-time resting place for Sean’s kiss. The vampires have all fled the house, however, the left behind a body, hanging from the rafters. Anita heads to her day job at Animators, Inc., where things go from bad to worst in the form of Edward, a hunter the vampires call Death. Edward says he may know where the kiss is hiding, but when Anita refuses to play his game, he refuses to to divulge the information. At a cemetery that night, where Anita raises a zombie, Edward shows up again, apologizing–in his own way–for what happened at Anita’s office earlier in the day. Things turn ugly again when Anita refuses to give up her information, and Edward threatens to torture Manny to get the information he wants. Edward gives Anita until the next day, and leaves a number for her where he can be reached if she decides to contact him before he comes looking for her. The next day the police have caught one of the suspects from Sean’s kiss. After Anita dispatches him in a very messy way, Anita calls Edward and gives him the information he wants. In return, Edward lets Anita know where she can possibly find the vampires responsible for more murders. Anita and Manny storm into the house, force the human servants to lead them to the coffins, and subsequently get jumped by more human servants in the basement. The human servants beat Manny without remorse, and Anita is branded with a cross, causing her to pass out. When she awakens, she is greeted by the awakened vampires, one of which is Adam. The vampires decide to have some fun, and they release Anita so they can hunt her. However, Anita decides to be the hunter, and she systematically takes out the vampires. The final vampire, Valentine, gets the jump on Anita and is attempting to kill her when Edward storms in, but his attempt at helping is short-lived when human servants jump him. Valentine throw Anita outside, jumps on her, and proceeds to tear into her neck. Just when Valentine thinks he’s won, Anita splashes him in the face with holy water. Valentine stumbles away as Anita goes back into the house to retrieve Manny. Edward is systematically killing everything that moves, and torching the house. Before the police arrive, Edward takes off, but he meets Anita at the hospital later that night with an offer to join him out of state for a hunt. Anita tells him she already has a hunt planned. The two part, with Anita wondering when they’ll see each other again.