Chapters 1-5 Summary

In chapter one, Anita Blake, necromancer and vampire executioner meets with Captain Pete McKinnon about a pyrokinetic, or someone who can start fires with psychic powers. McKinnon is worried that there is one loose in St. Louis, and wants Anita to help. Anita agrees to go over the file and contact McKinnon that evening. After McKinnon leaves, Anita receives a phone call from Larry Kirkland, a vampire executioner in training. Larry needs a ride home from the hospital where he had gotten stitched up. Anita grabs her guns and heads to the hospital.

In chapter two, Anita picks up Larry who had been attacked by a woman at the hospital. Larry had been staking two vampire victims that did not want to rise from the dead, as stated in their dying wills. A member of Humans First, a group of people...