Origin

Anita Blake was raised in Indiana. Her mother was Mexican and her father was of Germanic decent. Her skin has been described as "almost vampire-white" because of her Anglo heritage. Her black hair and nearly black eyes, however, are inherited from her mother and are very striking against her pale skin. Anita's mother died in a car accident when Anita was only 5 years old. She has still not recovered from the trauma of not having her mother around. This is one of the main reasons why Anita is blunt, stubborn, and tough. She is rarely ever caught without a gun. Her favorite is her Browning Hi-power 9mm, which always has silver-coated bullets loaded. At only 5'2", Anita has to be tough to "play with the big boys". This is also another reason why she has such an attitude.

Anita graduated college with a Bachelor's Degree in Preternatural Biology. After graduation she was immediately offered a job by Bert Vaughn at Animators, Inc -- a local St. Louis zombie-raising service. She was trained by Manny Rodriguez, a fellow animator.

Anita still works for Animators, Inc. and is also a legal vampire executioner. She is known in the city, especially by vampires, as "The Executioner". She will not hesitate to shoot someone if threatened. Anita doesn't take threats very well. She is also a sort of honorary member of the Regional Preternatural Investigation Taskforce, also known as "RPIT" (pronounced Rip-It) or "The Spook Squad". RPIT is led by Sergeant Rudolph Storr.

Anita is also constantly pestered by the master vampire, Jean-Claude, a nearly 400 year old vampire who only wants to "woo" her. She is annoyed by the fact that he always calls her "ma petite" which means "small one" in French.

Powers

Anita is a natural-born necromancer. This gives her a natural talent to raise zombies and also gives her some control over other dead creatures. When she started maturing, her powers did too. Anita was horrified one night to find roadkill in her home. Anita's step-mother, Judith, insisted that she went to visit her Grandmother Flores -- her maternal grandmother. Anita's family thought Flores would be able to "turn off" her powers, but it was not so. Her grandmother taught her how to control and use her powers.

-Raise the dead, even centuries old corpses

-Can combine her powers with other animators to raise the dead (something only very few animators can do)

-Sense the presence of the dead

-Estimate the age and power level of vampires

-Partial immunity to vampires' mental influences

She works out regularly with her best friend, Ronnie, a private detective. They run 4 miles twice a week so they can "out-run the bad guys". She also holds a black belt in Judo. She is familiar with handguns and knives and isn't afraid to use them.