The Laughing Corpse ~ Laurall Hamilton

This is the second book in the Anita Blake series. In this book, Anita is avoiding Jean-Claude, the Master Vampire of the City (St. Louis) who really wants to see Anita. Anita has been marked with two of the marks of a human servant, servant to a master vampire that is, and she is not happy about it, and is not submitting to it. And now there are murders being committed, by something preternatural, and Anita has to figure out what it is, and how to kill it, without getting herself killed in the process.