The Vampire Murders

Sometimes...she needs blood. In the middle of New Orleans, people are turning up dead, their blood removed, and two holes in the neck. The vampires are back! Well one is, a so-called vamp who fancies herself an artist, drains each victim’s blood and paints with it. But why?

A Christmas Eve ferry crossing the Mississippi dishes up a drug bust that turns into a bloodbath. After his partner is gunned down, Detective Dex LaSalle transfers from narcotics to homicide, then teams up with Detective Al St. Germaine to solve a series of murders dubbed “The Vampire Murders" by the media because the killer leaves two puncture holes in each victim’s neck after draining their blood. While investigating this Mardi Gras murder spree, Dex and Al discover that the failed Christmas drug bust is connected to the serial murders and to one of their own, Detective Claude Devine.

The vampire murderer, Judy, kills Claude Devine in the ultimate act of revenge, revealing to him that he is her biological father moments before she commits patricide. That’s not all she has to dish up that fateful night: her other revelation is that she drove the getaway boat on the night of the Christmas drug bust. Judy later kidnaps Detective Dex LaSalle's love interest, Delia, then holds her captive in Harry’s uptown mansion, and Harry harbors the vampire murderer and her hostage after the serial killer makes a few missteps and blows her cover. While in Harry’s nest, Judy becomes pregnant and, instead of killing Delia, Judy keeps her on as a confidante.

Once the vampire murderer gives birth, Harry dumps her hemorrhaging body outside the Royal Street Police Station in the French Quarter. Judy nearly dies, but recovers and escapes. After Dex rescues Delia, Harry breaks into her home to murder her so she can’t identify him. Delia shoots Harry in the leg, and he hobbles off. Harry returns to his lair and Judy, whom he thought was dead, lays in wait to kill him. She then sets the mansion ablaze, uses Harry’s pickup truck to dump his body outside the French Quarter Police Station, and skips town.

Judy gets a new identity thanks to plastic surgery, returns to New Orleans and the murders begin again. She now divides her time not only between murder and art, but shows up at Harry’s mother’s doorstep to take an interest in her daughter, Lily. One day Judy surprises Lily with a toy tea set. Lily spies Judy pouring her poison concoction in the grandmother’s afternoon tea and innocently mimics her mother, mixing Judy’s poison concoction with soda to make “tea.” Judy swallows her daughter’s concoction and dies, but detectives Al and Dex arrive in time to save the young daughter.