Line #125 Literature/TheLastVampire


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thelastvampire.png]]
2
3	A series of nine books by Creator/ChristopherPike. There were originally six books which were first released in the early 1990's. Then with the resurgence of the 'vampire' in the teen fiction market, they were re-released in 2009/2010. A seventh book was released in late 2010. An eighth and ninth have also been released in 2011 and 2013 respectively.
4
5	The protagonist is the vampire Sita, who was the lieutenant of the first vampire, Yaksha, as well as the target of his affections. Thousands of years ago, Yaksha created a whole army of vampires and intended to take over the world, only to be stopped by the MessianicArchetype (Krishna), who made him vow to destroy all of the vampires as penance. The first novel begins with Yaksha's quest nearly completed, in modern times, with only he and Sita still alive. The novels show Sita's relationships with humans and battles with enemies that are more powerful than her. Though it all, she just wants to have a family, having lost her original family when she became a vampire 5,000 years ago. Each volume offers a mix of present day action, and flashbacks to previous eras in Sita's life (sometimes hundreds of years in the past.)
6
7	# ''The Last Vampire''
8	# ''Black Blood''
9	# ''Red Dice''
10	# ''Phantom''
11	# ''Evil Thirst''
12	# ''Creatures of Forever''
13	# ''The Eternal Dawn''
14	# ''The Shadow of Death''
15	# ''The Sacred Veil''
16	----
17	!!This book series provides examples of:
18
19	* AbductionIsLove: Yaksha kidnaps Sita and forces her to become a vampire. Later on, while she doesn't kidnap either Ray or Joel outright, her EmergencyTransformation of them makes returning to their normal lives impossible.
20	* AffablyEvil: Yaksha at least in the present despite being the BigBad is reserved and fairly polite to those he speaks to all of which is genuine.
21	* TheAgeless: Any and all of the vampires, whose bodies are frozen in time.
22	* AncientAstronauts: According to Umara, the Telar learned many secrets, including anti-aging teas that actually worked and irrigation systems, from spirits they communicated with via the array.
23	%%* AssholeVictim: Sita prefers these, since she can kill them without remorse.
24	* TheAllSeeingAI:
25	** The CII has information that the players are often denied until they reach certain levels.
26	** Most of the nonhuman characters fit this trope.
27	* BackFromTheDead: Sita keeps doing this.
28	** Averted in the second book, where she explains it is through Krishna's grace she survived a stake through the heart.
29	** Averted again in the fourth book, where she says she never really died at all, and John's blood had healed her instead of Seymour.
30	** [[spoiler: Played straight finally in the fifth book, where a combination of [[PhysicalGod John]], [[DealWithTheDevil Lucifer]] and [[MoreThanMeetsTheEye Umara]] helps her return to life first in someone else's body and then eventually back to her own.]]
31	* BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: The IIC and Telar are powerful enough to beat each other. [[spoiler: And they do. The IIC's cradle/array are used to kill the higher Telar, excluding Umara, and the Telar's X6X6 virus is kept and used to kill the array]]
32	* BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil: ''The Last Vampire'' series explains that God created evil, because without it people were complacent and couldn't become truly good.
33	* BeingWatched: Sita in the IIC building, the first two visits.
34	* BettyAndVeronica: In "The Last Vampire", Ray is forced to choose between 'mousy', kind Pat (the Betty) and dangerous, beautiful Sita (the Veronica).
35	%%* BigBad:
36	%%** ''The Last Vampire'': [[MonsterProgenitor Yaksha]].
37	%%** ''Black Blood'': [[AxCrazy Eddie Fender]].
38	%%** ''Red Dice'': [[MadScientist Arturo Evola]].
39	%%** ''Phantom'': [[AntagonisticOffspring Kalika]].
40	%%** ''Evil Thirst'': Kalika [[spoiler: initially seems to be this only for the reveal of the true main villain whoose [[AliensAreBastards Ortyo/"James Seter"]]]].
41	%%** ''Creatures Of Forever'': [[EvilSorcerer Landulf of Capa]].
42	* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: Matt]] rescues Sita when it looks like she's about to be killed by [[DeathTrap the Pulse]], killing anyone who stands in his way.
43	* BornFromADeadWoman: Yaksha was born after his pregnant mother had died and her corpse was possessed by a demon (and then slain again). He ended up becoming the progenitor of the vampire race because of the demonic influence on him as an unborn fetus.
44	* BoyMeetsGhoul: Played more or less straight with Ray and Sita. Platonic version with Seymour and Sita.
45	* BurialAtSea: This happens in "Black Blood" with [[spoiler: Yaksha]] and in "Creatures of Forever" with [[spoiler: Sita]].
46	* CartwrightCurse: Anyone Sita is paired with romantically will die within two books of the pairing's start.
47	%%* ChekhovsGun: The ice cream truck in "Black Blood".
48	%%* ChainedToABed: Numbria
49	%%* ChekhovsSkill: Teri's ability to run, and fast.
50	%%* ChildByRape: Haru.
51	* CompellingVoice: [[spoiler: The Cradle]] compels its victims to kill themselves or others [[CruelAndUnusualDeath in gruesome ways.]]
52	* CovertGroupWithMundaneFront: The IIC are supposed to be an investment company. Slightly averted in that they are, but that's only half the story.
53	* CradlingYourKill:
54	** Sita has a tendency towards this, though whether it's kind or creepy depends on who she's killing and her mood.
55	** Also shown (very creepily) when Yaksha turns Sita into a vampire - as the transformation kills her, he holds her in his arms, stroking her hair, kissing her, and whispering things to her.
56	* CorruptTheCutie: This happens to most vampires, in part as a natural consequence of their new instincts. Yaksha, in his early days, takes particular joy in doing this to Sita after he makes her a vampire.
57	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Many.
58	** [[spoiler: Lisa]] takes a pen and stabs her own veins, then has to jump off the roof naked. This is relatively light compared to the others killed by the Cradle.
59	** Two Telar die because the wife fed 40 tubs of chlorine into her husband's hot tub, then falls in because she thinks she is being pushed in by a giant insect, they both boil together in the chlorine as their skin falls off, and to top it all off one of them bumps the button so the cover of the pool covers them and they have absolutely no chance of getting out.
60	** [[spoiler: Numbria]] is skinned and then eaten alive by [[spoiler: Cradle!Sita]] after being tied to a bed with a special alloy she cannot escape and having many broken bones. The worst part is, because [[spoiler: Sita]] can't talk about what she's done, most of the details are [[GoryDiscretionShot left to the reader's imagination.]] Even worse when you think about the fact that the victim is Telar and can last an extremely long time without dying.
61	* CyanidePill: The first Telar Sita comes across has a device implanted in his molars, that causes him to turn to red dust upon activating.
62	* DarkActionGirl: Although she is the series protagonist, Sita fulfills this trope. So does [[spoiler: her daughter, Kalika]].
63	* DaywalkingVampire: Sita and Yaksha, and probably any vampire that's been alive for thousands of years. Averted with newborns.
64	* DatingCatwoman: Joel struggles with this idea after he meets Sita and becomes increasingly aware that she is definitely not normal.
65	* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler: The basic premise of The Shadow of Death. Very nasty consequences for those involved]]
66	* DeepCoverAgent: Two of the Telar are deeply ensconced in the UN, involved in helping the poor and educating children in poor countries. It is implied that this is a cover, although interestingly enough Sita never bothers to find out.
67	* DeusExMachina: When Sita is about to be killed by the Pulse, [[spoiler: Matt]] is suddenly a fully-equipped, Telar-killing hybrid.
68	* DepopulationBomb: One of Sita's main problems with the [[spoiler: Telar]] race of Egypt. If they hadn't threatened to do this, who knows if she might have simply left them alone.
69	* DetectEvil: Sita can usually do this, especially in the later books. Of course, she is so confident in her abilities that it leads to disastrous consequences if she is wrong.
70	* DevilInPlainSight: Played straight with Yaksha, but subverted with [[spoiler: Kalika]] in that everyone only ''thinks'' she's evil - she actually has benevolent reasons for all her actions.
71	* {{Dhampyr}}: [[spoiler: Kalika]] is discovered to be one of these, though for all practical purposes she is a full-fledged vampire. Later on [[spoiler: Matt]] is revealed as another, though his mother isn't a normal human.
72	* DisappearedDad: There are several instances of this in the series - Sita, Ray, and [[spoiler: Matt and Kalika]] all lose their fathers after dad's death by violence.
73	%%* DrivenToSuicide: Oh, Yaksha. Also arguably [[spoiler: Sita (book 6, book 7) and Kalika (book 5)]].
74	* DeathOfAChild: In The Shadow of Death [[spoiler: Sita kills thousands of them]].
75	%%* DeathTrap: The Pulse
76	* EmergencyTransformation: Several times, vampires - mostly Sita - must choose whether or not to let a loved one die or turn him/her into a vampire. Played straight in that, unless the transformee was willing, it usually doesn't end well.
77	* EnfantTerrible: There are quite a few examples - Yaksha and [[spoiler: Kalika]] are the straight-up vampire kind, while [[spoiler: the children in the Array]] are more alarming for being [[spoiler:human]].
78	* EnterStageWindow: Sita frequently does this with Seymour, both for kicks and because she usually visits him at ungodly hours of the night.
79	* ExpansionPackPast: Sita. Did Sita every tell you about that time she was in Ancient Egypt? Or Nazi Germany?
80	* ExpressDelivery: This occurs in [[spoiler: the 4th book of the series when Sita experiences a shorter than average pregnancy.]]
81	%%* FaceDeathWithDignity: Several people, including mooks, but most notably [[spoiler:Umara]].
82	* FakingTheDead:
83	** Sita thinks Yaksha is dead at the start of the series, having heard back in the Middle Ages that he was accused of being a witch, hunted down, and burned alive in a castle. Obviously, she was mistaken.
84	** Also happens in "The Eternal Dawn", where we learn that [[spoiler: Yaksha actually had a child with a Telar woman, and that all three faked their deaths to escape the Telar, who disapproved of the union and the resulting child]].
85	* FemmeFatalons: Sita often uses her nails to open veins in her victims.
86	* FetusTerrible: Kalika initially seems to be this, gestating and aging at an abnormally fast rate. She is not adverse to killing to get her own way. She terrifies even her own mother.
87	* FinalSolution: Krishna orders Yaksha to destroy all vampires if he wishes to die with Krishna's grace. Since the love of Yaksha's life is the vampire Sita, this creates some angst.
88	* FirstLawOfResurrection: When Pike decided to continue the series, this had to be invoked.
89	* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire: [[spoiler: Ray]] definitely fulfills this trope. So does Yaksha, particularly since he doesn't seem to need to drink blood later in life, and becomes remorseful about the cruelties he committed in his youth. Sita embodies it to a lesser extent, in that she's capable of great kindness and compassion... though she never loses her love of violence and particularly murder.
90	* FullyEmbracedFiend: Most of the vampires reach this stage, at least to some extent. The most obvious examples are the young Yaksha and Eddie, the antagonist in "Black Blood".
91	* GlamourFailure:
92	** Sometimes Sita lets her age show in her voice/eyes, and humans are taken aback.
93	** Telar and vampires have powerful heartbeats which unless carefully controlled can be detected by other vampires.
94	** When Sita detects the witch is lying to her on the way to the Scales, she is in fact revealed to be much less beautiful than she first appeared to be.
95	* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Teri
96	* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: [[spoiler: Yaksha]] in "Black Blood". This leads to a brief BrokenAngel scene and prompts Sita to perform a MercyKill, at his request.
97	* HerHeartWillGoOn: Happens with [[spoiler: Sita and Ray]] in "Black Blood", and [[spoiler: Sita and both Joel and Arturo]] in "Red Dice".
98	* HeroicSacrifice: There are quite a few in the series: [[spoiler: Ray and Yaksha in "Black Blood", Kalika in "Evil Thirst", Sita in "Creatures of Forever" and "The Eternal Dawn"...]].
99	* HorrorHunger: Newborn vampires, especially what [[spoiler: Teri!Sita]] did to poor Ken.
100	* HydraProblem: Sita with the Telar.
101	* IfICantHaveYou: Yaksha forces Sita to come with him and become a vampire (and his wife/consort) by telling her that if she refuses, he'll kill her, along with her husband and daughter.
102	* IHateYouVampireDad: Most vampires in this series come to actively resent the vampire who made them, since most of them were turned against their will. Played more or less straight with Sita and Yaksha, but subverted in "Creatures of Forever" with [[spoiler: Sita and Seymour]] - he wanted to be turned and adores his maker. Also notably averted with [[spoiler: Ray]], who loved his maker even though he hated being a vampire.
103	* ILoveYouBecauseICantControlYou: Arguably a large part of why Yaksha was attracted to Sita. From day one, she seems less than susceptible to the charm that makes all the other people in their village trust him utterly. She tends to defy him and run counter to his wishes.
104	* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Yaksha and Kalika both age rapidly, then stop when they are physically in their twenties.
105	* JacobMarleyApparel: Sita sees a lot of people wearing the clothes they presumably died in on her way to the Scale.
106	* KissOfTheVampire: Sita mentions that she can make feeding a very pleasurable experience for her victim. Of course, if the vampires want them to, VampireBitesSuck.
107	* LastOfHisKind: Sita is, for much of the series, the titular last vampire.
108	* LeaveNoWitnesses: The main way Sita has remained alive for so long is that anyone who knows her secret and threatens to reveal it dies. Examples include [[EstablishingCharacterMoment Ray's father]] and the secret facility in "Red Dice".
109	* LoveInterests: Many, many of these. Joel and Ray were this to Sita. Sita, in turn, was arguably the LoveInterest (or LustObject) of her creator, Yaksha.
110	* LoveRedeems: Sita, Yaksha, Arturo... this happens a lot.
111	* MayflyDecemberRomance: Happens with pretty much every romance Sita has, since she is a vampire and other vampires are quite rare. Emphasized because the MessianicArchetype made her take a vow to create no more vampires, so she can't turn any of her human lovers. Exacerbated by her CartwrightCurse.
112	* MeaningfulName / PropheticNames: Several instances in the series.
113	** Yaksha is named for a class of nature spirit, which are sometimes benevolent but about as often evil.
114	** Sita and her human husband, Rama, are named for the protagonists of the ''Literature/{{Ramayana}}''. This is even more fitting (or prophetic) given that a major chunk of the Ramayana's plot is about Prince Rama's quest to rescue Princess Sita from the demon who has abducted her.
115	** Kalika is named for the goddess Kali, who [[spoiler: she is implied to be an avatar of]].
116	* MercyKill: Sita does this for several people, including a nameless Roman lover who developed leprosy and [[spoiler: Yaksha]] after he was so badly wounded that even he couldn't heal.
117	* MindRape: [[spoiler: The Cradle can make the victim see apalling images and convince them to kill themselves and the people around them, usually by focusing on any hatred they feel and magnifying it.]]
118	* MonsterProgenitor: Yaksha, the first vampire, is far stronger than even the oldest and most powerful of his 'children'.
119	%%* NerdsAreVirgins: Seymour.
120	* NoEscapeButDown:
121	** Sita when escaping the witch on the way to the Scales, jumps into a chasm she can't really see the bottom of.
122	** When the group jump out of a helicopter that is about to get shot down, into icy water. It is possible there is a more fitting trope for this scene though.
123	* NoSuchAgency: At the beginning of The Eternal Dawn, it is mentioned that the IIC is illegally connected to many other companies, forming an umbrella organisation that doesn't have a name.
124	* NotQuiteSavedEnough: [[spoiler: Ray, Joel, and Teri]] all suffer this fate - even turning them into vampires isn't enough to save them.
125	* OffWithHisHead: How the main villain of [[spoiler: Black Blood]] is finally dealt with. Also [[spoiler: Shanti]]
126	%%* OlderThanTheyLook: Cindy and Thomas Brutran; Freddy.
127	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Yaksha was born from a dead woman who was eight months pregnant, after her corpse was possessed by a demon called a yakshini. (It is suggested that he IS the yakshini, taking human form.) As such, vampires are, like yakshini, sort of snake-like: they are sensitive to electricity and cold, and prefer to feed on the living. Their strength is determined by their age and how closely descended they are from Yaksha. (For example, if ''A'' is a vampire created by Yaksha, and ''B'' is someone turned by someone who was turned by Yaksha, ''A'' will be the stronger vampire.) All vampires are super strong, fast and have healing factors. They have none of the traditional vampire weaknesses except for sunlight (which only weakens them), decapitation, cardiac impalement or fire. They can also be killed if you can drain them of enough blood. They have very sharp senses, and have a small degree of psychic powers. They do have to drink blood to survive.
128	* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: By book 6, Sita really only kills to protect her identity/life. However, if said character is a rapist..
129	* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: All of the older vampires fit this trope. Averted slightly with [[spoiler: Arturo, who looks to be middle-aged but is, in fact, about seven hundred years old -- he made himself a vampire-human hybrid, which slowed his aging]].
130	* ReincarnationRomance: A major plot point of the first book is whether or not [[spoiler: Ray is the reincarnation of Sita's husband, Rama]].
131	%%* TheRenfield: For a very short time, Sandy Treach.
132	* ResurrectiveImmortality: [[spoiler:Sita in ''The Shadow of Death''.]]
133	%%* ReplacementGoldfish: Played more or less straight with Ray and Joel (for Sita), even though they look nothing alike.
134	%%* {{Roofhopping}}: Used in "Black Blood" and "Red Dice".
135	%%* RomanticVampireBoy: [[spoiler: Matt.]]
136	%%* ShowSomeLeg: Mostly Sita, but Kalika is also known to use her looks to distract people.
137	* SoftWater: Subverted in ''5. Evil Thirst''. When someone gets thrown off a 10-story(ish) building into a deep swimming pool, they die. Effectively being pulpified in fact. The thrower, apparently finding this amusing, proceeds to get rid of all her opposition in the same way. [[spoiler: The main character only survives because she's a vampire, though she's still very badly injured. Good thing she can heal.]]
138	* StagesOfMonsterGrief: This is seen prominently in two characters: Ray and Sita. Sita's case is shown in the most detail and is the more extreme of the two. She goes so far as to try and starve herself to death, while Ray merely keeps feeding to a minimum. Averted with [[spoiler: Joel and Seymour]], both of whom adapt to vampirism fairly easily.
139	* StakingTheLovedOne: Arguably what happens to Yaksha after Krishna makes him take a vow to "destroy the evil he created" - i.e., all the vampires he's made, including Sita. Also, Sita herself is forced to do this in to Arturo in "3. Red Dice" and to Kalika in "5. Evil Thirst" (although James beat her to it).
140	* StalkerWithACrush: Yaksha does this to Sita, who in turn does it to Ray. Sita also does a platonic form of this with Matt, Teri, and Seymour.
141	* StarCrossedLovers: Sita and Rama - she encounters his soul more than once, and each time loses him in a year or less.
142	* StrongerWithAge: Vampires get stronger as they age - their senses become sharper and they gain physical strength. Averted in that we see some vampires become very strong, very fast, by drinking the blood of another, stronger vampire. Subverted entirely with [[spoiler: Kalika]], who is the youngest vampire in the series, but also the strongest.
143	* StuffBlowingUp: Including Sita's house in book The Eternal Dawn as well as [[spoiler: Matt's fort]].
144	* SuperWindowJump: Averted. Both Sita and two Telar pretend to jump out of windows by throwing furniture out of them to deceive each other into thinking they've left. It doesn't work.
145	* TheTeamNormal: Seymour Dorsten, unless you count the fact that he has a psychic bond with Sita. Seymour also fulfills the role of TheSmartGuy.
146	* TitleDrop: Sita quotes "the last vampire" quite a lot of times, especially considering that there are very few vampires left on earth.
147	%%* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler: Matt?]]
148	* UndeathAlwaysEnds: Many vampires in the series are killed.
149	* UnrequitedLoveLastsForever: Seemingly played straight with Yaksha and Sita, until we find out (a) [[spoiler: she really did love him, in a way]] and (b) [[spoiler: that he never stopped loving her but still fell in love with another woman, married, and had a kid]].
150	* UsedToBeASweetKid:
151	** Played straight with Sita (who was a perfectly normal housewife before she became a vampire), but subverted with Yaksha and Eddie - it's implied they've ALWAYS been evil.
152	** Subverted with [[spoiler: Shanti]].
153	%%* TheVamp: Sita, literally.
154	%%* VampireFiction
155	* VampiresAreRich: At least, the older ones are. But then, if you'd had thousands of years to rack up money, you would be, too.
156	* VampiresAreSexGods: Most of the vampires are described as being very good-looking, and having eternity to work on your performance in the bedroom means that the older ones in particular make excellent lovers. Many of Sita's lovers who knew (or suspected) that she was inhuman found this fact an incredible turn-on. One of them, an artist who knew that she was a vampire, loved to paint nude portraits of her with blood all over her face.
157	* VegetarianVampire: Sita will drink the blood of people she has to kill because, well, why let it go to waste? But, she has the power to control people and wipe their memories, and will avoid killing them if possible - drinking only some of their blood, then wiping their memory. Partially averted, though, by the fact that she actually LIKES killing people - she just usually doesn't bother because, according to her, the consequences would be a waste of her time.
158	* WarmBloodBagsAreEverywhere: For newborns, and certain old vampires in newborns' bodies, this poses a problem.
159	* WasOnceAMan: Averted with Yaksha, played straight with everyone else.
160	* WeakenedByTheLight: Vampires in this series are weakened in the sunlight. For at least the first few centuries, they find any sun exposure excruciatingly painful.
161	* YouRemindMeOfX: Variation three - Sita tells Ray that he reminds her of her dead husband, Rama.
162	* YoungerThanTheyLook: Both Yaksha and Kalika fulfill this trope, since their born-not-turned vampirism makes them age more quickly until they reach maturity.
163	* YourMindMakesItReal: the primary way the Cradle seems to kill people.
164	* YourVampiresSuck: Sita possesses few of the traditional weaknesses. She sometimes has the "what about crosses, garlic, running water, coffin?" conversation with humans she reveals herself to. She can even stand the sunlight, though she explains she couldn't really do this until she'd aged a few THOUSAND years.

Context Literature / TheLastVampire