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A vampire series by L. A. Banks following Damali Richards, the ultimate vampire huntress, and her team as they fight...well, vampires and other supernatural beings, which are in this series demons from Hell that mainly attack people with darkness in their hearts. This job becomes more difficult when Carlos Rivera, Damali's love interest, is turned into a vampire because of his lifestyle as a drug dealer. The twelve-book series uses religious and mythological lore as the Neteru team fights demons while becoming physically and emotionally stronger, whereas Carlos works as a mole for Damali's team, ultimately God brings him back alive and he is discovered to be the Male Neteru. Afterwards, the series shifts from fighting random vampires to fighting Satan's wife Lilith, who is setting up the Apocalypse while tending to the Antichrist, who will rule the world it not stopped.

The twelve books in the series are:

  • The Minion
  • The Awakening
  • The Hunted
  • The Bitten
  • The Forbidden
  • The Damned
  • The Forsaken
  • The Wicked
  • The Cursed
  • The Darkness
  • The Shadows
  • The Thirteenth

Besides these, there are short stories exploring what some characters were during before the start of the series, and ones called Between the Books that tell stories about things that happened between the books. The latter stories can be read on the series website. A comic series taking place after the last book is planned.

The series also has a companion novel, Shadow Walker, which takes place after the Armageddon and follows the children of the Neteru guardian team as they train to become fully-fledged guardians like their parents and continue the battle against the forces of darkness.


Tropes in this series include:

  • Abusive Dad: Damali's foster father (and Inez's uncle) was very abusive towards Damali and Inez, and even tried to molest Damali when she was fifteen years old. Damali beat him up and escaped before it could happen.
  • Action Girl: Damali and the other females on the guardian team. The Neteru Queens also count.
  • Asian and Nerdy: Subverted. J.L. is Asian, but isn't that nerdy, though he's a whiz at technology.
  • Babies Ever After: Most of the females on the Neteru team are pregnant in the last two books, with all of the babies born by the end of the series.
  • Backstory: Bits of many characters' histories are shown throughout the series, with Damali and Carlos', Rider and Tara's, and Jose and Juanita's having short stories outside of the series.
  • Back from the Dead: Carlos, in The Bitten. Tara in The Wicked and Yonnie in The Thirteenth.
  • Badass Crew: Started off as Damali, her Mother Seer Marlene, and her five "big brothers", and ended as conglomerate of Battle Couples who would protect everyone with their lives.
  • Badass Family: The Berkfields, especially when Berkfield is injected with the blood of Christ, making him a healer, and his wife Marjorie, and by extension their kids Bobby and Krissy, is revealed to be a witch. Badassness increases when Krissy marries tactical JL and Bobby marries witch Jasmine.
  • Berserk Button: In general, anytime anyone in the Neteru group gets hurt, specifically their partner. Others include anytime the short vampire marriage between Tara and Yonnie is brought up around Rider, his slave past is brought up around Yonnie, and anytime Inez thinks that her daughter Ayana is in danger.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Heather, the sweetest person on the Neteru team, pulls a gun on a witch that indirectly caused her miscarriage.
  • Big Bad: Fallon Nuit for the first two books. Councillor Vlak for the third, and Tetrosky for the fourth. Lilith for the remainder of the series. Lucifer/Satan can be considered the Big Bad of the entire series, given that he's the head of the Dark Realm's forces.
  • Birds of a Feather: JL and Krissy. Both spend all their time on the team's computers, and even marry each other before the end of the series.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The end of The Awakening. Nuit was offed, but the Covenant was almost wiped out and Carlos left to die in the tunnels.
  • Body Horror: The victims of Nuit, who are turned into Amanthra-Vampire hybrids with gaping throats.
  • Bookworm: JL and Krissy again, when they're not...
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Yonnie's reason for supporting Carlos when Carlos is a vampire (and even when he isn't a vampire).
  • Break the Badass: After Carlos is revealed to be a mole, the dark side captures and tortures him, resulting in this.
  • Break the Cutie: Krissy after seeing demons corrupt young people like herself, her pregnancy making her more emotional, and Heather after losing her first child. Heather's husband, Dan, is also broken by the above spoiler, but completely loses it when he thinks that his parents died in the last book.
  • Break the Haughty: Carlos has several spectacular ones throughout the series.
  • Broken Bird: The dark side tries to make Damali into this, as part of their Evil Plan. Damali doesn't reach this point, though she comes close quite a few times.
  • Brought Down to Normal: Carlos after the events in Australia. Or so he thinks.
  • But You Can't Be Pregnant!: Yonnie says this to Val when she says that she's pregnant, assuming that the dark side is playing a trick on them because, as a vampire, he can't get her pregnant. Val tells him that an angel told her she actually was pregnant, and Yonnie discovers that he was brought to life, proving that he can get her pregnant.
  • Byronic Hero: Carlos.
  • The Chainsof Commanding: Averted with Damali, but played straight with Carlos once his innate Neteru abilities reveal themselves, who stresses over not being strong enough to protect everyone.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: The Berkfields, Juanita, Inez, Yonnie, Val, Dan, and even Ayana all appear in the series before they become imperative to the plot.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Dan's management skills and Damali's singing abilities really come in handy throughout the series.
  • Children Are Innocent: Outright stated in the series.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Carlos' interrogation at the hands of the harpies at the end of The Bitten.
  • Coming of Age Story: Minion/The Awakening is this for Damali, as she grows into full maturity as a Neteru in the days leading up to her twenty-first birthday.
  • Consummate Liar: Carlos, especially as a vampire. Also Lucifer, Lilith, Nuit, Cain and all the other more powerful creatures of Hell.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Shabazz, who was in jail for ten years before the start of the series, but moreso Yonnie, who was a slave before being turned into a vampire.
    • Damali lost her parents when she was only a baby, and was shuffled from foster home to foster home while she was growing up. In the last foster home she was in, her foster father tried to molest her, causing her to beat him up, out him to the authorities and get the heck out of there. She spent the next few months living on the streets, before being taken in by Marlene and Shabazz.
    • Inez was abused by her own uncle (or stepfather?) for months or even years before Damali came onto the scene and ended it. Later on her first husband physically abused her.
    • Carlos' family life was not a happy one, though it's stated in The Awakening that it had once been happy, a long time ago. His mother was physically abused by his drunken father, his sister died of a drug overdose.
  • Dark Is Evil: Most of the villains in the series are residents of Hell, but...
    • Dark Is Not Evil: Both Carlos and later Yonnie worked as moles during their time as Vampire Councilmen. Tara, although a vampire, and two half-demons from Nod were never evil in the first place. Subverted, however, with Gabby, who helped the Neteru team, but couldn't be saved because she had sold her soul to the devil, and the citizens of Nod, who were neither evil nor good at first, but most of them became evil when their king Cain became Chairman of the Vampire Council.
    • Light Is Not Good: the half-angel who carried the Anti-Christ.
  • Dead Guy Junior: Damali and Carlos name their twin children after Damali's mother Sarah and Carlos' brother Alejandro.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Rider.
  • Determinator: Damali is determined to bring Carlos back into the Light, even going as far as sharing her own heartbeat with him to make it happen.
  • Domestic Abuse: Carlos has memories of his drunken father beating his mother when he was just a child.
  • Dysfunction Junction: Nearly everyone on the Neteru team has some sort of issue or dark past to deal with.
  • Evil Empire: The Vampire Realm, led by the Vampire Council. Hell as a whole.
  • Evil Plan: The dark side frequently has one.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Cain in The Wicked, after hearing that Damali has married Carlos.
    • Gabrielle later in the same novel, when she's turned into a vampire by Lilith.
  • Fake Pregnancy: Damali breaks Eve out of her grief over Cain and even gets her to send a little Light into Vampire Council chambers by telling her what Cain tried to do to her and claiming that she might be carrying his child. In reality she has no clue whether she's pregnant or not or by who, and she certainly doesn't want to find out.
  • Fallen Angel: Lucifer (aka the Devil) started off as this. His fall is what kicked off the battle between Heaven and Hell.
  • Famed In-Story: The Neterus and their guardian team, for obvious reasons.
  • Gilded Cage: Damali in Minion views the L.A. compound as this, as she is guarded 24/7 and not even allowed outside on her own lest the vampires take her.
  • Good Costume Switch: Carlos and Yonnie traded in their tailored suits for jeans and T-shirts once they stop working for the Vampire Council.
  • Good Is Impotent: Averted, although Carlos believed so in the beginning.
  • Happily Married: Damali and Carlos, after The Forsaken. The rest of the team after The Cursed.
  • Heroic BSoD: Damali gets hit with this hard after Cain beats her up and almost rapes her. It takes Carlos to bring the old defiant spirit back into her.
    • After Carlos' death in The Bitten Damali is so grief-stricken and broken that she vows never to fight for the Light again. She takes it back though after seeing Carlos come back to life minutes later.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Carlos stays behind to fight to the death the demons in the tunnels during the team's first battle in Hell, to give Damali and her crew a chance to escape to topside. In Australia, while on the yacht and with his powers failing Carlos' last act is to teleport Berkfield to safety with the Covenant instead of saving himself as he initially intended to do.
  • Historical Hero Upgrade: Both of the Neteru Councils are basically historical, mythological, and biblical people made into Neteru, i.e. Adam, Eve, Ausar (Osiris), Aset (Isis), Nefertiti, Amenotep, etc...
  • Historical Villain Upgrade: Vlad the Impaler (as usual), Elizabeth Bathory, and Lucrezia Borgia are all made vampires in this series.
  • Home Sweet Home: After Armaggeddon, the Neteru team gets to peacefully live with their children for approximately twenty years before Lucifer rebuilds his army of demons.
  • Hormone-Addled Teenager: Krissy becomes this way when she is affected by the virus of the damned.
  • Imperiled in Pregnancy: In The Shadows, during a battle a demon knocks the pregnant Damali unconscious. This causes Carlos and Marlene to have a major freak-out, as the foetus in Damali could've been injured as well. Thankfully, it wasn't. This incident also alerts the dark side to Damali's pregnancy.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Rider, frequently, whenever he hears some shocking or frustrating news.
  • Killed Off for Real:
    • Padre Lopez in The Forbidden.
    • Gabrielle in The Wicked (and by her own sister, no less), after she is turned into a vampire.
  • Left for Dead: Carlos at the beginning of The Hunted.
  • Light Is Good: Most of the characters against the Legions of Hell are working for Heaven/Nirvana/whatever different religions call their most hallowed place.
  • The Lost Lenore: Tara is this for Rider.
  • Love at First Sight: Mike is attracted to Inez the moment he first sees her. The attraction is mutual. They eventually admit their love for each other and get married.
    • Marlene and Shabazz met in an alleyway while fighting off a group of vampires. They've been together ever since.
    • Damali and Carlos were attracted to one another and began falling in love when Carlos took Damali under his wing after seeing her in trouble on the streets.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Cain turns his back on the Light after realising that Damali has married Carlos and essentially rejected him. Though there's also his anger at being deceived by the Male Neteru Council and his resentment at being locked away, but this is a major factor.
  • Magical Negro: Marlene and Shabazz.
  • Make It Look Like an Accident: How the dark side offs Carlos' family.
  • Manipulative Bitch: Lilith.
    • Elizabeth Bathory. Most notably, she tricks her mate Sebastian into resurrecting her late husband, Vlad the Impaler, which results in Sebastian getting a major beat-down and his conjuring arm chopped off.
  • Marry for Love: Damali and Carlos at the end of The Forsaken. Also the rest of the guardian team at the end of The Wicked.
  • Master Poisoner: Lucrezia Borgia was known for her skill in poisoning her enemies while she was alive. Even as a vampire she retains this skill and uses it against the Neteru guardian team.
  • Meaningful Name: Damali's name literally means 'beautiful vision'.
  • The Medic: Marlene, in the very beginning of the series. She is known for her 'white baths'. Later on Damali has a larger role in this, being able to draw darkness out of a person via her Isis blades and also heal using the Caudeuceus. Berkfield literally becomes known as 'Medic' after discovering that he can now heal other people through tactile contact as an affect of the Blood of Christ temporarily being in his veins.
  • Menacing Stroll: Carlos, Fallon Nuit, Lilith, and the Devil himself have all done this before.
  • Mercy Kill: Marjorie to her sister Gabrielle after she is forcibly turned by Lilith.
    • In The Awakening, Carlos stakes his brother and closest friends so that their souls can go into the Light.
  • Mind Rape: Carlos' interrogation at the hands of the harpies in The Bitten could be said to be this.
  • Mook–Face Turn: Yonnie was just a random third-gen vampire when he was first introduced. When Carlos gives him an elevation bite, which means that as Carlos moves up in Vampiric rank, so does he, however, he becomes completely loyal to Carlos, and therefore the entire Neteru team. By the end of the series, this turns out well for him. He gains a lover/wife in Val, is brought back to life by the light (while still keeping his powers), and has a son.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Carlos screws up big time when he accidentally turns Damali into a master vampire. Though it's only temporary, it gets him in big trouble with both the Vampire Council and Damali's guardian team.
    • Damali's decision to let Cain feed from her comes back to haunt her when Cain breaks free from Nod and chooses to embrace the dark half of his lineage. If Cain hadn't had that trace of her blood still in him when he had his coronation, he wouldn't have been able to invade Damali and Carlos' marriage bed like he did, resulting in a dangerous link between him and Carlos.
  • The Nicknamer: Rider. He makes a habit of nicknaming every person on the Neteru team.
  • Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The beginning of The Forbidden makes this abundantly clear. The guardian team is trapped on a plane and on the run from the vampires and demons, Carlos is no longer a vampire and has to figure out how he fits into Damali's group, the Vampire Empire is in tatters with almost all high-level vampires dead and Carlos' line (except Yonnie and Tara) dusted, and Carlos' family are killed (except Juanita) and the Guardian Compound in L.A. burnt to the ground.
  • Not Me This Time: Cain's general response to Damali's accusation that he killed her family in The Wicked.
  • Official Couple: Each of the Neteru guardians is in one by the end of the series.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Shabazz.
    • Rider as well. His full name is Jacob Rider, but only Marlene calls him that and even then not that often.
  • Opposites Attract: Damali and Carlos, and Yonnie and Val.
  • Orcus on His Throne: Lucifer basically sits around in the seventh level of Hell while his wife Lilith and her minions do all the dirty work. Subverted, in that once he comes up, no one can stop him, but he has to retreat when Lilith and most of his legions are killed, and he has to regroup and protect the Anti-Christ.
  • Parental Abandonment: Damali's parents died when she was just a baby, leaving her an orphan. Marlene, her destined mother-seer, refused to raise her, being pregnant herself and hunted by vampires. So Damali was placed in foster-care.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: The motto of Hell: "Fair exchange is no robbery."
  • Pregnant Badass: Damali in The Bitten (though before her miscarriage) and later in The Darkness, The Shadows and The Thirteenth. The other female Neteru guardians also count, after they're discovered to be pregnant.
  • Public Execution: Cain is executed publicly by his own mother at the end of the battle of Morales, witnessed by both living Neterus and both Neteru Councils.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: The first battle in Hell is this for the Neteru guardian team and the Covenant, as the Covenant is wiped out except for a few survivors. They also lose Carlos.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Most of the vampires, all of the past Neterus, and everyone from Nod.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Fiery, passionate, aggressive Damali and calm, cool, collected Carlos. Their zodiac signs are even Leo (fire sign) and Scorpius (water sign), respectively!
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Specifically the Amanthra demons.
  • Rousing Speech: Damali and Carlos create one together in The Cursed for the guardian team.
  • Sadistic Choice: Vlak's offer to Carlos in The Hunted: Take the Amazon were-demon to the Vanishing Point, or Vlak will accuse Carlos of being a traitor to the Vampire Council and will make sure that Damali suffers horrifically for the next seven years until her next ripening.
  • Scarily Competent Tracker: All the olfactory sensors (especially the Neterus) are this by default. Lopez and Jose are especially skilled in tracking when it comes to Carlos, as all three of them are from the same vampire line.
  • Screaming Warrior: Val, more than likely because she is half-Valkyrie.
  • Shoot the Dog: Victims include Raven, Marlene's daughter Christine turned into a shape-shifting demon, and Gabby, who was shot by her sister Marjorie when she was turned into vampire and couldn't be saved. This nearly happens to Yonnie, but Val asks Heaven to save him.
  • Smoking Is Cool: Rider. Subverted in that he stops eventually.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: Damali and Carlos, before Carlos comes back into the Light. Also Rider and Tara. Marlene and Kamal play this straight, as they fell in love in backstory but were forced to separate after Kamal became a were-human.
  • Surprise Pregnancy: Damali falls pregnant after sleeping with Carlos in Australia, something which surprises both of them since it shouldn't have been possible with Carlos being a vampire at the time. Much later, in The Thirteenth, Yonnie is shocked when Val announces her own pregnancy to the team (and much for the same reason).
  • Tampering with Food and Drink: While the Neteru guardians are in Greece Lucrezia poisons their food with arsenic. Thanks to Yonnie's warning about it, the team realise what has happened when they start to have typical arsenic poisoning symptoms and are able to save themselves from it.
  • Team Dad: Shabazz, at least early on in the series.
  • Team Mom: Marlene. Marjorie also takes this role, later in the series.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Damali in The Forsaken, as Cain uses her to obtain the Cauduceus for himself to kick-start his grand plan of Take Over the World, and also manipulates her into letting him taste her blood (something which factors into his plan). Cain's own mother is also this, as he does much the same to her as he did to Damali.
  • Vain Sorceress: Liz Bathory, who even as a vampire soaked in the blood of innocent virgins to keep her beauty from fading.
  • The War Has Just Begun: The final book of the series ends with this trope. The Cursed starts with this, as it kicks off the beginning of the opening of the seals, which will lead to the Armageddon.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Damali's entire relationship with Cain was her way of giving this to Carlos.
  • Wildcard: The Light calls Carlos theirs.

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