Jessica
At the start of Naked Came the Vampire, Jessica is a 123-year-old Vampire. She was born in Northern New Mexico in the late 1800s. Her father is from Old Mexico, and her mother from Ireland. Her mother had dark hair and was possibly of Basque or continental Spanish descent. The result in Jessica is a tall, Rubenesque dark-haired woman. Early in her life, she did not like being the tallest person around. Her eventual husband, Jesus, hated that about her.
Jessica was born Maria Guadalupe Rios, and at the start of Naked Came the Vampire, in Austin she is going by Jessica Diaz. Vampires change names frequently, especially last names, but Jessica never uses her birth name due to events in her human life.
Jessica only married Jesus to get out of the way so that her younger sister could marry for love. Hers was an arranged marriage, and it was a disaster. Jesus beat her frequently, including when she was pregnant. This ultimately caused her to miscarry, and for Jessica to decide that enough was enough. She moved East, and became a teacher, leaving behind her family, her farm, her husband, and everything she knew.
In Albuquerque she met an interesting ‘young’ woman named Helen…
Helen
Born to British royalty during the War of the Roses, Helen fled when that war took a bad turn for the Spencers. Fleeing for her safety to France, Helen found some happiness in the French Court.
Over five hundred years of age, Helen is still young for a Vampire, since most Vampires live to be at least two thousand, and the only reason they do not live longer is boredom. The theory is that the natural lifespan of a Vampire is 10,000 years.
Helen is Bisexual, and in the French Court, she was able to find many lovers of both genders. She is very politically minded, and down the years she has married many human men, inherited their fortunes, and invested that wisely. In France, she maintains the identity of what appears to the human world to be a series of Claremont women and she controls the Claremont Estates: A large winery and stable in the Burgundy region of France.
Helen has been seriously involved, on and off, for over two hundred years with Rachel.
Helen has been in the USA for over one hundred years and is the youngest ever member of the North American Vampire Council, where Rachel is also one of the twelve on the council.
Helen loses her heart to Maria / Jessica when Jessica is still a
Jessica being Heterosexual and Helen Bisexual leads to the pair of Vampires having so serious fun in the 1920’s San Francisco and New York nightlife. For Jessica, the freedom to be able to have all the power is heady. For Helen, she is with her friend and lover and making sure she does not get into TOO much trouble.
Past her ‘wild oats’ phase (although she can still get a wild hair now and then), Jessica turns her attention to never being a victim again, becomes a pilot, an MD, a Dentist, and uses her new lifespan to collect skills that are unusual for women in that time. For Jessica, it is a big ‘fuck you’ to the world of men.
Men are now necessary toys. For Helen, it is this deeply competent side of Jessica that she saw, and that continues to own heart.
Adrian
Adrian is a nerd. A geek. He loves science fiction, comic cons, and watching superhero movies and TV shows. He is the youngest of three children, in a family of overachievers. Adrian is a freelance computer programmer and he likes it that way. Raised a free thinker, he has had an on-and-off-again relationship with Vera, but when she goes too far, he breaks up with her for the last time and goes to lick his emotional wounds at Hippy Hollow (A nude beach in the Austin area). Naked, communing with nature is Adrian’s way to get his head screwed back on straight. Problems seem smaller when you see how small you really are.
Adrian meets Jessica at Hippy Hollow, and he is not prepared for her impact. They sit. They talk. Jessica invites Adrian to her boat out on Lake Travis, the Nightwing. She wants to feed and get laid by what seems to be a decent guy.
Adrian wants to be polite about what he wants, which is all of Jessica. He is stricken.
A night of passion ensues such as Adrian has only ever dreamed, and he devotes his entire mind, body, and soul to Jessica. It takes Jessica by surprise. It was supposed to be meaningless. A one night stand. Her monthly feed with a nice topping of sex with a human. This human is different.
It was supposed to be a one night stand. A ‘Zipless Fuck’. Instead, it leaves them heartsick and wanting more, even though Adrian has no idea who Jessica really is or how to find her. For Jessica, the rules of her world are clear: loving a human is a heartbreak. They are as short-lived to a Vampire as a hamster is to a human.
Adrian, with the support of Jessica and Helen, breaks a few of the sacrosanct Vampire rules. He is the fastest male vampire ever off Probation. In Siren Song, he uncovers without meaning to the existence of the Sirens and ultimately ends up as the Siren Liaison. Sirens are a misogynistic bunch and will only accept a male Vampire in the role.
Adrian is, for unknown reasons, an outlier among Vampires. His senses are keener than all but perhaps three or four other Vampires in the world. This is called being ‘Hypersensitive’ or later at Adrian’s insistence, ‘Hyper Sensed’ so that a human medical term is not abused. His brain rewiring allows him to slow his perception of time while he is actually just speeding up thought. While he is of standard male Vampire strength, his speed is therefore much faster, up to the point where strength is a prerequisite to go faster.
The fact that Jessica was able to become pregnant implies there is even more going on with Adrian than they know. The very first woman Adrian bites turns, implying he may also be for more infectious.
All of these things are secrets inside of secrets, since Adrian wishes to remain at home and raise his family, not be hauled off and studied. The events of Purity challenge all of these things.
Morgan Olsen
In ‘Lonely Dancer’, Morgan is a Detective in Houston. She catches a suspicious death in the Montrose of an Exotic Dancer, which leads her to meet Angel, a former stripper in Galveston. Angel becomes a lifelong friend.
Morgan, in off-scene action after ‘Lonely Dancer‘ but before ‘Naked Came the Vampire‘ (that may someday be a book), looks into her the situation of her missing mother, Sky, and finds out the reason she disappeared is that she became a Vampire.
Morgan is smart. Competent. Does the right thing, no matter. In Houston, she encounters a cabal inside the department that is not happy about her dating black men. Morgan dates many men, and is serious about none of them, but being told who she can date leads her to decide to take the Cabal down, and her career as a Homicide cop with it.
Leaving Houston in a reign of fire to become a PI in Austin, she works with Adrian’s brother Don, who is a lawyer trying to do the right thing. They are a matched set of capable crusaders, and together they develop a reputation: If Don Sagan and Morgan Olsen are defending you, you are innocent. If they are after you, you are sunk.
(Morgan appears by reference in HN book 1, not at all in HN book 2, and from HN book 3 on is a central character. She is the central character of Lonely Dancer and The Law of Unintended Consequences.)
Morgan was introduced to Adrian at Don’s office. She liked Adrian on sight but said nothing since she had a professional relationship with Don. Adrian liked Morgan as well but thought she was not interested, because when he was a human, Adrian could not read women to save his life. Had that gone differently, they would have married and settled down. Morgan is sure of that, and Adrian agrees completely. Morgan wishes she had done the one thing she ALWAYS did in Houston: If a man was interesting, she did not wait for them to make the first move.
Spoiler: In ‘Conclave‘, during their attempt to retrieve William from the Sirens, Morgan succumbs to Siren Song. Adrian is forced to bite her to return her will to herself, which causes Morgan to turn. Not to a standard Vampire. Morgan is
Angel
Morgan met Angel when she was a hostess in a strip club, back when Morgan was a Detective in Houston working on a case. Morgan was a little out of her jurisdiction in Galveston at the time. (Lonely Dancer)
Angel has the ability to sense or anticipate people’s needs in a nearly Hypernatural way (or IS it
What was clear to Morgan back then was the Angel was wasted as a hostess at a sex
Angel has a daughter, abandoned before birth by her biological father, named Nakoma.
Vera
Vera is Adrian’s Ex. They have had an on again and off again relationship going back seven years. When Vera decide to commit insurance fraud, Adrian breaks up with her for the last
There is more to Vera than meets the eye, as Adrian learns in ‘Siren Song‘. It turns out that Vera rethinks the fraud after the breakup, and also that there is a reason Adrian and she never quite worked. She is not fully human either, and while Adrian was human when they met, she never was.
While Jessica and Helen have little use for Vera, Morgan works with Vera and Angel on Morgan’s plan to locate the Human Purity Alliance during the events of ‘Purity’
Rachel
Rachel is over seven hundred and fifty years old. Still world-class young, for a Vampire. A lifelong lesbian, she has been Helen’s lover at various times, and in total for over two hundred of her seven hundred years.
A reporter for the New York Times, she has also known Morgan for quite some time, as they met when Morgan was searching for her mother.
At the start of Siren Song, Rachel is added to Adrian’s Probation Subcommittee when it is thought Helen has become unable to be uninfluenced by Jessica and her love for Adrian. In the course of Event, Rachel too becomes Adrian’s friend and ally.
In the battle with William, Rachels’ neck is broken, and she barely survives the experience. Rachel returns to New York after she heals, but Helen stays for a while with Adrian and Jessica.
Rachel and Adrian become close, especially after the events of Purity. They say men and women cannot really be friends, but for these two, they can. it is clear they will never be sexually involved. Ever. That takes a layer of complexity out of their relationship, and lets Rachel help Adrian through his darkest time.
Ben and Sally Sagan
Adrian’s parents are extremely accomplished people. Now retired and full-time RV’ers, Ben is an
Sally and Ben built the house the Adrian now owns, and it was meant to be both a place to raise children, and to relax as adults. They are free thinkers, and Adrian takes after them more than any of their other children. Secretly, they are happy that is was he that bought the house. It was designed for free thinking, hedonistic types.
Their other children are Don and Liz. Adrian always feels like the slacker of the family given both his parents and his sibling’s accomplishments.
Liz owns a medical practice in the Dallas area, where she is an OB/GYN. Don is a crusading lawyer, and employs Morgan as his PI when he needs the very best to help him get to the bottom of things. As Morgan is a bit of a crusader herself, it works well.
Danny and Lori
Danny Hernandez is Adrian’s best friend, and was treated as his brother by all the Sagan’s. Danny is loyal to a fault, even when things get a little mysterious and dicy.
Lori is a nurse who works at the hospital Adrian was taken to when he was deathly ill because of turning into a Vampire. Lori met Danny in the cafeteria, and they fell deeply in love. Lori is Bisexual, and danny is the first man she has been with for a while, but for Lori, it is about the person, not what sex they are.
Denise
A senior member of the Cleanup Crew. Slightly older than Helen, Denise spent the first 300 years of her life running three different houses. It is easy to be a Courtesan when you are a Vampire and do not have to worry about STD’s or even customers getting unruly. As madam, Denise took care of her people and made sure they were safe and happy. Each house came to an end when locals decided to drive her out.
In the US, Denise met Anne, and Anne recruited her to the Crew. for the next two and half centuries, Denise excelled at her job, but she had one serious issue: She did not like killing male Vampires merely because she was told it was needed. In this she is not unique: Few on the Crew (with a few notable exceptions) enjoy killing. A major turning point occurs here for Denise in the short Vampires From Tulsa. She sets her life in a new direction yet again.
Anne and Carol
Along with Denise, senior members of the North American Cleaning (sometimes Cleanup) Crew, their jobs are to make sure that the Vampire secret stays a secret. In part, this means killing rogue males, or males thought to be otherwise unreliable when on Probation.
Diana Sagan
Diana is the daughter of Jessica and Adrian. Diana is not supposed to be possible. Vampires think they can not have children, and since they drink from humans nearly every month, and usually enjoy a bit of recreational sex while doing so, they feel like if they were going to be able to have children they would have. Male Vampires are rarer than hens teeth of course, but there have been no children from those unions eithers, for as long as there has been oral history, with one exception: William.
William
During the Conclave on the Siren’s, an odd little male Vampire shows up. This turns out to be the legendary King. Conqueror. Williams plans for power were defeated by the original twelve, which in turn is the basis for modern Vampire Council. William claims he was born of two Vampires, and Adrian and company think he is over eight thousand years old. William is the Vampire bogey man, and part of why male Vampires are not trusted and placed on probation. Adrian, Helen, and Jessica hid Jessica’s pregnancy for fear of Vampires relating their child to William.
For his part, William is after Adrian because he wants Adrian’s power. He wants to control Adrian so that he can figure out how to have children of his own: William wants a legacy. He may have been defeated, but even after all the many millenia, he is not down.
Virginia
Virginia is over 1200 years old and the head of the North American Vampire Council. Adrian thinks she looks like an all-American girl, one that just stepped off the track in a track suit perhaps, but this appearance belies her centuries of experience and her political skills. Virginia is a still water that runs deep.
Becky
Becky was one of the Vampires on Adrian’s probation subcommittee, and his hearing was done in her church. She is the Pastor of a congregation and is married (for both political reasons and affection) to Jon, a state senator in Colorado.
Becky did not actually meet Jesus of Nazareth. She knows someone who did however. Her pastorship is about the spirit of the religion. It is also a salve she needs, given her secret life not only as a Vampire, but as a Council Member, and in particular, chairing probationary subcommittees. (Short Story Becky)
Nova
Nova is an early American, before those terms had any meaning. In present day, she was on Adrian’s probation subcommittee and is an archeologist. What no one knows is why she is so good at it: She was there when it was brand new. In the Short ‘Nova‘, she mets a human named Andy, and decides to keep him around for a while. It’s nice to know, even for a short period of time, where your loving is going to be coming from, and Andy is a good guy, and Nova can secretly help his career. That is the Vampire way: influence and direct, from behind the scenes.
Nova also gives some of Jessica’s favorite sessions at Conclaves, when she talks about History, because she lived it.