English
The Killing Dance takes place in May, about a month and a half after Bloody Bones and like the previous novels, The Killing Dance begins with a potential job for Anita in her role as an Animators, Inc. employee. In this case, Anita and Jean-Claude are in Anita's office meeting with Sabin, a master vampire, and with Dominic Dumare, Sabin's human servant. Sabin and Dumare explain that Sabin, in order to please a mortal lover, promised to abstain from feeding on the blood of live humans. As a result, he has developed a condition in which his body is irreversibly rotting away, and is beginning to lose control of his powers. Dumare, a necromancer, believes that if he and Anita join their abilities and his experience, they may be able to cure Sabin, and Anita agrees to help if possible. Jean-Claude and Anita ponder the parallels between Sabin's relationship with his unnamed mortal love and their own romantic relationship, and Anita leaves for a date with her other boyfriend, Richard. (Although Jean-Claude, a vampire, is in the process of consolidating his leadership of the city, Richard is locked in an ongoing struggle for leadership of the werewolves of the city with their current Ulfric, Marcus, primarily because Richard, unlike Jean-Claude, is not willing to kill in order to assume or maintain power.)
Italiano
Il romanzo si apre con la protagonista, Anita Blake, che viene convocata in qualità di negromante da un potente vampiro, Sabin, che vuole che lei lo aiuti a guarire dall'inarrestabile corruzione che l'astinenza da sangue sta creando in lui, accompagnato da un altro necromante, Dominic Dumare. Più tardi, durante una festa, scopre dal suo collega Edward che qualcuno sta cercando di assoldare un assassino che possa ucciderla entro ventiquattro ore. Tornati a casa di lei, Anita viene attaccata da Jimmy Dugan, un delinquente locale, evidentemente ingaggiato dagli stessi che hanno messo la taglia. Eliminatolo, dopo essere stata portata in centrale dai poliziotti, che si accertano che fosse stato veramente legittima difesa, Richard la accompagna a casa sua, che è isolata e non avrebbe messo in pericolo nessuno.