Asher

"If you are cataloguing beautiful people and Asher is in the room then he always makes the list."

- Anita Blake, Cerulean Sins

Asher is descended directly from Belle Morte.  He arrives in the city in Burnt Offerings.

He has the power to fly and can roll even Anita's mind.  This is something that scares Anita. He can also give pleasure with his bite when he is taking blood, this being a gift of many of those from Belle Morte's line and one that he is exceptionally good at.

He is an honourable vampire who had travelled with Jean-Claude for twenty years, together with his human servant Julianna.

However 200 years ago Julianna had been burned at the stake as a witch and he himself had been scarred with holy water all down his right side, including his face.  Jean-Claude had been with his dying mother at the time and although he did manage to save Asher's life he had been too late to save Julianna.  Asher blames Jean-Claude for her death and before arriving in the city had petitioned the Council for Anita's death, having discovered that Jean-Claude had finally taken a human servant of his own.  The Council had refused his petition.

Anita describes him as having gold hair and pale eyes, like a Husky.   Anita tames Asher with her acceptance of him.  He says that seeing himself through Anita's eyes has healed his heart.

Although there is a lot of bad feeling between Asher and Jean-Claude, Asher does not leave with the Council he arrived with and instead stays in the city and becomes Jean-Claude's second in command.

When Musette arrives in the city ahead of schedule Asher is not safe from her clutches as although he is now settled in his place as Jean-Claude's lieutenant in the Council's eyes he does not belong to anyone and is demanded for the duration of their visit and to return with them when they leave.

The only way to avoid this happening is for Jean-Claude and Anita to make sure that his place with them in unquestioned.  As such she invites him to bed and lets him take blood from her.  Once it is over though she is scared of the amount of power Asher has over her when he tries to roll her mind.  She is also still of the opinion that she cannot bridge the gap between them as Julianna did.

By the end of Cerulean Sins Anita is dating Asher, together with her other boyfriends, Jean-Claude and Micah.

Text in this colour denotes that it is a spoiler for Incubus Dreams

Although we see very little of Asher in this book it is revealed that he is one of the vampires who was made more beautiful when made by Belle Morte. His hair had not been the shade of gold that it now is.