Due to the nature of vampiric birth, in which the fetus devours its mother from the inside out, Jessy dies in childbirth.

Christian leaves the male infant on a stranger's doorstep in Maryland in hopes that the child will be able to live a normal life.

Jason discovers the note Christian attached to his basket on the night he was abandoned and pieces together his history.

Ann becomes obsessed with reuniting with Zillah and pursues the coven to New Orleans, while Steve and Ghost set off in pursuit of her.

A local magician named Arcady, familiar with vampires, offers to perform an abortion to save Ann's life, for the price of sex with the virginal Ghost.

Steve and Ghost return to Missing Mile and attempt to rebuild their lives after the supernatural horror they have witnessed.

He is haunted throughout the novel by the memory of his relationship with his ex-girlfriend Ann, which he terminated abruptly by raping her on discovery of her infidelity.

Ghost is Steve's best friend and though their relationship throughout the novel often has homoerotic undertones, they do not become lovers until the follow-up story, "Stay Awake".

Ghost is described as appearing much like his namesake; very translucent skin, white blond, wispy hair and huge blue eyes.

Ann, Steve's ex-girlfriend, plays an ambiguous role throughout much of the novel, but she becomes helplessly intertwined in the plot once Zillah, Twig, Molochai and Nothing roll into Missing Mile, North Carolina.

She is a painter, a tough yet vulnerable character whose strained relations with her father and bitter love for Steve lead her in to a series of defiant acts that ultimately undo her.

has toured across the United States, and they frequently perform at the local club in Missing Mile, North Carolina, a place called The Sacred Yew.

Younger vampires have normal human teeth that must be filed, are insensitive to sunlight, and can both eat and drink (as demonstrated by Zillah's group's liking for chartreuse).

Brite's vampires also seem to lack many supernatural powers beyond quick healing, heightened sense, and abnormal strength.

He is described as being incredibly beautiful - androgynous, slender, and shorter than Molochai and Twig, with pierced nipples and sharp, black-lacquered nails.

Bartender in New Orleans who looks after Nothing's mother, Jessy, through the duration of her pregnancy, and the one responsible for taking him away from the city after his birth.

Christian has real fangs rather than sharpened teeth and is the only vampire in the novel that cannot consume human food and drink, he must survive solely on blood.