Jean-Claude is a fictional character in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Within the novels, Jean-Claude's role is as one of the primary love interests of the series heroine, Anita Blake.
Jean-Claude is a French-born vampire who is over 400–600 years old. He was a favorite of Belle Morte for his eyes, and, like many vampires of Belle Morte's line, Jean-Claude was selected for his almost perfect mortal beauty. He arrived in St. Louis and, indeed, the United States itself to escape Belle Morte's court with the help of Augustine. Jean-Claude became the Master Vampire of St. Louis after Anita Blake killed Nikolaos. Together with Richard Zeeman, Jean-Claude is a member of Anita's first triumvirate.
Jean-Claude's daytime lair is the sub-basement of the Circus of the Damned. As owner of the "JC Corporation," he also owns and runs Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse, and Danse Macabre, as well as other clubs.
Powers and abilities
Jean Claude, although a 'master vampire' in times passed would have been known as or called an incubus, because his only craving is not blood. But, thanks to the particular 'gifts' or 'powers' of the bloodline he descends from Jean Claude must also feed a craving for "lust." This craving is particularly ravenous, can seem cruel and in its first stages can be difficult to rein-in to control it so that it does not control you, (as he was forced to educate Anita on, at which point she began to appreciate the previously unknown suffering that Jean Claude had subjected himself to, because of his deep love for her. This was the main reason he opened 'Guilty Pleasures,' so he could feed off the patrons lust from a distance without touching anyone.) We know that Jean Claude is a vampire and not an actual demon, as the incubi and succubi are.
Jean Claude also gains power through sex and lust. After forging the triumvirate with Anita and Richard he becomes the sourde de sang of his own Bloodline. Like all vampires his powers grow stronger with age. His general master class abilities include: Being able to disguise the perception of his true age (seeming older or younger as he chooses) to the senses of other vampires. The *Ardeur, that gives him power ( or to "feed") from lust and sex. His first business, the strip club Guilty Pleasures, allows him to use the ardeur to his advantage. In Cerulean Sins Jean-Claude becomes sourde de sang of his own line when Belle-Morte is no longer able to use her own ardeur to feed from him. Hypnosis, including using his voice, gaze, and aura to excite or calm humans, lycanthropes, and lesser vampires. Calling wolves and werewolves. Flight. Controlling the magics of Anita and Richard and being able to shut them down. Forming a triumvirate with his human servant, Anita, and his animal to call, Richard.
Description
Perhaps because the patrons of Guilty Pleasures expect it, Jean-Claude tends to dress the way vampires are stereotypically expected to, wearing skin-tight leather pants, thigh high boots, and antique shirts with large amounts of lace and long cuffs, left open just enough to give glimpses of his bare chest. He is 5'11", with black shoulder-length softly curling hair, and midnight-blue eyes. By the timeline of 'Narcissus in Chains,' he has grown out his hair to near waist-length. He has long-fingered slender hands, and his voice is rich, melodious, textured and seductive when he wants it to be. When he calls on his full power, his humanity folds away; his skin becomes white like glowing alabaster, his eye sockets become blue fire, and his hair floats around his death-pale, skeletal face. He has a cross-shaped scar on his left breast from where he was burned by a cross. He also has whip scars on his back that like his chest scar he cannot hide with his powers.
Character
Jean-Claude is extraordinarily seductive, both in regard to his mental abilities and conventional seduction. He is superb at playing "vampire politics" and can be extremely manipulative and ruthless when necessary. Jean-Claude typically thinks several steps ahead of his triumvirate partners Anita and Richard. He is also considered more "human" than most vampires, though other masters see this as a weakness.
Throughout the early novels, Jean-Claude pursues Anita both as a lover and a human servant, eventually winning her as both. He frequently withholds the truth of matters from Anita, partly from a well-learned and practiced sense of manipulativeness and desire to use Anita's power to protect himself, his own interests, and those under his protection, but also from an, apparently, surprisingly strong sense of real love and concern for Anita's physical and emotional well-being.