Anita has a pregnancy scare in ("Danse Macabre"), as the "ardeur's" control over her made it difficult to consistently use birth control during each feeding. She also discovers that her "ardeur" is seeking out people powerful enough to be "food" and has the potential to shape personalities to be more compatible relationship-wise. Anita gains the ability to pass the need to shape-shift onto others, although she can only pass the need on to others of the same strain of lycanthropy. During the novel Anita begins to accept that she has become a succubus, with her powers resembling that of a vampire. During this time, Anita is frequently visited and harassed by , the Mother of All Darkness that has been sleeping for years.