Jessica Miriam Reeves or Jesse Reeves was a witch and later Vampire who is part of Maharet's Great Family. Marguerite Moreau portrays her in the 2002 film, Queen of the Damned.
Biography[]
Early Human Life[]
Jesse was born to Miriam Reeves, a seventeen-year-old girl who was raped by an older unidentified male. Miriam, seven months pregnant with Jesse, was driving a car when she got into an accident. Miriam was killed in the crash, but Jesse miraculously survived unharmed. She was taken to a hospital and remained unnamed and neglected for two weeks until Maharet, a vampire and a distant ancestor, claimed her as a relative of the old Reeves family. Maharet took Jesse to live with a rich couple, Matthew and Maria Godwin, in New York.
Jesse exhibited supernatural powers from a young age. For example, she frequently saw ghosts of people and places long since destroyed. Jesse was afraid of these apparitions and disturbed that no one but her could see them. At sixteen, she saw the ghost of her mother, Miriam, in her bedroom, who told Jesse not to be afraid of ghosts, since they could do her no harm. Jesse confided her worries and fears to Maharet, whom she thought of as an aunt, through letters. Maharet explained to her that seers of spirits were common with women in the Great Family, and that it was a gift that seemed to come with the attributes of green eyes, pale skin and red hair. She urged Jesse to write to her whenever she would be frightened by it.
Maharet wrote frequently and always bought her plane tickets to see other members of the Great Family in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Maharet also gave Jesse an apartment in New York and provided money for her tuition at Columbia University.
Jesse is recruited to the Talamasca by Aaron Lightener while living in London. Maharet isn't thrilled to hear that Jesse joined the Talamasca order, but after Jesse tells her that she will not tell them about the Great Family or the strange things that happened in the Sonoma compound, Maharet decids that she can't refuse Jesse to join the Order if it makes her happy.
In the Talamasca[]
At first, Jesse works in the archives, translating Latin texts. Later, she works in the field and is sent to haunted houses all over Europe and the United States. She meets with David Talbot, the head of the order, and he informs her that vampires are real and sends her to New Orleans to investigate and document events from the book Interview with the Vampire. During her time in New Orleans she breaks the strict rules of the Talamasca in cases concerning vampires, which lead to her encounter the spirit of Claudia, the vampire child of Lestat and Louis. This concludes with Jesse being sick for weeks, and her being taken off the case.
Jesse as illustrated by O.J. Cariello in The Queen of the Damned by Innovation Comics
She later visits Matthew and Maria in New York, where she discovers Lestat's book The Vampire Lestat and his album and decides to go to his 1985 concert in San Francisco. She travels from New York to California and stays for a while in the Sonoma compound where she remembers more of what happened that summer long ago.
At the concert in San Francisco Jesse manages to get up on stage, where she throws herself at Lestat. Her suspicions are confirmed: Mael and Maharet were vampires, just like she knew Lestat was. After being dragged off stage, she is found sitting in a doorway by a vampire who identifies her as part of the Talamasca. It throws her across the room, breaking her neck. Mael, who was at the concert to protect Jesse, takes her from the hospital and gives her as much of his blood as he can to keep her alive. Jesse asks Mael to make her a vampire, and just before he does, Maharet comes into the room and does it instead.
Life as a Vampire[]
As a vampire, Jesse attends the meeting at the Sonoma compound, where she learns that she is the distant descendant of Maharet's and Khayman's biological daughter, Miram. She witnesses the death of Akasha, and briefly lives with the Night Island Coven, before leaving to live with Maharet. Jesse is presumably living with Maharet, Mekare, and Khayman studying the records at their remote jungle compounds until Prince Lestat, when David telepathically sends out messages asking to speak with her. She meets with David and Lestat in Paris, and tells them about the trouble happening in the Great Family, Maharet's distancing of herself from her mortal family, Mekare's mental isolation, and Khayman's lapses in memory and possible destruction of records. At Trinity Gate, Jesse is distraught to learn of Maharet's murder, and she and David depart Trinity Gate after the formation of the new vampire government to retrieve what remains of Maharet's archives.
In Blood Communion, Jesse is among Lestat's counselors at the Château. On the ceiling of the ballroom revealed at the end of the novel, she is painted between Sybelle and Rose.
In 2002's Queen of the Damned[]
In the novel, Jesse meets Lestat for the first time at his San Francisco concert, leaps into his arms, and is then pulled back from him by the concert-goers before finally being killed by a vampire after leaving the concert hall. Also in the novel, Jesse is thirty-five, is an apprentice for the Talamasca, and has psychic powers. In the film, she's in her early twenties, doesn't have psychic powers, and is still an apprentice for the Talamasca. She is also still Maharet's niece and Maharet is a vampire just like her book counterpart.
In the film, she becomes enamored with Lestat and figures out his secret. They meet in an alleyway outside a nightclub called the "Admiral's Arms" after he saves her from a trio of vampires. During the scene it's shown that he is strongly attracted to her as well and that the closer that he gets to her, the more it's clear that he's just as much as attracted to her scent as he is to her boldness. For a moment it looks like that the only reason that he saved her was so that he could drain her himself, but after discovering that she works for the Talamascans, he lets her go (but not without displaying a strong dislike for the Talamasca, however).
After this event, she soon travels to his apartment and gives him back his journal. During that time, the two become very close as Jesse shares her dream with Lestat and as he shows her both the beauty and the horrors of being a vampire. A few nights later, Jesse attends Lestat's concert. (Instead of jumping into Lestat’s arms before being pulled back by the concert-goers like she did in the novel, Jesse attempts to warn him of the attacks by the vampires in the crowd by calling out his name, but this doesn’t work — although he defends himself very well.)
Near the end of the film, Queen Akasha (The Vampire Queen) has bewitched Lestat and has made him her king. Queen Akasha orders Lestat to kill Jesse and he obeys. Jesse is aware that the Queen has done something to Lestat and is willing to let him drain her of all her blood if it will free him. After Lestat drinks her blood, the spell is broken and he comes to his senses. Upon doing so, he becomes very deeply enraged at what Queen Akasha has made him do, and leads the charge against the Queen, and the other vampires drink her dry. After Akasha's death, Lestat cradles Jesse's body in his arms and looks at Maharet (who is now a statue as she had taken Akasha's death into herself).
With that, Lestat makes Jesse a vampire. The last scene in the film shows Lestat and Jesse returning to the Talamasca in order to give Lestat's journal back to David Talbot, the head of the order. Then the two head out into the city while holding hands (thus implying that they are together).