Merrick (2000) is the seventh book in The Vampire Chronicles series. The book is told from the perspective of David Talbot, and tells the story of his complex relationship with the witch Merrick Mayfair, and his request that she attempt to contact Claudia's spirit on behalf of Louis. Merrick is the first book in The Vampire Chronicles that directly includes the Mayfair family from The Lives of the Mayfair Witches, though Merrick herself is from a branch of the family not involved with the events of that series.
Plot summary[]
In New Orleans, David Talbot meets with the beautiful witch Merrick Mayfair, his former pupil in the Talamasca. She knew David when he was a mortal man working as a member of the Talamasca, and David seeks Merrick's help on Louis's behalf to resurrect the spirit of Claudia. David and Louis live together on the house on Rue Royale, as Lestat has returned to his catatonic state after briefly reawakening at the end of The Vampire Armand.
David's romantic feelings for Merrick and his fascination with and fear of her magic powers are reawakened by coming back into contact with her. David tells Louis how he met Merrick shortly before the death of her godmother, a powerful witch she called Great Nananne, having already been orphaned by the death of her mother, Cold Sandra, and her older sister, Honey in the Sunshine, in a car accident several years earlier. Descended from Julien Mayfair, Merrick is descended from a line of interracial Mayfairs who incorporate voodoo practices into their witchcraft, and has significant supernatural powers at the age of fourteen. Merrick is also occasionally possessed by and in communication with the ghost of her sister, Honey in the Sunshine. She is taken in by the Talamasca, and eventually becomes an agent as an adult. During her teenage and young adult years, she becomes close to David, both of them having romantic inclinations towards the other at various points that David refuses to act on.
After several years in the Talamasca, when David is almost seventy years old, Merrick asks David to come with her on a journey to Central America. Merrick has memories of having visited a cave as a child with her mother where her mother's lover, Matthew, contracted a disease that led to his death, and is haunted by dreams of her Oncle Vervain compelling her to find it again. Merrick and David sleep together in Central America before finding the cave, which is filled with malevolent spirits. Merrick discovers the treasure guarded by the spirits: a beautiful jade mask that allows the person looking through it to see ethereal spirits as if they were corporeal. The two Talamasca agents see a mysterious spirit who resembles a priest, and David contracts a sudden illness. The two escape the treacherous cave, with David growing weaker by the moment; he is shuffled from hospital to hospital and is eventually cured of the disease.
After hearing David's tale, Louis decides to move forward with the seance to speak to Claudia. During the seance, what appears to be Claudia's ghost appears and tells Louis that it hates him, and that it is trapped in the whirlwind of souls, unable to pass on to either heaven or hell, just as Louis feared. Merrick insists that the spirit was lying, but Louis believes it was actually Claudia. Louis begins acting erratically, and declares his love for Merrick, concerning David. A few evenings later, David awakes to realize that Louis intentionally exposed himself to the sun to kill himself, shortly after giving Merrick the Dark Gift. Merrick tearfully confesses that she used her magic to draw both David and Louis to her in the hopes of manipulating them into making her into a vampire, not anticipating the consequence of Louis's suicide.
Louis's body is a charred husk, but is not fully reduced to ashes, and Merrick and David argue over whether to pulverize and scatter his remains, or whether it is possible to bring him back, and whether Louis would want them to try if it is. Lestat, reawakened from his catatonic state, appears, and makes the decision to attempt to bring Louis back, pouring a large volume of his powerful blood on the remains, asking David and Merrick to do the same. The attempt is successful, and Louis returns to life with a much more vampiric appearance and stronger vampiric powers, which he had previously declined to drink more powerful blood to acquire. Louis claims to be happy to have been brought back, and Lestat exchanges blood with both Louis and Merrick to give them further strength.
David, Merrick, Louis, and Lestat form a small coven, and intend to stay in New Orleans. They recieve a letter from The Talamasca, enraged that yet another of their members has been transformed, and the Elders threaten to wage war on the vampires. The group of vampires decide to leave New Orleans, and David tries to placate the Elders with a final letter, warning that Lestat's enmity is more than they can handle. He writes, "You have made yourselves an interesting adversary to one who loves challenges, and it will require all of my considerable influence to protect you individually and collectively from the avid lust you have so foolishly aroused."