Blood Rites

Blood Rites is the sixth novel in the The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, published in 2004. It has forty-two chapters.

Blurb
"For Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, there have been worse assignments than going undercover on the set of an adult film. Dodging flaming monkey poo, for instance. Or going toe-to-leaf with a walking plant monster. Still, there's something more troubling than usual about his newest case. The film's producer believes he's the target of a sinister entropy curse, but it's the women around him who are dying, in increasingly spectacular ways.

Harry's doubly frustrated because he got involved with this bizarre mystery only as a favor to Thomas, his flirtatious, self-absorbed vampire acquaintance of dubious integrity. Thomas has a personal stake in the case Harry can't quite figure out, until his investigation leads him straight to Thomas's oversexed vampire family. Harry's about to discover that Thomas's family tree has been hiding a shocking secret: a revelation that will change Harry's life forever."

Plot
After accidentally acquiring a stray puppy from a kidnapped litter of Tibetan Temple Dogs, Harry Dresden accepts a job from his White Court acquaintance, Thomas Raith, to investigate a series of deaths on a pornography film set led by director Arturo Genosa. After an entropy curse arrives and almost kills two more people, Lara Raith, another White Court vampire, appears as a replacement actress, discovers Dresden's presence, and soon decides to kill both Harry and Thomas for being involved. However, a surprise Black Court attack forces a truce between them and they flee to the Raith's Chicago mansion for safety.

There, Dresden learns that Thomas is his half-brother and escapes an assassination attempt by Lord Raith, Thomas' and Lara's father. Soon after, Dresden finds a pattern to the curses and prepares a counterattack, but one of Genosa's ex-wives prevents him from saving the next target and frames him for the woman's death. He escapes and works out that all of Genosa's ex-wives are behind the Entropy Curse, with Lord Raith supporting them. Before the next curse can be unleashed against him, Dresden calls upon Murphy to help him stop Lord Raith and maneuvers Lara to save them all from her father.

At the same time, Harry has discovered a newly-established nest of Black Court vampires, led by a very old and dangerous vampire named Mavra. To wipe out the nest before it becomes entrenched, he enlists the help of his friend Karrin Murphy, the mercenary Jared Kincaid, and his mentor Ebenezar McCoy, but discovers that Kincaid and McCoy have already met. Despite almost getting blown up and burned to death, the crew successfully battle Mavra, destroy the nest, and rescue the children that had been taken as hostages. At the end, Thomas saves Harry by paying Kincaid's fee using his entire savings.

Plot points introduced

 * Thomas Raith is actually Harry's half-brother, sharing the same mother.
 * Harry inadvertently adopts Mouse.
 * Ebenezar McCoy reveals that he is the White Council's Blackstaff, and that he mentored Harry's mother, Margaret.
 * Kincaid is revealed to be part-demon.
 * Harry discovers that he can now wield Hellfire, as a result of picking up Lasciel's coin.
 * Harry's mother did not die naturally from complications from childbirth, but was actually killed by an entropy curse cast by Lord Raith.
 * Murphy, Kincaid, and Harry take on a group of vampires and their human thralls, an act which will have consequences in Dead Beat.
 * Harry burns his left hand horribly in the fight with Mavra's scourge, an injury which will trouble and handicap him from now on.
 * Lara Raith gains control over her father, making her the ruler of the White Court with her father acting as figurehead.