Merrick Mayfair is a fictional character in The Vampire Chronicles written by Anne Rice. She appears in the seventh book of the series, Merrick. She is a member of The Talamasca and is acquainted with David Talbot.
Merrick is suddenly contacted by David Talbot, now a vampire, after his "death". He asks her to raise the spirits of Claudia for Louis de Pointe du Lac. Louis wants to know if Claudia is at peace after her death.
Merrick can do this since she is a powerful witch, she is a part of great witch family called "The Mayfair Witches". When her godmother, Great Nannane, died there was no one who could take care of her because her sister (Honey in the Sunshine) and her mother (Cold Sandra) were deceased. There is also a matter of her raising. The Mayfair Family is big and they are both black and white but are all distanced from her immediate family. Orphaned, the young Merrick is taken in by David Talbot and Aaron Lightner and The Talamasca.
As she grows her power increases and she studies to learn all that she can. She goes to high school and a university. Meantime she bonds with David and Aaron. When she is an adult she returns to become a full member of The Talamasca.
When David suddenly dies, she knows something is not right and Aaron tells her nothing. When she says farewell to David's dead body her suspicions are confirmed. She decides to find papers where information about David has been filed. Merrick finds out that David has helped the famous vampire Lestat de Lioncourt. Lestat's powerful vampire body has been stolen by a former member of The Talamasca, Raglan James. When they got Lestat's body back Raglan stole David's body instead and David ended up in the body of a young male. David's original body is destroyed when Raglan, in David's original body, tries to trick Lestat to giving him "the Dark Gift".
When David contacts her, years later, Merrick knows all of this.
She agrees to raise the spirit of Claudia. When Merrick meets Louis, they fall in love, more or less. After the ceremony Louis and Merrick express a desire to talk and David goes out. The next night he finds that Merrick has been made into a vampire by Louis. Merrick later confesses to David, Louis and Lestat that it is what she's wanted ever since she found out about what happened to David. She also revealed that her ancestors had visited her dreams with a similar message of her fate. She used magic to bring David and Louis to her. When Louis later is dying after his attempt to burn himself in the sun to join Claudia, Lestat fully awakes from his sleep. He saves Louis by letting him drink from his powerful blood. Merrick is also allowed to drink and joins the little coven.
Later a young vampire named Quinn calls upon Lestat and asks for help in Blackwood Farm. The spirit of his dead twin brother (named Goblin) had been haunting him all his life, and now, when he is a vampire, Quinn is the victim of several attacks. Lestat can not help Quinn on his own and asks Merrick for help, and she agrees. She explains the nature of spirits and says that Goblin refuses "to go into The Light". She performs a kind of exorcism, but to make the spirit "go into the Light" she ends her own life and they both "go into the Light" together. It was earlier revealed by Lestat that Merrick was suffering, which all new vampires do due to their new nature.
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