Larissa Kinley

Larissa Kinley is a vampire and Lieutenant of Department 19.

Physical description
Larissa has long dark hair, framing her narrow and oval-shaped face. She also has dark brown eyes which have big gaps between them. Her skin is of a milky white colour and her nose is small and a bit pointed. Jamie describes her as "really, really beautiful."

Personality
Larissa is brave and sometimes violent. She can be arrogant and a bit ignorant to matters at hand. When she is with her friends, she is often kind, funny and playful.

History
Larissa grew up in Reading, England with her younger brother Liam and parents with whom she didn't have a good relationship.

On July 24, 2004 she went with her friend, Amber and some other girls to an annual fair in Reading. While the others were all busy, Larissa walked around all alone and eventually put out some cigarettes and a lighter from her pocket. Before she could light a cigarette, a man who would later turn out to be Grey, the oldest vampire in Britain, approached her. He spoke a few words with her before he bit her and she lost consciousness.

Eventually, Larissa woke up in the middle of the night lying on the ground. She got up and walked back home where she went to her room and got to bed. Throughout the night, agony had filled her body. Immediately after her turning was complete, Larissa ran away from home. This was to stop the hunger that would force her to feed from her famiy, after she nearly drank from Liam. She then lived on the streets for six months.

Some time later, Larissa started working for Alexandru Rusmanov. Under the pretense that she was a ruthless killer, She worked for him for two years before he ordered her to kill Jamie Carpenter. This was to get revenge on the Carpenter family for the time in Hungary when Julian Carpenter, Jamie's father, killed Alexandru's wife, Ilyana.

Meeting Jamie
Larissa had been tasked with the objective of killing Jamie Carpenter by Alexandru however, Larissa had failed to do this. When Alexandru had found out that she was unable to kill Jamie, she's beaten within an inch of her life and then gets thrown out of the sky. She lands in a flower bed in Matt Browning's back garden, lives, and is found by Department 19. She is then taken to the loop where they put her in a cell.

Later, Jamie visits her there because he believes that she knows where Alexandru is. She agrees to lead them to him but instead takes them to Valhalla, a community of vampires in northern England who have chosen not to drink human blood. Grey is there and Larissa exposes him as a fraud, claiming that he never drinks human blood whilst feeding off teenage girls. When the Department finds out that she led them to Valhalla to get personal revenge instead of trying to help them find Marie Carpenter, everyone's furious with Larissa for wasting time that could have been used to find Jamie's mum.

She later on develops a relationship with Jamie, falling for him during their time together.

As a Member of Blacklight
In the following months, Larissa and Jamie get closer and eventually confess their love to one another. At that time she is an operator in Squad G-17 along with Kate and Jamie. Her field name is Beta and goes with Squad G-17 on a number of Operations throughout the book, most notably the one to the Twilight Care Home when the squad meets Valentin Rusmanov. She and Kate both get left behind by Jamie on his mission to Paris.They're hurt, but Jamie explains it's him trying to protect them. However, this backfires rather because it means Larissa is still in the base when Valeri Rusmanov launches his devastating attack. She has her throat torn out by Valeri himself, but Valentin feeds her his own blood to try and keep her alive. She's burnt almost into oblivion seconds later due to the UV bombs setting off, but both of the vampires are healed with blood. She is awarded a medal towards the end of the book and is promoted to lieutenant.

Secondment to "Dreamland"
Larissa is on a temporary secondment to the American NS9 base Dreamland, situated in Area 51. She was given a task to look for six Operators to take back to Blacklight to help strengthen them in the aftermath of Valeri's attack. She had proven to be most valuable in taking down a drug-dealing cartel which had involved the assistance of vampires. Larissa was quite exceptional when she was training the new recruits as well. She also finds out a bit about Julian Carpenter who is being kept as a prisoner deep in the NS9 base. Right at the end of the book she hears him being called Julian, but still can't be entirely sure that he is Jamie's dad.

Skills and abilities
This section needs revision.

Larissa has all normal vampiric abilities, including fangs, heightened strength, speed and senses, the ability to fly.

The extent of her abilities is never fully specified, although she can fly undetermined distances, move faster than the human eye can follow, smell other vampires, hear heartbeats and breathing (and eavesdrop on conversations from hundreds of meters away), and on numerous occasion it has been stated that when she is restraining someone they cannot move a millimeter without her permission. She is extremely strong, able to tear peoples limbs off, lift several tonnes and punch though at least two feet of concrete.

Because she is a vampire, she is also nearly impossible to kill ‒ she has been shot through the stomach, suffered severe internal bleeding, had her throat ripped out, and even been burnt down to a skeleton. She heals almost immediately when she drinks blood.

Larissa also has an extremely high pain threshhold. She once failed to even notice she was shot through the stomach, and managed to fly from eastern Europe to The Loop, whilst bleeding internally and carrying Jamie.

Because Larissa was turned by Grey, she is far more powerful than most vampires, able to hold her own against the Rusmanovs and even a weakened Dracula, despite having been turned for only three years.

Larissa is highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, using her vampire abilities to her advantage. She is able to move faster than most of her enemies, and could kill an unarmed human in seconds.

Larissa is also able to growl, although the pitch and timbre is never specified.

Relationships
Jamie= Larissa and Jamie Carpenter are very close and have an intimate relationship with each other. At first, Jamie was quite wary and cautious of Larissa. However, as time progressed the two bonded and eventually developed romantic feelings for each other. Larissa had hesitated to take the life of Jamie when she was ordered to kill him the first time they met. She was unable to kill him, a complete stranger at the time. Kate= She and Kate Randall are practically like inseparable sisters. They trust each other completely and like the rest of their group of friends, also Jamie and Matt, they swore to never keep secrets from one another and to always have each other's backs. Matt= Matt Browning and Larissa may have gotten off the wrong foot at first as Larissa did indeed slash his throat out which nearly killed him; however, things have smoothed out since then and they became friends. Tim= Tim Albertsson and Larissa have quite an awkward relationship. Tim actually has developed romantic feelings for Larissa during her visit in NS9's base, "Dreamland." Larissa takes precautions in order not to meet Tim again as the encounter would most likely not end well.

Trivia

 * Larissa studied history and English at college (see chapter 28 of Department 19, "a boy from their history class"; "...pushed the pages of her coursework around her desk for a couple of hours, her mind on anything but Jane Austen.").
 * Larissa's real age is debatable, as the books contradict themselves/each other on many occasions on this subject (such as information stated clashing with dates of events given), with her age at the start of Battle Lines being either 20 (almost 21) or 22 going on 23 (according to the date she was turned).
 * Larissa used to smoke before she was turned (see chapter 28 of Department 19, 'All the Fun of the Fair').
 * Larissa's parents rejected her after she was turned. However, it is unknown what her younger brother Liam's reaction was. She appears to miss Liam far more than she misses her parents, so this may suggest that he did not reject her after she was turned. Despite this suggestion, however, she chooses not to contact him before the attack on Chateau Dauncy.
 * Larissa's eyes are most commonly described as being dark brown. However, they are (for reasons unknown) described as being pale brown in Chapter 2 of Zero Hour, 'Playing Rough'.

Appearances

 * Department 19
 * Department 19: The Rising
 * The Secret History of a Teenage Vampire
 * Department 19: Battle Lines
 * Department 19: Zero Hour
 * Department 19: Darkest Night