Prologue - Devil's Knight

The trash-strewn alley was cloaked in darkness, a hallway of shadow in a city of night. The pavement was strewn with debris, a broken doll looking soulfully into the night from atop a dumpster, a Christmas tree propped against the wall, a remnant of happier times. It was at the mouth of this hallway that the hunter stood, searching the darkness for his prey with piercing blue eyes.

With a shake of his raven-haired head droplets flew from wet hair to splash against the sidewalk. With a last look out into the rainy street, he stepped into the alley. After a few feet he detected a faint smell of unwashed flesh. After a few more feet the smell of death.

As the hunter tread further into the alley he caught sight of a slight movement past the dumpster, near the opposite end of the alley. A wooden door was propped against some trash cans, forming a shelter of sorts. From this shelter protruded a dirty foot.

Moving past the dumpster the hunter reached under his black trenchcoat and produced a shotgun, bringing it to bear on the makeshift home. As he circled around the shelter more of the body was exposed, revealing a young man whose clothes were tattered and whose body was marked with claws. Straddling the man was a creature, a vampire, his mouth fixed on the young man's throat, draining the youth's life from him.

At the sight of the undead a tightness developed around the hunter's eyes and he began to raise the shotgun. The rustle of the hunter's clothes alerted the vampire and its pale head snapped around, eyes cracking open, revealing glowing red orbs fixed on the hunter's neck. With a single fluid motion the vampire leapt from its meal, a spray of blood in its wake, raising its claws to attack the hunter.

With the same preternatural speed the hunter stepped to the side, causing the vampire to fly past him, and fired a single silver slug into the rear of the creature's head. It impacted with a wed thud, nearly removing the head from its undead body. As the vampire began to collapse the hunter produced a silver stake and drove it through the vampire's heart, pinning it to the brick wall of the alley. The hunter stepped back and pulled a flask from out of his pocket, pouring the contents over the undead corpse. With a single flick of his Zippo the vampire became a pillar of flame, sending spectral shadows dancing across the hunter's face, reflecting like hellfire in haunted blue eyes. "I hope you rest better, my Tatiana."

A steady drizzle fell from the heavens, capable of drenching a person to the skin in moments. What a miserable night, Gabriel Walker thought as he walked down the darkened avenues of New York. Glancing upwards he saw the sky blanketed in a solid sheet of clouds that had rolled in off of the Atlantic overnight. Visibility was cut to mere feet due to the combination of the rain and a thick haze. What Mom would have called pea-soup, Gabriel thought. Not the type of weather normal people went out in, much less enjoyed.

From out of the haze rang a scream, the voice of an elderly man. Gabriel was running towards the sound even before the echoes were swallowed by the dark. Through the mist Gabriel could see three figures, one obviously an elderly man, the others less easily identified. One appeared to be extremely tall and broad while the remaining member appeared to be some form of... bear?

"Get the hell away from him!" exploded from Gabriel's throat. The two figures turned, and seeing Gabriel, laughed. The bear turned back to the old man and lashed out, catching him across the face with one clawed paw, eliciting a scream of pain. The man collapsed, his blood mingling with the falling rain and flowing into the gutter. Now both figures had their attention fixed on Gabriel.

As he moved closer, Gabriel could see that these two muggers definitely weren't human. The tall one had jet black skin and was over seven feet tall and nearly four feet wide. At Gabriel's inspection he grinned, revealing metallic teeth and a blood red tongue. The bear appeared to be a normal black bear with an extra set of legs and glowing yellow eyes. "Goddamn Bane..." Gabriel muttered under his breath.

"Hey, kid, give me your lunch money," the black one whined in a singsong voice accompanied by harsh laughter by his companion.

Gabriel just shook his head, "Get your own damn money, freak," he growled, glancing at the old man to see if he was still alive. The momentary distraction was all the black creature needed. His hand shot out, grabbing Gabriel's wrist in a grip of steel.

"I'll get my own money, little boy. Off of your bleedin' corpse," it said, bringing its face close to Gabriel's. Fetid breath assaulted Gabriel's senses as it spoke, breath tinged with the smell of metal and blood.

"Jesus, some people are just plain stupid," Gabriel muttered. With a screech of metal a dumpster rolled across the alley and crashed into the bear, pinning it against the wall. There was a sickening crack as the creature's chest caved in, counterpointed by an ear shattering scream escaping from the bear's mouth through a froth of blood. The remaining creature's head spun towards his companion for a moment and then back towards Gabriel.

"You little-" His sentence was cut off by a scream of pain as a pillar of fire engulfed Gabriel, burning away the mist and darkness. The creature's hand holding Gabriel shriveled at the same time that it was jerked away in agony. The creature backed away, terror etched on its inhuman face as it stumbled away into the night clutching its shriveled hand.

As quickly as the flames had appeared they vanished, leaving only a scorch mark on the pavement from where Gabriel had stood. He moved quickly to where the man was lying on the cold ground and found him to still be alive, barely. Gabriel laid warm hands on the man's temples and a golden nimbus began to form in his palms. The golden light expanded to encompass the man's entire body and his wounds began to visibly close. Within minutes all traces of his terrible injuries were gone except for the stain of blood on his clothes. His chest began to rise and fall in normal slumber.

Gabriel rose from his crouch, his knees trembling slightly from the amount of energy he had used. He breathed deeply for a moment and them picked up the man. I'll just drop him off at the police station and then head down to the cafe, he though wearily. Both he and the old man disappeared, engulfed by the hazy night.

Incense swirled throughout the air, stirred by a slight breeze coming in through the open window. A single taper lit the room, casting shadows upon a young woman's face. The yellow flame illuminated her bright blue eyes, halfways closed, staring at a mural on the wall. A flute could be heard playing downstairs, the haunting melody carrying through the floorboards into the woman's private chamber.

In moments the woman's eyes closed and her limbs went limp. A spectral form rose from her body and discorporated into the air. The candle burnt on.

A maelstrom of images assaulted her senses, images from her past, her present, her wishful future. The house of her childhood, a woman, a pair of irridescent eyes, a woman's bare shoulder, a watch. After a few minutes of confused impressions the images began to disperse and she found herself floating in chaos, surrounded by millions of globes. Globes showing scenes from both dream and nightmare, pictures of lovers and demons.

Eve found herself standing outside an ever-shifting house. One moment it was painted blue, the next it had darkened to purple and then brightened to green. New windows formed, tearing their way out of the house while others filled in like wounds healing.

Intrigued, Eve walked up on the porch and looked in through a window. Inside was the stuff of nightmares. Suspended inside was the earth, blackened and dead. The image changed to show a city street, skyscrapers stark shadows against a wall of fire hundreds of feet high. Corpses littered the streets, children lying beside their mothers, soldiers' bodies lying where they had fallen while running in terror.

Silhouetted against the flames stood a creature, a creature that radiated evil. It was beautiful, pure white skin standing stark against black clothes, it's face concealed behind a simple drama mask painted into a frown. And more, it radiated power. As Eve watched, the creature turned its head slowly, fixing its gaze upon her. A searing pain tore through her mental defenses and she staggered as if struck, falling backwards off the porch.

A crack of lightning outside her window awoke Eve from her trance with a start. She shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs out. She stood up from her position on the floor and stretched, running her hand through her black hair and yawning. Her eyes fixed upon the taper burning on the floor in front of her cushions, and the images came flooding back. Her pale face became even more white as the memories and their meaning struck her. Grabbing her coat and flute case, she ran out the door. Trailing in her wake were the words, "Oh shit."

As her door closed a cold wind blew in through the open window, extinguishing the candle.