Chapter One: Hunters of Old

Europe, 686 A.D.

The wanderer left the village as he had found it: in ruins. Nothing would ever live in this forsaken area of forest again. Those monsters who had done this had made short work of all the people that lived in the village. Everyone was dead, the men in the fields, women in the houses, children at play. All drained of their blood. As of now, it was unknown whether vampires had done this.

There was no mistaking the fact that it had the signs of a vampiric cult, but it was no real way of being determined how long these people had been watched before being killed.

Draped in a flowing grey cape, the wanderer gripped the handle of his crossbow and cocked it before setting off into the darkness of the great forest. He would find the ones responsible for this treachery and end their madness.

He crept silently through the forest's thick underbrush and kept his eyes open, alert and aware to the goings on about him in this strange place. Everywhere there came the sounds of birds and other small animals scampering from his path. But he paid no attention to this: he had a destiny to fulfill and then would earn his rest. He kept going, tracking the trail of his quarry that led him away from all things humane and into a world filled with devilry and death.

He was tired, but knew that he could not stop himself from completing his given task. If he was successful, the world would be safe from those creatures of darkness that preyed upon the innocent from the shadows.

The forest itself was huge. Pausing underneath the branches of a massive oak tree, the wanderer knelt down and caught his breath. But it was what he saw at the base of the tree that let him know he was on the right path: a small, bloodstained amulet. He reached out and picked it up slowly, then wrapped it around one of the lower branches of the tree and offered a prayer for whoever it had belonged to. Then he stood up and continued on as before.

The darkness surrounded him in the cold, harsh underbrush that filled the forest. He was understandably scared although he hadn't even admitted his fear to himself. There were many creatures that roamed this once peaceful countryside, and vampires were the worst of the sort. Most of them were solitary, only killing animals and older people to feed on. Now there were those that would rip apart anyone or anything unfortunate enough to be standing in their way. No one had ever gotten this far.

As he took his bearing and looked around the woods, he glanced down and saw drops of blood all over the leaves and dirt. He was on the right trail, and now had a definite sense of direction. There was no denying the fact that he was now looking for an intent and satisfying kill.

Setting himself and checking his courage, the would-be vampire killer rushed off into the foliage that surrounded him...and kept him out of sight of his would-be targets. Now was the time to take his revenge, and he would in this world or the next.

The night was a very cold one, a harsh December night that was keeping most people indoors. Actually, the people with enough sense were the ones that were staying inside. Anybody foolish enough to wander the streets was in for a very rude awakening. Out there, among the many buildings that adorned the city, was a lone girl, sitting in a room.

She sat there in a hard wooden chair, with no cushioning. Her facial expressions were blank- it was as if she was in a daze and couldn't be brought out of it. She may have been fifteen or younger, it wasn't exactly known. The walls of the room were completely bare, and the small light fixture gave off only enough light to light the room sparingly. There was nothing there which may have interested her in the slightest, only a heavy metal door which was locked from the inside of the room with her.

She just sat there, staring straight at the small bars which adorned the window in the door. Someone was coming down the hallway, the soles of the shoes tapping against the hard tile floor were distinctive. Two minutes later, a man's face appeared at the window and he slowly looked around the room before giving his attention to the girl.

"Sheila." He said. The girl slowly fixed her gaze on him, her dark eyes slowly glittering as the light hit them.

"What have you saw?" He asked her. The girl's look shifted from clueless to direct.

"They're moving- through shadow and light...nothing to stop them. They're searching for something- I don't know what."

The man, who was dressed in a very distinctive business suit, reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial with a colorless liquid in it. He slipped it between the bars and the girl got up from the chair and walked up to the door. She accepted the vial and looked up at the man gingerly. He smiled at her.

"I told you that I'd keep you safe...keep you hidden away." He told her. The girl looked at the vial as she held it in her hand. Then she looked up at the man.

"Thank you...Edward." she said, which made him smile. He nodded at her and then disappeared from the tiny window- the sound of his shoes telling her that he was walking away from the door now.

Edward walked up a series of stairs and then came to a huge metal door. It was the kind used in bank vaults, only what it was guarding was much more precious. Edward took one last look down the deserted hallway, then he pressed a button on the door. As the hydraulic system engaged and closed the door slowly, Edward looked at his watch. It was 9:21 at night. Presumably, Sheila could take the serum and not be a danger to herself or others as she slept. The only problem was that her incurred powers didn't neccesarily stop- even after taking the serum.

Edward watched as the huge door finally closed completely and sealed itself until the morning time. On the front of the door were the words: Alumis per Sapum de Natra ei Su Kalla- Protect the One who Resides behind this Seal.

There was no way that those creatures would find her now, but he knew that even in this century- such a thing was possible to happen. Sheila was the last known seer of the Turaopulos family, the creatures had killed or converted the others for their own purposes.

As he walked through a series of hallways, Edward thought to himself about the circumstances of how they had first met Sheila. Although she resembled a teenage girl- she was anything but. In truth, Sheila was actually over 400 years old. Once her powers had manifested fully, her body had stopped aging and she remained simply like she was now. At night, she was locked into this room for her own safety, as well as the safety of other people because her spirit would separate from her body, and she was capable of doing anything at that time.

She'd been found in 1888, in San Francisco. At the time, her powers had caused quite a scare among people of the city who kept claiming that they saw a small ghost of a girl walking around town, dressed in nothing but a nightgown. At the time, she'd inspired many ghost stories and tall tales, and in the midst of it all- had inadvertently led a few people to their deaths as well. One guy, seeing her standing on the edge of the railing on a pier- surmised that she was trying to kill herself, and had flung himself into the cold, dark waters below, trying to stop her. It was probably at that moment of his death that he realized that she wasn't jumping at all- only simply standing there at the edge of the pier.

Edward and his circle hadn't chanced upon her until the year 1950, and at the time, Sheila had been keeping up a lot of trouble. Not because she was trying too, but since she'd never had the chance to fully learn how to control her powers from another Turaopulos family member- she had no knowledge of how to get in tune with her powers. It had taken a considerable amount of time, skill, and spellcraft to locate the girl and bind her. Since that time, Sheila had been under the protection of the Circle- or better yet, Edward and his friends.

As he closed the doors that led back down into the brightly lit basement, an attractive young woman with long red hair and dressed in a heavy coat with casual clothes came out from one of the adjoining rooms and smiled at him as she folded her arms.

''Edward. Still playing the role of father after all this time?" She asked, causing him to turn around at the sound of her voice.

"Still, no. Sheila knows who I am now, and she accepts that. I just think she's more comfortable with me giving her the serum than you or any of the others. That's why I keep taking it to her." Edward looked at the woman, and she leaned forward and gave him a hug.

"It's great to have you back, Sutrina- you should've called me, I'd have come and picked you up from the airport." Edward said, as he gave her a hug in return.

She laughed, a vibrant sound to his ears. They released each other, and Edward slowly reached up and smoothed back some of Sutrina's hair which had fallen in front of her right eye. As he did so, she looked at him and smiled again.

"So how did it go while I was away? Any disturbances? People dying? Creatures dying? Anyone cast a major spell?"

Edward laughed softly, then shook his head at her.

"Sorry Su, but no. Haven't had that kind of fun in a long time." He picked up a stack of papers from on top of a briefcase and started shuffling through them. The papers were reports from some of the other members of the Circle, some of whom had been dispatched to places around the globe, investigating strange circumstances.

Sutrina Atkins was as such, an agent of the Circle, and her mission had involved going to Rome and speaking to the High Father about some of the missions that they had undertaken in the past few years.

"Are you kidding me? Eddie- c'mon...we've got things out there commiting murders and other atrocities and we haven't had a decent shot at getting them yet? What's going on around here? Are we doing our jobs here or playing 'Find Waldo'?"

Edward looked at Sutrina and realized that she was dead serious about her assessment of things. He didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but it was what it was. The armies of the night had apparently taken to new avenues of finding victims. Save for some reports from other places, it seemed as if activity had decreased these past years.

Right at that point, a heavyset man poked his head around the corner of the door and addressed them both.

"Sutrina- glad to have ya back. Edward, we've just gotten a summons from the Doctor. He wants everyone upstairs ASAP for some kind of meeting. He told me to come and find you."

Edward looked up from the papers and nodded his head. "I'll be right there, Gibson. Tell the doc that I was just checking in on Sheila. He'll understand."

Gibson nodded and then disappeared back around the doorway. Sutrina looked at Edward and smiled wryly.

"I see things haven't changed all that much while I was gone."

"While you were gone? Good lord, child- you were only gone for a month. What did you expect to happen in such a short length of time?" Edward asked. Sutrina shrugged her shoulders, then walked out of the room.

Edward slowly shuffled the papers again, and then stood there. He was thinking about Sutrina. Even though she was much younger than him- and a human female, there was something about her which he liked. It wasn't just her attitude, it was her compassion for the job which he admired about her the most. She took each case seriously, and would admit it whenever she made a wrong call on anything.

Soon, very soon- Edward planned on retiring. Of everyone there, he had picked Sutrina as his replacement for team leader. He'd been at this job for centuries, and he was looking forward to regaining his humanity again. The counter spells had been effective at keeping him young and vitally healthy, but in truth- he was as old as the Doctor himself. Rolling up his sleeves, he took a chance to look at the crucial spell tattoos which adorned his forearms. There were six of them, and he knew that once he passed them to Sutrina, his role in the Circle would be over. He would be allowed his share of the capital, and given a job at the prestigous Foundation someplace far removed from this nonsense.

Rolling down his sleeves, Edward left the room to join the others in the library conference room.