Prologue

            Alice’s breath hung in the air, visibly reminding her that despite the sweat plastering her hair to her forehead and neck that the dank castle she was sneaking through was permeated by an unearthly chill. Her senses on edge she crept down the hallway trying to will her footsteps to make less noise. Tightly clutching her tool pouch to her she silently cursed the old man for sending her in here to flush the beast out. It was just then that she felt the hot breath on her shoulder and felt it cling to her cheek in the winter chill. She was nearly at the next corner before she even realized that her years of training had taken over and that she was fleeing the beast.

            Rounding the corner she stole a glance back behind her to confirm that indeed the massive wolf creature was chasing her and was far too close for comfort. The wolfman stood nearly 9 feet tall with impossibly broad shoulders and claws that seemed as though they could tear the thick doors off the castle walls without even trying. All that paled in comparison to the snarling maw that was gushing steaming breath into the winter air with every panting stride making its head seeming wreathed with smoke. With its wicked fangs a hairsbreadth from Alice’s neck she sharply turned the corner and bolted off in the other direction. The wolfman scrambled to find purchase on the worn stones of the castle floor and nearly ended its lunge by crashing into the decorative furniture along the wall.

            With only seconds to spare between the wolf and Alice she drew her revolver from a thigh holster and took aim at the stained glass window at the end of the short, dead-end hallway. The wolf, having found its footing and now frothing at the mouth lunged once more for Alice she dove out the shattering window. The impressive leap of the wolfman would have surely found its target, even mid-fall had she not hooked her grappling line to the window’s ledge as she jumped. The line snapped taut and yanked Alice into a painful smack against the castle wall as the wolf dove through where she would have been only an instant before. “Good girl” muttered the old man as he took aim with his rifle and planted a silver bullet directly between the eyes of the wolf. The wolfman was already dead before it even hit the ground.

            Covered in bruises and small cuts from her exhausting night of being chased by yet another monster, Alice let out her grapple line and lowered herself to the ground where her mentor  was loading onto a cart the corpse of what was now a young German man. “I’m getting really tired of being bait for these jobs.” She yelled. Jonah, as was his usual response to these complaints, simply sighed and glared at her with a world weary expression that told her to drop it. Alice knew the truth of why she was taking the more dangerous jobs these days, as powerful as he was with his arcane knowledge, medicines and gadgets, there was nothing the old man could do about the passage of time and he wasn’t as agile as he once was. Tying a blanket around the body and climbing into the carriage seat he simply said “Come on, let’s turn this in and go get something to eat.” In response Alice merely gave the body a kick as she climbed into the cart beside the man who had raised and trained her for the last 6 years. The man who had opened her eyes to not only the darker horrors of the world, but her own potential as well. The man known only as Jonah.

…

            Hours later they rode back into the small town with the unpronounceable name to be greeted by people who could only be described as the quintessential frightened peasants. As Jonah  addressed the crowd in their native dialect Alice simply did her part to appear the inconsequential apprentice. Obviously no one in this poor, rural village had the money to pay them for their services which is why it should have been a welcome relief that their contact from the church was waiting for them at the inn. It should have been, but it wasn’t. If Brother Claudio was here then it meant that he had another job for them already. Sure enough when the Old Man and Alice sat down at the inn to heaping portions of a dish that seemed to consist entirely of cabbage and lamb Brother Claudio attempted to join them and had with him another file detailing their next case. Before the priest had even opened his mouth the old man had cut him off with a gruff exclamation of “You don’t talk until we finish eating!”

            The three of them made an odd trio, Alice’s pale, freckled complexion and violently red, waist length hair stood out as the most vibrant colors in the room. Jonah by contrast had a weathered face that seemed as though it had once been chiseled from stone. It was possible that he had once been stunningly handsome, but now too many years of scowling and too many stories to tell made it impossible to see him as anything but intimidating. Beside the pair of opposites sat what could only be described as a palate cleanser, Brother Claudio was a purposefully bland man of the church. If you were to contemplate him for more than a moment you might realize that entirely uninteresting appearance was carefully crafted to make him instantly forgettable, but that would require you to pay attention to him for more than a more than a moment.

Brother Claudio sat with quiet patience for the rest of the meal with his hands folded neatly in front of him. Aside from that the meal passed normally for the duo of monster hunters: Alice delighted in making idle chit chat about anything that crossed her mind while for his part the old man responded mostly with grunts and a variety of exasperated facial expressions between bites. “Honestly though, why name it ‘The Wolf-Man of Berlin’ if we’re nowhere near Berlin?” she was saying as Jonah finished the last of his plate and cleared his throat to address the priest. “So where exactly are our benefactors sending us this time?” “New Orleans, in America. There’s been a series of disappearances and the rumors are that there’s something demonic involved.” Claudio said while pushing an envelope of cash and a case file across the table. “What makes you think demons?” he asked, opening the envelope and counting the bills inside while leaving the file untouched. “Every person that’s gone missing was last seen in some kind of trance before they vanished without a trace. We’re afraid that with the upcoming Mardi Gras celebration that whoever is behind this may have a larger plan in mind. We’re asking you to find them, put a stop to it and rescue the missing if at all possible”.

            The old man sat back in his creaking chair and closed his eyes. A long moment passed between the three of them, Alice sitting on pins and needles, Jonah silently mulling over his decision and Claudio, as always, smiling that implacable smile that made it impossible to tell what he actually thought. “Fine…” Jonah groaned without opening his eyes “just get me a passage on a steamer, none of those flying machines”. Brother Claudio smiled a little wider as, having seen this coming, he had already included the tickets in the case file. A few days later they were crossing the ocean to the so called land of the free.

            A half a world away a young well dressed man glanced over his shoulder as he did his best to melt into the shadows of the alleyway he was being summoned to. A darker, unseen figure waiting for him pulled him deeper into the shadows and into a heated embrace. The two groped each other hungrily in the night without a single word passing between them. When they finally surfaced for air from the passionate kiss the unseen woman asked “Did you bring it?” There was a flash of dazzling white teeth as the young man grinned wide and brought an amulet out from beneath his coat. He held it just out of her reach as he pulled her in for another kiss. Ignoring the amulet she wrapped her arms around his neck and dragged him to the ground. An all too short time later the man lay on the ground panting and chuckled to himself “I think I just ruined my suit”. The woman sat cross legged next to him staring transfixed at the amulet and didn’t respond to him at all. “Same time next week then?” he asked as he stood, trying in vain to brush some of the grime off the expensive clothes. The woman suddenly looked him dead in the eye and snapped her fingers “Actually, I don’t need you anymore. You will go now”. The young man’s body stiffened and his eyes glazed, if he had still had any presence of mind he might have noticed that he had started walking further into the shadows of the alley. The young man was never heard from again.