Vampires de Manhattan, le Guide

Chapter One

It was the beginning of the end. Lucifer, the Prince of Heaven, the Morningstar, the most beautiful angel of all time, became so enamored with his own beauty and power that he came to believe his light was as great as the Almighty, and that the throne should be his and his alone. And so he gathered his loyal army of angels for the War to End All Wars, and with swords blazing, trumpets blasting, and hellfire in his heart, he came to claim what was not his to claim.

The battle was a day of black smoke and searing flame, clashing swords and cracking whips. Alas, with victory in Lucifer’s grasp, at the crucial moment to deliver the crushing blow, the twin Angels of the Apocalypse—Abbadon and Azrael—his most loyal lieutenants, stayed their hand. They betrayed the ­Morningstar and knelt to the golden sword of Michael instead, turning the tide of battle. But it was too late to save themselves.

All the rogue angels were banished from Heaven. They woke to the cold of the earth as immortals, condemned to walk the world forever, and cursed until the end of days to feed on the blood of their human ­brethren.

Where once they were angels, they were now “vam­pyres.” Angels of fire and death. Soulless creatures bereft of light and love, with the immortal blue blood running in their veins.

But they were not without hope. Gabrielle, the ­Virtuous, out of love for her people, chose to descend with them, to bring a ray of light to the damned. She was joined by her mate, the mightiest of them all, ­Michael, Pure of Heart, who could not bear to spend eternity apart from her. Gabrielle and Michael were called the Uncorrupted, vampires by choice instead of sin.

Together, Gabrielle and Michael established the Code of the Vampires, a foundation of rules that would govern their community through the centuries, and help them to forge a way back to their glorious home in Paradise. The life cycles of the vampires were coordinated to match a human lifetime, and so the vampires ­followed the rites of life (Expression), death (Expulsion), and reincarnation (Evolution).

But Lucifer and his angels remained contemptuous of their fall from Paradise. They had no desire to regain God’s grace or to live by the Code. They preyed on their fellow vampires, feeding on their blood and memories until they became beings of chaos, misery, and delirium. Their blood turned silver, and they were called Croatan, the Silver Bloods.

For a time they were subdued and controlled by the power of the Uncorrupted, and for centuries served as the Blue Bloods’ slaves. That is, until the day the slaves rose up against their masters in a merciless slaughter. Thus did Michael declare war against Lucifer and his followers, seeking revenge and bringing death and havoc to his enemies.

The war culminated in a final battle in ancient Rome, when Cassius (Michael) unmasked the emperor Caligula, who was revealed to be Lucifer himself. ­Michael sent Lucifer into the fires of Hell by the point of his golden sword, forever locking him behind an impenetrable gate.

After Rome, for millennia the Blue Bloods lived in relative safety. However, every hundred years or so, ­rumors persisted of attacks on young vampires in ­Venice, Florence, Barcelona, and Cologne, but information was inconclusive, and later suppressed. For all intents and purposes, the community believed the Silver Bloods had been destroyed.

Distressed by the rise of religious persecution in ­Europe in the seventeenth century, a coven of Blue Bloods crossed to America, looking for peace. But the ancient evil followed them there, with a rash of mysterious disappearances at Plymouth. A few years later, their entire settlement at Roanoke was taken, with no clue as to their whereabouts except for a lone message—“Croatan”—nailed on a tree.

During this time of chaos in Plymouth, John Carver (the angel Metraton) called for a White Vote to challenge the leadership and gain the title of Regis of the Coven. John and his wife, Catherine Carver (the angel Seraphiel), were convinced that the Silver Bloods had never been fully vanquished and that a traitor Silver Blood was hidden among their ranks; that one of their own was Corrupted. John Carver agitated for vigilance and an investigation.

But Myles Standish (the archangel Michael) was equally passionate in his belief that the Silver Bloods no longer walked the earth. For the first time in Blue Blood history there was disagreement within the ­Conclave of Elders. But John Carver lost the White Vote, as the Conclave chose Myles Standish, thereby confirming their faith in Michael once again. The Carvers lost their governing position in the Conclave, their lone opposing voice silenced under the Regis’s ironfisted rule.

As the years went by, the Blue Bloods grew comfortable, satisfied, fearless, and proud. They amassed vast wealth and influence in the New World that rivaled the grand palaces and empires they had built in the Old. The Silver Bloods had neither been seen nor heard from since Roanoke. As far as the ruling Conclave was concerned, Croatan were a myth; their existence legislated out of Blue Blood history.

In New York City, the Conclave leadership established the Committee, under whose aegis the vampires ran the Board of Trustees of the New York Blood Bank, among other educational institutions and charitable causes, as the Blue Bloods continued to advance their mission to bring art, light, truth, and justice to the human world.