Demon Blood

They burned at the touch of sunlight. They were called nosferatu, “those who would not be tolerated.”
    This was the First Battle.
    Demons could travel through the Gates to Earth, where humans lived under the protection of the seraphim and the Rules, which forbade both angels and demons from killing humans and from interfering with human free will. Demons could tempt mankind to sin, however, so that when men died, their souls would not ascend into Heaven, but be tortured in the Pit. From those tortured souls, Lucifer drew much of his power. He reigned in Hell, hoarding knowledge, using angelic symbols and blood to perform experiments on lower creatures from Earth and the Chaos realm, from which he drew even more power. He did not rule uncontested, however. The demon Belial, once Lucifer’s lieutenant, promised his fellow demons a return to Grace and escape from their punishment if they helped him overthrow Lucifer’s throne. Their civil war has been waged in Hell for millennia.
    The seraphim, when they were not on Earth, resided in the realm of Caelum—a shining marble city situated in the center of an endless sea. The creatures of light took human form when they walked among men, but the seraphim’s overwhelming beauty and manner eventually led mankind to regard them as gods. Lucifer’s jealousy was great. In his rage, he brought a dragon from Chaos to Earth, declaring another war upon the seraphim.
    This war, the Second Battle, did not take place in the heavens, but on Earth. The demons rode the dragon, and the seraphim fell before it. The world burned. Mankind saw the battle taking place, and one man—Michael—struck his sword into the great beast’s heart, slaying the dragon.
    With the dragon defeated, the seraphim regrouped and were victorious. But the angels knew that they could never hide their nature from humans; it would only lead to more Earth-bound wars between demons and angels, and offer a false truth to mankind. They were not gods.
    So they bestowed upon Michael the power of the angels, and gave unto him the ability to transform any other human who sacrificed his life to save another from the temptations of demons and the terrors of the nosferatu. These men and women would be called Guardians. In addition to immortality, wings, strength, and the ability to alter their appearance, these Guardians were given individual Gifts to assist them in their battles. Because they had once been human, they could walk among men without drawing notice, but like the angels, Guardians had to follow the Rules; they could not interfere with human free will or kill humans, no matter how terrible some men were. If a Guardian broke the Rules, he either had to Fall and return to human form, or Ascend and go on to his afterlife.
    Centuries passed, and although the numbers of Guardians increased, many also died. Their lives were fraught with danger, and they often had to defend themselves in combat against demons and nosferatu. They avoided bargains and wagers with demons; if left unfulfilled, a demon’s bargain would trap their eternal soul in Hell’s frozen field. And they fought to save as many humans as possible, all the while concealing their existence from them.
    In time, the Guardians discovered that humans who had been attacked by nosferatu might be saved by drinking the creature’s blood. Though much stronger than humans—and a vampire created from nosferatu blood was stronger than one transformed by another vampire’s blood—the vampires were weaker than Guardians and could not alter their shapes. Like the nosferatu, these transformed humans were vulnerable to daylight and suffered from a deep and powerful hunger—the bloodlust. Fearing discovery and persecution by humans, vampires formed secret communities, living among humans in their cities, but feeding only from one another.
    The vampires’ souls were not transformed; their characters were the same in undeath as they had been in life. The vampires were not bound by the Rules, just as nosferatu were not, and so the Guardians took upon themselves another task—to guard humans against vampires should the need arise. For the most part, Guardians allowed the vampires to live as they willed, but there were those vampires who had to be watched more closely than others, and who would be destroyed if they broke the Rules.
    So the Guardians fought to keep the influence of those Above and Below from touching humanity. There is no end to this story; the