Frank stepped off the gangplank and let the flow of passengers carry him through into the arrivals hall.  He knew more than one of the finely dressed passengers was staring at him, but he didn't make any attempt to cover either his tattoos or his clerical collar.

He wasn't here for them.  Ignoring the rows of waiting carriages, Frank walked away ( Read more... )

Kevin wasn't always good at tracking--when he was a kid, traveling with his family, sometimes he'd get dragged along on hunting trips, where he'd step on a twig or stumble into the brush at exactly the wrong time, invariably scaring the game away. He's better now. When he hears the sounds of a struggle off a dark alleyway, he doesn't immediately ( Read more... )

Gerard and Frank fell into step with each other as they walked, side by side, down the busy street. "So," Frank said at last. "Where are you off to today, Doctor Gerard ( Read more... )

The day Gerard brings his new pastor-friend out drinking with Kevin and the rest of them happens to be two days after the fifth time Kevin has run into Frank on his rounds at night. Either Frank has a knack for finding trouble, or he's doing his best to seek Kevin out, and it's starting to make him nervous.

Seeing him is a surprise--Kevin always ( Read more... )

Looking back, parts of it will always seem more like a nightmare than reality.

...

Kevin has been going to the point of exhaustion and beyond, hauling people out of the wreckage. Finally, Joe gives up and calls in the big guns, and sends for Mike to make Kevin stop and rest. Even Mike gets kind of intimidated trying to talk Kevin down when he's like ( Read more... )

Kevin's not quite sure anymore why he's going masked. What's he protecting? The world as he knows it is disappearing before his eyes. He still ends up losing count of the number of heads he clobbers, but all of them are strangers, and their boots are too good to be locals. Outsiders, then, swarming onto the striken slums like vultures.

"Where do ( Read more... )

One day Ryan asks him, "So, you really believe all that stuff?"

"All what stuff?" Frank has to ask, because this is geniunely, completely out of the blue.

Ryan waves his hand in a vague way that's apparently meant to indicate his thoughts. "You know, sin. Damnation. Religion."

Frank laughs. "Well, there's more to it than that."

"Sure, yeah." Ryan's ( Read more... )