Rowan Hurst was orphaned at a young age. He does not know his parents or if they are alive. He grew in the Church orphanage for the majority of his life. Despite never being very religious he had an exceptional talent for spiritual matters. He had a keen 6th sense that allowed him to see and hear spirits. Most spirits he encountered were benign or even good. However some were very very bad.

One night when he was 11 he followed Father Brown who was the orphanage leader in one of his many nightly outings. It had been such a peculiar thing that he had noticed for the last several years. At least once a month father Brown would leave the orphanage at night with a group of people and be gone for hours. In fact on occasion he would even be gone for days. It wasn't explicitly forbidden to ask where he went but it was some sort of strange unspoken rule that was respected by all members of the Church. The only clue about his journeys was that every time when he returned he looked like death and would usually fall into a deep sleep. Sometimes but not always he would return with an object wrapped in a purple sash. He would only see it for a moment before he tucked it away somewhere hidden in the vaults of the church.

On this particular night on all hallows eve he followed the Priest deep into the woods. It was a dark night with no moon so it was easy to follow undetected. It had even rained so the freshly fallen leaves were moist and didn't make a sound as he walked over them. Father Brown eventually emerged at a large clearning in the middle of the woods. IT couldn't have been more than three or four miles from the large stone Church. Standing there waiting were three other men in cloaks matching the Father's cloak. In the middle was a young woman around 17 or 18. He had messy blond hair and lacerations all over her body and face. Blood soaked her mouth and her deep blue eyes pleaded for mercy. She was bound in chains by the wrists to a large circular stone alter that she sat on. The chains were so short that she couldn't stand up properly.

"What the fuck..." Rowan thought to himself as he came upon the scene. Suddenly as Father Brown arrived the group took a formation surrounding the girl by all 4 cardinal directions. Each sprinkled a handful of holy water onto the woman who screamed. They all began chanting somethins the girl began to scream and scream. However something was off. Each and every scream sounded slightly different. As if a second person had been screaming with her. The girl's voice became fainter and fainter as this new raspy voice replaced it. All at once the voice shifted from screaming to manacle laughter. The girl's pure blue eyes had turned a foul yellow and the white of her eyes pitch black as the night sky. Her shoulders popped and cracked as they tore out of place. Slowly she stands to her bleeding feet. Her arms sagging at the shoulder as the only thing holding them in place was her pale delicate skin. A horrific grin spreads across the girl's face.

"Back from whence you came foul priests. The girl is mine." The demon spoke in an otherworldly tone and with an accent he didn't recognize. Then something strange happened. A dark shadowy figure of a demon with great spiral horns and bear like claws rises from her body. The priests don't seem to see it. Suddenly one of the priests is struck by the demon. They didn't even try to move as the shadowy figure launched its attack. Next the demon turned towards Father Brown. Rowan couldn't contain himself.

"Father Brown jump back!" He bellowed. The priest leaped back just in time for the strike to miss. The other two leap into position and place two seals on the body and suddenly the shadowy figure is plunged into a small silver music box that lay in the hands of Father Brown. He shuts it quickly and rushes towards Rowan. No words were exchanged but he strikes him hard in the head.

Several days pass by without anything being said by either Rowan or Father Brown. Though it was Father Brown that broke the silence. He finds Rowan sitting on the roof of the Church looking out over the woods. From the top he could just barely make out the edge of the clearing of where he witnessed the sealing.

"How did you know to tell me to leap back?" The priest says. It was impressive to Rowan that Father Brown in his old age could have climbed the ridged stone wall. "Could you see the demon?" Rowan nodded in response. This seemed to trouble Father Brown and a long silence followed. "How would you like to learn more about what you saw? Or did it frighten you?"

Rowan turned to look at father Brown. He nodded yes and the very next day was brought back into the vault of the Church. He was trained the details of sealing demons and learned more about what was going on. Father Brown was part of the Knights of the Templar. It was a holy group of people that still slayed Demons for the church. He was part of a special sect called "The Silver Cross". They were a new sect that specialized in research on sealing demons. He pointed out many of the objects in special cases in the vault. All of them, he explained, were demon vessels that sealed demons. No vessel could hold a demon forever but in this vault no demon could escape.

It was many many years later that something eventually happened that ended his training. Father Brown and Rowan had gone alone to investigate a possession request. They were only told that it was "unusual". They had no idea what they were getting into. As they arrived it was normal enough. The house was thatched and the walls were stone. It gave off an older and classic feel of the home. However soon as they arrived Rowan smelled the horrid stench of sulfur. Father Brown had not smelled it. That never bode well. Rowan had learned over the years that he had a special sense for the spiritual world. He could see, hear, smell and even taste things no one else could. It was one reason he was such a valuable asset. His greatest strength was being able to spot and identify a demon without having to force the demon to give up its name. He could also identify the moment the demon leaves the body and thus the greatest chance they have of sealing the demon away.

This case was different than any other they had had. When they walked into the room of the person being possessed it was a young girl only about 13. She had sparkling green eyes and flowing red hair. Her pale skin was only contrasted by the few freckles that scattered across her face. She greeted them with a smile. They were told her name was Gretel but the girl didn't speak. From the moment they entered the room everything seemed off. The girl was sitting there calm as could be but Rowan knew...Rowan knew that it wasn't the little girl anymore.

Before he could say anything the girl stood up and walked over to Father Brown. Having just a single moment of his guard down was enough. She had swiftly reached into his jacket pocket and ripped out the silver dagger that was going to be the vessel. Then she slammed her hand into his chest flinging him against the wall.

"Humans are vermin. Filth given life and scum that move. Trying to seal me in such a vessel? Foolish human." She takes the knife and plunges it into the Father's chest embedding it deep within his body. Rowan saw the life leave the man's eyes and he went blind with rage. Doing something he shouldn't have done he brings a seal into his left arm and grabs the demon by the throat. Staring deep into her now blood red eyes he saw for just a brief moment the demon's true face. He had recognized it in one of the books he had spent years studying.

"Azazel..." He slowly whispers. The demon's face contorts and fights as he is forcefully ripped from the girls body and then sealed into Rowan's left palm. A black tattoo like image of a up side down pentagram appears in a circle of black flames. Suddenly Azazel's voice rings loudly in Rowan's ears. No time to celebrate just yet as he begins the second seal to bind him into his left arm only.

After all is said and done Rowan stands there pale as a ghost with still the ringing voice of Azazel in his mind. The young girl lay dead on the floor with her neck twisted in an unnatural angle. It was the last parting gift Azazel left the poor youngling. Father Brown also lay dead against the wall with his own knife in his chest. When Rowan attempted to remove the knife he noticed that the silver burned his left hand but not his right. It seems there are many things he will have to learn about this new form.

His anti-demon techniques

Warding Circle- By taking a handful of salt he can cast a small warding circle of varying sizes to ward of spiritual attacks.

Demonic Sealing- By using this seal as well as a few other objects he can seal a demonic or spiritual entity into either a physical body or physical object.

Banishment Spells- He has a number of different banishment spells that are supposed to help remove if not destroy lower level demonic entities and spirits. He can even use this to ward off some vampires though the effect is no where near as powerful.

Moonbane- Its a powerful spell that takes time and preparation to preform. The goal is to lock a lycan into human form. It lasts for 24 hours but won't work during a full moon. It is a blend of different herbs including wolfs-bane and silver shavings into a tea brewed from holy water. The lycan must drink at least shotglass full of the liquid in a spiritually cleansed area. (clensing is usually done by burning sage). The one advantage to this is that lycans are usually unaware that such a spell exists.

The curses themselves.

Black Flame of Vengeance- It creates a blast or stream of black fire that has a range of about 15 feet. It works and burns normally as fire except three key differences. First it is black in color and produces no light. The second is that the fire burns under normal water. The last difference is that banishment spells, holy artifacts, barriers of salt and holy water all extinguish it instantly.

Touch of nightmare- By placing his left palm on someone's forehead he can induce incredibly vivid and terrible hallucinations of a person's own personal hell. The person must be restrained and people trained in mental fortitude can resist it to a degree. It doesn't harm a person's ability to fight in the middle of a fight but works great as an interrogation technique.

Eye of truth- When Rowan allows his eye to be taken over he is given the ability to see what a demon would see. He can now see spirits, other demons as well as the magical energies that exist everywhere. He can generally tell the difference between the good and bad people however it isn't actually very useful as most people are a mix of both without being terribly far into one or the other. It is most useful at spotting other demons. It can also be used to tell if someone is lying to him.

Whispers in the dark- Anyone that has been marked with the demon's "mark" can receive messages over long distances through the curse. The messages are experienced as dark whispers in your mind. No one else can hear them. While effective it is often avoided as most people cannot stand the creepy feeling of those messages.

Demonic Vitality- Unconsciously the seal increases the user's vitality. His strength and speed is increased somewhat from the get go. Nothing compared to a vampire or werewolf however. In fact with his body it will barely help him keep up with the well trained humans. His healing is increased by a 3x for a short period of time.