James was born in Los Angeles, and has lived his whole life in the confines of the city. Growing up, he always felt more at peace and happy in the night hours, his parents often catching him sneaking out at night to take a walk, lay in the grass, or sometimes just sit on the front porch, watching cars and planes go by.

As he aged into being a young adult, James wanted to take a career into investigation and forensics, and become a police officer, with the goal to make detective. Going to college for his degree, then the police academy, James eventually would become a police officer at the age of 21.

For his first few years of his career, James was a model officer, on track to be the star of the department. But then came his first case delving into the hidden world of monsters. Investigating a Missing Persons case, James was told to return to the station after the suspect in question murdered 3 other police officers with his bare hands. James disobeyed the order, instead following the suspect into a large forest.

The suspect led him to a clearing, and what he witnessed then changed his perspective on the world forever. The suspect was in the process of transforming into a hideous beast, his clothes lying in tatters across the clearing and clumped into his body.

James leveled his pistol at the beast and fired off two rounds, which hit their mark. The shots grazed the creature, doing damage, but having a minimal effect on the rampaging of the monster, instead alerting to James' presence.

As the creature charged towards him, James fired off another pair of rounds, hitting the beast square in the chest, stunning it temporarily. As he did so, a roar echoed from the woods as another, slightly different beast charged from the trees and slammed into the first beast. The two fought, and eventually the one that tried to attack James lay dead, the corpse having reverted to a human form, one James recognized as the suspect.

The other monster, which James finally observed as taking the vague shape of a wolf, transformed into a human shape, approaching James, who still held his pistol up. The monster-turned-man held up his hand, and James slowly lowered the pistol and approached the man.

The man's name was Lauren, a werewolf. He was the one that introduced James to the so-called World of Darkness, sharing secrets not known to the majority of the mortal world. James would keep in contact with Lauren, using him as a contact for what would become James' private investigation service.

James left his job with the police department after that night, instead deciding to delve into researching what Lauren had enlightened him to. James learned much in that time, but eventually his savings would begin to run dry, and Odeman's Investigation Services would open for business.

Quickly taking to solving cases both mundane and supernatural, James garnered a reputation for solving cases the police department regularly threw out as insane, hoaxes, or otherwise would not believe to be real. With cases ranging from unravelling vampire plots, to exorcising possessions by wraiths, and nearly everything in between, it would eventually culminate in a life-changing case involving a mysterious cult.

As an Angel, Akiel's job was to guide souls to the afterlife. Even prior to the punishment of Humanity, Akiel found the task laborious and torture, as he was forced to witness the despair of humanity as things around them died. Thus, when he was forced to claim the souls of Humans themselves, Akiel felt that to be the final straw. Joining with the forces of Lucifer in the War of Wrath, Akiel only became privy to the folly of his actions long after the war ended, and he had spent what felt like an eternity in the torment of Hell. He came to realize that betraying God was wrong, and that if he were to ever escape Hell, he would use the time to atone for what he had done. So when a cult sought to ask for his services, he was quick to use the opportunity to escape. Convincing the cult to bring a subject for possession, a private investigator arrived, and was kidnapped by the cult, and brought to the site of the possession. Amidst the spiritual battle with the soul of the P.I., a Hunter aligned with the Catholic Church who had sought to ally himself with the investigator. During the two-way battle, Akiel's form was struck, and he lost awareness with reality. When he awoke, he had "melded" with the soul of the Investigator, fully believing himself to be the man known as James Odeman, fully aware of all of James' memories, but lacking even the vaguest of his own, with only horrendous nightmares affecting him as even a slight reminder to his past. Now, with signs of the apocalypse happening everywhere, Akiel's memories are starting to awaken, and he finds himself conflicted with those and the memories of James Odeman.