Meet The Shadow Legion Part One: Rose Red

I'm presently finishing up the final polish/rewrite to The Shadow Legion: New Roads To Hell before handing it over to Captain Ron Fortier at Airship 27 (and also working on 'The Tick Tock Men,' a short story featuring The Nightbreaker that will serve as a linking story between this novel and the next one, The Shadow Legion: The Devil's Toybox). As I'm doing this, I'm going to start sharing with you some of the excellent character designs my partner on this project, Michelle Scuito, came up with. It'll also be an excuse to tell you a little about the people you're about to meet...

Yep, it's teaser time.

We're going to begin with Michelle's favorite character...who happens to be the biggest, baddest (she) wolf in this woods....Rose Red.

And the fairy tale references is very much intended. After all, our sexy lil' Red Killing Hood wished upon an evil star--and got her wish. Unfortunately, her wish was to rise above her terminal illness and live forever as a princess who can draw the eyes of every man in the room. And the inhuman creature who grants her wish does so by giving her a mystical incentive to murder.

Our little Rose lives on the blood of others. She feeds on death, converting her victim's life force into her own...and not only can she use it to exist forever, she can channel it to enhance her own phyiscal abilities. Utilizing that surplus energy makes her faster, or stronger, or nigh invulnerable. Is it any wonder that Rose Red thirsts for the kind of grand gesture of gore that will turn the streets of Nocturne crimson?

Why with that sort of massive event, a girl could live forever, couldn't she?

Rose is front and center in New Roads To Hell, as we follow her rise from a sickly, wallflower wasting away from the inside to the leader of a veritable army, ready to tear apart Nocturne's underworld in an effort to make The City That Lives By Night her own private slaughterhouse.

It's fortunate that Nocturne its own band of protectors to stop her...and we'll learn about them in the coming months.

Be sure to check out more of Michelle's art at her deviant art page!