They say nobody exists in a vacuum, that no one ever goes through life without being impacted and shaped by the people around them. This is of course true of fictional characters as well. No matter how brilliantly crafted a main character, their story is nowhere near as interesting if they don’t have friends and/or family to support them or enemies to challenge them. In the spirit of this, I thought I’d introduce you to a couple of the central characters in Daphne’s story so far.

Hannah Beckman

Species: Human

Age: 28

Gender: Female

Hair: Red

Eyes: Green

Occupation: AEGIS agent

Hannah is Daphne’s best friend and partner. She grew up in AEGIS–the secret vigilante organization that works to keep peace between humans and Supernaturals–her entire family having been agents of the organization for almost as long as AEGIS has existed. Hannah is a highly trained badass whose skill in hand-to-hand combat and marksmanship, not to mention her mile-wide stubborn streak, are more than a match for Daphne’s own. Even though Daphne is the one with the people-reading powers, Hannah’s even-tempered nature and easy charm usually makes her a better diplomat than often hot-headed Daphne. Especially when Daphne tells her exactly which buttons to push. Despite her lifestyle of living with a gun in her hand and blood under her nails, her hands are always perfectly manicured–even if she can’t quite lose the calluses on her palms–and she’s mourned the loss of more than one fabulous dress in the line of duty.

 

Spencer Montgomery

Species: Human

Age: 27

Gender: Male

Hair: Light Brown

Eyes: Gray/Green

Occupation: New Salem Sheriff’s Department Deputy

Spencer is Daphne’s adoptive brother. While they share neither blood nor legal familial ties, Daphne and Spencer grew up together and Spencer’s father was more of a dad to Daphne than Daphne’s flesh-and-blood one. The Spencer Daphne knew was an intelligent yet carefree man with a penchant for breaking rules in the name of having fun. In the wake of his father’s sudden death, Spencer is a new man. A more serious, more suspicious, more reckless man, and yet still every bit as prone to breaking a few rules in the name of finding his father’s killer. He still blames Daphne for leaving New Salem without so much as a goodbye and now, ten years later, she’s returned from who-knows-where and he can’t help but wonder what her true motives are for coming home.

Margaret Beckman

Species: Human

Age: 50

Gender: Female

Hair: Graying Dark Blonde

Eyes: Brown

Occupation: Lore and Logistics Admin for AEGIS

Once a field agent for AEGIS, Marge has long since hung up her sword (figuratively at least) and taken up a desk job at the organization, coordinating field missions, filing reports and researching and updating supernatural lore for the archives. It’s supposed to be a promotion but, truth be told, she sometimes misses getting her hands dirty. As Hannah’s mother, she has naturally had more of a presence in Daphne’s life as an AEGIS agent than she has with most field agents and Marge and Daphne have developed a strong mentor-student bond as a result. No one understands Daphne’s mindset at the beginning of the novel better than Margaret Beckman, even if she is worried what that grief might make her young friend do.

 

Anka Satoya

Species: Human

Age: 42

Gender: Female

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Occupation: Coroner for the New Salem Sheriff’s Department

Anka is the Coroner for the NSSD and a close friend of Spencer’s. She’s confident, smart, and the best at her job–something she’s not too humble to admit. She adores Spencer so even though it could cost her her job and every instinct she has is screaming there’s something suspicious about this Daphne character who has shown up at Spencer’s side seemingly out of nowhere, she’ll do anything she can to help her friend get justice for his father’s murder.

 

The Demon

Species: Demon

Gender: Female

Hair: ??????

Eyes: Endless Voids of Evil

Occupation: None

The Demon is New Salem’s one-and-only urban legend. In a town where the supernatural has always been impossible, no one tells stories about haunted houses or bogeymen or even monsters under the bed. The Demon is the only exception because she is less a legend than indisputable fact. The Demon was a real girl once, a citizen of New Salem born and raised. But time and fear have a way of twisting things and she was a strange girl with even stranger eyes; eyes they say could tear your very soul from your body if you looked at them too long. Said to have telepathic and mind-control powers–and those being only the very tip of the iceberg as far as what she can do–The Demon is the antithesis of all that New Salem holds sacred. So when people start dying of mysterious, seemingly supernatural circumstances in New Salem, everyone knows The Demon must be the one behind it.