1. Sinners (B. Banner)

Prologue

Sarai throws her keys into the bowl near the door as she enters her New York Penthouse. She loves this place. Her home away from home. When she's not with her family she likes to disappear here, to soak up the city, to don her costume and take to the rooftops to fight crime, her family thinks she is bloody nuts but she doesn't care. It's nice to escape from the reality of vampirism and do something good instead. Trying to atone for the lives she's taken over her long lift. Behind her, her younger sister, Rebekah follows holding a few day old Hope in her arms. And finally, padding along after them is Sarai's faithful and loyal hound, Spirit. Sarai passes by boxes of unpacked nursery furniture that had been delivered during their trip from New Orleans. Sarai shrugs out of her jacket and sets it over the back of a chair as she passes it.

"Let's hope we never have to go through anything like that for the family again" Rebekah complains behind her. It's been a tough few months, a year even, for their entire family. Enemies after enemies trying to destroy them.

"You'd think we'd be used to it by now" Sarai comments dropping onto her couch and closes her eyes resting her head back. Rebekah sits across from her on the couch, careful of the baby in her arms. Spirit moves to lay in front of the floor-length windows to soak up the morning sun. Sarai holds up her hand and then rolls her wrist, instantly a bottle of blood appears in her hand, Rebekah snorts and shakes her head. Sarai feels a prickling over her skin, a surge of something. Sitting up a little she then pushes herself to her feet. Her eyes are drawn out the window and into the sky. "Bloody hell" She whispers looking up at the sky as it is torn open, a huge portal into space opening up right there above Stark Towers.

"What is it?" Rebekah asks behind her, Hope sleeping in her arms, oblivious to the danger outside. Sarai sighs and struggles for the right words to explain what she is watching.

"Something....terrible is happening" Rebekah moves closer to her sister and follows her gaze. Her eyes widen.

"Bloody hell" Rebekah repeats Sarai's statement. Sarai crosses the room to a wall who's paneling is in black instead of white like the rest of the room. A wall that hides more beneath the surface.

"Stay inside" Sarai warns pressing her hand to a panel on her wall, the wall beside her opens up revealing a mannequin wearing her Howling Huntress suit along with her bow, quiver, and dagger.

"Oh, I was completely planning on going outside where the sky is torn in two" Rebekah counters shooting Sarai a look before Sarai is grabbing her suit. Rebekah watches the sky, holding Hope closer to her.

"And use the security system" Sarai adds. "I know you think we don't need it but whatever that" Sarai points out the window at the breach in the sky "Is, whoever, whatever created it...I don't think it's anything from this world....we don't know what they can do" Sarai nods down at Hope. "And you have to think about her" Rebekah follows her big sister's eyes and sees her point. She's not just looking after herself anymore, she has Hope to protect now. "Nik trusted her safety to you..." Sarai adds. "Stay in the super-secure apartment until I get back" With that Sarai disappears into her bedroom leaving Rebekah to ponder this new threat, and her sister.

..................

Sarai is tightening the clasps on her gauntlets when she walks back into the room moving back to the open cabinet in the wall. She glances back at her sister before turning back to her equipment.

"There's blood in the fridge, booze in the cupboard and those cheesy romcoms you like are on the tv" Sarai pulls her hood up over her head and turns to her sister. Rebekah's never actually seen Sarai dressed as her crime-fighting alter ego and this is...something else. Sarai isn't the tallest or the most menacing individual, but with that suit, she gains something. An edge. A darkness. Sarai grabs her quiver and pulls it on, followed by her dagger and then finally she picks up her bow.

"Wow" Rebekah states looking over Sarai as she snaps her bow to her back beside her quiver.

"What?" Sarai asks, Rebekah shakes her head and then looks back down at Hope. "Are you sure you're going to be okay on your own?" Sarai asks her sister.

"Yes," Rebekah answers. "We'll be fine"

"I'm putting the system on" Sarai scolds moving to the door, her fingers typing in the code needed to access her security system. The windows darken slightly, a heavy deadbolt locks the front and balcony doors. "There's a knife under the table and a gun strapped to the underside of my armchair"

"Now I'm actually a little terrified of how prepared you are" Rebekah offers, Sarai smirks a little turning to her. "We're vampires, we don't need guns or...knives" she glances to the bow on Sarai's back. "Or bows"

"No we don't, but they're fun to use" Sarai counters with a shrug. "Plus you bite or tear out the heart of your victim and they're instantly going to think...'vampire' or the usual...'animal attack', but stab or shoot and it could be anyone" Rebekah pauses a little thinking on that.

"You're a little bit of a genius, Sarai" Rebekah points out with a smile.

"Stay and behave" Sarai adds before pulling her mask in place. Rebekah nods, not worried, she knows her sister well enough not to show worry anyway, they both always worry about one another, though no one has ever come close to harming Sarai. Sarai disappears into her bedroom, closing the door behind her. She turns and moves pushing her bed aside with a firm kick revealing a hatch beneath. Crouching Sarai places her hand on the top, over a biometric scanner. It beeps registering her palm print before unlocking, she lifts the top and drops down below.

............

It's dark, too dark for human eyes but she can make out the area perfectly. She actually bought out the entire building and kept the top three floors empty for her. Her penthouse apartment on the top floor, and then the next two have been converted into a sort of Huntress cave. Equipment. Weapons. Training equipment. Her Howling Huntress base of operations. She glances around as Spirit joins her, he's got his own doggy elevator to get down from the penthouse. They both stride forward weaving through the room until they reach a black wall, seemingly black wall. Sarai moves to the side and opens a panel before touching another keypad. This reveals the wall to actually be a line of one-way glass windows and a glass door leading to a balcony. She pushes open the door and she and Spirit head out onto the balcony just as it starts. When the army descends upon the city from above. Sarai stares up in disbelief. She's seen a lot. Done a lot. But Aliens.....are new. She pulls a bow from her back and takes a deep breath, readying herself for what is to come.

"Ready, Spirit?" she asks pulling an arrow from her quiver, Spirit growls at her side before howling into the sky. Sarai smirks behind her mask.