The girl let out a small sob and tendered stroked the baby’s head. Then she held him out to the man. “Save him” she said quietly. “Please”

The vampire took the boy from her. “What would you like to call him?” he asked, taking a bit of paper from the bedside table.

“Vincent” the girl whispered. “I want to call him Vincent”

The man began to jot down some details on the paper. Finally he fastened the paper to the baby and gave a sigh. “There’s only one thing to do,” he said slowly. “I’m going to leave him at the bank of the river Styx. It’s up to Hades then, to decide if the child lives or dies. I guess…I guess we’ll never know” The vampire left the baby boy at the bank of the river, wearing only a blanket and a small note containing his name, his date and place of birth and his race. That was all.

Nearly all the vampires and the Warriors of Chaos died in the battle that followed. Those that were left fled to the far corners of the world. None of the survivors remembered the little baby boy, who was abandoned in Hell. Except one…

Hades, the shadowy lord of the Underworld and the God of death, was the one to find the child. He was taking his daily walk around the Underworld when he heard crying and stumbled across the baby. He knelt beside it and picked it up. The baby stopped crying and looked at Hades with interest.

The God of Death began to read the note attached. “Vincent” he read out. “Male and half vampire. Very interesting”

Even though he was the God of Death, Hades couldn’t bring himself to kill the baby. So he kept Vincent and brought him up as his own child.

So, Vincent grew up in the Underworld. Hades gathered some of the Gods and they agreed to teach Vincent their skills. Apollo taught him to shoot and Ares taught him to fight. Various other Gods also came forward to teach him the things Hades wanted him to learn.

Vincent grew up tall and strong. Like his father, he dressed totally in black and had pale skin, short, black hair and dark eyes. Around his neck he wore a pendant to protect him from harm, given to him by Hades.

He was a brave young man, afraid of very few things. Hades never attempted to hide anything from his son and the two were very close. Hades also allowed Vincent the freedom to journey to the mortal world and learn about the people there. He was strong, wise, loyal and a very good judge of character. He had a wild temper on him and could be aggressive at times and he was a loner. He had a few friends amongst the Gods, but a lot of the time he was by himself.

He grew to be good friends with Cererus, the three-headed dog, and when Hades realised his son was lonely, he found him a wolf dog. Vincent named the animal Sol-leks, and they became best friends and companions. The two of them regular enjoyed travelling around the Underworld with Hades. Most of the Gods were rather fond of him, but some of them were slightly afraid of him. There were one or two Gods who didn’t like him, but with Zeus on Hades’ side, there wasn’t much they could do. And so eighteen years passed…