Book excerpt: The classic anime Wicked City is based on a series of novels by master horror writer Hideyuki Kikuchi. Tor/Seven Seas is pleased to present these novels to the North American audience for the first time, featuring cover art by Christian McGrath (The Dresden Files). The Black Guard, whose job it is to protect the boundary between our mortal world and the demonic Dark World, has succeeded in preserving the tenuous peace treaty between the two worlds, averting an all-out war. Now a new threat from the Dark World terrorizes humanity, a monster that invades people's dreams and causes them to commit murder. Black Guard agents Taki, a hardboiled human, and his sexy demon partner, Makie, must work alongside legendary Black Guard agent Miyuki if they are to defeat the creature and save the world. Like author Hideyuki Kikuchi's well-known and critically-acclaimed Vampire Hunter D novels (Dark Horse), Wicked City is an epic ten-volume tale of supernatural horror and high-octane action.