Renute

Major Story Arcs

Four Devils, One Hell

Renute is the head of the New Orleans chapter of Grendel warriors, known locally as a "krewe," during the reign of Orion Assante. At some point during Renute's reign, he is bitten by a vampire and becomes one himself. His new identity makes him becomes infuriated with everything that has to do with Grendel, and he begins to secretly plan a way to destroy as much of Grendel's legacy as he can.

He gets an atom bomb, and begins to amass Grendel-related memorabilia and treasures from around the world. He even gets the Mona Lisa and the skull of Hunter Rose, the original Grendel.

He also hears of a prophecy that whoever is the heir of Charlemagne on the 800th anniversary of Rose's death will become the reincarnation of Rose. He learns that the Batiaque family are the closest living relatives of Charlemagne, and has his top warrior, Dulac, start to kill them off. His closest advisors believe he is doing his because Renute is also a descendant of Charlemagne, and once the Batiaques are all dead, Renute will become Rose's reincarnation. However, once he kills all the Batiaque's except for one boy, he has the boy captured, not killed.

That night, he attacks all of his own Grendels, and turns them in to vampires. Then he has the boy, and several other troublemakers, including Josef Mantovani, Alfred Bixby, Calhoun, and Gloria DeVere, brought to his headquarters. He reveals his true plan--he doesn't want to become the reincarnation of Rose, he wants to kill him at the same time he destroys all the other Grendel-related treasures he has amassed, using his atom bomb.

The boy and the various trouble-makers break free, however, and attack Renute and his vampires. Mantovani kills Renute by pulling his heart out of his chest, using his silver bionic hand, and the others defeat the rest of the vampires and defuse the bomb. The boy goes off to live in the Amazon with Bixby, and the treasures and skull are all sent to the capital for archiving.