FOREWORD: While it won't rob you of the reading experience to have not read either book #1 of the Crimson Shadow series, Noir, or the first novel in the Death Metal saga, Curtain Call, this piece is a crossover novella featuring the characters introduced and established in those two works. Some scenes in this piece also reference points in that are established in some of the short stories made in Crimson Shadow: The Dirty Dozen. If you have not yet read these other works, don't fret; this story, like all of my other works, will not leave you in the dark as a standalone piece. Enjoy DEGREES_ DEGREES The Bloodtones just thought it was another gig... The members of the Bloodtones have seen it all. Or so they thought... Until a vampire with a crimson right eye cloaked in shadow comes in and attacks one of their members. For Xander, it's just another job... And, as a mercenary of The Council, he's seen it all. Or so he thought... Until he's met face-to-face with a mismatched pair of mythos in a death metal band and one of the members may be his target. However, as his real target, The Reaper, grows closer...he may have to team up with this renegade death metal band to defeat his foe. But, when metal meets crimson...things are bound to go bruta