Webcomic / Schwarz Kreuz

Schwarz Kreuz is a webcomic by Rhiannon McCullough.

Germany, 1942. A young paladin Nikolas van Helsing, wounded by the soldiers during an attack on an orphanage he's protecting, gives in to despair and turns himself into a virgin vampire...

London, present day. The top agents for the Institute for Supernatural Investigation, a self-hating vampire Nick van Helsing and his pyrokinetic partner, Joan Kaine, manage to get a stolen artifact back. But that turns out to be just the top of an iceberg...

An Urban Fantasy story of vampires, reluctant and otherwise, dangerous artifacts and an apocalypse hanging on a thread.

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These tropes are out for your blood:

• Ancient Artifact: Lilith's Tears are part of a Self-Destruct Mechanism for the entire world. Yup.
• Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: Dame Quinn sums up the entire story.
  Dame Quinn: By all rights I should suspend the pair of you! [...] So you can consider yourselves back with the ISNI. With a pay rise.
• The Berserker: Nick has this tendency, which further feeds his angst.
• Breaking and Bloodsucking: Joan's attempt to prevent this drives a wedge between her and Nick. Which was exactly what someone intended when advising her that.
• Code Name: Field agents for the ISNI have these. Joan is "Saint", Nick is "Cross".
• Combat Pragmatist: Having a crossbow on your desk when you expect a vampire to come through the door is not Crazy-Prepared, it's Sanely Prepared. Shooting it at the first person who comes through is less sane.
• Covert Group: ISNI, a private institute founded by sir Everett Quinn to deal with the supernatural and protect the Muggles.
• Crazy Homeless People: Nigel's a very weird, very sweet and very perceptive thirteen years old homeless person, who nerds out about Ragnarok and other apocaliptic stuff, carrying appropiate signs. Also, saves the day.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The prologue.
• Dismantled MacGuffin: The Lilith's Tears' role in the story.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: The Big Bad was right there from chapter one.
• Exposition of Immortality: A Mook shoots Nick. In the head. Nick gets up, seriously pissed off.
  Mook: What... What the hell...! What the hell are you!?
• Fiery Redhead: Downplayed for Joan, who's a very reasonable woman, but still an accomplished Action Girl and pyrokinetic.
• Fiery Cover-Up: The blowing up of ISNI headquarters, although the actual murder victim is almost immediately found by the protagonists. Later, the same baddie burns another building to cover up stealing a Tear.
• Foreshadowing: Frequent. Things tend to innocently hang on walls, unlit they get used chapters later.
• Frame-Up: As far as the authorities are concerned, Nick is the only vampire in town, so he's suspect number one when a vampire victim is found.
• Friend to All Children: Nick. Just try to hurt a kid in his presence. We dare you.
• Fully-Embraced Fiend: Harker.
• Fur Against Fang: Not much of an issue, but out of the London-based werewolf pack Nick is only on speaking terms with Kit and his grandfather.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Nick gets shot disturbingly often.
• Gratuitous German: Nick is German, so it's Justified Trope somewhat, though he's lived in England for so long he doesn't have an accent anymore. He's taught Joan his native language, too. But the title and the chapter titles have no excuse.
• Gut Feeling: Joan gets it here and here. Of course, she's psychic.
• Haunted Castle: A complete ruin, fitting for the not at all final villain, who's very new at being a vampire and probably got some tips from Hammer Horrors.
  It's like the set of a Christopher Lee film.
• Heartwarming Orphan: Witness the usually plucky Nigel playing the trope.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: For all Nick's antiheroism, he still carries a paladin's weapon.
• Hidden Depths: Nick can play the organ.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: They know perfectly well it might be a trap, but
  Joan: He's been following us all along... it's our turn to follow him.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: Nick, with all the self-loathing required and more.
• Ironic Name: Nick is the last of the Von Helsing family. And a vampire. Also, Lucian Quincy Harker becomes a vampire and loves it.
• Jumped at the Call: Nigel glomps The Call and never lets go.
  Nigel: Wicked!
• Jurisdiction Friction: Between the ISNI and lord Godalming's men, up to and including an attempt to kill Nick and Joan.
• Kid Sidekick: Nigel sneaks his way into the team. He proves way too useful to be called a Tagalong Kid.
• Masquerade
• Mind over Manners: Joan has a habit of sneaking into Nick's head when he's clamming up. But can't when he's sufficiently drunk.
• Mistaken for Romance: There is a valid reason for him to Bridal Carry her in...
  Nick: We already have rooms. Separate rooms!
  Receptionist: Sorry to hear that sir.
• Neutral Female: Justified Trope for Joan during the Vampire Duel - she's already done what she could and is currently unconcious because of it. In the finale that's Nick who's incapacitated.
• Non-Action Big Bad: Not helpless, but he does prefer to send his The Dragon for the final showdown and kill him once he delivers the Tears.
• Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering: Seriously.
• Older Than They Look: Due to his vampirism, Nick.
• Our Vampires Are Different:
  • First of all, there are two ways of becoming one - virgin (a ritual involving suicide) and being turned by drinking a vampire's blood.
  • They all stop aging, get Healing Factor, Super-Strength, Cannot Cross Running Water or come in uninvited, have no reflections, but some vampirical powers (like turning into mist) are directly linked to bloodsucking. Vegetarian Vampires can't access them, but lose the sunlight sensitivity and allergy to crosses.
• Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: Pools of the stuff every chapter, seriously.
• The Paladin: The job Nick has been training for before his Dark and Troubled Past happened. In this universe, they're clergy monster hunters.
• Paranormal Investigation: ISNI deals with vampires (and employs at least one), werewolves (ditto), fae... The actual plot is more Mystery Fiction flavoured, though.
• Percussive Pickpocket: So underhanded we only learn of it during the final confrontation.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Nick and Joan.
• Playing with Fire: Joan.
• Poirot Speak: Nick, time and again. Especially for cursing.
• Post-Victory Collapse: Nick in chapter eight.
• Post-Climax Confrontation: Chapter nine.
• Power of Trust: Joan demands a Kiss of the Vampire from Nick to give him a Power-Up, demonstrating her trust in him, even though he mistrusts himself.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The owner of ISNI, Mother, Herself, dame Alexandra Quinn.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: A freshly gorged vampire gets these.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: Joan's mind-reading abilities could have save them a lot of trouble if used on The Big Bad. Too bad she never thought of it...
• Religious Horror: The Tears can (and will, it's a matter of time) bring about the Apocalypse.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Dame Quinn.
• Secret Government Warehouse: Not actually belonging to the government, and with pretty bad security, but ISNI has one.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Nigel is smart enough to figure out Nick's a vampire from all the clues. And smart enough to know they don't want him to know that.
• Spanner in the Works: Never, ever tell Nigel he's not supposed to follow you, because he will, possibly becoming this trope. Then again, he might become a spanner in your enemy's works, so...
• Supernatural Angst: Nick's defining characteristic. As a virgin vampire, he's his own vampire dad.
• Taking the Bullet: Nick, for Nigel, because he's Friend to All Children.
• Talking in Your Sleep: Joan cries, calls her loved ones, struggles and babbles and never even comes close to waking.
• Telepathy: Joan's The Ace in this area.
• Third-Act Misunderstanding: You Know What You Did, Joan. Starting here. Except she just hasn't connected what she did to why Nick is so furious. Dissolved soon after with a slap that spurs him into actually talking, thankfully.
• Those Wacky Nazis: In the prologue.
• Trench Coat Brigade: Nick. Dark and Troubled Past? He's a virgin vampire (this, as said above, requires suicide), and that's just for starters. Unkempt? Check. Badass Longcoat? Check.
• Turn in Your Badge: Adding to the Mystery Fiction feel, Nick's not really allowed to chase the suspect vampire. So of course he does anyway. Which his boss is more than okay with.
• Twice Shy: Kit likes Joan, Joan likes Kit.
  Nick: Woof!
• We Need a Distraction: Nigel's useful!
• Wizard Duel: Vampire Duel between the protagonist and The Dragon involves illusions, turning into mist and Voluntary Shapeshifting. It's quite epic.
• Vampire Bites Suck
• Vampire Vannabe: Utilised ruthlessly by The Big Bad who's not himself vampire, but turns Harker anyway to get The Dragon, cheap and handy.
• Vegetarian Vampire: Nick's substitute for blood seems to be booze and lots of it. Also, angst. Even more angst than booze.
• Vomiting Cop: Believe it or not, Nick. Over a bloodbath he made. It Makes Sense in Context (Angst!).
• Xanatos Gambit: The Big Bad's plan is:

1. Send both the heroes and his The Dragon to chase after MacGuffin
2. Pull a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on whoever survives
3. Profit! And he would have gotten away with it, easily, if that wasn't for the meddling kid that Nigel is.