Mariah is immortal. Shortly after Lee's arrival in Bete Noire, she destroys Mariah's white slavery ring and drives her out of town. Upon her return, she offers to give Lee a piece of The Shard—a fragment of Christ's crucifix. Lee drugs and tortures Mariah for information, but later helps her recover her death from Wilde. Mariah learns that Doctor Juris was responsible for the death of Shadow Boxer, Mariah's lover, and allies herself with Lee. Twenty years later, she also enters a relationship with Malachi. Shadow Boxer As a child in England, Shadow Boxer is granted the ability to merge with shadows by a member of the Hierarchy. This power allows him to essentially teleport between any two dark areas. He uses this power to rescue his abusive father, who was trapped in a mine, but his father later accuses him of being in league with the Devil. In his rage, Boxer's father attacked his wife, causing her to miscarry her unborn child. Boxer killed his father as retribution. As an adult in Bete Noire, Shadow Boxer acts as Doctor Juris's main enforcer. He is also Black Mariah's lover, as her touch does not harm him. In a battle with Lee, Boxer is led to believe he has caused her to miscarry. Stricken with guilt, he confesses to Dr. Juris, who kills him. Asia Minor Living in a mausoleum in a graveyard, Asia Minor is an Asian drug lord who for various reasons often finds himself aiding Lee. He speaks in the broken English stereotypical of Asian immigrants, though it has been established that this is a facade, in that he is capable of speaking perfect English. He was once visited by the ghost of a girl named Tiffany, a girl who had been murdered by a junkie addicted to drugs supplied by Asia, and since then has been cursed with the ability to help only others, but never himself. Asia supplies the Magistrate with drugs that suppress the constant voices and visions that accompany the position. Slate Slate acts as Bete Noire's Chief Examiner, and is considered the city's best detective. Slate is also the closest thing to a police officer in the city. Before coming to Bete Noire, Slate was an officer in a northwestern African city called Maristan, which he says was even more corrupt than Bete Noire, until it was destroyed by a demon and vanished