Kevin Drake was born to a nice middle-class couple in Columbus, Ohio. The family had a small house in a nice neighborhood, Kevin and his two younger sisters went to a good school, and there was always enough love to go around.
When Kevin was thirteen, he began having strange dreams, dreams in which he fought on the field of battle, clad in shining armor and wielding a flashing blade. When he told his parents about the dreams, they just smiled, gave him a hug, and sent him out to play with his friends. As school and other activities of the waking world consumed his time, the dreams soon faded into the back of his mind, and he thought no more about them...until they returned a few nights later. Not wishing to worry his parents, he kept this to himself, but often wondered what they meant.
As the dreams stayed with him, he found himself drawn to books about knights and dragons, and discovered that those stories fed a hunger in him that he had never known until now. It seemed as if they transported him to a place where his dreams were real, at least for a little while.
Over the next few years, he raced through the fantasy and mythology sections of the library, and amassed a collection of heroic fantasy that was the envy of a number of his friends. He often found himself wondering what life might be like if he lived in a world like those in the books, and in his heart of hearts, he dreamed of being a knight. After some of his classmates made fun of him, he kept the dream to himself, but one person who seemed to understand his thoughts was his Uncle Kieran, his mother's younger brother. Kieran not only approved of his dreams of becoming a knight, but told Kevin all sorts of wonderful stories about the exploits of a brave group of heroes who kept their liege's lands safe from all manner of threats, from dragons and other fantastic creatures to the wily schemes of other nobles.
One night shortly after his fifteenth birthday, having fallen asleep reading The Dreamstone by C.J. Cherryh, Kevin was awakened by a tapping sound at his bedroom window. There, sitting in the tree outside, was a large crow. As the youth watched in amazement, the bird seemed to look right through him, then gave a single croak that almost sounded like a laugh, and fluttered down to the ground. Not knowing exactly why, he crept out of the house and made his way to the yard. A chill wind whistled through his thin nightshirt, and the ground was cold and hard beneath his bare feet, but somehow he didn't feel it. As he reached the tree, he saw a man who looked very like his uncle, only clad in black armor, his face both beautiful and terrible at once. As he came closer, Kevin noticed that beneath his raven-black hair, Kieran's ears were pointed. A name came, unbidden, into the youth's mind -- Ciaran.
"Welcome, little brother," Ciaran said in a low voice, a faint hint of a smile tugging at his mouth. "It is time to remember who you truly are." With that, he took Kevin's hand in his, and suddenly it seemed as if a door was opened in the boy's mind. A torrent of images washed over him, and it was only with difficulty that he remained standing. When the wave finally subsided, he looked down at himself to discover that his nightshirt had been replaced by a jerkin of studded black leather, and that a fine sword with a gleaming moonstone set in its pommel hung at his hip. He knew, then, the name he had borne for many lifetimes, and now would bear again -- Keighvyn ap Scathach, scion of the House of Battle.
Ciaran took Keighvyn to the freehold of Countess Miriam, ruler of the County of Buckeyes, where the new changeling was Sained with all due ceremony. He stayed for about a year after that, teaching Keighvyn the arts of the warrior, but then departed on a mysterious quest. To this day, no one knows what became of him. The loss of his uncle and teacher was a great blow to Keighvyn, but the ache lessened in time, and he spent the next several years leading a double life -- ordinary youth in one world, and candidate for knighthood in the other.
Inspired in part by the stories he'd read, Keighvyn decided to become a police officer in order to help others. Shortly after his graduation from the police academy, he finally earned his knighthood. He currently lives in a small apartment not far from his parents' home, and continues to lead a double life -- rookie police officer in the mundane world, and newly-dubbed knight in the fae one.
As one of Her Excellency Countess Miriam's newest knights, Sir Keighvyn is as yet unproven, but he takes his chivalric ideals very seriously. He tries hard to live up to the image of "the perfect gentle knight"-- brave, courteous, and honorable. It can be a very difficult job sometimes, but he does his best. After all, a knight of the Seelie Court could do no less.
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Kevin Drake is in his mid-20s, about 5'10", and lean and fit. Though not conventionally handsome, he's got sort of a pleasant, boy-next-door appearance. His hair is black and wavy, and a few errant locks always seem to be falling over his forehead. His eyes are a shade of blue-green that could pass for either green or blue depending on the light and what he's wearing. When on the job, he wears the standard dark blue uniform of a police officer; off-duty, he prefers comfortable casual attire (jeans and sneakers are staples of his wardrobe).
In his faerie identity as the Sidhe knight, Sir Keighvyn (pronounced "Kevin") ap Scathach, his rich blue-black hair is worn just short of shoulder length (though often bound back with silver cord), framing a profile that would be at home on classical statues (if not for the pointed ears...;-). His eyes are a vivid turquoise color, rimmed by thick dark lashes and set under gracefully arching brows. His usual attire is a jerkin of studded black leather worn over a white "fop shirt" (a tunic-length shirt with lacing at the neck and full sleeves gathered at the wrist), cinched at the waist over tight black trousers, and knee-high boots with the spurs of a knight strapped to the heel (as he's only recently earned his knighthood, the spurs are still quite shiny and new-looking :-). A chimerical sword with a large blue-white moonstone in its pommel hangs at his hip, encased in a black leather scabbard tooled with silver knotwork.