Zacharias Morgan

Zacharias "Zach" Morgan is one of the main characters of the Hunters novels. He is an supernatural creature hunter, later connector, and works for the ECCO which he later becomes director of. Zach is the husband of Liv Morgan, the brother of Zahira Morgan and the adoptive brother of Colin Rider

Early life
Zach was born in 1972 to Kyle and Sierra Morgan. His sister Zahira is three years younger than him.

Zach seems to have had a quite normal childhood. He never had a very intense bond to his sister, but he loved and admired his parents and they loved him back. Zach's best friend in his childhood was Colin Rider.

In 1987, Zach and his family were driving in their car on the way back from a restaurant. While Zach was talking to his father, Kyle lost control over the car and rammed a tree. Zach and Zahira survived the accident while their parents died. Zach is haunted by the feeling of having killed his parents because he talked to Kyle while the accident took place.

Colin's parents decided to adopt Zach and Zahira and take care of the two teenagers as Zach was their son's best friend. They loved their adoptive kids like their own, but still Zach was haunted by his trauma. He developed strong aggression, hurted other people and himself and lost his last little bond to his sister because of his anger issues.

When Zach was 16, he found out about his Zodiac Powers that he inherited. He was part of his first Zodiac at the age of 17.

Physical Appearance
Zach is a tall, well-toned man with high physical fitness and strong muscles. He has black, slightly wavy hair that he styles in a buzzcut for the first books. Later he lets his hair grow to chin-length and shows the heavy waves his hair comes in. Zach has brown eyes and tan skin. Since his accident in the first book he has burns on the left side of his face what defaces him a bit.

History
Zach started his agent training after his school graduations in 1990. His mentor was Joe Rider, the back then director of ECCO, because he didn't want to leave the very impulsive and wild Zach in anybody else's hands. Zach passes his exams in 1995 with 48 of 50 points what makes him one of the most successful graduates ever. Working for the ECCO is the only job Zach ever had in his mind since he was a young boy and Colin told him about the supernatural world.

In 2002, his mentor and adoptive father Joe Rider died of his disease. Colin was promoted to be the ECCO director and he chose Zach to be his deputy. Zach was very proud of that and happy to be able to help.

Since 2010, Zach is the director of ECCO after Colin Rider died. Even if Colin's death makes him suffer, Zach can get along with his new position quite easy because he has taken over a lot of tasks before in his deputy role and also has help from Zahira and Liv.

From 2007 to 2012, Zach is the mentor of Daniel Crainford. He doesn't get along very well with his mentor job as his social skills are not very good and he also is quite annoyed by Daniel's level-headed, stoical personality. He still trains him very hard, teaches him all the important things and gets devoted to the training more and more. When Daniel graduates in 2012, Zach is quite proud of him.

Jobs and Functions
As Zach is the deputy and later the director of ECCO, he is very involved in planning and controlling work and operations which leads to him being in less operations. If he is in an operation, he often leads the squad. He can also change the squad cast. Zach is always part of important discussions and meetings. As an ECCO director, he is also a member of the Inner Circle of the US.

As Zach is not very good with people, he doesn't work a lot with them. Interrogations and motivational speeches do not suit his abilities.

Zach's weapon of choice is a shotgun. He is also great at martial arts, considering his high physical fitness and condition.

Work Behaviour
Zach separates his private life and his work very strongly. He is not willing to involve any of his feelings into his work ethics and follows the codex in every situation, even if it may be wrong. The most people doesn't know anything about Zach in the beginning, in the later books he starts to open up under the influence of Liv and Zahira.

In most situations, Zach listens to his boss, but if he thinks he is wrong he doesn't avoid discussing the problem. He is never afraid of battles or conflicts and would not even think about fleeing. He hates to turn someone lose and arguments in which he is not right.

Sometimes, Zach misuses his position as shown when he wants to fire Caleb Navett in Volume 2 or Rick Slater in Volume 9 instead of trying to get along with them.

Zach is very serious about his position and tries to make good decisions for his team. If one of his agents dies or gets hurt, he often has a bad conscience because he thinks it was his fault as a bad leader. He is a bit of an workaholic and completely devoted to his duties. Over the years, he gets obsessive with planning and controlling and in Volume 9, he even stops sleeping because he worries too much which leads to Liv drugging him to sleep.

In battles, Zach is an amazing fighter who never gives up. He is passionate, wild and nearly furious and never lets go one of his enemies. Even when he still was a trainee, Zach was a fanatic fighter and more into battles than theory. His anger issues help him in fights and make him a lot stronger. He doesn't have a big problem with killing his enemies.

Zach has a big problem with supernatural creatures and seems to hate especially vampires and werewolves which later changes because of Zahira and also Liam. He still has a problem with how much of his agents are supernatural and doesn't seem to like his own supernatural personality. Still, Zach is the one renaming the ECHO to ECCO, for connecting not hunting, as he knows the old name doesn't fit anymore. He also wants to plead for the reclassification of werewolves in a positive way.

Operations

 * Fight against the vampires at the warehouse (vol.1)
 * Fight against the vampires at the gas station (vol.1)
 * Final Showdown of Volume 1
 * Hunting for the werewolf pack (vol.2)
 * Final Showdown of Volume 2
 * Search for Tyler's corpse (vol.3)
 * Fight against Liza Morris (vol.4)
 * Search for Julian Waters (vol.4)
 * Search for Vincent Beckett (vol.4)
 * Fight against Natalie Scott's shadow soul (vol.5)
 * Search for Henry Rigato (vol.5)
 * Search for Joshua and Toby (vol.5)
 * Fight against Sazael and the shadow souls (vol.5)
 * Final Showdown of Volume 5
 * Saving Zahira from Azrael (vol.6)
 * Fight against Azrael (vol.6)
 * Final Showdown of Volume 7
 * Searching for and fight against Kiyomi (vol.8)
 * Final Showdown of Volume 9

Kills

 * Stephanie Clarke (1998)
 * Two unnamed vampires (vol.1)
 * Jason Hellington (vol.1, he asked for it)
 * Damian Clarke (vol.1)
 * Cameron Fell (vol.7)
 * Rosalie Brooks (vol.9)

Personality
Zach has, especially in the beginning of the novel series, only little friends and is more of a loner. He doesn't like to talk about himself and especially his past and feelings. He always seems to be mysterious and has the typical bad-boy-image as he has anger issues and is very impulsive. Liv has a good influence on his anger what leads to the problem getting better over the years.

Zach is passionate and wild and always says what he thinks. He is not afraid of discussions and arguments and would never run away from a battle. He is brave, loyal and protective and always tries to help people he loves. The wellbeing of his beloved ones is more important to Zach as his own what can be seen when he doesn't flirt with Liv in the beginning but tries to push her away from the danger of ECCO. His first priority is always the salvation of and help to Liv, his later wife.

His work is very important to Zach. The mission is always more important than the individual and he is absolutely ready to suffer for his team. For his work, he is also ready to overcome his social issues when it comes to, for example, working with people he doesn't like.

Zach is not much of a good talker and has barely social skills. Even if he can be manipulative and is a good liar, he doesn't know anything about conversation strategies and how to get to know new people. He doesn't like children and teenagers and tries to avoid contact with them. Zach is very likely to mistrust people he doesn't know and has developed a strong skepticism towards anything. Too much new people at once are upsetting and maybe even scaring Zach.

Zach always knows what he wants and how he wants to do it. He doesn't like if someone tries to tell him what to do and the only people who are allowed to do that are Colin and later Liv. He is an energetic, ambitioned person who always tries to be the best version of his own. He also likes to think that he can take good care of himself and is bad at accepting help from others. If he wants something or has a mission, Zach would never give up and is not willing to accept that something is impossible.

The leading role he takes over as the ECCO director helps Zach to get more loyal, sensitive and trusting. Especially his relationship with Liv helps him reducing his anger issues and paves the way to Zach being a more calm, understanding person. Over the years, Zach learns to trust other people and gets more cooperative and thoughtful.

Zach is bad at showing his feelings and tries not to cry at all. The first time he has cried in more than ten years is when his sister Zahira nearly dies in Volume 5. He reacts uncontrolled and desperate and seems to have a breakdown as he is not able to fight anymore.

Zach hates changes and when someone is better than him what is shown when Zahira gets better exam results than he did and when Rick seems to be a better fighter than him.

Supernatural Powers
Zach is, like his sister, a native zodiac-holder what means that he has the genetic disposition to be a zodiac holder. When his mother, Sierra Morgan, died 1987, her zodiac power of being the Scorpio are transferred to Zach. His first Zodiac was build in 1989. Zach is also part of the 2009 Zodiac. If the other members of his Zodiac, especially his trine, are around, he can feel their feelings and minds, gets visions and spiritual dreams and has access to their minds, emotions and memories. He is clairvoyant and, with his zodiac around, of supernatural strength.

Zahira Morgan
Zahira is Zach's younger sister. When they were children, they haven't had a very intense bond but as teenagers their connection got completely cancelled by Zach's anger issues. As children, Zach was the first person to get to know about Zahira's banshee powers. He was as well jealous and worried.

When Zahira moved to Europe in 1999, they lost contact and Zach didn't miss his sister. When she comes back in Volume 3, he is not very happy about it and doesn't want to work with Zahira. It seems like he is disappointed that she didn't support him while he had problems as a teenager.

Obviously, Zach feels threatened by Zahira's both sporty and spiritual powers and how strong she is. He doesn't like that she got better exam results than he did.

Later in Volume 5 when Zach is promoted to be the ECCO boss, he chooses Zahira as his deputy what is his first step back to her. He starts to trust her and appreciates her abilities. Zahira helps Zach with his new position and has a calming, soothing impact. He believes in her powers and instincts and lets him guard her.

When Zahira nearly dies in Volume 5, Zach is very desperate and even cries which he wasn't even willing to do for Colin. He also asks Liam to transform Zahira into a werewolf to save her life even if he actually hates werewolves. Zahira's new identity makes him a bit insecure but he constantly stays with her and helps her in her first full moon night.

After Zahira's survival, their bond starts to get deeper and Zach begins to like working with Zahira. They understand that they are a great team and seem to have overcome their problems. Zach still doesn't want to admit that he loves his sister, but in Volume 9 they finally have a long and emotional conversation.

Zach is not okay with Zahira's relationship with Shaleera what looks like he wants to protect her.

Colin Rider
Zach and Colin met when Zach was 8 years old. They were best friends as children, teenagers and also adults and Colin was Zach's most important person of trust for his whole life. As children, they used to hang out at Colin's or Zach's place and read comics or play football. Colin told Zach about the supernatural world because he trusted him and even if his father was mad at him at first, he accepted Zach knowing about it.

When Zach's parents died, Colin's family adopted him and Zahira and Zach and Colin were very happy to be brothers. In Zach's dark teenage years, Colin was always there for him and acted as his safe haven. They rarely had conflicts and always trusted in the other's opinions.

When Colin dies in Volume 4, Zach is very sad and suffers a lot from it. Even later he doesn't like it when people mention Colin's death and he is known to visit his grave. When Colin appears in his angel shape, Zach is always quite happy to see him safe and content.

Rider Family
Joseph and Alyssa Rider are Zach's adoptive parents to whom he had a very good connection. Joe and Alyssa already liked Zach when he was a child and regularly visited Colin at his home. Joe was mad when Colin told Zach about the supernatural world, but then understood that he could trust Zach.

When he started his ECCO training, Joe was Zach's mentor. Zach always let his mentor guard him and was not afraid to ask him for help. He sometimes seems to miss Joe and suffered from it when his adoptive father died. To Alyssa, he still has a good relation even if he doesn't seem to see her a lot. He sometimes calls Alyssa when he feels like he needs to talk to someone what is actually very untypical for Zach.

When Zach was adopted by the Rider family, he gained another adoptive brother, Corey. Zach doesn't like Corey and Corey also can't stand him. Corey seems to be jealous of Zach because he always wanted to be an ECCO agent but got rejected because of his physical condition while Zach was accepted and grew to be a top agent with awesome skills and a lot of respect and power. Corey and Zach always argue when they see each other and seem to not be able to stop it.

Olivia Morgan
In the beginning of their work together, Zach and Liv had a lot of conflicts and problems with each other. He provocated and even hurted her by using her Gabriel history against her. After she accidentally burns his face in the first book, he is extremely angry and tries to suspend her from work.

Zach is, from the first minute on, deeply in love with Liv and all his provocation and hate are made up to keep her away from the danger that he considers the ECCO to be. Even if he pretends to hate her, in dangerous situations he always tries to help her.

At the end of the first book, Zach kisses Liv and they start a relationship. Zach is very jealous of everyone and their relationship starts very calm and passive. They don't talk much about their private life but seem to have an intense bond. Zach also needs some time to tell Liv his full story but she is okay with that.

Zach and Liv are both great at fighting, they work very well in a team. Zach likes to save Liv in battles even if she doesn't need it and always takes care of her. They grow to be an inseparable team with a lot of trust and love. When Zach becomes the boss of ECCO in Volume 5, she supports him and helps him with decisions and problems.

In Volume 5, Zach asks Liv to marry him and she says Yes without any doubt. They marry in a little ceremony with their friends and colleagues in Volume 6. After they had spend a lot of time together in Zach's or Liv's apartment, with their marriage Liv finally moves in with Zach in his apartment.

Liv and Zach always support each other and try to understand the others' opinion even if they don't feel it. She accepts his obsessions and eccentricities and grows to be his most important person of trust after Colin Rider dies. She feels safe and arrived when she spends time with Zach. When he gets hurt, she suffers with him and tries to avenge his pain. She helps him with his mistrust and aggression and his problems get better with her presence. Zach for himself can let out his soft side with Liv. She always tries to calm him down and convince him to think more positive.

Estelle Rider
Estelle was Zach's sister-in-law and a good friend to him. They met first in 1986 when Estelle and Colin began a relationship and Colin wanted that his best friend knows his girlfriend. Estelle and Zach, even if they had completely different personality types, groomed a deep friendship over the years.

When Estelle was 18, a wendigo attacked her and Colin and Zach killed him. They then told Estelle about the supernatural world because she had seen it and Colin refused to give her the Obliviators. This is the reason for Estelle starting her ECCO training.

In Volume 6, Estelle sacrifices herself for Zach when Azrael tries to kill him. Zach feels guilty because of that and can't stop thinking about it even years later.

Daniel Crainford
From 2007 to 2012, Zach is the mentor of Daniel Crainford. He doesn't get along very well with his mentor job as his social skills are not very good and he also is quite annoyed by Daniel's level-headed, stoical personality. He still trains him very hard, teaches him all the important things and gets devoted to the training more and more. When Daniel graduates in 2012, Zach is quite proud of him. Daniel admires Zach's skills and powers and is very proud of having him as his mentor.

Rick Slater
Rick is Zach's colleague and employee since he got transferred to the ECCO by Anastasia Waters in Volume 9. From the first minute, they had big problems with each other and are regularly having arguments. Zach constantly feels threatened by Rick's leading personality and his high physical skills.

Zach doesn't like working with Rick and even asks Anastasia to take him back to the police office. He also thinks about firing him but doesn't do it because he knows that it would be wrong. When Teddy influences Zach and Rick with his nephilim mind powers, they start to beat one another up.

Both of them are very direct and straight-forward what increases their potential for conflict. Rick reminds Zach of himself when he was younger what may be a reason for his hatred against Rick (he didn't like himself either).

Jason Hellington
Jason was a friend of Zach. He started his ECCO training in the same year as Zach what made them friends and graduated with Zach in 1995. They worked very well in a team together, especially because they are both very devoted to the codex and the hunters ethics.

When Jason gets bitten by a vampire in Volume 1, he asks Zach to kill him because he doesn't want to become a vampire. At first, Zach refuses, but then he agrees and shoots Jason.

White Falls Zodiac
As a part of the White Falls Zodiac, Zach has a deep bond with the other Zodiac Holders. It feels like being a pack's member. Especially as a teenager, Zach had a familiar feeling when his Zodiac was present and it helped him overcome his parents' death. He feels stronger with his Zodiac and gets also a bit cocky.

The other members of Liv's trine are, in the moment, Liv Morgan and Lucy Taylor. He has a deeper bond with them what also expresses in her relationship and later marriage to Liv. When Lucy comes back in Volume 4, he is happy to see her.

Damian Clarke
Damian is a vampire who wants to kill Zach for revenge because Zach killed his wife, Stephanie, in 1998. He later decides to let Zach suffer instead of killing him which is why he tries to kill Liv, for whom Zach has deep feelings. It is not known why Damian knew that Zach was in love with Liv because he never told anybody.

In the end of Volume 1, Zach kills Damian and ends their infinite rivalry. While dying, Damian tells Zach to "stop rejecting her".

Trivia

 * Zach loves coffee and a lot of people make jokes about him being addicted to coffeine what is never proven or refuted.
 * He has been travelling to Japan at least once.
 * Zach detached Sazael's fifth wing.