" So how do we know who is a vampire?" asked Ophelia, as they drove down Sunset Boulevard passing nightclub after nightclub filled with people.
" We have to keep our eyes out for anything out of the ordinary" said Malcolm, " not like we can spray everybody with blood and see who goes nuts."
" Damn I never noticed how many people are here" said Ophelia.
" That is the vampire's best weapon that is what draws them here, we have a vast supply of unmemorable people" said Malcolm, " who notices when a few go missing or end up dead."
" Tonight is really quiet" said John, as the turned off Sunset heading for the valley.
" Maybe we get lucky and it will be a quiet night" said Malcolm, " we are due for one."

Celestine walked into the Sun Valley EZ Pawn, the bell on the door ringing across the empty store making the owner Eddie Jones look up. The little weasel of a fence smiled, " Hiya Ms Blanchard, how may I help you?"
" Eddie, you haven't by chance had any new customers come in lately have you?" asked Celestine walking across the store and over to the counter.
" Not in awhile" said Eddie, busy inspecting the latest acquisition of watches and rings.
Celestine took a hold of Eddie's jaw and made him look her in the eyes. " Eddie, we allow you to fence our people's goods, never forget that" she said.
" I never forget" said Eddie, " I am grateful of your business, now why would I want to fuck that up?"
"Because you are a greed little shit" said Celestine, " you would sell your legs if the price was right."
" I swear, I've only seen regulars for a month now" said Eddie, " a couple of new initiates but no out of towners."
" You hear any smoke about guys in white masks and black cloaks?" asked Celestine.
" White masks, and black cloaks?" asked Eddie, " let me see here, it isn't Halloween so no."
Celestine gave him a harsh look, " Don't be a smart ass" said Celestine, " how bout any other rumors?"
Cassandra is sampling the Pop Star crowd again, the SF Vamps are looking to start an alliance with Vegas to run you into the ocean, the same old bullshit that seems to rotate every few months or so, ahhhh, wait a second, a norm came in here about a week ago. This shit was spooky, I mean I am use to you people but this guy was a whole new chapter of weird shit. Guy tried to pawn some household stuff, bits and pieces like he was some low class burglar, now I told him to take his nickel and dime B&E elsewhere, I don't like having the LAPD breathing on me. This guys eyes me up and says that I better wise up because he is part of the new order. I told him he had five seconds before I start shooting. Dude packs up and leaves."
" Anything else about him?" asked Celestine.
" Tattoo, on his arms, green devil looking thing tentacles coming out of every which place had some weird writing underneath, I'm thinking the guy like the heavy metal a little too much for his own good" said Eddie.
" But he was norm" said Celestine.
" Totally norm, albeit using norm outside of this conversation would be pushing it" said Eddie, " talk to the vamps at strip clubs on Lankershim you might have better luck, I saw a stamp for the Ms Kitty Club on his hand."
" Thank you Eddie" said Celestine, " you have been a great deal of help."
Celestine turned and left the pawnshop, leaving Eddie to catch his breath and thank his luck that she didn't rough him up this time.

Jenna and Melinda slowly sorted through the backlog of old homicide cases for the greater Los Angeles Area for the period of 2001. They had struck out with the database files, but they knew the real details of the case never made it into the database. " Any luck?" asked Melinda.
" Going through all these cases makes you surprised that anybody is left alive in this city any more" said Jenna.
" Hey, hey" said Melinda, " pay dirt."
Melinda held a folder high above her head. The pair hurried over to the table and flipped it open.
On Wednesday, October 15th, Janelle Stevens and Kendra Jackson were discovered slain in their apartment in Van Nuys. The pair was found by their neighbor, Tyler Reynolds who said he was awoken in the early morning by a loud crash in the next door apartment. After breaking the door down he found the pair both dead in their beds. Two victims had been stabbed literally hundreds of times; the medical examiner was unable to determine how many stabs wounds there were. Extremely unusual aspect is that some of the wounds according to the examiner were almost a week old when found. The attacker(s?) entered through the window and over powered the two girls and tied them to their beds. We spent weeks running down every lead imaginable, even the crackpots and psychics, but every suspect has an alibi for most of the time during the week. One question mark is from Tyler Reynolds who said he spotted two men outside the apartment on two occasions during the night in the weeks prior to the attack. If this is a start of serial murder spree I hope we're on vacation for the rest of the murders. Captain told us to put this on the back burner, it really is going nowhere, it has been a month and we still at square 1. Maybe they will turn themselves in and save us the effort. 11/01, odd note Tyler Reynolds has vanished off the face of the earth, went to his apartment to show him a photo array of some bikers that were nabbed in an chop shop sting in Venice but he disappeared. Landlady was no help; swear that woman lives in another plane of reality.
" Doesn't help any of my suspicions" said Jenna, " let's call it day, maybe tomorrow will give us a new lead."
" I totally agree" said Melinda, " I swear I should have married you instead, I have probably seen Mike twice this month."
" Always time to switch sides" teased Jenna.
" Yah, yah, I'll see you tomorrow" said Melinda.

" Look" said John, " the two guys walking the girl down the alley."
" So, threesomes aren't illegal" said Ophelia.
" Look carefully, look at their auras" said Malcolm.
Ophelia looked again and this time saw that the two men both had a slight red aura around them. All creatures gave off auras, normals were light blue almost invisible, vampires showed red, especially when ready to feed, mages put off violet, and demons were pure black. " Guess they're hungry" said Malcolm, pulling his Webley out.
John parked down the block and the three started walking for the alley were the vampires were entertaining an extremely drunk girl. " Wow, you guys are really strong" she slurred.
" Shall you go first?" asked the first.
" Oh why thank you" said the second.
The second's fangs slowly came out, the girl suddenly realized this was incredible bad and started to struggle but the other held tight. Suddenly a bright yellow ball of light hit the second vampire in the head, making it explode in a shower of blood and chunky bits of brains. The first hurled the girl across the alley slamming her hard into the dumpster. His face fully morphed into its hideous vampiric visage. But instead of attacking he simply ran, " Why do they run?" asked John, " now it means we have to run too."
" Go after him" said Malcolm, " I'll make sure the girl is all right."
John and Ophelia sprinted after the vampire, Malcolm hurried over to the girl, " Are you okay?" he asked, taking out a blue talisman.
The light flickered in her eyes, " Yah, I really had too many to drink tonight" she slurred, " fuck, I am messed up."
Malcolm got her into the crowds and then followed John and Ophelia down the alley.

Celestine crossed the street heading for the Ms Kitty Club. The Ms Kitty Club was one of the largest strip clubs in Los Angeles, a three story building with a giant red and white neon sign of a busty female figure with cat ears and a tail with the words Ms Kitty Club on the side of her body. She quickly disappeared into the large crowd entering and exiting the club. She entered and made her way to the bar, a topless woman was pouring drinks to the capacity crowd in the club, she immediately saw Celestine and got another woman to cover for her. " What's up?" she asked.
" Looking for a guy, spooky norm" said Celestine, " green demon tattoo on his arm."
" Talk to Sunrise" said the bartender, " she was bitching about some creep with a tatt a couple of night back. So how is the boss? We haven't seen her here for awhile."
" I think she is making the starlet rounds lately" said Celestine.
Celestine made her way into the back where the girls were getting ready, " Sunrise" Celestine said.
Sunrise was sitting at her vanity in her sequin g-string smoking and drinking blood from her flask. " What's up?" she asked.
" Spooky norm, tatt" said Celestine.
" That fucker, I know the reason why that demon had tentacles" said Sunrise, " fucker was like an octopus, pays twenty for a lap. I get going and he starts grabbing like we're in the VIP room. I tell him that if he wants to play touchy feely, he has to pay a few bucks more. Then this freak grabs my neck and tells me he is part of the new order and I better wise up or I would be dead. Now I have been threatened a lot in this job, but that was the first time I really believed it. I raised hell and the guy took off out the backdoor. You know, I have a Ricer that tastes like sweet red wine."
Ricers were the names given to normals that believed in vampires and offered themselves as walking snack bars to vampires. The name came from most of their obsession with Anne Rice novels that assumed vampires pined for their lost humanity, Celestine lost her humanity 500 years ago and never once missed it, in fact was happier without it. " Maybe next time" said Celestine, " this guy a regular?"
" Watcher" said Sunrise, " I've seen him around a few times, usually sits in the back, probably playing pocket pool, but since his little adventure on the couch he hasn't been back. What's up with him?"
" I'm not sure" said Celestine, " he's probably just a metalhead norm but I would like to find that out for myself."
" If he comes back you'll be the first to know" said Sunrise.
Celestine walked into the club and walked around the bar and up into the Vamp VIP area, a little room with a big fish tank that looked down at the entire club. The bartender brought out a glass of fresh blood, and left. Celestine sat and drank, norms hanging around vamp places wasn't all that strange most are just pathetic posers that think vamps are just norms like them. But there are few that were up to no good, independent hunters working contracts, thieves looking for big scores, or just plain sick freaks that are looking to kill. Celestine knew she was probably making something out of nothing but this bugged her. Celestine drained her glass, maybe I'm getting just as paranoid as Dante she thought.

The vampire climbed over the fence and started running through the backyard. Ophelia hit the fence a few moments later and vaulted over. She was soaked in sweat, her lungs felt like she was breathing fire, she had been chasing this bastard over a mile. Ophelia watched as he started to climb the next fence into the neighbor's backyard, no more fences, not tonight. Ophelia pulled a throwing knife out and threw it will all her strength. The knife plunged into the soft spot behind the vampire's knee. He lost his balance and crashed into the concrete surrounding the pool. Ophelia was exhausted, she wasn't confident that her powers would work if she tried. Ophelia closed her eyes and summoned her power. She was about to let an energy blast go when the vampire tackled her, slamming her hard into the fence. The pair exchanged punches and kicks, the much stronger vampire dropping Ophelia to the ground. He gave her another hard kick while she lay on the ground. He was snickering as he rolled her over, she had a real nice body, he was going to enjoy her. He leaned over to taste this feisty hottie when she jammed one of her throwing daggers up through his mouth slamming it shut. The vampire howled, although his mouth was jammed shut. Ophelia kicked him hard in the chest knocking him in the pool. The vampire desperately thrashed about in the pool, apparently he never learned to swim. Ophelia limped over, clutching her side. She smiled at the thrashing vampire and held up a little blue crackling ball. She tipped her hand over and let the electric elemental ball drop into the pool. It arched across the water and went straight into the knife in his mouth. The vampire thrashed and shook before the electricity stopped and he began to float like a dead fish. Ophelia grabbed the net used to clean the pool and slowly hauled him to the side. Ophelia pulled him out and retrieved her two throwing knives. Ophelia took her cell phone out and dialed Malcolm. " I got him" Ophelia wheezed, " bastard put up one hell of a fight."
" Okay, where are you?" asked Malcolm.
" Someplace in North Hollywood, bout a mile from the alley in somebody backyard" said Ophelia.
" We'll be there in a minute" said Malcolm.
Ophelia rubbed the back of her head, talk about a first day but Ophelia felt good about herself. She managed to take a vampire out, she didn't screw up and get herself killed like she was almost convinced would happen. Ophelia heard Malcolm's voice, and got up. She opened the gate and John and Malcolm carried the body out. " Good job" said Malcolm as the dumped him in the trunk with his buddy.
" O" said John, putting his arm around Ophelia, " you're going to do all right."
" Thanks" said Ophelia, " I did, didn't I."
The three climbed into the car and drove to Griffith Park. They hauled the two bodies out and dumped them in a fire pit used for outdoor barbeques. Malcolm took out a vile of blue liquid and poured it over the two. The bodies hissed and began to dissolve, a little potion Jack made that would turn vampire corpses into ash. Within a few moments the two bodies were nothing but ash in the fire pit, totally indistinguishable from the other ashes. " This is enough for one night" said Malcolm, " let's go."

They dropped Ophelia off first, she happily skipped up to her apartment and went inside. Jinx was waiting, she meowed as Ophelia came in. " Hey Jinxie, yah my day was all right" she said, taking her clothes off, " I work with a real hottie, he is a little on the mysterious side but oh god is he hot."
Ophelia looked at herself in her dresser mirror, the bruises were starting to form, nothing big she usually got more bruises from a day of snowboarding. Ophelia pulled her pajamas on and found her cold Chinese from last night. She joined Jinx on the couch and the pair began to eat while watching Adult Swim. " I think I am going to like being Ophelia the Vampire Slayer" she said, " isn't being a doctor but at least I can stop the injuries before they happen, maybe it is better than being a doctor."
Ophelia and Jinx fell asleep on the couch, one day down, and countless more to come.