Prologue: 100,000 Years Ago
Ong hurried for the cave, he was running out of time. He tossed his spear at the cave's entrance, he already knew it had no effect on what they had encountered. Just as the snow began to melt and the flowers began to grow Ong and several others of his tribe had set out to find more plentiful lands for their growing tribe to settle in. They had traveled into this valley and that first night as they camped at the pass something killed Urag while he was on look out. It was horrible, more vicious than any animal, it has ripped his throat out then tore his stomach open and feasted on his inards. The group continued on but it just kept killing the men around Ong. Now it was just him and he had to warn the others.
Ong pulled his tools from his deer hide roll and began to work. He painted with deft strokes, he was the finest artist in the tribe ever. He worked fast but he could see the sunlight was dying too fast. He watched as the sun disappeared over the western mountains. He grabbed his torch and Nog's prized flint. With two quick strokes the flint the torch was ignited, illuminating the entire room. Ong looked about, the cave was a lot deeper than he expect. He put the torch into the soft sand of the cave floor and began to work once again. He finished the last strokes and gave a soft sigh of relief, it was done. He started to reach for his torch when he heard noises deep within the cave. It sounded like nails scraping on the hard stone walls. Ong pulled his antler knife out and carefully bent down to pick up the torch from the soft sand. Ong's thick hand wrapped around the torch and he saw the black shape lunge at him from the darkness. It hit him hard, throwing him to the ground. The torch flew from his hand and landed the sand a few feet away. The creature buried it deep fangs into Ong's throat and ripped most of the contents out. Blood sprayed on the cave wall as Ong gurgled in his death throes. The creature began to feast on Ong.
Above Ong's body was the warning Ong gave his life to paint on the cave wall, a human figure with two large fangs coming from the mouth of the figure.
July 25th 2004
Detective Jenna Wilcox parked her car and climbed out of the cool air conditioned interior into the brutal heat of the LA night. The city was in the grip of a particularly brutal heat wave, the temps had been past 105 all week and those way too happy weathermen on TV where predicting it would reach record breaking temps next week. Jenna normally didn't mind the heat, but this was too much, she stepped outside for two seconds and immediately was soaked in sweat and her underwear began to bunch up. She crossed the street and walked into the Cactus Rose Mexican Restaurant. Her date, Charity Li, was sitting at the bar enjoying a margarita when Jenna tickled her sides. " Hey" said Charity planting a loving kiss on Jenna's cheek.
" Hey" said Jenna returning the kiss, " how was your day?"
" Pretty good, business is starting to pick up" said Charity, " you?"
" Other than the fact that I have been swimming in sweat all day, not all that great" said Jenna, " our murder investigation is going nowhere, we just can't get a lead that takes us anywhere."
" Well you don't have to worry about that tonight" said Charity, " tonight it is just you and me."
" I like that" said Jenna.
Jenna ordered a margarita and the pair chatted while they enjoyed their drinks, before sitting down to a nice Mexican meal. " You really know where the good Mexican is" said Jenna, " isn't that a little strange for an Asian girl to like Mexican?"
" I'm like Chinese too but Mexican is my favorite" said Charity, " I lived in LA all my life, and you can't live in LA and not fall in love with Mexican. I'll have to make my enchiladas for you one day."
" I bet their great" said Jenna.
" You compliment me too much" said Charity, " you'll give me a big head."
The pair finished their meal and then spent ten minutes debating who would pay. Finally Charity won the best two out of three of rock paper scissors and paid. " At least let me invite you to my place for a little quality time" said Jenna kissing Charity's neck.
" Absolutely" said Charity, " I didn't drive tonight."
" Fine with me" said Jenna.
The pair jogged over to Jenna's car and headed back to her place.

Charity arched her back, a big smile was across her scrunched up features. She slowly flopped back down on the bed, Jenna slowly slid up Charity's sweaty body and the pair kissed. " This feels so good" said Charity.
" All hot and sweaty" said Jenna, cuddling close to Charity, " I love it."
The pair were enjoying their company when their cell phones started ringing. They rolled off opposite ends of the bed and tossed one another's cell phone across the bed. " Hello" they both said, " I'll be right there."
They hung up their cell phones and began to quickly dress. They were both already half dressed when they realized they were putting on each other's clothing. " I love the look" said Charity.
" Me too" said Jenna admiring the tight jeans and gas station attendant shirt, " pants are a little tight."
" Sorry for being so short" said Charity, rolling the pant legs of Jenna's Dockers up.
" I'm sorry I'm too tall" said Jenna.
The pair kissed their goodbyes, Charity taking off on Jenna's restored 1967 BMW R50 and Jenna climbing into her car.

Jenna pulled up to the Santa Monica address given to her by Melinda, who sounded worse than before. It was a simple town house, the lawn was dead and but a brand new Hummer with the temporary dealer tag still in the window was in the driveway. Jenna climbed out and clipped her badge to Charity's shirt pocket. Jenna found Melinda standing in the door way, her normally tan features pale white. " God, you look awful" said Jenna.
" I'm okay" said Melinda, her voice heavy with sinus congestion, " just a cold."
" During a heat wave that must suck" said Kevin, walking up the steps, " nice outfit punk rock rooster."
" They're my girlfriend's" said Jenna, " somebody had the poor timing to die while we were in bed."
" Good to know you've found somebody" said Kevin, " you had a cloud over you after Lynn left."
" So who is the unlucky contest winner?" asked Jenna.
" Morton Grusznic, better known to the world as Randy Steele" said Melinda, " adult film star, 38, made 435 films."
" Who found him?" asked Jenna.
" Neighbor, she said she heard noises and then saw a man fleeing the scene dressed all in black" said Melinda, " thought it was a burglary and called the police. Two uniformed officers forced there way in and found Randy, or what was left of him in the living room."
Jenna and Kevin looked in, " Think it is our guy?" asked Jenna.
The pair walked over and looked at the body, " Judging by the missing eye balls" said Kevin kneeling over the body, " position of the body, blood on the walls."
Kevin popped open the mouth and shown his flashlight in, " And missing tongue" he said, " I'm not going to use the serial word but I think we're in trouble."
" Media is going to love this" said Jenna, " try and keep some of the more grisly details hidden behind big medical words, I don't want this to turn into a circus."
" No problem" said Kevin.
Jenna looked at the blood all over the walls, this guy was painting the town red. Jenna walked out and found Melinda interviewing a tall blonde girl in a red Chinese robe. " It was like so unusual for him to come home so early, so like I thought maybe he was sick or something, then like I hear these noises, sounded like something falling down stairs or something. Now I don't like to pry into my neighbors lives too much and stuff but when I peeked out I see this huge guy running down the street all dressed in like black which is really weird because it is like a million degrees out. I knew Randy had burglar problems in the past so I like called the cops and they found him all dead and stuff" said the girl, smoking a cigarette, twirling her dye blonde hair with the other hand.
" Jen, this is Ocean Stevens, the next door neighbor" said Melinda.
" You said he had burglar problems in the past" said Jenna.
" Yah, like a couple of times in the past few weeks or so he had a couple of break-ins while he was working" said Ocean, " they stole some stuff, Randy thought they were like guys he worked with and stuff."
" He bring home girls?" asked Melinda.
" All the time, I mean these chicks were like so smoking hot" said Ocean, " he was a porn star you know."
" Yah, you and him?" asked Jenna.
" Few times, hey I'm not uptight and he is hung, I mean god he is huge" said Ocean, " did you see how big it was?"
" It is hard to miss" said Jenna, " with all these girls he have any trouble with their boyfriends?"
" Only mine" said Ocean, " just between us, sometimes guys came in with the girls, I mean he was really open minded and stuff."
" What was your boyfriend's problem with him?" asked Melinda.
" Ex, he is my ex-boyfriend" said Ocean, " he got all uptight over me being with Randy, I mean he was no winner in the size department and well really sucked in bed. I ditched him a month ago and haven't seen him since."
" Randy have money troubles?" asked Melinda.
" Yah, he was being sued by an ex-wife" said Ocean, " I've seen this PI coming around, the slut thinks Randy is hiding money from her, if anybody wanted him dead it was her."
" What was her name?" asked Melinda.
" Candy Staxxs" said Ocean, " she and Randy use to work together, bitch was so super crazy, she like once beat Randy up in the driveway, you cops had to come and pull them apart."
" What about the guy you saw running away?" asked Melinda.
" He was like huge too, I mean not in that way or anything, but I mean like bouncer huge" said Ocean, " I didn't see much but like he ran and then was like gone."
" Thanks Ocean" said Melinda.
" You done with me, I so have to call my girlfriend, this is so freaky I gotta move" she said.
Ocean walked back into her house, " You think the ex-wife hacked him to pieces?" asked Melinda.
" I doubt it and why kill Christie?" asked Jenna, " let's talk to her anyways but I'm more interested in the break-ins. Maybe our killer did a couple trial runs, remember Mystic Springs was broken into a week before Christie was killed."
" Christie's burglary was nothing but a bunch of questions marks for the West Hollywood guys" said Melinda, " this guy seems to have his shit together."
" I'll look into, you go home and get some rest" said Jenna, " I don't want to catch whatever you have."
" I'm not going to argue" said Melinda, " see you tomorrow."

Charity walked into the back of her store where the others were. They all looked rather intense, something big must be up. " What's going on?" asked Charity.
" We just got word that members of the Black Hand are in town" said Malcolm.
" The society of vampire assassins?" asked Charity, " why are they in town?"
Jack pointed at the others, " We pissed Dante off rather badly this time" he said, " they are coming for us."
" We're going to have to close this place for the time being" said John, " we get to play scarce."
" No way" said Charity, " I just got this damn business running, we can't just mysteriously close down."
" Ruthless assassins are after us" said Ophelia.
" Yah, after you" said Charity, " I'll be fine."
" If you want" said Malcolm, " we can use this place to leave messages."
" We're also going to need you to try and figure out where they are going" said Jack.
" Dante's bank records are the most insane maze I've ever seen" said Charity, " he hides his money better than most CEOs, but I think I've figured out something he can't hide."
" What?" asked Ophelia.
" I have some phone tracking software" said Charity, " it isn't exactly legal but I can trace to where he is making his phone calls."
" Get on it" said Malcolm, " we are going to need all the information we can on these guys."
" No problem, you guys just get out of here" said Charity, " I can't afford the insurance on this place as is, if you have a gun battle in here I'm through, so shoo."
The four of them felt through the back and Charity locked the door once she made sure they were all in their cars and safely driving away. Charity walked into her work room and sat at her computer. She powered it up and turned her coffee pot on, heat or no heat she would need the caffeine.

" You have someplace different to stay?" asked Malcolm.
" No" said Ophelia, " I was doing the whole poor college student thing until recently. Mind if we play house?"
" I was hoping you had that in mind" said Malcolm, " here's the address."
Ophelia memorized the address and burned the slip of paper up with a little fireball. " I might actually like this whole hiding out thing" said Ophelia.
Malcolm and Ophelia climbed into their car and headed for Malcolm's safe house. After an hour of driving the pair talking non-stop about their favorite subject horror movies Malcolm finally pulled up to a stylish Spanish style apartment building. " Nice looking place" said Ophelia.
" Thanks, I bought it a few years ago" said Malcolm, " pretty decent investment."
" Wow" said Ophelia, " which one is yours?"
" The top one" said Malcolm.
Malcolm parked the car in the back lot and the pair walked up the backstairs to a door. He unlocked it and they walked in. " I like it" said Ophelia, " needs a little livening up, but I love the view."
Ophelia felt Malcolm's hands slip around her waist and gently stroke her skin, " But that can definitely wait" said Ophelia.

Dante watched as the two men in black suits entered the room, " I am Ricardo Venezzi" said the first bowing, " my team has arrived in your city. Once we have settled in the safe houses you so graciously gave us we shall begin our hunt for the Chosen you wish removed."
" Very good" said Dante, " I wish daily updates on your progress."
" Certainly" said Ricardo, " we shall get to work straight away."
The pair turned and left, Dante liked that about the Black Hand they were all business no small talk, just business. Dante turned around and looked at the sun setting over the ocean. Now the Chosen will feel what it is like to be the hunted.