Episode 1
The first thing Rian noticed wasn't the smell of blood-he was used to that.it was the silence.
The body lay nestled between two shipping containers in the long-haul yard, far from the buzzing neon of the city proper.
Rian, a night-shift yard security guard, approached slowly, his hands tucked deep into the pockets of his worn denim jacket. He knew, instinctively, that this wasn't a murder,"
Her throat was precise, surgically clean—the unmistakable work of an Alpha Vampire, one aiming for maximum, efficient drainage. But the rest of her torso was shredded, the ribs cracked and the clothing torn into strips by something savage and impossibly strong. Too large for a coyote, too frenzied for a standard wolf.
Two signatures. One killer.
Rian knelt beside the body. His heart, usually slow and steady thanks to years of forced control, hammered against his ribs. He had seen this dual-attack once before, in the cellar of the Coven that had raised him, and it was a memory he'd spent ten years trying to bury.
The real clue wasn't the body; it was the ground beneath it. The asphalt had been seared, melting into a glassy crust that crackled under Rian's touch. Etched into this crust was a symbol: a perfect lunar eclipse. A dark circle consuming a bright one.
The sigil of the Forgotten Faction. The cult that believed the only way to end the war between fangs and fur was to destroy both and create a perfect, primal third thing. The Chimera Blood.
Rian stood up, pulling out his burner phone. He couldn't call the police; they would either blame a feral dog or, worse, call in the Vampire Coven's "Occult Liaison" who would clean the scene faster than Rian could blink.
He needed a human—a cop with an official badge, but enough of a reputation for chasing "ghosts" that they wouldn't dismiss the impossible evidence.
He found her name in a local true-crime blog: Detective Lena Vasquez, demoted to missing persons after reporting a "winged human" on an old case. Perfect.
Two days later, Detective Lena Vasquez was nursing a lukewarm coffee in her cubicle when an email hit her inbox. It was encrypted, untraceable, and had one attachment: an impossible photo of the shredded, drained body from the shipping yard. The text was terse:
> This is not a street killing. Look closer at the bone fragments. Ask the Medical Examiner about trace amounts of wolfsbane ash. Look for the sigil on the pavement.
>
Lena stared at the photo, a cold dread washing over her. She had been the lead on the missing persons report for the victim—a low-level human familiar who had abruptly vanished. She knew the official report would label it as a high-speed vehicle accident, but the body in the photo was clearly mauled.
Driven by a curiosity that had nearly ended her career, Lena pulled the file and put in a request to the ME for a second, unauthorized look at the crime scene evidence. She found the wolfsbane ash and the faint, charred impression on the pavement where the body had been.
That night, she waited.
Lena was sitting in her unmarked car across from the dimly lit mechanics garage, ostensibly waiting for a warrant, when a large shadow detached itself from the gloom of the alley.
Rian slid into the passenger seat, smelling faintly of motor oil and cold air.
"You're late," Lena said, her hand resting on the holster of her sidearm. "And you smell like a pack animal trying to hide under a car."
"The pack doesn't want me," Rian replied, his voice a low rumble. "And the other side wants me dead. I'm taking precautions, Detective."
"Rian," she said, testing the name. "You sent me a picture of a murder victim and mentioned wolfsbane. Start talking. Why a photo? And why did one killer use two different methods?"
Rian leaned closer, his eyes catching the light—they were a startling shade of amber.
"It wasn't two methods, Detective. It was one creature," he explained, his gaze intense. "The victims aren't random. They were the testing pool. The small bits of werewolf and vampire blood that don't matter. They're refining the process, training the ultimate weapon. And the lunar eclipse? That's the calling card of a cult trying to create something they call the 'Primal.' They are synthesizing the Chimera Blood."
"And what exactly are they synthesizing it for?" Lena asked, gripping the steering wheel.
"To end the war," Rian said, his voice flat. "By giving all the power to a new, single ruler. A Hybrid. They are preparing to kidnap an Alpha."
He paused, meeting her gaze.
"If they get a pure Alpha Werewolf or a pure Alpha Vampire, they complete the ritual. And the person leading this Forgotten Faction, the person who holds the key to the ultimate balance of power in this city, is the one person everyone trusts to keep the peace: Eleanor Vance, the Ancient Witch of the Council."