Chapter Five

## The First Change

DOM sits in the dark of a room at the Davies Campus of the California Pacific Medical Center at around 11pm, finally free of the ventilator, his only companion the beeping of the diagnostic equipment beside him and the button in his hand that triggers more painkiller. A plump African American nurse comes in and makes conversation, asking after her "favorite patient," when the hallway outside explodes with activity. Four men on stretchers are rushed past DOM's room, three of San Francisco's finest and a civilian.

"Damn, they brought him here after all..."

Barely interested, DOM only asks what she means out of a distant polite sense of making conversation. The nurse, ROSLAND MWANIKI, identifies the civilian as the serial killer the media has dubbed "the Angel of Death." The moniker came about because of the black "wings" the man sprayed painted around the bodies of his victims. The nurse excuses herself and DOM drifts off to sleep...

He wakes up an unknown amount of time later, still night though, as a violent confrontation takes place down the hallway from his room. Suddenly a man bursts into DOM's room, unaware the agent is even there, brandishing a gun and looking for a place to take cover. DOM, his feet very unsteady due to the painkiller coursing his system, slowly rises from his bed and pads silently over to the man who he recognizes as "the Angel of Death." He watches, uncertain of what to do and knowing he isn't in much shape to do anything, as the killer raises his gun and draws a bead on an approaching police officer.

DOM strikes without thinking and manages to knock the killer's gun out of his hands, but not before the killer knocks him to the ground. Two police officers storm the room, guns raised. DOM manages to kick the killer's gun free and holds up his hands, shying away from the cops. The policemen rush in and pin the killer to the wall, muttering angry epithets. DOM notices the killer's lips moving and he manages to hear him saying, "You have done well my good and faithful servant." Suddenly one of the cops raises his gun to the back of the killer's head and swears that this time he won't get away, that this time he'll face justice. With a pull of the trigger, the cop executes the serial killer.

Furious at the officer's lack of professionalism, DOM attempts to intimidate the cop into submitting to arrest. He's laughed at as the two officers leave. Sinking back onto his bed, DOM swears to himself that he will file a report in the morning.

He wakes up as a nurse leans over him again. *How am I supposed to sleep with the damn nurses bugging me every fifteen minutes!* he thinks, but then notices something on the nurse's wrist that triggers his fight/flight response: she is sporting the BNG symbol of a "question mark" on her arm. The nurse picks up a pillow and presses it down on DOM's face. The agent struggles and, thanks to his size and strength, manages to wrestle the pillow free. The nurse turns out to be a man and DOM rises from his bed, forcing himself to push through the painkillers and focus. A fury builds in DOM's breast and it fuels his strength. After a brief scuffle, DOM is able to get the better of the gang member, killing him by ripping his face off. Unfazed by the blood on his hands, DOM looks outside his room to find more BNG members loitering outside. He doesn't bother wondering where the hospital staff are—all he knows is that his life is in danger.

Opting to attack first, DOM rushes the BNG members and tears into them with abandon. A few shots fire and he feels the bullets graze him, but the pain only manages to enrage him further. Soon, he doesn't feel the wounds at all. He tears the BNG members apart with his bear hands. The elevator at the end of the hall opens and DOM's team enters, guns raised and pointed at him. They tell him to drop his latest attacker and that he is under arrest. *They tried to kill me*, he thinks and his rage becomes a torrent of molten silver. KILLIAN and LALEH flee in terror but are stuck at the end of the hallway against the closed elevator doors. He only intends to knock KIDA's weapon out of her hand, but she is thrown against the wall with a deep gash across her torso. She slides down the wall with a sickening finality. DANI steps forward to engage DOM, going hand to hand, but she only manages to slow him down, not stop him. NEMO's psychokinetic attacks only irritate DOM and he dispatches her without a thought. Engaging in a grapple with DANI he is overcome with the sensation of what it is to be unstoppable. DANI drops with a good-sized chunk ripped from her shoulder, her blood and fleshy tissues pouring from DOM's mouth.

DOM advances on his remaining team members, thinking to himself how despicable their cowardly behavior is. The least they could do is fight him! They scream as his shadow envelopes their fragile forms.

## Family Reunion

DANI is wandering the streets of San Francisco, eventually planning to retrieve DOM's car for him (he has to trust her eventually, she thinks...maybe this will help?) when she literally bumps into her brother. He turns into a bar Mikkellar's. At first she thinks she must be mistaken and continues on, picking up DOM's car and driving it back to where she saw XAN. After a moment, considering, DANI proceeds into Mikkellar's and finds her brother quickly. As she sits next to him, he slides her a bourbon and tells her is waiting for an apology, which she refuses to give. He replies that it is the least she could do, considering he's been tracking her 18 months. DANI's ire rises then as she abandoned him so she wouldn't hurt him. He leaves in a huff out the back.

DANI follows and is ambushed by a group of hunters who get the better of her. The last things she sees before she loses consciousness are the hunters converging on her to kill her, her brother watching.

DANI wakes up much later, pain in every joint, her body patched up, her arms chained to the wall. She can tell she has a slight fever, but she knows it'll pass. XAN sits across the room from her. Rage building, DANI accuses her brother of trying to kill her, but he denies it and hangs his head. "I trusted the wrong people," he admits. He relates to her that he's found the cure to lycanthropy and he joined up with a group of hunters who were willing to help him cure his sister. Unfortunately they betrayed their deal and XAN was forced to kill them.

Not sure whether to believe him or not, but willing to take the risk, DANI tries to tell her brother that there is no cure for what she is—being a werewolf is not a disease. It is, in fact, a blessing. As for his supposed cure, she seriously doubts there is one. In fact, she'd like to meet the one who fed XAN that lie. XAN insists it is no lie. He ran across some druids in New Zealand that told an old story about banishing the wolf from a cursed man. The story explained why there are no werewolves in New Zealand, but XAN cared little about that. He wanted to hear more about this "banishing the wolf." The druids and XAN spent a good amount of time together and they eventually agreed to travel with him in order to help his sister. DANI growls that she would very much like to meet them.

XAN reluctantly agrees to her request and within a couple hours she is sitting across from a man who looks like any other, albeit with an accent that reminds her of home. He introduces himself as WILLIAM REID. he seems kindly, but DANI cannot bring herself to trust him, sensing a threat in him—a threat she cannot define, but a dangerous one all the same. He insists that he can help her, but DANI recoils and requests time to do her own research into this "cure." REID patiently explains that it won't do her any good. Her magic is of a different paradigm than his. It's like comparing apples to sheets of steel. They both know she has already killed, many a time and often innocents. The evil within her will continue to build as the curse sinks itself deeper and deeper into her very essence. She insists that she is not evil, that she is a defender against evil—all her kind are. XAN interrupts them and asks her to truly consider her words: how can the evil that is the beast inside her be used to fight itself? If she does not take the cure, she'll kill again. And XAN tells her very calmly, even as she rises and storms out the building, that he will not allow her to do so again...

## A Missing Kidney

KIDA wakes up in the early a.m., her mind still reeling with all that DANI had told her. Werewolves were more than real...they had a social structure and heirarchy, wielded a primitive but powerful form of magic, considered the moon a goddess of sorts, and even had their own version of the "Boogeyman:" something called "the Pure." Could this be real?

Her phone shows the time as 1am and a text on its face reads: 114 Powell St., Hotel Union Square, ASAP. Wondering if she's ever going to get a decent night's sleep, she pulls on her clothes, straps her gun to her hip, and is soon making her way across town in her car. She meets KILLIAN at the scene, several SFPD patrol cars lighting the street along with a an ambulance. As she and KILLIAN enter the hotel they are met by LEIDECKER who escorts them to the crime scene where he explains that the victim, JIMMY O'NEAL, woke up in a bathtub full of ice, a note next to him instructing him to call 911 ASAP. The paramedics report that O'NEAL is missing a kidney and sports a long slit in his side, hastily closed with sloppy sutures. LEIDECKER turns the case over to the two agents.

Their investigation doesn't produce much at first. In the hotel room itself a crude surgical suite was built and is the obvious site of the surgery. The paramedics confirm that whoever stole the kidney had medical training. O'NEAL himself claims no knowledge of what has happened to him, insisting that he was partying at Johnny Foley's Irish House just down the street when his vision got fuzzy. The last thing he remembers is his best friend, ZACK STREEHAND, clapping him on the shoulder. As they decide to pay a visit to the IRISH HOUSE, LALEH joins them, running late. At the IRISH HOUSE the barkeep is very helpful once it is discovered that he serves underage customers routinely. He remembers O'NEAL leaving with his girl in a SUV—O'NEAL himself was pretty wasted and he presumes the girl was driving him home.

Tracking down STREELAND wasn't difficult at all, being a student at the City College of San Francisco and a resident of a frat house on Washington Street. STREELAND appears open and honest about the night's activities. O'NEAL picked up a girl, a cougar, and left with her, simple as that. He didn't remember her name, but he did have a shot of her on his cell phone. Making a copy of the pic, the OSI agents leave. They hand over the pic to the FBI's computer forensic team and a facial scan starts. Unwilling to wait around for the scan to complete, KIDA and KILLIAN turn to NEMO and her street contacts to determine if any black market street docs performed the operation.

The team travels to the Market District and KIDA gains the attention of a street doc, posing as a prostitute with a medical issue (NEMO being her pimp). Paying the doc for his services—and very relieved that he seemed rather disinterested in her, at least sexually—KIDA extracts an agreement for him to look into the possibility of kidneys on the black market.

Returning to HQ, the team rests. They discover come morning that the facial scan produces an 85% match with one PRISCILLA ADALIA of 1960 San Antonio Avenue, across the bay in Berkley. Also, the street doc KIDA bargained with calls her and tells her of a rumor of five other kidneys being taken, but he is quite sure that none of his peers were hired. He suggests she look at legitimate medical practitioners. The team decides to travel to Berkley and question Ms. ADALIA.

When they arrive at the gated mansion, populated with indentured servants, and meet PRISCILLA ADALIA, she denies the accusations leveled against her. In fact, she claims she was at a Catilian the previous evening with her friends. The team is forced to leave, but not before sensing that the groundskeeper might be willing to speak to them if given the chance.

## An Agrieved Father

DOM returns to consciousness as sunlight pours over him in an alleyway, refuse and stink covering him head to toe. That isn't as bad, though, as the blood covering his hands and that which he can still taste in his mouth. Footsteps approach and DOM quickly recognizes the form of his boss and mentor, NORTON LEIDECKER. The older man kneels down in front of DOM and shakes his head, his face stricken with sorrow.

"I am so sorry, son. I am so sorry..."

 The Story Continues...

Current Developments - Chapter Four - Chapter Six