When a man walks into a Catholic church just prior to the start of a funeral service, stuffs garlic into the deceased's mouth and pumps a bullet into the corpse, NYPD Homicide Detective Louis Martelli is as puzzled as he's ever been on a case. No stranger to the macabre, Martelli is even more mystified by Deputy Coroner Michael Antonetti's findings, which confirm that the deceased, far from having died of respiratory failure and a possible heart attack, was murdered by someone who injected him with a lethal dose of Philippine Cobra venom. When other, similar deaths are uncovered in and around New York City, the investigation conducted by Martelli and his partner, Detective Sean O'Keeffe, takes a decidedly morbid turn, leading to the discovery of a modern-day vampire cult, a woman named 'Lilith, ' and a serial killer with a score to settle. Who is behind the killings, and can Martelli and O'Keeffe stop him before he kills his last victim and makes good his escape? The answers to these and other questions will be found in this gripping, modern-day tale of vampirism unlike any you have read