Misdiagnosis

GEM, a vampiric night nurse, exits the Chicago L-train. They meet a teenage Runaway/Addict, and their fangs elongate in hunger – cut to black.

YUNI, aspiring Indonesian American mortal journalist. She suffers severe fatigue, falling asleep while making tea, burning her hands. In the emergency room, MISSING PERSON alerts for teen Runaway light up the screen—but Yuni doesn’t see. She’s too focused on the alluring night nurse who takes her in: Gem.

Gem persuades Yuni to take a blood test—smelling her diseased blood and informing her of advanced stage lupus. Yuni, meanwhile, notices a cooler of stolen blood at Gem’s hip… and when Gem’s mask slips? The ghost of fangs.

Gem sells stolen hospital blood to JACK, prince of the most powerful vampire coven in Chicago. Jack offers to pay triple for Gem to kidnap a human so he can drink blood straight from the source—threatening to steal away Gem’s human lover Angela. Jack reports back to controlling mistress Risa—Gem’s sire and former, toxic lover. Gem plots to kidnap Yuni to spare Angela’s life—their newest inpatient and a nosy journalist to boot.

But Yuni attempts to OD on laxatives (confusing them with sleeping pills). Gem feels sorry for her, and they bond—as Gem once tried to commit suicide too. Even as the lupus treatments/tests get more and more painful, Yuni promises to fight to survive. Gem melts for her.

Gem pleads with Jack to spare Yuni’s life—but Jack refuses. Instead, he drains the blood of kidnapped teen Runaway in front of Gem’s eyes and under Risa’s watch. At this moment, Yuni wakes from a nightmare, screaming about monsters hiding beneath the Chicago bridge.