Janus is a ceremonial magician and old vampire. One night while drinking from Jackie, a street human source, he hears a warning prophesized unthinkingly by Jackie to be careful of the wolf. In the park he finds a newly turned vampire, already bled out and lacking both eyes and heart. Janus is a lieutenant for a master vampire, but he has several night-side human denizens he keeps within his magical protection. His male lover, Vision, is lieutenant for a rival vamp, Strickland, whose business dealings are primarily with humans but who bristles at Janus' concealment of his human street people.

Recently Janus has found several newly made vampires, left without compunction, training, or protection; vulnerable to the hungry shadows surfacing up from the Earth. Some, like the vamp in the park, have been further brutalized and not able to be rescued. Others he finds before too much damage is done. The latest one is a young man whose body tells terrible tales of wound damage which must heal before his vampire self comes to the forefront. Since Janus has rescued him in time, he might now find the answers he seeks to this vampire against vampire depredation.