Manila Vampires: Verdugo

“Manila is sinking—not only in flood, but in blood.” In an alternate universe, the Philippines is drowning in terror. A wave of brutal, unexplainable murders sweeps across the nation—so grotesque that rumors begin to spread of a hidden society of cannibals, an underground order that feasts on human flesh. When the sun disappears from Manila’s skyline, creatures emerge from the shadows of narrow alleyways—beings addicted to blood and raw meat. They move among ordinary people with hollow stomachs and predatory eyes, hunting for their next prey. Some are descendants of ancient cannibal tribes from the Visayas. Others come from forgotten clans in the western lands. And now, they are all converging on Manila. A 14-year-old student activist, obsessed with exposing the truth behind her mother’s murder, begins investigating the rising body count—only to find herself stalked by the shadows that poison her with a mysterious curse. A 26-year-old former NBI investigator, broken by the slaughter of his entire family, is recruited into a secret organization created by the President—an underground force sworn to purge the darkness spreading across the city. A battle-scarred supersoldier turned CIA agent is deployed to the Philippines to investigate a charismatic megachurch pastor linked to mass murders committed by a Filipino-American community in California. His past wars have hardened him… but the horrors he finds here ignite a new obsession. Bound by fate, the unlikely trio must uncover the truth behind the killings before the entire nation is swallowed whole by the coming darkness— a darkness born not only from its own soil, but from distant lands drifting in with deadly intent.