It began as nothing more than a string of disappearances. People who would not be missed by anyone would just drop off the face of the earth. Gang members, drug dealers, and suppliers of all kinds of illicit trades, for example. It would have been seen as almost a good thing, if they were simply leaving town or were the victims of a turf war. Then, after about four-dozen people had gone, the police took notice. They had found no signs of a war, no reappearances, not even a body. Then the first witness came forward. He was a man of dubious employ, housing, and sobriety. The kind of man your eyes would just slide over. That might have been why he was the only person to see it happen. He had thought it was just a dream, until the televisions carried the announcement asking for a witness. His words stumbled at first. He was terrified of the microphone, it seemed. Then what he saw came out. A Thing, he claimed, with a man in Its jaws, eyes burning like the pits of Hell, soaring on wings that defiled the night with their shadow. That was when the cases were bumped from missing persons to meta-human crimes. The police passed on the files to the Titans after that, promising to give their support however possible. The alley in question was examined. Little in the way of physical evidence was found. Blood of unknown origin, its presence of uncertain importance, a hat, possibly the victim's, possibly just having missed the dumpster, and a slight, lingering stench of death, fear, and earth was all that could be traced by material means. The spiritual plane, however, told a different tale. The creature that had taken the man was neither human nor living. The perpetrator left ashes of the fires of the demonic and wisps of the shadows of the unliving in its wake. Above all else, it could be stressed, that this was something powerful, ancient, cunning, and ruthless. In short, it was the most perfect predator to have ever walked the earth, skills honed to the point that even man, the "most dangerous game" was but a simple fruit, waiting to be plucked and feasted upon.
This was the report that was given by the Titans resident occultist and psychic medium, less than 24 hours after the ending of their initial processing of the scene. The rest of the Titans were flabbergasted.
"In summation," Raven continued, seemingly ignoring the looks her teammates were giving her "we are up against something far worse than any 'normal' meta-human or criminal. I fear we are dealing with the supernatural, and a particularly dangerous member at that: One that takes victims at night, at least once a week, with few to no witnesses. No struggle, no muss, no fuss."
"So what is it?" Asked Cyborg, "and I know you have a theory."
"To risk sounding absurd or clichéd, I'm leaning toward vampire. Powerful one too, with lots of experience and far up its bloodline, maybe as far as third generation, but as far down as fifth." She said, with some uncertainty. "I have no way of knowing for sure unless I were to interview it."
"Okay," Changeling piped up, "Two questions. One: how do we find/catch/deal with this thing, and two: are we going to finally call in help. This seems more like something Jason Blood or Doctor Fate would deal with, not us."