Service was slow at the small-storefront restaurant in downtown Gary. The two men were the only customers and they wondered why the carryout dinners were taking so long. It was late evening and the sun was dipping below the rooftops of the slum buildings and houses to the west. Darkness was coming much too quickly. The streets of Gary, Indiana are always dangerous, but they are especially dangerous at night. The two men were walking and they wanted to make it home before dark.

John "The Beast" Wechakhulia was dark, keen featured, and wore his dense-black hair and full beard very short and neatly trimmed He was six-three or six-four, two hundred sixty pounds, and muscled like an NFL fullback, linebacker, or tight end. He was in his late twenties. His friend Lysander was slim, of average height, movie-star handsome, and he had medium-brown hair of medium length and in a ponytail. He was clean shaven. Lysander was in his mid-forties. Both men were highly intelligent and highly educated. John the Beast had majored in the humanities and fine arts. Lysander was an engineer. Both men were bitalos—African vampires.

As it grew darker, the bitalos became even more afraid. Then finally the dinners were ready, and the two men hurried away, walking as fast as they could. Broadway was dark and dangerous and looked like a scene from a nightmare or a horror movie. They headed north past huge, tall, black, long-dead, burnt-out and abandoned buildings, and vacant lots infested with weeds, vines, bushes, and small trees. They saw five or six young black men, two skinny young black women, and an elderly black woman waiting on the bus. At least four Gary police cars passed by and the bitalos felt safer. They turned west on Sixth Avenue, which was even darker than Broadway. They were greatly relieved when they finally reached home. They had just purchased an old, once-elegant three-story house in the near northwest quadrant of Gary known as the Horace Mann area.

"Make sure that door is locked!" John the Beast warned. "I can't tell you anything! I told you, you're going to need a gun if you plan on walking the streets of Gary! We were very lucky tonight!"

What Has Gone Before

The African vampires were on a "blood hunt." They were on the trail of two of their ancient, most hated enemies, two Irungu Knights. One was a seventy-year-old man named John Irungu, who was a master African vampire hunter and killer. Short, slim, and dark, John Irungu resembled the Yoda character in the STAR WARS movies. The other man was younger, forty or fifty, and was believed to be Irungu's apprentice. His name was John David Hunter, and he was called "the Preacher." He did look like a black Baptist minister. Hunter was dark, a little shorter than average, and had that well-fed look. He also dressed like a preacher.

Looking for clues, African vampires burglarized the Preacher's house. They found closets full of Armani, Kuppenheimer, and Brooks Brothers suits, overcoats, and sports coats. They found Murphy Johnson shoes, and other items of clothing with very expensive names. Very little was known about this Preacher. He was a mysterious figure. Quite a bit was known about John Irungu. He had killed many bitalos.

An African vampire named Machupa had spotted John Irungu at Los Angeles International Airport. Irungu was waiting to board a flight to Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Irungu had killed Machupa's parents. African vampires in Chicago were alerted to wait for Irungu at O'Hare, but due to a storm, Irungu's plane sat on the runway for three hours. Then his flight was cancelled and he caught a Southwest Airlines flight the next day. Southwest Airlines does not go to O'Hare. It flies out of Midway. Eventually, the Chicago bitalos figured out what had happened and they traced Irungu to Gary, Indiana.

Meanwhile, a group of young male and female gang-member African vampires from Los Angeles, without authorization, had organized their own hunt. The gang-member bitalos shot it out with the Preacher in the woods surrounding the Little Calumet River. Their action ran both Irungu Knights out of town and into hiding. Now the trail was cold.

Lysander was still angry. "I should kill them!" he raged. "If it hadn't been for those young punks, we could have gotten every Irungu Knight in this area. Irungu is a senile old man. He would have led us back to the rest of them."

"If it hadn't been for those young punks, we wouldn't have known anything about this new guy, this Preacher, or what his capabilities might be," John the Beast replied.

"There's something I don't understand," Lysander said. "If he is an apprentice Irungu Knight, then why is he trying to kill us with silver bullets? What does he think we are? Werewolves? What is John Irungu teaching him?"

"I don't understand that either. This Preacher didn't have the slightest idea of what he was supposed to be doing. Otherwise, he would have killed up quite a few of our fine young people," John the Beast said.

"Well, it really doesn't matter," Lysander shrugged. "Neither one of them is that big of a problem. Whether we kill him or not, Irungu is an old man, and he has but a few days left in the land of the living. And this Preacher is an ignoramus and a minor irritant."

"But this ignoramus and minor irritant killed one of our immortal leaders. He killed Duvalier. He killed a Sozufe. Sozufe means never die, but he killed one of our greatest Sozufes!" John the Beast noted.

"You think this Preacher is dangerous? Why?" Lysander asked.

"I think he might be more than dangerous," John replied. "One man can make a difference. Essentially, one man destroyed the ancient Bitalo Kufu Civilization. Had it not been for one man, our race would still be in power. We would be ruling the world now."

"I don't understand what that has to do with what we are talking about," Lysander complained.

"I believe that this Preacher may be `the promised one.' The reincarnation of the one we hate. You can't deny that he does have certain abilities," John said.

"Then we must find out just what these abilities are," Lysander shrugged. "His house is still here. He will return to his house eventually, and when he does, we will be waiting."

The sun was warm, bright, and the streets did not seem so threatening the next morning. A few minutes before eight the two vampires walked east on Fifth Avenue to Broadway. There were only a few people up and about. They didn't look like working-class people.

"This used to be rush hour," Lysander said. "Steel workers, other factory workers. Downtown was booming. There were a lot of businesses, not only on Broadway, but on Washington and Massachusetts, too. Lots of businesses on Fifth Avenue."

John the Beast nodded. He knew the story. Black Mayor. Too many Blacks moving in. The whites moved out and took their businesses with them.

"It never was a beautiful city, but it wasn't ugly," Lysander continued. "It kind of reminded me of some women. They are no great beauties, but they certainly have a lot of interesting-looking parts."

Both African vampires were dressed impeccably and looked like prosperous businessmen. Lysander wore a medium-brown, pinstriped, single-breasted suit that went great with his hair and complexion. John the Beast wore a black, double-breasted, window-pane suit. Both men wore matching fedoras. Their destination was the old Gary National Bank Building on the southwest corner of Fifth and...