"Buffalo, New York, now there's a city where I wouldn't send my worst enemy, I'd just shoot him instead," Chief Michel Montague said, and the stocky, dark-skinned, taciturn Haitian made a gesture of distaste. After walking around town for an hour, and seeing so many boarded-up houses, he felt like hopping on the nearest bus, train or plane out of there. Seriously, the recession had hit Buffalo badly, and unfortunately, the city now had even worse problems.
"I hear you, Chief," replied his companion, a tall young man named Aziz Eyadema. Freckle-faced, green-eyed and brown-skinned, sporting a thick Afro and a month's worth of beard, Aziz Eyadema was the Chief's latest apprentice. The last one the old man would train in the way of the Hunters. They met three years ago in the City of Boston, Massachusetts. It was fateful coming-together, a fearsome event neither of them would ever forget...
A pack of vampires whom the Chief had been hunting for quite some time holed up in a warehouse near Aziz's family's house in the South End. The vampires invaded the Eyadema residence, and during the ensuing battle, Aziz's parents, Wahid Eyadema and Wanda O'Bannon-Eyadema perished, along with his younger sister Mala. Since then, Aziz and the Chief had been on the hunt for the vampire responsible, while hunting other monsters along the way...
The two of them had been hunting monsters all over the continental U.S. and even parts of Canada. They took out a werewolf horde in the Canadian Yukon a few months back, and there was also those ghouls they exterminated in Vermont. Aziz and the Chief had done a lot of good, but they wouldn't rest until they took out Adeelah, the vampire responsible for the death of the Eyadema clan...
"It's always better to hunt vampires during the day, my lad, at night they're too formidable even for us," Chief Michel said, and Aziz nodded in agreement. They had been walking along Wyoming Avenue for quite some time, and come up to a large brownstone building with an odd name. Vive La Casa. Once upon a time, it was a house of hope, a refugee center catering to immigrants seeking to cross over to Canada by way of Port Erie. Now, it was just another abandoned building in a seedy area of Buffalo...
"I couldn't agree more," Aziz replied, and the Chief looked at him, and sighed. Aziz Eyadema had changed a lot over the past three years. The former baseball standout at UMass-Boston once dreamed of playing for the Boston Red Sox once his college days were over. Growing up as the son of an interracial couple wasn't easy for Aziz, even in supposedly liberal Boston. The young man remembered the looks his African Muslim father and Irish-American Catholic mother got while he walked around the mall with them...
Aziz Eyadema wanted to make his parents proud, and saw a viable career in professional baseball. During his fourth year with UMass-Boston's varsity baseball team, scouts from the minor league baseball world came calling. Aziz thought he was going to the top, but fate had different plans. Aziz's world ended the night a group of vampires invaded his home, and killed his family. The young man was severely wounded, near death, actually, when the Chief came in, guns blazing...
"You're too late, old man," said Adeelah, the lead vampire, as she held Aziz by the throat. The Chief looked at Aziz, helpless in the vampire's grip, and hesitated. As he choked to death, Aziz marveled at the strange young woman's strength. At first glance, Adeelah seemed to be a tall, gorgeous young African-American woman with neatly braided hair, clad in a black leather overcoat and Capri pants. That's how she appeared when she came to the Eyademas door, pretending to have been in a car accident, begging for their help.
Aziz's father Winston Eyadema answered the door. The tall, burly African Muslim retiree, who once worked as a fireman, took pity on the harried-looking young black woman and invited her inside while he called 911. Big mistake. The moment the family patriarch invited her in, Adeelah the vampire grabbed him and sank her fangs into his throat. As Aziz's mother and sister screamed in fright, Aziz bravely intervened, but Adeelah batted him away easily, then opened the door...
"Come inside and feast, my friends," Adeelah said, and Aziz's eyes went wide when he saw two other vampires at the door, a tall, burly young Latino guy and a slender young Asian woman with short, spiky dark hair. Ruiz and Akemi, Adeelah's long-time vampire acolytes, stormed in and made short work of the Eyadema family. Aziz managed to get his father's gun and squeezed off five shots, but they had little effect on the vampires.
"This one's a fighter," Akemi said, smiling nastily, and the Japanese vampire rushed toward Aziz, but Adeelah beat her to it. Seizing Aziz by the throat, Adeelah lifted him off the floor and was about to drain him dry when the Chief came in. Aziz watched as a short older black gentleman stepped in, guns drawn, and without much hesitation, he shot Akemi and Ruiz. When the old man's bullets struck them, however, Akemi and Ruiz went down and did not rise. For the bullets were silver...
"Shit, I'll kill you, Montague, but not today," Adeelah screamed, and she tossed Aziz at the Chief like a ragdoll before taking off, moving at superhuman speed. Aziz lay on the living room floor, stunned by what he'd just seen. As he slowly rose, he looked at the mutilated bodies of his father, mother and sister. With tear-filled eyes, Aziz looked at the Chief.
"I'm sorry for your family, young man, but I swear I will avenge them," the Chief said, as he helped Aziz to his feet. The young man looked hard at his unexpected savior, and Michel Montague was surprised to see grim determination mixed with grief in his eyes. This one's a fighter, the old Haitian thought. Aziz's next words later proved him right, in so many ways...
"No, sir, we will avenge them," Aziz said firmly, and Chief Michel Montague looked at him and nodded grimly. Since that day, they'd been on the road together, hunting down and exterminating the monsters that humanity refuses to believe still exist. Werewolves, vampires, and other monsters of unknown origin. The stuff of myth and legend. Creatures that prowl the night, disguised as ordinary people while looking for victims. How Aziz hated them...
In another part of Buffalo, NY, the vampire Adeelah lay in bed, deep inside the basement of a family she'd slaughtered. Although housed in the body of a twenty-something, attractive young black woman, she was far more than she appeared. The body she presently inhabited was but the latest in a long line of host bodies. Of course, her enemies didn't know that.
"Welcome to Buffalo, old man, I see you brought the young hunter with you, I got a surprise for you," Adeelah whispered, her supremely keen mind, far more capacious than that of any human, reaching out across the distances to that of her sworn enemy. Over the years, Adeelah had been hunted by numerous men and women. They'd always made the same mistake. Underestimating her...
