It's nighttime. At last. Adam Shay smiled. He had been waiting for nightfall for ages. His kind simply loved the night. Daytime simply wasn't their element. Adam Shay, the six-foot-two, 230-pound black man who once played college football had become one of the undead not too long ago. He had become a vampire, and not just any ordinary vampire. He was the Master's second-in-command. The one who looked after things when the Master of all vampires was away. Such power was considered great, especially considering how it came to be bestowed upon him.
Vampires aren't what most people think they are. They are another species, not some supernatural race. They don't call themselves vampires either. They call themselves Night Walkers. A race of human-like creatures which inhabited the earth long before humanity evolved. The Night Walkers looked human, and could pass for human most of the time but they were stronger and faster. They didn't live forever, the way humans often thought they did. Nothing lasts forever.
The average Night Walker ages the way a human does, until he or she reaches the early twenties, then they stop aging. From that moment on, they age very slowly. They can live for thousands of years. Since they have the ability to regenerate, it makes them very hard to kill. Decapitation and a stake through the heart are the only sure ways. Sunlight doesn't kill vampires. It doesn't make them burst into flames. However, it renders them sleepy. Prolonged exposure can render them nearly comatose. A comatose vampire isn't much good to anyone, including himself. In order to survive, they've had to adapt. The vampire community is much like any community. There are leaders and followers, organizations and loners, criminals and law-abiding citizens.
Worldwide, there are perhaps twenty thousand vampires walking the earth. They are everywhere. Lawyers, doctors, politicians, cops, firefighters, actors and athletes. For the most part, they are night dwellers. Some have learned to function in the daytime. Protective oils and ointments do wonders, after all. The vampire community has a very strict set of rules. They are not to let humans know about them. Any human being who discovers the truth about vampires is to be killed, or turned into one of the undead.
Here's the truth about vampire births and life cycles. Vampires are like any other mammalian species on the planet. They reproduce sexually. A male vampire and a female vampire get together to make offspring. The fledgling vampire ages normally until he or she reaches twenty, then they stop aging altogether. Vampires are stronger and faster than humans. They can regenerate. reproduction is only possible between pureblood vampires, though. Humans who have been turned into vampires are called Half-breeds. The Half-breeds are viewed with disdain and distrust by the purebloods. Sexual unions between purebloods and half-breeds never result in offspring.
Adam Shay is a Half-breed, a human being who has been turned into one of the undead. He was sired by a pureblood vampire named Clinton Roswell, Master of the House of Roswell. Clinton himself was a 2000-year-old vampire from ancient Europe. How they met is the stuff of legends. Clinton Roswell was traveling in Boston when he ran into the Cadre of Hunters. The Cadre of Hunters was a secret society of men and women who hunted vampires. They had been around for millennia and Roswell had been one of their oldest and most powerful enemies. Roswell's vampire acolytes were killed. The vampire Master found himself alone in the night, tracked down by people sworn to slay him.
Roswell would have perished, if it hadn't been for Adam Shay, college football star. The young African-American athlete had been walking around the city, just off by himself on a Friday night when he saw an older man surrounded by young people armed to the teeth. They were going to kill him. Adam, the son of a police officer, had a strong sense of justice. He intervened, and attacked the Cadre of Hunters. He had no idea what he had gotten himself into. His timely intervention allowed Roswell to escape, but cost him his life. Roswell's vampire crew came to the rescue, and the Hunters were driven off. Adam Shay was fatally wounded, shot by a Hunter's gun. In a moment of compassion, Roswell rewarded the young man who saved his life by granting him a second life. Thus Adam became a vampire.
Clinton Roswell was a very wealthy and powerful vampire Lord from a long line of powerful vampires. His name was respected throughout the vampire community. Yet he sparked a great controversy when he turned an ordinary man into one of the undead and also made him his heir apparent. The men and women of the House of Roswell, arguably the most powerful members of the vampire community, questioned their leader on his actions. No Half-breed had ever been shown such treatment. The Half-breeds were often considered to be the errand runners of the purebloods. The lackeys. The servants. Yet a vampire Master had heaped great glories on a young Half-breed, and chosen him as the one who would lead the vampire nation into the twenty first century.
