Vampires Of South Africa

A sharp cry coming from behind them caused Hans to relax his hold on Sarah's throat. Sarah swung her legs, and kicked Hans in the crotch. The vampire barely registered the kick. Undead flesh is much more resilient than mortal flesh, in every damn way. Annoyed, Hans flung Sarah away.

The young policewoman fell on the ground, and lay still. Crumpled into a heap, her body wracked with incredible pain, Sarah was barely conscious, yet what she saw amazed her. A dark blur stormed through the basement, and that dark shape caught Dhaliwal, the Indian vampire, and tore him to pieces.

"No please," Hans begged as the dark shape seized him by the throat. Sarah's eyes widened in surprise as the dark shape, which seemed both lupine and humanoid, literally ripped Hans head off. The headless vampire fell, and lay still. The dark creature threw its head back and roared loudly, a triumphant roar that would make a lion cower.

The creature came toward Sarah, and the young policewoman held her breath. At last death would claim her. "Adieu mon amour Bee-Man," she said, and braced herself for the inevitable. The creature towered over her, and it was something to behold.

At least seven feet tall, and a thick, muscular body covered in ebony fur. It had bright yellow eyes on a wolfish head. The monster was magnificent. In its own horrid way, it was beautiful. "Make it quick," Sarah said, praying that the beast would give her a swift end. The last thing she wanted was to be dealing with a predator that played with its food, like Hans had been.

"Sarah my love I mean you no harm," the creature said, and picked her up in its strong yet surprisingly gentle arms. Sarah stared at the monster, stunned into silence. A startling change came over the creature. Its fur receded, until it vanished completely, leaving behind chocolate-hued skin. The massively muscular, wolfish body shrank, leaving behind a man.

"Are you alright?" Bee-Man said, looking at Sarah with concern in his golden brown eyes. The young woman's eyes widened like saucers. She tried to speak, but no sound would come out of her lips. And that's when Sarah passed out, overwhelmed at last.

Sarah Hauser woke up slowly and painfully, in a White room inside the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. "Welcome back to the world of the living," Sergeant Rachel Dumisani said evenly, and Sarah winced upon hearing those words.

"Where am I?" Sarah asked, and the sergeant informed her that she'd been brought to the hospital by her partner Detective Bezile Nogubaza A.K.A. Bee-Man, who had long since mysteriously vanished. No one could account for his whereabouts.

"Where's Bee-Man?" Sarah asked frantically, recalling the strange yet benevolent monster that slaughtered the vampires in the basement and saved her from a fate worse than death, being forcibly turned into one of the Undead.

"We were hoping you could shed some light on the situation," Sergeant Dumisani said, pursing her lips. Sarah looked at the other woman, but said nothing. Anything she told her about that night in the vampires lair would sound crazy, even for a seasoned cop who had been around the block.

"Sarah, we found three dead vampires in that basement, one was killed by you, according to forensics, but the other two got mangled and torn apart by something other than human, and it wasn't a vampire either," Sergeant Dumisani said, shaking her head.

"I got knocked out after killing the female vampire and don't remember anything after that," Sarah said firmly, and the sergeant nodded sympathetically. Gently, Dumisani laid a hand on Sarah's shoulder. The young policewoman smiled politely at her superior.

"Get some rest you've been through a lot," Sergeant Dumisani said, then walked out of the room, leaving Sarah Hauser alone with her thoughts. The young woman hugged herself, shuddering in spite of the blazing South African heat. All kinds of thoughts swirled about her head...

Bee-Man where are you? Sarah wondered aloud, thinking of all the times her erstwhile partner saved her skin while on the job. The entire time, he'd been keeping a secret from her. Vampires weren't the only monsters out there. And only Sarah knew this for sure.

Whatever that wolf-like creature Bee-Man turned into, he'd been that thing the entire time she'd known him. Why would you keep such a secret from me, my love? Sarah wondered. They were cops, and lovers. They always had each other's backs. They lived in a world where entire nations were quarantined because of a global vampire outbreak. In a world like this, a secret like Bee-Man's wouldn't overwhelm her.

"You should have trusted me Bee-Man," Sarah said, sighing deeply before returning to sleep. The young policewoman slept peacefully, and three days later, she was discharged from the hospital, and the police review board declared her fit for duty. Upon her return, Detective Hauser met her new partner, Yousef Camara.

"You're not from South Africa," Sarah Hauser said, looking the tall, dark and handsome young policeman up and down. Clad in a White silk shirt, Black silk pants and dark blue tie, Detective Yousef Camara looked more like a Mormon Missionary than a cop.

After a lifetime in Johannesburg, Sarah was familiar with every ethnic group in South Africa, from the Zulus and Xhosas to the Indians, the Chinese, the English, the Germans, the Dutch, the Coloureds, the Khoi, the Malays and others. And she knew them all visually. South Africa was the most racially diverse country in the world after Brazil now that America and Canada were going the way of the Dodo.

Yousef Camara smiled, showing bright White teeth. Nice smile, Sarah thought absentmindedly. "I was born in Senegal and raised in New Jersey but I moved to South Africa with my family six years ago," the young man said proudly. When Sarah extended her hand for him to shake, Yousef politely shook his head.

"I am an observant Muslim and abstain from touching ladies whom I'm not related to," Yousef said gently, and Sarah nodded and shrugged. We'll see about that, she thought, discretely checking out Yousef's cute butt as they headed to the garage. Time for them to head out and do some police work. Murders, rapes, theft, terrorism, and now, vampire attacks. Just another day in Johannesburg.

"I have some chocolate and brought you some," Yousef said, all seriousness, and couldn't figure out why Sarah grinned as she accepted the candy bars he offered her, and plopped one in her mouth. Winking at him, she got behind the wheel and threw the beat-up Oldsmobile into the terrifying Johannesburg traffic.

"We're gonna get along just fine," Sarah said, smiling and made an illegal U-turn, flipping the bird at other drivers on the road. Yousef hung on for dear life. Allah, what have I gotten myself into? The young man wondered silently as the policewoman beside him drove like an absolute maniac.

Standing on a rooftop far above, a solitary figure gazed down at the street below. Inhumanly sharp eyes saw every detail, down to the most minute. "Goodbye my love," the entity once known as Bee-Man said, smiling at Sarah Hauser as she proceeded to scare the bejesus out of her new partner, as was her custom.

Bee-Man's smile faded as he walked to the edge of the rooftop, and leapt to the next roof, two hundred meters away. With superhuman agility, the tall Black man landed on his feet. As much as he cared for Sarah Hauser, the creature that once called itself Bee-Man knew it was time to move on. With the threat of vampires in the African motherland, the ancient breed known as the Lycanthropes was at war once more.

Since time immemorial, the nigh-immortal creatures known as werewolves had battled the Undead to protect mankind. During the last vampire war, an untold number of Lycanthropes gave their lives to stem the tide of the undead invasion. Even now, tens of thousands of Lycanthropes were battling untold millions of vampires in the infected and quarantined continent of North America, fighting to save the few remaining humans, those that humanity had left to the Undead. Leaping from roof to roof, he made his way to the meeting spot.

"I've got your papers right here," a tall Black woman in a police uniform said, handing the documents to the creature formerly known as Bee-Man. Gazing upon sergeant Rachel Dumisani's lovely face, he allowed himself a smile then took the documents from her.

"My new name is Basil Taylor?" he said, coming dangerously close to laughing his head off. The policewoman nodded, and offered her former colleague and fellow werewolf a heartfelt hug. The two of them had known each other for eleven centuries. Once, long before he called himself Bee-Man, and long before she became known as Rachel Dumisani, policewoman of the integrated Republic of South Africa, they ruled an ancient Kingdom among the Zulu people.

"Take care of yourself and keep an eye on my Sarah for me," he said, and Rachel Dumisani nodded. The two old friends smiled at each other, and then, Basil Taylor boarded a plane leaving South Africa for Morocco. From there, he would board a boat bound for the Caribbean, a lengthy journey that would take him to the island of Haiti.

The people of Haiti were long-time friends of the Loup Garou, as the werewolves are sometimes called, and when the vampire uprising began decades ago, the Haitians allied themselves with the werewolves and cleansed the island of all vampire influence. Centuries ago, man and werewolf, both born of Mother Africa, successfully united on the island of Haiti to cleanse it of French colonists.

Basil Taylor intended to use Haiti as a secure base of operations from which to make his way into the U.S. via nearby Florida. From there, he'd make contact with fellow werewolves and join the fight against the vampires. One way or another, even if it took centuries, the werewolves would cleanse North America of the vampire infestation.

"Goodbye my love," Basil Taylor said, sighing deeply as he looked at a Holo image of his former self, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department Detective Bezile "Bee-Man" Nogubaza, at a company picnic with his partner/lover Sarah Hauser. Damn, he was going to miss her. One day, the wolf-man vowed, he would come back to South Africa. I'll return to you when I can Sarah, he said wistfully. Then he deactivated the Holo-phone, banishing the image to the ether as the shuttle took flight.