UNKNOWN

When the most recent outbreak of human vampirism occurred in the narrow oasis of New Mexico's lower Rio Grande Valley, the terrifying oral tradition that had been passed on for more than four centuries had yet again been sadly reconfirmed. Every two decades or so, one or more bloodthirsty ghouls would appear that would prey upon the unsuspecting and completely vulnerable members of New Mexico's small but harmonious and tightly knit community that had long been an admixture of First American, Hispanic, and Anglo residents.

As a young curandera, Lorena Pastore was only twenty-five years old when the last outbreak occurred, and she remembered the devastation and shocking horror that had rapidly spread throughout her beloved community at that time. She had erroneously predicted that she would be well into her middle years of life when the next outbreak would be anticipated to once again rear its ugly head. Sadly, that was not to be the case. For some inexplicable reason, after only a brief remission of a little more than a seven-year hiatus, the malignant disease of human vampirism had been reincarnated. This time, the vampiro outbreak was destined to appear on Lorena Pastore's very own doorstep.

A native of Houston, Donald W. Hill, MD, FACP, graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, in 1978. After completing his medical school training at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston in 1982, Dr. Hill did his postgraduate training in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in 1987. At the time he cowrote this novel, Dr. Hill had completed over thirty years of medical practice that included working in multispecialty clinics, solo practice, and everything in between, including academia and clinical research. A fellow of the American College of Physicians, Dr. Hill is a published scholar, but Vampiro is only his second attempt at serial fiction after completing his groundbreaking masterpiece, The DNR Trilogy. Although he's now back on the mainland, Dr. Hill was living and working in Hawaii when he cowrote this novel. Dr. Hill has openly professed that he does not personally enjoy the genre of science fiction and, to be more specific, the subgenre of vampirism. During the time that this work of fiction was cowritten, the author often stated to anybody willing to listen that the possible existence of bloodthirsty ghouls was quite a disturbing concept. If there's such a thing as a vampiro that's indeed roaming some remote corner in the desert of the great American Southwest, Dr. Hill truly doesn't want to be privy to such a horrifying reality. Nonetheless, he accepted the challenge from Thomas Cavaretta to be a coauthor (as well as a coconspirator) to collaborate on this project. It was Dr. Hill's specific task to conjure up a plausible medical and scientific explanation for human vampirism from the perspective of a practicing hematologist/oncologist. If Dr. Hill was indeed successful in this endeavor, the reader will be the final arbiter to opine if this lofty goal was achieved. In the meantime, turn on the night light and make sure all the doors and windows are locked shut.

THOMAS CAVARETTA (06/24/1960 - 03/23/2020) A native of New York City, Thomas Cavaretta moved to El Paso, Texas, with his family when he was only two years old. The coauthor of this work of fiction had learned to love the desert, and he became an avid outdoor sportsman before graduating with a BBS in marketing from the University of Texas in Austin. After completing his undergraduate work, Thomas returned to the Southwest desert and graduated with an MBA from the University of Texas at El Paso. Thomas was married with two sons and was living in Phoenix, Arizona, at the time that he died, soon after the completion of The Obsidian Knife. This coauthor had worked in the complex technological field of hematology and oncology bio-therapeutics for more than a quarter of a century at the time that this three novel set was crafted. Long enchanted by Hispanic lore and the legends of the early Mesoamericans, Thomas Cavaretta found the traditional customs of folk medicine that are still widely practiced among the curandera healers of the American Southwest to be most intriguing. After all, could the contents of the common chicken eggs that are employed in the ritualistic huevo limpia ceremonies portrayed in this novel actually prove to be dangerous to human subjects, as is widely believed? In addition, why does the myth of a night-dwelling creature such as the vampire appear to be pervasive across time, cultures, and ethnic groups? Thomas Cavaretta was compelled to question these phenomena through this work of fiction. As the fund of knowledge expands in the field of biology, along with the confluent appreciation that the appearance of new and previously unrecognized infectious disease entities might be over the next horizon, the human vampirism that is portrayed in this work of fiction may indeed one day turn out to be a plausible horizontally transmitted malady to be confronted within the context of humanity's perpetual struggle against encroaching evil in a fallen world. Thomas Cavaretta certainly had hoped that the readers of this treatise will find this postulate to be as frightening as it is thought-provoking. Thomas was collaborating with Dr. Don W. Hill on Volume III of the VAMPIRO series when he died from a sudden illness on 03/23/2020. He will be sadly missed by all those who knew him.