When Detective Ernie Benasco runs into the young man he's been tailing in connection to the bombing of a Bay Area witches' coven, he thinks he's had a stroke of luck. Danny Heller is a member of the mysterious "Shadow Clan" community. The group's leader is Danny's older brother, Tuyouk, a dangerously charismatic individual with a well-known grudge against witches. Danny is a nervous talker, and once he gets going, babbles all kinds of things he probably shouldn't. He claims that Tuyouk is really an eight-foot tall, shape-shifting alien from a planet called Ahman-tahk. Naturally, Ernie believes that Danny is certifiable and stalls him, pretending to listen to his story while waiting for his partner to arrive so they can stow the kid in a nice, safe jail cell. The Gods of Ahman-tahk is the prologue of an original series by Maria Mathis. It moves between Danny and Ernie's conversation in present day Oakland, and the story of Tuyouk's early life as a guerrilla warrior on his home planet. As Danny tells it, all the magical violence in the Bay Area is a result of Tuyouk's twisted love affair with the evil empress, Belall. When he betrays her by leading her enemies in a coup, Belall vows revenge, and through wars, wormholes, and even death, has not stopped pursuing him yet.