"It looks as if the German's information has paid off at last," McKay said as he looked up from his laptop.
"What have you found?" Nera asked. She stepped behind him, cradling his head against her breasts.
"He booked a flight," McKay answered. "I don't know from where, but using the alias names Shultz gave us, I found an arrival flight. At Heathrow. In about an hour."
Nera's eyes lit, and she smiled with a glimmer of fangs. "Assemble our faithful and collect him," she ordered.
"With pleasure," McKay responded as he opened his cell phone to make the call.
- - -
John Stone's plane landed at Heathrow. He waded through the customs waiting line and made his way outside. He spotted a taxi, and shouldering his duffle bag, walked over to it.
A horde of young men, boys really, crowded around him. There were shouts of "Uncle John! Uncle John". One of them reached to embrace him, smiling. He stepped back, but found he had been cut-off by one of them from behind. He felt the sharp prick of a needle in his neck. The world around him began to blur.
They held him up, still shouting and acting as if they were greeting him. He was placed into a car that sped away from the airport.
- - -
Stone sat quietly in the living room of the safe house. Explosives had been planted in strategic areas of the house and its surrounding grounds. The team assigned by Keller was set up in positions around and on the house. Sharpshooters waited quietly on the roof and at the end of the driveway.
Sundown was coming rapidly. The light that filtered in through the windows was growing dark. Stone knew Nera would be arriving soon. Tonight, this would end. One way or another, the past days of running and hiding, of fearing for the lives of his wife and unborn child, as well as his own, would be over. He would see to it. He would fight like a samurai: as if he was going to die. And that may well come to pass. But not before they did.
Stone wore his Kevlar reinforced bodysuit, with the cloak. He carried his master's katana tucked inside his belt at his left side. There was a small, unobtrusive radio speaker/mic in his left ear. He heard a crackling of static, then Keller's voice.
"Six, Ghost," Keller said.
"Six," Stone replied.
"Vehicle lights in the driveway. Looks like two cars, coming up to the house."
"Roger," Stone replied. He took a deep breath. "Weapons free," he added.
"Copy weapons free," Keller said.
Stone waited.
They would wait until Nera was at the door before they opened fire. They had no plans to kill her, as she was Stone's prey. But whatever vampiric entourage traveled with her would meet with certain doom.
Stone slowed his breathing. He centered himself. Mushin. Mind of no mind.
"Six, Ghost," Keller said over the radio, "vehicles have stopped. Nera and another vampire, red haired, are exiting, along with several others, some human, from the second car. Wait.. they've got a hostage with them. Male. Caucasian. Michael, it's your father."
Stone did not reply. His jaw clenched.
"Six, copy?"
"Copy," Stone replied. "Weapons hold."
"I copy weapons hold," Keller acknowledged.
Stone stood from his chair. He watched the door. It would open. He waited.
When the door opened, a human stepped inside with a small submachine gun, an Uzi pistol, trained at Stone. He held the door open while Nera entered. Following her was Robert McKay, who held his father by the neck. Two more humans came inside. He saw others, he couldn't tell human from vampire, post up by the doorway on the exterior.
John Stone looked like hell. He had been beaten. His eyes were blackened, and one of them was partially closed. His lips were swollen and bruised. He walked with a lip, and his hands were bound in front of him by wire.
Michael fought to show no emotion. He looked from his father to McKay, who sneered back at him. He then looked to Nera.
"Good evening, Michael," she said.
Good evening you fucking bitch, he thought. However, it came out as, "Nera".
"This is no final confrontation," she said, looking at his katana in his belt. "This is simply an ultimatum: deliver to me the abomination or I kill your father."
Stone looked at his father. John Stone grimaced back at him, but said nothing. He didn't need to. Michael knew.
"Why do you call my child an abomination?" he asked.
"Because it is what it is!" Nera shouted. "There can never be an alliance between human and vampires! Humans will never let us be, fool!"
"So this isn't about Anita or my child, but about your fear of the world learning about your kind," Stone stated. He knew that, in time, his hybrid offspring would fill the gap between the human world and the world of the vampire. And Nera knew this as well.
"Enough talk, Michael," she said. "Bring me Anita, or your father dies."
McKay tightened his grip on John Stone's neck. John gave a small sigh of pain.
Michael's eyes narrowed to slits. He raised his left hand and pointed at Nera. He turned on the small device that ever-so-much looked like a flashlight.
Nera screamed as the artificial sunlight struck her face. Her dark skin immediately began to sizzle and burn. As the smoke began to pour forth from her face, Robert McKay pushed John Stone against the wall and leapt towards Michael.
Michael wasn't quite fast enough to unsheathe the katana. He had the blade only partially withdrawn when McKay struck him. The force of the strike was sufficient to knock the light from Stone's hand, giving Nera a respite. At least her screaming had stopped and changed to moans.
Michael rolled on the floor, coming up on top of McKay. McKay reached from Stone's neck. Stone grabbed McKay's arms. The vampire was much stronger than Stone. Michael could not fight him like this. He kept one hand held tight while he used the other to draw the HK Mark 23 on his right hip. Michael fired three rounds into McKay's chest.
"Six! Six! Status, over!" came Keller's voice in the tiny speaker.
"Six, roger," Stone replied. "I forgot to advise. Weapons free."
"Ghost copies weapons free," came the reply. An instant later, Stone heard the sounds of automatic weapons opening up outside.
Michael had stepped away from McKay as he was speaking to Keller. He scanned quickly, seeing Nera crouched in the corner, holding her face, which still smoked. He glanced at his father, who gave him a weak thumbs-up. Stone drew Osato's katana, and advanced towards Nera.
Steel-like hands grabbed him from behind. He was lifted up and thrown against the brickwork of the fireplace. He felt the impact against his ribs as his breath was knocked from him. He managed, however, to maintain his grip on the sword. When he fell against the floor, he rolled, keeping his katana's blade under him.
McKay, recovered from the wounds Stone had inflicted, stood over him. He had thrown Stone against the wall, and he now intended to take his life. He reached for the back of Michael's neck again. Suddenly, Stone rolled onto his back, bringing the katana up in an arcing cut to McKay's groin.
McKay howled in pain. Stone cut again, higher, opening up McKay's abdomen. McKay staggered backwards. Stone was kneeling now, and he pushed against the floor, springing into the air with a yell. The katana sliced through the air as he leaped, its blade cutting cleanly into McKay's neck. Stone landed, completing the follow-through to the cut by bringing the blade parallel to the floor.
McKay staggered a few more steps. Then, slowly, his body fell forward as his head fell to the side. The head plopped on the floor.
Stone turned around. Nera stood before him, her face a hideous scar of burned flesh. Her lips were gone, and he could plainly see her sharp fangs. She reached out to him with one hand, and he felt himself being lifted into the air with unseen force.
Michael was pinned against the brickwork of the fireplace, held there by Nera's psychic will. He fought and struggled, but could not break free. He could feel himself being stretched inside. It felt as if his muscles were burning. He could feel pressure in his chest and abdomen, as if his insides were about to burst out.
