“Are you afraid of a girl, Brody?” she taunts. “You smell good enough to eat,” she laughs. Brody grins up at her from the sand and stops running.
“So do you, Magdalene. Don’t scream,” he pleads, and he shifts landing on his feet in front of her. His eyes glow and he squats stalking her. He is a mix of tiger, werewolf, and vampire. All mixed with the blood of the man. He has the speed and hunger of a vampire, the power of the tiger, combined with the strength and cunning of the wolf. Brody is magnificent.
Magdalene waits for him to walk to her. In this new form, his eyes are no longer just tiger. Vampire but not a vampire. They glow from within and his body is rippled with muscle. The stripes of the tiger are vibrant black against his tan furless skin. Brody says, “Watch,” and his stripes fade from view, hidden beneath the skin.
When she gasps in shock, he grins and his teeth glint in the moonlight.
“My, what big teeth you have,” she says with a taunting smile.
Brody jerks her towards him and the family fades away leaving them alone.
“Say you will stay, Magdalene.” He growls smelling her neck and she wraps her arms around him and bares her neck to him.
His teeth nip at her neck and she responds in a throaty growl of passion, “I will stay.”
Chapter 30
Keane watches the daughter of his heart and he knows what he must do. He clears his throat and they all look at him. “I have a plan, but first, you must hear me out.”
Twenty minutes later, Keane is on the phone, actively speaking to the director of the Guild. It took some convincing, but Caius has long been a target. Keane sends them the schematics along with the directions to both locations in Hawaii and Dubai.
Hanging up the phone he looks over at Sebastian. “They have promised to call with any information they can find. Now we wait. This is hell on my old nerves.” Keane sighs and rubs his neck.
“To never know the who, the where, why or how. That is the cruelest reality in this tale. Never is a long time my friend, but to an immortal… it is true hell.” Sebastian replies glancing at his daughter.
Anya is sitting in a chair, staring out the window. She is trying to process the last few weeks, but her mind is exhausted. It no longer matters why she was chosen for this, only that one crazy vampire, destroyed her family, the man she once loved and her best friend. In the process, she was given a gift. Glancing over at her two “dad’s” she can’t help but smile.
“What’s so funny?” Keane asks.
“Nothing, Da, I was thinking how lucky I am to be given three such amazing beings to share this journey with.” Anya yawns.
“You need to rest, Anya,” Sebastian orders.
“Yes, I do. You wake me when you hear back from the Guild, ok Da?”
“I will.” The three men watch her leave and no one speaks for a moment.
“How long will it take to organize the strike of those two buildings?” Vorn asks.
“Not long, the Hunter’s Guild has units in each of the most highly populated cities in the world. A kill team has twelve members and they are always on call, ready to move at a moment’s notice.” Keane answers sipping on a strong cup of black coffee. Two hours later he jumps when his cell phone rings.
“Live feed, ok.” Keane snaps and types in the code the director gave him. On the large computer screen, they watch a live feed of the two teams closing in on the building in Hawaii. “They are not ready to move on Dubai yet,” Keane explains as Vorn and Sebastian join him.
“Go dark,” Alpha team captain orders his twelve-man division, working in units of four. They are already in place on the building. Using thermal scanners specially modified for this purpose, they scan for heat and cold signatures on the first floor. Team A enters through the top of the building by cutting a whole in the roof. It is two in the morning in Hawaii, the businesses inside are closed and dark. Thankfully, most of the floors show no sign of life.
The top floor is a private residence used by Caius. Using a rope, they drop down into a darkened hallway and fall into formation, one behind the other. Absolute silence is a must. Each member has an assigned line of sight, this ensures full coverage of every room. Dressed in complete black, they’re loaded with bullets designed to explode upon impact. This building is twenty floors high, but they are prepared to deal with an ancient vampire. Keane warned them of what types of creatures they may be up against.
One soldier steps up to the door to breach the security lock on it. She glances at the lock and grins. This is a digital deadbolt with an illuminated touchscreen, and it uses nine volt batteries. Swinging her back pack down, she quickly removes her tool kit and removes the face plate from the lock. If the wire leads are cut the security system will go off, but she is prepared for this. Each soldier carries a small lithium battery pack, attaching the leads to the wires inside she waits for the battery to begin smoking and within a few seconds the battery acid starts boiling out of its casing. Quickly she removes the clamps and then packs up. She gestures for them to step back as the overcharged battery does the hard work for her. It fries the controls circuits and the door is disarmed. These digital locks are great
