There’s carnage in the barnyard, as Charles Gunn, fangs bared, rips the Scourge apart. He can taste their blood – metallic, colder than human – and their bones snap like twigs. So fragile. The vampire looks up at the moon, and revels in the violence…

Okay, so he’s not a vampire anymore, Charles thinks, as the Scourge soldiers emerge from their vehicles. All wishful thinking, but he’s willing to bet that some of his Hell-A supernatural powers would come in useful right now. But he’s now human again, and it’s only him and his home-made axe that stands in the way of the Stygian slaughter that will keep Baticus in this dimension.

The Scourge leader addresses him by name and doesn’t think he stands a chance without his precious Illyria by his side. Gunn is relying on his reputation. Why would he fight for demons who aren’t even willing to stand up for themselves? Charles promises him an answer – once he’s killed them all, he’ll ponder on it. Just as he worries about Illyria.

The Old One recovers consciousness in debris. She and Baticus are both lying there, slowly recuperating from the other’s last blow. They almost look like a couple in post-coital bliss. They banter about their past together, with Illyria giving her old foe a compliment – he always was the hardest to break. He sneers – she’s not his master anymore. Not when he has some measure of her power within.

Always daring. She punches him in the eye socket, hard. The battle begins again.

The Scourge soldiers have pulled out their firearms, now all aimed squarely at Gunn. He laughs – big bad demons need guns to take on one human? The Scourge leader takes offence and tells his men to drop their weapons – they’ll rip the human apart with their bare hands.

As soon as their weapons are down, Gunn smiles. “Too funny,” he grins, as he pulls two handguns from his waistband and takes out seven soldiers with head shots, in seconds! By the time their leader has gone for a weapon, Gunn has swung his axe, and the threat is over. Demons 0, Charles Gunn 8. And the winner takes it all.

In the desert, Baticus is counting. Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred! It has been 100 seconds since Illyria has moved – he, Baticus, is the Slayer of Illyria the Merciless! Suddenly, his body starts to fall apart, what looks like small explosions, racking the Darque Wurm’s form. Gunn can hear him screaming from the barn.

Baticus lies there, dying, not knowing what has happened. Illyria approaches him.

“Poor Baticus,” she states. “Did you genuinely believe you stood any hope at all of defeating me?” She tells him that all she was doing was keeping him busy – as long as Gunn kept the Stygian alive, he would have no anchor on Earth. And whilst using up Illyria’s Old One power inside him, his body couldn’t handle the strain and he has burned out, a victim of his own greed. He begs her for mercy. Illyria grants it.

The Stygian say their goodbyes to Gunn – D’Rel even invites him to stay for dinner. Gunn declines and drives off. A short while down the road, he stops the car. He turns around and heads back towards the barn. “Define ‘dinner’”.

Gunn knows as soon as he gets back to the barn. He defended the Stygian because they were innocent. They were. They just lived their lives. But as Gunn looks at the human bodies, the farmland’s owners, half eaten, he knows he’s made a mistake. It’s their natural life cycle.

By the time Illyria arrives, he’s sealing the barn up. There’s no sign of the Stygian, but Illyria doesn’t ask. Perhaps she already knows, thinks Gunn. She is ready to leave.

Gunn bolts the barn door and lights a match, lighting the gasoline he’s poured around. The barn goes up in flames, as the two walk away.

They started this trip to try and move on from their pasts: his in Hell-A, hers eons ago. But together, they’ve changed – they’ve both, in their own way, become more human. They are capable of change and can become better people.

As they get in the car, Charles has hope. D’Rel is still alive, asleep in the back of the truck. He’s young. He can change. Mosaic can help him control the urges to eat human flesh. There’s a chance he too can change.

As they head back to Los Angeles, the silence is interrupted by Illyria. She thinks she requires a new pet. Perhaps a cat.

They are small and do not require much attention, she reasons, as Gunn continues to drive…