Relics and Runes Anthology

by Heather Marie Adkins

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  Saint Nicky, Demon Hunter

  Amir Lane & N.J. Ember

  Saint Nicky, Demon Hunter © 2019 Amir Lane & N.J. Ember

  Copyright notice: All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

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  Saint Nicky, Demon Hunter

  As the holidays near and monsters appear, Saint Nicky comes to slay.

  Nicky Stevens loves the holidays. She loves kicking ass, taking names, and protecting her small town of Abundance Falls from the walking dead, but Christmas brings out something special in her. Hunting down the few vampires who’ve come into town has been relatively easy, but now something new is lurking in the shadows. One person is already dead, and Nicky isn’t sure she can fight it alone.

  Another thing about Christmas? Miracles happen. Not just anything, but miracles.

  When newly-turned vampire Corrine suggests they work together to bring down the unknown evil, Nicky sees her as just a means to an end. Yet as they continue to fight side by side Nicky can’t deny the bond forming between them.

  One thing is clear. With snow falling, carolers singing, and Santa on his way, they need to track down the new evil before anyone else dies.

  1

  The two things Nicky Stevens loved more than anything in the world were as follows: 1. hunting vampires and 2. Christmas. There was something in the air that filled her veins with adrenaline and made it easier to run faster and fight harder. It might not have been real magic, but it certainly felt that way.

  The streets of Abundance Falls were quiet at this hour of night. Winters were usually quiet, but the longer nights meant the average vampire got as good hunting in the winter as it would in the summer. That was just fine by Nicky. She could hunt just as well in full jeans as she could in shorts. Actually, winter was better. She didn't sweat as much, which made it way easier to sneak up on vampires. Was that strictly fair? Did it matter? Vampires had enough advantages over her with their superior strength, senses, and speed. If she could get the drop on them, well, that really didn't seem like it was her problem.

  Tonight's vampire was new to town. He must have been, or he wouldn't have been sneaking around so close to a residential area. Most local vampires knew the best hunting was downtown where the tourists hung out, since the local human population tended to lock up early. Nobody ever said the word ‘vampire’ unless they wanted to be branded a couple sandwiches short of a picnic basket, something Nicky’s parents had taught her early on, but people knew there was something out there. Whether it was a conscious knowledge or not was beside the point.

  No, the point was that hunting near houses gave an entirely different sort of challenge, both for Nicky and the vampire she sprinted after. Challenges that included Mr. Morrison’s motion-activated garden lights and Mrs. Hershfield’s high-strung terrier. His barking followed her around the corner, Mrs. Hershfield’s shrill voice asking what he was barking at slightly less audible.

  About twenty feet in front of Nicky, the vampire ran straight toward a fenced-off side road. He tipped his head to look back at her. His teeth flashed in the streetlight, and she thought he might have been smirking. The dick. He grabbed one of the chain links and vaulted over the fence. There was barely a breath between when his feet hit the ground and when he kept running. A throaty laugh reached Nicky’s ears. If he thought she would have no hope of catching up to him if she had to climb over that fence, he was completely right. But Nicky had spent the better part of five years in Abundance Falls, and she knew exactly where that trail lead.

  More importantly, she knew a shortcut to get to the end of it.

  Instead of heading for the fence, Nicky turned on her toes down the main road. She came to the neighborhood park, which looked like the perfect spot to film a horror movie this time of year. Large oak trees loomed over the park opening, looking ready to come to life at any moment. The bare branches reached down towards her. If she let herself think about it, she would imagine them reaching down and grabbing her. Luckily, that was all just her imagination. Neither the trees nor anything else grabbed her as she ran past the empty swings creaking back and forth from the wind, not even the jungle gym that looked like a hunched over giant in the wooded darkness.

  Fear was an enemy Nicky was well-acquainted with. One didn't survive long as a vampire hunter without it. Being afraid of the park wasn't something she had time for, especially not now. If the vampire ran off the trail, she'd lose him for good.

  A thin bike path, easily missed by anyone who might not know it was there, led from the park and split the trees in two. Nicky pulled her phone from her back pocket and used the flashlight app to see through the trees. She ran quick, but careful not to catch her foot on any rocks. Cutting her hands open on jagged stones while hunting a vampire was definitely not something she wanted. She skidded down the shallow slope. Though her phone didn't offer her a very good view, since she swung her arm as she ran, it was good enough to keep her from taking herself out on a tree.

  And it was more than good enough to let her see the vampire as she came to the spot where the bike path met the walking trail. His eyes shone in the reflection of her phone.

  Nicky dropped her phone. The millisecond of surprise she had was worth more than the outdated Samsung. It hit the ground, the light going down with it. By some blessing, it landed face-up, illuminating the woods. The light flashed in the vampire’s face, and he jerked away from it.

  There was a reason hunters liked to stick to the streets, too. Vampires’ night vision put humans at a serious disadvantage. Normally, Nicky would have let this one get away and regroup or call for backup. But she had a party to get to, and she wasn't going to let this asshole ruin her night by killing some poor, defenseless civilian. Nicky pulled the dagger from the sheath on her left hip.

  Traditionally, wooden stakes were the go-to piece in a vampire hunter’s arsenal. These days, stainless steel coated in pure silver was the weapon of choice. They were more durable, could be used more than just a couple times, cleaned way easier. They also worked against way more than just vampires. A lot of demons were susceptible to pure silver. Plus, it was way easier to keep a grip on a dagger than on a stake. Nicky had trained on stakes. She knew damn well what she was talking about when it came to choice of weapons.

  The vampire lunged away from the first strike. Nicky cursed under her breath and flinched back, anticipating the strike that came so close, she felt the wind rush across her face.

  Decades of training kicked in. Nicky stopped thinking. Her body knew what to do without interruption from her brain. She dropped down into a crouch and sprang up, using the momentum to force the dagger up beneath the vampire’s ribs. He froze above her, trembling, before his claws dug into her leather jacket as he tried to shove her off. Nicky dropped again, this time letting herself fall right to the ground. She yanked the knife out, inadvertently dragging the vampire down with her.

  “Shit!”

  He was heavy, a solid 200-some pounds of undead weight crushing her. She shoved and flailed beneath him, struggling to get free from under him.

  “Get— off!”


  One of his claws caught the soft flesh of her hip when her jacket rode up. Adrenaline numbed the pain, but the sting still set her teeth on edge.

  “Fuck!” She shouted, slamming her fist into his shoulder.

  “Bitch,” he rasped.

  Yeah, whatever. She'd been called worse.

  Nicky managed to get her knee between herself and the vampire, and used the leverage to kick him back. He struggled to get upright. Blood loss and silver poisoning were already slowing him down. It was the only reason she managed to get behind him and ram the dagger into the poor bastard’s heart. It was always easier to go from the back than the chest.

  The vampire slumped to the ground, heavy and unmoving. Nicky stumbled off the trail to lean against the nearest tree. She peeled her shirt from the bleeding wound and prodded at it with a grimace. It wasn't deep, but it was going to start hurting like crazy in a few minutes. At least it didn't look like it would need stitches. As long as it didn't get infected, she'd be satisfied. All in all, this could have gone a lot worse. With the adrenaline wearing off, the stupidity of her actions was catching up to her.

  You chased a vampire into a wooded area with no backup. Are you crazy? He could have killed you!

  Nicky covered her face with her hand and wrist, careful to keep the dagger angled away from her, and gave a hysterical sort of laugh. Next time, she told herself, she wasn't going to do anything that stupid. She was fine now. She’d learned her lesson. Any mistake she could walk away from was a learning experience, her dad was always telling her. But not all mistakes were ones she could walk away from. She had to remember that, too.

  Get it together, girl. You've got a party to get to.

  Nicky wiped as much blood as she could onto her t-shirt. Her phone still illuminated the path. Wincing from the sharp pain in her hip, she bent down to pick it up. The tempered glass screen protector was a little scratched up, but her phone was fine.

  “Thank you, Otterbox,” she said as she unlocked her phone and scrolled through her missed messages. There was nothing that couldn't wait until got cleaned up. She tucked her phone back into her pocket and turned back to the withering corpse behind her. “First, I have to deal with you.”

  By the time Nicky dragged the body well off the trail for it to decompose on its own — something that would only take a matter of hours in Abundance Falls’ mild winter climate — then got home, showered, and changed into party-appropriate attire, she was decidedly into the ‘late’ territory.

  She hopped on one foot as she struggled to get her high-heeled shoe on with one hand and text with the other. Would it have made more sense to just do one and then the other to avoid breaking her neck? Yes. Did that stop her from attempting both at the same time? No.

  Her foot slipped, and her life flashed before her eyes as she went down. Her phone clattered to the floor as she just barely managed to catch herself on the knob of her apartment’s front door.

  Okay, maybe texting while standing on a one inch-high heel wasn't one of her smarter ideas. She wrestled the shoe on before staring down at her phone. How the hell was she going to get all the way down there? Letting out an annoyed sound, she hiked her dress up and bent down to retrieve her phone.

  Without meaning to, she thought of the vampire she'd killed not two hours ago. That was the third one she'd killed in as many days. Normally, she would only find that many in a month. Abundance Falls only had a human population of a few thousand. Vampires didn't flock to places like it. The low human-to-vampire ratio made it easier for them to get caught, run out of food, or get into territory disputes. The town was more of a pit-stop for vampires heading to larger cities where they wouldn't have to worry about those things. Even still, the number of vampires the town generally encountered was so low, they didn't even have a second hunter; not since Nicky had moved to town four and a half years ago and the only other hunter, a 67-year-old man she'd only known as Butch, had died of a massive stroke. This job was not easy on the body.

  Nicky’s phone vibrated in her hand, reminding her that she had somewhere to be.

  Where are you???? the message demanded.

  On my way, she texted back. Nebula is being clingy.

  It was unfair to blame Nebula, the small black cat her older sister, Alison, had given her when she'd moved to town. Dogs were the traditional companions of vampire hunters, but Nicky couldn't keep a dog in her apartment, not even a small one. Even if it wasn't against the rules, it seemed cruel to keep one in such a tight space. Nebula didn't mind the cramped quarters, though. She had plenty of room to run around and hide in, and Nicky always made sure to take her out to play in the yard at least three times a week. It always made her feel better, having a feline companion. Plus, Alison was a Wiccan who very strongly believed that cats could see things humans couldn't. Nicky didn't doubt it, but she did doubt that Nebula was seeing anything ‘otherworldly’ when she stopped chasing dust to stare into space.

  Nicky believed in vampires, demons, and witches. She drew the line at spirits. Spirits weren't something she knew how to fight, so, until she saw proof otherwise, she wasn't going to stress herself out about it. What she was going to stress herself out about was how late she was for this party. Lauren was going to kill her when she got there.

  She shoved her phone into the clutch that was barely big enough to hold both it and her wallet. The phone buzzed against the faux leather of the clutch.

  “Be good,” she told Nebula as she pulled her leather jacket over the black dress.

  Nebula made a sound that suggested she was always good. Nicky opened her mouth to answer.

  “What am I doing? I'm talking to a cat.”

  She shook her head at herself and left the apartment. The two locks wouldn't do much to keep a vampire out if they really wanted to get in, but they still made her feel better. At the very least, they were a deterrent against any potential human robbers. Her neighborhood wasn't exactly as nice as the one she'd chased the vampire through earlier that night.

  That didn't make any sense, either. Vampires didn't usually go for the sort of targets that would be missed. They went after people like the teenage runaway living below Nicky, or the guy upstairs she'd only seen twice in six years; the sort of people nobody would notice missing for a while, the sort of people nobody would miss. Aside from the cheap rent, it was why Nicky had settled into that apartment. Putting herself where a vampire was most likely to hunt made the predators easier to spot. Getting to know the vulnerable targets made said targets less vulnerable because if something happened to them, she would notice.

  The Christmas party was in a hotel conference room, and held almost half the adults in town. She handed her jacket to an acne-faced teenager at the coat check. As much as she would have felt more comfortable keeping the jacket on to cover her bare arms, the hotel was warm. If he noticed the scratches all over it, he didn't say so. He hung the jacket at the back of the closet and returned with a smile that showed off braces to hand her the ticket.

  “Here you go, Miss.”

  “Thanks.”

  Nicky tucked the ticket into her clutch and ventured into the conference room. She craned her neck to look for Lauren's blue-streaked, bleach-blonde hair. When she didn't find her, she pulled her phone from her clutch and scrolled to the bottom of the unread messages.

  I'm here. I don't see you.

  No doubt Lauren was in the middle of the crowd somewhere chatting up all the important people in town. Lauren was on Abundance Falls’ social committee, something none of the other places Nicky had lived in had, which meant she knew just about everyone in town. That, unfortunately, meant that Nicky knew just about everyone in town too, more than she would have known solely from her job as a policy analyst for the Mayor’s office.

  It wasn't that Nicky wasn't social. She could be damn-near pleasant when she wanted to be. It was just that events like this reminded her of high school, something she'd put a lot of time and effort into forgetting.

  Growing up in a fa
mily of vampire hunters hadn’t been easy. It gave her habits that made her seem weird and a little asocial. From a young age, Nicky’s parents had taught her and her two sisters — Alison and Jessica — how to defend themselves. The three of them excelled in gym class and on sports teams. Jessica had gone to college on a cheerleading scholarship, Alison toured America fighting in MMA and axe-throwing competitions, and Nicky had spent a few years on the Ohio State University soccer team where she'd completed the first half of her political science degree before transferring to Silver Lake College, an hour out of Abundance Falls. Columbus had enough vampire hunters. Abundance Falls needed her more.

  Besides, who had ever heard of a vampire-hunting politician? Vampire-hunting policy analyst was only slightly less ridiculous than vampire-hunting cheerleader.

  Nicky's phone buzzed only a moment after she’d texted Lauren.

  I'm outside. I'll come find you in a sec.

  Great. She tucked her phone into her clutch and started wandering. Just like in high school, she forced the uncertainty off her face so she didn't look as lost as she felt.

  “Nicky! There you are!”

  Nicky let out an uneasy sigh of relief as Megan, Lauren’s sister and Nicky’s ex, waved her over. She weaved through the crowd, feeling very much like a teenager who didn't know anybody at every single school dance that she'd only attended because her parents didn't want her to miss out on being a normal teenager despite how much they moved around. They'd meant well, but Nicky was naturally more introverted than Jessica and even Alison, who was genuinely very good friends with people she was paid to either beat up or get beaten up by. Parties had never been Nicky's thing. But this was important to Lauren, which meant it was important to Nicky.