She probably already left town anyway, Nicky told herself hopefully.
The demon might have, too, but the possibility didn't stop her from looking. Every night, she was out stalking the cold streets for any sign of it while Alison dove into her books from the other side of the country. But every night, she returned empty-handed. It was exhausting, physically and mentally. She was constantly on edge, easily excusable during the day as the shock of just losing her best friend. In a town the size of Abundance Falls, losing such a bright young life-- as one of the women at work had called it-- was hard on everyone.
On the fourth night, Nicky flopped down face-first on her couch. The clothes that had been on it were now transferred into a pile on the floor. One of these days, she was going to sort out what was wearable again and what had to be taken downstairs to the shared laundry room to be washed. It wasn't something she had the energy for tonight.
“Something like that doesn't just disappear,” she said quietly to nobody in particular.
The demon was still in town; she could feel it in her bones. The part of her that had gotten sucked out by the demon could feel it. If only that part was strong enough to properly guide her to it. How had it slipped her mind four nights in a row to ask Alison for a new demon-tracking pendant? Her subconscious must not have wanted to admit that she'd broken Alison’s Christmas present to her.
I need to figure out what to get everyone this year.
The only person she'd gotten a gift for so far was Lauren. The blue geode candle holder was sitting on the flimsy IKEA bookshelf in her room. It was the only real piece of decor Nicky had. She couldn't think of who else would want it, and even if she could, she didn't have the heart to regift it to anyone.
Nicky forced herself into a generally upright position. The scratch of claws on worn laminate flooring alerted her to Nebula’s approach. When she was within grabbing distance, Nicky scooped her into her arms and kissed her tiny black head. Nebula let out a mewl of disapproval, but made no effort to escape.
“I bet you could find that mean old thing, my itty-bitty house panther,” she cooed.
There was something about cats that turned even the most respectable adult into a babbling moron, and Nicky was no exception. Nebula opened her mouth to flash her teeth in what Nicky took as agreement. She rubbed her head against the underside of Nicky’s jaw.
“So what do you think I should do, Nebs? Move on? Assume it's someone else's problem now?”
Her phone buzzed from somewhere in the laundry pile, sending Nebula darting from her arms. Nicky let herself roll to the floor to start rummaging for the jeans she'd exchanged for yoga pants. Her phone was still half-tucked in the back pocket. There was no name attached to the number on the screen, but she recognized it as the one she'd called earlier that day.
“Hello?” She said, sitting cross-legged on top of a grey sweater.
“Is this Nicole Stevens?” A gruff male voice asked.
“Yeah, this is Nicky.”
“This is David Milne. I'm returning your call about a demon.”
Nicky sat up so fast it made her dizzy. “Yes! Do you know anything about—”
David cut her off. “There's no such thing as what you described.”
Nicky’s mood dropped faster than the New Year’s ball. He wasn't the first person to say so. The four other hunters she'd called had said the same thing. So had Alison, though Alison was at least helpful enough to keep looking for her. She didn't think David would be so gracious.
“Okay, well, would you consider coming and taking a look?” She asked. “Demons aren't really my area of expertise; vampires are more my thing.”
“Then I suggest you stick to vampires and let the real demon hunters handle the demons.”
Oh, was that what he suggested? Nicky pinched the bridge of her nose. Where were Nebulas calming purrs when she needed them?
“That's why I'm asking a demon hunter for help,” she said, struggling to keep the condescension out of her voice.
“Look, I checked your local papers. Nobody's died under mysterious circumstances in the past week. Are you sure you didn't just imagine it?”
Nicky could practically hear the ‘sweetie’ left off at the end of his sentence. She mumbled out a nondescript answer and hung up without the formality of saying goodbye. If he didn't want to help, fine. See if she ever helped him out when he needed it. She could figure this out on her own. She was smart, resourceful, and well-trained.
Except she'd been looking for this thing for nearly a week. Every day that went by, the trail got colder.
Nicky groaned and lay back on the floor. Nebula came up to sit on her stomach as if there was no other place in the entire apartment for her to be.
“I'm going to have to ask that vampire for help, aren't I?”
6
Nicky might not have known much about tracking demons, but vampires were much more predictable. There hadn't been any reports of anything that sounded like a vampire attack in a few days, which meant Corrine must have been needing blood by now.
Of course, there was the possibility that Corrine had gone out of town to feed, or had left Abundance Falls entirely. The surrounding towns didn't seem to have much fluctuation in their odd attacks, but there was no way for Nicky to know if they had a new vampire without going down there herself. She certainly wasn't going to call David Milne or anyone like him to look into it for her.
No, she was going to start with the easiest assumption first — that Corrine was still in Abundance Falls, and that she hadn't fed too recently — and try to find her on her own. Only if she got that desperate would she call for help. She should have already been at that point. The demon had pushed her there. But a vampire hunt was a welcome familiarity that bolstered her confidence until she could almost forget how much she'd struggled to find that demon. Corrine had seemed fairly confident that they could track and kill it together. Maybe Corrine had some trick for tracking demons that Nicky didn't know about.
Maybe I should have accepted her help in the first place.
If her family found out she was even considering going to a vampire for help, they would have lost their minds. Even she was having a hard time believing it, but desperate times called for desperate measures. It wasn't something she could do unless she was sure she was out of options. And both her time and her options were running out.
There was life in the downtown core of Abundance Falls; something there wasn't most of the year. Stores were opening later to accommodate the shoppers scrambling to finish shopping and decorating their homes for Christmas. Walking past the shops reminded Nicky of the nights she'd spent down streets like this with her parents as a kid. Vampires and demons didn't take holidays off, but Nicky's parents had always tried to carve out this time for the family. Whether they'd had a spoken arrangement with other hunters in the areas she'd grown up in or just a silent understanding, she didn't know. What she did know was that from the day school let out until the day after Christmas, her family was hers. Both her parents were home every night to tuck Jessica into bed, then her, then Alison. They were there to read her stories and sit next to her until she fell asleep. It had never occurred to her that the work that had kept one parent or the other away most nights could have kept them away forever.
I miss mom and dad, she realized, staring at a brightly lit Christmas tree and the mannequin family surrounding it through a shop window. When she'd first gone off to university, she'd talked to them almost every day. Her mom had always texted her before every test, midterm, or exam to wish her luck, and she was always the first person Nicky called afterwards, too. She used to call her dad before and after every hunt. Those calls turned to texts when he finally got a cell phone plan that allowed it. Then it became weekly check-ins. Now, it must have been nearly a month since she'd had a proper conversation with either of them. And she couldn't remember the last time she'd had a conversation with her sisters that didn't involve monster hunting.
Two weeks t
il Christmas.
Two weeks, and she would be home. Her dad would be cooking and her mom would be fussing over the girls. Jessica would sit behind the piano and play all the Christmas songs Alison hated while Nicky sang along. Two more weeks.
Could Abundance Falls survive her trip home without her? It couldn't do much worse. She'd already let one person die on her watch. Her best friend, no less. This town might almost be better off without her.
Nicky shook her head. The demon was getting to her. David Milne might have been a dick about it but he was right about one thing: this wasn't her area of expertise. How could she have even known it was in town? Her next step was to find Corrine.
It wasn't nearly as difficult as tracking the demon. She followed the crowd until she came to the edges of it, where there were enough people for a vampire to pick one out but not enough that somebody would be likely to notice them. Normally, the iridescent eyes were easy enough to pick out in the dark. She watched the alleys where street-lights cast shadows as she walked down the street, hands tucked into the pockets of her jacket. Adorning the fingers of her right hand were a set of brass knuckles she definitely wasn't supposed to have. Her dagger was safely squared away in a lined compartment inside her jacket.
By the time Nicky was alone on the street, she was starting to second-guess herself. Had she been wrong? No, that was a classic vampire hunting pattern. If a vampire was looking for a quick meal, they would have staked out the alley until they found someone worth following.
The hairs on the back of Nicky’s neck stood on end, and she froze. When she'd been younger and less experienced, she'd had an easy enough time using herself as bait. Now, most vampires could tell in the way she walked and held herself that she knew how to fight. It wasn't something she knew how to hide. It hadn’t occurred to her that she might be taken as prey.
I can work with that.
Nicky spun on her heels. The tracks of her boots, made for much harsher winters than this, didn't slip in the snow. She was going to have to thank Jessica for them again. When she lashed out, her brass knuckles collided with something solid as the vampire was too caught off guard to move out of the way. Once again, she caught that scent of wet earth and flowers. A pair of sunglasses clattered to the pavement. One of the lenses popped out. No wonder Nicky hadn’t noticed any glowing eyes in the alleyways. She was wise to that trick now, though. She would be more careful next time. With the momentary advantage she'd given herself, Nicky pulled the dagger from her jacket.
“Wait!” Corrine held her hands up. “It's me! Its Corrine! From the other night!”
If Nicky had been planning on attacking, that would have made her pause. What kind of vampire didn't attack?
Standing under streetlights, it was easier to see Corrine’s face than last time. Her smooth, pale skin was darkening where Nicky had hit her. There was enough light that blue irises were visible under dirty-blonde bangs. She smiled, though it didn't come out as reassuring as Nicky thought it was meant to be with two pairs of sharp canines extended the way they were. It reminded her of that quote about predators smiling to show that their teeth were weapons of their own. Nicky wasn't going to forget that any time soon.
There was something familiar about the slopes of Corrine’s high cheekbones and defined nose that made Nicky frown. Where had she seen that face before? Other than when Corrine had saved her, of course. She hadn't gotten a good look at her before but now…
“Oh my God,” Nicky breathed. “You're the girl from Ohio State that went missing.”
A year before Nicky had attended, a senior at Ohio State University had gone missing. The only sign of what had happened to her were the pools of blood they'd found in her one-bedroom apartment. It was one of many attacks through the city that year. It was partly why Nicky had chosen to go to school there. Of course, the story had attracted plenty of other vampire hunters. It was partly why Nicky had chosen to leave there, too. The difference between Corrine and the other victims was that the other victims were all found dead. Corrine was the only one who had gone missing.
I guess I found her.
Corrine gave a sheepish smile.
“Yeah, it was sort of hard to finish a biochemistry degree after getting turned into a vampire. The whole ‘no sunlight’ thing made it tricky.”
Nicky frowned. “I thought you said you were a nurse.”
“I was. Then I went back to school. I wanted to work in pharmaceuticals.”
“And now you're a vampire.”
“And now I'm a vampire.”
The sadness in Corrine’s voice made guilt twinge in Nicky’s stomach. Now wasn't the time to start feeling pity for a vampire, of all things, even if she was fairly young and kind of pretty. For a vampire. Nicky tucked her dagger back into her jacket, though she kept the brass knuckles on just in case. Just because she was asking Corrine for help didn't mean she could trust her. A vampire was still a vampire. Nicky was still potential prey. She could not forget those teeth.
“Listen,” Nicky said. “You remember that demon you helped me out with.”
“Uh, the one I saved your life from? Hard to forget.” Corrine shuddered. “Oh! How's your shoulder?”
“It’s fine. I need—”
“Did you end up finding it?” When Nicky scowled, she added a hasty, “Sorry,” raising her hands in apology.
Nicky sighed. “I didn't find it. That's actually why I was looking for you. You said we would be able to track it between the two of us. Do you still think that's the case?”
Either vampires were nothing like what Nicky thought, or Corrine was the strangest vampire on the planet. She bounced on her toes, her eyes glimmering as the light hit them differently, and clapped her hands together.
“Yes! Because I haven't been able to find it myself, either. I've been tracking it for ages. The closest I came was when it attacked you. But my mom always said two heads are better than one and I—” Corrine’s face fell. She was suddenly very somber. Then, before Nicky could wonder about it, she was all optimism again. “I think, if we can't do it ourselves, we have to at least try together.”
Nicky gave a slow nod. Part of her still wasn't sure about this. Most of her wasn't sure about this. But her dad used to say that monsters weren't born, they were made. She figured that was supposed to mean giving some monsters the benefit of the doubt.
I guess that makes the enemy of my enemy my friend.
7
It probably wasn't the best idea to bring a vampire back to her apartment, but Nicky didn't know where else to go. Even if all the local haunts weren’t about to start closing for the night, it wasn't like this was exactly the kind of conversation they could have in a coffee shop; not if she didn't want everyone to think she was absolutely crazy. Public opinion had never meant much to her. She wasn't in the habit of making sure people liked her. But it was generally easier to live covertly in a town small enough for everyone to know everybody else’s business when said business didn't involve tracking the soul-sucking demon that had killed her best friend. No; this was a conversation to be held in private.
If Corrine had any complaints about Nicky forcing her to walk ahead and directing her, she didn't voice them. She just seemed happy that Nicky was willing to team up on this.
“I didn't know you lived in this part of town,” Corrine said as they approached Nicky’s apartment.
“And if I were you, I'd forget it.”
At this Corrine turned her head back, though she didn't stop walking. “You know, if I wanted to hurt you, I would have by now. I still could. I'm much faster than you.”
“Noted.”
They reached Nicky’s second floor apartment. Nicky gave one moment of hesitation before squeezing herself between Corrine and the door. Corrine was right; if she'd wanted to hurt Nicky, she could have at any point.
Unless she's trying to get me somewhere with no witnesses.
The thought made Nicky pause. That was what the vampire that had attacked and probably
turned Corrine had done, wasn't it? It had attacked victims, usually ones who lived alone, at home. It was one of the few cases of a vampire actually doing such a thing that Nicky had ever heard of. Thinking of that made Nicky realize she had one last line of defense here to buy herself time. She unlocked the door and immediately darted into the apartment.
Corrine tipped her head to the side. In the fluorescent hall lights, Nicky could make out a faint line of freckles across the bridge of her nose.
“You have to invite me in,” she said.
“I know.”
Corrine frowned. “Are you going to?”
Nicky hesitated. This was her last chance. If she let Corrine in, could she trust that she wouldn't fall prey to those fangs?
“Look, I'm not going to attack you. How are you going to help me with this demon if I kill you, hm?”
That was a good point. Behind her, Nebula prowled the apartment. She didn't seem to like the stranger standing in her doorway. Spotting her, Corrine gasped and dropped to a crouch.
“You have a cat? She's so cute! C’mere, kitty.”
Corrine made kissing sounds that had Nebula darting back to Nicky’s bedroom. So much for keeping a cat for protection-- though, who ever heard of somebody keeping a cat for protection anyway? Nicky should have gotten a Doberman. They were great vampire hunters.
“You are so weird,” Nicky said without really meaning to.
Corrine stood with a raised eyebrow.
“What, you think we’re all angry, brooding emos? Some of us like cats.”
It was all a painful reminder that all vampires used to be human. She could still see it in Corrine’s eyes. There was enough light that they weren't glowing anymore. Instead, they were hazel. Nicky clenched her teeth together to steel herself. She had to remind herself that while Corrine may not have been completely vicious, she was still a predator at the very least. She had to keep reminding herself of that.
Relics and Runes Anthology Page 47