Relics and Runes Anthology

by Heather Marie Adkins

  Corrine went off on a rant about how goddamn reckless she'd been. Nicky tuned it out, though she knew she deserved it. She lay back on her bed and used her feet to get the jeans off. Wasn't that way easier than trying to do it standing? She used the blanket under her to dry off. Getting the sweats on wasn't easier from this position, but she managed without hurting herself any more.

  By the time she was shuffling back to the door, Corrine seemed to be done berating her. Nebula raced down the short hall and climbed her way up Nicky's leg. Her tiny claws scratched Nicky's skin, nowhere near as painful as the soul eaters. Nicky gathered the bundle of dark fur and kissed her between her ears.

  “Hello, fluffums,” she cooed.

  For a second, Corrine's eyes softened. She reached up to scratch at one of nebulas ears. Nebulas tiny chest rumbled against Nicky’s.

  “So did you figure it out? Who the witch is?” Corrine asked, dipping her head down to give nebula a kiss of her own.

  Nicky hesitated. She had to tell Corrine the truth, didn't she? There was no way she could handle this on her own, she'd proven that to herself twice now. She let out a slow sigh.

  “Her name is Megan Woods. She's… she's my ex-girlfriend,” Nicky admitted quietly.

  Corrine's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. Nicky stared at nebulas ears so she didn't have to look at it.

  “Your girlfriend?”

  “Ex-girlfriend.”

  “Your ex-girlfriend is controlling the soul eater, and you didn't know?”

  “No,” Nicky snapped, “I didn't. I didn't even know she was a witch. Is that something I should have noticed? Fuck yeah. Am I going to fix it? Fuck yeah.”

  Nebula let out an annoyed sound at the sudden negativity. Nicky kissed the top of her head in apology. Even looking away, Nicky could see Corrine pacing up and down the short hall between the bedroom and the living room.

  “Okay, well I actually have some good news,” she finally said. When Nicky raised an eyebrow at her, she continued. “I was doing some reading last night. That's why I came back. I figured out how to kill the soul eater.”

  13

  The relief Nicky felt at Corrine’s words knocked the wind out of her. Corrine had found a way to kill the soul eater. Of course, before Corrine would actually tell her what that was, she insisted they eat first. If Nicky weren't still a little concussed and more than a little groggy, she would have been worried about what a vampire meant when she said talked about eating. But, as it turned out, there was nothing to worry about. There wasn't much in the way of groceries in Nicky’s apartment, and since Corrine couldn't re-enter without Nicky’s permission, she'd taken it upon herself to order pizza from the only 24-hour pizza place in the city. Corrine insisted she'd paid from her own money, but Nicky still planned on checking her wallet later. Vampires couldn't exactly work retail.

  The vegetarian pizza was cold from being in the fridge for the past few hours, but Nicky couldn't taste it anyway. Having solid food in her stomach was more than enough for her. She watched with bleary vision as Corrine bit into a slice.

  “Do vampires eat real food?”

  Corrine shrugged, swallowing. “Some do. It has no nutritional value to us, but some of us eat it for the taste, like chips.”

  Nicky picked off whatever mushrooms she could find. Corrine couldn't have had that much taste if she was eating mushrooms on pizza. They were Nicky's least favorite vegetable. As she ate, she scrolled through the messages on her phone. Alison had called her a few times and, when she hadn’t answered, sent her a long, highly-involved email that seemed to be at least several pages long. The words were a blurry mess of too-small font, illegible to Nicky even when enlarged. From what few words she did manage to make out, she got the gist of what the email entailed.

  Killing vampires was one thing. Killing witches was another. Killing witches Nicky knew and had dated was a whole different game. The problem here was that even if they killed the soul eater, there was no way Megan wouldn't just summon another one, or do something equally damaging to the general public. Which meant that killing her was Nicky’s only choice. She'd been avoiding the possibility for as long as possible, but she was starting to realize that if Megan was far gone enough to be harvesting souls to grow her power, there was no limit to how far she would go.

  Except, this email gave Nicky another option. Because in this email, Alison detailed a centuries-old spell for binding a witch’s magic. If Nicky was reading it right, it wasn't about just blocking her powers, but actually removing them completely.

  Nicky’s heart rate sped up, and she handed Corrine her phone.

  “Tell me that's what I think it is,” she said, almost pleading.

  This was the best outcome. A way to stop Megan without actually killing her. Corrine’s eyes widened, then she frowned. Her lips turned to a pout that was absolutely not adorable.

  “This is… old. And dangerous. Wouldn't it just be easier to kill her?” Corrine asked.

  “I'm not killing her,” Nicky snapped.

  “Fine, I’ll kill her.”

  “We’re not killing her!”

  Corrine held her hands up. “Fine, we’ll just kill the demon. I can’t do this spell, I have less than zero witchcraft.”

  Nicky hesitated. “I have slightly more than zero. It’s why I can actually see demons.”

  “Does that even count as witchcraft?” Corrine asked skeptically. “Because I can see them too, but I'd never be able to work a spell even to save my life. Can you?”

  Nicky hesitated. “Well— I’ve never tried it. But my sister does little things. She wouldn't have sent me this if she didn't think I could manage it.”

  Or, more likely, if Alison didn't think she'd be able to find another witch to do it for her.”

  Corrine bared her teeth and growled low in the back of her throat in a way that made Nebula hiss from somewhere Nicky couldn't see. Her fangs retracted, but the scowl didn't leave her face.

  “So, this is the plan? I kill the soul eater and you take away your ex’s magic?”

  Nicky shrugged. “Better than killing Megan. How do we deal with the soul eater?”

  “You Don't. I am going to stab it with an iron blade dipped in the witch’s blood.”

  “How are you going to get her blood?” Nicky asked, her tone full of what she hoped was warning and not exhaustion.

  “If I stab her in the kidney, it'll take her a few minutes to bleed out. That should give me enough time to kill the soul eater, then finish her off.”

  “No.”

  “Stomach?”

  “No.”

  Corrine let out a frustrated sigh.

  “Arm?”

  Nicky hesitated. Were there any major arteries in the arms? There was the brachial artery but was that big enough to actually kill her if Corrine hit it? She almost wanted to go back on her no-killing rule. Letting Corrine kill her would be so much easier, and it technically wouldn't be Nicky doing the killing.

  Did that make her much different from Megan? At least vampires only killed out of necessity, she could give them that much credit. That meant Nicky couldn't kill Megan, or let Corrine do it, unless there was absolutely no other option.

  Corrine seemed to get that Nicky wasn't going to budge on this. She let out a long sigh and slumped down in her chair.

  “She tried to kill you, you know,” she said softly.

  “So I’ll be the better person.”

  “Yeah, well. If this doesn't work, were going with Plan A. You know, the one where I tear her throat out with my teeth.”

  Corrine bared those teeth for emphasis.

  Nicky hesitated, then nodded. It was marginally better to let Corrine kill Megan than to let Megan kill anyone else.

  14

  Nicky called in sick again. She didn't really have any choice not to. Her head felt much better after some more rest, but she was too battered to be up and about, especially if she planned to go after Megan that night. Corrine thought it was too soon, of cou
rse, and that they were better off if she went after Megan on her own. No matter how much she argued, Nicky wouldn't agree to let her just kill Megan. If Corrine really wanted to go off on her own, Nicky knew she wouldn't be able to catch up to her soon enough to stop her. Nicky might have been a hunter, but Corrine was the hunter. By the time Nicky would catch up to her, it would be too late. The threat to never let her back in seemed to be enough of a deterrent for Corrine, who was oddly attached to both Nicky and Nebula.

  It was, without a doubt, the strangest thing Nicky had ever seen. She attributed it to how young Corrine was and tried to think of the best way to ask her family if they'd ever seen anything like it without tipping them off about her reluctant and temporary partnership with a vampire.

  By nightfall, Nicky was feeling much better. Alison had a theory about their long-removed witchcraft giving them a bit of a kick in the healing department in addition to the seeing demons department. It made Nicky wish she'd bothered to learn more about witchcraft and magic. Somehow, she'd always felt that separating those parts of the world would really keep them separate. As though specializing in vampires meant she'd never have to deal with anything but vampires.

  Well, she was still dealing with a vampire, wasn't she?

  “You remember the plan,” Nicky said, suiting up in her usual armor of denim and leather. Corrine was still in the t-shirt and skinny jeans she'd been sporting since two nights ago. “You just get enough of Megan's blood to kill the soul eater, then go deal with that. I've got Megan.”

  Corrine huffed from her position seated on the back of the couch, cuddling Nebula. The cat was far more at ease with the vampire than Nicky was.

  “I could have had this whole thing taken care of in the time it took you to get dressed.”

  “So why didn't you?” Nicky asked, genuinely curious.

  “Because we’re a team!”

  Nicky didn't let herself think about the fact that once this was over, she was going to have to stick her knife between Corrine’s ribs. That would out a hell of a damper on their partnership, wouldn't it?

  They stepped out into the cool winter air. Snow fell from the sky. For a moment, Nicky forgot about vampires, witches, and demons. The only thing that existed in this moment was the snow landing on her face. Something of a smile began to form on her lips. She squashed it down as soon as it started.

  Based on the calls Nicky had made when the sun had still been up, nobody had seen Megan since their last altercation.

  “She might have already skipped town. It's what I would do,” Nicky said.

  Corrine shook his head. “Witches are territorial. They're like us that way. She wouldn't leave if she didn't have a really good reason to.”

  “I'd call us on her tail a pretty damn good reason.”

  Corrine tipped her head back and sniffed the air. Though Nicky wasn't particularly fond of vampires in the least, even she could admit Corrine’s sense of smell alone made her a valuable asset.

  That's all she is. An asset for this mission, and nothing more.

  It shouldn't have hurt so much to think of her that way. Thankfully, Corrine gave a sharp grin and took off. Nicky followed as fast as she could, glad Corrine seemed to have the sense not to go at full vampire speed. She didn't think her ribs could handle it.

  All of this is a bad idea. You should have called for backup. You should have asked Alison to come.

  Even though she was across the country, Nicky new Alison would get on the first plane if she asked for it, especially if demons and witches were involved. A month ago, that was exactly what she would have done. Now, having a vampire for backup was enough for her. A very pretty, very dangerous vampire who had just as much passion for destroying evil as she did. If Corrine weren't a thing of evil herself, whether she meant to be or not, it would have been perfect.

  Nicky really needed to find a girlfriend. Preferably one of the non-evil human variety. Did she have a type or what?

  Corrine led them to the cemetery. It was always cemeteries. Why did it always have to be cemeteries? Nicky stuffed her hand into her pocket and held the coin they'd found there only a week before.

  “Come out, come out wherever you are,” Corrine sang, walking through the cemetery and scraping her claws over her knife.

  A branch snapped behind Nicky. She whirled around, gripping her own knife in her hand until her fingerless glove-clad knuckles turned white. Her breath paused in her lungs. In the darkness, she saw nothing even a she scanned frantically for the source of the sound. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She turned back to Corrine.

  Nicky didn't see anything. But she heard Corrine scream. And she heard the shriek of the soul eater.

  15

  Nicky decided then and there that she was going to invest in a headlamp. Looking like an idiot was better than constantly being literally blindsided by her inability to see in the dark. In a place shrouded in shadows and dark energy, the soul eater blended in. Maybe this was why it was always cemeteries.

  “Corrine!”

  Nicky rushed towards the glowing eyes hear the ground.

  “Get the witch!” Corrine shouted.

  There was a crunch as teeth, hopefully Corrine's, sank into flesh. The soul eater let out another shriek that rattled Nicky's eardrums.

  A headlamp and ear plugs, she decided.

  If the soul eater was here, Megan couldn't have been far. The flashlight on Nicky's cell phone cast more shadows through the cemetery. The soul eater turned its white head to Nicky. Its sharp teeth glowed. The distraction was enough to give Corrine the chance to throw it off her. She tossed the knife at Nicky. Nicky dove to catch it.

  “Get the witch!” Corrine shouted again, lunging at the soul eater.

  For a moment, Nicky wondered what the point of that was. There was no way Corrine could kill the thing with her bare claws. Then it hit her. Corrine was distracting it. The soul eater could do way more damage to Nicky than it could to Corrine. Nicky silently thanked her and tucked her own dagger onto the sheath on her hip.

  Megan must have known Nicky was here by now. She'd been hoping to have the benefit of the element of surprise, but it didn't look like that was going to happen now. Knife in one hand and cell phone in the other, Nicky stalked through the cemetery. Her feet brushed the thin layer of snow covering the dead and dying grass. The winter chill was starting to work its way through her jeans and into her thighs. Though she'd grown up in much colder winters, she was going to have to dig out her leggings to start wearing underneath if she didn't want to freeze.

  “I know you're here, Megan,” she called.

  If Nicky thought Megan was going to make things easy and call back so Nicky could follow her voice, she was obviously wrong. The only sounds she heard were her own feet crunching leaves, the hoot of an owl, and Corrine fighting the soul eater in the distance. She couldn't tell from the sounds alone who was winning. The easiest thing would have been for them to take each other out, but she knew deep down she didn't want that to happen. Even the idea made her heart lurch.

  A twig snapped under Nicky's foot, and she paused. A pair of eyes watched her move, she could feel it in the way the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Her grip on Corrine’s knife shifted, giving her better leverage to strike. She didn't, though, not at first. Instead, she waited until she was absolutely certain what was behind her.

  “Why would you kill your own sister?” Nicky asked softly. “What did Lauren ever do to you, or anyone, to deserve that?”

  The air fluttered around her, and the presence behind her grew as the owl shifted into the human form of Megan Ferguson. Leaves crackled beneath Megan's feet as she approached, not quickly enough to put Nicky in a proper defensive pose, though she flexed her thighs in preparation to move as soon as she had to. As much as she hated having her back to an energy, giving Megan the illusion of control was the only real advantage Nicky had. She had to hope Megan didn't know just how good Nicky was at her job.

  “I
didn't mean to!” Megan actually sounded sincere. “I never gave it specific targets. It just went after who was easy enough to take a soul from. Lauren was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Megan’s voice wavered. Nicky must have been going soft, because she was actually falling for it. Working with a vampire, sympathizing with a murderous witch… She was really losing her edge here.

  “Why steal souls anyway?”

  Megan's movements fell silent.

  “Well— for the power, obviously.” Obviously. “It's really hard to do magic. Every little spell would put me out of commission for at least a day. Then I found the soul eater… Nicky, imagine being able to do or have anything you ever wanted. Knowing that nobody can touch you, no matter what.”

  Somewhere in the cemetery, Corrine screamed in pain. Nicky jerked in the direction of the sound.

  “You’re certifiable,” she snapped. She couldn't keep drawing this out. “Do you even feel bad that you killed Lauren?”

  “Of course. She was my sister.”

  But there was no emotion in Megan’s voice this time. No remorse. Nicky spun around. The knife reflected the bright light from her phone. Megan shifted back, her face a mask of surprise.

  “What, are you going to kill me? I'm human.”

  “Doesn't matter. Human or not, you’re a monster. My job is to take down monsters.”

  Nicky lunged. All she needed was enough blood for Corrine to kill the soul eater. Megan moved, but not fast enough. The blade cut through Megan's jacket and came away lined with blood. If Corrine really meant it had to be soaked in Megan's blood, this wasn't enough. This time, Megan was faster. She darted out of the way as Nicky lashed out again. The third time, Megan held her hands up and a burst of white light left them. Nicky barely managed to dive to the ground on time to miss it.

  Right. Fighting a witch meant witchcraft. Nicky’s shoulder hurt. At least it wasn't the one she'd dislocated the first time she'd fought the soul eater. That was some consolation, wasn't it?