The Cardkeeper Chronicles: Books 1-5 (Complete Collection)

by A. C. Nicholls

  “You do okay?”

  The man raised his hands to either side, looking around the room. “It bought me this house after my bitch wife left me and took everything with her. Who’s laughing now?” He smiled, showing his teeth for the first time, though I wished he hadn’t – some were yellow but most were missing. “The name’s Harvey Thomas.”

  I shook his hand. “Jack Hannigan.”

  “Good to meet you, son. Now go take a seat while I find my needle.”

  Harvey disappeared and left me wondering what he would use a needle for, but when I remembered his promise to patch up my wound, I relaxed a little. Left on my own, I traipsed around the garage, glancing up at the pictures that hung on the walls. One thing stood out quite clearly by the time I got to the fourth photograph: they were pictures of the same dog.

  “That’s ol’ Jessica,” Harvey said, returning from a door that led into the house.

  “Strange name for a dog.”

  “Well, she was a strange dog.”

  “Was?” I turned, crooking an eyebrow.

  “Like I said, bitch wife took everything.” Harvey sat on a dusty old office chair, pulling a stool out in front of him with a screech. He pointed at it with one hand, swiping the needle on his tongue with the other. “Sit.”

  I slid the coat off my shoulders and set it down, then removed my shirt and placed it neatly on top. Preparing myself for a painful stitching session, I lowered myself onto the stool and rotated my body to show Harvey my shoulder.

  “Ah, doesn’t look too bad,” he said, inspecting it. He reached out to the nearest counter, swiped a bottle of whiskey off the side and poured it onto the wound. I winced, expecting it to sting like a motherfucker, but was surprised to feel nothing more than a slight burning sensation.

  “Let’s get that sorted.”

  “Appreciate it.”

  We sat in silence while Harvey tended to the gash in my shoulder. I looked around the place, wondering if a life like this would have been more suitable for someone like me. Don’t get me wrong – I loved action. It’s just that every now and then I considered a more peaceful life, one where I knew I would make it through the day. Where I could have a wife and kids, and could watch them grow old. I just didn’t see it in the cards for me. Not for the next thirty years, anyway – I was stuck on Cardkeeper duty.

  “So then,” Harvey said, focusing on his careful stitching, “tell me more about this vampire. I’m gonna hazard a guess and say that you’ve never been here before. I might even go so far as to say that you’ve never seen The Ancient.”

  I stared at him in an instant. “You know about The Ancient?”

  “Not many folks round here don’t. It’s kind of the town’s big secret.”

  “Not much of a secret. I knew about it.”

  Harvey nodded. “Well, I wouldn’t go around talking about it anyways. Might unsettle a few people, upset the wrong bunch. Then you’d have bigger things to worry about than a few thugs outside a bar.”

  “I’m just trying to do the right thing.”

  “Which is?”

  I hesitated. Usually I’d be more careful about discussing such topics with a mortal, but this man seemed to know his stuff. I guessed that was to be expected when you lived in a town that the world’s oldest vampire frequented.

  “I plan to slay it,” I said.

  Harvey stifled a laugh, leaned back and grabbed a knife from his ankle holster. In one swift motion, he cut the thread and waved a hand at his nursing skills. “That’s all done.” He leaned back, grabbed a towel and threw it at me. “For the blood.”

  “Thanks.”

  I dabbed it on the wound, admiring his handiwork. He seemed to have done a perfect job at stitching me up, and I wondered just how he had learned to do it so well. I suspected military medical training – the guy certainly looked the part. When I was done, I handed back the towel and stood up as normal. My shoulder would heal at an accelerated rate, thanks to my immortality, but this would greatly help for now.

  Harvey put all of his medical equipment to one side, climbed out of the chair and went for the fridge. “You want a beer, son?”

  “No, thanks. I should be heading out soon.”

  “Oh yeah? Where’s that?”

  It suddenly dawned on me that I had no idea where I was going. The only source of information I had – the only contact – I had in this dive was Harvey. If I wanted to find The Ancient, I was far better off hanging around.

  “I wish I knew,” I said, grinning.

  Harvey bent down by the open fridge and grabbed a beer. Sliding the cap onto the edge of the counter, he smacked the top of the bottle and the cap popped off, clanging to the floor like a head rolling off a guillotine. “All right, then. Come with me, Jack Hannigan. Let me show you something.”

  Refraining from asking too many questions, I followed him outside and round to the back of the house, where there was no light and a strange smell crept up my nostrils, like dog shit. Only worse. I hoped I didn’t stand in anything.

  Harvey pointed into the distance, aiming his finger halfway between the sky and the ground. “See that?” he said.

  I followed his line of sight but saw nothing. “Nope.”

  “Then look harder.”

  I squinted, doing as I was told like a good little Keeper. At first there was only the black of night with a couple of clouds drifting by like cruising cars, minding their own business. When they finally moved out of the way, a pattern of bright lights shone in the distance, right in the center of a faint, house-like outline.

  “What is that?” I asked.

  Harvey took a sip of his beer, standing at my side and gazing out into the night with me. “That, my friend, is where The Ancient is said to live. I know it looks small from here, but you wait until you get up close. It’s like a mansion over there.”

  “I would have said ‘castle’, actually.”

  Harvey shook his head.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Thought it was a bit too Bram Stoker.”

  “You and me both.” Harvey sipped his beer again.

  I stared at the house in the distance, picturing The Ancient in a coffin, sleeping until it was ready to come out on the prowl, swooping across the country and taking its victims where it saw fit. I wondered what it would be like; how tall it would be, what language it spoke, and just how fast it could move. The thought made me shudder.

  “Still want to kill it?” Harvey asked.

  “Yep.”

  He shook his head, disbelieving. “Why, son?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “Well, I can’t stop you, but I can sure as hell offer you some advice. My first little tidbit would be to not even try it, but if you’re so damn stubborn about it then take someone with you. At least that way someone might live to tell your story.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Folks tried to go up there a lot back in the day.”

  “And what did they find?”

  Harvey laughed, a maniacal sound dripping with sarcasm. “Don’t know. Never saw them again. Even the cops went up there once, trying to find a bunch of missing kids who’d gone exploring. They never came back, either.”

  I sighed. On one hand, it was starting to look like I might find The Ancient. On the other, it seemed very much like a one-way trip. I’d have to go in prepared, with the Sword of Lucada held firmly in both hands. And maybe garlic. And a wooden stake as backup. “All right, I’m heading out there.”

  “Now?”

  “Now.”

  Harvey put a hand on my shoulder – the good one. “Then do me a favor, will you?”

  “What’s that?”

  His eyes met mine, and while I searched for a hint of humor within them, I found only a deadpan expression on his aged face – the look of a guy who was deeply concerned for his fellow man. “If you’re lucky enough to survive, come back here and let me know. I don’t want your death on my conscience.”

  I nodded,
glancing back at the house in the distance. “It’s a deal.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  I didn’t want to trouble Harvey anymore than I already had, so I took a cab back into town. Money troubles hadn’t plagued me yet – I had enough cash to blow on cabs without being able to afford my own car. In years to come, when I’d not been bounty hunting for a while and the Vault kept me too busy to find a job, I could worry about an income. For now, I just wanted things to be easier. Besides, I might not make it past the end of the week.

  The driver left me on the side of town, and I walked the rest of the way to the house. Large from a distance, it continued to awe me as I drew nearer, growing bigger and bigger until I could no longer see the whole thing without turning my head. I wrapped my hands around the closed gate, staring up the long path that met with the two huge, wooden front doors with swirling patterns of silver. The windows were dusty, but not boarded up. The lawn was the only part of town that hadn’t been cared for, and I suddenly realized how grim this place must look in the daylight, especially in stark contrast to the tended flowers.

  “Hmm.” I sighed, feeling around in my pocket for the Sword of Lucada. The blade was designed to take care of supernatural beasts. All I had to do was drive the tip of the blade into the bastard’s heart, and then this crazy war between the vampires and werewolves could come to an end. I couldn’t wait.

  “No time like the present,” I mumbled, reaching my trembling hand above me to get a good grip on the gate. I placed my foot on a wrung, giving me a slight boost, but at the very moment I moved, a fluttering of wings passed overhead.

  I dropped to the ground, drew my sword and pressed the button. The blade shot out in a long, threatening streak of glowing red and blue. I stepped away from the gate, scanning the dark skies above me and waiting to be attacked. There was no way a bird had made that sound – even a bat would have struggled.

  No, these wings were thinner, faster, like the wings of a…

  “Oh,” I said, lowering my weapon. “You can come out now, Link.”

  Gliding down from a streetlamp on the opposite side of the street, a small, male faery beat his wings and crossed over to me. The look on his face was priceless; cherry-red, wrinkled cheeks below sparkling blue eyes that didn’t know where to look.

  “You saw me, huh?” he said in that ridiculously posh British accent.

  “Saw? No. I heard you, though. What are you doing here?”

  Link slowed to a stop above the gate, and then perched on the black iron with the proud look of an angel. As usual, he wore the shoddy fabric of an action figure, which he quickly covered by folding his arms across his chest. “Keira sent me.”

  “Keira Poe, you mean?”

  “Do you know any other Keira?”

  “I guess not.” I flicked the button on the hilt of my sword, vanquishing the blade once again. Stowing it in my pocket, I studied Link, an obvious grin on my face. “I have to admit, I’m glad to see you. How’ve you been?”

  Link shrugged. “Okay, you?”

  “Busy. Where’s Keira?”

  “If she’s done as I told her, she should be on a beach in Spain by now, sipping Sangria and ogling hot Mediterranean guys with hot bods, but I have the feeling she’s still keeping her ear to the ground for news of the supernatural. It’s why she sent me here, you know.”

  “I didn’t realize she was checking up on me.”

  “More like making sure you’re okay.”

  I sighed. “Well you can tell her you wasted your time. I’m doing just fine.”

  “So I see.” Link turned, looking up at the huge, daunting house. “She knows what you’re doing, by the way. With The Ancient.”

  “Keira?”

  Link nodded.

  “How?”

  “Like I said, she keeps her ear to the ground. It would almost be irresponsible for her not to stay involved somehow. Last I heard, she’s planning on taking a year out, traveling the world, and then seeing if she can land a bounty hunting job somewhere.”

  “How the tables have turned.” It had been a while since I’d done any hunting of my own. For the past few years I’d been tracking demons, taking out legends that most people had probably never heard of, and bringing in killers for trial. All of that had come to an abrupt end last year, when the Demon King Zorin had dicked with my plans.

  In the peaceful silence, I couldn’t help but notice an odd feeling that ran through my body. It was like a warning, alarm bells going off in my head. I glanced up and down the street, into the dark recesses of the alleys. It was too quiet.

  “Did you come alone?” I asked Link.

  “Yep. Why?”

  I drew my sword again, dropping into a defensive stance with the sword held by my side, ready to swing it if need be. Something was out there. I could see it now; subtle movements along the rooftops, jumping from one building to another, until they were on the nearest roof to us, peering down as only intimidating silhouettes in the distance.

  “Get behind me,” I told Link, but when he landed on my shoulder with his teeth bared, staring up at the roof along with me, I knew I had a friend on my side for once. It made for a pleasant change. “Fine then, don’t. But I hope you’re ready to fight.”

  I had barely finished the sentence when the figures leapt from the building, swooping down on us in numbers. There were four of them in total, each one spreading out in a wide arc to attack us from a different angle, and as soon as one glided under the streetlight, I knew what we were up against.

  “Vampires,” I said aloud, clutching my sword. “It’s always vampires.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Keira once told me that Link was a cowardly faery, but under her influence, he’d grown a pair, and from what I’d seen, he’d morphed into a complete hero. During our battle with the Demon King, he didn’t hesitate to tackle the demon’s summoner, and now, when the vampires descended from the building like spiders climbing down a wall, he was the first to dive into action.

  Without so much as a word, Link flew at one of the vampires, swiftly avoiding its angered attempts of swatting him out of the air. The vampire took off then, chasing him around the sky. Even if Link couldn’t find a way to kill it, at least he had left me with one less to deal with for now.

  “And then there were three,” I said to myself, swinging the sword.

  The vampires locked eyes with me, and we all spent a moment just watching each other, each of us trying to figure out who would be the first to attack. I decided to let them have it, raised the Sword of Lucada, and charged toward them while yelling my most furious war cry. My lungs burned as I screamed, hopefully intimidating my foes. As soon as I reached them, I confused them all by hurling my sword into one of their chests, while leaping into the air and driving my knee into the nose of another.

  I was willing to bet they hadn’t encountered a Cardkeeper who’d trained in hand-to-hand combat before. The unbalance must have tripped them up, keeping them frozen for an extra couple of seconds while I twisted the vampire’s arm into a lock, snapping it in one fluid movement. The crunching noise that came with it sounded deadly.

  Shoving that enemy to one side, I spun around and spotted my sword on the floor. Beside it, the wounded vampire doubled over, holding at the puncture in its chest. It looked like I had missed its heart by only an inch. Damn, I thought. That will slow me down some.

  Before I could make a move to collect my sword, the third vampire leapt out at me, catching me off guard and sending me sprawling across the ground. I tried my best to turn it into a roll and regained my balance. My efforts were rewarded when I came up onto my knee and wrestled the vampire into submission. When I had my arm coiled around its throat, I checked to ensure that its buddies were looking, and then snapped the bastard’s neck.

  The two wounded wailed into the air, screeching like banshees as I murdered their friend in front of their dead eyes. The one with the broken arm turned and dived up onto the wall, making its escape. The other – t
he son of a bitch with the chest wound – quickly followed its comrade, helping it up the wall with encouraging pushes. They scrambled up the rest of the building and disappeared from sight, likely hoping to find somewhere quiet to recover. Vampires had the regen factor, which meant that their flesh and bones would heal. As long as they could survive the night.

  I rushed to grab my sword off the floor and then turned my attention to the sky, looking out for a sign of Link. I expected to see him plummet from above me, land on the concrete and whine before saying his final goodbyes. But when he lowered himself gently from the air on flickering wings, I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “What the bloody hell did you do to them?” he asked, stopping in the air as he came level with my face. There was a scratch mark through his shirt, but it didn’t seem to have caught the skin. Lucky little thing.

  “I think I scared them off.”

  “You think? The one chasing me just turned and fled.”

  “Not unlike its amigos.”

  Beside us, a gentle sizzling sound emanated from the ground, like frying bacon. We both turned to look, only to find that the vampire – the one whose neck I’d snapped like a twig – was now fizzing down into nothing. Seconds later, there was nothing but a small pile of ash on the ground, swirling around in the cool breeze and being carried out of sight.

  Safe now, I pocketed the Sword of Lucada and swept my eyes over the street. For the first time since I’d returned from Harvey’s garage, I saw a couple in their forties, frozen stiff in the distance. They shook visibly even from my vantage point, frigidly stumbling back after having witnessed the vampire attack. This one was sure to go into the town’s history books. That, or the couple would be labeled as crazy and sent away somewhere. Poor bastards.

  Link, shaking lightly but trying not to let it show, floated across the air and landed on my shoulder. I’d seen him do this to Keira on more than a few occasions, and I can see why she liked it. I liked being assured of his safety, but better yet, I actually felt safer having him around. He was like my own personal little parrot.