"Hunt Ended" A "Nick Shadow" Short Story

“Shadows: Stories of a Hunter”, Part Three

Nick hunched behind a brick wall in the Lesser Sector of the city. His black leather cloak camouflaged him into the deepening darkness, hiding him from mortal eyes. His eyes, however, saw the dark world he traveled in with crystal-clear clarity. In his hands rested a lethal-looking crossbow with a wooden spike set in the firing mechanism. A long knife rested in a sheath against his thigh, a quiver of wooden stakes lay across his back.
About two hundred meters behind where Nick was concealed was a group of people huddled around a garbage can fire. The group was seven strong, and all bore a strange resemblance to his neighbor. All seven had raven black hair and pale skin, and all of them were strangely thin and muscular.
Nick Shadow checked his crossbow again. Checked again the cord and trigger, made sure the loading mechanism was well oiled and pulled smoothly. Picking up a large-caliber handgun off the ground at his feet, he checked the cartridge and it’s payload of silver-lined bullets. Holstering the weapon, Nick scratched his raven-haired scalp and bit his lower lip with his long canine teeth. It was a bad habit he knew, but sometimes he just needed a reminder he could actually feel something. In his line of work he needed all the reminders he could get.
Nick stood up and walked casually towards the group of huddled figures. As he grew closer a few of the figures became agitated and started to talk hurriedly amongst themselves. By the time Nick reached the group, all seven had turned to face him and had adopted a decidedly hostile posture.
Nick had hooked his crossbow onto a small clasp on his knife sheath. He walked nonchalantly up and held his hands over the fire. He smiled charmingly at a woman dressed in black shirt and coat and torn jeans.
“Hi, name’s Nick Shadow. Maybe you have heard of me?”
If her reaction said anything, she had heard of him. Her eyes narrowed and a low growl emitted from her throat.
Nick nodded, “I thought so. I was wondering if I might be able to ask you about the murders of a family and another deadbeat across town. The MO of both the murders was the same, and very strange now you mention it. It seems they where injected twice in the neck, but we both know that’s not what happened, right? You and your buddies got a bit hungry and lose control?”
Nick knew a fraction of a second before the largest of the males made his move from behind his back. To this day he does not know whether it is a disturbance of the air against his neck, or a slight sound, or if it is just some sixth sense that gave him his split-second reflexes. He could never remember the cause, just the effect. And the effect was normally a corpse.
The fact that the thing he turned to face was a horrid, red-eyed, fanged monster instead of a human did not faze him. He calmly drew his crossbow and shot the creature in the heart. It stopped short and fell backwards, looking in shock at the wooden stake sticking out of its chest.
“Didn’t expect that, did’ja?”
Nick drew his knife and, taking a single long step forward, beheaded the thing with a clean, powerful stroke. As he turned to face the other six creatures, he drew another projectile from his collection and quickly reloaded his weapon.
He launched the next bolt into the chest of the girl he had first spoken too, but before he could decapitate her he was set upon by the others. He cut the head off the first to reach him, but then lost his knife in the heart of the second. The third Nick simply picked up and tossed on the fire.
That left three of the Undead for Nick to deal with. He reached down and, keeping his eyes on the three monsters, withdrew his knife from the other monster’s corpse and severed the corpse’s neck. Then he rose to his feet and took a step towards the creatures in front of him.
This was the real test; would the creatures cower before him on account of his killing their friends, or for the same reason would they fly into a rage and do their utmost to kill him? Nick had a feeling if they went for the second option, they’d be in for a small surprise.
Remembering another trick he had in his favor, Nick drew out a small stick and, cracking it sharply against his palm, threw it in the face of the creatures and screwed his eyes tight shut.
Even with his eyes closed the flash of the homemade grenade was enough to give him a headache. But when he turned to look, the three monsters were effectively blinded.
Retrieving his crossbow he went about the process of putting a stake through the heart of each creature and relieving it of its head.
When he reached the girl he had shot but not finished off, he found her still alive, if you could even call their existence living. She looked up at him with those strange smoldering eyes that you were repulsed by and drawn into at the same time. It looked up at him with rage tempered by confusion and pain.
“But, why? You are one of us…”
Nick showed her his teeth, his canines were long and sharp.
“Sorry Honey, I’m only half vampire. I only have one pair of fangs, not the normal two. So I don’t feel much pain for losing your kind to whatever Hell you were spawned from. You are evil, you murder, kill ruthlessly… I am only doing what I know to be right. Good night, Half-Sister.”
With that he severed her head from her body, finally killing the living corpse.
He lay the headless body down on the rough concrete, a strange sadness in his eyes. Although he knew these things were evil, he was still one of them. By killing them he was also killing off the creatures he could relate to most.
“Good night, Sister. Be at rest and haunt this world no longer.”
Nick stood up and, collecting the stakes from the corpses of the other vampires, took one last look at the havoc he just instigated. Yes, the cops would find them later on. Maybe even Officer Trask would investigate them. But they wouldn’t find any trace of him. They couldn’t, Nick Shadow was as dead to the cop’s criminal records as he was to the rest of the world. He just didn’t exist. Which was why he could carry on his crusade against the creatures of the night.
Nick reached behind the brick wall he had hid behind earlier, and picked up the manila folder that lay on the ground next to where he had crouched. Inside was all the information he had on the murders and the killers. All his notes, photos he had taken from the crime scenes, photocopies of some books on the supernatural he made at the local library. He didn’t need it; he would always remember every detail of this case, as he did with all the cases before. He just wanted to leave the evidence so the cops would see the connections and close the case. It would be a shame for them to be wasting taxpayer money on a case that had already been solved.
Nick dropped the folder on the body of one of the vampires where the cops could find it. Then he turned and disappeared into the shadows that were his namesake. He had heard about a strange wolf-creature stalking the park at night. It had already during the last week mauled one child and killed two other homeless people spending the night in the park.
Maybe Nick could sort it out. He had the silver bullets, just never a chance to use them. Wolf-men were new to him, but he was sure he could handle it. After all, the night was still young.