"Road Kill" A "Nick Shadow" Short Story

“Shadows: Stories of a Hunter”, Part One

Officer Max Carlson stepped out of his police car and approached the old Pontiac GTO parked on the side of the freeway. A veteran of the Atlantia Police force, Max liked his job. He loved helping out the innocent and helpless people of Atlantia, loved driving around in his sparkling white police car, loved the attention he got when he walked in a coffee shop while in uniform. This job was just one big benefits package.
The only problem with being a cop, and mainly being a cop in Atlantia, was all the paranormal activity they seemed to get around there. But, as long as you tread carefully and learned to shoot straight, you could survive.
Max admired the vehicle as he came up behind it. A 1967 model, it was black with a red stripe along the sides. It was well kept as well, the paint job wasn’t scratched a bit and there were no visible dents or nicks like on most cars its age. He was still admiring the classic car when he knocked on the driver’s side window. It rolled down and he was able to see who the occupant of the car was.
The car contained only the driver. He was a young man with a thin face, dark hair, and even darker eyes. He almost seemed to be ignoring the policeman; he just stared down the freeway in the direction of the city. Something about the man gave Officer Carlson the shivers, but he was a cop, and an Atlantia cop at that. A guy whose taste obviously leaned towards the dismal side of life couldn’t scare him off.
“Officer Carlson.”
It was more of a statement than a question. When the man spoke his white teeth glinted in the moonlight creeping through the car’s windshield. Max was struck by something strange about that, but he couldn’t place where his uneasiness came from.
“Um… Yes, have we met before?”
The stranger nodded slightly, not taking his eyes off the city lights in the distance.
“Yes, and no. Maybe I did know you… in another life.”
Great, Max thought, one of those crazy reincarnation people.
“Hey Buddy, in that other life did I get on you for parking on the side of a freeway too?”
“No, you did not arrest me, and you won’t arrest me now either.”
Max again felt uneasy, “Yeah? And why is that?”
The stranger turned to stare straight into Max Carlson’s eyes. His eyes where like two smoldering pieces of coal. He smiled, and his canine teeth were long and sharp.
“If you do wish to arrest me, you would put your very soul at risk. And a good Catholic man such as yourself wouldn’t do that, would he?”
Max took an involuntary step away from the car window. The eyes bored into his brain, stirring up disgust, dread, and above all, fear.
“Now you just run along and be a good little policeman. If you must know, a man was just murdered outside the “New Delicatessen” on 6th Street. If you want some details before you get there, he was killed by two pinpricks on the side of his neck and a high dose of a kind of painkiller you will not be able to identify. Now go along.”
Max stared at the stranger and placed his hand on his gun.
“How do I know you didn’t kill him before coming here?”
“If I did that, would I be telling you now?”
“Maybe to throw me off.”
The stranger sat back in his seat and closed his eyes.
“I’m invulnerable, Officer Carlson, not invincible. And definitely not stupid.”
Max was undecided; this guy terrified him, he didn’t know really why. There was something about the fangs and eyes that reminded him of a story he was told as a child. But no matter his concerns or uneasy feelings, he couldn’t really accuse the guy of anything except parking on the shoulder of the freeway.
“Um… You’ll be gone by morning, right? I’d hate to have to come back and arrest you.”
Laughing slightly, the stranger turned his glowing eyes back on the policeman.
“Yes, I promise to be gone by then. I have business in the city later tonight.”
“What kind of business?”
“There is a man here I must see about a series of killings in my own city.”
Max was surprised.
“You a cop?”
He laughed again, “More of a Private Investigator.”
“Ah, I see… Well, you have a good night then, and uh… thanks for the tip, Mr.…?”
“Oh, Shadow. My name is Nick Shadow.”
“Well then, enjoy the night Mr. Shadow.”
As the policeman walked back to his car, Nick Shadow looked again with an amused smile towards the city. The information he had given Max Carlson was true. What he hadn’t told the officer was that the cops would not be able to even come close to catching the murderer. That was why Nick Shadow had come to Atlantia, to kill a killer who technically couldn’t be killed. He was here to kill one of his own kind.
Nick was a half-breed. He was half human, half vampire. He couldn’t really remember how long he’d been a half-breed, but it really didn’t matter to his new profession. It also didn’t matter who he was before he became what he was. All that mattered was the hunt, and then the kill. And that was why he had come to Atlantia.