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“I told you he wouldn’t take it lying down,” Richards said.
“He’s not dangerous,” Dixon said. “You saw him in that house.”
His gaze dropped to the weapon in Nick’s hand, and he snarled.
“Is that a mace?” Dixon said. “Who the hell carries around a mace?”
The void urged him forward, showing him how to end the fight quickly, but Nick didn’t want that.
Nick took a few more steps to get within range, and he lashed out. Dixon ducked, falling for the feint, and Nick cracked the club against his knee. Bone cracked and he howled in pain and dropped like a rock. Nick swung the mace again and caught Dixon’s cheek, and the vampire sprawled across the ground.
Nick kept moving. The void whispered in his ear, heightening his senses and reminding him of his training. Using his own memories to tell him what to do.
Richards lunged at him and Nick slipped through his desperate grab and got behind him like Henry showed him. Nick never got it right before, but now it was easy. Nick kicked at the back of his legs and the vampire stumbled. By the time he steadied himself, Nick was ready.
Richards turned and Nick’s club crashed into his face.
The vampire’s jaw cracked and black blood splattered. He stumbled back, hissing in pain, and tried to get some space between them. Nick didn’t give him a chance. He followed and swung again, and Richards’ arm broke. Nick swung again and again, breaking bones until Richards dropped to one knee.
The vampire reached up with one hand, palm out, and Nick ignored him and brought the weapon down on his head.
Richards hit the ground hard. His body turned grey and stiff, and finally fell to ash.
Nick looked up as Dixon got back to his feet. His face was a mess of black blood, but the wound had already healed, and his leg looked as good as new.
He stared at the pile of ashes, and then he looked up at Nick with wide disbelief.
“You killed him,” Dixon said. “You’ll die for this.”
“Give it your best shot,” Nick said.
Dixon lunged at him and Nick let him grab him, then he snapped his head forward and his forehead collided with the vampire’s nose. Dixon snarled, distracted by the sharp pain, and Nick drove his knee into his stomach.
Dixon doubled over as his stomach muscles spasmed, and Nick stepped back. He swung the mace and Dixon looked up right before the weapon struck the side of his head. He turned to ash before his body hit the ground.
It was over, and Nick waited to feel something. Relief, shock, fear, disgust, panic. Something. Anything. No feelings came.
The void was sated by the violence, but its whispers filled his head, replaying the fight and showing him how he could have been better. It wasn’t enough to win. He needed to be unbeatable. Nick muttered a curse under his breath, but the void surged inside him, enjoying his anger, even if that anger was directed inwards.
He crouched down and examined the ash on the ground. Curiosity compelled him to poke the nearest ash pile with the tip of the club. He’d seen them turned to ash before, but he never took the time to examine it. Also, he never wanted to. A small, quiet part of him recognised that this was strange behaviour, but he ignored it.
Before, he might have been disgusted or shocked at the fact that he killed something. He lifted his weapon and watched with detached curiosity as ash fell to the ground. He wondered what process took them from flesh and blood to ash in a matter of seconds. It was impossible, but then again, everything supernatural was impossible.
Not impossible, he reminded himself. He just didn’t know how it worked. Cara would have argued that there was an explanation for everything, even the supernatural.
And she would have been shocked if she saw what he just did.
Footsteps approached, and he straightened up, holding the mace down at his side. At a distance, it would pass for a baseball bat.
“Where are you two?” the voice called out. “We heard someone screaming. You know how the boss feels about feeding on random humans in public.”
Nick stepped into the shadows just outside of the streetlamp’s reach.
“Come on, guys. Where are you? Let the human go. We can feed at the den. There are rules in place for a reason. We don’t want the witches involved.”
The vampires came into sight. Four of them. Nick saw one of them sniff the air. The other three of them looked at the leader, and the man frowned.
“Something’s not right,” he said. “Guys, where are you? She’ll rip you to pieces if you don’t hurry up. She got sick of waiting, so she brought the new guy back with her. She wants to get out of the area before the void realises what happened to the hunter.”
