Hi, Hello, and Welcome! This is my first story for the Dark-Hunter/Chronicles of Nick series but I have other stories as well. Now, I'm going to go ahead and warn you, while I am able to write new material and chapters on my computer, I don't have reliable internet. So chapter updates will be posted at very irregular times. Basically whenever I go out to eat somewhere that has good wifi, which isn't very often. But I will keep writing so that I can overload you with updates when they come.

Please and thank you. Now go enjoy or I'll sick the Simi on you, with extra BBq sauce.

The Demon Beside Me

New Orleans. 8 p.m. One week before summer solstice.

"Will that be all, hun?"

The man she was waiting on nodded, smiling wide at the red head.

"Yep, I'm all good, Ms. Lynda. Thanks."

Lynda smiled back, brushing a lock of hair behind his ear and shook her head. "Dear, you need a hair cut. How has your mother not held you down yet and took some clippers to you?"

He shrugged, "Just lucky, I guess."

Laughing, she began to turn away but stopped mid-turn, "Oh! Speaking of ya momma, will you tell her thank you for me?"

He arched a dark eyebrow at her, "Sure, but what for?"

"For telling me about that new discount clothing store that opened up over in the Quarter. I got lots new outfits for under fifty bucks."

He laughed, shaking his head. "Figures, I make enough money now to buy her a brand new house, car and cover all the bills, yet she still insist on working and shopping at Goodwill."

Lynda popped him on the arm with her order booklet. "Don't laugh at your mother, Nick." She got a far off look to her eyes as she spoke. "I think its very honorable of Cherise not to want to rely on you. She raised you by herself for years without taking hand outs from anyone. I can't see her taking your hard earned money willingly."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"You bet I am!" She huffed proudly, then continued away with his empty dishes, leaving him to his thoughts.

Nicholas Ambrosius Gautier leaned back in his chair, enjoying the warm summer breeze. To the average, unassuming observer, he was your run-of-the-mill late twenties slacker. What with his shaggy hair that almost reached his shoulders and dark clothes. But this cajun was anything but.

His boss? A two thousand year old roman general turned paranormal hunter sworn to the service of the Greek goddess Artemis. His best friend? Just an eleven thousand year old Atlantean God of Fate, who also had a fourteen thousand year old demon daughter. And his mother?

Nick smiled to himself as he thought of his mother. Cherise Gautier was the kindest, most gentle woman he ever knew. And she was blantantly oblivious to all the paranormal beings that frequented her home for dinner on multiple occasions over the years. Nor that her own job was at a bar owned by a clan of werebears that was a common watering hole of ancient beings, both good and bad.

The past decade had been interesting, as he had been in the center of multiple apocolyptic crisises. He had met gods, demons, vampires, one of his best friends even was a demon general cursed into servitude to him. Him, the Malachai. The ultimate evil weapon.

That line of thought put a damper on his light mood. He turned to look into the glass window across from him, and in it, he saw a vision of a woman with brown hair dying by way of a group of daimons feeding from her. The cursed race created by the Greek god Apollo that lived on the souls of others, mainly humans.

As bad as they were, Nick had to silently thank them, for if it wasn't for them, he would probably never have gotten out of that rat hole he grew up in. Nor would he have lived to see his fifteenth birthday because he would have died by the hands of the hoodlums he had called his friends. Thankful again for Kyrian saving him that night, Nick cringed as he thought of the woman he'd just seen in the window.

Clenching his fist, Nick shook his head before running his hands through his hair, trying to shake the thoughts out of his head. Tossing enough money to pay for his meal and give a very generous tip to Lynda, he got up. Nick hopped over the fence that marked the outside portion of the restaurant and looked around, deciding where to start his patrol.

He had just decided to head toward Jefferson Square when the hair on his neck rose up, indicating daimons were nearby and most likely hunting for an unsuspecting tourist. Scanning both sides of the street, he was just about to think he'd imagined it when he saw a woman that could be the one from his vision turn a corner down the road.

She was short, probably just to his chest, with long brown hair. She wore a purple tank top with cutoff denim capris and flipflops. Her attention was adverted to the phone at her ear and, apparently, very upsetting conversation she was having with the person on the other end. Deciding it was just coincidence, he turned away from her.

With still no sign of any daimons, Nick's instinct told him to continue on with his plans to go to the square, but something nagged at him in the back of his mind. A feeling that he couldn't explain. Coincidences didn't just happen in his line of work.

'Follow her... protect her...' ordered a man's voice, seemingly from everywhere, though none of the humans, otherwise known as mundanes by most paranormal beings, seemed to notice.

Nick looked around, searching for the source of the disembodied voice. If the years under employment to a Dark-Hunter had taught him anything, just cause a spooky voice tells you to do something, doesn't mean you should. But the vision told him what would happen if he didn't follow the woman.

Acheron's words that he loved to use and that basically every Dark-Hunter had heard at one time or another, played through his head. "Just cause you can, doesn't mean you should."

And he knew that if Ash found out Nick had let a human die because of a voice telling him not to, he'd be in for a world of hurt. And considering the powers that Ash had, he could literally kill Nick and bring him back over and over if he was pissed enough. Not that he had ever know the Atlantean to do such a thing, but fourteen years out of eleven thousand is the equivalent of a grain of sand in the Sahara desert.

A normal person's life span could be filled with life altering decisions that they regretted, ones filled with malice they were known for. An ancient immortals life? Countless.

Plus, his mother had raised him too well for him to ever forgive himself for letting an innocent die just because he was wary of creepy voices in his head. Though, given his record, noone could blame him for being cautious and slightly paranoid. You would too if you had almost every class of demon and multiple gods after you for a bounty that he couldn't even begin to understand.

With that, Nick hurried after the brunette while keeping to the shadows. He had been trained well by Kyrian and Ash, along with his older self that liked to pop into his life randomly. It was now second nature to stay invisible to the people on the sidewalks and in buildings.

Nick's neck began to get goosebumps as his own demonic powers picked up on the nearing daimons. He stopped just beside a dumpster to search the way he came. But still there was nothing. He crouched down then pulled out his sword, imagining it the length of his forearm. It's enlarged size provided him the reflective surface he need.

He focused on it, but instead of the vision from earlier, he got nothing. Not even a sliver of anyone or anything. This was bad, he had never been able to not see into the future after gaining control of his powers. Returning his sword back to its previous pocket knife size, he stood up to watch the young woman. Only, she was nowhere to be seen.

Kimberly Bailey prouded herself on not being afraid of much. Even though she was careful of her surroundings, she wasn't paranoid. Usually. But for the last four blocks, she had the sense that someone or something was folowing her.

And if she was being followed, for how long? She had been on the phone arguing for awhile before she got the feeling that ran up her spine and made her ears burn.

Speeding up, she hurried across the street. Turning to look behind her, she thought she saw a large shadow where she had just been, and it didn't look like it belonged to a person. Not sure is that was terrifying or a relief, she didn't think twice as she broke out in full speed. Her flipflops went flying, allowing her to grip the concrete better. Kim could hear approaching footsteps and alot of them.

She glanced over her shoulder as she turned down what she thought was street but was, of course, a alleyway with so much trash in the middle, it had been turned into a blockade. Doing a quick about-face, she rammed straight into the wall.

Thanking years of dodging legos, hotwheels and dinosaurs figurines, she kept her balance instead of falling on her back. When she looked at the wall, it was what she feared. She had turned into the cliche. Instead of a wall that she ran into, there was a group of people decked out in black and staring at her like she was a pot of crawfish.

Strangely, they were all blonde. And not bottle blonde either. Weird.

"Look, I don't want any trouble, alright? If you got an issue with brunettes, don't take it out on me. Personally, I like being blonde, but it's too hard to keep up with the roots. But you guys-"

"Shut up!" The 'wall' barked at her. "Food shouldn't talk."

The lone woman stepped up, grabbing Kim's jaw and moving her face side to side. The woman looked really smug for some reason.

"Oh, yeah." She said over her shoulder to the others. "Her soul will hold us for a while."

Kim shoved the woman's hand away. "Hey! Just cause this is New 'Awlins, don't mean you got's to be freaks. And you ain't doin' anything with my soul." She took a few steps back, "I like my soul right where it is, thank you."

The group chuckled, like she was a toddler spouting that they were big enough to live on their own or something. And it irritated the piss out of her, until the wall opened his mouth wide and she saw the scarily realistic fangs in his mouth.

"Ooo-kay, well, this hasn't been fun buuut...," she tried to back up more but she ran into the mountain of garbage that had blocked her path initially.

'Crap, not good,' she thought as she weighed her options. Before she could do anything, the wall, woman and another man lunged at her. All three had fangs bared and seemed to each be aiming for her neck. Dodging to the right, she fell on top of a bag of trash and cut her arm on a broken bottle. Scrambling to get away, she slipped in some bright green goo on the ground.

"Shit!" She grabbed a brick and threw it at her attackers, hoping it would give them some pause but one of them punched it mid-air, shattering it. "What are you fuckers?!"

"Hey!"

Kim and the blonde brigade all turned to the newcomer standing at the beginning of the alleyway.

Nick stood with his feet slightly apart and shoulders spread wide. From the looks of things, he had just barely made it in time.

The woman was on the ground, surrounded by six daimons, dressed to the nines and ready for battle. One of them hissed at him.

"Leave, Dark-Hunter. Or we'll finish you as well."

Nick snorted. Obviously, they weren't very smart, or atuned to the unnatural order if they thought he was a Dark-Hunter.

"Yeaaah, no, Dipshit. I'm not a Dark-Hunter nor am I leaving." He made his blade extend to its full length, a four foot long katana. His aura immediately filled the alley, oppressing on every one and probably letting every preternatural creature in New Orleans know that someone had pissed him off.

While most didn't know what he was, they still could tell he was extremely powerful.

One of the smaller men took a step towards the woman who was slowly trying to get up off the ground. Nick shot a ball of fire at him. It caught him on the shoulder, sending him into the trash behind him, withering in pain.

"Bastard!" The female of the group screamed before running at him. The others came at him also as Nick met the female's dagger with his sword. Another tried to get him in the back with a small tomahawk, but Nick kicked him back. Nick elbowed the biggest, who had first spoke to him, causing him to stagger backwards, tripping over the one Nick had just kicked. Nick slashed out at two of them who tried to flank him.

The female went to stab him so Nick lept over her, shoving her forward into the guy that caught the fireball. She wasn't able to stop her momentum before her own dagger pierced the man in the heart. There was only enough time for him to look at her in fear before he burst into gold powder.

"You'll pay for that!" She wailed at Nick.

The smell of burning garbage made Nick pause, letting the largest get a solid punch to the back of his head. The back of his head stung, causing his vision to double momentarily. He felt a knee ram into his stomach, knocking the breath out of him.

Nick muttered a curse as he tried to pull from his other senses to detect the blows while his eyesight corrected itself. He could feel the heat from the trash blaze as it increased. Someone sliced a nasty gash in his arm and got in a kick to his back before he could see right again.

Suddenly, a gun shot rang out in the air, followed immediately by the female holding her thigh where she was bleeding prefusely. Nick turned to the woman, who was now standing up, holding a Kimber Micro .380 ACP pointed at the group.

"I've got more where that came from, and it was just a warning shot. The next one will be to kill, not wound."

While Nick admired that she wasn't running like a scared little girl, he really wished she had. There was no telling if she was bluffing or not about her aim, but he didn't want to be shot. Again. Plus, the woman didn't know what she was threatening here.

Apparently, the daimons had similar thoughts as the one Nick had kicked backwards laughed at her.

"Little girl, you have no clue what you're up against here. Just lay down and wait to die." He licked at his fangs, making a show of it to her. "If you ain't noticed we ain't human, thus we can't die from a little gun shot to the leg."

Nick decided to use the daimons cockiness against him and get in a killing blow to the female, piercing her all the way through her chest. She gasped before exploding, covering him in gold ash.

"Yeah, but a well placed hit to the heart seems to kill you bastards well enough."

The four remaining turned on him with vengenance but before they could attack, three shots in rapid succession made an almost perfect triangle in the giant's chest. He looked really pissed as he followed the others in death.

Nick turned to the woman in surprise. 'Ok,' he thought, 'so she wasn't bluffing, good to know.'

Nick jabbed one in the stomach with his sword, dragging it up into his chest then yanking it out. He didn't even cover his eyes to shield them as he was again covered in powder.

"Fucking piece of shit!"

Nick kicked the last two away to turn to the woman, who was pulling the slide back on her gun, shaking it. She looked up at him, then hurled it passed his head. It smacked one of the daimons, who was about to get him in the back, right between the eyes. Nick took that as a chance to slice his chest open, releasing the souls that were trapped in the inkspot above the heart that he always had to aim for. Nick swirled around, expecting another attack from behind, only to find him and the woman alone in the alley way.

He looked to the woman for an explanation as she ran over to him.

"The last one of those things," she told him with a grimace, "ran off. If my gun hadn't of jammed on me, I could have got him."

Nick went to respond but heard the sirens in the distance, and they were quickly approaching them.

"We gotta get out of here," he grabbed her hand and started to pull her with him but she refused to budge.

"What do you mean? We have to report this. There might be more of those creeps and the cops need to know so they can protect people."

Nick really didn't want to fault her for that. She was looking out for other people, but really, sometimes it was hard dealing with those that were oblivious to the dangers surrounding them everyday.

"Trust me, we need to go. There are more out there, lots more. More than you can imagine. And what are you going to tell the cops when they get here? 'Hi officer. These people attacked me and they had fangs, all blonde and were super strong. And the way to kill them is to stab them in the heart so you can release the human souls that they devour to live. Oh? The giant fire? Yeah, this guy here shot fire out of his hand at one of them. What about the gun fire and where are the bodies? I shot a couple of them, one of them got away, he killed the rest and all the ones we killed exploded into this really pretty gold glitter-looking powder that we're both covered in. You have to warn the public! Tell them to arm themselves with steak knives. I amost forgot, they can only come out at night.'"

The look she gave him told him that she didn't appreciate the tone he had used, but she began to run out of the alley with him. He quickly picked up her gun and slipped it into an inner coat pocket without breaking stride.

Nick looked behind him as he pulled her along. While he didn't look too rough thanks to his dark clothes and trench coat hiding his wounds, she looked really bad. Her arm was covered in blood, thick mud, and there was what looked like a banana peel sticking out of the top of her pants. And they were both covered in daimon powder and soot from the fire.

"How do you feel? Light-headed any?"

She shook her head, "No. Why?"

Instead of answering, he wrapped both arms around her and teleported them away. Less than a minute later, a fire truck and two police cars raced by.