THE WARLOCK'S FRIEND - Sample Chapters

Chapter 1

"That was no ordinary werewolf." Gasping for air, Heldor pressed his back against the tree. His shoulders were just an inch or so wider than the trunk. Not exactly perfect concealment. And what was he doing hiding behind a tree, anyway? They paid him to be a hunter, not to play hide and seek with demonic beasties.  

My, it got light all of a sudden. He looked up and the top half of the tree was gone. He looked forward and the creature, still flossing with the twenty-inch diameter hardwood sticking out of his canines, dropped the timber, and then turned on all fours towards him.  

"Look, hemlock may not do shit to werewolves, but it takes care of all sorts of other nasties. So I'd definitely appreciate you fine-tuning your bent for landscaping." 

The creature snarled, drooled, and crouched down, readying to pounce. Heldor let loose with the crossbow, striking Drooler's left eye. On a smaller animal, the arrow would also have pierced the brain, and he could commence the barbecue. This was more like getting a splinter caught in his eye. The beast wailed, tried helplessly to extract the impediment with one of his paws. He actually squatted on the ground, and tried to get the arrow between the foremost claws of each of his forepaws so he could pull it out. Following another gut wrenching cry when he realized he was not going to succeed, his focus went right back to Heldor. He didn't look any happier. 

"That's it, Heldor. Make the hell beast angry, that's the ticket." Raising his voice, he said, "Look, pal, as you can tell, I'm no good with pets." 

The creature lunged savagely, jaws snapping repeatedly as if it just couldn't wait to get his mouth around him. Heldor didn't move. He didn't even flinch. It was only at the last second that he feinted right, when he would have been little more than a blur. As the creature swallowed dirt, tasting it to make sure his tormentor was in there somewhere, Heldor made his way up the furry mountain to the werewolf's shoulder. Once on top, he felt like a small child riding an elephant. The animal, still making sure the mouthful of forest patch included a human, allowed Heldor the time he needed to switch cartridges in his gun for silver bullets. 

Perhaps he should have been a little quieter about closing the cartridge, gingerly sliding it in instead of flicking it. The beast's sensitive hearing more than compensated for his inability to feel Heldor's slight weight past its dense mat of fur. It immediately rolled over in an effort to crush him, which it would have succeeded in doing just fine had Heldor not tucked the gun under his belt so he could switch cartridges in his Crossbow. Firing the arrow into the closest standing tree, he rode the rope off the mount. Taking advantage of his ambidextrousness, he didn't wait to land; he drew his gun and fired with his left hand the six silver cartridges at the beast's head. He wasn't going to take a chance on the thing having a heart, so that was the next most deadly place.  

The creature, which had rolled over back on to his feet and leapt straight for him, never made it, dropping to the ground as dead weight.  

Heldor released the line and proceeded to dig the silver bullets out of the creature's head. "No offense intended," he shouted heavenward. He then mumbled, "just in case this thing has its own guardian angels. God knows, mine have gone missing." He examined the first bullet he'd retrieved with the aid of his bowie knife strapped to his calf so as not to get in the way of the sawed off shotguns strapped low down to each thigh. He stuffed the first bullet back into his pant pocket. As he fished around for the second bullet, he realized that, even lying on its side, the beast's head was nearly as wide as he was tall. He continued pleading his case skywards in a raised voice, "Silver's damn expensive. And people don't seem to pay a hunter what he's due like they used to, possibly because there are just too many of these vile creatures to go around, straining everyone's pocket book. I'm sure big picture beings that you are, you can appreciate my predicament."