THE WARLOCK'S FRIEND - Sample Chapters

Chapter 1

He twisted up his face at the mangled up bullet in his hand. "Damn it. That'll have to be resmelted and recast. Good thing you've been too cheap to buy bullets for years, and have been content to make your own." He looked heavenward again. "Don't mind me. I talk to myself. If I'm crazy, then none of this is happening. If the demi-god defense ever wears thin, you should try it." 

He rattled the five bullets around in his hands once he'd collected them all up as if he were about to roll the dice on his future any more than he did every time he set across this forest. Then, he pocketed the bullets and yanked the arrow out of the eye. Can't afford to waste arrows either! Retrieving the satchel where he'd left it, he returned the arrow to its resting place inside the sheath. Then he collected up the rope he fired and started coiling it around his arm. He walked around the fallen creature and whistled.  

Rope stowed, he pulled out his knife again, and started skinning. "Again, no disrespect intended," he shouted heavenward. "But if you think wolf meat goes for a premium, wait till you hear what werewolf meat goes for."  

Half way through his skinning the animal disappeared. "Damn it!" He sighed, wiped the bloody knife against the ground, and holstered it. "I guess I should have known there was magic behind this. It's not like someone is breeding these things oversized out of consideration of your meager budget." 

There it was. A twig snapping underfoot. "You can come out now. I've known you were there the entire time. Seems pointless for even a madman to talk to himself this much, don't you think? So who do you think I was ad-libbing for?" 

She didn't take the bait. She usually did. Still, shy and illusive were her middle names. Drop dead gorgeous were her first names. And she seemed to be about the one thing in this forest that could always outrun him, disappearing before he ever got too close. His Lady of the Forest, he called her, all veiled and white and ghostly looking, except for the beauty part.  

When he went to investigate the noise, he found this time was no different. He bent down and examined the twig. "Let's hope it's her. You aren't exactly at a hundred percent after beasty boy back there, wherever he went to," he added after throwing a glance over his shoulder at the imprint left in the brush by the disappearing werewolf.  

Heldor picked up his crossbow, folded it down and nestled it between his shoulder blades in its own holster. He looked around for the pistol, found it with some ado, and slipped it in the small of his back beneath the belt. The thing was pretty much useless for what he came up against in these forests. But it did save on silver, come time to take out a werewolf. 

He decided it was time to pay Cleo a visit, see what she had to say about all this. Funny, he remembered when he avoided witches like the plague. These days, he hunted them just to put an end to all the magical creatures in their employ. Seemed like a less tiresome way of working, just going straight to the source. 

The forest spoke to him, as it always did, as he wended his way towards Cleo's. Only, he didn't like what it was saying. There were too few animal noises, and what there was suggested fight or flight responses between all parties.  

No sooner was he on the trail that led straight to Cleo's than the trees took it upon themselves to uproot and come after him, batting him hither and yon with their branches. "Seriously? What did I do, step on a fallen leaf?" 

One of the trees, with his wizened face etched into the trunk, pinned him under several of his roots. He was in the middle of hacking his way out from under them with the bowie knife, thinking-What the hell do you have in your arsenal, Heldor, besides this knife, that's any good against killer trees?-when they settled down in response to words of power. Only they weren't his words of power.