Purgatory of the Werewolf - The Wolf of Dorian Gray (Book 2)

Chapter 10 - The Demon Eye Part 1

On the day he killed the wolf and avenged his parents, Van Helsing became a man. Though he searched the woods for many days, he never found his mother's body. This filled him with a hatred of wolves, and he swore to continue to hunt them. He sold the remaining sheep and his family's land and began hunting the bounties on the heads of wolves with the other Lupări. He used what money he had to purchase a Prussian, bolt-action Dreyse rifle. This rifle was breech-loaded and could fire up to twelve rounds per minute, even while lying on the ground.

He soon became an expert hunter of wolves and quickly outpaced the others in claiming bounties. He was fiercely dedicated and became known to lie under cover for days, waiting for an opportunity to kill a wolf. The skill and fame of Van Helsing grew until neighboring villages began sending him letters. They would beg his help to kill troublesome wolves that had taken children or continually eluded other hunters. The rubles began pouring in and he could soon afford better clothes, equipment, and weapons. Van Helsing eventually expanded his prey to include the huge brown bears that were even harder to kill.

His favorite technique was to conceal several double-spring steel bear traps at the base of a tree. He would then lure the huge bear in with half of a deer or other bait hanging from the tree. He would lie in wait until the bear went for the bait and one or more steel traps sprung to cripple the bear. Then he would quickly end the animal's life with a shot to the head or heart. He lived this life for many years, becoming hardened by the hunt. Van Helsing did not hate the bears as he did the wolves, they could actually be quite gentle and generally avoided humans. However, he would answer any summons to kill any beast that killed a person—even monsters.

Most of these 'monsters' ended up being rabid wolves or dogs. Van Helsing didn't believe real monsters existed in the world. That was until he received a letter about a diăvol that was reported to have killed two families in eastern Transylvania. The rumors claimed the demon entered both homes silently in the night and brutally murdered all men, women, and children inside. No animal tracks of any kind could be found around the homes and all traps and hunting parties had come up empty.

Van Helsing had recently modified a repeating Zhūgé crossbow of Chinese design. The composite-recurve design featured a magazine of bolts, which instantly reloaded by working a lever back and forth. This single movement tightened the crossbow string and dropped a new bolt into place with the next ready in the magazine above. This weapon allowed him to shoot up to forty of the deadly bolts in a single minute. It was much faster than any other weapon and was deadly up to eighty meters. Van Helsing had also added another weapon to his arsenal for close-quarters fighting. The Damascus-steel, double-edge long sword he now carried had a brass pommel and had served him well in dispatching a wolf that had taken him by surprise. He took the repeating crossbow, Prussian rifle, and Damascus-steel sword with him as he traveled to the small village in eastern Transylvania.

He came to the small village where the two families had been killed. Most of the villagers had abandoned their homes, but a few stalwart families remained. Van Helsing didn't bother to speak to any of them. Instead, he dug a shallow hole, lay down in it, and covered himself with brush. He waited like that, repeating crossbow at the ready, for three nights. During the days he scoured the surrounding woods for signs of any large predator but found none. These woods were strangely empty of any animals, as if they had been driven away by wildfire. The moon was full on the evening of the fourth night. Van Helsing had nearly given up when he noticed something strange about the small house on the edge of the village.

It wasn't obvious at first, but the home was too dark and too quiet. Most of the villagers kept candles burning through the night and hung charms to ward off evil spirits. The windows were completely dark now and nothing moved. It was as if the breeze had died completely in the area surrounding only this house. Van Helsing slowly moved aside the brush and raised himself to his full height. He spent a few moments stretching his muscles and letting the blood flow throughout his body. Then he silently made his way towards the darkened house. He delicately opened the wooden door and slid inside. The house was only a single room, with a cold hearth at one end. In the center of the room was a low table where the family of three shared their meals. A wife, husband, and small girl shared this home.

It was almost too dark to see, save for the light of the full moon that reluctantly entered through the windows. Van Helsing paused while his eyes adjusted to the shadows in the room. As his eyes focused, he saw the young mother and her daughter. They were in the corner of the room on their knees, as if fervently praying—but their hands were not clasped together and their heads were not bowed. Their eyes stared blankly at the darkest spot of the room. They were looking towards the husband, who was also on his knees. No, they were looking past the husband and into the darkness above him. Something was very wrong here. He could taste a foulness in the air. Time seemed to move more slowly, as he raised his crossbow. He looked again at the husband. Was that blood flowing down the man's head? His gaze kept passing over the dark spot in the room without quite focusing on it. Van Helsing strained his eyes and concentrated on the shadow.

It was no shadow, but a hideously horned demon from the pits of hell. The creature was half animal and half man, with the hooves and legs of a stag and the torso and chest of a man. The face was fanged and pointed, misshapen and unnaturally human. At the top of the head were two horns, curved like those of a ram. The demon stood above the man kneeling at his feet, moving its long arms that ended in sharp talons. He was devouring the scalp and brains of the man in front of him as his wife and children looked on.

Van Helsing's instincts kicked in and he aimed his crossbow, preparing to fire. The demon casually raised one clawed hand and spoke a curse in Van Helsing's mind. "Imobilă inima si membrele". His muscles froze in place. The curse had stopped his every move just as the demon had done to the family. His body wouldn't budge. His hand was on the firing mechanism and he had already begun to fire the repeating crossbow—if only he could squeeze the release mechanism a little harder, the bolt would fire. This was not any normal crossbow bolt. Van Helsing had been raised on his mother's stories of the Evil Eye, so he had covered this bolt in holy water mixed with his own spit. He said a silent prayer, asking for his mother's help as the demon continued his meal. The monsters arrogance was astounding as it casually ignored the threat of the crossbow.

Almost...he could almost move. He saw a gleam in the corner of his eye coming from the bolt. A tiny drop of water reflected the moonlight as it perched on the back of the feathers of the bolt. A drop of his saliva mixed with the holy water. It fell and landed on his fingertip. Lightning shot up and down his body as his muscles strained against the demon's curse. He fired the crossbow.