The warlock was still here.

He had just needed to draw him out, and his plan had worked even quicker than he had hoped.

He absently wiped his wet hand on his shirt as he took the few steps across the room to the broken down bed. The water continued sputtering and splashing in the rusty basin, melding in an off-kilter tune with the voices from the TV. On the scarred surface of a makeshift nightstand, a book was positioned with supreme care, as if on display. Eldon reached out with his good hand and lifted it reverently, then used the knuckles of his clawed left hand to open it and flip through the pages.

Near the back of the tome, he finally stopped, bringing his gaze to rest on a particular passage, his eyes darting back and forth as he read and re-read the words. Slowly, his lips began to move, and then eventually a whisper of sound began to slip between them. Finally, his gravelly voice spoke aloud to be heard only by him.

“For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

He continued to repeat the passage with growing rabidity, clipping the sentence until the only words spoken were “Vengeance is mine.”

Three Hours Earlier

CHAPTER 1:

Graphical images of playing cards expanded in happy accordion patterns across the glowing screen of my notebook computer as the machine proclaimed me victorious in this latest game of solitaire. Unless I’d lost track, this one made six for me and something on the order of ten million for the machine, give or take. I wasn’t actually keeping count, though. Well, not of the computer’s wins, anyway.

I tucked my fingers back in behind my eyeglasses, forcing the frames to ride up on the bridge of my nose, then rubbed my eyes before directing my bleary gaze at the lower corner of the screen. I’d started this mindless activity at twelve and it was now 3:07.