Parson’s Hollow: Critter Catchers, Chapter Six

Good Story Orgy Monday morning! Ready for more fun, feisty, gay romance reads? Before we jump back in with Cody and Demetrius and that werewolf (there wolf! — sorry, but any Mel Brooks fans will appreciate that one), a few announcements.

Em Woods’s story Choices, her hot male menage story, is now up for pre-order at Breathless Press. Click HERE to hop on over and reserve your copy today!

Lee Brazil‘s fifth book in his bestselling Truth or Dare series, Risking It All, is now available at Breathless Press. Click HERE to hop on over and download your copy today! His Naughty Nursery Rhyme story, It’s Simple, Simon, is now available at ARe and Amazon.

Congrats to Havan Fellows, whose story Geoff’s Teddy is #1 at ARe in the Romantic Comedy category. Woo hoo! Click HERE to jump over and download a copy of your own if you haven’t already.

Keep an eye out for our next anthology, And the Prompt Is… Road Trip, which will be available soon. As always, the first 90 days of profits will go to a LGBTQ charity, and this time we’ve chosen The Point Foundation, which empowers promising LGBTQ students to achieve their full academic and leadership potential – despite the obstacles often put before them – to make a significant impact on society.

Wow, lots of publishing news! Lots of great stories from your Story Orgy authors, and we really appreciate all of our readers. Okay, you’ve been wonderfully patient, now on with the story! Remember that Cody and Demetrius were being chased by a werewolf down an empty road. The prompt for this week is: This was going to take not giving a shit to a whole new level.

Critter Catchers

Parson’s Hollow Series, Book 1

Chapter Six

by Hank Edwards

(c) 2012

“Run!” Cody shouted and turned to sprint back up the road.

Behind him, he heard Demmy huffing as he followed. But Demmy had never been an athlete, and Cody soon outdistanced him.

Further back, Cody heard the growls of the beast closing in on them. And it would get to Demetrius first.
Cody wasn’t about to stand for that. Demmy was like his brother. Hell, Cody was closer with Demmy than he was with his own flesh and blood brother. He wasn’t about to let some fucked up movie monster kill Demmy, his best friend all through high school, and the only one who had stuck around afterwards to still be friends.

Thankfully, Cody no longer felt drunk. The adrenaline rush had burned through the alcohol in his system fast. He risked a glance over his shoulder and his stomach jumped, literally jumped, inside him in fright. Demetrius had fallen further behind, gasping for breath, eyes wide with terror. Behind Demetrius, the monster loped ever closer, jaws open wide, seconds away from grabbing Demmy.

Not on Cody’s watch. He hatched a plan in one breath, and realized the stupidity of it in the next. This was going to take not giving a shit to a whole new level, but he couldn’t stand by and let Demmy be torn apart by this creature.
Cody came to a stop in the road and turned to face Demmy and the werewolf. Demetrius ran past, and Cody heard him call back, “Cody! What are you doing?”

Then the thing —it’s not a thing! It’s a fucking werewolf!— was on him, running full tilt on all four legs. Cody waited, forced himself to wait a little longer, then, at the last second, side-stepped and stuck out his foot. The monster’s front legs collided with Cody’s leg and sent him flying. But, Cody had always prided himself on his workouts, and he never, ever skipped leg day like so many of his other lifter acquaintances. So although Cody was sent tumbling off into the drainage ditch at the side of the road, the monster’s front legs were knocked out from under it and it went skidding face first along the asphalt.

Cody hit the mucky bottom of the ditch and felt his breath leave him in one heavy duty whoosh of air. His lungs were so shocked they forgot how to work, and he lay on his back in the stagnant, putrid water, flailing and gasping.

Before Cody had his breath back, Demetrius skidded down the side of the ditch and landed next to him, sending a wave of foul water washing over his face. Cody coughed and sputtered and shook his head, but still his chest seemed too tight, his lungs too stupid to remember how to breathe.

The monster roared from a few yards down the road, the sound louder than the T-Rex from the Jurassic Park movies and fourteen times as terrifying. It made Cody jump and with that movement his lungs reconnected and he drew in a deep, grateful breath of the stinking air in the ditch.

“You okay?” Demetrius said. “Jesus tap dancing Christ, what the fuck were you thinking?” He grabbed Cody’s arm and tried to pull him up out of the muck, but Cody could feel that his feet were stuck fast.

“I had to stop it from getting you,” Cody said as he tried to pull his feet free.

“Well I appreciate that, but now we’re both going to be killed and no one’s going to know it’s a fucking werewolf!” Demetrius shouted. He fell to his knees beside Cody and sent another wave of noxious water rolling over him.

“Shit!” Cody yelled, lifting his chin just in time to avoid getting the rank water in his mouth. “Stop moving around so much, this water is probably full of e-coli and Legionnaire’s disease, and, I dunno, athlete’s foot!”

Demetrius said nothing in reply. Cody thought a non-response was unusual for Demetrius, so he stopped trying to pull his feet free and looked up at his friend’s face. In the white light of the moon, Cody saw how wide Demetrius’s eyes were as he stared up the slope toward the road. When Cody looked that way as well, he felt his eyes widen just as much at the sight of the werewolf crouched above them at the top of the ditch.

It glared down at them, its front claws tightening and releasing in the gravel of the shoulder. In the moonlight, Cody could see that the thing’s chin —werewolf, it’s a fucking werewolf, just say it!— was scraped raw and bloody from its skid along the asphalt. Blood dripped onto the gravel and in the tense silence of the moment, Cody heard the quiet plop as it landed.

Then the thing tipped back its head to let out a long, ear-splitting howl.

“Come on!” Demetrius said. He moved around behind Cody, gripping him under the arms and pulling with all he was worth.

Cody felt his feet pull free of the clutching muck. Demetrius, however, had now become mired, and he sat down hard in the swampy water, pulling Cody down with him. Cody sat between Demetrius’s legs, Demetrius’s arms around Cody’s chest. Even with a werewolf crouched above them, Cody had the crazy thought that it was like he and Demmy were about to go on the Log Flume ride at Knoebel’s Grove Amusement Park.

“I’m stuck!” Demmy said. He jerked his legs but his feet stayed in place. As he struggled, Demmy’s grip around Cody’s chest tightened, keeping him in place.

“Let me go!” Cody shouted. He looked up at the monster above them, and reached down to grab Demmy’s hands in an effort to pry them off his chest. “Demmy! Let go!”

“I’m stuck!”

Cody did the only thing he could think of: he shot an elbow back into Demmy’s side. Demetrius let out a gasp and his grip weakened enough for Cody to push up to his feet.

Where he found himself staring up into the werewolf’s face, just a foot away.

“Shit,” Cody whispered. He felt as if he had been hypnotized as he watched the beast raise a big, clawed paw, ready to bring it slashing down across his face.

Headlights splashed over them. Cody caught a glimpse of the ragged, bloody skin of the beast’s chin, saw the light shine off the monster’s fangs, and noticed a dark spot just beneath its pointed right ear.

The driver of the approaching car slammed on the brakes and sounded the horn, startling both Cody and the werewolf. Cody shifted his gaze to the car, squinting into the glare of the headlights. A breeze of movement made him take a step back, and when he looked, saw the monster’s back as it loped across the road and into the dark woods beyond.

Cody let out the breath he wasn’t aware he had been holding, and felt the strength go out of his legs. He sat down hard in the scummy water, his entire body shaking. Someone touched his shoulder and he jumped, a shout slipping from his lips before he could stop it.

Demetrius knelt beside him, eyes wide and face pale in the wash of headlights.

“You okay?” Demetrius asked. His eyes darted up and down as he inspected his body for any sign of injury. “Did it get you?”

Cody shook his head, but before he could reply, they both jumped when a woman asked, “You okay?”

Squinting, Cody looked up at her, saw only her silhouette for a moment as she stood at the top of the ditch, and he raised a trembling hand. “Yeah. Swell.”

“Cody Bower?” the woman asked.

He squinted even harder, trying to make out details. Long hair, rounded hips, good tits. And that authoritative voice. Oh shit.

“Who is that?” Demetrius asked, a hand at his brow to cut the glare of the headlights. “How does she know you?”

Cody sighed and pushed to his feet, then turned to grab Demetrius’s hand and lifted him to his feet as well.

“Oh,” Demetrius said as he looked over Cody’s shoulder and into the woman’s face.

Bracing himself, Cody turned to face their accidental savior, and said, “Hey, Doc.”

Dr. Zenona Baldwin stepped back as they climbed out of the ditch, looked them up and down with an expression of distaste, and said, “Typical,” before turning on her heel to stomp back to her car.

~~ * ~~

Well, looks like Cody’s pissed off yet another woman in Parson’s Hollow. Good thing Dr. Zenona Baldwin came along when she did, right? Be sure to stop by next week and see what Zenona saw and if Cody can, or wants to, get back on her good side. For now, however, hop on over to the other Story Orgy blogs with me for more hot, smexy reads.

Lee Brazil,     Havan Fellows,     Em Woods,     Jade Baiser,     J.R. Boyd

Follow our tweets during the week:

J.R. Boyd: @JR__Boyd

Lee Brazil: @leebrazil

Hank Edwards: @hanksbooks

Havan Fellows: @HavanFellows

Em Woods: @EmWoodsAuthor

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2 Responses to Parson’s Hollow: Critter Catchers, Chapter Six

  1. Lee Brazil says:

    Perfect Hank! Hilarious and action packed!

  2. Nope. No one’s ever going to believe them. These two are great!