The Warder

Tackling an ancient vampire is not for the weak of heart...

Charlie glanced at the clock and saw that it was after 1AM. He listened to the sounds of the room and closed the book, about to place it on his nightstand when he heard the door creak. Fear instantly shot through his body as though the sound itself had injected him with a needle. Wanting to appear asleep, he placed his head on its side on his pillow, and watched intently as the door moved...

Someone - or something - was pushing it open. Frozen in place, he observed as it filled the doorway, then stepped forward to enter, its head barely clearing the doorframe. It stood inside the room, dark and big. Charlie could hear it wheezing. It glanced around, centering on Charlie's bed.

He closed his eyes tightly, terrified.

So begins the odyssey of ten-year-old Charlie, who discovers that his family's neighbor invades their home each night, somehow passing through the communal wall of their duplex and attacking his mother and sister while they sleep. Charlie can see the wounds the attacks leave on their necks - but his family cannot, and they don't believe him.

As the attacks worsen, Charlie realizes it's up to him to defend his family from the vampire next door. But how?

One night, the ghost of a horrifically murdered boy appears to Charlie in his closet, leading him to the boy's hidden phone. It's the breakthrough Charlie needs, and it begins an unexpected adventure far beyond anything Charlie could have imagined, into a new world where he learns the skills he'll need to successfully ward the vampire.

"The Warder" is a spine-tingling horror adventure in which a boy discovers a universe he never knew existed - where he sets a plan in motion to destroy the creature attacking his family and save them from an evil they cannot see.

Michael Richan is the author of over fifty horror novels, including the popular River series. In this new novel, he creates an entirely new vampire-fighting world.