Books by Christopher Charles

Suddenly four wolves attacked. The horse reacted and started kicking their legs out behind them. The wolves darted around them, but they were meant with a sharp stick from Rose and the accurate hooves of her pony.Rose poked the leading one in the chest and sent him squealing. The pony connected with the next one catching him in the face. The Colonel came out of the tepee with his saber drawn when Rose did not come inside. He saw her, and the pony attack the wolves and charged with his saber. His voice carried the battle cry. 

Rose found herself alone as the buffalo moved back into the camp to reach the water. She watched Sergeant Meade disappear into the darkness on his horse with Abigail behind him as the buffalo forced him away from her wagon. He was leaving her! She felt the desertion run deep inside of her. Then the wagon gave way from the pressure of the buffalo. She found herself on the ground about to be trampled when her pony suddenly appeared.Without questioning it, she leaped up on his back as he worked himself through the buffalo. That’s when she discovered her pony was being led by the buffalo boy. She was being separated from those she loves. She felt them first, then she saw them. Other Indians in the herd were moving with them. Where were they taking her? 

Her tears really flowed when he reached her. Slipping down from his horse, he helped her down and hugged her. She buried her head into his shoulder and continued to cry.Caressing her hair, he said, “Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to come out here. Things sure haven’t gone well for us.”“I’m sorry, Papa,” Rose said, “I’m sorry.”He felt a damp area in her hair and gently pushed her back. Turning her head, he noticed the bruise on the side of her face. Pushing her hair back slightly, he exposed a cut above her ear. “Did Mr. Brady do this to you?”“He was angry because I pushed him when he was going to shoot the Indian boy,” Rose said. “I couldn’t let him kill him, Papa!”

She raised the lantern higher and looked in the mirror over the bar. She was bleeding from her head and arm. Her hair was a mess and mixed in with the blood. Her left hand was dripping blood over the crowbar she held. Her dress was in shreds and barely holding together. She had dirt from the holes sticking to the other parts of her body. She dropped to the floor and felt a dark cloud go over her head.

It was too late. Rose felt the giant paddle strike the boat. Huge planks flew from the wheel as it devoured the bow of the Shanadoa. The giant wheel was coming for the wheelhouse. She saw the raft. It was caught in the wheel. It was coming up towards her.Gripping the wheel, she dropped to the deck and covered her head. She closed her eyes as she heard the side of the wheelhouse coming apart. The noise was deafening, but she hung onto the wheel. She felt the roof being torn loose. The devil wanted her soul! She screamed, but the loud noise from the paddle wheel drowned it out. 

Mrs. Stone has left for St Louis taking George with her. Rose’s father built their house and barn on Indian land as did many of their neighbors. The Indians were scared off the land twenty years ago when the Indian massacres were taking place. Now Indian smoke is seen again. Have the Indians come back, and what do they want as old hatreds surface? 

Rose delayed stepping on the gangplank for fear she might tip it slightly. She thought about waiting for the Colonel and delayed a little longer.She heard someone coming down the stairs in a hurry and decided she would go on across to be out of his way. The footsteps picked up speed and came up fast behind her. She felt pressure on her side and found herself falling into the water. Something hit her head, and she blacked out.

Stumbling most of the way, she managed to reach the wheelhouse. It was deserted. The wheel was moving lazily one way and then the other. She took hold of it and looked around. She wanted to turn the boat, but she did not know what side of the river she was on. Deciding she must be close to the east bank, she began turning the wheel to her right. It had to be a tight turn.The heavy smoke coming from the fire was being driven towards the wheelhouse. She could not see a thing until she was halfway into her turn. The smoke cleared, and the outline of the opposite bank became visible. She continued the turn until the boat was moving upriver against the current.

She felt sick and dizzy at the same time. She knew she had to free herself before the cellar became totally engulfed.She pulled hard with her right arm and felt the stake give slightly. It allowed her more leverage on her left arm. Pulling hard, she loosened it some. This allowed her to lean forward and put more of her body into her right arm.Giving it all she had, she felt it slipping and then flying free. She did not bother to untie the ropes. Using two hands, she pulled the remaining three stakes loose. On her feet quickly, she dragged two burning boxes to the window and climbed up.

Rose could feel the person looking at them. Immediately she knew who it was. She felt the small dark eyes penetrating the wood. It was Mrs. Peterson!Rose concentrated and pushed the eyes back out with her mind. The eyes were becoming weaker. She kept concentrating and pushing hard."Stop!" Yelled Mrs. Peterson. "Please stop!"They heard Mrs. Peterson run from the boat screaming, "No more! No More! If you want them, you have to go get them!

The story takes place in southern Alabama along the Tensaw River in the year 1852, twenty years after the Indian Creek massacre of1832. Rose lives a very sheltered life until she reaches the age of twelve when her adventures begin.In this first story, Rose meets Mrs. Stone and thinks she is a witch seeking to make a ghoul. She needs virgin blood, her blood. She screams to her mother, and her teacher, but no one will listen.

George dropped the dress sending her into the water face first. She dropped the lantern trying to catch herself, but she hung onto the dress. She felt her hands go through the mud and strike the hard dirt below. Her nose and mouth filled with the soft mud. She came up spitting mud and water.She started to wipe her face with the dress but changed her mind. The stench coming from it overpowered her nose. She remained sitting in the water searching for the lantern. It was dark. The water was almost up to her shoulders. She thought about ducking her head under the water to search for it, but she could not bring herself to do it. 

Slowly she placed her left hand over the cooked fish protecting them. She heard the animal move on down the branch until he was partway in the boat beside her. She felt the boat tip sharply to her left. Yes, it was very large.Suddenly she felt pain in her left arm. Sharp claws moved across her hand. It sent her screaming. Her fear came out in full force. She raised her hand quickly and struck something hard that had teeth in it. She kept screaming and swinging hard into the mass of fur and teeth. She felt another slash on her arm and screamed louder. Finally, the beast retreated up the branch.

Ana, Captain of a spaceship, is lost in what appears to be a black hole, but she soon discovers it is an energy field full of life bent on taking over her ship. Later, she and her crew are forced to enter a real Black Hole. She is forced her from her body as the ship passes through, and runs from another energy entity set loose in the ship. On the other side the crew finds another live energy force that attacks their ship. They barely manage to escape and return back through the Black Hole taking on injuries in the process.

Blinding headlights behind, now beside her. Curve ahead, she slams the brakes. It misses, smashes through the rail. She hears it strike the rocks below. Silence, only the darkness. Her arms shake. In the city, headlights again. The ship, the Marines will be there. She skids to a stop at the gangplank, no one. The black car pulls up behind her, doors open. She accelerates, as bullets take out the windows. She stops at the edge of the pier. It's quiet, she hears footsteps. Raul why, I love you.

Wounded, her arms shaking, she held her colt forty-five against the wall, and moved down the hall. A dark shadow appeared, a flash, she pulled the trigger, and felt pain in her side. The assassin fell back in the room. Screaming, she sent bullets into the wall until the Assassin threw his gun out. The monitor instructed her to put her revolver down. The assassin wounded, disappeared out the partition. Against the wall, she slid to the floor unconscious with her side and arm bleeding profusely.

A young man of thirteen is cast away from his village when he fails to become a warrior and brings the wrath of the Great Spirit to his village. Trying to survive he is forced to live with the buffalo. His family now hunts him like the buffalo.Excerpt:He felt himself slipping. "Ayanah!" He screamed. "I'm falling! Slow down! Slow down! I'm falling off!"The big buffalo did not seem to hear him. Instead, he ran faster. "Please, Ayanah!" Askee pleaded.It was no use. His grip on the thick hair was giving. Each movement of the buffalo below him pushed him further backward until he felt himself leaving the buffalo. In slow motion seconds seemed like minutes. He saw his buffalo disappearing. When he hit the ground, he turned to see twenty thousand hooves seeking to devour him. The thundering roar boomed in his ears.

Can we ever truly run from our past?Fifteen years ago, Detective Wes Raney was a New York City Narcotics Detective with a growing drug habit of his own. While working undercover, he made decisions that ultimately cost him not only his career, but also his family. Disgraced, Raney fled New York - but his past is finally catching up with him.For more than a decade, Raney has been living in exile, the sole murder detective covering a two-hundred mile stretch of desert in New Mexico. His solitude is his salvation - but it ends when a brutal drug deal gone wrong results in a triple murder. Staged in a locked underground bunker, the crime reawakens Raney's haunted and violent past.THE EXILED follows Raney in a brilliant dual narrative that takes the reader from the crime-ridden streets of New York City in the 1980s, when crack was king, to the vast, open spaces of the American west. In both places, the only sure thing is that the choices you make will haunt you somewhere down the line...