Dark Horror

Something is wrong with Valerie Darkmore. She may have made it through her initiation into the Marionettes, but she’s quickly learning that was only the beginning. Everything she used to know has changed, including maybe herself. She can’t count on her partnership with a dangerous vampire prince to be enough to save her.

While sheltered in the clan's stronghold, Syssi is unaware that Kian and Amanda are not human, and neither are the supposedly religious fanatics that are after her. She feels a powerful connection to Kian, and as he introduces her to a world of pleasure she never dared imagine, his dominant sexuality is a revelation. Considering that she's completely out of her element, Syssi feels comfortable and safe letting go with him. That is, until she begins to suspect that all is not as it seems.

Darkness, both literal and psychological, holds its own unique fascination. Despite our fears, or perhaps because of them, listeners have always been drawn to tales of death, terror, madness, and the supernatural, and no more so than today when a wildly imaginative new generation of dark dreamers is carrying on in the tradition of Poe and Lovecraft and King, crafting exquisitely disturbing literary nightmares that gaze without flinching into the abyss - and linger in the mind long after.

All the official reports say they are dead—extinct since the late ’80s, when a fed named Arkeley nailed the last vampire in a fight that nearly killed him. But Arkeley knows what most people don’t: there is one left. In an abandoned asylum she is rotting, plotting, and biding her time in a way that only the undead can. When state trooper Laura Caxton calls the FBI looking for help in the middle of the night, it is Arkeley who gets the assignment.

At the heart of these stories, as with all the best of Lovecraft’s work, is the belief that the Earth was once inhabited by powerful and evil gods, just waiting for the chance to recolonise their planet. Cthulhu is one such god, lurking deep beneath the sea until called into being by cult followers who – like all humans – know not what they do.

Wounds is a confounding, strange, and utterly entrancing collection of six stories, including one new novella from Shirley Jackson Award-winning author Nathan Ballingrud. From the eerie dread descending upon a New Orleans dive bartender after a cell phone is left behind in a rollicking bar fight in The Visible Filth to the search for the map of hell in “The Butcher’s Table”, Ballingrud’s beautifully crafted stories are riveting in their quietly terrifying depictions of the murky line between the known and the unknown.

When Kian confesses his true nature, Syssi is not as much shocked by the revelation as she is wounded by what she perceives as his callous plans for her. If she doesn't turn, he'd be forced to erase her memories and let her go. His family's safety demands secrecy - no one in the mortal world is allowed to know that immortals exist. Resigned to the cruel reality, Syssi is determined to enjoy what little time she has with Kian, one day at a time.

Johannes Cabal is a necromancer - and he's slightly infamous. Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day: And Other Tales of the Necromancer features seven of Cabal's most frightening adventures, including "Exeunt Demon King", "The Ereshkigal Working", "Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day", and more. Also included is an original introduction written and read by the author.

In this enthralling third novel in the God's Lions series, Cardinal Leopold Amodeo is once again teamed with a group of scientists and archaeologists as they are led to the inescapable conclusion that a very real evil has arrived in the world. Based on recently declassified documents and real-life technological breakthroughs, John Lyman takes listeners on a wild ride into a future that is already here, where technology takes flight in the hands of one who has vowed to destroy mankind.

In the wake of a massacre, Ella, Bray, and William flee into the wild, hoping to escape the brutal vengeance of an unforgiving leader. In Brighton, political and economic tensions boil. Famine is approaching. The monsters are amassing. And a costly decision must be made, one that will threaten the lives of humanity's last survivors...

Hundreds of thousands of miles away on the dark side of the moon, the Russian lunar base has self-destructed - all personnel are dead, except one. Olga Sobakin, the lone survivor, seeks refuge at the rival American base. Olga tells the Americans her base was attacked by a horrifying and nightmarish creature - the pattern was the same - people vanished, leaving nothing behind but shredded clothing and an unidentifiable waste product. The Americans are sceptical of her story at first, but then people begin to disappear.

Evil stirs in Briardark, an ancient forest that looms over the Shyishan village of Felstein, where whispers abound of the spectres and brutes that lurk amongst the trees. One man keeps these perils at bay—Samuel Helmgaart, the revered beasthunter of Felstein—but when tragedy strikes his family, an unknowable foe is unleashed, one that stalks the villagers and turns neighbour against neighbour. Soon, a witch hunt ensues, and in the midst of his own sorrow Samuel’s daughter, Cicely, struggles with grief that has twisted into something dark.

From paranormal plots to stories of the supernatural, tales of the unfamiliar have always fascinated us humans. To keep the tradition alive, fantasy aficionado Paula Guran has gathered the most delightfully disturbing work from some of today's finest writers of the fantastique! No two mysterious shadows are alike, and the same can be said for the books in this series. The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume 4 contains more than twenty stories. Listener beware and indulge if you dare, because these chilling tales are sure to spook and surprise!

The Nameless Dark debuts a major new voice in contemporary weird fiction. Within these minutes, you'll find whispers of the familiar ghosts of the classic pulps - Lovecraft, Bradbury, Smith - blended with Grau's uniquely macabre, witty storytelling, securing his place at the table amid this current Renaissance of literary horror.

For more than ten years, Diablo has been one of PC gaming’s iconic and blockbuster franchises, with millions of players experiencing to this day all the adventure and terror in the world of Sanctuary. Now, to tie-in with the long-awaited release of Blizzard Entertainment’s all-new game, Diablo III, the original novel Deckard Cain will bridge the untold story of one of Diablo’s most popular characters.

Johannes Cabal, a necromancer of some little infamy, has come into possession of a vital clue that may lead him to his ultimate goal: a cure for death. The path is vague, however, and certainly treacherous as it takes him into strange territories that, quite literally, no one has ever seen before. The task is too dangerous to venture upon alone, so he must seek assistance - comrades for the coming travails.

Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father's head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his black skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their trained cops. But when he delivers an occult page to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic.

Despite dreams of adventures far beyond the Salann shores, seventeen-year-old Verity Thaumas has remained at her family’s estate, Highmoor, with her older sister Camille, while their sisters have scattered across Arcannia. When their sister Mercy sends word that the Duchess of Bloem—wife of a celebrated botanist—is interested in having Verity paint a portrait of her son, Alexander, Verity jumps at the chance, but Camille won’t allow it. Forced to reveal the secret she’s kept for years, Camille tells Verity the truth one day: Verity is still seeing ghosts, she just doesn’t know it.

A great imagination makes for terrific ghost stories - stories that go beyond the tapping on the doors in the middle of a night or a whistling thrush or even a squeaky swing in the wind. This is a collection of some such horror stories selected and compiled by Ruskin Bond that will send shivers down your spine.

Horst, the most affable vampire one is ever likely to meet, is resurrected by an occult conspiracy that wants him as a general in a monstrous army. Their plan is to create a country of horrors, a supernatural homeland. As Horst sees the lengths to which they are prepared to go and the evil they cultivate, he realizes that he cannot fight them alone. What he really needs on his side is a sarcastic, amoral, heavily armed necromancer.