Dark Horror

In the war-torn rubble of the human world, can a rebel elf and a lost dragon prince find love, or will a dark threat tear them and their world apart forever? A new land, a new court, a new king, but some things never change. Broken in all ways, Akiem fled his life as the amethyst prince only to land at the mercy of the beautiful but deadly diamond king, Luceran. Akiem knows dragons. He knows he’ll die today, tomorrow, whenever Luceran’s executioner brings down his axe, and maybe it’s all he deserves.

It is 1889 and The Scottish Play is coming home. But before the darling couple of London theatre, Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, take their acclaimed Macbeth to the Edinburgh stage terror treads the boards. A grisly message found smeared across the cobbles in blood, foretelling someone's demise. As the bloody prophecies continue to appear Edinburgh's own beloved pair - Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray and Inspector Ian Frey - enter the scene.

Take a seat in the darkest corner of the library and devour these short haunting tales. Welcome to the Dark Corner Universe. Here, there are tales of ghosts, serial killers, demons, wraiths, pirates and more. There is also a twist or two for the keenest listener amongst you.

"The Departed" by Clive Barker: On All Hallows' Eve, a dead and disembodied mother yearns to touch her young son one last time. But will making contact destroy them both? "Creature Feature" by Heather Graham: What could be better publicity for a horror convention than an honest-to-goodness curse? It's only after lights out that the hype - and the Jack the Ripper mannequin - starts to feel a little too real.

Out of the spotlight, in the darker corners of the studio back-lots, Hollywood hides a remarkable secret. Actor, or actress, set designer, electrician, best boy, or grip - in la-la land, it pays not to be human. Vampires, succubae, trolls, elementals, goblins - studios hire anyone and anything that can take direction, be discreet, and not eat the extras. (The less you know about your agent, the better.) Though only human, stunt-woman and struggling actress Lee Striga is a member of the legendary Katz Stunt Crew.

With visits from lingering spirits, telepathic whispers, and an uncanny ability to solve the unexplainable, Lance has spent the first 22 years of his life in his small hometown, wishing only to be normal. His mother is his most trusted confidant, and together they've survived as Lance comes to grips with his gifts, his burdens, and the unsettling knowledge of the darkness that lives among us.

One year ago, a young woman checked into a small bed-and-breakfast in the hills of West Virginia. She was never seen again... Tonight, the Rushmore Inn will host four new guests who bear striking similarities to the woman who disappeared. And like her, they will experience the most terrifying night of their lives. But this year will be different. This time the women are fighting back...

A family mysteriously murdered. A haunted farmhouse. A town rich with secrets. Still on the move, Lance Brody finds himself in the tiny town of Ripton’s Grove, living in a neglected farmhouse in which, six years earlier, Mark Benchley murdered his wife and teenage daughter before turning a shotgun on himself. But while the town has accepted the Benchley family's fate, it doesn’t take long for Lance to realize there might be much more to the night the Benchley family died, and the farmhouse itself, than anybody knows. Anybody alive, that is.

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.

Jane is haunted. Since she was a child, she has carried a ghost girl that feeds on the secrets and fears of everyone around her, whispering to Jane what they are thinking and feeling, even when she doesn't want to know. Henry, Jane's brother, is ridden by a genius ghost that forces him to build strange and dangerous machines. Their mother is possessed by a lonely spirit that burns anyone she touches. In Swine Hill, a place of defeat and depletion, there are more dead than living.

In the fourth installment of The Black Knight Chronicles, Jimmy Black is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day and a darned fine pity party, serving the finest alcohol, when a call from his not-quite-girlfriend-cop forces him to sober up and stare at jawbones. "Cold case" takes on a whole new meaning when vampire detectives risk life and limbs (literally) to connect a series of decades-old kidnappings in Charlotte with current missing persons cases. All clues lead through the veil of Faerieland to the legendary Goblin's Market, a magical bazaar where anything is available--for a price. The boys can barely stay out of trouble in Charlotte. As fresh meat at The Market, they'll be lucky to survive the day.

In The Dinosaur Tourist, Caitlín R. Kiernan’s 15th collection of short fiction, 19 tales of the unexpected and the uncanny explore that treacherous gulf between what we suppose the world to be and what might actually be waiting out beyond the edges of our day-to-day experience. A mirror may be a window into another time. A cat may be our salvation. Your lover may be a fabulous being. And a hitchhiker may turn out to be anyone at all.

In a city of majesty and brutality, of warring races and fragile alliances, a sacred mermaid has been brutally murdered. An abomination, a soulless Arukh is summoned to hunt the killer. As the world around the Arukh drifts into war and madness, her search for justice leads her on a journey to discover redemption and even beauty in the midst of chaos.

فتاة يتيمة ومحاسب عقيم وممرض فاسد، هؤلاء بعض ساكني الحارة الذين رأوا واقعة قتل ذلك الدرويش إلّا أن البلطجي هددهم واستطاع إخراسهم كأن لم تحدث الجريمة أمامهم، غيرأن صمتهم هذا جلب عليهم مالم يكن يتخيلوا أن يروه في أسوأ كوابيسهم... لقد رفع الستار عن الجانب المظلم من نفسياتهم الخربة، وشاهدواخلفها ما تقشعر منه الأبدان عقابًا لهم على ماضيهم الأسود وأيضا عقابا لشيطانهم الأخرس عندما سكتوا عن الحق.!!

Against a backdrop of moonlit hollers and ancient superstitions, the sheriff and his cousins, accompanied by both deputies and criminals, wage a desperate battle for the survival of their town. As the creature’s power grows, and the community descends into chaos, the Galloglys must confront their own demons and find the strength to face the unimaginable.

There's no escaping a Reaper. I'm an elite assassin, part of a brotherhood that only answers to Death. And when Death says your time is up, I'm coming for you.... I'm a warrior. My unbreakable determination, my backbone of steel define me. As a Reaper who does Death's bidding, weakness is a word I don't understand. Until a stunning librarian stirs emotions deep within me I've never felt before. Her soft curves blunt the sharp edges of my soul, crushing my defenses - yet make me stronger.

With heart-stopping stories by Zane, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, Joy M. Copeland, Robert Fleming, Terence Taylor, Francine Lewis, Brandon Massey, and 12 other established or up-and-coming writers, Dark Dreams is a must-have contemporary anthology for fans of the supernatural.

Dustin Graves has three days to live. The darkling mage has found himself in the company of scoundrels. Maybe that’s what Dustin deserves: a werewolf, a vampire, and a talking sword for teammates, and a rogue sorcerer as his mentor and master. But a doomsday cult has surfaced. Twelve mutilated bodies are found drowned in blood and in wine. The massacre stinks of both the divine and the supernatural. Worst of all, an ancient god sends Dust on a lethal mission, one he must complete in three days. The reward? He gets to live. Well...maybe.

The Labyrinth - an interdimensional construct that binds all of reality together. Now, the Labyrinth is threatened. A group of malevolent cosmic entities, known as The Thirteen, have been loosed upon the universe. Ob, Leviathan, Behemoth, Nodens, Meeble, Shtar, Kandara and the rest of their kind have one goal: The complete destruction of all Creation. Seven unlikely warriors from across time and space have been called upon to stop them. If they fail, reality itself will crumble. And the collapse has already begun.

First published in the US in 1988 and in the UK in 1990, The Wine-Dark Sea contains eight unsettling stories that explore protagonists' fears and desires, at once illogical and terrifying, and culminate in a disturbing and enigmatic ending. Aickman's "strange stories" (his preferred term for them) are a subtle exploration of psychological displacement and paranoia; his characters ordinary people that are gradually drawn into the darker recesses of their own minds. For fans of the horror genre, Robert Aickman is a must read.