Dark Horror

Captain Morgan Starling is a survivor, and the last remnant of her crew. Morgan fights for every scrap of air, stranded in the bowels of her derelict ship. When she is picked up by an alien starship, Morgan finds herself a prisoner of war, forced to excavate an ancient ruin. She was not alone, and the nightmare that killed her crew is getting ready to begin its massacre again. As something awakes from within the earth, ancient enemies threaten to tear the world apart. Morgan and her fellow prisoners must try and escape amongst this maelstrom of horror.

Eight stories of literary dark fiction from a master storyteller. Exploring the shadow side of love, these are tales of grief, obsession, control. Intricate examinations of trauma and tragedy in raw, poetic prose. In these narratives, a woman imagines horrific scenarios whilst caring for her infant niece; online posts chronicle a cancer diagnosis; a couple in the park with their small child encounter a stranger with horrific consequences; a toxic relationship reaches a terrifying resolution . . .

Betrayed by those she trusted, penniless and alone, Darcie Finch is forced to accept a position no one else dares as assistant to dangerously attractive Dr. Damien Cole. Ignoring the whispered warnings and rumors he's a man to fear, she takes her position at his eerie estate, where she quickly discovers nothing is at it seems, least of all her handsome and brooding employer. As Darcie struggles with her fierce attraction to Damien, she must also deal with the blood, the disappearances...and the murders.

Some describe it as the town at the edge of the world. When Melody and Michael Devereux come to Collinsport on their honeymoon, they don't know the secrets that are hidden behind closed doors. But those secrets will be unearthed when an innocent is viciously murdered. Collinsport will be a town divided. One woman's rise to power will lead to further death and destruction. Families will be ripped apart. Blood will be spilt. And the dark forces that wait in the shadows will wait no more.

A freak blizzard. A roadside motel. A past that refuses to die. When the snowstorm arrives - the one that no weatherman had forecast - Lance Brody is walking along a desolate road in the middle of nowhere. On the brink of freezing, he finally stumbles across the small roadside motel. Thus starts the longest night of Lance Brody’s life. One full of gruesome deaths, spirits with cryptic messages, whirlwind visions from the past, and the terror-inducing realization that the motel is refusing to let Lance leave until he’s finished what it wants him to.

There is something stalking the dream world. While people are sleeping, and at their most vulnerable, it infiltrates their minds and drives them to do terrible things. Its next target is a young boy who quickly becomes the unwilling vessel of an unstoppable demonic force. His family cannot save him. How can you fight against something that only exists in your head? Their only hope is the Night Warriors, conquerors of dreams. But demons like this have power far beyond what they have seen before, and it is about to erupt from the world of dreams into the waking world.

Nikolai is a dragon shapeshifter who knows well the meaning of loss. Orphaned and raised to be a Dragon King, he never accepts defeat. Now, Nikolai prefers his solitude...until a beautiful, irresistible woman calls upon him for help - and Nikolai's whole world goes up in flames. Ever since MI5 agent Esther woke to discover her mind taken over with magic, she feels like a stranger to herself. She looks to a notorious dragon, one who has the power to help her find her memory. But as she and Nikolai come closer to discovering what really happened to her, a dangerous passion ignites between them.

Jacob Reese enjoys the quiet life, running a coffee shop and renting out his cottage in The Hollows, Vermont. But the calm is shattered when a woman who looks eerily similar to his ex-girlfriend Laura turns up to stay in the cottage, and leaves a mysterious note in the guest book. Now Jacob’s seeing Laura everywhere - a glimpse of her face across the street, her music box left outside his house, a gift he gave her years before hanging from the trees. But it can’t be Laura. Because Laura’s dead.

When Petra gets an invitation from an old school friend to make up a foursome on a sunshine break to the Mediterranean, she grasps it. Anything to escape the messy break-up that’s left her questioning her whole life at age 25. But the sun doesn’t shine inside the Rock of Gibraltar. A local couple offers them a late-night tour of the tunnels, but the adventure turns sour when they witness a crime and must run for their lives. Quickly divided and lost, confusion reigns and conflicts rise as the dark labyrinth holds them hostage, death lurking at every turn.

Villejeune, Florida. A secluded little town at the edge of a vast, eerie swamp. Far from prying eyes. Far from the laws of civilization. Here, folks live by their own rules - dark rites of altars and infants, candles and blood. Years ago, the Andersons left town with a dream. Now, they are back. To live out a nightmare. Something has been waiting for them. Something unspeakably evil. It feeds on the young and the innocent. Soon, it will draw their teenage daughter into its unholy embrace....

In this new collection, C.L. Phillips delves into the nature of relationships. A family of magic users faces their past. A witch tries to understand her executioners. A father and son share a traumatic bonding experience. A man makes his way home, crossing a strange, dark land while searching for the love he left behind.

Jayce's 20-year-old daughter, Emory, is missing, lost in a dark, dangerous realm called Shadow that exists alongside our own reality. An enigmatic woman named Nicola guides Jayce through this bizarre world, and together, they search for Emory, facing deadly dog-eaters, crazed killers, homicidal sex toys, and - worst of all - a monstrous being known as the Harvest Man. But no matter what Shadow throws at him, Jayce won’t stop. He'll do whatever it takes to find his daughter, even if it means becoming a worse monster than the things that are trying to stop him.

A forgotten beach town. A shocking number of suicides. And a mysterious group of beautiful young women with the darkest of secrets. Lance Brody has arrived at Sugar Beach, and within minutes he realizes there’s something terribly wrong. Strangers are saying the oddest things to him, and a sense of sadness seems to linger in the air. He learns of the town’s horrible nickname - Suicide Beach - and meets one of the many girls who spend their days selling cold sodas from coolers on the sidewalks. She doesn’t say much, but in her eyes all Lance can see is fear.

This is a pastiche of a typical story from a 1930s pulp magazine. Music and effects were written and performed by Arthur Pryor and Bob Schaller.

Half-werewolf, half-Aedh Risa Jones is beginning to believe that the only way to find the keys she’s been searching for and save her friends is by dying. And when Wolfgang Schmidt, the lover of her boss at the vampire council, is found dead, her worst fears are confirmed. With the first portal of hell permanently open, the energies of the dark path are leaching into the world. Searching for Schmidt’s killer and the keys at the same time, Risa and reaper Azriel track a shape-shifting spider spirit capable of changing her form into a seductive woman. But when they finally find the second key, the Aedh Lucian snatches it and disappears.

I wasn’t supposed to be at Olympus that night. And I definitely wasn’t supposed to witness a murder - or be caught by the killers. Hades, Apollo, and Ares run the mysterious masked fight club, and they wield more power in this town than I could dream of holding. They destroy my life with one decree: Kora Sinclair doesn’t exist. Sterling Falls was my chance to start over, but one night derails everything. My scholarship, my job - gone. I could run home, but giving up my dreams isn’t an option. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Ruby Malone Gutierrez is running away, although she won't admit that to herself. Suffering from hearing loss after an illness, the former music teacher wants to find a way to retain her independence, but only a wealthy relative offers any hope of that. Put to work in her aunt Nova's Kingsport dance hall, Ruby stumbles upon a mystery when her new hearing aids begin picking up conversations that no one else can hear. As Christmas draws closer, Ruby realizes the voice comes from a hunted man lost in time.

When Aideen Darker realizes she stands before a recently murdered man with wads of cash on him, she has two options. Call the police, or pocket the money and dispose of the body—she chose the wrong option!

On her way to a speaking engagement, bestselling novelist Eli Grey gets into a cab and accepts a drink from the driver, trusting that everything is fine. She wakes up chained in the stranger’s basement. With no close family or friends expecting her to check in, Eli knows she needs to save herself. She soon realizes that her abduction wasn’t random, and though she thinks she might recognize her captor, she can’t figure out what he wants. Her only clues are that he’s very familiar with her books and deeply invested in the fantastical world she creates.

The mysterious disappearance of a gifted student at Miskatonic University spurs his troubled roommate, Elliot Raslo, into an investigation of his own. But Elliot already struggles against the maddening allure of a ceaseless chant that only he can hear. When Elliot's search converges with that of a Greenland Inuk's hunt for a stolen relic, they are left with yet more questions. Could there be a connection between Elliot's litany and the broken stone stele covered in antediluvian writings that had obsessed his friend?