Dark Occult

You've never met a ghost hunter or demon slayer like John Thunstone. Defying the naysayers' vision of a pale basement-dwelling hobbyist, Thunstone is tall, broad-shouldered, athletic, and handsome. He likes to spend his evenings in nightclubs, holding court and charming women. But does he lack focus? No! Thunstone is also a serious scholar, deeply studied in the occult and dark arts, and he carries a blade of silver inscribed with the motto sic pereant omnes inimici tui, forged by Saint Dunstan, patron saint of silversmiths, and one of the few men the Devil himself feared.

Pid's Aunt Betti has been mysteriously committed to the Porirua Lunatic Hospital; it's up to Investigative Journalist Benton Bright and their Finnish friend Marcus to determine why. The Dark That Dwells Beneath Te Aro is a cosmic horror set in 1920s Wellington, New Zealand.

Damion Deadson was once a respected newspaper journalist before his sister went missing and his life went to hell. Saved by a demon succubus, Damion now runs Deadson Confidential, a website dedicated to exposing the city’s dark supernatural underbelly. But with exposure comes danger. An investigation into a demon serial killer has led Damion to a notorious tech billionaire who now wants Damion dead at any cost, and will stop at nothing until Damion and the secrets he holds are buried forever.

Wounded and war-weary, Frank Bishop returns to New York City to train a boy who could fulfill a 6,000-year old prophecy and save the world from Jessie and her plans for Armageddon. While Frank heals and begins the boy’s training, threats loom on two fronts in the battle against the Fallen. Jessie’s descent into darkness is complete, and her quest to free the King of the Fallen from the Second Death brings her to the desert of Arizona. There, one of the Fallen with the power to eat the souls of man was imprisoned centuries ago.

The time of the hunt is nigh.... Fiona Chapman was dead. However, though her heart still beat and she breathed oxygen, she was no longer like the rest of humanity. Fiona was now one of The Furious Host, a race of mythical spirits who, in Archetype Form, rage through the centuries hunting for innocent victims to slake their thirst for blood. However, Fiona's desire is different: she craves the destruction of the Host themselves.

Conor Night, the world's only necromancer, has finally learned what it means to be the world's only necromancer. It’s a lesson he wishes he had never received, because thanks to him an ancient wizard with an apocalyptic agenda is back in business, ready to finish cleaning house. Even worse? He’s the only one who can stop it. He’s been living on a roll of the dice for years, but the stakes have never been higher, and the outcome never so clear: To save the world, he has to die.

Frank Bishop has been at war with fallen angels since he was five years old. That's when they first tried to kill him. A group of supernatural warriors called the Watchers saved Frank that fateful day. They taught him how to be a powerful wizard and warrior. But nothing could prepare him for what Jessie and Arraziel have planned. Frank blurs the line between good and evil in his all-consuming quest to stop Jessie and the Fallen in book one of the dark urban fantasy series, The Second Death.

Hank's wife dies in a tragic car accident and he's left to raise his handicapped son alone. His in-laws invite him to move from San Francisco back to Cleveland, Ohio, where an abandoned observatory pulses with a mysterious energy that can bring the dead back to life. When Hank discovers the ancient secret of resurrection, he faces the most critical decision of his life - one with consequences for all of humanity.

When Cletus J. Diggs and his buddy Jasper decide to go fishing, Jasper tells him two fishermen they know saw a dinosaur in The Great Dismal Swamp, Cletus is ready to chock it up to shadows and too much beer. When he and Jasper are out fishing themselves and find a bass boat jammed nose first into the bottom of the Perquimans River with nothing left of the other two men but a boot with a leg protruding from it and one big-assed track in the mud, things get serious.

Representing the dark underbelly of Romanticism and beyond, these stories reach the shadowy corners of the human soul as seen through the writings of some of the most prominent authors of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Christmastide. A time of feasting and good cheer. Gifts, cards, and blazing holly logs. Snow falls while family and friends trim the tree and kiss under the mistletoe. But it isn’t always joyful. It’s the coldest time of year. The days are short, the nights long. Chilling myths lie concealed behind the raucous revelry...The ghoulish events in the frozen workhouse...The undead presence at the costumed ball...The pantomime that became a massacre...The winter goddess with the heart of ice...The thieves who woke the dark side of the festive spirit...

A beer run becomes an interdimensional excursion. Two men settle their differences after discovering an extraordinary secret in the wilderness. A woman faces the bureaucracy of a digital afterlife. A grieving man seeks to know where his wife was reincarnated. Strange lights in the sky transform the lives of a small town. God and the devil play billiards for people's souls. A teenage deity's science project sprouts a startling discovery. These and more dream-like detours into the surreal, interstitial, and inexplicable await within. Chock full of gooey, mind-bending goodness.

Last spring Claire's seemingly normal - if not totally screwed up - life was tossed on its head. For five years she'd been one of the damned - a human that knows the truth about the otherworldly among us. She'd worked for The Boss - the Demon King himself - as his administrative assistant, handling everything from early retirements, to Maintenance's incessant requests for dental. No one gets dental.

Ex-GI Will Gardestang just wanted to go to college on the GI Bill and get on with his life. After a chance meeting, he befriends Tommy Gatchell and Rico Challoner, two young men who share his love for philosophical debate, and soon all three participate in an ESP experiment. After Will and Rico display apparent psychic abilities, Rico begins to become panicky and in short order is killed before their eyes, seemingly long distance by his superiors in a devil-worshipping cult. Enraged over the death of their friend, Will and Tommy vow to track down the killers and unmask their diabolic plans.

From astronauts in deep space to the ghosts of the Civil War, New York Times best-selling author Alethea Kontis creates worlds of wonder and delight, of weirdness and despair, of whimsy and darkness. Here are 20 stories and poems that will transport you to the magical dangerous worlds you've always known should exist, but have never quite been able to find.

Join Bud Hutchins in an action-packed urban fantasy set in Chicago, home to the world's most notorious urban legends. A murder rocks Chicago Metro university. Maeve, a monk of the order of St. Michael, faces possible annihilation. A poltergeist wreaks havoc across the city. With the help of the brilliant Ivy, a doctoral candidate, Bud will need to employ science and the supernatural in his most harrowing adventure yet, The Elixir: A Bud Hutchins Thriller.

Lisa’s mother is dying. But Lisa doesn’t care.... Now in her early 40s, and with her life disintegrating around her, she’s been forced to return to her childhood home where the memories of her father and brother have long been repressed. When the Victorian villa across the road goes up for sale, Lisa is naturally curious. One old woman has owned the property her whole life, and Lisa has never been allowed to step into the grounds before. Now an odd young stranger invites her to explore the garden...but only after midnight.

August Swaine’s secret pursuit of sorcery has cost him - he’s down to his last few pennies. Agents of His Majesty scrutinize his every move, ready to jail him for practicing the unseen arts. Worse, a demon more powerful than any he’s ever faced stalks him through the shadowy streets of London. As Swaine untangles the mystery of a cursed book, a beautiful actress, and the wanton heir to a brilliant magician’s fortune, the key to all research comes tantalizingly within reach.

They say if one door shuts, another opens. No. Slam it closed, lock them both, and don’t touch anything. The door to the graveyard’s mausoleum won’t shut. It’s standing wide open in invitation to Paul, the dark unknown who wants Belle, vampire slayer and…uh, layer, dead. Because someone - or something - is helping him.

After her husband's death, Anne LaForet is alone to raise her young daughter in an area of the swamp that is too foul to grow anything. Anne is no criminal, but circumstances force her to resort to theft. When an encounter threatens to put her away for her crimes, Anne accidentally discovers that she also has another skill, one that helps women who can't conceive become pregnant.