Dark Occult

Magic always comes with a price. This is the lesson Alex Hendricks, a young practitioner, learns when she is forced to confront a terrifying entity set on claiming her soul for his own. Secrets from her past are revealed, and she must decide whether to meet the entity's demands or sacrifice herself, allowing him to end her life and condemn her to eternal torment. This short tale follows Alex on her journey over the course of two days time as she battles supernatural forces and comes into her own power. But, will it be enough to save her life and retain command of her own soul?

Paul Mahan escaped the terrifying evil that dwelled in the Rookwood Apartments. But others have not been so lucky. Young Ella Cotter, an innocent child, finds herself tormented by a ghost Paul unwittingly freed when he escaped the building's haunted grounds. As Paul attempts to use hypnosis to separate the child from the tortured entity that clings to her soul, blood runs in the streets.

Everyone knows Jaxon Slater. He's the life-of-the-party guy. He's the fun guy we want to invite to our outdoor barbeques but not to marry our daughters. He is our nephew, the next-door neighbor who drinks too much, a friend of a friend that overdosed on heroin. He's the class clown in high school that was always in trouble from drinking and driving.

Reverend Carpenter only wanted to help his congregation. But deep inside, he knew he was failing, losing his faith...until the night he stumbled into a tiny curio shop. There he met a strange old man who read his fortune in the Tarot, and who gave him his one true card of power - the power to heal. Now every man, woman, and child in Corona City can be “saved” by his touch. The deck is stacked…against their souls.

This shivering tale chronicles the gruesome murders of seven women suspected of dabbling in witchcraft back in 1901, triggering a terrible curse on the dwellers of the quiet town of Swallowfield. A treacherous bargain was struck with the devil himself for the women to return from their graves years later to unleash unspeakable evil and vengeance on the perpetrators of the homicides, their offspring, and anyone daring to get in their way.

Some families hand down wealth through generations; some hand down wisdom. Some families, whether they want to or not, hand down the secret burdens they carry and the dangerous debts they owe. Lissa Nevsky's grandmother leaves her a big, empty house and a legacy of magic: folk magic, old magic, brought with Baba when she fled the Gulag. In the wake of her passing, the Russian community of Toronto will depend on Lissa now to give them their remedies and be their koldun'ia.

After discovering an army of rogue vampires hiding in a network of secretive caves beneath Darkhaven, Ava López finds herself trapped by the sun with an enemy who bears a striking resemblance to someone she believed was lost forever. The longer Ava is imprisoned with the mysterious newcomer and his legion of undead, the more she questions everything the hunters have taught her. She fears the worst - that they too have lied to her. Out of allies and losing hope, Ava is forced to turn to a very unlikely source for help. A human.

Karen and Joel are not the only ones inhabiting Joel's house. An unknown evil lurks within, and it's determined to rid itself of Karen, the troublesome new roommate. Stalked through the night by an ancient assailant, Karen must shift her focus. It's no longer enough simply to unravel the house's mysteries. Now, she must worry about making it out alive....

He's a kidnapper. An agent of the Council...and her mate. When strong-willed, courageous Nicole Demakis sacrificed herself for her friend and rode away with Aaron Katsaros, a known assassin, she had no idea how much it would change the course of her life. Aaron, the sexy, brooding leopard, is destined to be hers, but the Council may have other plans for them. It's up to Nicole to show the leopard that he can change his spots and succumb to his deepest and most yearning desires.

Valerie Randolf is a witch and an outcast in the small town of Junction. Valerie fights Colton Collins, the sheriff's son and class bully, only to be defeated and forced into silence. Lucky to be alive, she leaves Junction to start a new life. Ten years later, a private investigator tells Valerie that her sister, Jodie, has gone missing, and Colton is the main suspect. Valerie recruits the help of other occultists to lift her curse save her sister before it's too late.

In Turn Up the Sun, Hazard, the eccentric drug dealer from Criterium, is horrified to discover he has a doppelganger who appears at the scene of a grisly murder. In Stridor, a pediatrician is not only haunted by her mistakes, but stalked by them. In Sidewinder, a young musician receives a custom, otherworldly guitar pedal.

The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, but even the light can't keep away all that goes bump in the night. From rituals and witches to summer slasher and sunny horror, this anthology has it all.

Accidents happen - sometimes. But sometimes accidents are planned. Somebody wanted Jenny Garrett dead, and now Detective Rick Walker has to find out who and why. But Jenny can't help with the investigation. Jenny's memory of the accident, and the weeks preceding it, are gone. Yet somehow Rick has to get to the truth before the killer tries again.

It's a nice house on a country road. Jack and Erika Harris expect to be happy there. It doesn't matter that they're living in a deserted suburb where, years ago, murders and mutilations destroyed the residents. It doesn't matter...until those that caused the deaths come back - those that sprang from the earth. Those that need. Those that are not human. The Harris's nice house stands between them and what they must have. Nothing has ever mattered more.

When a sheriff and his deputies discover half-eaten farm animals, a headless teenage girl, and the sudden disappearance of a 10-year-old boy who then mysteriously reappears happy, healthy, and with no memory of his ordeal, dangerous secrets are about to unfold.

Having survived the best efforts of the Dark Angels to kill him, Marley Fox is conscripted into the British army along with his companion, James Finnegan. The two are sent to South Africa to fight in the war against the Boers, the brutality of which swallows them up as they are thrown into battle after battle. In the midst of the war, the Dark Angels send supernatural forces against them, and old enemies from England suddenly appear and do their best to finish off the pair.

Someone or something knows that I'm looking into my brother's death, and now I've become the next target on their list. Death and danger have never frightened me before, but then again, I never imagined there was anything in existence that my powers wouldn't work on. Apparently, I was wrong. Dwade, Bron, and Lucian want me to stop this search. They want me to be safe more than they want the truth. But they should know me better than that; dark fae aren't exactly known for turning the other cheek.

On the night of his 60th birthday, Sheriff John Mucklow’s wife dies in a car accident. He thought her death was the worst thing to ever happen to him. He was wrong. Seeking a diversion from his grief, John throws himself into investigating the recent disappearance of a local teenager. After discovering a video depicting a bizarre murder with occult undertones, John becomes obsessed with catching the killer.

East St. Louis deputy Patrick O’Shea is tired of living in the line of fire. So when he gets a chance to transfer to his wife’s small hometown, he doesn’t hesitate to load up the moving van. But his family’s bags are barely unpacked before their newfound peace and quiet shatters in a surge of demonic voices. The deputy has faced his fair share of evil, but nothing quite like this. Normally the first into the fray, he worries they’ve unearthed a force not even his special training and inner-city experience can combat.

How could Sadie have lived so long in this town without knowing it was harboring a very old secret? The dark side of the woods was a place she walked by nearly every single day and it seemed perfectly normal. But one day, she realized that nothing that walked in there walked back out. Curses and wolves are somehow entangled in Sadie's new romance, and a gruesome transformation threatens to change everything she has ever known. She's the only one who can save her town, her love, and herself. It has to end where it started, in the center of the forest.