Dark Supernatural

The eldest son in a family of three boys, Aricles had no desire to be a soldier, even though his fighting skills were among the best in the world. He was more than content on his small Atlantean farm, living a quiet, uneventful life. But when his brother is determined to don a soldier's uniform, Aricles joins him with a promise to their father to bring his brother home in one piece. What he never counts on is how much their new lives will forever change them or what the risk of a forbidden love will ultimately cost him.

Being a royal should make my life easier, but it only compounds my problems. When my father, the new King of Valora, succeeded the beloved King Tiberius, many of his subjects believed he killed my uncle just to gain the throne. His new policies only make the people hate him more. Just my luck, they transfer their loathing onto me. Even my best friend and my boyfriend aren't enough of a buffer, and I'm continually fending off verbal, and sometimes physical, attacks. That's when my powers start growing...

Beneath the streets of York, the goblin market calls to the Wickett women—the family of witches that tends to its victims. For generations, they have defended the old cobblestone streets with their magic. Knowing the dangers, they never entered the market—until May Wickett fell for a goblin girl, accepted her invitation, and became inextricably tied to the world her family tried to protect her from. The market learned her name, and even when she and her sister left York for Boston to escape it, the goblins remembered.

Cassel always thought he was an ordinary guy, until he realized his memories were being manipulated by his brothers. Now he knows the truth - he’s the most powerful curse worker around. A touch of his hand can transform anything - or anyone - into something else. That was how Lila, the girl he loved, became a white cat. Cassel was tricked into thinking he killed her, when actually he tried to save her. Now that she’s human again, he should be overjoyed. Trouble is, Lila’s been cursed to love him. And if Lila’s love is as phony as Cassel’s made-up memories, then he can’t believe anything she says or does.

In 1906, a demon was unearthed in Panama and confined to a secret government testing facility. A hundred years later, Satan escaped.

It is the 45th year of the Kurian Order. Lt. David Valentine is a proud member of the Wolves, an elite fighting force dedicated to regaining control of Earth. But a disastrous battle against the enemy has left more than half of his company wounded or dead - and Valentine facing a court-martial. Resigning his position, Valentine accepts an offer to become a Cat, one of the stealthy warriors trained to spy on - and go toe-to-toe against - the Reapers.

Stranded on a desert island, a young man yearns for objects from his past. A local from a small coastal town in England is found dead as the tide goes out. A Norwegian whaling ship is stranded in the Arctic, its crew threatened by mysterious forces. In the nineteenth century, a ship drifts in becalmed waters in the Indian Ocean, those on it haunted by their evil deeds. A surfer turned diver discovers there are things worse than drowning under the sea. Something from the sea is creating monsters on land.

Every other princess prepares to rule her kingdom after her father's death. Me? I have to get ready to rule all underwater kingdoms - after killing my father. I already fulfilled the prophecy once. Kind of. I have no interest in killing again. But no one asked what I want. It's this stupid Queen Sirena prophecy. My father - my real, biological father - is obsessed. And he's the king, so he gets what he wants. Namely me, embracing a destiny I fear.

In a world where magic is illegal, Cassel Sharpe has the most deadly ability of all: With one touch, he can transform any object - including a person - into something else entirely. And that makes him a wanted man. The Feds are willing to forgive all his past crimes if he’ll only leave his con-artist family behind and go straight. But why does going straight feel so crooked? For one thing, it means being on the opposite side of the law from Lila, the girl he loves.

I had one job - kill the king, and I failed. I’d once thought ending King Zephyr’s reign would be enough for me to move beyond my past, but the longer I’m within the fae realm, the more I realize nothing is as simple as I’d hoped. My first attempt to take down the castle might have been unsuccessful, but I refuse to accept defeat. The only problem...sea creatures and unknown fae insist on getting in the way, and my path back to the castle proves harder than I like.

Magiere has earned a reputation as the most formidable vampire slayer in the land. Villagers far and wide welcome her with both awe and disdain - grateful to her for ridding their towns of the undead menace, but finding themselves made poorer for their salvation. Magiere knows she's dealing with simple folk, who only wish to have their superstitions silenced, and sees nothing wrong with exploiting them for profit.

The first story ever told left a scar on the skin of the universe, with its characters doomed to an endless cycle of reincarnation and death. Trapped by his enemies, Daniel Faust - magician, mobster, and newly-minted knight of hell - has been cast in the role of the eternal Thief. Now, the story is dead-set on writing his final chapter, the one that ends with a knife in his back. The curse can’t be broken without tracking down the original Thief. The truth is buried beneath the legacy of a long-dead stage magician and a cache of occult relics from the 1940s.

Blasphemy is a victimless crime...Callie Penrose has taken over Castle Dracula all for herself, finally feeling like she has time to take a breath and relax. But the forces of Heaven and Hell have other plans. Callie quickly learns that removing her mother’s protection of binding Excalibur to her soul had very serious consequences. Namely, that it unleashed the Seven Deadly Sins on Kansas City. But they aren’t in town for mayhem - not directly. They came for a wedding. And a very dark prophecy that could bring the age-old Angel War to the streets of the City of Fountains.

Alex has her hands full with a Freshborn Gabe. His memories are gone, and his squeamish demeanor makes her want to shove him back into the Sulfur Pools. Gabe questions whether he’s better off without his memories when a secret about Alex is uncovered, putting their partnership at risk. As if that weren't complicated enough, Gabe faces an impossible choice. Should he go against Judas’s direct orders and risk losing himself to powers so dark that Heaven and Hell combined cannot stand against them?

Adria, wolf changeling and resilient soldier, has made a break with the past-one as unpredictable in love as it was in war. Now comes a new territory, and a devastating new complication: Riaz, a SnowDancer lieutenant already sworn to a desperate woman who belongs to another.For Riaz, the primal attraction he feels for Adria is a staggering betrayal. For Adria, his dangerous lone wolf appeal is beyond sexual. It consumes her. It terrifies her. It threatens to undermine everything she has built of her new life.

Magiere the dhampir and her partner, the half-elf Leesil, are on a journey to uncover the secrets of their mysterious pasts. But first their expertise as vampire hunters is required on behalf of a small village being tormented by a creature of unlimited and unimaginable power.

A year ago, Cal Thompson was a college freshman more interested in meeting girls and partying than in attending biology class. Now, after a fateful encounter with a mysterious woman named Morgan, biology has become, literally, Cal's life. Cal was infected by a parasite that has a truly horrifying effect on its host. Cal himself is a carrier, unchanged by the parasite, but he's infected the girlfriends he's had since Morgan. All three have turned into the ravening ghouls Cal calls Peeps. The rest of us know them as vampires.

Fierce and ambitious, Aina Solís as sharp as her blade and as mysterious as the blood magic she protects. After the murder of her parents, Aina takes a job as an assassin to survive and finds a new family in those like her: the unwanted and forgotten. Her boss is brutal and cold, with a questionable sense of morality, but he provides a place for people with nowhere else to go. And makes sure they stay there.

But I’m not your average witch. I’m a Dark witch, and I loooove to hunt and kill demons with good old-fashioned magic. All is well until a human girl is murdered and her soul taken by a Greater demon. It gets worse. Human bodies are dropping like flies and I have no choice but to team up with Logan, a sexy as sin angel-born warrior to solve the case. Trouble is, everyone knows angel-borns hate Dark witches. I can’t trust him. But I don’t have a choice. I’m going to solve these murders, even if the angel-born hates me, and even if the heat between us is irresistible.

The supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real . . . Such tales of the dark and the unknown have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while inventing imaginative new ways to unsettle us. Chosen from a wide variety of venues, these stories are as eclectic and varied as shadows.