Fantasy Patrick

From the critically acclaimed author of Sea of Rust and Queen of the Dark Things comes a hair-raising collection of short fiction that illuminates the strange, humorous, fantastical, and downright diabolical that tantalize and terrorize us: demons, monsters, zombie dinosaurs, and Death itself.

Savid DelaCrotia, leader of Princess Brona’s Shadows, finds himself facing multiple threats to the Kingdom of Montshire. The return of his horrifically changed friend and battle buddy, Ash Newberry, is almost the least of his worries as a traitor is revealed close to home just as a conspiracy on Montshire’s valuable coastline leads him far from Haven. Once again Savid finds himself a vulnerable game piece in the deadly politics of the king’s court at the worst possible time.

It starts as a whisper, barely audible. Rumors. Paranoia. Conspiracy theories. Subterfuge. Like lightning, the plague moves across the globe, leaving few alive. But the end is only the beginning. Primarily set in Memphis, four loosely-connected strangers, caught up in their lives, find their worlds annihilated by the swiftly-moving plague. Alex Connelly is a wealthy young executive. Kirk Foster is a self-absorbed aging gay man. Meredith Brinkley's ongoing war with breast cancer takes a turn for the worse. Logan King is a closeted baseball jock.

When the Inkolana Cartel's experimental computer network comes under attack, they give white-hat hacker Clay Knight two hours to fix the problem. If he succeeds, he'll be rich beyond his wildest dreams. If he fails, he's a dead man. But when Clay hacks the hackers, he stumbles into an ancient ritual that summons him to the dusty, forgotten world of Soketra...Clay finds dungeons, monsters, and a fierce pride of beautiful cat women who believe he is the reincarnation of the ancient Dungeon Lord Rathokhetra. Listen to find out more.

Nyx is the ruler of the banished Angels. When her flock returns home, she's stuck on Earth with none other than the Son of God. Surprisingly, God's son tells her he was tricked into sacrificing himself for a cause he doesn't believe in - mankind's redemption. As his mortal body dies, the Son of God offers the Queen of Hell a paradise on Earth if she completes a single mission: helping him obliterate humanity.

So, our mission on an alien planet fell apart before it even got started. Great. Now I’m the only surviving military crew member, leading a gaggle of civilian women in unfamiliar terrain. But it turns out one soldier isn’t enough to protect them from the monsters of this planet. Soon enough we’re all scooped up by a bunch of alien barbarian warriors with tails. When I meet their huge, red-eyed leader, he wraps his claws around my throat and looks like he wants to crush me. I can only think of one name for him: The Enemy.

After his mom died from cancer, Wash gave up his girlfriend and his dream of being a career Army officer to stay home and take care of his father, a former Special Forces soldier stricken with PTSD. Wash works three jobs just to pay the bills, and one of them is at the ranch of the man who’s engaged to his exgirlfriend, Jimmy Bonner. Sound rough? He thought so too … until a portal to a hell-world of giant, insectoid aliens opens behind the ranch house, sucking Wash and Jimmy into the nightmare domain of the Hive Mind.

The Whippet Hotel is a strange place full of strange and mysterious people. Each floor has its own quirks and secrets. Leo should know most of them - he is the maintenance man's son, after all. But a whole lot more mystery gets thrown his way when a series of cryptic boxes are left for him... boxes that lead him to hidden floors, strange puzzles, and unexpected alliances. Leo had better be quick on his feet, because the fate of the building he loves is at stake... and so is Leo's own future!

For seven months the Maxwell family and their friends, both old and new, have fought to survive in the zombie apocalypse after the ImDED2 virus ended 90 percent of human life. Ryan Maxwell and Nick Jones embarked on a successful cross-country trek to Texas in search of Ryan’s parents, Owen and Leah Maxwell. Along the way, they encountered cannibals in St. Louis, Missouri, Texas Rangers in the Lone Star State, and a king in Memphis, Tennessee.

Aoth and the Brotherhood of the Griffon have succeeded in rescuing Tchazzar, the lost king of Chessenta and a formidable red dragon, and are rewarded with a contract to aid in his war with a powerful dracolich. But the more Aoth sees of the war, the more suspicious he becomes that the Brotherhood may be just a pawn in a cutthroat draconic game that puts whole kingdoms at risk - a game played for stakes of gold and blood.

In the tenth year of the Change, the survivors in western Oregon live in a world without technology. Michael Havel’s Bearkillers hold the lands west of Salem in peace and order. To the east, the Clan Mackenzie flourishes under the leadership of Juniper Mackenzie, bard and High Priestess. Together, they have held Norman Arminger - the warlord of Portland - at bay. With his dark fantasies of a neofeudal empire, Arminger rules much of the Pacific Northwest, spreading fear with his knights, castles, and holy inquisition.

The Hive Mind has deceived the Americans and the Thacians into believing they had the strategy that would destroy it once and for all…and instead, they opened the gates through to Thacia and, from there, into the United States. And the demons streamed through by the tens of thousands, too many for artillery and air support to drive them back. The Army and Air Force keep pouring on the hurt, but it’s only a matter of time until they’re forced to do the unthinkable…nuke an American city.

When three probes sent to Mars suffer suspicious catastrophic failures, a clandestine manned mission is dispatched to investigate the probes’ wreckage for clues to explain their demise. The manned mission is led by Lieutenant Colonel Avery Lockett. He is joined by flight engineer, Captain Nick Reed, and mission specialist, Dr. Christine Baker. Together they embark on a dangerous journey aboard the spaceship Cetus Prime - dangerous because they know what awaits them around Mars. UMOs, or unidentified magnetic objects.

Hausos is a peaceful farming colony. Once controlled by the Tahni, it's now settled by a collection of homeless refugees and war veterans, among them Cam and Vicky. Their life is pleasantly boring, quiet enough for demons from the war to nag at the corners of Cam’s mind on lonely nights. He fights the demons back with willpower and alcohol, determined to make this place home. But the peace doesn’t last.

It’s been six years since Pete Guinn last saw his sister, Corrie. He always hoped to see her again, but feared she was dead. When an elusive billionaire reveals Corrie is living under an assumed name in the Australian outback, Pete unquestioningly jumps at the chance of a reunion...Together with a bush pilot, a flying doctor, and an outback cop, the struggle to maintain civilization begins. Supplies run low. Looting is rampant. Laws are forgotten, especially by the cartel who haven’t abandoned their search for Corrie and their quest for revenge. miraculous.

Six months ago, the world was plunged into chaos. The ImDED2 virus had been a mere nuisance for a decade. World powers were at a loss for a cure, but managed to keep isolated outbreaks from becoming a global pandemic. Until New Year’s Day of the year 2020. Just after midnight, the immuno-degenerative and epidermal decomposition virus (strain 2) exploded worldwide, subsuming humanity in a tsunami of blood and terror.

A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America.

The good guys won the battle, but the war goes on. Wash Williams has been recruited to help Brian Reeves and the Delta Force team close gates to the worlds controlled by the Hive-Mind, while back on Thacia, Valon does the same thing from the other side. But new gates continue to open, and unless someone can figure out how to stop the effect, it will keep spreading and the war will never end.

Jack and Annie are on their third mission to find (and inspire!) creative people to bring happiness to others through the arts (Mozart and Louis Armstrong so far). Set in Ireland, in this story Jack and Annie meet an Irish girl and go on a magical adventure that changes the girl's life. She grows up to be Lady Gregory, who helped bring back the Irish legends, started a theater, and helped the Irish people regain both their heritage and their pride.

Everson Croft here, professor of mythology and nervous as sin. Tonight's the night I tell Caroline the truth: about my feelings, my magic, everything. So why am I surprised when Detective Vega calls me to a new case? An elusive creature is chewing up residents in a housing project run by rival gangs. One more mangled body and the place will explode into warfare. Problem is, someone's protecting the killer.