Urban Short Stories

Here we find Max settling in with the realities of the world around him, becoming more relaxed with the Magical and Ethereal communities. The Balance has occurred, and the regular world is now aware that everything that goes bump in the night, for the most part, is real. In this short story, Max, well...Max is about to learn a valuable lesson about making bets at the bar with a stranger.

As war rumbled through the heavens, the seas also boiled with battle. Poseidon was one of the first to succumb. Now, the alliance of evil gods turn their sights on the Inuit pantheon. Barely surviving the initial strike, the goddess Sedna seeks the sanctuary of the oceans and her old friend Jormungandr. She knows the Norse world serpent isn’t the evil people believe him to be.

A fugitive from the Sprytes, one of the most dangerous supernatural cults on Earth, Betty has refashioned herself as a revealer of dark conspiracies and a killer of misogynous conspirators. On her crusade, she has successfully stayed off the radar for months. When the Sprytes close in, however, Betty may find herself entangled in a conspiracy too dark to escape.

Even though he’s one of the Heartland Security Agency’s Peacemaker agents, a man sworn to help protect and preserve the morality of the United States, Neal can’t give up his habit of patronizing prostitutes. When one of them steals the prototype of a top secret device, however, he has no choice but to come clean in order to rally fellow agents for a recovery mission. His situation goes from bad to worse when he is tricked into a plot to take down one of the Agency’s most powerful secret allies.

The Order of the Three Spears. Founded at the turn of the ninth century by the Lotus-Born Second Buddha and inspired by the most powerful immortal warrior who ever lived, this secret Buddhist society has kept the existence of immortals hidden from ordinary humans and maintained peace between the races for twelve hundred years.

When hunted half-breed immortal Lucas Soul hears tales of legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto during his travels in the Far East, he sails to Japan to meet the great man and convince him to take him on as an apprentice.

Alec Bailey knows a thing or two about the supernatural world and its dangers. When the local news crew shows up to do a piece on his hotel, he knows he should send them away…especially with that unchecked demon lurking on the property perimeter. Supernatural protocol dictates he call in Jacquelyn, McCall’s own demon hunter, but he isn’t ready to say goodbye to the beautiful crew member who reminds of a time in his life long past.

A young girl is haunted by a Death God. Her only hope is a rum-drinking, bar-fighting paranormal investigator with a bad attitude...After dropping out of Harvard, Kana Cold started a business as a paranormal investigator. Most of her cases were hoaxes, much to Kana’s disappointment, until one case involving a little girl and her powerful demon - a Death God - opened the door to the real Paranormal Underground...changing Kana’s life forever.

New York Times best-selling author Marjorie Liu (Monstress) leads you deep into the heart of the tangled woods. In her dark, romantic, and spellbinding short fiction, you will find dangerous magic and even more dangerous women: a body-stealing sorceress, a bone-collecting apprentice-witch, a princess-turned-actress, and a warrior protecting China from her jealous ex. Concluding with a gorgeous full-length novella, Liu's first short fiction collection is an unflinching sojourn into her thorny tales of love, revenge, and new beginnings.

Iraq - The Americans are fighting a drawn out war against ISIS. With public support for the war draining, they find themselves under pressure to discover new ways of waging war against the enemy. At an isolated American air base, one scientist has come up with an ingenious idea - use zombies to defeat the Islamic State. The only problem is, the virus isn't ready and top brass are running out of patience. How can they deliver "the package" to where it's needed - straight to ISIS leadership? And meanwhile, at the air base, who is the mysterious man under the hood?

Genie and Serena are just a normal couple of girls...just kidding. As a dormant mermaid (she hasn't activated her genetic abilities yet), Genie is actually kind of normal - except for being kind of sheltered. At least, she is compared to her cousin, the millennia-old siren Serena. But, as different as they are, the cousins are bound together by their mutual affection for each other - and their love of solving mysteries. Together, Genie and Serena form a paranormal investigation business to celebrate Genie's first time in the real world.

Satori in the Slipstream is a collection of dark flash fiction and short stories. Many of the stories are set in Japan and deal with challenges young adults face. There are also several stories about soldiers dealing with the aftermath of war. Homeless and the brutality of living on the streets is also a major theme in this collection.

Four bestselling Vampire for Hire short stories, including "Teeth" - Fang's very bloody and tragic backstory; "Vampire Nights" - Samantha Moon meets someone unexpected on a late night trip to Denny's, someone who seems to know all her secrets and has all the answers.; "Vampire Blues" - Samantha Moon is about to discover that not all men are created equal....; "Vampire Dreams" - Samantha Moon sets out to find the answer to a mysterious, haunting dream... a dream in which sees a young woman die, over and over again.

With the pandemic looming, a listless social media editor accepts a job working for her former college friend Seraphina. A popular Instagram influencer, the subject of obsessive message-board surveillance, and a newly minted Karen of the Day, Seraphina is living out 2020 in the luxury of her “ultimate self-quarantine.” As the year escalates into upheaval and chaos, both women try, in increasingly secretive and complicated ways, to maintain the upper hand.

Penny never had a structured life growing up, so she has lived her whole adulthood according to her life goals and plans. She makes decisions based on thought-out reasoning, and she never ventures out of her comfort zone. All of that changes when she meets Jeremy. Jeremy is rebellious and wild but makes her feel free. She begins to fall for him before finding out that he is a billionaire rockstar.

Orson Scott Card, Kevin J. Anderson, and Larry Niven have seen the future. Now you can, too. A constellation of the brightest lights in the science fiction and fantasy firmament have judged these authors to be the best, the brightest, the truest emerging stars in the field.

Kylie Porter needs a break. Novacore VR's Eternal Night is it - the VR vampire game that her editor wants her to write about. But she's not a gamer, so she's going to have to learn to fake it for her article. With a little help. Johnathan Masters is that help. An old friend who is doing her a favour, he's a lot more confident and good looking in the game, even if they've both touched themselves up. But she's a professional and this is just a game.

Black clouds of xenophobia gather over Radvadur, the western province of the Empire. The political climate is strained and fragile. A surge of Nymph refugees has stirred widespread hostility towards non-humans. When the investigation of a gruesome triple murder linked to the refugee camp ensues, it takes Inspector Käyru Skaer and his lover, Count Ellydhar Finn-Jánn, along an unusual path, at the end of which a precious gift awaits. Käyru and Elly are worlds apart in social standing, but they have found common ground in the bedroom - up against the wall and the stable doors, too.

At puberty, they’d called it. I, Naz Beauchene, was the first, official family dud. Born into a long line of illustrious shifters of the feline variety, my family fully expected me to blossom into a panther or maybe even a cherished lioness. They got neither. Not even one spark of magic stirred my blood. But then one day, a handsome Nether Reach Keeper crashed through the door where I worked as an imp trainer...and everything changed.

Art is a scientist who has developed DNA-splicing technology to end disease and heal the sick. Things take a turn for the worse when an ancient alien race tries to get their hands on his technology. They kill his wife. They kidnap his daughter. And force him to splice together DNA between a human and alien body. Their goal? Create a host shell for an evil Locrylian demon. He plans to find a body, overrun the planet, and enslave mankind.