Urban Supernatural

A human, a hellhound, and an archangel walk into a bar...sounds like the first line to a joke, right? Only it's no joke. It's my damned life. Witches are running riot. Shifters are on the hunt. Demons are eating humans. There's a new drug on the street. Sigil is dark and deadly to the paranormal kind, opening up their second sight, urging them to maim, torture, and kill. And the bodies are piling up.

A battle for the underworld is brewing. Taking the throne might be close to impossible between having a goddess and a secretive human organization bent on the domination of all the realms on her tail. How can Poppy, her hellhounds, and her judges defend it? It doesn't help when one of her judges goes missing while she sleeps. When they fall under attack Poppy must choose between fighting, staying safe, and searching for her missing man.

When the fae beckon, few resist. Even fewer return. As a veil witch, I'm used to taking out the supernatural trash. Everything from poltergeists to vampires, you name it and I've dealt with it. So opening a paranormal cleanup business just seemed to make sense. If I'm already dealing with the pests, why not get paid? But when I accidentally breach the faerie realm to encounter a girl recently reported missing, start seeing the ghost of a witch whose disappearance has never been solved, and discover a Book of Shadows that opens only for me, I can't just go back to business as usual.

The body that turns up in Bron's garden has been there for decades, and he died of natural causes. Just rebury him and carry on as normal, right? But it's kinda hard to be normal when the ghost of the dead man has been disturbed, and now he want...well, just what does he want? It's down to Bron, a traditional hedge witch, to find out. If she doesn't, that ghost is going to be lingering in corners and upsetting kitchen chairs for the rest of her life. Creepy, tedious, and noisy, all at the same time.

I'm a mage. Problem is, it might kill me. In London, I have my dream job: stacking books in a university library. Even though I'm a mage, I have a quiet life these days. At least, until Levi shows up. Immediately, I know he's trouble. He's too sexy, and I can tell he's dangerous. Worse, he wants a forbidden book in my library. No way in hell am I going to give it to him. It's my job to protect it. But now, Levi won't let it go. And it turns out, he's not the only person who wants the book. All of a sudden, enemies are closing in on me, trying to get the book.

My name is Scarlet Jones, and I'm a witch...of some kind. Probably. I grew up in a family full of strong Blood witches, in which my strange magic never belonged. I thought I was the only one of my kind out there, a true freak of nature, and I liked it that way. I lived on my own, learning to hunt these creatures nobody seemed to know anything about, a bunch of mindless thingies who were in the habit of sucking my magic dry wherever they found me.

For more than 30 years, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror fans crave. Now, with the 11th volume of the series, Daltow's back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night. With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. This light creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year chronicles these shifting shadows.

Aileen has a few rules for her life. Do her job and go home safe. Keep the supernatural world away from her human family. Stay off the vampire radar. And, above all, don't get involved in spook politics. But when Liam comes back into town bringing a mystery that threatens the life she's built, she finds every closely guarded rule flying out the window as she sinks ever deeper into the supernatural world. Ultimately, it may be the people she loves the most who pay the price in the high-stakes game that vampires call life.

A wolf shifter and a demon have both claimed me as their mate. I'm sure nothing will go wrong with that. When you hunt supernatural baddies for a living, you're used to danger. But for once, the danger I'm facing isn't my fault. Somebody killed my best friend and set me up to take the fall. Now, I've got two days to prove I'm innocent before it's open season on hunting me down. If that wasn't bad enough, I'm partnered with a royal enforcer who isn't what he seems.

My new life at Otherworld Academy went from not-so-normal to downright-crazy fast. My best friend got turned into a shapeshifting beast, the Autumn Court tried to launch an assassination on the changelings, and I can somehow tap into the powers of all four courts. And that's not including my insanely attractive fae instructors who make me feel like the temperature has gone up a thousand degrees. But even though things were crazy before, it was nothing on how they are now. Danger lurks in every corner, new threats are closing in, and the storms are only growing larger.

A trip back to Pittsburgh to spend Thanksgiving with Vic's large, exuberant family means dodging old frenemies and a bitter ex-boyfriend. A cold case comes back to haunt Vic when a murdered woman's ghost begs Simon for justice. Then a new murder back in Myrtle Beach looks suspiciously familiar, and the dead man's ghost isn't playing nice. When Simon gets a vision of the next victim before the crime occurs, he realizes that all the murders are supernaturally linked. Catching the murderer will take his psychic sleuthing skills along with Vic's street smarts to avert a tragedy.

Seabury Quinn's short stories were featured in well more than half of the pulp magazine Weird Tales' original publication run. His most famous character, the supernatural French detective Dr. Jules de Grandin, investigated cases involving monsters, devil worshippers, serial killers, and spirits from beyond the grave, often set in the small town of Harrisonville, New Jersey.

Between life and death, there's magic. Our secrets have been exposed and now we have to deal with the consequences: Friends of the Midwest Pack are missing. Alliances are forming between enemies whose sole intent is to destroy the pack. And a mysterious group is trying to make a power grab using any means possible. With my pack and our allies in danger, I don't think things can possibly get any worse. I'm wrong.

The paranormal world just can't seem to cut Ren a break. Just when she thought she could finally settle into normal - well, relatively normal - life as the last of the dragon shifters with her four alpha mates, she finds her people on the brink of a supernatural war. The vampires have decided all shifter kind must be exterminated, and they've got the firepower to make good on that goal. Ren's got plenty of fire of her own, of course. But she's only one dragon, and there are a whole lot of vampires.

I am Blair Sheach, and my life will never be the same. Newfound powers don't make a hero overnight, but somehow I've become the last line of defense for the city of London. Vampires and demons crawl the streets, magic cops suck at keeping them in line, and the easy job I took to pay my rent has turned into something far more complicated. The cheating deadbeat my client hired me to find just so happens to be the necromancer hell-bent on destroying London, and it's up to me to stop him.

Hello. My name is Stevie Cartwright, and I've been witchless for 30 days. If only there was a support group for down-on-their-luck ex-witches who've had their powers slapped right out of them (literally). Just as I was licking my wounds after returning to my hometown of Ebenezer Falls, Washington, and navigating my suddenly nonmagical existence with the help of my familiar, Belfry, things got sticky. Enter an ex-spy and newly departed spirit named Winterbottom, who's infiltrated my life with his sexy British accent and a couple of requests....

Despite the death of a traitor and key conspirator, the plot to use the GhostWalker experiments to undermine the security of the US by foreign interests still exists. The GhostWalkers themselves must race against the clock to neutralize the danger.

The name’s Bond. Shaman Bond. Actually, that's just his cover. His real name is Eddie Drood, but when your job includes a license to kick supernatural arse on a regular basis, you find your laughs where you can.

Inheriting a cottage in Pine Lake was supposed to be the escape from her stressful life as a social worker. Instead, Amalie Holmes is taking witch lessons from her crazy, lightning-wielding grandmother, juggling guardianship of a sassy pre-teen, and taking over a pet shop, all while trying to get used to her super-loud, super-new family. Too bad she can't clone herself. Maybe there's a spell for that? When the head of the local Witch Council is found dead, and Amalie's Grandma Vivian is named the prime suspect, Amalie's new-found family is in jeopardy.

I'm not Goth to hide my Drow heritage, I'm Goth because I'm not a quitter. My name is Cheyenne Summerlin, remember that name. Somebody should. The world can't know I'm a Drow halfling. Not yet. I barely have these powers under my control, but time's up. I'm about to take magic for a test drive. Want to come along? The black ops government group believe they can run my life... But I have plans of my own. Watch out magical evil doers - I'm about to crash your party. But will my training be enough?