Nathan’s words hung ominously in the air. But somehow, I couldn’t fully comprehend their meaning. Someone betrayed us from within. All of my blood seemed to be flowing toward the ground. I felt lightheaded and confused. Betrayal? That couldn’t be right. Edgewood was a safe place. It was a community of like-minded people who were […]
Inside Sheoul, the demon realm sometimes called Hell, evil was everywhere. It dripped off the sides of the sheer rock walls in streaks of black acid that ate into the stone with a hiss. It wafted through the humid air on tendrils of mist that reeked of sulfur and decaying flesh. And, as Vex watched, […]
“Ezling.” “No, it’s Aisling.” “Azhlee?” “Aisling. It’s Irish.” The Orly passport control man glared suspiciously at me over the top of my passport. “Your passport, it says you are American.” I rallied, a smile when I really wanted to scream with frustration instead. “I am. My mother was Irish, hence the name Aisling.” He transferred […]
919 tensed, watching the other males in the room with a mixture of awe and trepidation. His future rested in two of those males’ hands. Justice North sat calmly behind his desk while Brass paced in front of it. Brass paused. “They are new to freedom and I don’t trust them yet. It is too […]
“Are you my daddy?” Ricky Lee Reed, originally of Smithtown, Tennessee, and only replanted to New York City a few years back, gawked at the child who’d asked him the question for a mere moment before he turned his attention to the adult female who held the child. He’d admit it wasn’t a question he […]
MONDAYS. I hated Mondays. They were like your period, they just snuck up on you out of nowhere and ruined your week. I settled into first period with a literal troll breathing down the back of my neck. Starting my sophomore year in college with the same rejects who tormented me in middle and high […]
I stared at Kipa. “Why do you have a box of cigars? You don’t smoke.” He was holding a box of cigars in one hand and a box of chocolates in the other, looking all too wide-eyed. The past couple of days he had been too bristly for comfort, and I wondered what was going […]
“I LOOK RİDİCULOUS.” I stared at my reflection in the mirror above the long counter that ran along the wall. Even though I had been peering at myself for the better part of a minute, I still couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Normally, my wardrobe could best be described as functional. Black boots, dark […]
When life hits you in the gut, it’s always a sucker punch. You never see it coming. One moment you’re walking along, worrying your little worries and making quiet plans, and the next you’re rolled into a ball, trying to hug yourself against the pain, frantic and reeling, your mind a jumble of scared thoughts. […]
THE FULL MOON rose over Blagoveshchensk, and wolves howled to the night sky, rejoicing in their freedom from humanity. I knew better. I hid so their ved’ma, their witches, wouldn’t find me. Luck alone had spared me from being caught in the monthly unveiling in the Russian city. The unlucky were branded with silver so […]
Graham McNeil slammed his massive fist into the jaw of the attacking wolf just as his cell phone rang. He got the wolf into a headlock and tried to reach for the phone, but the wolf fought and clawed, drawing blood, its breath like sour acid. Graham’s Collar sparked heavy pain into his throat, while […]
Mason McNaughton jolted out of a sound sleep when several hundred pounds of enraged Feline landed on his chest and started to rip the hell out of him. Mason rolled out from under the deadly claws, shifting as he went. He came up in his half-wolf form, grabbed the Feline around the waist and threw […]
Within the last ten months, I’d become a vampire, joined Chicago’s Cadogan House, and become its Sentinel. I’d learned how to wield a sword, how to bluff a monster, how to fall, and how to get back up. Perhaps most of all, I’d learned about loyalty. And based on the magic that was pouring through […]
Heights. Damn it, why does it have to be heights? Diego Escobar scanned the steel beams of the unfinished skyscraper against a gray morning sky, and acid seared his stomach. Heights had never bothered him until two years ago, when five meth-heads had hung him over the penthouse balcony of a thirty-story hotel and threatened […]
Breaking into the building was easy. Too easy for an assassin like me. Hell, I didn’t even really have to break in—I could have walked right through the front door, waved at the guard stationed behind the reception desk in the lobby, and taken the elevator up to the appropriate floor. Stroll into an office […]
The air hummed with the magic of books wanting to be read. They whispered irresistible secrets and promised power to those who would turn their pages. After years of working in the Order of Magica’s Archives, I was used to the murmuring books and immune to their siren call. The Order’s Archives, one of the […]
You’re the scrawniest, most ungrateful pig of a cat I’ve ever had the goddamn misfortune to come across, you know that?” The cat in question stared at me with a look that could only be described as utter satisfaction. He was an orange tabby with a pale, fluffy mane that made him look like a […]
THE MORNING OF HER eighteenth birthday, Annabelle Miller woke from the most amazing dream feeling as if her eyes had been ripped out, dipped in acid and shoved back into their sockets. She became aware of the sensation gradually, her mind still fogged from sleep. When full awareness ɹnally struck, her entire body tensed and […]
The Summer King knelt before her. “Is this what you freely choose, to risk winter’s chill?” She watched him—the boy she’d fallen in love with these past weeks. She’d never dreamed he was something other than human, but now his skin glowed as if flames flickered just under the surface, so strange and beautiful she […]
It wants to mark my flesh… The full moon beat light down on a canvas of snow and barren trees, making Mariah’s hunter green dress glow as distinctly as a beacon for the beast pursuing her. Mark me with its teeth, she thought wildly as she leapt across an icy rivulet. When the beast’s frenzied […]
