Showing results for "Contemporary English" in Anthologies & Short Stories

The second novel of the Codex of Souls furthers explores the strange occult world first introduced in Lightbreaker. Mark Teppo’s vision of a magical underworld is a non-stop adventure that continues to bring new light to the occult origins of our history. Markham returns to Paris where he lost his love, and nearly his life. The ancient order of manipulative magicians that once cast him out is now in turmoil...a turmoil made all the greater by the swaths of destruction that Markham tried to avert.

It was a dark and stormy knight, and nine dark defenders embarked upon a most perilous quest. They're the ultimate defenders of humanity, modern day knights who do dark deeds for all the right reasons. In this all-star collection, nine of today's hottest paranormal authors bring us thrilling, all-new stories of supernatural knights that are brimming with magic mystery and mayhem.

Shapeshifter Mercy Thompson has friends in high places—and in low, dark, scary ones. And in this must-have collection of short stories, you’ll meet new faces and catch up with old acquaintances—in all their forms... Includes the new stories... “Silver” “Roses in Winter”...

It’s fate when a man accidentally drops his phone off the bridge. It’s fortune when it’s retrieved by a friendly shape sloshing in the muck underneath. From that day forward, as they share a coffee every morning, an unlikely friendship blooms. Considering the reality for the man above, where life seems perfect, and that of the sharp-witted creature below, how forever after can a happy ending be?

Violet has one job: protect humans from dangerous magical creatures. It's a job she's good at - until the cute human guy whose life she just saved follows her into the fae world. Now she's broken faerie law, risking her future at the Guild of Guardians. She needs to get Nate home and make him forget everything he's discovered. If only someone wasn't intent on hunting him down.

With these captivating initial glimpses into her storytelling psyche, Jo Walton shines through subtle myths and reinvented realities. Through eclectic stories, subtle vignettes, inspired poetry, and more, Walton soars with humans, machines, and magic-rising from the every day into the universe itself.

Today's hottest urban fantasy authors come together in this delicious brew that crackles and boils over with tales of powerful witches and dark magic! For anyone who's ever wondered what lies beyond the limits of reality, who's imagined the secret spaces where witches wield fearsome magic, come and drink deep. Let yourself fall under the spell of this bewitching collection!

In number-one New York Times best-selling author Charlaine Harris’s "Dahlia Underground,” venerable vampire Dahlia Lynley-Chivers survives an attack by an anti-vampire terrorist group, only to show them they tried to blow up the wrong bloodsucker. Bailey Ruth Raeburn, a ghost assigned to assist humans in trouble, steps into the middle of a marital dispute with surprising twists in Carolyn Hart’s “Riding High”....

All I wanted was a burrito. My name is Brandon Ferryman. I went out one night to get a burrito. Who knew that such a simple thing would change my life, or end it? I woke up on the side of the road with some pumpkin-headed monster saying he was the god of death, fate, and justice. I was chosen to run a very special establishment. A place that lay between worlds. A place called the Coffin Hotel. Now I have to fight monsters, free spirits, and run a mystical hotel. I'm clearly not qualified, but when has that ever stopped anyone from doing anything.

Villains have all the fun - everyone knows that - and this anthology takes you on a wild ride through the dark side! The top villains from 16 urban fantasy series get their own stories - including the baddies of New York Times best-selling authors Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne, Kelley Armstrong, Seanan McGuire, and Jonathan Maberry. For every hero trying to save the world, there's a villain trying to tear it all down.

Charlaine Harris' smash-hit Sookie Stackhouse series may have reached its conclusion, but the world of Bon Temps, Louisiana, lives on in this all-new collection of 15 stories. Written by a killer lineup of authors, including New York Times best-sellers Rachel Caine, MaryJanice Davidson, Jonathan Maberry and Seanan McGuire, and with introductions read by Charlaine herself, Dead but Not Forgotten puts your favorite characters center stage.

Together for the first time, 14 action-packed tales of demons, monsters, vampires, and cosmic horrors too terrible to name - and the men and women who take them all down. Oh, and toss in an interdimensional insurance salesman for good measure.

Small fires start in the hearts of Kathleen Jennings’s characters and irresistibly spread to those around them. Journeys are taken, debts repaid, disguises put on, and lessons offered—although not often learned—in these fantastic tales. Jennings's confident voice lulls listeners into stepping off the known paths to find "Undine Love,” “The Heart of Owl Abbas,” and further unexpected places and people.

Four hundred years ago, master vampire Eliseo Daisani and dragonlord Janx both fell in love with Sarah Hopkins, an extraordinary beauty born in London's slaughterfields. Caught in their ancient and complex bond, Sarah glimpses the world as it might be.

Fleeing the savages who destroyed his home, an lven bladesmith must forge a new weapon to destroy the enemies standing between him and freedom.Wounded and grieving the death of his love, Ghalran helps another survivor escape the raiders who destroyed their village. Enemies pursue them into the heart of the mountains, trapping them in a cavern warmed by fire slumbering deep in the earth. Ghalran senses he could make a new weapon here—one that will devastate his enemies—if he has the courage and the magical strength to tame the mountain's fiery heart.