Dark Occult

It's February 1991. Desert Storm is raging in Iraq but 22-year-old Jack has more pressing matters at home. His favorite bar, The Spot, is about to be sold out from under his friend Julio. No longer merely reactive, Jack takes the fight to his enemies and demonstrates his innate talent for seeing biters get bit. With a body count even higher than in Cold City, Dark City hurtles Jack toward the climax of this formative New York odyssey in which all scores will be settled, all debts paid.

Bound by his promise to the dying former immortal, Glaeken, Jack has refrained from making any direct moves against his arch-enemy, Rasalom. But things have changed, so there’s nothing holding Jack in check any longer. Jack is healing at an accelerated rate - much like Glaeken did when he was immortal. This must mean that Glaeken’s time is almost up, and when he dies, Jack will take his place. Rasalom continues to plot against the Lady.

Evil stirs in Briardark, an ancient forest that looms over the Shyishan village of Felstein, where whispers abound of the spectres and brutes that lurk amongst the trees. One man keeps these perils at bay—Samuel Helmgaart, the revered beasthunter of Felstein—but when tragedy strikes his family, an unknowable foe is unleashed, one that stalks the villagers and turns neighbour against neighbour. Soon, a witch hunt ensues, and in the midst of his own sorrow Samuel’s daughter, Cicely, struggles with grief that has twisted into something dark.

From the fortean phantoms that terrorized Victorian England to the haunted crossroads of the Irish hinterlands, the Devil—also known as the Dark Man—has found countless novel ways to influence culture and bring us face to face with our fears. Tracing this enigmatic entity through the centuries via mythology, folklore, occult writings, and modern accounts, Darragh Mason shows how the Dark Man is more than just a myth: he is a real presence in our world.

Harmony Black is much more than your average FBI special agent. In addition to being a practicing witch, she's also an operative for Vigilant Lock, an off-the-books program created to battle occult threats - by any means necessary. Despite her dedication to fighting the monsters threatening society, Harmony has become deeply conflicted about her job. Her last investigation resulted in a pile of dead bodies, and she suspects the wrong people are being punished for it.

In the beginning was the Oak, its hungry roots reaching deep into the earth, its gnarled limbs searching the distant heavens. Two hundred years ago, Obediah Magrute worshipped the Oak and died violently beneath it, feeding it with his blood and bone, shouting his chilling curse to the skies. Now, Laura and Mark Avery have come to the bustling little Vermont village.

When Del Lareaux leaves the St. Augustine orphanage, she is desperate to build a normal life for herself and Jimmy, the mentally handicapped boy she spent years protecting. But when a hellish spirit is raised from the dark swamps of Louisiana, abominations of unimaginable horror begin to prey on the lost souls of New Orleans, and Del’s soul is the most coveted.

Night falls. It came like a malignant shadow with seductive promises of power. And somewhere in the night...a small girl smiled as her mother burned...asylum inmates slaughtered their attendants...in slimy tunnels once-human creatures gathered. Madness raged as the lights began to fade and humanity was attacked by an ancient, unstoppable evil.

Seven families arrive at an ancient castle, expecting a grand feast - but each guest brings the weight of their own expectations, not to mention hidden agendas and a thirst for revenge that will push them into darkness as evil approaches. Listen to it because: Experience a Warhammer Horror take on a classic set-up - people gathering for a meal, each of them carrying their own secrets. It's sure to terrify and delight you in equal measure.

Life is hard. Change is difficult. But adjusting to being a ghost? Well, that is just darn near impossible. And Bridget Sway is struggling. It's not just the job, the uniform, the housemates, the rules, the community service. It's everything. And now she's facing a week-long group assessment to evaluate her adjustment.As if that isn't bad enough, some inconsiderate soul has shoved another dead ghost in her locker. Things are looking bleak for Bridget. If she fails the assessment, she'll be "re-educated."

For longtime Stephen King fans, the highlight of this volume will be The Little Sisters of Eluria, which is something of a prequel to the Dark Tower series. For "Constant Readers" and neophytes alike, all of the dark tales herein are intense, eerie, and instantly compelling. King "develops characters and atmosphere more fully in the span of 50 pages than many authors can in a full novel," says Amazon.com.

Black magic murders, Satanic sex cults, and demonic possession are the diabolical practices that grab the tabloid headlines and reinforce the myth that evil and an unhealthy obsession with the occult are to blame for our increasingly violent society. But is the truth even darker and more disturbing?

The prequel to Dracula, inspired by notes and texts left behind by the author of the classic novel, Dracul is a supernatural thriller that reveals not only Dracula's true origins but Bram Stoker's - and the tale of the enigmatic woman who connects them. It is 1868, and a 21-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water, and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to record what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles down the events that led him here....

Of all the things aspiring artist Haven Marbury expected to find while clearing out her late father's remote seaside house, Bedtime Stories for Monsters was not on the list. This secret handwritten manuscript is disturbingly different from his Pulitzer-winning works: its interweaving short stories crawl with horrific monsters and enigmatic humans that exist somewhere between this world and the next. The stories unsettle but also entice Haven, practically compelling her to illustrate them while she stays in the house that her father warned her was haunted.

Three neighboring villages on the Ukrainian/Romanian border are the final refuge for the last of the mythical creatures of Eastern Europe. Now, on the eve of the war that may eradicate their kind - and with the ruthless Night Police descending upon their sanctuary - they tell their stories and confront their destinies.

Today the names of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, and Clark Ashton Smith, all regular contributors to the pulp magazine Weird Tales during the first half of the twentieth century, are recognizable even to casual readers and listeners of the bizarre and fantastic. And yet despite being more popular than them all during the golden era of genre pulp fiction, there is another author whose name and work have fallen into obscurity: Seabury Quinn. Quinn's short stories were featured in well more than half of Weird Tales's original publication run.

If you've never read a Repairman Jack novel, this is the place to begin. It's 1990. A twenty-one-year-old named Jack has dropped out of college, leaving his old life behind to build a new one in New York City. Manhattan's rough edges are jagged enough to shred any unwary newcomer, but perhaps not one who is determined to stay off the grid, at any cost, in the busiest metropolis on earth. And to do so, he'll have to take jobs of a less than legal nature.

Madame Delphine LaLaurie was the embodiment of wealth and privilege. Born into the elite of New Orleans society, the prestigious slave owner ruled her household with an iron fist, governing all she owned by terror and vicious punishment for insubordination.

A series of seemingly motiveless murders of supernatural creatures points to a vigilante targeting the supe community of Scranton. Markowski wouldn’t normally have much of a problem with that, but his daughter may be next on the killer’s list... Justin Gustainis was born in Northeast Pennsylvania in 1951. He attended college at the University of Scranton, a Jesuit university that figures prominently in several of his writings. He is currently a Professor of Communication at Plattsburgh State University.

Published in 1927, Scottish writer John Buchan's Witch Wood is set in a rural parish located in the Scottish Borders during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The story centers around newly ordained minister David Sempill's arrival in Woodilee in the wake of the Church of Scotland's acceptance of the Solemn League and Covenant and explores themes and issues surrounding religious tolerance and seventeenth-century Calvinism. With pagan rituals, an outbreak of the plague, and rumors about fairies and the devil, Witch Wood also delves into the supernatural and occult.