Dark Supernatural

Sin’s Doorway and Other Ominous Entrances is the 4th volume of Night Shade Books’ five volume Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman....

The rebellious son of a long line of pureblood cartographers and diviners, Valen has spent most of his life trying to escape what society - and his family - have ordained for him. His own mother has predicted that he will meet his doom in water, blood, and ice. Her divination seems fulfilled when a comrade abandons Valen in a rainy wilderness half-dead, addicted to an enchantment that converts pain to pleasure, and possessing only a stolen book of maps.

It’s been over 10 years since 15-year-old Zoey Taylor wandered away from her family home in the middle of the night. Or so she’s been told, repeatedly, by her mother—but the only thing Zoey knows for sure is that when her older brother, Corinth, found her in the woods, safe and unharmed, she returned with a crippling fear of the dark and no other memories from those lost days—except strange flashes of sharp teeth and red-flaming hair.

A rogue agent has come in from the cold and wants to spill his secrets. The Organisation wants Ishmael to find out if Frank Parker is who he says he is, what he really knows, and why he has emerged from the shadows after all this time. Ishmael heads to Ringstone Lodge in Yorkshire where Parker is being held to find that an atmosphere of fear and suspicion prevails. As he and his fellow residents are menaced by a series of alarming and inexplicable incidents, Ishmael sets out to prove that it’s human trickery rather than any supernatural being behind the seemingly ghostly goings-on.

Sorcerer Nate Garrett lost much in the battle that devastated Asgard, but the war against darkness is far from over. He’s spent a year searching for Arthur, hell-bent on stopping the evil leader of Avalon and rescuing his friend Tommy from his clutches. Nate’s investigation brings him to Washington, DC, where he finds the city under siege. Just when all hope seems lost, Layla Cassidy and her team arrive to join the fight, but Avalon’s deadly plan to conquer the earth realm is underway.

In a world where magic is illegal, Cassel Sharpe has the most deadly ability of all: With one touch, he can transform any object - including a person - into something else entirely. And that makes him a wanted man. The Feds are willing to forgive all his past crimes if he’ll only leave his con-artist family behind and go straight. But why does going straight feel so crooked? For one thing, it means being on the opposite side of the law from Lila, the girl he loves.

Seth never expected he would want to settle down with anyone - but that was before Aislinn. She is everything he'd ever dreamed of, and he wants to be with her forever. Forever takes on new meaning, though, when your girlfriend is an immortal faery queen.

For most of his life, William Chance has been the living proof that his grandmother and her fellow missing-persons researchers were right all along about the terror from the stars. Now, he's avoiding the limelight and hiding out from everyone, including his family. He knows he can avoid everything, except for the nightmares: fires, storms, disease, and violence - he dreams of it all. When he's suddenly exposed, he finds that the media, government operatives, and renegade true believers are desperate to find him, but he has another mission.

Nothing says New Orleans more than Mardi Gras. Parades, booze, beads, and missing people turning into zombies. Zombies only another necromancer could have created. Taking him out should be no problem for the Pale Horseman, except this one seems to know everything about Laz's life, maybe even better than he knows himself.

When legends live, dragons die. Steven Drokharis is on an impossible quest to find the Holy Grail. The Dragonknights came close, but then their ranks were decimated by the mysterious Dragon Slayer, a legend that still fills Primes with terror. Standing in Steven’s way are ancient forces that have been waiting for the Lost Son and Merlin’s Daughter to continue the hunt. And yet, war has come to Steven’s doorstep, and he must balance defending what he’s earned with his greater ambition of bringing revolution to Dragonsouls everywhere.

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.

What has been awakened is unbound. The Boy is getting his first taste of freedom. As their comrades fall, fear threatens to consume the survivors in chapter four of The Boy in the Iron Box. Liev’s plan: get his men out of this ancient stone prison, take their chances with the wolves, and descend the summit at first light. But in this snowbound hell, there’s soon to be a frightening new twist to survival.

The mercenaries set an explosive scheme in motion to blow this bad dream to smithereens. But in chapter five of The Boy in the Iron Box, they soon find that even the best-laid plans can backfire. With the morale of the team fraying, Liev makes a vow. He’s not going to leave anyone behind until the last stand is seen through to its cold and bitter end. On this night, it’s Liev who lies in wait to face everything he’s feared. It’s nothing like he expected.

Big things are happening for Maeve and her tight-knit coven in Kilbeg, Ireland. Fiona lands a role on a TV show, Roe’s band is poised to hit the big leagues, and Lily is embracing a new style and outlook. Then there’s Maeve, whose magic is growing stronger all the time. Yet she finds herself increasingly lashing out, doing and saying cruel things without knowing why.

After coming to grips with what I have become, I now have to step up and be what everyone needs me to be. A wife. A savior. A queen. It will take all of my newfound powers in order to take Maz and the dark fey down, but I will stop at nothing to get my revenge. I'll risk it all just to watch the entire society burn...

Their radio is sabotaged. The wolves are gathering outside. And for the increasingly desperate mercenaries, the worst is yet to come in chapter three of The Boy in the Iron Box: the box is empty. In the wake of an inexplicable disappearance, Liev and his men use their tactical skills to last the night—by going hunting. Following a small, bare footprint in the snow leads only to the realization that someone, or something, is hunting them.

If anyone with a crystal ball and a halfway decent deck of Tarot cards ever predicted I'd be sharing a gorgeous house with four insanely hot mages and the best witch-sisters a girl could ask for, I would've called it a dream. The reality is a nightmare. The mages and witches in this house? We're fugitives, forced into hiding by magickal fanatics bent on stealing our power and burning the world to the ground.

Sylvester Logan James' feud with the Beast has wracked his body and bedeviled his soul, but after 25 years it has failed to satisfy his need for vengeance. When a werewolf delivers a pair of severed heads, James finds himself embroiled in an ancient grudge between the First Beast Prince and the seven Wolves who tried to overthrow him.

What has become known as “The House of Sand Killings” ended Detective Jake Anderson’s career with a psychotic break. Now, four years later, it continues to haunt him, as a familiar face embarks on a murder spree unlike any other, with Jake and his family in the crosshairs. With supernatural abilities that defy explanation, the killer weaves a tapestry of violence across multiple cities, taunting Jake at every turn and leaving him desperate to catch up. What’s happening shouldn’t be possible. What Jake has seen can’t be real. But his obsession won’t let him quit.

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 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. The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin collects all ninety-three published works featuring the supernatural detective Dr. Jules de Grandin.