Horror Urban Fiction

From cakes to stakes, a celebration of everyone's favorite bloodsucking subculture by a baker's dozen of favorite authors. Each of these 13 original stories offers a fresh and unique take on what birthdays mean to the undead. From Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse attending a birthday party for Dracula to Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden battling bloodsucking party crashers, these suspenseful, surprising, sometimes dark, sometimes humorous stories will ensure paranormal fans will never think of vampires or birthdays quite the same again.

Catherine’s first memories were of the fae and the misfortune they brought. No one believed her and told her she was insane. When Catherine arrives the country estate of Thornwood, she is determined to put her past and the fae behind. That is until she meets Ray Thorn. Ray introduces her into his world of the mesmerizing and deadly faery. Then a woman is murdered by one of the fae. She knew she shouldn’t have trusted a fae. But as more bodies turn up, Catherine realizes they’re targeting women like her, and she is their next victim. Is trusting Ray worth the price?

Ariane has finally adjusted to her new life as a vampire, hidden away from her kin in the Georgian countryside. She can now set her eyes on her next pursuit: her return to society as a rightful, free entity. However, regaining her freedom will not be easy. Beyond the issues of cutthroat vampire politics, the protection of her territory will also bring surprising challenges.

When Gregory Tomasov moves into an abandoned farm on the edge of McGuane, Arizona, he discovers a terrible secret buried in the walls of the old building.

If it was still beating. Angus MacKay has been undead for almost 500 years and it's not often something, or someone, surprises him. Until Emma Wallace. The sight of this luscious agent from the CIA's elite Stake-Out team was enough to stop Angus in his tracks. But then he discovers that she's a vampire slayer, intent on killing the "monsters" who killed her parents. And it's Angus's job to stop her.

The deadly dimensions over London have been sealed, and the monsters have departed. But word has come to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson of a more terrifying creature still - the great Cthulhu has been sighted off the waters of Innsmouth, Massachusetts. Only Holmes can defeat him. And in the muddy village of Innsmouth, surrounded by villagers who are more sea-monster than human, Holmes meets again his nemesis, Moriarty, and yet greater foes: Amelia Scarcliffe and Maria Fitzgerald, harbingers of Dagon, who have called forth Cthulhu.

Lee Amaranth is a mystic, not a mage. In fact, he’s never cast a spell in his life...With his sister missing, however, he has no choice but to go on a search that leads him to the locked gates of Primhaven University, a school forbidden to those untouched by arcane potential...Luckily, if he plays his cards right, he might just have some help. It’s up to Lee to decide who to place his trust in as he formulates a plan to fake his way through classes and exams.

Two sisters, haunted by more than their past... Just weeks after discovering each other’s existence, Jess and Hannah Ballard arrive at Fairhaven Hall, where they will learn the clandestine ways of the Durupinen, an ancient sect of women who control the Gateways between the worlds of the living and the dead. Though they are considered outcasts by most of their classmates, Jess and Hannah are determined to learn what they can to fulfill their responsibility to the many ghosts that haunt them. But danger, it seems, has followed them as closely as a shadow to their new home.

Best-selling author Robert Jackson Bennett has won widespread critical acclaim for his unique brand of darkly inventive fiction. In The Troupe, 16-year-old George Carole joins vaudeville in search of Heironomo Silenus, the man he believes to be his father. But what he discovers casts a dark pall over his world: Silenus' troupe hides a dangerous secret - one that invites death to all in its vicinity.

In back alleys and hellholes across the world, ravaged souls and scarred warriors whisper of the Iron Tournament. A savage game of death, pitting living fighters against caged spirits, all for the amusement of a mysterious audience.

Dave Marwood is trapped in a soul-crushing dead-end job. He's in love with his work colleague Melanie and his only friend Gary is a conspiracy theory nut. His life is going nowhere until he has a Near Death Experience—though Death thinks of it as a Near Dave Experience. He discovers gifts he never knew he possessed and a world he never dreamed existed. A world where the Grim Reaper is a hard-drinking, grumpy Billy Joel fan and the undead are bored, lonely, and dangerous.

For Harmony Black, practicing witch and government agent, defeating criminal masterminds and eliminating supernatural threats are all in a day's work. She's ready to fight, as long as she can count on her partner, Jessie Temple; her team at off-the-books special FBI unit Vigilant Lock; and her magic. But her latest case threatens it all.

Three short stories of the paranormal and the unknown, to delight, chill, and make you wonder. This book contains "The Hollowers", "The Other Side", and "The Night of the Fairies", published under single stories and now together.

Following on the heels of Robert Brockway's comedic horror novel The Unnoticeables, The Empty Ones reveals the next chapter in the lives of a few misfits attempting to fight back against the mysterious Unnoticeables. The Empty Ones follows Carey and Randall to London where they go to rescue Gus and fight more of these mysterious angel-like creatures, and stumble on a powerful and unexpected ally.

Lorsqu'Ethan Burke se réveille, il ne sait plus qui il est ni où il se trouve. Mais les souvenirs lui reviennent peu à peu : agent des services secrets des États-Unis, il est venu à Wayward Pines, petite bourgade tranquille du fin fond de l'Idaho, enquêter sur la disparition de deux de ses collègues, quand il a eu un accident de voiture aux abords de la ville. Pourquoi l'hôpital ne veut-il pas le laisser sortir alors que ses blessures sont superficielles?

Kat is on a mission, and the fate of the universe depends on whether or not she succeeds. She must journey into the heart of the underworld and track down Isfet before time runs out. Before the bonding withdrawals claim her bond-mate’s life and her ticket out of the afterlife vanishes. Before the Mother of All attacks. For once, luck is on Kat’s side. Some of her closest friends and most trusted allies have her back, even in the hereafter. But it doesn’t take Kat long to realize that the underworld is far more dangerous than she ever could have imagined....

When our universe falls in the gods' crosshairs, only one woman can stand against them.... Kat Dubois. Immortal. Ex-assassin. Humanity's last hope. Kat has finally embraced her role as the Nejeret figurehead, diving headlong into the mission to forge an alliance between her people and the human race. Only then will they finally be able to defeat the Senate. Progress is painfully slow, and not remotely steady...until a terrorist attack provides Kat with a lead that just might turn the tide of the war.

As soon as Lily opens her recently purchased trunk of old clothes, she feels strange vibrations emanating from a mysterious velvet cloak. When she tries it on, Lily sees awful visions from the past. And when the antiques dealer who sold her the cape is killed, Lily suspects a supernatural force might be behind his death. Then Lily's familiar, Oscar the potbellied pig, disappears. Lily will do anything to get him back - including battling the spirit of a powerful witch reaching out from the past.

To the uninitiated, Savannah shows only her bright face and genteel manner. Those who know her well, though, can see beyond her colonial trappings and small-city charm to a world where witchcraft is respected, Hoodoo is feared, and spirits linger. Mercy Taylor is all too familiar with the supernatural side of Savannah, being a member of the most powerful family of witches in the South. Despite being powerless herself, of course. Having grown up without magic of her own, in the shadow of her talented and charismatic twin sister, Mercy has always thought herself content.

Walter survived! Sure, he's grown a couple extra tentacles and gained a few creepy titles, but he's made it to the Main Stage of the trials with both hands and feelers intact. In fact, he's now a founding member of the regressor's Abyss Guild, and his mind-reading AI, Noe, is upgrading quite nicely as well. Life's looking up for the fledgling eldritch horror—that is, until his meeting with the ominous Central Overseer.