Monster Fiction

I only got into trucking because my granddad was a trucker, and he was the best damn person I ever met. I'd always thought I was your average dude with an 18-wheeler and an addiction to energy drinks, but it turns out there might be something more brewing in my blood. Now instead of some desert highway, I'm stuck in a whole new realm, and it's full of worm cults, actual lot lizards, one seriously smoking catgirl mechanic, and enough sand and bloodthirsty creatures to make me think I took a wrong turn somewhere. But I might be able to add a whole new career path to my resume.

I'm bound to a demon. For my entire life, I avoided magic at all costs. Now, I'm responsible for a demon who wields magic more powerful than the toughest mage or sorcerer. Demons are evil. That's what my textbooks say. That's what I see. He's ruthless, he's temperamental, he's cold. But he protects me without fail. I wonder if he's hiding a heart behind his hostility. My demon is a monster.

After my husband left, all I wanted was to find myself again. Turns out that's a lot easier said than done when my chronic pain has me canceling plans and everything I try reminds me of my inadequacies. Things only get worse when my attempt at exploring submission is a total disaster. But hope comes in the form of my stoic, stunning vampire friend, Blair. She offers to teach me, giving me a space to safely explore a side of myself I've kept locked away. It's meant to be platonic. Just one friend helping another. So then why can't I stop imagining what it would be like to take things further?

One October morning, Laina gets the news that her brother has been shot and killed by Boston cops. But what looks like a case of police brutality soon reveals something much stranger. Monsters are real. And they want everyone to know it. As creatures from myth and legend come out of the shadows, seeking safety through visibility, their emergence sets off a chain of seemingly unrelated events. Members of a local werewolf pack are threatened into silence.

Seven years hasn't been long enough to forget the bite of Casimir's rejection. When the Monster Relations Bureau tasks me and Casimir with solving a string of rogue vampire attacks in Boston, I'm quick to let him know I work best alone. But it doesn't take me long to end up in the crosshairs of the city's most feared vampire coven, and with no better options, I agree to work the case with Casimir. It puts me under his protection, staying in his opulent Gothic manor and slowly rediscovering the reasons I've always found him so darkly irresistible.

My name is Marek, and I hunt monsters for gold. But now, with the help of a magic beacon, I'm seeking those who are tainted. The impure. Abominations. Monster girls. But not to kill. They need my help. All kinds of help. I'm more than happy to provide it, to do all I can to keep them safe from the real monsters that exist in the world.

Despite all of the odds, Joan achieved the impossible. She reset the timeline, saved her family – and destroyed the hero, Nick. But her success has come at a terrible cost. She alone remembers what happened. Now, Aaron, her hard-won friend – and maybe more – is an enemy, trying to kill her. And Nick, the boy she loved, is a stranger who doesn’t even know her name. Only Joan remembers that a greater and more dangerous enemy is still out there. When a deadly attack forces Joan back into the monster world, she finds herself on the run with Nick – as Aaron closes in.

A trip to the grocery store changed my life. That's where I bumped into my "straight" coworker and good friend, Jake Perez. I decided to invite him to my book club night, not realizing the chain of events that invite would kick off. Immediately our chemistry became too explosive, making our friendship and work relationship complicated. That same night, a bloody package addressed to me lands on my doorstep. Falling for Jake was never in the plans—then again neither was being targeted by a dangerous stalker. This was going to be interesting.

Recht oder Gerechtigkeit – der neue Nr. 1-Bestseller von Nele Neuhaus. Hinter einem Marienaltar im Feld bei Schwalbach wird die Leiche eines jungen Mädchens gefunden. Der Körper ist mit einer Eisschicht überzogen, nachts hatten Temperaturen um die -10° C geherrscht. Die 16-jährige Larissa Jansen wurde erdrosselt. Pia Sander und Oliver von Bodenstein nehmen die Ermittlungen auf. Durch eine DNA-Analyse gerät Farwad M. unter Mordverdacht, ein abgelehnter afghanischer Asylbewerber, der erst kürzlich zu fünf Jahren Haft verurteilt wurde.

Over two decades ago, forty-eight young, gifted superheroes fell to Earth and were eventually marketed as opposing brands: heroes and villains. Now, one exceptionally gruff bad guy is looking to hop teams. Hello, PR director Vanessa Theriot. His real name is Roland Casteel a.k.a. the Pyro. First, swap that with the less incinerating the Wyvern. Next, put him in spandex to highlight that near-godlike body. Finally, give that hero in training a heroine—if Vanessa will play the part in a pretend romance guaranteed to make the city swoon. She’s game.

Blaze uses wind power to beat Crusher and Pickle in a sailboat race!

Betrayed by goblins, attacked by ogres, vampires and the undead, they survived everything the Hangsane mountains could throw at them. But can Josh and his Misfits go all the way? Can they defeat the dread Grillons that followed him through spacetime? Will they fall at the last hurdle? And what is Vella’s true purpose?

A larval Great Old One is growing day by day in power and just about ready to pop. If Chad Gadenier can't convince "the powers that be" to get involved, not only New Orleans, but the entire world, is going to fall under the power of the nastiest of nasties. Now on the outs with the US government and in exile from his usual job of saving the world, Chad must rally the forces of light against the coming darkness. The problem is one guy with a sword and a sub-gun isn't going to solve this one.

Demeter just wants to do her job: shuttling humans between Earth and Alpha Centauri. Unfortunately, her passengers keep dying—and not from equipment failures, as her AI medical system, Steward, would have her believe. These are paranormal murders, and they began when one nasty, ancient vampire decided to board Demeter and kill all her humans. To keep from getting decommissioned, Demeter must join forces with her own team of monsters. Together, this motley crew will face down the ultimate evil—Dracula.

Finishing up his first year as a cadet-adept, Desmond’s life is going pretty well as far as he’s concerned. Three beautiful and exotic women love him and have agreed to entwine their lives together. His powers as an Adept have continued to grow as he practices and refines weaving the threads of mana into the world. All while he continues to defy the expectations set by his origins. Sure, he’s still a member of the active military training for one of the most dangerous jobs in the entire Hegemony, but with his girls at his side, Desmond is confident he can handle it.

It takes a survivor to know a madman. When the police need to crawl inside the mind of a monster, they call Caroline. As a child, Caroline was abducted along with her twin sister. Caroline escaped. Her sister didn’t...But there’s something different about her latest case. Something familiar. Teenage girls are being murdered, their organs removed. As the scope of horror widens, Caroline begins to experience blackouts of lost time and disturbing hallucinations that are leading her to one terrible, impossible conclusion.

The DEPP has transported Dave and his lovely women to another even more alien and dangerous version of Earth than the last. They have to begin fortifying their trans-dimensional territory if they have any hope of surviving these hostile environments. Cambrian Era monstrosities and massive tidal surges caused by an angry moon goddess are pretty nasty challenges for anybody to survive, but a flesh eating blob that wants to devour all life on Earth? That’s just not fair.

Not all monsters are fantasy. Some are very real, and they walk among us. They're our friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. They're the people we're supposed to trust...and they know it. Contained within this anthology are 35 never-before-published works by supremely talented authors and best-selling novelists. Brace yourself for the unexpected and unimaginable horror of...human monsters.

A man becomes targeted by witches after he inherits some very special real estate.

Monster Hunter International may have had its roots in the United States of America, but there are plenty of monsters in the big old world. And wherever there are monsters, humans will need monster hunters. Here then, stories of the things that go bump in the night and the men and women who bump back—focusing on the myths, legends, and folklore of Czechia, by Czech authors. Includes a new short story by Larry Correia.