Susan H

Life isn't always fair, and that's something that Llewellyn Gardner knows about firsthand. His life was on the fast track until one night of extreme passion changed everything. Now eight years later, he's still living with the aftershocks of that night. Everywhere he turns or runs, there's another reminder. What the hell do you do when you try to drown your demons only to find out they can swim?

Fixer. Bodyguard. Advocate. Brann Calder is expected to play all these roles and more as a member of Torus Intercession, a security firm guaranteed to right what’s wrong. In the military, catastrophe was his specialty. Five months out of the service, Brann is still finding his way, so a new assignment might be just what he needs. Unless it includes two things sure to make a seasoned, battle-trained veteran nervous: life in a small town, and playing caregiver to two little girls.

By day, Mark Wojcik can be found elbow-deep in engine grease, making cars and trucks safe for the highway. By night, he can be found traipsing through the wilds of Pennsylvania, making the world safe for humans. He's more than just a mechanic, he's a New Templar Knight. He travels the backroads and byways fighting weresquonks, ningen, selkies, ghosts, and . . . gnomes? Is that gnome . . . naked? (Sigh.) Season One collects the first four novellas in the Spells, Salt, & Steel series: Spells, Salt, & Steel; Open Season; Deep Trouble; and Close Encounters.

My name is Vincent Lasco. I’ve searched a long time to find a new place to settle down. Because of what I am, I need to pull up stakes and start over every 20 years or so - before people realize that I don’t age anymore. Prosper Woods has everything a man like me could ever want. Though there aren’t many humans, it doesn’t really matter. I’m so old, I don’t need to eat very often, and there’s no reason to expose myself to the locals whom I hope to call friends some day.

Lorcán Kennedy is a take-no-prisoner vampire whose grit is tested when slain vampires start showing up in his sector. His investigation reveals a blessed weapon was used in the slayings, which leads him to a rogue hunter with a grudge against vampires. Christian Wolfe is a no-nonsense hunter who believes the only good vampire is a dead one, but his code of honor keeps his hatred in check. When his integrity is questioned, he will do anything to defend it, including work with his enemy.

Being a hit man has its perks, but I never thought getting an accidental mooning by an attractive PI while he’s caught on a fence would be one of them. While it’s not exactly love at first sight, he’s captured my interest and won’t let go. Suddenly, I find myself caught in a game of cat and mouse, determined to attract the attention of Jackson, the PI who should be my enemy. He pretends like he’s not flattered by my flowers and the mentions of my totally-not-fictitious blow-up doll, Randy (or was it Dandy?), but I know better.

Now that Leland’s decided to give up his life as a hitman and take a walk on the mild side, we’ve been enjoying a simple life of taking down bad guys the legal way. I didn’t know he would be just as reckless as a PI, but it’s not my fault if I happen to enjoy helping him hunt down the occasional criminal. If only I could keep the house from being overrun by Leland’s gun shrine - or stop him from making our cases “more exciting” by terrorizing people into confessing. Overall, life seems perfect, right? Wrong.

After Rhett meets a mysterious young woman who gives him a hotel keycard, he finds himself back in 1990, inhabiting his old body, on the best day of his life. The day he fell in love with Andrew, a happy-go-lucky air force pilot who thought he was invincible but died shortly after the best weekend of both their lives. Rhett is given 24 hours to alter the past to change the future, but is that enough time to convince the young and stubborn Air Force flyboy their relationship is more important than racing through the skies?

Ash Harrington's life is out of control. At 23 years old, he's suddenly the head of a multibillion dollar global corporation he is in no way equipped to run. His father is dying. His mother's run away. He's spent his entire adult life playing fast and loose with his life and his loves, but when he's dragged into a position of responsibility with the fate of the company on his shoulders, he goes spinning into freefall. And Brand Forsythe is the only man to catch him.

Life has never been easy for Duncan Stiel. His childhood was the stuff of nightmares, and his day job as an undercover police officer forces him to hide his true self and occasionally lands him in the hospital. So when he finally meets the perfect man, it comes as no surprise that everything falls apart around him. What Duncan doesn't expect is that the hardest hurdle to get over before he can make a life with Aaron Sutter is the one inside himself.