Contemporary Science Fiction

This time last year, I could go weeks without seeing another mage. In mage society I was an unknown and, all in all, that was how I liked it. It’s hard to say what changed. Whatever it was, I got involved in the magical world again and started getting myself a reputation.

Bea is a lowly cabbage fairy, but she dreams of being an official Fairy Godmother. So when she is finally given a chance to prove her worth, Bea is determined to make a success of it. Besides, how hard can a Happy Ever After story be? Every girl wants to be rescued by a handsome man, don’t they? Apparently not. Bea's heroine doesn't want to be in her story, and her hero is much more interested in the ugly sister. The same ugly sister who is trying to overthrow the Kingdom.

Bo Blackman is a rookie private investigator working for the London based firm of Dire Straits. She doesn't often get triber-based assignments, which is just as well. Vampires and daemons don't interest her as much as humans do... However, when she has to serve a summons on a dodgy daemon called Devlin O'Shea and she ends up saving his life instead of being framed for his murder, her life takes a shocking turn for the worse.

Being a last-year high-schooler who is four feet, eight inches (142 cm) in height is one thing, but having the muscles of a bodybuilder and the face of a middle-aged biker at the same time is another. And don't you dare to bring up shaving in front of him. Did I mention that the boy's favorite hobby is smithing?

A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, a first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethras, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring him back to life before his city falls apart. Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without him, the metropolis’ steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot. Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in.

Let's get one thing straight - Ivy Wilde is not a heroine. In fact she's probably the last witch in the world you'd call if you needed a magical helping hand, regardless of her actual abilities. If it were down to Ivy, she'd spend all day every day on her sofa, where she could watch TV, munch junk food, and talk to her feline familiar to her heart's content. However, when a bureaucratic disaster ends up with Ivy as the victim of a case of mistaken identity, she's yanked very unwillingly into Arcane Branch.

Supernatural Squad might be small, but we're growing in power. The vampires and werewolves of London are beginning to respect me more, and I feel like I know what I'm doing - even if I don't yet understand what I truly am. Unfortunately, there might be a few snags to deal with. I'm trying to avoid Lord Horvath, the black-eyed vampire leader who seems intent on a more intimate relationship. There's also Devereau Webb, who runs a small criminal syndicate and has offered me a mysterious gift that I'm certain I don't want.

Did I always believe in magic? Not until today. Sure, I had seen my mother's ghost, but I'd managed to rationalize that. It wasn't until I was taken to some strange museum in Oregon and inducted into a supernatural agency that I truly believed. Then, something happened to the agency, and I was one of the last mages left in America. Now, I have to learn my peculiar magic all by myself. Well, not entirely by myself. I have a few beautiful women and a disgraced mage genius to help me figure out why my powers are so unique.

By the divine promise of sacrifice, he awakened an Ash Angel with a new body, new powers, and a new war to fight. Cassandra, his temperamental trainer, tries to get him ready to battle Ghostpackers and Dreads, but it might be too little too late: for the first time in history, the Ash Angels are faltering against the fury of an evil more ancient than they are. While he fights to survive run-ins with a Sheid-hunted pop star and a gorgeous but dangerous Dread, Trace realizes his new life cannot erase the trauma of the old.

When Delilah Marlow visits a famous traveling carnival, Metzger's Menagerie, she is an ordinary woman in a not-quite-ordinary world. But under the macabre circus black-top, she discovers a fierce, sharp-clawed creature lurking just beneath her human veneer. Captured and put on exhibition, Delilah is stripped of her worldly possessions, including her own name, as she's forced to "perform" in town after town. But there is breathtaking beauty behind the seamy and grotesque reality of the carnival.

Penniless graduate Blair Wilkes has always felt one step behind everyone else. Unemployed and out of luck, with the uncanny ability to cause havoc wherever she treads, when she receives a job offer from a strange town called Fairy Falls, she's certain it's too good to be true. It turns out Fairy Falls isn't just eccentric: it's magical...and so is Blair.

Alex Verus is still haunted by his time apprenticed to Richard Drakh. He's been free of him for many years, but now the only way to keep his friends from being harmed is to again work for Richard and his deadly ally. Even worse, he's forced to bring the Light mage Anne into this servitude as well. After weeks of being hunted and finally cornered into what he thought was his last stand, Alex never thought his life would be spared - and never anticipated at what price. This time, the diviner can see no way out.

Merit, Chicago's newest vampire, is learning how to play well with others. Other supernaturals, that is. Shapeshifters from across the country are convening in the Windy City, and as a gesture of peace, Master vampire Ethan Sullivan has offered their leader a very special bodyguard: Merit. Merit is supposed to protect the Alpha, Gabriel Keene - and to spy for the vamps while she's at it. Oh, and luckily Ethan's offering some steamy one-on-one combat training sessions to help her prepare for the mission.

Elemental witch Abigail Drake, third daughter in a magical bloodline, was born with a special affinity for water and the power to communicate with dolphins. Off the coast of Sea Haven, California, she has spent her entire life swimming among the sleek aquatic mammals, studying their fascinating ways. But then her idyll is shattered when she witnesses a gruesome murder along the shore.

Once, they were Navy SEALS. Now they are the Alpha Pack: A top-secret team of wolf shifters with Psy powers who take on the darkest dangers on Earth. But sometimes the greatest danger lies within their own hearts.… Healer and black wolf shifter Zander Cole has survived horrors that would have broken a weaker man. But when a battle leaves him deaf and his powers dimmed, Zan is devastated. Believing himself to be a burden to his team, he sees only one option: Leave the Pack forever.

Get four complete stories in Frank Kurns: Tales of the Underworld: You Don't Touch John's Cousin, Bitch's Night Out, Bitch's Night Out, and Challenges.

They killed me. They healed me. They changed me. Sure, the life of a graduate student wasn't exactly glamorous, but it was mine. I was doing fine until Chicago's vampires announced their existence to the world---and then a rogue vampire attacked me. But he only got a sip before he was scared away by another bloodsucker...and this one decided that the best way to save my life was to make me the walking undead.

For three years, Alexandria has lived among mortals pretending to be like them and trying to forget the duty she'd been trained to fulfill as a child of a mortal and a demigod. At 17, she's pretty much accepted that she's a freak by mortal standards… and that she'll never be prepared for that duty. But as every descendant of the gods knows, Fate has a way of rearing her ugly head. A horrifying attack forces Alex to flee Miami and try to find her way back to the very place her mother had warned her she should never return - the Covenant.

Hadley Whitaker is a liar, a killer, and a chocoholic, but she's getting better about the first two. Or maybe she's just getting better at them. Some days it's hard for her to tell fact from fiction, but only one truth matters. Goddess willing, she's going to be the next Potentate of Atlanta. Even if it means playing nice with Midas Kinase, a shifter whose mysterious past might just be grimmer than her own. When a bloodthirsty rogue begins hunting the city's paranormals, Hadley ropes Midas into letting her work the case. But that rope starts to feel more like a noose.

Cassandra Palmer can see the future and communicate with spirits - talents that make her attractive to the dead and the undead alike. The ghosts of the dead aren't usually dangerous; they just like to talk...a lot. The undead are another matter. Like any sensible girl, Cassie tries to avoid vampires, but when the bloodsucking mafioso she escaped three years ago finds Cassie again with vengeance on his mind, she's forced to turn to the vampire Senate for protection.