Search Worlds Without End

They're the ultimate defenders of humanity--modern day knights who do dark deeds for all the right reasons. In this all-star collection, nine of today's hottest paranormal authors bring us thrilling, all-new stories of supernatural knights that are brimming with magic mystery and mayhem.

Table of Contents:

• 1 - A Questionable Client - [Kate Daniels] - novelette by Ilona Andrews
• 47 - Even Hand - [The Dresden Files] - novelette by Jim Butcher
• 81 - The Beacon - novelette by Shannon K. Butcher
• 121 - Even a Rabbit Will Bite - novelette by Rachel Caine
• 157 - Dark Lady - [Vampire Files] - novelette by P. N. Elrod
• 205 - Beknighted - novelette by Deidre Knight
• 245 - Shifting Star - [Sign of the Zodiac] - novelette by Vicki Pettersson
• 285 - Rookwood & Mrs. King - novelette by Lilith Saintcrow
• 325 - God's Creatures - [Kitty Norville] - novelette by Carrie Vaughn

For anyone who's ever wondered what lies beyond the limits of reality, who's imagined the secret spaces where witches wield fearsome magic, come and drink deep. Let yourself fall under the spell of this bewitching collection!

Table of Contents:

• 1 - Seeing Eye - [Mercy Thompson Universe] - novelette by Patricia Briggs
• 40 - Last Call - [The Dresden Files] - novelette by Jim Butcher
• 78 - Death Warmed Over - [Holly Anne Caldwell] - novelette by Rachel Caine
• 123 - Vegas Odds - [Lia and Cyrus] - novella by Karen Chance
• 181 - Hecate's Golden Eye - [Vampire Files] - novelette by P. N. Elrod
• 225 - Bacon - [Dahlia Lynley-Chivers] - novelette by Charlaine Harris
• 259 - Signatures of the Dead - [Jane Yellowrock] - novelette by Faith Hunter
• 295 - Ginger - [Nocturne City] - novelette by Caitlin Kittredge
• 338 - Dark Sins - [Cin Craven] - novelette by Jenna Maclaine

From time immemorial they have stalked the night - Creatures of legend - or something all too real? For centuries people have whispered about the creatures of darkness, those who wear the guise of humans to prey upon their all-to-mortal kin, of those neither dead nor alive, who exist in a sort of immortal twilight and attain both the semblance and substance of life by drinking the blood of their helplessly mesmerized victims.

Here then are eighteen, original tales of vampires down through history, from the eras of ancient Greece and Rome up to the modern day, some traditionally horrifying, some poignant, some with a humorous touch. From a vampire blessed by Christ to the truth about the notorious Oscar Wilde to a rollicking tale of vamparism and the Bow Street Runners, these memorable stories by such top tale-weavers as Tanya Huff, P.N. Elrod, and Lois Tilton are sure to appeal to anyone who's ever been bitten by an interest in those mysterious, seductive, and deadly rulers of the night

Table of Contents:

• 9 - Introduction (The Time of the Vampires) - essay by P. N. Elrod
• 11 - A Vision of Darkness - short story by Lois Tilton
• 21 - Scent of Blood - short story by Susan Booth
• 39 - The Gift - short story by Teresa Patterson
• 56 - Oaths - short story by Bradley H. Sinor
• 74 - The Blood of the Lamb - short story by Lillian Stewart Carl
• 94 - The Devil's Mark - short fiction by P. N. Elrod
• 104 - Bloodthirsty Tyrants - novelette by Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein
• 132 - What Manner of Man - [Henry Fitzroy] - novelette by Tanya Huff
• 159 - A Matter of Taste - short story by Nick Pollotta
• 166 - Voice from the Void - [Vanishing Breed] - novelette by Margaret L. Carter
• 189 - In Memory of - short story by Nancy Kilpatrick
• 202 - Death Mask - novelette by Rebecca Ann Brothers
• 233 - Faith Like Wine - novelette by Rachel Caine
• 265 - Black Sounds - short story by Lawrence Schimel
• 274 - The Ghost of St. Mark's - short story by Elaine Bergstrom
• 292 - Walking Tour - short story by Jean Graham
• 305 - Night of the Vampire Scare - short story by Julie Barrett
• 311 - Toothless Vampires Can Still Give Hickeys - short story by James Schutte

Bram Stoker's immortal tale of vampirism told the story of how Count Vlad Tepes came to London and met his demise at the hands of Abraham van Helsing's vampire hunters. But how did Dracula occupy his time when he wasn't stalking Lucy Westenra and Mina Harker? These sixteen stories take the infamous nosferatu on a tour of 1890s London--where he encounters such historical personages as actress Ellen Terry, young scientist Nikola Tesla, Edward, Prince of Wales, and a writer named Abraham Stoker--in this masterful anthology from some of the best authors to ever sink their teeth into vampire mythology...

Table of Contents:

• Introduction (Dracula in London) - essay by P. N. Elrod
• About the Authors (Dracula in London) - essay by P. N. Elrod
• A Most Electrifying Evening - short story by Julie Barrett
• An Essay on Containment - short story by Gene DeWeese
• Beast - short story by Amy L. Gruss and Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein
• Berserker - short story by Nancy Kilpatrick
• Box Number Fifty - [Dracula Sequence] - short story by Fred Saberhagen
• Curtain Call - novelette by Gary A. Braunbeck
• Dear Mr. Bernard Shaw - novelette by Judith Proctor
• Everything to Order - short story by Jody Lynn Nye
• Good Help - short story by K. B. Bogen
• Long-Term Investment - short story by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
• Renfield or, Dining at the Bughouse - short story by Bill Zaget
• The Dark Downstairs - short story by Rachel Caine
• The Three Boxes - short story by Elaine Bergstrom
• To Each His Own Kind - short story by Tanya Huff
• Wolf and Hound - [Richard Dun] - short story by Nigel Bennett and P. N. Elrod
• "Places for Act Two!" - short story by Bradley H. Sinor

In this introduction to the series, young Jonathan Barrett arrives in London in 1773 to pursue his college education. His fate among the undead is sealed by the unnaturally beautiful Nora Jones, who seduces him and consumes his blood.

Unbeknownst to Jonathan, he is no longer the same man, something he soon discovers upon his return to America to join the armed forces and defend his country. Rather than an appetite for traditional fare, he has developed a strange craving for human blood.

Threatened by soldiers on the outside and turmoil on the inside, Jonathan Barrett valiantly fights to protect his family and the peace of the Barrett estate in this thrilling sequel to Red Death. Nearly consumed by his dark desires, Jonathan struggles to control his supernatural powers and his overwhelming thirst for blood while in the company of his immediate family and a scheming young cousin.

With the Revolutionary War making itself felt in his Long Island home, Jonathan Barrett and his sister Elizabeth seek refuge on the distant shore of England. However, Jonathan has yet another reason to make the voyage: he is still searching for Nora, his lost love and the woman responsible for his recently discovered taste for blood. That search takes Jonathan back to the home of his mother's sister, where he discovers a plot against his family that puts him in danger from the most unlikely of suspects. But his new enemies will soon realize that it is very difficult to kill a Barrett--particularly one that is already dead...

Seemingly invincible since his transformation into a vampire, Jonathan Barrett must admit his own weakness when he unexpectedly meets a four-year-old boy who strangely resembles him. Armed with a powerful weapon to use against him, his love for his son, Jonathan's enemies have gained an advantage. The only hope for Jonathan and his child's survival lies in the return of the mysterious Nora Jones.

On a freezing Christmas Eve in 1879, a forensic psychic reader is summoned from her Baker Street lodgings to the scene of a questionable death. Alexandrina Victoria Pendlebury (named after her godmother, the current Queen of England) is adamant that the death in question is a magically compromised murder and not a suicide, as the police had assumed, after the shocking revelation contained by the body in question, Alex must put her personal loss aside to uncover the deeper issues at stake, before more bodies turn up.

Turning to some choice allies--the handsome, prescient Lieutenant Brooks, the brilliant, enigmatic Lord Desmond, and her rapscallion cousin James--Alex will have to marshal all of her magical and mental acumen to save Queen and Country from a shadowy threat. Our singular heroine is caught up in this rousing gaslamp adventure of cloaked assassins, meddlesome family, and dark magic.

...Some of the parchment pages were the color of cream, thick and substantial, made to last many, many lifetimes. Other pages were thin and desiccated, positively yellow from age, and crackled alarmingly as Van Richten turned them over. There were no ornate illuminations, no fussy borders, only lines of plain text in hard black ink. The flowing handwriting was a bit difficult to follow at first; the writer's style of calligraphy had not been in common use for three hundred years. No table of contents, but from the dates it looked to be some kind of history.

He turned to the first page and read:

I, Strahd, Lord of Barovia, well aware certain events of my reign have been desperately misunderstood by those who are better at garbling history than recording it, hereby set down an exact record of those events, that the truth may at last be known....

He caught his breath. By all the good gods, a personal journal?

For more than a century, Strahd von Zarovich has ruled Barovia with an iron hand, feeding on the blood of his vassals and fearing no one. In all the years of his tortured rule, none have dared defy him.

Jack Fleming, ace reporter, always had a weak spot for strange ladies. And he certainly should have listened to the one who said she was a vampire! Because when a thug blasts several bullets through Jack's back, he does not die--and discovers that he is a vampire as well! First in an exciting new vampire adventure series.

The critically acclaimed saga of blood and passion as only vampire Jack Fleming could tell it...

A vampire has a number of handy skills - he can walk through walls, shrug off bullets and hypnotize mortals. But one thing this particular vampire cannot do is trace his mother - until now. His trail leads him to a 200 year-old gigolo, with a taste for blood, who claims not to know where she is - but who would trust a vampire?

Being a vampire isn't as glamorous as it sounds . . . Jack Fleming, Anerican journalist, was bitten by the wrong girl--and Jack joined the living dead. Eccentric detective Charles Escott helps Jack solve any strange cases that happen along . . . and now Jack and Charles investigate the case of the talented young artist whose life is suddenly cut short.

Diamonds and vampires are a girl's best friends.

As a journalist in Capone-controlled Chicago, Jack Fleming is used to the sight of blood, but when he becomes a vampire, his addictive thirst for it puts him between the cops and the mob in a pulsating fight for his life.

Take a bite out of the newest Vampire Files!

A delicious new novel of the The Vampire files--in which our undead detective finds himself caught in the middle of a Chicago gangland war!

The novel that vampire fans have been thirsting for...the newest addition to P.N. Elrod's popular series The Vampire Files. Called "fast...intriguing," by Science Fiction Review, and "good-natured fun" by Locus, P.N. Elrod's series The Vampire Files has captured the imaginations of vampire fans and mystery readers alike. Jack Fleming, a vampire detective, makes his "living" on the mean streets of post-prohibition Chicago. As he struggles to fight the gangsters at large, he is also trying to sustain an ordinary life. At least, as ordinary as it can get when you're a vampire... Death hasn't ended Jack Fleming's problems. His girlfriend Bobbi has caught the attention of a famous radio star, who promises to open doors for the lovely singer-including the one to his bedroom. His current case-retrieving incriminating letters from the ex-lover of a rich, foolish young socialite, looks simple until bullets start flying. Now Jack's mortal partner is in the hospital. Who's behind the gun? The ex-lover? The radio star's goons? An old enemy? Jack has to find out the truth-before the lives of those he loves are put at risk...

Spiked with "a flavor of the supernatural" (Science Fiction Chronicle), P. N. Elrod's series, The Vampire Files, goes one step beyond detective noir. Its hero is Jack Fleming, a private detective on the right side of the law-but on the wrong side of the living-in post-prohibition Chicago. This vampire-turned-gumshoe will take on mobsters, monsters, and everything in between. Now, in Lady Crymsyn, Fleming tries to find a good-time girl gone bad, who may have been the victim of a premature burial...

Vampire detective Jack Fleming's latest venture-the Lady Crymsyn nightclub-has become the favorite haunt for Chicago's elite. But amongst his patrons lurk a smarmy blackmailer and a dangerous up-and-coming mobster from New York-both unaware how deadly Jack can be when blood is spilled...

Nearly tortured to death by a New York gangster, Vampire P.I. Jack Fleming gave the punk his just desserts. But now the mob bosses want revenge.

The first new Vampire Files novel in four years!

Vampire P.I. Jack Fleming is playing babysitter to Gabriel "Whitey" Kroun, a dangerously unstable mobster-and newly-created vampire-with deadly secrets to hide.

As Jack tries to unravel the mystery surrounding Kroun's undead state, he gets caught between his charge's violent outbursts and some syndicate torpedoes looking to rub them both out, leaving him vulnerable to an even deadlier threat- the return of an old enemy desperate to unlock the secrets of Jack's vampire immortality.