They know just the right spell to kill a man with one kiss—or raise him back again. And they’re not afraid to exact sweet revenge on those who dare to cross them. But what if you’re the unlucky soul who falls victim to a conjurer’s curse? And if you had the power to cast a magic spell of your own, would you use it?In this bewitching collection, nine of today’s hottest paranormal authors tell all-new, otherworldly tales.  Spellbinding stories featuring bigfoot, albino vampires, professional wizards, resurrected boyfriends and even a sex droid from the twenty-third century named Silicon Lily.  But as our conjurers are about to discover, it’s all fun and games until someone gets hexed.  And sometimes, even the best spun spells can lead to complete and utter mayhem. Includes:Retribution Clause by Ilona AndrewsBigfoot on Campus by Jim ButcherHolly’s Balm by Rachel CaineSnow Job by Carole Nelson DouglasOutside The Box by P. N. ElrodHow Do You Feel? by Simon R. GreenThere Will Be Demons by Lori HandelandCherry Kisses by Erica HayesThe Arcane Art of Misdirection by Carrie VaughnLength: 13 hours and 8 minutes

    A gambler's paradise for innocent tourists, it conceals a darker, sexual world where the ethereal and wraithlike meet to play a different game…If there's one thing succubus Deitre understands it's revenge. That, and enticing men into arousing, exciting and, okay, perilous sex (for him). Beautiful on the outside, demon on the inside, she's going to get back at the naughty firefighter in Darkness…unless he plays his cards right…Bounty hunter Nell is a hell of a tracker. Now she's in Vegas on the tail of the witch who dared to steal from her clan. She's going to get to the unsavory harlot through the woman's ex-fiancé, and nothing about their charged encounters will be shallow, quick or friendly.When the half-blood fae male comes to club Darkness, Elena can't resist acting on the mind-blowing heat coursing between them. She might be betrothed to another, but fae culture says sex with other men until marriage is most definitely foretold.Tattoo artist Devi is the latent vampire the warlocks need to heal all wounds. But taking her power is a sexually exhausting and dangerous task requiring dark deception…and gambling on her life.

    But the virtuous Sheriff Hale has never told anyone about his shocking desires. Will he give in to the surprising temptation of the young widow?Meet bestselling erotica author Holly Summers in Victoria Dahl's contemporary romances, TALK ME DOWN (January 2009) and START ME UP (July 2009).

    HillSavannah was groomed from birth to take the reins of her father's manufacturing empire. Her emotional armor is as tough as the steel used in her factories, and nobody is allowed past it. Business partner Matt realizes that the key to entry is to command her submission. Calling on the unique sensual talents of his four-man management team, he engineers an aggressive and erotic takeover, determined to rescue the woman he's loved from the steel cage she's manufactured around her heart. Masked and lost to the sensations the team arouses in her, Savannah is theirs, at least for this one night.Hidden Desires By Elizabeth LapthorneLily had to admit she was desperate. Here she was in New Orleans on a two week vacation, she made the trip especially for the Mardi Gras, and she didn't have a mask! Everything she found seemed wrong.As a last ditch effort, she entered a small shop and found the perfect mask…until it showed her visions of herself getting ravished by a masked highwayman.But when that highwayman turned up at the Mardi Gras bash, she knows the chemistry between them could only lead to one place.The only things between them that remained hidden were their true desires.Mardi Gras By Lacey AlexanderMia Sanderson has been in love with her boss, Ty Brewer, for years, but ladies' man Ty only sees her as a friend and even worse, a good girl. So when Mia and Ty are invited to the same Mardi Gras party, Mia decides to live out a fantasy. Donning a Mardi Gras mask and wig, Mia masquerades as the seductive Mistress Mina, the bad girl of Ty's dreams. But what will happen if Ty discovers her true identity? Mina's risking their friendship and her job, but for a night with Ty, it's worth it.

    Serendipity by Joanna Wylde: Sarai has lived through one terrible marriage. The last thing she needs is a new man in her life. But Jax isn't interested in taking "no" for an answer... Craven's Downfall by Stephanie Burke: She didn't want to marry the boring man she was bound to, so when one simple wish lands Nola inside a world filled with exotic creatures and erotic fantasies she thought it was a dream come true. But the thing about fantasies is that they never last...or do they? A Wish Away by Marly Chance: Tiffany has a bad history when it comes to birthdays. This year, she's made it 12 hours into her birthday and she's taking no chances. Well, except for that one small birthday wish she made.She wished her sexy best friend, Zak, would notice her and that her routine life would get more exciting. What, after all, could go wrong with a wish like that?

    There are typical vampires who would be right at home in a horror story or a gothic romance; historical vampires; contemporary, gritty, urban vampires; fang-in-cheek comedy; boy-meets-girl sweetheart stories (if a little bloodier!); and erotic tales of inhuman passions and midnight pleasures. Look out, too, for stand-alone stories relating to existing series and characters of contributing authors, or stories which develop more fully characters who have only walk-on parts in those authors' longer fiction. Includes writing by big-name authors such as Jennifer Ashley, Kim Harrison writing as Dawn Cook, Caitlin Kittredge, Diane Whiteside and Eileen Wilks.

    Elrod, Caitlin Kittredge, Marjorie M. Liu, Katie MacAlister, Lilith Saintcrow & Ronda Thompson.What newly married couple doesn't dream of a romantic retreat where they can escape the world for a while — but what happens when supernatural forces intrude on their wedded bliss? Nine of today’s hottest paranormal authors answer that question in this all-star collection of supernatural stories. Can a vampire-hunter enjoy her honeymoon after learning that her new hubby is a werewolf? How can newlyweds focus on their wedding night when their honeymoon suite is haunted by feuding ghosts? And what’s a wizard to do when a gruesome monster kidnaps the bride on her way home from the wedding? With so much otherworldly mayhem awaiting our newlyweds, will they ever get around to the honeymoon itself? Find out in...My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon.Contents:Stalked / Kelley Armstrong --Heorot / Jim Butcher --Roman holiday, or SPQ-arrrrrr / Rachel Caine --Her mother's daughter / P.N. Elrod --Newlydeads / Caitlin Kittredge --Where the heart lives / Marjorie M. Liu --Cat got your tongue? / Katie MacAlister --Half of being married / Lilith Saintcrow --A wulf in groom's clothing / Ronda Thompson.

    Once the government is back in business then the short story will no longer be available on line, at least not until my publisher and I figure out what we might want to do with it. But for right now, while we’re all wondering how it got to this point, here’s a brand new Anita Blake short story, featuring our favorite bad boy werewolf, yep, I mean Richard Zeeman. Hey, I’ve been telling you, he’s been working his therapy: read on to see the results that hard work and being brave enough to own your whole self can get you.

    While working on the set of a ghost-busting reality show in a haunted castle, she meets a sexy vampire, and together they prevent a Master Demon from killing everyone in the castle. In “Undead Sublet” by Molly Harper, executive chef Tess Maitland is banned from her five-star kitchen in Chicago to recover from “exhaustion.” Choosing a random rental house in Half-Moon Hollow to spend time in, she’s unaware that the house comes with a strange man. Even though Sam Masden’s ex-wife has rented the house out from under him, the divorce settlement allows him access to it for another ninety days. With Tess unable to go anywhere else, and Sam unwilling, a war of epic proportions is declared—and romantic sparks and heavy pots fly. Jessica Sims’s “Out With a Fang” features Ruby Sommers, a lonely were-jaguar who signs up for a blind date through the paranormal dating agency Midnight Liaisons. When she arrives, she finds out that her date, a vampire, was the human she’d been in love with four years ago but was forced to dump.

     Suspenseful, surprising, sometimes dark, sometimes humorous-these all-new stories will ensure that readers never think of vampires (or birthdays) in quite the same way again. In New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris's "Dracula Night," Sookie Stackhouse is the only human at the annual commemoration of Dracula's birth. But this year, the Prince of Darkness actually shows up-and finds Sookie to be a tasty-looking present. New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher's crime-solving wizard Harry Dresden, of the Dresden Files novels, heads to a role-playing party to give his vampire brother a birthday present in "It's My Birthday Too," only to discover there are some bloodthirsty party crashers who don't share their brotherly love. In "Twilight," Cassandra DuCharme, who appeared in New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's Dime Store Magic, knows she has to kill to live as a vampire another year-but finds herself disturbingly disinterested in the hunt. Plus ten more bloody good birthday stories that take the cake.Contents xi • Preface: A Few Words (Many Bloody Returns) • (2007) • essay by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner1 • Dracula Night • [Sookie Stackhouse 4.3] • shortstory by Charlaine Harris21 • The Mournful Cry of Owls • novelette by Christopher Golden50 • I Was a Teenage Vampire • novelette by Bill Crider73 • Twilight • [Women of the Otherworld Short Fiction 7.2] • novelette by Kelley Armstrong100 • It's My Birthday, Too • [The Dresden Files 9.2] • novella by Jim Butcher146 • Grave-Robbed • [Vampire Files] • novelette by P. N. Elrod176 • The First Day of the Rest of Your Life • [The Morganville Vampires: Extras 2.5] • novelette by Rachel Caine201 • The Witch and the Wicked • novelette by Jeanne C. Stein230 • Blood Wrapped • [Henry Fitzroy] • novelette by Tanya Huff254 • The Wish • shortstory by Carolyn Haines265 • Fire Ice and Linguini for Two • [Garnet Lacey 2.5] • novelette by Lyda Morehouse [as by Tate Hallaway ]290 • Vampire Hours • novelette by Elaine Viets318 • How Stella Got Her Grave Back • novelette by Toni L. P. Kelner

    Gray is less than thrilled that his little sister volunteered him to help her friend with her construction woes - that is, until he sees how Temperance has grown. Now he wants her more than ever. He's even willing to use her ridiculous idea of an interrupted sex spell to convince her how good things could be between them - leaving Tem to wonder if love is stronger than magic and worth the risk to her heart. Ronan's Grail Ronan, bastard son of Lancelot of the Lake and last of King Arthur's knights, has been charged with a quest - find the Holy Grail. Merlin sends him forward in time to seek the relic, promising he'll know the keeper of the grail by a sigil. If he fails, all is lost. Morgan Foster bears the magical symbol in the form of an ill-conceived tattoo but has no idea what to make of this hot, possibly crazy man who lays siege to her body and heart. Timeless magic and breathless passion bring them together, but is their love strong enough to survive when the battles of the past rip their fragile future apart? Mystic Circle When Becca stood up Jack for what promised to be the hottest one-night stand of her life, she never expected to see him again. Over the years he's haunted her dreams and occasionally her psychic visions. After another vision reveals a kidnapping, she must go to the police. Instead of saving a life, she becomes the prime suspect. Detective Jack Duritz, is investigating a series of ritualistic murders. He never expected his investigation to lead him to the woman who's starred in too many of his fantasies. Becca claims to be psychic, but he doesn't believe a word of it. Soon, however, it becomes clear that Becca is the next victim and Jack is the only person who can protect her. He must keep her close, but he finds himself keeping her far closer than any investigation would require.

    Two vampire kings have separate territories within the surrounding countryside. Both are eager to pick their future brides. What a waste of her freaking time. Tanya is among the many women at the choosing ceremony. As far as she’s concerned it’s an outdated, sexist event. It’s not important that the two males are ridiculously rich and handsome. Deep down she knows a plain Jane like her will never be picked by one of the kings anyway. Many of the women in the town square are stunningly beautiful with model figures. Most seem enthusiastic about being a queen even if it means being mated to a blood sucker, which suits her just fine. Imagine her surprise when King Brant sets his sights firmly on her. Once a vampire king has decided, there’s no going back. But her home is in Sweetwater. Being forced to live amongst the vampire species…big gulp…forced to mate with a vampire is not what she had in mind for herself. Maybe she can convince him to let her go, to pick again. If not, she’ll have to find a way to escape his - very muscular and rather delicious - clutches. Mates's Lore is Part 1 of a 6 part serial and is approximately 19,000 words/76 pages. The story contains strong sexual themes/language and is not intended for readers under the age of 18. PART 2: Torn Desires and PART 3: Love & War are available now on Pre-Order

    Stern, enigmatic Edwin Yorke simmers with a heat Gwen longs to unleash. But Edwin knows all too well that forbidden love can end in tragedy….

    What better way to capture his attention - and more - than to kidnap him for a wanton weekend? Tied to Tara's bed, Cody is more than willing to cooperate... Breezy Ridin' When Joe Chavez and a sheriff's deputy pull over a speeding motorcycle, it's no surprise the county judge's naughty daughter Sarah Michelson is behind the wheel - naked. And when she bribes them with a threesome, all laws are suspended as the men prepare for the ride of their lives... Night Watch Schoolteacher Amy Keating never planned to be a voyeur, but one innocent glance into deputy Logan Ross's bedroom window has her hooked. Now she's into a world of sexual play she never knew existed...

    However, bringing her into his life now, as the new Rolling Thunder chapter establishes itself as a powerhouse in Chattanooga, would put her in danger.Gen has no idea she already knows one of the bikers until she arrives to show them some downtown properties they’re looking to buy.They live in different worlds, and despite being a successful businesswoman, Gen has led a sheltered life. She wears couture, while Duke wears Levi jeans and his MC colors on a black leather vest. Not to mention, he's a werewolf and she's a blissfully unaware human. Can two people, so different, possibly work? Warning: Graphic sex, and a controlling, drop-dead gorgeous werewolf who happens to be president of a motorcycle club.