The first story in this collection has been adapted to film (Dark Water, Walter Salles), and another, "Adrift" is currently in production with Dimension Films.

    Can he avoid redhaired vampire mercenary in pursuit at the same time? From anthology Unbound.

    Ajax Penumbra seeks a book--the single surviving copy of the Techne Tycheon, a mysterious volume that has brought and lost great fortune for anyone who has owned it. Late one night, after another day of dispiriting dead ends, he stumbles across a 24-hour bookstore, and the possibilities before him expand exponentially.

    She also remembers her mother, a freedom fighter murdered in the final battle between humans and vampires. But it is her mother's final words that have haunted her: Red means life.In the years since her mother's death, she has been used as both a propaganda tool and a blood slave by the Troika. She's withstood their indignities because the alternative meant bleeding out in a blood camp. But their abuses finally go too far, and she decides to run towards freedom and her mother's red light.On the other side, she finds the Sisters of Crimson. They help her just as her mother promised, but they also hand her to the human rebels. The vampires used her famous name to keep human slaves biddable, but now the humans want to use it inspire a revolution.When the world is at war, freedom is a luxury paid for with blood.

    When Dani O'Brien entered the Branch, she planned to trade her freedom so that her family could have a better life. But joining up with the mysterious organization is more than she bargained for. Branch head Connor watches over her closely--too closely. The training is brutal, the experiments are secret, and the missions promise to be anything but ordinary. The only thing getting Dani through each day is the hope that she'll run into Sam--a young man, about her age, who wears the world on his shoulders.Find out how it all began in this short-story prequel to Jennifer Rush's thrilling and suspenseful Altered series.

    She's ugly and she eats garbage, but she has a little kingdom back there. Desiree wants something of her own, too -- something all hers. Can that foul old thing possibly help her?

    Butler’s shattering meditation on symbiosis, love, power and tough choices. It won the Hugo, Locus, Nebula and Science Fiction Chronicle awards and is widely regarded as one of her greatest works.Years ago, a group known as the Terrans left Earth in search of a life free of persecution. Now they live alongside the Tlic, an alien race who face extinction; their only chance of survival is to plant their larvae inside the bodies of the humans.When Gan, a young boy, is chosen as a carrier of Tlic eggs, he faces an impossible dilemma: can he really help the species he has grown up with, even if it means sacrificing his own life?Perfect for fans of the thrilling Arrival and the works of Ursula Le Guin.

    Protected by a state-of-the-art security system, this particular house is clearly owned by someone who has a lot of money. Somebody definitely lives there, yet he never leaves the property. He lives all alone, adhering to a strict routine, seemingly oblivious to the rest of the world.Paula has already told her boyfriend Ryan that they're leaving town, and that they have to put their criminal activities in the past. When they're offered the chance to help break into the house on Fisher Street, however, they find themselves tempted by the prospect of one final payday. If the rumors about the house are true, they could make enough money to start their new lives with a bang. And the plan is so good, so airtight, that nobody has to get hurt.By the time they realize their mistake, Paula, Ryan and Davey are in a trap from which no-one has ever escaped before.Edward Van Dorsey is far from defenseless. Obsessed with his family's military history, Edward needs fresh victims for his hideous games. All he wants is to show the world that the Van Dorsey family can rise again and reclaim its position as one of the most powerful forces in the world. And while he waits for an opportunity to really show his strength, he's more than happy to hone his skills by taking out three helpless intruders.The House on Fisher Street is a horror novel about a girl who wants a fresh start, a man who wants to bring back the glory days, and a house that hides all manner of dark secrets.

    Summer. Late at night.Two teenage girls are picked up by two boys, who invite them back to their place to party.But an innocent mistake turns the party into a nightmare, where nothing is what it seems...Wild Night Is Calling is a 6000 word short story by thriller writer J.A. Konrath (Shaken, Trapped) and romantic suspense writer Ann Voss Peterson (A Cop in Her Stocking, Seized By The Sheik).Peterson wrote the first half. Konrath wrote the second half.This ebook, specially formatted for Nook with an active table of contents, also contains an excerpt from Konrath and Peterson's collaborative spy thriller, FLEE, coming out this Spring.

    For someone who doesn’t believe in heroes, it’s a surprising choice: to trade his life for the lives of his friends and the one he loves. For he will surely be killed when he arrives in the Imperial City. But he decides if his life is the cost of love, it may not be too high a price after all.

    Not to mention her devastatingly handsome partner in crime, Nicholas Brisbane. Midsummer Night is the long awaited novella of their wedding, a dashing—and potentially deadly—affair not to be missed…Midsummer in Victorian England—an auspicious time for a wedding. Brisbane has taken charge of the music. Julia has, perhaps mistakenly, allowed her sisters to choose the dress. And Belmont Abbey is overflowing with guests awaiting the blessed day. What could go wrong?Combine the close-knit chaos of village life, pagan traditions bursting through staid Victorian conventions, and the congenial madness that tends to swirl around Lady Julia's family and you get an unforgettable wedding. But add in a dangerous past nemesis who has come to wish them not-so-well, and their day to remember just might take a fatal turn...

    Timothy North is trying to find out what happened that long ago summer's night, but when a Tarot card turns up pinned to his front door, the only person Tim can turn to for help is his ex-lover, Detective Jack Brady.Originally published in the "Partners in Crime" anthology.

    Her father blames her when one of her sisters is one of the taken.

    Wracked by plague, abandoned by the South, stripped of industry and left to die. But not everything dies so easily. A thing without a name stalks the city, a thing shaped like a man, with a dark heart and long pale fingers yearning to wrap around throats. A monster who cannot die. His frail master sends him out on errands, twisting him with magic, crafting a plan too cruel to name, while the monster’s heart grows fonder and colder and more cunning.These monsters of Elendhaven will have their revenge on everyone who wronged the city, even if they have to burn the world to do it.

    The mission comes with a warning: a graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind—hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out eons ago. After all this time, there’s no telling how they’ve devolved. Steel yourself, soldier. Get in. Get out. And try not to stare.N. K. Jemisin’s Emergency Skin is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.