Banks, Kelley Armstrong, and many more! Horror fiction explores the dark side of human nature, often pushing the limits of violence, graphic gore, and extreme emotions. But with the popularity of shows and movies, such as "The Walking Dead," "True Blood," "Twilight," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," audiences have demonstrated their love for the genre--especially accompanied with a dose of humor to tone down the terror."Blood Lite III: Aftertaste" continues to put the fun back into dark fiction, featuring a wide range of humorous and highly entertaining horror-filled tales. Edited by Horror Writers Association founding member and award-winning author Kevin J. Anderson, the stories vary in tone from wry to downright laugh-out-loud funny. Featuring such well-known horror writers as Jim Butcher, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Christopher Golden, and many others, this collection of tales is perfect for anyone who enjoys being entertained as much as they love a good scare.Contents:I was a teenage Bigfoot / Jim Butcher --Blood-red greens / Joel A. Sutherland --V plates / Kelley Armstong --Put on a happy face / Christopher Golden --Devil's contract / E.S. Magill --Nine-tenths of the law / Eric James Stone --Scrumptious bone bread / Jeff Strand --Let that be a lesson to you / Mark Onspaugh --Mint in box / Mike Baron --Great zombie invasion of 1979 / J.G. Faherty --Dating after the apocalypse / Stephen Dorato --Typecast / Jeff Ryan --Making the cut / Mike Resnick, Lezli Robyn --Acknowledgments / Will Ludwigsen --Mannequin / Heather Graham --Short term / Daniel Pyle --Distressed travelers / Nina Kiriki Hoffman --Bayou brawl / L.A. Banks --Steeple people / John Alfred Taylor --For sale / David Sakmyster --Man who could not be bothered to die / Norman Prentiss --Last demon / Don D'Ammassa --Misadventure to call your own / Adrian Ludens --Smoke and mirrorballs / Chris Abbey --Brians!!! / D.L. Snell --Still life / Ken Lilli-Paetz --Day in the life / Sherrilyn

    The children will smile on Christmas morning at all costs. Even if Kris has to die to try to make it happen.Someone has set a trap for Kris Kringle. The problem is, Kris is willing to go anywhere to get those gifts to the children.Including to his dark place.This time, even Kris is surprised by who helps him.Be careful, world. You don’t want to piss off Saint Nick.

     The 12 tales contained within this bundle stretch the limits of imagination while blurring genre boundaries. What they all have in common is originality, and some of the most compelling voices in publishing today. Books may be read in any order. The professionally-formatted file includes all book covers and a clickable table of contents. Please note: some stories contain mature subject matter. INCLUDED IN THIS 12-BOOK BUNDLE: Lost in Winter - Viola Rivard A woman and her young niece are stranded in the mountains, in the deadly cold of a winter night. In their fight to stay alive, they team up with a rugged stranger to trek through the woods. Clutch - J.A. Huss A mysterious winged man interrupts a rogue sniper on a mission to figure out secrets that have been hidden from her since birth. But does she really want to know the truth? CLUTCH is a futuristic urban fantasy / sci-fi thriller about self-discovery, risk, and love. Bring on the Poltergeists - T. Paulin Former delivery driver Eli Carter has a new job hunting ghosts. His boss, smooth-talking Khan Hart, assures him their first official case is an easy one. A slam dunk. A home run. But the job doesn't go according to plan. This poltergeist doesn't play by the rules. History of Fire - Alexia Purdy Benton is human, but he walks the line between two worlds: the mundane and the supernatural. As a rare Fire Elemental Warlock, he finds himself in trouble more often than he cares to admit. A Curse of Wings - Kara Legend Most fear the terrifying fehin who’ve overrun the Earth, but Bliss Daluna has learned how to deal with these demonic shifters, and turn the situation to a profit. That is, until the night all hell breaks loose, the fehin turn on her, and a mysterious stranger saves her life. A Question of Will - Alex Albrinck A case of mistaken identity and murder leads a man to develop Energy powers which he uses in an effort reverse the past and make the world a better place. Taken & Pursuit - V.M. Black Harper Bailey's adventure begins when a werewolf biker hijacks her car. This dramatic meeting takes her on the run, across state lines, into a secret lair, and into conflict with a vampire mob boss. But the greatest ride of all is the one with roguish Levi Harris, the Alpha who takes her heart captive. Ted Saves the World - Bryan Cohen Ted Finley was a teenage nobody. Now he’s a celebrity superhero. When murderous undead thugs attack, Ted teams with a possessed cheerleader to save his friends, his town, and… well, the world. The Passion Cure - Deanna Roy Jet is a Nix, an outcast enchantress with zero power. To conjure a love spell to save her family, she seduces a handsome enchanter who is willing to break the rules, and possibly, her heart. Extraction - Kevin Hardman Everyone needs help occasionally - even supers with amazing powers - and Jim (aka Kid Sensation) is no exception. Having previously received aid from a young psychic named Rudi, Jim feels obligated to return to the favor and rescue her from the federal facility where she’s being held.

    Her life consists of work and sleep and study. Not necessarily in that order.Everything changes when she is awakened after the graveyard shift by the police--who insist she's a material witness to a murder.Kandi is pulled from everything and everyone she knows and thrust into the world of Monster Witness Protection. What's a good witch psychologist to do? And, on top of everything else, she's falling in love with a dream man!

    After participating in the promotion, Dante finds himself thrust into the hidden world of the Spiritual Warriors, a group of men and women, fighters with special abilities who are trained and dedicated to keeping this plane of existence safe from evil.He discovers that a war has been raging between the Warriors, those sworn to protect this plane of existence from destruction and the Shadows, those who would see it enslaved under the rule of evil. After being captured by Sylk, one of the last Karashihan, an ancient sect of Warriors, Dante, manifests an eternal weapon of immense power. This weapon, which has moved from host to host through time, uses the darker side of the psyche, driving its host to unspeakable evil.Dante must learn to harness this power without succumbing to the darkness, in order to confront the entity that wants to conquer this plane of existence.Together with a group of Warriors; Dante embarks on a mission to stay alive. Facing several enemies, even a secret faction within the Warriors- the Black Lotus; he fights those who would rather see him dead than unleash the power of his weapon. They will travel through several planes, called the Mirror, and avoid the dangers that reside within them in order to unlock the secret abilities that will allow him to use his weapon and ultimately defeat the entity that would destroy them all.The Black Lotus, the Warriors covert assassins have been tasked with finding Dante and preventing him from ever unleashing the power his weapon contains. Dante must use all of his skill and ability while relying on those sworn to keep him safe, to stay one step ahead of them in order to fulfill his mission.Through their travels, Dante discovers that his weapon contains a vastly powerful being that has been imprisoned within his weapon, and is willing to do anything to escape, even kill. In order to fully control his weapon Dante must unravel the mystery of this being, who it was and who was powerful enough to imprison it.Unknown to all, Sylk has been able to track the progress of the entity he calls the Dark One. The entity is preparing to take over their plane amassing a great force in various parts of the Mirror, and is closer to achieving his goal than the Warriors may believe. Despite the risk of Dante being turned by the darkness that resides in his weapon, Sylk believes that the unlocking and harnessing this weapon is the only chance they have to survive and is willing to stake his and everyones life on it.

    In a world imbued with magic, given and taken away on the whims of the gods, three women must choose how to use the gifts bestowed upon them.Eloh must endure trial by fire to meet the gods in The Initiate.Reychel faces a destiny she never craved and makes her own rules in Anathema, Oubliette and Severed.Lianne learns the true meaning of friendship and love when magic threatens to tear apart her world's existence in Sleeper, Afterlife and The Sundering.

    After catching her boyfriend in the arms of the prettiest girl in school, she made the journey from social elite to social pariah in a haze of electricity and exploding electronics. But finding herself at the bottom of Bay View High's social hierarchy was nothing compared to the shock of discovering who--and what--she really is.After being zapped out of a burning bookstore by the mysterious Declan--a hero nearly as handsome as he is infuriating--Alex finds herself under the protection of the powerful Grayson family. It's through them that she learns the truth: that the world she's always known is nothing like it appears to be... and that she has far more in common with them than she might want to believe.Now, on the run from a fire-wielding hit man and a secretive government organization, Alex must navigate a strange and treacherous new world filled with superhuman mutants known as Variants. As she begins to unravel the many secrets of her family's past, she uncovers the real reason for her parents' death twelve years earlier--and finds out that the threat to her family, and to everyone she cares about, is still dangerously real.

    

    Wicked. Romantic.I’m Lena Raven, and I have a secret. A demon killed me. And an angel brought me back to life. But it wasn’t without consequences…I had a normal existence until my dad decided to uproot us and move to Podunk town, USA, population: one thousand. I expected to be bored to tears. What I didn’t expect was my shmexy neighbor or the supernatural freak show unfolding in Mystic Hollow.The name should have tipped me off, right?Jayson Casteel is infuriating, arrogant, and bossy. It wasn’t love at first sight. I can’t stand him. And I’m determined to find out what he’s hiding.Too bad that curiosity got me killed. Now Hell is coming for me, and Jayson is my only chance of escaping a destiny of fire and brimstone.But he’ll have to face a powerful demon and an ancient fallen angel to save my soul.

    A life threatening heart condition smothers her future and she yearns to feel normal. Her hopes are pinned on a fresh start in a remote town far from her native Colorado. Among the locker filled hallways in Clark Bend High, Ana keeps to the shadows, not wanting to draw attention to her violet tinged lips and wilted silhouette. And she almost succeeds, until she meets Chance Morgan. Struggling to keep up appearances, she soon suspects Chance is hiding something as well. His animal-like senses, miraculous healing ability and peculiar reaction to her Thunderbird necklace compels Ana to question if there’s more to the stories about his Navajo ancestry. Without any other explanation, she fears he is playing tricks on her. But the truth may prove too much for Ana’s delicate heart…

    But as he learns the ropes of his new supernatural life, he soon realizes he's not alone.Vampires, felycans, sorcerers, Templars--they all exist, and what he doesn't know can most certainly kill him in more gruesome ways than he can count.

    . . He comes to her in the twilight between sleep and consciousness to fulfill her secret desires. Lyssa Bates has never experienced such ecstasy, brought to her by a man whose deep, soul-penetrating blue eyes hold the promise of tempting intimacies and decadent pleasures. But this stranger, this lover, this immortal seducer is only a dream—a phantom of her nocturnal fantasies—until he appears, inexplicably, at her door in the flesh!Lyssa aches for the reality of him, but there is grave danger in surrender. Because Captain Aidan Cross is on a mission, and the passion that consumes them both, body and soul, could have dire consequences in a world of dreams . . . and in the waking one as well.

    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.

     Brooke is no stranger to the supernatural. In Chicago, vampires are just as prevalent as drug lords, and infinitely more bloodthirsty. So when her partner and fiancé dies in a mysterious fire while chasing down a lead in Salem, she suspects something dark and otherworldly is at play. Blessed with the ability to see into the past by touching inanimate objects, Brooke transfers to the Salem PD, hoping her talent will help her get to the bottom of things. Between dodging assassination attempts and being stonewalled at every turn, the going is tough. Add in a mysterious fae club owner with secrets of his own and a personal grudge against her, and it becomes nearly impossible. If Brooke wants to play in the supernatural sandbox, she’s going to have to roll up her sleeves and get dirty. But how many people will have to die for Brooke to discover the truth about her fiance? And is she even ready to know? Find out what lurks in the SHADOWS OF SALEM by pre-ordering SHADOW BORN, the latest Urban Fantasy hit readers are comparing to Karen Marie Moning and Patricia Briggs.

    This story isn’t for the feint of heart. It’s not for the sensitive. I know what you’re thinking, reader. You have handled the daring Harry Dresden, the foul-mouthed Nate Temple, the pulpy violence of James Stark. Well… let me tell you something right now… You’re dead wrong if you think you can handle Joseph Labrador Hunter. I’m more of the third, forgotten Winchester brother. In the words of my old pal, Lemony Snicket, “If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.” He’s not really a pal of mine, more a hero, but the sentiment rings true. My story isn’t one of happiness. It has a sad beginning…In the middle, there’s a lot of violent, sad things that happen…And the end, well, that’s the saddest part. I’m not a hero. I’m not a wizard. I’m not Superman with a wand. If you’re looking for light-hearted fun, go sniff up someone else’s magical staff. I’m a nightmare to my best friends, and a death wish to my worst enemies. And I’m also very melodramatic, and I will sometimes break into a running commentary with my reader… because, it’s the only time anyone will ever listen to me!Grab your favorite drink. You’ll need it if you ever want to forget this story.