Jailed as an abomination to the Elven race due to her unnatural creation, Willow struggles to understand the dynamics of this new world and wonders who she can trust in order to gain her freedom once more. However, the prophecy of her kind is clear... She must put an end to the race wars, uniting two kingdoms, but only if she can survive the wrath of a powerful king.

    Peace and quiet, however, are the least of her problems. Mortal corpses keep springing up in her alley like daisies. Hades is angry that the mortals’ souls are missing. And to top it all off, the human authorities suspect Nix of foul play. Before long, the supernatural police force takes an interest. They dispatch Agent Calder Quinne to investigate. His assignment is simple: determine Nix’s guilt or innocence by observing her daily routine. Instead, he’s faced with an uncooperative Nymph who resents his presence and evades him at every opportunity. Nix finds Cal far too attractive and a challenge to her self-imposed ban on relationships. She wants him out of her life as soon as possible. When Cal’s soul is stolen next and Nix wakes up missing memories of the evening’s events, even she starts to wonder if she’s guilty. Now, she has only two weeks to locate Cal’s missing soul, or he’ll be doomed to spend eternity as a Shade.

    This collection of delightfully twisted, supernatural short stories will captivate your imagination and entertain your darker side. A monster with a love of bakery, an old woman living in fear with her ex-con nephew, a widow with only one chance left, and a demon with a dark and powerful heart, are some of the characters wrestling with their darker selves in this enjoyable collection.

    Castor and Pollux have been on the run from Zeus and Hades' wrath for centuries, hiding from the gods who hunt them. The last person they trust is Kate, the new Queen of the Underworld. Nevertheless, she is determined to help their cause. But when it comes to dealing with immortals, Kate still has a lot to learn....

    Edward McNally: Captain Wil has command of his own ship, the respect of his crew, and his wife is expecting their first child. But at sea, the winds always become calm just before the storm breaks.The Smell of Death by Tara West: Maggie's unusual powers bring new threats to her already troubled childhood.Safe by Emma Jameson: In Victorian London, a grave robber makes a nice living off the dead, until he opens the wrong crypt.Soulfully Sweet by Shéa MacLeod: As if helping the living isn’t enough of a pain in her divine hindquarters, Branwen (former goddess of love and beauty) is stuck helping the dead on All Hallow’s Eve.May I Go Play? by Heather Marie Adkins: Micah inherits a southern mansion where ancestors long dead relive their violent deaths. And now, they want company...Blehdward, the Vampire who Couldn't Sparkle by Pj Jones: Blehdward desperately wants to fit in with the cool vamps. If only he could learn how to sparkle.Franscesca by Alan Nayes: Break a promise to a feiticeira and you will live to regret it.Soul Eaters by R.G. Porter: Kaitlyn never believed in the existence of other worlds. Now she's in the middle of one where humans aren't the hunters but the hunted.The Eclective is a group of authors dedicated to the premise that The Story is The Thing, and classifications of genre are mostly a matter for bookshelves. While the following stories share a "Haunting" theme, they might variously be filed as Horror, Paranormal, Fantasy, YA, etc., or anything else. Our idea is that the story itself is more important than whatever label somebody feels like giving it, and by bringing our work together in collections like this one, we hope readers may find a story they might like. Even if it is not in "their" genre.

    Normally, he’s got swagger in spades, but Cam makes him clam up. No way would a good girl like her crawl into bed with an abomination like him.Studious Cam is chock-full of surprises, though. She sees supernatural beings few other humans know exist and pegged Jason as a demon from the moment she first saw him. She wants him anyway, and decides it’s up to her to make the first move. She does, and not a moment too soon.Jason’s long-absent incubus father pops in to make Jason an offer he can’t refuse, and the duo will have to test the mettle of their budding relationship. Cam has no reservations about being the girlfriend of a cambion, but she didn’t expect that taking the gig would put her on the supernatural hit list!

    But are these disturbing revelations of his life merely the addled fabrications of a cancer-ridden mind, or is there any truth to his frightening claim that a dark and menacing figure has been roaming the land all these many years. About 6,500 words.

    A cynical, wise-cracking vampire charged with protecting the Balance between vampires and humans, he is part cop, part spy, and part commando—a James Bond with fangs. Lawson mixes shrewd cunning with unmatched lethality to get his job done. He tries his best to dismantle conspiracies, dispatch bad guys, and live long enough to get home.This time, Lawson has been given an easy assignment, a "dead drop." That is until an old enemy returns.

    A Roman goddess wants him dead, for one. A terrifying Greek goddess desires a key he possesses. And his safe-and-sound hideout on Earth? Some bloody vampire has decided to take it for his own. Fortunately, Gareth finds help in the unlikeliest of women. Undercover officer Ginger Lorris has never believed in the supernatural. But after meeting the mysterious Gareth Cane, whose eyes sometimes shift to a smoldering gold and skin to a blistering white mane, belief is easy to come by. Still, discovering the drug dealer she's hunting is actually an ancient vampire who threatens her family, Gareth's life and all of Earth is a little bit hard to swallow. To survive, Gareth and Ginger will need the help of a vampire-hunting werewolf, the cooperation of a Greek goddess who has her own agenda, and perhaps even the sacrifice of something neither of them can conceive.

    When Saffron Morin goes to the gates of the demon colony, Eden, in search of her sister, she meets an archangel who is curious one minute and hostile the next, and she ends up the colony’s “guest” against her will. Kestrel’s archangel psychic talent tells him the human woman’s life is in danger. Despite her family’s association with poachers who hunt archangels for their valuable feathers, he vows to save her life. Enemies by birth, lovers by choice, they give in to growing attraction as days pass. Even if he succeeds in saving her life, he must hurt her to protect others of his kind, and he may not be able to live with himself after a betrayal he has no choice but to commit. In order to find redemption, the Collector’s daughter and an archangel must first find each other.

    One power-hungry sorceress. The battle for good and evil has taken a whole new turn...From New York Times Bestselling Author Elisabeth Naughton, the first book in a series about brotherhood, survival and unexpected love in a world filled with magic and betrayal.Careful what you wish for…Sentenced as a pleasure slave, Djinn Prince Tariq of the Marid tribe has but one duty: travel into the human realm and corrupt souls by granting wishes to the women who possess the Firebrand opal, a gemstone of magical power. Ten years of imprisonment have left Tariq bitter, but to save his brothers’ lives, he’ll submit to his endless personal hell, even if it means giving up his own hope for freedom.When Mira Dawson obtains the Firebrand opal, she’s sure the rumors about its magical qualities must be fiction. Until, that is, she touches the stone and a dark and dangerous warrior appears in her living room, offering to pleasure her beyond her wildest dreams. Soon, fantasy becomes a temptation she can’t deny. The only question left is…will the pleasure be worth the price? Because as Mira’s been warned, nothing…not even fantasies…are free.

    It’s accessible only by plane- the better, he thinks, to hide his scars from the rest of the world. What Theo doesn't know is that the island has an incredible secret, one that gives him hope… hope of future happiness, despite the horrible scars that make him a recluse. Hope to be had in the arms of a mysterious blonde he hasn't yet met…

    It is a lesson Nisha learns all too soon - one that puts her on a journey with a dangerously sexy, enigmatic man who will force her to confront the nightmares of her past, and risk her heart for a future she never dreamed could be hers....(Originally published in the Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance 2; Constable & Robinson, 2010.)

    When she’s sold to a warlock, life grows even bleaker. Her new owner is as old and rancid as he is cruel, driving her to do the unthinkable: run.Nothing prepared her for being on her own. And she’s definitely unprepared for the warlocks hunting her down. But she must stay one step ahead because if caught, the best she can hope for is death.

    After two years apart Svala turns on her TV to find Viggo in the public light, posing as a movie star. She tries to seek him out and the events that follow forces some deep buried secrets to surface...Svala and Viggo have spent a hundred lives together over the last thousand years. As Liosálfar, Nordic light fairies, their job is to do good and to uphold a balance in the mortal world. A balance, often compromised by the Döckálfar, Nordic dark fairies. But even good fairies need incentive. Svala and Viggo are kept apart each life until they fulfill their assignments. Only when, and if, they succeed are they allowed to be together for whatever period of time the powers that be decides. Sometimes they are together for decades, other times years and during the last union once only three weeks. In this life, Svala turns on her TV and learns that Viggo has become a popular movie star. This is not only highly unexpected, it indicates something is wrong and that Viggo is attempting to contact Svala before their assignments are carried out, an action which is strictly forbidden.Svala seeks him out, but not without breaking a few rules of her own, and learning that things are not always as they seem.