It is told from the point of view of Mab Monroe and shows how the Fire elemental grew up, including her first meeting with Eira Snow, Gin’s mother.

    Get ready for a twist on the holiday season with paranormal tales from six fantasy authors: "The Grandfather Paradox: An UltraSecurity Christmas Story" by J. T. Bock A Billionaire, a Christmas Dinner, and the Grandfather Paradox Nobody has time for this, especially UltraAgent TimeTrap. Between holiday drinks with friends, visiting long-lost family, and her mother's reality show special, TimeTrap's time is limited—even for an alt-jumper like her who can travel through space and time. Another alt-jumper is messing with her mojo and her timeline. UltraAgents are missing. Her bosses have disappeared. Now she has to protect the next target, a hot CEO of a large defense company. Is there enough time to save the day and Christmas and enjoy a holiday cocktail with a special someone? "The Naughty List" by Debra Dunbar Samantha Martin is an Imp, on holiday with her angelic main-squeeze, Gregory. What better place to show an angel the true meaning of Christmas than a small Alpine resort town? But it’s hard to keep up the impish good cheer when people are being murdered for their sinful ways. Could the killer be. . . Santa? "The Biting Cold" by Mark Henwick Detroit. A bitter winter. A city coming apart and a woman holding on to her rapidly ebbing life. Psychiatrist Dr. Amanda Lloyd is focused only on living long enough to give her testimony in court and put a vicious criminal away. The defense lawyers are fighting for a postponement she can’t afford and digging into her own mental problems in an attempt to discredit her. She can’t spare time for the patient who claims to be a vampire. Unless what he offers her is exactly what she needs. "Facing the Darkness" by Susan Illene Kerbasi, a former guardian of Purgatory, has resisted every effort to help him find his humanity. After forty-five hundred years of tending to his prisoners in the cruelest of ways he feels he's above the petty concerns of mankind. But what's he to do when he's charged with bringing comfort to a boy sick with cancer during the holiday season? This is one child who just might break through that impervious wall he's wrapped around his heart. "Cat and Moused" by J.C. Mells Moused Thurman was sure there had to be better ways to spend Christmas Eve than being held hostage in an elevator by a sexy, sassy, vampire-assassin. But for the life of him, he couldn't think of one. "A Christmas Feral" by Connie Suttle Cassie is running from the man who forced her to become his fiancée. Parke is stepping into his father's shoes as Chancellor of everything paranormal. The two are on a collision course with unpredictable results. What should you do when a Truth Demon marries a Fire Demon? Get the hell out of Seattle.

    Kelley Armstrong returns to the Otherworld with "Chaotic," where a half-demon tabloid journalist's boring date is saved...by a supernatural explosion? She's off to save the day—if only her less-than-stellar date wouldn't tag along! Luckily, the intriguing, infuriating, and just plain sexy werewolf/jewel thief Karl Marsten also appears.

    Of miniscule stature, rather beastly looks, and with fragile, delicate wings, even his family has shunned him, banished him from his beloved Paris. That he is the only gargoyle ever to help defeat the Dark Lord and his hordes of minions makes no impression. But now Levet has come home, determined to be restored to the official Gargoyle Guild. To do so, he must confront the most feared gargoyle in all of Europe. The one who tried to kill him as a child: his own mother. . .With few allies, Levet's survival may depend on the aid of two strangers: Valla, a beautiful but damaged nymph, and Elijah, the fiercely possessive, love-struck vampire clan chief to whom she can't quite surrender--unless Levet has something to do with it. . .

    She draws upon her dark powers and serpentine grace to lead men into temptation. That is, until she faces her greatest temptation, Heaven's own Sir Hugh Castleford. Once a knight and now a Guardian, Hugh's purpose has always been to thwart Lillith, even as he battles treacherous hunger for her. When a deadly alliance unleashes a threat to humans and Guardians angel and demon are forced to fight together against evil and against a passionate desire for each other.

    He longs to break free and feel the wind in his feathers, but he cannot leave the endless darkness without permission from above. When he senses someone calling him, he seizes his chance for freedom, but soon discovers the call came from a beautiful woman he has watched over from Hell, a woman who casts a spell on him and awakens the darkest desires of his heart.Serenity is shocked when a wickedly sensual black-winged angel shows up in her city of Paris claiming that she called him when she was only casting a simple vengeance spell. He’s no other than the angel of death! When the lethally handsome warrior offers to obey her and give her revenge, Serenity can’t resist the temptation, but can she resist the forbidden hungers the dark angel stirs in her?Intense and passionate, Her Dark Angel is a tale of desire and deepest forbidden love guaranteed to set your heart racing.

    “Signatures of the Dead” tells the story of the vampire massacre that made Jane Yellowrock a household name.And in “Cajun with Fangs,” Jane makes a new friend who turns out to have old enemies, and finds herself drawn into a vicious blood feud, fueled by dark magic and ancient grudges.

    . . . Being the spawn of two infamous occultists (and alleged murderers) isn’t easy, but freewheeling magician Arcadia “Cady” Bell knows how to make the best of a crummy situation. After hiding out for seven years, she’s carved an incognito niche for herself slinging drinks at the demon-friendly Tambuku Tiki Lounge.But she receives an ultimatum when unexpected surveillance footage of her notorious parents surfaces: either prove their innocence or surrender herself. Unfortunately, the only witness to the crimes was an elusive Æthyric demon, and Cady has no idea how to find it. She teams up with Lon Butler, an enigmatic demonologist with a special talent for sexual spells and an arcane library of priceless stolen grimoires. Their research soon escalates into a storm of conflict involving missing police evidence, the decadent Hellfire Club, a ruthless bounty hunter, and a powerful occult society that operates way outside the law. If Cady can’t clear her family name soon, she’ll be forced to sacrifice her own life . . . and no amount of running will save her this time.

    Glow is the sultry short story, Shimmer, as told through the eyes of Reyes Farrow.It is available on the author's website for free: http://www.daryndajones.com/glow-by-d...From a timeline perspective, it follows after book 5.

    Connected politically and personally, he possesses a unique ability to segue into and out of human life. He’s never been afraid to use his animal’s dominance to his advantage and, though he and Toman—the Alpha of Willow Bend—are often at odds, his loyalty to the pack has never truly been tested. Not until he meets Tiffany.Tiffany Anderson grew up hard in a world defined by its uncertainties. Meeting Giles Taglioni seemed like a happy accident turned fairy tale. Five years into the abusive marriage, Tiffany wants out. Tiffany knows Taglioni will never let go of his daughter—he’d kill her before he lets her take Alexis away from him. A desperate woman with no options until a chance encounter changes everything.Ryan is like no one Tiffany’s ever met, but she doesn’t dare believe him when he offers to help her. Long ago made familiar with the monsters in the dark, she doesn’t dream of princes on white horses sweeping her away. She also never imagined a big, bad wolf was exactly what she needed.

    With ninety-nine kills under her belt, there's nothing in the universe that can make her underestimate herself...until she's sent to hunt and kill Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse, or as Violet knows him... Lucas Cross Her ex-mentor and ex-lover. Choosing between her heart and her job is one of the hardest decisions she'll ever make, but as the feud between the Never Dark realm and the Underworld reaches boiling point, she must complete the mission... Or Earth will pay the ultimate price.

    Kara was hoping to use her occult skills to catch a serial killer, but never had she conjured anything like this unearthly beautiful and unspeakably powerful being whose very touch set off exquisite new dimensions of pleasure. But can she enlist his aid in helping her stop a killer who's already claimed the lives'and souls'of thirteen people? And should she? The Symbol Man is a nightmare that the city thought had ended three years ago. Now he's back for an encore and leaving every indication on the flesh of his victims that he, too, is well versed in demonic lore.Kara may be the only cop on Beaulac's small force able to stop the killer, but it is her first homicide case. Yet with Rhyzkahl haunting her dreams, and a handsome yet disapproving FBI agent dogging her waking footsteps, she may be in way over her head...

    But when Dory Basarab is called to a crime scene in a smelly basement in Queens, she discovers that that may no longer be the case. Somebody has developed a new weapon, a vamp killer, and left her plenty of clues to follow. One of them leads her to the other side of the world, and to a city like no other, where the paranormal is normal and where death stalks the streets. Can she defeat a clever killer before he kills again, and on an unprecedented scale?

    Some bring good works and miracles. And some bring unimaginable evil....Charlie Madigan is a divorced mother of one, and a kick-ass cop trained to take down the toughest human and off-world criminals. She's recently returned from the dead after a brutal attack, an unexplained revival that has left her plagued by ruthless nightmares and random outbursts of strength that make doing her job for Atlanta P.D.'s Integration Task Force even harder. Since the Revelation, the criminal element in Underground Atlanta has grown, leaving Charlie and her partner Hank to keep the chaos to a dull roar. But now an insidious new danger is descending on her city with terrifying speed, threatening innocent lives: a deadly, off-world narcotic known as ash. Charlie is determined to uncover the source of ash before it targets another victim -- but can she protect those she loves from a force more powerful than heaven and hell combined?

    Demonic possession. Elise Kavanagh stabbing things and...baking cookies? It's just another bloody Valentine's Day in the life of a demon hunter and her witchy partner.This is a short story about the length of two chapters in my other books (9000 words), which takes place before the events of Death's Hand. It's a gift to my existing readers, who believe deep in their hearts that James's butt needs to be slapped once in a while. I agree completely, readers. Trust me.