Ladies, be sure to catch our interview with the reclusive, oh-so-sexy Dark One Grayson Soucek, when he talks to our reporter about what it's like to be one of the Otherworld's most eligible (and titled!) bachelors. Gray dishes all on what he's looking for in a permanent blood donor, his turn-ons and turn-offs, and what he likes on a date (hint—dinner in a romantic dungeon is one way to this vampire's heart). It's all in our next edition of Lifestyles of the Rich and Undead!

    Already she’s had to deal with her boyfriend’s obnoxious band groupies, a stalker leaving cryptic notes, having to watch a seer get tasered. She also keeps running into this weird cop who’s got some kind of issue with her. But when she’s targeted by a religious cult for an end of the world ritual, her visit goes from annoying to quite probably fatal.

    Especially when you're Maggie MacKay and tasked with chaperoning the local high school Valentine's dance. Join Maggie and Killian on a holiday, short story adventure. Sometimes you wrestle with demons. And sometimes they just want to cuddle...A part of the Maggie MacKay: Holiday Special short story series. This stands independently from the main Magical Tracker series and can be read at any time and in any order.

    Short Story in the December Newsletter

    Marooned in the run-down seaside resort of Cole Bay, his life is a horrible comedy of errors that has trapped him in the country's most dismal place at the worst possible time - the early '70s. He dreams of escaping the crumbling pier and the grumbling pensioners, of finding a place where he is appreciated, but it's the one thing he can't do. Until he discovers a faraway land with characters who are impossibly exotic, but strangely familiar. In the kingdom of Calabash he can have everything he's ever wanted from life. There's only one small problem. Calabash doesn't actually exist. In an England that's still hungover from the 60s, Kay finds it all too easy to retreat from reality. Everyone in Cole Bay expects him to conform, but Kay is prepared to risk everything to find out what makes him different, what his life really holds, and what will happen if he believes in the impossible.

    The challenge was to write about a famous urban legend in our characters’ voices, and my urban legend was The Hook.This story features Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth and Constable Newberry from The Iron Duke.

    At least, that's what her cards tell her and they've never been wrong. She's evicted from her apartment, loses her job and is banned from Beverly Hills. So when the tarot cards predict her imminent demise, she uses a little magic to make her world right.Suddenly, an aunt she's never met dies, leaving Mara as her sole heir. But when Mara moves into her inherited home, she discovers Aunt Tillie never moved out. She's still one pissed-off old lady, even post-mortem, and she blames Mara's magical meddling for her death.When Mara accidentally releases a demon and awakens the spirit of the most powerful witch in history, Tillie's ready to kill her -- literally. It's the only way she can think of to save the girl from herself. The witch and the demon, however, have other plans for Mara's body.

    But her innocent exterior conceals an important fact: Amelia is a member of the Fangborn, a secret family of werewolves, vampires, and oracles sworn to protect Ordinary humans, and she uses her Fangborn werewolf gifts to help Holmes solve the curious cases that cross the doorstep of 221B Baker Street.When the Baker Street Irregulars show up at Holmes’s residence with an unconscious boy in tow and reports of a kidnapping, the detective and Amelia spring into action—but the case quickly proves to be most perplexing indeed. And when they realize their new enemy’s terrible intentions, the pair must fight back with all their wits and strength before their lives—and those of all Fangborn—are destroyed forever.

    And witches! (Or militant vegans.) And worst of all, her friends, all of whom remember a life-changing story very differently. Unfortunately, when you live in a mansion with vampires, at least one ghost, the only zombies in the world, and the occasional human, it can be hard for everyone to end up on the same page. But Betsy is determined to clear up the mystery, and she's not letting anyone hijack her narrative. Really. She'll pull it off. Everyone will have to admit she's right. Yep. (Really!)

    Luckily something even better comes up: a real celestial bounty-hunter mission to trail a shaman, someone who might prove to be a useful lead in Kristof’s court case. Following the target goes smoothly, until he leads Eve to the British Museum, where she inadvertently steps into a secret dimensional passage and stumbles upon a far more enticing puzzle . . . and a much greater danger.This collection also includes Stalked (Otherworld #7.3), previously printed in My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon.It’s not a good sign when Elena Michaels and Clayton Danvers resort to everyday activities on their long-awaited honeymoon in St. Louis. But their encroaching boredom is about to take a backseat to an unexpected threat that catches Clay’s attention. A non-pack werewolf is clearly stalking them—out to claim Elena for himself—and Clay has no intention of letting the upstart mutt spoil their romantic getaway, even if that means deceiving Elena as he pursues the rival werewolf on his own.Includes an exclusive early look at the first seven chapters of Thirteen, the Otherworld series finale coming July 24, 2012.

    Mothers tell their children there isn’t anything in the shadows that isn’t there in the light. They are wrong. The reason humanity is afraid of the dark is because that’s when demons come out to play. The ghosts that fight them can’t come out until the sun goes down, either. And Soul’s Agents, like Navi? They’re just normal, boring people until the moon claims the sky. And then they aren’t. Death allows lost souls one last chance. Fight with the Agents against demons and darkness and evil and they won’t spend eternity roasting on a spit. It seems like an easy enough choice, but apparently roasting is easy and requires little effort, and fighting, well… Fighting is hard. Twenty-two year old Navi is an Agent, and she is good at what she does. Her only distraction is the boy who broke her heart four years ago—especially when the demons she hunts start hunting him, and she’s the only one who can keep him alive.

    Spooky Nook is a 10,000-word "prequel of sorts" to The Calling, a supernatural thriller by Robert Swartwood.

    From Rob Thurman, the New York Times bestselling author of the Cal Leandros, comes this wicked, mind-bending short story—from the Carniepunk urban fantasy anthology.

     Chuck and Mongo find themselves face to face with visitors of the third kind in a place that no one would ever suspect them. Serpent Con in Atlanta. The boys are there for a little fun and relaxation among the science fiction and fantasy world. Only trouble could come of this when these two are turned loose together. Enjoy this short tale ripped from the headlines of Comic cons everywhere.

    He keeps to himself until a pesky female journalist arrives, anxious to interview him about his checkered past—his last assistant disappeared under mysterious and bloody circumstances, earning him the nickname “The Deadly Daggerman.”Unsinkable journalist and adventurer Jacinda Harville doesn’t take no for an answer, and she’s determined to wear down Marco no matter how threatening—or incredibly desirable—he might appear. He agrees to an interview—but only if she’ll let him strap her to a spinning table and throw knives at her body. How can she say no? And how can she resist him when he leans close for a kiss that strikes her more sharply than any blade? It’s the first time she’s let a man get the better of her, and she’s determined it will be the last…Just when she thinks she can’t take any more of his games, Jacinda receives a note from Marco saying he’s finally ready to tell her the truth about what happened to his missing assistant. She sets out for an address miles away, but what she finds there turns the tables on everything she thought she knew about the tender lover who wears a smile as sharp as his knives.As secrets are unraveled and passions take hold, Jacinda realizes her hard heart has melted. But will it be too late to save Marco—and herself—from the daggerman’s dangerous past?