Each story was specifically written for this anthology.The goal of the Cocktales Anthology is to raise funds to fight against obstruction of creative expression. Specifically, what we believe are obstruction attempts through the trademarking of common (single) words for titicular use in books / or as a book series (eBooks, print, and audio).*ALL* net profits will be donated to:1) Authors already impacted by creative-obstruction (10%), and2) Romance Writers of America (RWA) (90%) as a general donation intended for their Advocacy Fund.Disclaimer: This anthology is not being conducted on behalf of RWA, nor does RWA endorse this anthology or effort. They have, however, graciously agreed to accept the funds.Authors with material included (as they appear in the anthology):Nana Malone, USA Today Bestselling author – ForewordDylan Allen – 'Cocked and Loaded'Jana Aston, NYT, WSJ, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Double Cocked'Whitney Barbetti – 'Cocksure Grin'Author Sawyer Bennett, NYT, WSJ, USA Today Bestselling author – 'A Wicked, Cocky Plan'K.f. Breene, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Magical Cock and Bull'Ruth Clampett, Amazon top 20 Bestselling Author – 'Don’t Get Cocky'L.H. Cosway, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Illusionist Seeks Neanderthal'Mariah Dietz – 'Landmines'Amy Daws, Amazon Top 25 Bestselling author – 'Cock and Balls'BB Easton, Amazon Top 100 Bestselling author – 'Cocky BB: Two Boys, One Prom.'Jaymin Eve, USA Today Bestselling author – 'The Cockier the Dragon, the Harder They Fall'Emma Hart, NYT and USA Today Bestselling author – 'Tricky Bond'Staci Hart, Amazon Top 10 Bestselling author – 'Cockamamie'Jessica Hawkins, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Cocky Couture'Julie Johnson Amazon Top 100 Bestselling author – 'Culinary Cock-Up'Karpov Kinrade, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Crimson Cocktail'Adriana Locke, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Swag'Lex Martin, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Love & Hate at the Stallion Station'Aly Martinez, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Going Down'Katyi McGee - USA Today Bestselling author – 'Cocksure Co-Star'Corinne Michaels, NYT, WSJ, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Cockblocked'Liv Morris, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Getting It Up'Red Phoenix, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Her Cocky Russian'Daisy Prescott, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Confessions of a Cockblocked Wingman'Jessica Prince – ‘A Cocky Corruption Engagement’Meghan Quinn, Amazon Top 20 Bestselling Author – 'Fight or Flight'CD Reiss, NYT and USA Today Bestselling author – 'Cocky Capo'Penny Reid, WSJ and USA Today Bestselling author – 'Beard and Hen'Julie Richman, USA Today Bestselling author – 'The Color of Love'Aleatha Romig, NYT, WSJ, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Aligned'Kennedy Ryan, Top 40 Amazon Bestselling author – 'All'Kylie Scott, NYT, WSJ, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Short Story with Mal and Anne from The Stage Dive Series'Sierra Simone, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Until the Cock Crows'Tara Sivec, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Chocolate and Cockup'Kate Stewart, Amazon Top 30 Bestselling author – 'The Golden Sombrero'Leia Stone, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Cocky Alpha'Karla Sorensen – 'Tristan & Anna: A Bachelors of the Ridge short story'Rachel Van Dyken, NYT, WSJ, USA Today Bestselling author – 'Cocky Mafia'April White, Amazon Top 100 Bestselling author – 'Code of Conduct'

    But before Odd’s destiny is revealed, this exclusive eBook short story looks back — way back — to where it all began for Odd Thomas and Stormy Llewellyn, two souls who are destined to be together forever. Amid the dizzying rides, tantalizing games of chance, and fanciful attractions of a state fair, two teenage sweethearts on the cusp of life and love’s pleasures find their way to a shadowy carnival tent brimming with curiosities. There, from the bizarre and enthralling Gypsy Mummy, a mechanized merchant of dreams and prognosticator of tomorrows, the young couple learns what fate promises for them. But fate, for Odd Thomas and Stormy Llewellyn, is something altogether different: full of dark corners, sharp edges, and things no seer or soothsayer could ever anticipate. And for Odd Thomas, a gallant fry cook from a sleepy California desert town, the future beckons—to listen to unquiet spirits, pursue unsettling mysteries, and learn shocking truths . . . for a purpose far greater than himself.

    This is writing which is more direct, less euphemistic, and frankly accepting of sexuality.

    Here are twenty original stories of diabolical crimes and magical solutions featuring some of today's top science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writers. From the Elizabethan era to the far-flung future, from the interstellar realm of the Eraasian Hegemony to the Las Vegas Strip, these ingenious whodunits (or whatdunits) are sure to baffle and delight every lover of mystery and the fantastic.From WorldCat - Contents:Introduction and Afterword by Rosemary EdghillPiece of Mind by Jennifer RobersonSpecial Surprise Guest Appearance by ... by Carole Nelson DouglasDoppelgangster by Laura ResnickMixed Marriages Can Be Murder by Will GrahamCase of the Headless Corpse by Josepha ShermanDeath in the Working by Debra DoyleCold Case by Diane DuaneSnake in the Grass by Susan R. MatthewsDouble Jeopardy by M.J. HamiltonWitch Sight by Roberta GellisOverrush by Laura Anne GilmanCaptured in Silver by Teresa EdgertonNight at the Opera by Sharon Lee and Steve MillerTremble in the Air by James D. MacdonaldMurder Entailed by Susan KrinardDropping Hints by Lawrence Watt-EvansAu Purr by Esther FriesnerGetting the Chair by Keith R.A. DeCandidoNecromancer's Apprentice by Lillian Stewart CarlGrey Eminence by Mercedes Lackey

     Suspenseful, surprising, sometimes dark, sometimes humorous-these all-new stories will ensure that readers never think of vampires (or birthdays) in quite the same way again. In New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris's "Dracula Night," Sookie Stackhouse is the only human at the annual commemoration of Dracula's birth. But this year, the Prince of Darkness actually shows up-and finds Sookie to be a tasty-looking present. New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher's crime-solving wizard Harry Dresden, of the Dresden Files novels, heads to a role-playing party to give his vampire brother a birthday present in "It's My Birthday Too," only to discover there are some bloodthirsty party crashers who don't share their brotherly love. In "Twilight," Cassandra DuCharme, who appeared in New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's Dime Store Magic, knows she has to kill to live as a vampire another year-but finds herself disturbingly disinterested in the hunt. Plus ten more bloody good birthday stories that take the cake.Contents xi • Preface: A Few Words (Many Bloody Returns) • (2007) • essay by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner1 • Dracula Night • [Sookie Stackhouse 4.3] • shortstory by Charlaine Harris21 • The Mournful Cry of Owls • novelette by Christopher Golden50 • I Was a Teenage Vampire • novelette by Bill Crider73 • Twilight • [Women of the Otherworld Short Fiction 7.2] • novelette by Kelley Armstrong100 • It's My Birthday, Too • [The Dresden Files 9.2] • novella by Jim Butcher146 • Grave-Robbed • [Vampire Files] • novelette by P. N. Elrod176 • The First Day of the Rest of Your Life • [The Morganville Vampires: Extras 2.5] • novelette by Rachel Caine201 • The Witch and the Wicked • novelette by Jeanne C. Stein230 • Blood Wrapped • [Henry Fitzroy] • novelette by Tanya Huff254 • The Wish • shortstory by Carolyn Haines265 • Fire Ice and Linguini for Two • [Garnet Lacey 2.5] • novelette by Lyda Morehouse [as by Tate Hallaway ]290 • Vampire Hours • novelette by Elaine Viets318 • How Stella Got Her Grave Back • novelette by Toni L. P. Kelner

     In "Everything She Does is Magick," a trio of matchmaking witches chooses unsuspecting little Nathan McBride as the perfect mate for their baby niece. The future looks rosy indeed, except for one little catch: they must keep him a virgin!...A lady private eye on the run from some dangerous gangsters invokes a spell of protection in a fit of desperation--and conjures up a dashing musketeer looking for his damsel in distress in "Musketeer By Moonlight."...And in "The Con and the Crusader," Jack McCain jumps into a well-and into the past. Mistaken for a criminal, he's headed for prison, until he's freed-with a wedding proposal!

     A QUESTIONABLE CLIENT – In this ‘intro’ to the Kate Daniels world, we meet the extremely ‘shifty’ Saiman for the very first time, when Kate takes on the task of serving as his bodyguard to protect him from some very determined—and dangerous—Russian wizards. RETRIBUTION CLAUSE – Saiman’s cousin, Adam—a frost giant and also an insurance adjuster—and his enigmatic partner, Siroun, set out on an impossible mission to enforce a client’s Retribution Clause; that is, to kill the person who killed her. But is their target even guilty? Magic and mayhem and a little personal chemistry will reveal the truth! OF SWINE AND ROSES – A young adult story about a girl, a pig, some magic, and the worst date ever. Chad Thurman is a thug, who carries brass knuckles in both pockets and lays magic traps for intruders into "his" neighborhood. The last thing Alena Kornov wants to do is to go on the date with him. But when her family pressures her, she can't say no. Now the ice-cream is absent, the pig is running for its life, and we won't even mention the dead guy... GRACE OF SMALL MAGICS – Grace has always known she wasn’t like everyone else and that her family has magic abilities. After flying to meet the head of Clan Dreoch in order to fulfill her families’ “duties” as servants, Grace finds herself in the middle of a mage clan war… MAGIC TESTS – A short story in the Kate Daniels universe. Kate recruits her teenage ward, Julie, to search out a missing student whose location spell has her hidden somewhere on campus…

    A man from Alaska advertises for a bride in Seattleand finds one. A businesswoman marries her company's prize chemist to allow him to stay in the country. All unusual marriages. All couples who don't seem to be well-suited. And yet love can come about in unexpected ways!Three classic romance novels by Debbie Macomber. One great price!This bundle includes: MARRIAGE WANTEDBRIDE WANTEDGROOM WANTED

    A gambler's paradise for innocent tourists, it conceals a darker, sexual world where the ethereal and wraithlike meet to play a different game…If there's one thing succubus Deitre understands it's revenge. That, and enticing men into arousing, exciting and, okay, perilous sex (for him). Beautiful on the outside, demon on the inside, she's going to get back at the naughty firefighter in Darkness…unless he plays his cards right…Bounty hunter Nell is a hell of a tracker. Now she's in Vegas on the tail of the witch who dared to steal from her clan. She's going to get to the unsavory harlot through the woman's ex-fiancé, and nothing about their charged encounters will be shallow, quick or friendly.When the half-blood fae male comes to club Darkness, Elena can't resist acting on the mind-blowing heat coursing between them. She might be betrothed to another, but fae culture says sex with other men until marriage is most definitely foretold.Tattoo artist Devi is the latent vampire the warlocks need to heal all wounds. But taking her power is a sexually exhausting and dangerous task requiring dark deception…and gambling on her life.

    RainSix years ago federal agent Samantha Moon was the perfect wife and mother, your typical soccer mom with the minivan and suburban home. Then the unthinkable happens, an attack that changes her life forever. And forever is a very long time for a vampire. Now the world at large thinks Samantha has developed a rare skin disease, a disease which forces her to quit her day job and stay out of the light of the sun. Now working the night shift as a private investigator, Samantha is hired by Kingsley Fulcrum to investigate the murder attempt on his life, a horrific scene captured on TV and seen around the country. But as the case unfolds, Samantha discovers Kingsley isn't exactly what he appears to be; after all, there is a reason why he survived five shots to the head.VAMPIRE LOVE STORYby H.T. NightJosiah Reign is a lover and a fighter. Out for a simple jog, he happens upon a young woman who needs help. So Josiah does what he does best. He takes on her attackers...all five of them, in fact. Little does Josiah know that this one act of goodwill will introduce him to a very strange world, a world of dreams...and nightmares. For this woman, Lena, is not who she seems, and her friends are the stuff of legends. Worse yet, Josiah finds himself falling for not one, but two of these deadly creatures of the night. And as Josiah suffers a devastating loss that rocks his world, he will fight for what he believes in. He will fight for his one true love. And fighting is what Josiah does best.THE VAMPIRES' LAST LOVERby Aiden JamesTxema Ybarra is the most unenviable nineteen-year-old girl alive. Smart, pretty, and athletically gifted, this University of Tennessee freshman should be enjoying college life and her entrance into adulthood. And for a moment she does…until the vampires show up. Born with an unusual ‘twin teardrop’ birthmark on her neck, Txema (pronounced Chema) is one of only a handful of females in the world who bear this trait. It marks her as a vessel of eternal youth and beauty for an elite vampire society determined to protect her precious blood….But it also is the only thing standing in the way of a rogue ‘undead’ nation determined to destroy mankind and usurp the power their sexier brethren have held uncontested for centuries.(Includes a clickable Table of Contents.)

    Blame it on the moon? Sure. But who's complaining, anyway...Lori Foster "Once in a Blue Moon"It's all because of that stupid blue moon. That's what Stan Tucker thinks as he walks through Delicious, Ohio, suddenly privy to everyone's innermost thoughts, a gift courtesy of a rare blue moon. What most people have on their minds is boring-grocery lists, work woes, appointments. But not Jenna Rowan's super-private thoughts. The pretty, shy bookstore owner is having decidedly hot thoughts about Stan...naked, sweaty, not-for-primetime thoughts. Stan's lusted after Jenna for ages, but he never thought the proper lady was interested. Now that he knows, he intends to do something about it, and this time, he won't be the only one howling at the moon...Lucy Monroe "Moon Magnetism"Ivy Kendall dreads the full moon. For generations, women in her family have been extremely magnetic on that day-which was fine fifty years ago but not in the age of hard drives and cell phones. That's why the hotel manager has resisted the technological improvements her boss wants her to implement. Now, the sexy, dynamic Blake Hawthorne is coming to insist on the upgrades in person. Shoot, he'll probably fire her. Being around Blake makes her body go as haywire as a full moon, maybe even more. And as long as she's going to be out of a job soon, there's no reason not to use a little of that magnetism to her advantage, luring him into an elevator where the only electricity that will work is the kind they generate themselves...Dianne Castell "Moonstruck"For years, Julia Simon has had the worst luck, married to a man who cheated on her left, right, and center. Now, the pretty divorcee is ready for her luck to change, and it is...big time. Ever since she unknowingly performed a Blue Moon ritual, Julia's wishes seem to be coming true. So why not wish for wild, unbridled passionate sex with hunky P.I. Marc Adams? Well, because when it happens, it's so amazingly good, that's why. Now, with the blue moon due to end in three days' time, Julia can only wonder if it's just a spell or the start of a whole new life... Be careful of wishful thinking. It just might get you everything.

    In a new novella told through his letters, his history is revealed.

    With their insanely strong psychic powers, seers have been used to wage wars, commit terrorism, expand organized crime, even take over governments.As a waitress and college dropout, Allie only sees seers at a distance, usually working in front of sex clubs, or on the leash of powerful businessmen… until Revik bursts into her life.Before long, Allie is thrown into a world behind the world, one most humans never dreamed existed, where she discovers she may not be all that human, after all.Worse, Revik tells her that the seers believe she will destroy the world.She will kill all the humans.She will be the one to finally free them from slavery.Psychic romance. Apocalyptic.The first chapter in an epic, soul-crushing, science fantasy romance.THE BRIDGE & SWORD SERIES is a dark, gritty psychic warfare romance, from a USA TODAY and WALL STREET JOURNAL bestselling author. Set in a gritty, alternate version of Earth, it stars Alyson Taylor and her partner, dark and dangerous infiltrator, Dehgoies Revik. For fans of romantic, character-driven science fiction and fantasy worlds, filled with twists and turns and backstabbing betrayals, with heroes and villains who are sometimes the same people. The Bridge & Sword books span continents and historical periods as Allie and Revik try to save the human and seer races from destroying one another, and keep their friends and loved ones alive in the process.The world is dying. Everyone feels it, and yet... no one knows.They said that when the end was near, a Bridge would come, and lead them out of the darkness of that dying world.My name is Allie Taylor, and I am that Bridge.

    A short story taking place several years before Would-Be Witch begins, and from Bryn Lyons' point of view for the first time.

    Four New York Times bestselling authors. One supernaturally seductive town where "Desperate Housewives meets Charmed" (Fresh Fiction). Welcome to Mysteria, Colorado, home to a vegan vampire, a neighborly werewolf, a pair of sisterly witches, a demon nanny, and many more creatures that go bump in the night. Passions run high in this hot two-in-one omnibus edition of Mysteria and Mysteria Lane.