Book picks similar to
Fatal Storm by Carrie Vaughn


urban-fantasy
ebook
carrie-vaughn
short-stories

Malediction


Melissa F. Olson - 2015
     In life, Samantha Wheaton often got the last word—and not much has changed after her death. To find out what really happened to her sister, boundary witch Allison “Lex” Luther will travel to Los Angeles to talk to Cruz, the former LAPD detective who investigated the murder. When Jesse proves reluctant to talk, however, Lex must find more of the people connected to the Henry Remus case –including a young woman with a very ugly dog and very familiar powers. As she searches for answers, Lex finds herself venturing deeper down a rabbit hole—one that may lead her to a big bad wolf. Note: This story is set between Boundary Crossed and Boundary Lines.

Birthrights


Christine M. Butler - 2010
    She awakens in the morning to find that her sketch, a rare glimpse into the future, has already become reality.Jasmine DeLaney leaves her life behind when an abusive boyfriend puts her in the hospital. She becomes Jaxon, an art consultant in a new town, always looking over her shoulder for the danger she knows will catch up to her eventually.As Caislyn scrambles for clues to her parents' whereabouts, she casts a spell that leads her to Jaxon. From the moment they meet, the girls are immersed in a world of chaos and secrets. Finding out they are part of a very dangerous prophecy not only has them on the run, but discovering their own hidden pasts as well.While trying to come to grips with who they are, how they fit into this prophecy, and where Caislyn's parents are the girls must also face the fact that the stalker vampire who appears to be helping them, may just be putting them in more danger.* The Bonus Edition includes three short stories about various characters in The Awakening Trilogy.

Holiday Magic


Nikki Jefford - 2014
    It's never been harder than when she and boyfriend Raj McKenna travel to Paris to spend winter break with Lee's duplicate, Gray, and her boyfriend, Adrian Montez.Celebrating the holidays with the shifty warlock isn't Lee's idea of a holly jolly good time, but she fears poor Gray is still under the influence of a love spell. Why else would she settle down with the brute? It's up to Lee to make sure her duplicate isn't being duped.Holiday Magic is a special edition Spellbound story about love, forgiveness and second chances.(Recommended after reading the Spellbound Trilogy, but can be enjoyed as a stand-alone story. YA Mature/NA. 11,000 words.)

Dancing


Laurell K. Hamilton - 2013
    But Anita isn’t exactly plain vanilla—and neither is her love life. So it takes a special kind of courage to attend a barbecue thrown by her friend Sergeant Zerbrowski. Walking into a backyard full of cops and their families with wereleopards Micah and Nathaniel both looking gorgeous on her arm won’t be easy, even with almost-four-year-old Matthew Vespucci to break the ice…Anita is determined to have a good time with her family, just like everyone else. But it doesn’t take long for tensions to rise among the adults and kids. And Anita will learn that gossip and innuendo can be just as dangerous as anything the undead can throw at her…Includes a preview of Affliction, the new Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel.

A Caress of Wings


Sylvia Day - 2012
    Chained in the dark, Trevor Descansos endures pain and terror as vampires slowly drain the life from him. He finds mercy in Sentinel Siobhan, a beautiful avenging angel with lethal wings. She draws Trevor from the depths of hell, wrapping him in the softness of the same feathers that she wielded like blades to cut down his tormentors. Ageless and eternal, Siobhan has seen too much to be surprised by anything, but the mortal she finds in the pit of a vampire den shakes her to the core. Broken and near death, his ravaged masculine beauty stirs the heart she hadn't realized she possessed. Though she's tasked with eradicating the vampire disease sweeping across her world, she nurses Trevor back to health, healing him even as he awakens a forbidden longing. But the true test has yet to come. Siobhan faces an even darker fate than Trevor's, as she falls from grace into mortal love... Includes a preview of the next Renegade Angels novel, "A Hunger So Wild"

Naked City


Ellen DatlowJohn Crowley - 2011
    In Jim Butcher’s ”Curses”, Harry Dresden investigates how to lift a curse laid by the Fair Folk on the Chicago Cubs. In Patricia Briggs’ “Fairy Gifts,”, a vampire is called home by magic to save the Fae who freed him from a dark curse. In Melissa Marr’s “Guns for the Dead”, the newly dead Frankie Lee seeks a job in the afterlife on the wrong side of the law. In Holly Black’s “Noble Rot”, a dying rock star discovers that the young woman who brings him food every day has some strange appetites of her own.Featuring original stories from 20 authors, this dark, captivating, fabulous, and fantastical collection is not to be missed!Contents:Curses / by Jim Butcher --How the pooka came to New York City / by Delia Sherman --On the slide / by Richard Bowes --The Duke of Riverside / by Ellen Kushner --Oblivion by Calvin Klein / by Christopher Fowler --Fairy gifts / by Patricia Briggs --Picking up the pieces / by Pat Cadigan --Underbridge / by Peter S. Beagle --Priced to sell / by Naomi Novik --The bricks of Gelecek / by Matthew Kressel --Weston walks / by Kit Reed --The projected girl/ by Lavie Tidhar --The way station / by Nathan Ballingrud --Guns for the dead / by Melissa Marr --And go like this / by John Crowley --Noble rot / by Holly Black --Daddy longlegs of the evening / by Jeffrey Ford --The skinny girl / by Lucius Shepard --The Colliers' Venus (1893) / by Caitlín R. Kiernan --King pole, gallows pole, bottle tree / by Elizabeth Bear.

Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions


Melissa MarrClaudia Gray - 2011
    14 original teen paranormal short stories YA talent, united with the common theme of road trips.Contents:Introduction by Melissa Marr & Kelley Armstrong1 Giovanni’s Farewell by Claudia Gray2 Scenic Route (The Forest of Hands and Teeth #0.5) by Carrie Ryan3 Red Run by Kami Garcia4 Things About Love (Genies #1.5) by Jackson Pearce5 Niederwald (Soul Screamers #4.5) by Rachel Vincent6 Merely Mortal (Wicked Lovely #5.5) by Melissa Marr7 Facing Facts (Darkest Powers #3.6) by Kelley Armstrong8 Let’s Get this Undead Show on the Road by Sarah Rees Brennan9 Bridge (Shade #2.5) by Jeri Smith-ReadySkin Contact (The Body Finder #2.5) by Kimberly Derting10 Leaving by Ally Condie11 At The Late Night, Double Feature, Picture Show by Jessica Verday12 IV League by Margaret Stohl13 Gargouille by Mary E. Pearson14 The Third Kind by Jennifer Lynn Barnes15 Automatic (The Morganville Vampires: Extras) by Rachel Caine

Blood Song


Cat Adams - 2010
    But her newest job takes the cake. Guarding a prince from terrorists and religious fundamentalists is hard enough, but it seems like the entire supernatural world is after this guy too. When she is betrayed by those she is employed to help, and everything goes horribly wrong, Celia wakes to find herself transformed.Neither human nor vampire, Celia has become an abomination-something that should not exist-and now both human and supernatural alike want her dead. With the help of a few loyal friends-a sexy mage, a powerful werewolf, and a psychic cop-Celia does her best to stay alive. On the run from her enemies, Celia must try to discover who is behind her transformation . . . before it's too late.

Glimpse


Stacey Wallace Benefiel - 2010
    At her sixteenth birthday party, held in the basement of her dad’s church, she finally finds the courage to talk to him. Turns out, the devastating crush is mutual.As Avery takes her hand and leads her out onto the makeshift dance floor, Zellie is overwhelmed by her first vision of his death; shocking because not only are they both covered in his blood, but they’re old, like thirty-five, and she is pregnant.Afraid to tell anyone about the vision, (she’d just be labeled a freaky black magic witch, right?) Zellie keeps the knowledge of Avery’s future to herself and tries to act like any other teenager in love. When they get caught on their way to a secret rendezvous by her mom and his dad, they are forbidden to see each other.Convinced that their parents are freaking out unnecessarily, Avery and Zellie vow to be together no matter what. They continue their relationship in secret until Zellie learns that their parents are just trying to prevent her and Avery from suffering like they did. The visions are hereditary, they’re dangerous, and if they stay together the visions will come true.Now Zellie must choose between severing all ties with Avery, like her mom did to prevent his father’s death, and finding a way to change Avery’s future.

Magic of the Gargoyles


Rebecca Chastain - 2014
    But when a panicked baby gargoyle bursts into her studio, insisting Mika is the only person she’ll trust with her desperate mission, Mika’s carefully constructed five-year plan is shattered. Swept into the gritty criminal underworld of Terra Haven, Mika must jeopardize everything she’s worked so hard for to save the baby gargoyle from the machinations of a monster—and to stay alive…

Shifting Shadows


Patricia Briggs - 2014
    “Roses in Winter”... “Redemption”... “Hollow” …and reader favorites“Fairy Gifts”“Gray”“Alpha and Omega”“Seeing Eye”“The Star of David”“In Red, with Pearls”

Nordic Fairies, Part 1: Nordic Fairies


Saga Berg - 2012
    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.

Goddess with a Blade


Lauren Dane - 2011
    Physical vessel to the Celtic Goddess Brigid and raised by the leader of the Vampire Nation, she's a supercharged hunter with the power to slay any vampire who violates the age-old treaty.A recent string of murders has her at odds with Las Vegas's new Scion, the arrogant and powerful Clive Stewart. The killings have the mark of Vampire all over them, and Rowan warns Clive to keep his people in line—or she'll mete out her own brand of justice.Though her dealings with Clive are adversarial to say the least, Rowan is intensely aware of her attraction to him. But she can't let it distract her from her duty—to find and battle the killer before more women die.73,000 words

Leashing the Tempest


Jenn Bennett - 2012
    But then there’s the challenge of her boyfriend’s precocious teenage son…Arcadia "Cady" Bell may have saved the Hellfire Club’s children from a local bogeyman, but she and her Earthbound demon boyfriend, Lon Butler, now face a more disturbing problem: his teenage son’s new demonic abilities. Jupe Butler can persuade you to do anything—or so he thinks. To test the limits of his newfound power, Cady invites the co-owner of Tambuku Tiki Lounge to be the teen’s guinea pig during an afternoon boat cruise. But when an angry storm whips the Pacific into a frenzy and Jupe puts them all in serious danger, will Cady's magick trump a teenager’s excess confidence?

Nightshifted


Cassie Alexander - 2012
    Burn victims? No problem. Severed limbs? Piece of cake. Vampires? No way in hell. But as the newest nurse on Y4, the secret ward hidden in the bowels of County Hospital, Edie has her hands full with every paranormal patient you can imagine—from vamps and were-things to zombies and beyond...Edie’s just trying to learn the ropes so she can get through her latest shift unscathed.  But when a vampire servant turns to dust under her watch, all hell breaks loose. Now she’s haunted by the man’s dying words—Save Anna—and before she knows it, she’s on a mission to rescue some poor girl from the undead. Which involves crashing a vampire den, falling for a zombie, and fighting for her soul. Grey’s Anatomy was never like this ...