She survived three weeks of being kidnapped and tortured, and it has left her emotionally and physically scarred. Across the street from her house, strange things are happening…Mysterious noises haunt the residents, faucets turn on by themselves, and footsteps can be heard running up and down the stairs. It all centers around Noah, a two year old child. Babysitters have run screaming from the house. Caleb Malone has been dumped into a teeming hornet’s nest…He’s always been the good son, done everything asked of him, and even gave up graduate school to join the family business of hunting supernatural villains. He’s convinced himself he’s happy, that his duty to his gift should come before anything else. Until he meets Mary Cross. She gives him hope that things can be different, that he can be different. Together, the two of them must solve the mystery of the two shadows stalking the child and save him from whatever has attached itself to him. Time is running out and to save Noah, forcing Mary to face her own demons. But in doing so…has she put a target on her back?

    Now, in Stay Awake, Chaon returns to that form for the first time since his masterly Among the Missing, a finalist for the National Book Award.In these haunting, suspenseful stories, lost, fragile, searching characters wander between ordinary life and a psychological shadowland. They have experienced intense love or loss, grief or loneliness, displacement or disconnection—and find themselves in unexpected, dire, and sometimes unfathomable situations.A father’s life is upended by his son’s night terrors—and disturbing memories of the first wife and child he abandoned; a foster child receives a call from the past and begins to remember his birth mother, whose actions were unthinkable; a divorced woman experiences her own dark version of “empty-nest syndrome”; a young widower is unnerved by the sudden, inexplicable appearances of messages and notes—on dollar bills, inside a magazine, stapled to the side of a tree; and a college dropout begins to suspect that there’s something off, something sinister, in his late parents’ house.Dan Chaon’s stories feature scattered families, unfulfilled dreamers, anxious souls. They exist in a twilight realm—in a place by the window late at night when the streets are empty and the world appears to be quiet. But you are up, unable to sleep. So you stay awake.

    In all of his years there has only been one for him. What will he risk to get back what is his by right?This is a short story and is the prequel to Love and Blood, book 1 in the Blood Ties series due out in January 2013

    If the the elderly patriarch showed the kindness and foresight to split his land cleanly between his feuding descendants, then a truce could be arranged.But his final request is a strange one, delivered across the country to the straggling remnants of his tribe. Representatives from both families must visit a cave at the edge of his property in the hills of Kentucky. There, he promised, they would find his last will and testament.But there's more than paperwork waiting underground, as vindictive old Heaster was well aware.In 1775, Daniel Boone and a band of axe-wielding frontiersmen struggled to clear a path through the Cumberland Gap into the heart of Bluegrass country, and they did not work unopposed. Hounded and harried by an astonishing monster, the axe-men overcame the beast by sheer numbers and steel. They threw its body into a nearby cave.It was not dead.And now, it is not alone.Crippled and outraged, for 100 years something terrible has huddled underground, dreaming of meat and revenge. But its newest callers are heavily armed, skeptical of their instructions, and predisposed to violence.With their guns and their savage instincts, Heaster's grandchildren will not make for easy pickings.

    Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

    On a trip to the island, Joyce Parker's daughter falls in love with a beautiful but sinister doll. Soon after, she starts developing strange mannerisms that concerns Joyce. Her research into the doll's past reveals a dark history, and the curse of a lonely child spirit.

    . . and then you're undead?in this must-have collection, five of today's hottest writers—Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty), Cassandra Clare (City of Bones), Claudia Gray (Evernight), Maureen Johnson (13 Little Blue Envelopes), and Sarah Mlynowski (Bras & Broomsticks)—tell supernatural tales of vacations gone awry. Lost luggage is only mildly unpleasant compared to bunking with a witch who holds a grudge. And a sunburn might be embarrassing and painful, but it doesn't last as long as a curse. Of course, even in the most hellish of situations, love can thrive. . . .From light and funny to dark and creepy, these stories have something for everyone. You definitely won't want to leave this collection at home!

    They're notorious as heroes and killers—the greatest demon hunting team to ever live. But they're getting tired of fighting.Now a Goddess of Death is driving the world toward destruction. When her doomsday clock reaches twelve, the barriers between Hell and Earth will be ripped away and bring humanity to extinction.The clock just struck nine.The world is running out of time.

    The landscape of death becomes the new frontier for scientific exploration. With remarkable deftness, Rogers draws together the disturbing and the diverting in twenty-two showcase stories that will guide you through terrain at once familiar and startlingly fresh.

    A sequel to a #1 bestselling horror anthology Don't Scream, featuring hideous doppelgangers, terrifying apps, lurking monsters, and more. Read... if you dare.

    One exclusive anthology. Blood Bound Books celebrates its third year of publishing with Blood Rites, a gathering of dark talents that have shared our dreams-and shaped our nightmares. We individually summoned each author to contribute his or her voice to this choir of the damned. Now, we invite you to join the ritual... Authors include: Brian Lumley, Joe McKinney, Nathan Crowder, Lisa Morton, Daniel O'Connor, Jeff Strand, John McNee, K. Trap Jones, Maria Alexander, Ed Kurtz, Desmond Warzel, Mark C. Scioneaux, Brad C. Hodson, Gregory L. Norris, Monique Bos, Aric Sundquist, Christopher Hawkins, Chad McKee, Adrian Ludens, Bryan Oftedahl, Angela Bodine, Matt Moore, Douglas J. Lane

    An employee of the St. James Hotel in New Mexico watches in shock as a fair-haired toddler with a terribly disfigured face disappears into the floor. This is just one of the paranormal mysteries Leslie Rule shares with us--a result of extensive interviews and research uncovering the reasons behind ghost sightings across the country.Coast to Coast Ghosts features dozens of spine-tingling, real-life ghost stories and approximately fifty black-and-white photographs taken by Rule, including some believed to have captured actual apparitions.Only the reader can decide. . . .

    And though her family has turned her into a despised servant, Maia must always pretend to be happy, or else they'll all be struck dead by the curse.Anax, heir to the Duke of Sardis, doesn't believe in love either—not since he discovered that his childhood sweetheart was only using him for his noble title. What's the point of pretending to fall in love with a girl just so she'll pretend to fall in love with him back? But when his father invites all the suitable girls in the kingdom to a masked ball, Anax must finally give in and select a wife.As fate would have it, the preparations for the masquerade bring him Maia, who was asked by her eldest stepsister to deliver letters to Anax. Despite a prickly first encounter, he is charmed and intrigued by this mysterious girl who doesn't believe in love. Anax can't help wishing to see her again—and when he does, he can't help falling in love with her. Against her will, Maia starts to fall in love with him too. But how can she be with him when every moment his life is in danger from her mother's deadly bargain?

    Until all spell broke loose! Cool party? Check. Boy of my dreams? Check. First kiss? Not so fast.Because that’s when I discovered I was a witch. And not a very good one.Just ask Peter, the ghost I can now see haunting my bedroom, or the zombies I accidentally raised from their graves.And then there’s Fletch.GorgeousBroodyWerewolf!And he wants me to lift his curse.Am I ready for this? No.Do I hesitate? No.Does it go well? Big fat No!And now, instead of being at the party, I’m dancing naked on the town common with a coven of witches and my new familiar, in a race against time to put things right.Sounds crazy. Is crazy. But I kinda heart crazy… Author note: 2018 Edition. Previously released as Halloween Magic & Mayhem by Stella Wilkinson.