Showing results by author "Lilith Saintcrow" in All Categories

It was a dark and stormy knight, and nine dark defenders embarked upon a most perilous quest. They're the ultimate defenders of humanity, modern day knights who do dark deeds for all the right reasons. In this all-star collection, nine of today's hottest paranormal authors bring us thrilling, all-new stories of supernatural knights that are brimming with magic mystery and mayhem.

Bounty hunting is a helluva job, but it pays the bills. And it lets necromance Dante Valentine forget her issues. Like struggling with her half-demon side and the memory of her lover’s death. Now psychics all over the city are being savagely murdered and a piece of the past Dante thought she’d buried is stalking the night with a vengeance. Too bad she’s got no way to tell which fiend - or friend - to trust.

The Black Land is a myth: Centuries have passed since that Great Enemy was slain. Yet old fears linger, and on the longest night of the year, people in the South still light ritual bonfires to banish the dark. In her village, this duty falls to Solveig, a girl favored by the gods with powerful fire magic. But when her brother kills a Northern lord’s son during the ritual, it is Sol who faces punishment, by being weregild—part hostage, part guest—in the North for a year and a day.

Winter has arrived, the walking dead are hungry, and Ginny and Lee's small group of survivors is making its way towards New York. Other survivors, shaking off the daze of catastrophe, are moving as well. In a wasteland of snow and failing power, of course the zombies are dangerous...but it's the other people you really have to watch out for.

Not everyone can take on the things that go bump in the night. Not everyone tries. But Jill Kismet is not just anyone. She's a Hunter, trained by the best - and in over her head. Welcome to the night shift....

Necromance-for-hire Dante Valentine is choosy about her jobs. Hot-tempered and with nerves of steel, she can raise the dead like nobody’s business. But one rainy Monday morning, everything goes straight to Hell. The Devil hires Dante to eliminate a renegade demon: Vardimal Santino. In return, he will let her live. It’s an offer she can’t refuse. There’s just one catch. How do you kill something that can’t die?

Nothing matters to the walking dead but finding live flesh to chew on, and nothing matters to Ginny Mills except getting back to her family. Nothing matters to Lee Quartine but keeping his small band of survivors - including Ginny - alive. Upstate New York is overrun, other survivors are more of a danger than a help, and the rumors have begun. There's a place where organization and government still exists, a place where a cure for the zombie virus is underway. The problem is, that place is Atlanta, and there's a hell of a lot of road to cover to get there.

Natasha Drozdova is desperate to save a life. Doctors can do little for her cancer-ridden mother, who insists there is only one cure—and that Nat must visit a skyscraper in Manhattan to get it. Amid a snow-locked city, inside a sleek glass-walled office, Nat makes her plea and is whisked into a terrifying new world. For the skyscraper holds a hungry winter goddess who has the power to cure her mother…if Nat finds a stolen object of great power. Now Nat must travel with a razor-wielding assassin across an American continent brimming with terror, wonder, and hungry divinities.

Cotton Crossing was a dead end, but not for Ginny Mills. She's just marking time, getting experience in the county library system, before moving back to a decent urban environment. Then the phones stop working. Lee Quartine knows there's no way the pretty girl at the library will even look at him. Especially since he can't open his mouth. He knows he's a hick, but when the power starts going out and the woods are full of strange creatures, it's good to have someone around who can build a fire. And kill.

Necromance-for-hire Dante Valentine is choosy about her jobs. Hot-tempered and with nerves of steel, she can raise the dead like nobody’s business. But one rainy Monday morning, everything goes straight to Hell. The Devil hires Dante to eliminate a renegade demon: Vardimal Santino. In return, he will let her live. It’s an offer she can’t refuse. There’s just one catch. How do you kill something that can’t die?

The Prince wants Dante. And he wants her now. And Dante and her lover, Japhrimel, have no choice but to answer the Prince's summons. And to fulfill a seemingly simple task: become the Devil's Right Hand, hunt down four demons that have escaped from Hell, and earn his gratitude. It's a shame that nothing is ever easy when it comes to the Devil. Because of course, he doesn't tell Dante the whole truth: There is a rebellion brewing in Hell. And there is a good chance that Lucifer is about to be pushed off the throne.

Robin Ragged has revenge to wreak and redemption to steal. As for Jeremy Gallow, the poison in his wound is slowly killing him while old friends turn traitor and long-lost enemies return to haunt him. In the dive bars and trailer parks, the sidhe are hunting. War looms, and on a rooftop in the heart of the city, the most dangerous sidhe of all is given new life. He has only one thought, this new hunter: Where is the Ragged?

An ancient evil looms over Santa Luz. Prostitutes are showing up dead and eviscerated. And Jill Kismet just might be able to get her revenge against an old enemy. There's just one problem. Someone wants Jill dead - again. And if they have to open up Hell itself to kill her, they will. Sometimes, even when you're Jill Kismet, you don't have a prayer....

Ginny Mills is a librarian with a mission. She's determined to get to her family, and not even the crowds of shuffling, infected undead will stop her. Lee Quartine's spent his life making do and getting by. He knows how to survive, but now he has Ginny and a small band of survivors to care for. The power is out. Winter has arrived. The infected roam in packs. Survivors are showing up in the strangest places. And Ginny and Lee haven't even crossed the state line yet. It's gonna be a long trip...

Jeremiah Gallow is just another construction worker, and that's the way he likes it. He's left his past behind, but some things cannot be erased. Like the tattoos on his arms that transform into a weapon or that he was once closer to the Queen of Summer than any half human should be. Now the half-sidhe all in Summer once feared is dragged back into the world of enchantment, danger, and fickle fae - by a woman who looks uncannily like his dead wife.

The plague has broken loose, the Wild Hunt is riding, and the balance of power in the sidhe realms is still shifting. The Unseelie King has a grudge against Jeremiah Gallow, but it will have to wait. For he needs Gallow's services for a very delicate mission - and the prize for success is survival itself.

All Mariamne Niege wants is to finish her thesis and get a job. Unfortunately, she's a Guardian now, and her visions of the future have grown so intense, she's blind to the world while in their grip. Her Watcher, Hanson, is sleeping on her couch and scaring her roommates when he's not shepherding her through the visions and calming her worsening nightmares. Then the earthquakes start, warning of an even bigger disaster - a cataclysm that could level her beloved city and claim countless innocent lives. A disaster her visions say are triggered by Hanson....

Emma Bannon, forensic sorceress in the service of the Empire, has a mission: to protect Archibald Clare, a failed, unregistered mentath. His skills of deduction are legendary, and her own sorcery is not inconsiderable. It doesn't help much that they barely tolerate each other, or that Bannon's Shield, Mikal, might just be a traitor himself. Or that the conspiracy killing registered mentaths and sorcerers alike will just as likely kill them as seduce them into treachery toward their Queen.

When her police contact asks her to look into a "suicide", she suddenly finds herself in a labyrinth of deception, drugs, murder - and all-too-human corruption. The cops are her allies, except for the ones who want her dead. The hellbreed are her targets, except for the ones who might know what's going on. Her city is in danger, time is running out, and each lead only draws her deeper. How far will a hunter go when her city - and her friends - are on the line? Just far enough.

Willow Grainger's skills as a vet tech are always in demand, and animals don't ask questions—but when a horribly battered man collapses before her one evening, she can't ignore that kind of distress. Bleeding, nonverbal, and clinging to consciousness, he's pursued by the same shadowy menace that has hunted Will all her life...and now, that evil is chasing them both.