Showing results by narrator "John Pirhalla" in All Categories

When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes.

After establishing an uneasy truce with the constables, Gavin has settled in Yoran to offer protection to his friends and the remaining magical element in the city. When a job reveals a dangerous new threat in the city, Gavin must take action. This time the target isn’t Gavin, but the city itself. Magic was banished a generation ago, but the Fates have returned. They bring a dark magic Gavin has never seen before - and might be helpless to control.

Wren, Shrike, and Lark Rose are three very special siblings with one unusual calling. Raised by a father gifted with the ability to sense impending death, his visions allowed them to save people’s lives. But they never imagined meddling with fate would have horrific consequences....

It's 1900, and Louise Wilk is taking her dying husband home to Buffalo, where he grew up. Dr. Edward Wilk is wasting away from an aggressive and debilitating malady. But it's becoming clearer that his condition isn't exactly a disease but a phase of existence that seeks to transform and ultimately possess him.

Summer has come to Niflheim. The lichens are growing, the six-winged bat-things are chirping, and much to his own surprise, Mickey Barnes is still alive—that last part thanks almost entirely to the fact that Commander Marshall believes that the colony’s creeper neighbors are holding an antimatter bomb, and that Mickey is the only one who’s keeping them from using it. Mickey’s just another colonist now. Instead of cleaning out the reactor core, he spends his time these days cleaning out the rabbit hutches. It’s not a bad life. It’s not going to last.

Recovering ancient relics for the Italian mob can be deadly. When Harry Fox narrowly outwits a thieving artifacts dealer to escape with his life, he quickly discovers he came away with more than he bargained for. The stone tablet with a strange tale etched on it tells of lost knowledge from the cradle of civilization--the ancient Persian Empire.

Mollie stands at a precipice, facing three Herculean challenges. First: Recruit a starship captain who’s daring, relentless, and possesses balls of steel. Second: Commandeer the newly minted Caldurian warship, Crysteon. Third: In the midst of chaos, locate her missing father. Enter Captain Matt Briggs. Does he come with baggage? Sure. More than a little attitude? Maybe. Does he want to help the beautiful, headstrong resistance leader—not so much. But time’s running out—Earth’s fate hangs in the balance.

Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bonafide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward Rabbit. On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure–but no sense of purpose–and a recently widowed schoolteacher with nothing left to lose. And as their posse grows, so too does the danger.

With zombie hordes swallowing the earth, mankind had no choice except to launch every nuke on the planet to stop them. Now, 150 years later, we live in over-crowded polluted cities, surrounded by vast radioactive wastelands. And no, we did not get all the zombies. They live among us, sometimes hiding in plain sight. Although the tattoos and piercings help them blend in, and the drugs help to contain their rage, they can never fully control their hunger. It’s endless.

The final moments of the journey in Ancient Greece sets the stage for a revolution ready to explode faster than a poorly brewed potion. The Old Guild and Asguardian Remnants are itching for a comeback tour. Led by Odin's feathered spies, Huginn and Muninn, they’re all set to hunt Artorian down—this time for good. They're betting their last shiny coin on vengeance, aiming to turn Artorian's dream of a New World into a nightmare—permanently.

The offspring of the four families have barely managed to escape the Bell Witch’s deadly harvest. Exhausted, terrified, and haunted by their families’ twisted secrets, they know that death still awaits in the woods. Unless they can work together, and end the curse once and for all. Determined to free their families from the witch’s game, the young survivors return to the mist-shrouded forests of Black River, Tennessee. But they soon realize they are not alone. Something is watching, stalking them through the gnarled trees.

The Starship Atlantis takes you on an unforgettable journey through the extraordinary. From alien civilizations and rogue AI to desperate missions on the brink of collapse, these stories will transport you across the stars into the heart of the unknown. This anthology features six never-before-published novellas and short stories, plus two exclusive bonus tales.

Trained to kill from a young age, Gavin Lorren finally escaped that life. No more killing innocents. No more working alone. Holed up in a quiet city that has outlawed magic, Gavin finds himself drawn into dangers unlike any he’s ever faced before. Each job tests him more than the last, and each tied to the kind of magic he’d hoped to avoid.

When a known Komran outpost that has recently been upgraded shows signs of staging an invasion, there are only two options: commit to a full-force assault and lose many lives and ships to take the base, or send in a small, elite team to take on an entire base by themselves. The council believes the barbarian has done well so far. Why not risk his team’s necks first and see how it goes before scheduling that assault? Joe and his team must make their way to a planet that has been under Komran control for decades.

The skies above Olympus rumble as a long pilgrimage reaches its apex. With Cal having reached his lighthouse and found his way home, the ancient dungeon wakes to a world made from the remnants of the old. Caltopia! A glorious planet, complete with an uncharted sea. A grandfather welcomes Cal home at the end of a great fight and the dawn of a new era. The time for Oaths has come. The memory cores are undone. Odin waits with demons abound, as Artorian delves up ancient heroes from the Divine Dungeon era to help him do the rounds.

Sam Levine knows what it means to struggle. After several missed opportunities, he's been forced to turn his talents to freelance work, picking up whatever dirty job he can find only to make ends meet. But there's an end in sight. An opportunity to change everything. And when a dangerous, high-profile job comes his way, he sees light at the end of the tunnel. Hope has been in rare supply, but even with the dangers inherent in his decision, he puts his life on the line for a chance to elevate his situation.

Vincent Donnelly has faced pain, death, and madness. His past is a haze of fractured memories. A host of restless spirits inhabited his tortured psyche once. He has inherited their powers, their magic. But all he wants is to be free of the nightmares that plague him. Fleeing from the confines of a demonic asylum, Vincent and his allies take refuge in a remote mountain cabin. Lost, wounded, unable to access his supernatural abilities, Vincent struggles to sever the link between himself and the personification of Chaos itself. But it is not so easy to destroy.

Abner Fortis joined the International Space Marine Corps for two reasons: to escape a life of drudgery building biodomes for his father’s company and to pay off several billion credits in student loans, which the ISMC promised to do. Every Space Marine starts out as a cherry, though, and Abner is no different. When he makes his first combat drop, or cherry drop, he’s a know-nothing second lieutenant added to the mission roster as an afterthought.

Harald Darrowdelve has squandered every gift life gave him—until he entered the dungeon beneath Flutic and received a demon's dark blessing. Weak, privileged, and directionless no more, Harald now commands powers forged in darkness. But each new ability and hard-won level drags him deeper into the ruthless politics of noble houses, shadowy rivals, and the celestial war burning beneath the city's streets.

Vincent Donnelly’s life has been one twisted nightmare after another. After waking up in a field surrounded by corpses, he has struggled to discover the secrets of his forgotten past and free himself from the spirits inhabiting his mind. After escaping the horror of Dr. Graham, Vincent finds himself trapped in a sinister mental hospital in the middle of nowhere. Drugged and tormented by the doctor and staff, he is unable to use the strange powers he has learned, though the spirits that normally chatter within his mind are finally silent.