Margaret L. Carter

All her life, Deborah has known she and her older sister have extraordinary psi powers. When their mother dies suddenly, Deborah learns she's meant to use her gift against the forces of darkness in some special way. How, she doesn't have a clue, but she wants no part of this alleged fate. Yet with evil forces stalking her, can she avoid the battle ahead? All his life, Victor has known he and his twin sister have a unique destiny. Bred to serve inhuman entities from another dimensional plane, he's instructed to either seduce a strange young woman who poses a grave threat to the cult he belongs to...or destroy her. Unexpectedly, he finds Deborah not only attractive and intelligent but his equal in psychic power. Although his cult views religion with contempt--and she's an unabashed Christian--he's helplessly drawn to her. For her part, Deborah finds in Victor a kindred spirit. For the first time, someone other than her sister can empathize with her differences from "normal" people. Is prophetic destiny written in stone, even for two potential foes falling in love? A paranormal romance inspired by C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength and the cosmic horror of H. P. Lovecraft.

Against the Dark Devourer

Shelley Munro

Sally Painter

WANTED: Kissable bachelor with fangs seeks soft, sexy lady for a kinky good time. Meet me at midnight.... SALLY PAINTER To Kiss a Gargoyle Tempted by the half-man/half-lion statue perched outside her high-rise office window, Marcy puts her hot lips on his rock-hard body, bringing the towering, muscular stud to life -- along with her wildest fantasies. MARGARET L. CARTER Tall, Dark and Deadly After a business meeting with irresistible leading man Claude Darvell ends in carnal ecstasy, Eloise learns he's no actor -- he's a vampire -- and his seductive bite arouses her erotic appetite. SHELLEY MUNRO Curse of Brandon Lupinus The gorgeous hunk who haunts Jess's dreams shows up in the flesh, claiming to be a ghostly eighteenth-century werewolf -- and together they indulge in some naughty bedroom play that leaves both of them panting for more.

Ellora's Cave

Midnight Treat

When Father Michel Emeric and Dr. Ray Benson warn young widow, Kate Jacobs, of occult danger stalking her, she dismisses them as deranged fanatics. The eerie disappearance of her four-year-old daughter, Sara, changes her mind. Ray and Father Mike rescue Kate's child, but the fight has only begun. Dark powers from beyond our world want to destroy Kate and Sara and prevent the birth of a future child foretold to have extraordinary psychic powers and a destiny as a great warrior against evil. Kate must develop her latent wild talents and allow Sara to do the same, in a universe weirder--and more dangerous--than she's ever imagined.

From the Dark Places

A midsummer sailboat race is coming to Annapolis, and Celia Rossi's 1950s-themed ice cream parlor will have a booth at the waterfront celebration. To keep her business flourishing, she needs to impress both locals and tourists on the festive day. But how? She receives unexpected help when she hires a part-time worker who pops up out of nowhere. Suzie Conroy proves to have an almost magical gift for the craft of artisanal ice cream, yet she acts clueless about some ordinary details of everyday life. And why is she so determined to churn up the perfect batch of tutti frutti?

Spooky Tutti Frutti

Different blood flows in their veins-but our blood quenches their thirst. From Bram Stoker´s 1897 creation of Count Dracula, portrayed as a foreign invader bent on the conquest of England, the literary vampire has symbolized the Other, whether his or her otherness arises from racial, ethnic, sexual, or species difference. Even before the bloodsucking Martians of H. G. Wells´ War of the Worlds, however, popular fiction contained a few vampires who were members of alien species rather than supernatural undead. Guy de Maupassant´s Horla is only one of the best-known. Vampire invaders from other planets appear in pulp fiction throughout the 20th century. Among others, interplanetary adventurer Northwest Smith meets a shapeshifting, Medusoid seductress in C. L. Moore´s Shambleau. Even more intriguing, though, are humanoid and quasi-humanoid beings who live on Earth among us, often camouflaged as our own kind. Jack Williamson´s Darker Than You Think, for example, features an inhuman race, vampiric as well as lycanthropic, that has preyed on humanity from prehistoric times. A gentler view of the Earth-born "alien vampire" appears in Ray Bradbury´s Homecoming, a poignant tale of the one "normal" boy in a clan of "monsters." Such fiction can use vampirism either to valorize or to undercut racism and xenophobia. Richard Matheson makes the vampire a misfit child in Dress of White Silk and Drink My Blood. Cyril Kornbluth´s The Mindworm, at mid-century, uses the alien in the form of a mutant born of human parents to foreground another cultural preoccupation, the fears spawned by the nuclear age. Similar fears underlie Matheson´s I Am Legend, in which a worldwide plague wipes out all "normal" human beings and transforms the survivors into a new species. The boom in vampire fiction that began in the 1970s engendered a variety of "alien" vampires, many of them portrayed as sympathetic characters. The science fiction vampire is especially suited to the presentation of vampirism as morally neutral rather than inherently evil. Suzy McKee Charnas´ The Vampire Tapestry, Whitley Strieber´s The Hunger, George R. R. Martin´s Fevre Dream, Jacqueline Lichtenberg´s Those of My Blood, Elaine Bergstrom´s Shattered Glass, and Melanie Tem´s Desmodus are only a few examples of this richly diverse subgenre. In the ´80s and ´90s the new subgenre of vampire romance also flourished, exploring the naturally evolved vampire (as well as the more traditional undead type) in terms of the redemptive power of love. Different Blood surveys the literary vampire as alien from the mid-1800s to the 1990s, analyzing the many uses to which science fiction and fantasy authors have put this theme. Their works explore issues of species, race, ecological responsibility, gender, eroticism, xenophobia, parasitism, symbiosis, intimacy, and the bridging of differences. An extensive bibliography guides the reader to numerous novels and short stories on the "vampire as alien" theme, many of them still in print.

The Vampire As Alien

Different Blood

Leslie Roy Carter

In a world where hostile nations wield magic in combat, twin sorceresses separated at birth and brought up on opposing sides of the war find each other. Together, they face persecution for using wild magic, fight against traitors and assassins, explore family secrets, and discover the hidden origins of magic itself. Above all, to protect their world, they must deal with ancient, powerful dragons that most people don't even believe exist. Sorceresses Aetria and Coleni discover that both their own births and the history of their world have been manipulated in secret by an ancient, powerful race of dragons. Some, like Aetria's lifelong friend Rajii, have benevolent intentions toward humanity while others want to restore the people of the Domains to total slavery. All, however, have their own agendas with human beings and mortal magic as pawns. Emerging from their long-lost mother's hidden home in the deserted Non-Lands, Aetria and Coleni find themselves targeted by assassins under control of the dragons. While the sisters' powers continue to grow, so do the magical gifts of Coleni's baby daughter, but will their magic provide adequate protection? Meanwhile, still viewed with suspicion for their "wild sorcery", they can't convince most of their rivals and allies, including Aetria's old mentor and the commanding general of the army, that the dragons and the danger they pose are real.

Rogue Magess

In a world where hostile nations wield magic in combat, twin sorceresses separated at birth and brought up on opposing sides of the war find each other. Together, they face persecution for using wild magic, fight against traitors and assassins, explore family secrets, and discover the hidden origins of magic itself. Above all, to protect their world, they must deal with ancient, powerful dragons that most people don't even believe exist. In a world where warring nations use magic in combat, years ago young sorceress Aetria's untamed power caused a disaster on the battlefield. Temporarily banished and retrained, she's returned to the army to redeem herself as head of a company of novice mages. She uncovers a traitorous plot by her own commander, renews her bond with her "imaginary" childhood friend, and meets her long-lost twin sister. While also becoming a trusted friend of the commanding general of the army, Aetria unearths secrets of the true nature of the magic she and her comrades wield.

Wild Sorceress

Two years after her husband's sudden death, Heidi hopes to make a fresh start with a new love and a new home. But she hasn't planned on sharing her century-old house with her son's not-so-imaginary friends—a ghost child and a Japanese water monster. Jeff, the man she's dating, definitely wants to marry her. Yet how can his scientific rationalism accept Heidi's belief in paranormal forces? If the alleged haunting turns out to be real, he'll have to change his entire worldview. Can their love flourish while coping with an exotic supernatural infestation? At least the creatures aren't dangerous—or are they?

Margaret L. Carter

Books

Your next favorite book is out there