Showing results by narrator "Chris Patton" in All Categories

Two months after Sunan, Sousuke and Kaname are in a holding pattern. He'll fire his rifle off the school roof. She'll yell at him to stop. Lather, rinse, repeat. That all changes one day when Sousuke's commanding officer Teletha "Tessa" Testarossa shows up at his apartment, trying to hide a key to a terrorist superweapon of unprecedented power. Tessa is brilliant, pretty, and the same age as Sousuke, and her presence might put a serious crimp on his relationship with Kaname... assuming the city survives the night!

Kaname is in the doldrums: There's just one week until the end of summer vacation, and she hasn't done anything interesting! Fortunately, Sousuke is here to provide a little adventure by offering her a trip to Merida Island. But what starts for Kaname as a simple trip to learn more about the mystery surrounding her quickly snowballs into a firefight in a chemical weapons facility, a reunion with a mortal enemy, and a battle for control of a runaway submarine! However things turn out, at least she can't claim that her summer was uneventful.

Gay bookseller and reluctant amateur sleuth Adrien English's writing career is suddenly taking off. His first novel, Murder Will Out, has been optioned by notorious Hollywood actor Paul Kane. But when murder makes an appearance at a dinner party, who should be called in but Adrien's former lover, handsome closeted detective Jake Riordan, now a Lieutenant with LAPD - which may just drive Adrien's new boyfriend, sexy UCLA professor Guy Snowden, to commit a murder of his own!

In the title story, a white aspiring professor is convinced she is being followed. No need to panic - she has a handgun stowed away in her purse, just in case. But when she turns to confront her black male shadow, the situation isn't what she expects. In "The Rescuer" a promising graduate student detours to inner-city Trenton, New Jersey, to save her brother from a downward spiral. But she soon finds out there may be more to his world than to hers.

After running and gunning across much of the western US, Cade Grayson, former Delta Force operator, is finally reunited with his wife, Brook, and daughter, Raven. Hours after arriving at the relative safety of Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, the new Capital of the United States, Cade is approached by the new president, Valerie Clay. Her request is simple: she appeals to the patriot in him to rejoin the unit that he left for civilian life 15 months prior and once more go into harm's way, taking the fight to the enemy.

Can humanity survive what it never saw coming? On October 15 at 2:15 a.m. Earth vanished. A scattered few woke alone in a world with no rules, other than survival at any cost. These survivors aren't truly alone... Someone or something is watching them. And waiting... Strangers unite. Sides are chosen.

A spellbinding and surreal coming-of-age story about a young boy living on the fringe with his family - who are secretly werewolves - and struggling to survive in a contemporary America that shuns them. He was born an outsider, like the rest of his family. Poor yet resilient, he lives in the shadows with his aunt Libby and uncle Darren, folk who stubbornly make their way in a society that does not understand or want them. They are mongrels, mixed blood, neither this nor that.

Few authors can claim to have marked a genre so thoroughly and personally that their words have leaked into every aspect of modern pop culture. Clive Barker is such an author, and the Books of Blood marked his debut - his coming out to the world - in brilliant, unforgettable fashion. Crossroad Press is proud to present Clive Barker's Books of Blood in digital for the first time.

Dane Gareis is a wealthy, reclusive young man with a traumatic past, but a spine of steel. When his father is killed in a mysterious plane crash, Dane carries on the family business and continues his passion for the very antiquity that got his father murdered - a golden sarcophagus belonging to an ancient cult known as the Ydrath. Soon, the Ydrath threaten him as well, and Dane seeks to hire a bodyguard he can trust. Someone who can protect him, and someone who will respect his boundaries.

Gabriel Braven is destined for a great love, but he does not believe it. His parents had a storybook romance… until a freak ocean storm robbed them of their lives and left him alone to be raised by his grandmother. With their deaths, Gabriel’s adoration for the sea turned to fear, and his belief in happy-ever-afters turned to dust. Gabriel vowed to never set foot in the ocean again and to never believe in love.

Gabriel should have drowned twice in his life, but he survived. Casillus Nerion, his beautiful merman savior, tells him the reason for this is simple: Gabriel is a merman. Long ago, a Braven ancestor fell in love and had a child with a powerful merman. This child did not inherit the Mer gifts, but Gabriel has. Despite seeing inexplicable physical changes to his body when he gets wet and having trouble breathing when there is plenty of air, Gabriel’s head tells him that Mer, like love, do not exist.

What happens when the inevitable zombie apocalypse finally does arrive? Does the world bow down to the masses of shambling dead? Do we run out with flame-throwers and chainsaw-bladed weed-whackers to take care of the undead horde? No, we do to them what we do to every other annoying person in the world: We put them on television for our entertainment. Set in a near future in which society has dealt with the global outbreak of the living dead, a new highly lucrative international sport, zombie pit fighting, emerges.

Gabriel's inevitable transformation into a merman brings him both great joy and great sadness. Though he must soon leave his human family, he is eager to experience the beauty of Emralis, the Mer city, together with his water-dwelling lover, Casillus.

"A beast. Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright – a creature with fangs and claws and hair springing from every pore. I am a monster. You think I’m talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It’s no deformity, no disease. And I’ll stay this way forever – ruined – unless I can break the spell...."

Gabriel Braven knows his destiny, but is he willing to face it? Gabriel has only one day left on land before moving to the wondrous Mer city to live forever with his true love, Mer Prince Casillus Nerion. He wishes his greatest challenges were giving up making love on land with Casillus and telling his beloved grandmother that he is a merman. But ex-soldier Johnson Tims has other plans for him.

Can humanity survive what it never saw coming? On October 15 at 2:15 a.m. Earth vanished. A scattered few woke alone in a world with no rules, other than survival at any cost. These survivors aren't truly alone... Someone or something is watching them. And waiting... Strangers unite. Sides are chosen.

They escaped a ruined Earth, barely staving off extinction. Two-hundred years after arriving on the beautiful and bizarre planet of Taran, humanity is thriving once again. Until now…When famous scientist Cassidy Walker uncovers evidence that the planet is teetering on the brink of disaster - a catastrophe that mankind will not walk away from - the countdown to the next great challenge in human history begins. And they might not survive this time.

When words of love do not come to you on their own, then listen to these letters. Complete, actual love letters of great men like Lord Byron, John Keats, and Voltaire. Leaders like Henry VIII, George Washington, and Napoléon, who wrote to his beloved Joséphine, "I awake consumed with thoughts of you...." Artists like van Gogh, Mozart, and Beethoven, who famously penned, "Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved...."

Alex is magnetic. His vibrant personality and easy smiles draw people toward him. No one would guess he’s secretly hurting. Shiloh is quiet. His social awkwardness and anxious mind make it hard for him to make connections. He’s always felt different. A little broken.

Suffering from writer's block and frustrated with his tentative relationship with hot but closeted LAPD Homicide Detective Jake Riordan, gay bookseller and mystery writer Adrien English travels to northern California where he finds a body in his front drive. By the time the sheriffs arrive the body has disappeared, and Adrien once again finds himself playing amateur sleuth. But when the game turns deadly, Adrien turns to Jake. Jake may be confused about some things, but keeping his lover alive is not one of them - no matter what the cost.