Showing results for "Life" in Fantasy

Tales from the Dead Man Inn is an anthology set in Alpha World. These collected stories cover well known and loved characters, as well as some lesser seen NPCs.

Cass has always had the sight. Although his official job may be to run his coffee shop, in reality, he deals with grumpy ghosts, troublesome demons, uptight angels, and all sorts of paranormal issues. When the archangel Gabriel gives him a message that he has to help a gray angel, it's just par for the course for Cassius. But who could predict that Kushiel would be the brightest soul Cassius had ever met, even if the angel can't see that about himself?

Adam is not having a good day. First, he finds out his very long-time boyfriend has been having an affair. Then, his dramatic exit becomes a little too dramatic when he ends up dead. To top it off, he finds out that the afterlife isn't at all what he expected (he has no desire to learn to play the harp, thank you very much). Fortunately for him, some afterlife bureaucratic screw-up ends him up with the most smoking-hot demon he's ever seen, and he decides he's keeping him. Maybe the afterlife won't be so bad after all.

Deep in the elbow skin of the Fae Wilds, far from the teeming fortress of the Goblin King and the glittering palace of the King and Queen of the Elves, there lies a forgotten hideaway of crumbling single-wides and rusty Airstreams. A lonely clan of beautiful women, clad in tube tops, overall shorts, and tacky Asian-print house-dresses, yearn for a man who can unstop their sewer lines and get the internet working again.

Mistakenly summoning a lust demon was not on Gabe's to-do list, but with a meddling grandmother, he's gotten used to the unexpected. The real trouble begins when Gabe realizes exactly who he's summoned. What's a guy supposed to do when an Infernal King of Hell has decided he's staying and wants to follow Gabe around like a stray puppy?

Joyce thought her prayers were finally answered when her client killed her. Yes, she knows, it's morbid. But, so is being a lawyer. Now dead, Joyce thought it was blue skies, angel wings, mimosas, and Jesus. Well, she was embarrassingly wrong. The insufferable, but good-looking Grim Reaper needs a favor. He needs her to represent him in the newly formed Reaper's Court. That is, of course, if she wants to go to heaven rather than to hell, which is exactly where she was heading.

When a flash flood hits Marywill, the entire town is half-buried in water. My bookshop included. Thankfully, I managed to transport the occult tomes to a safe location at the local college for witches. The college, however, requires repairs that the witches don't have the money for.

Ethan's got a cushy job and an empty apartment to prove he's mastered monotony. But a mysterious talisman sends him tumbling into a whole new world—quite literally. He says goodbye to spreadsheets and hello to becoming the first-ever human Goblin King. Rivals? The ex-King’s ticked-off offspring are itching to overthrow him. Duels? They’re on his calendar next to ‘avoid rebellion.’ Wives? He’s required to have at least two.

After months of flirtatious teasing, Gabe suddenly finds himself in the presence of Krystal, the tatted redheaded goddess. Making the drive down, she has thrown herself into his life, thrilled to have some fun and relaxation. Only it's not that simple, because it's never that simple. Fun and carefree as Krystal appears, Gabe (and Ellen) suspect that her and her tomboy girlfriend Liz are testing the waters for a relationship. Not that they particularly mind.

In a few short weeks, Gabe's life has changed completely. He went from working nightmare jobs and living with awful roommates to a small studio apartment that was intended to be all his own to renting a house on a quiet street and sharing it with the woman of his dreams as he began to seriously pursue his ideal job. But the changes are far from over. Gabe now finds himself in the company of a staggeringly attractive redhead, Holly. For all her beauty, she is shy, awkward, and at just as unhappy a place in her life as he was not all that long ago.

Arioch loves his job; creating chaos and encouraging revenge is fun, and if he pranks a few demons, angels, and humans along the way, all the better. When an archangel shows up with a message from god, Arioch knows he ought to take it seriously, but what's the fun in that? Michael, the human he's supposed to help, takes everything seriously enough for both of them, and Arioch is determined to teach the guy how to have a little fun with life. If he starts to fall for the human along the way, well, another human-demon pairing can only cause more chaos, which is definitely Ari's specialty.

typical bachelor party is all about beers and beautiful women. A vampire bachelor party is no different - except the men are drinking Blissky (whiskey-flavored synthetic blood). And no one can throw a party quite like Jack, the illegitimate son of the legendary Casanova. But when the party gets out of hand and the cops show up, Jack has some explaining to do... if only he wasn't struck speechless by the beauty of Officer Lara Boucher. Lara is sure there's something more than a bachelor party going on. Why is Jack so interested in the recent disappearance of young women all over town?

Being faced with an uncertain future is nothing new for Ari, not when you lived each day under the control of a demonic cult. But now Ari lives with a new enemy and one she can no longer run from...her past. But soon she will discover that even her past can cling to their future and hold it captive in the form of a curse. So, with a murderer lurking in the shadows of their past and an Angel on the hunt, a killer is not the only thing out there for Vincent to find.

Ethan's got a cushy job and an empty apartment to prove he's mastered monotony. But a mysterious talisman sends him tumbling into a whole new world—quite literally. He says goodbye to spreadsheets and hello to becoming the first-ever human Goblin King. Rivals? The ex-King’s ticked-off offspring are itching to overthrow him. Duels? They’re on his calendar next to ‘avoid rebellion.’ Wives? He’s required to have at least two.

Into this sorry state of affairs falls Eve. She's abnormal in all the ways that count to humans, but at Caelum, where she should be among her peers? Even here she's weird. No woman has more than one mate. Eve? She has seven. And the creatures that dominate her mind? There are eight of those battling for power in her soul. With the war having come to Caelum's front door, Eve and her mates have no option but to escape the perils she faces at an Academy where anyone extraordinary is to be exterminated.

Once upon a time, there were two Rhythm Gods: one of brilliance and one of darkness. But there was much more to the realms than the two gods alone could provide, so the Maker created a third, unknowingly unbalancing the Rhythm and setting the realms on a path of suffering. The God of War has stolen that which I hold dearest. Though I am reunited with my beloved gods, a hole remains and my heart is in shambles. Together we must look to the past to preserve the future, for if we cannot restore the Rhythm, the realms will crumble.

1. The hot fae guy I'm in love with thinks of me like a sister…doesn't he? I've been trying to make him see that we're more than just friends for months, to no avail. But then we find an entire society of fae women, who threaten to take me from him.

The world isn't the same as it was yesterday. In fact, Viv is no longer sure that she is the same as she was yesterday. She can do something she never knew was possible—and Luca tried to kill her, just like Jasper said he would if she let him get too close. At the teahouse, it's business as usual, however: tentacles in the top floor, an invasion of not-quite-real-but-nevertheless-terrifying spiders . . . and a new murderer to catch, of course. Someone is trying to make sure a Greek-Australian couple never makes it to the altar, and it's not just perfume they're sneaking into the bride's room.

With the festivities in Timbermere underway, Valdis Wolfbane and his cohort of lovely ladies are off to the Spring Faire. Valdis is expecting trouble, for that’s the way his grizzled warrior’s mind works after years of fighting and warring. But the trouble he’s likely to find is in the form of his greatest weakness: a pretty face.

Henry was just an ordinary tavern keeper, helping to run the doomed family business. When the Royal Tradesmen's Ball rolled around, he—like usual—wanted nothing to do with it. But the fourth-in-line Lady Garnet offered him a proposal. She wished to shock her family with an outrageous stunt: appearing to court a commoner. He agreed on one condition: no more strangling the tavern.