When the colonists first settled on the planet Daleer, there was plenty to support them all. However, as the population increased, Daleer’s resources were spread thin. Then a nasty virus spread through the people, killing mostly females who had born children. The women did not want to risk getting pregnant, so they did not have sex with the males. To combat this, the males created men with gorgeous physical beauty and shadra, a psychological talent that could give both exquisite pleasure and excruciating pain. When the population began to rise again, the people of Daleer split into two warring factions. One was led by Gemen, who believed that the men with the shadra formed an important part of life on the planet. The other, led [...]
Moreta is Weyrwoman at Fort Weyr with Sh’gall as Weyrleader. Moreta loves Orlith, her dragon queen, and would do anything for her, but she does wish that someone else had flown her during her mating flight. Sh’gall is a very able weyrleader in the air when fighting thread, but he does not do as well with people. Moreta is sure that they will go together to the Ruatha Gather, after all it is Lord Alessan’s first gather as a Lord Holder and everyone will be there. However, Sh’gall decides to go to the Telgar Gather and to see the strange cat that was captured in the ocean and put on display there. Desdra, Moreta’s anxious housekeeper insists that Moreta cannot go without Sh’gall and that [...]
David Beckett had just returned from the military to his family’s home in Key West, Florida. He loved working in the museum that his family owned, which captured the grisly and sensational moments in Key West’s historical past. But everything changed when he found his ex-fiancée’s body laid out in one of the exhibits – especially since he was the prime suspect. His family was his alibi and there were many who suspected that they lied to keep David out of jail. David left everything behind him to begin a career as a successful nature photographer and didn’t even return home for his grandfather’s funeral. But now he is back and he is determined to keep history from repeating itself [...]
Tarl Cabot is an Englishman who has recently moved to America to teach British History at a small US University. When he goes camping one weekend, he has no idea that his adventure is going to be more than he could ever imagine. It all starts with an unusual envelope that magically appears at Tarl’s campfire. When Tarl opens it, he finds a letter from his father, whom he never knew, asking him to bring a handful of earth with him when he comes. Tarl is not sure what is going on, but he knows that he wants no part of it. He tries to run away, but soon finds himself back at his campsite where he started. Resigned to the inevitable, he boards the [...]
Connal MacArren is one of the first of his world to leave the planet and travel through space. He would never have ventured out at all if it weren’t for his dratted kinsman, Garris, who left without telling anyone goodbye. All he left was a cryptic note saying that he was going to see the Dreamweaver Liandra Tavor. Liandra is an Asarian, one of a small race who can walk the dreamscape and find answers for people in dreams. She is sure that this Garris never made it to see her, though it is true that he may have been traveling to see her, but she cannot persuade Connal that she knows nothing of Garris’ whereabouts. Connal quickly tires of Liandra’s game of pretending not [...]
Preece is used to being alone. Everyone fears the tall warrior who always wear a black cape and cowl to cover his face. It is rumored that he can kill anyone, anywhere and he is called Preece the Warmonger or sometimes The Royal Blade. Yet Preece is tired of being a mercenary, tired of death. He takes jobs just to earn enough money to buy his own ship and sail off to an island paradise that his guardian, an old wizard, has long told tales of. He is eager to make his dream a reality, when the king forces him to agree to escort Moreya, orphaned daughter of one of the king’s most revered ambassadors, to her new fiancé, prince of a neighboring kingdom.
Lisane crashlands her spaceship on an unfamiliar planet when she is forced to flee for her life from the Enforcers on her home planet. She was the princess of her old world and destined to rule her people for the rest of her natural life, but all that is gone now. Lisane is not sure what to make of the new world and is slowly starving to death when Simon finds her. Simon is a wizard and a teacher at a school where other wizards are trained. He is unaware that Lisane is a girl and takes her to the school, where all the other students are boys. Lisane doesn’t exactly fit in on this new planet, but she refuses to let the others get [...]
Claire Godwin has always been a paler shadow of her vivacious, larger-than-life foster sister, Melinda Varek. Melinda is always the one who comes up with some madcap plan and Claire inevitably follows, just as she has this time. Melinda has been missing for over a year. She just suddenly disappeared after performing in a play about Elizabeth Spenser, a beautiful young woman who was hanged for being a witch in the 17th century. Everyone has tried to persuade Claire that Melinda just got tired of mending old tapestries in Sommerstowe and decided to travel somewhere else, but Claire knows there is something terribly wrong. She finally finishes out the school year, closes up the library, and takes the job of repairing embroidery at Sommerstowe Hall, [...]
Byron was Carpathian, a species as old as time. He could shift shape and soar high, run with the wolves, hunt those who threatened the innocent. But he was also a gem finder, a sophisticated man of the arts, and in self-imposed exile from his people for endangering his Prince. He was not a natural hunter, but he forced himself to become one to atone for his mistakes. Byron believed that he would live the rest of his life alone, for, without his lifemate, it would be so easy to give into dark whispers of temptation. So easy to become wholly evil, a vampire or member of the undead, as so many of his kind had chosen to do. But then he heard the music…
Shea had always been different from those around her. She needed daily blood infusions and her skin and eyes were very sensitive to the light. She was determined to find a cure to her rare blood disease and pursued a career as a renowned surgeon who could almost perform miracles. Her life grew even stranger when she started having these horrible nightmares about a man who was tortured and buried alive. He kept calling to her in her dreams, alternately begging and demanding that she come to him. When a fanatic group of vampire hunters target her as a member of the undead, Shea is forced to flee. Eventually, she ends up in the Carpathian mountains where a voice calls to her. Almost against her [...]
Catalina Lane had just been jilted, almost left at the alter! It is true that there was no real physical attraction between her fiancé, Wilson Ross, and herself, but they were good friends and had agreed that that was a good basis for marriage. Until that spineless coward told her he couldn’t marry her just as she was about to walk up the aisle! She couldn’t even yell at him because he had tears in his eyes! Furious and humiliated, Catalina swept out of the church and into her Mustang convertible without looking back. Several hours later, she was broken down on a little two-lane Arizona highway in the middle of nowhere. Resigned, Catalina picks up her satin and lace wedding skirts and starts hiking [...]
Alexandria Houton desperately needed the job that Thomas Ivan could give her. She was an excellent computer programmer and knew that she could design Ivan’s games so that they were better than ever before. But, before she could close the deal in the restaurant, she heard a voice calling to her. She didn’t want to follow it, but, when she saw the creature holding her beloved little brother captive, she knew that she had no choice. The vampire chained her in a cave where she could not escape, too weak with blood loss and the poison now flowing through her system from the vampire’s tainted blood to even try to get free. When the vampire rose the next evening, she prepared to face her death, [...]
