Showing results by narrator "Gabriel Rayner" in All Categories

June, 1993. Claire has been dumped in rural Indianola, Texas, to spend her whole vacation taking care of mean, sickly Grammy. There's nothing too remarkable about Indianola: It's run-down, shabby, and sweltering, a pindot on the Gulf Coast. Except there is something remarkable. Memories shimmer and change. Lizards whisper riddles under the pecan trees. People disappear as if they never existed. Yesterday keeps coming unspooled, like a video tape. And worst of all, a red-lightning storm from beyond our world may just wipe the whole town off the map.

The necromantic armies are on the warpath and nowhere is safe—even the sanctuary of the flying dungeon has been threatened. The leadership of nearly all the sentient races has been wiped out, and only the people most suited to repelling the advancing darkness have an intact monarchy. Cal learns quickly that the primary threat is not the far-off war, but the actions of those entrusted with protecting the population. As it turns out, the idea of using a flying dungeon as a war machine is very tempting indeed.

As a professional finder, Fergus Ferguson is hired to locate missing objects and steal them back. But it is rarely so simple, especially after his latest job in Cernee. He’s been recovering from that experience in the company of friends, the Shipmakers of Pluto, experts at crafting top-of-the-line AI spaceships. The Shipmakers have convinced Fergus to finally deal with unfinished business he's been avoiding for half his life: Earth. Fergus hasn’t been back to his homeworld since he was fifteen, when he stole his cousin’s motorcycle and ran away. 

Since the zombie invasion, the island of Manhattan has been turned into a wintery wasteland. The Zombie King has arrived in search of a mythical Opener. A human who can create a bridge to the land of the dead and unleash all its horrors on earth. But, who is the mysterious Giant, and why can no one get onto the island of Manhattan? Then we take a trip to the carnival and learn the origins of the Dead-Killer and why he wants the Zombie King dead forever. And finally, where does the Vamp get her tattoos? And why are they so important? 

A romantic getaway for vampires Cat Crawfield and her husband Bones is cut short when they’re called on to guard a spoiled heiress with a price on her head, and an undead hitman on her trail. What starts as a simple bodyguard job ends up being a fight for survival that neither Cat, nor Bones, saw coming.

Loki - mercenary spy ship and bounty hunter. It's the legal arm of the Merchanters' Alliance; but once enlisted, no crew member leaves Loki alive. Bet Yeager - a killer elite Earth Company Marine whose side lost. Now she's forced to escape aboard Loki, surrounded by enemies and hunting her old comrades. Yeager has nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. A single wrong word can give her away. And the fighting skills she must use to survive may be her death warrant.  

In the frozen ground of the Hürtgen Forest, Lieutenant Eric Granville digs a grave. A grave for yet another of his men lost to the brutality of World War II. He prays he will have to dig no more, for everyone knows the war is drawing to a close. But as German lines bend, then break, the Allies gain access to vast tracts of territory, including areas believed to contain advanced military research projects where the Nazis desperately work on war-ending super weapons. 

In the title story, "Dark Nocturne", D is hired to unlock the secret of a siren's song that is drawing men in their twenties to their deaths in the hills outside Anise Village. In "Notes on Imagined Autumn", D finds himself caught between two lovers during a ritualistic sacrifice in the village of Shirley's Door, but if D can't stop the sacrifice will all in the village be doomed? And in "Legend of the War Demons", two living weapons, genetically engineered creatures who are the last remnants of a war waged hundreds of years in the past, find that battle is not so easily forgotten. 

Preacher is no hired killer. When a wagon train is ambushed on the Santa Fe Trail, though, he can’t say no to the St. Louis businessman willing to pay him for justice. It’s not the stolen gold that’s convinced Preacher to take the job. And it’s not the missing body of one of the wagon train’s crew, a prime suspect who may have plotted the ambush and taken off with the gold. No, it’s the suspect’s lovely fiancée, Alita Montez. She believes her boyfriend is innocent—and has run off to find him. Preacher can’t abide the idea of a young woman alone on the Santa Fe Trail.

In this chilling adventure, Vampire Hunter D has been dispatched to vanquish the ancient vampiric Noble Count Braujou, guardian of an ancient buried treasure. But when a mysterious object crashes into the earth, destroying half of the northern Frontier, D faces an even more terrifying opponent—the renegade vampire Valcua, the Ultimate Noble! Having been exiled to outer space, Valcua took his entire kingdom of strange and deadly creatures with him, and swore that when the time was right they would return to have their revenge.

The five members of an elite commando group nicknamed “the Stone Wolves” once raged against Creterakian rule. Now, four decades after their heyday, they each try to stay alive and eke out a living. But a friend from the past won’t let them move on, and neither will their bitterest enemy. Hopscotch, RedWire, the Killer, Lulz and Recoil will soon wish their pasts could stay dead.

My name is Larkspur, and I am an Elemental. My people use the power of the earth to sustain life and defy our enemies. I should be at my father's side as a royal princess. But as a half-breed, bastard child, that isn't going to happen. The King is missing and his mind is cracked. It is up to me to find him before the Rim is taken over by the bloodthirsty heir to the throne.  

My people use the power of the earth to sustain life and defy our enemies. I should be at my father's side as a royal princess. But as a half-breed, bastard child, that isn't going to happen. In a world of lava and fire, I am about to face my hardest trial yet. Not one of strength, or power, but intrigue and manipulation. However, my tolerance level for anyone outside of my family is at an all-time low, and the queen who rules the Pit expects complete obedience.  

“My name is Larkspur, and I am an Elemental.” My people use the power of the earth to sustain life and defy our enemies. I should be at my father's side as a royal princess. But as a half-breed, bastard child, that isn't going to happen. As an Ender, one of my father’s Elite guards, it’s my job to do as I’m told. When my older sister is sent as an ambassador to the realm of the water elementals - the Deep - I have no choice but to accompany her as her bodyguard. With the death of the water elemental's King, a deadly battle for the throne begins

He’s back. Despite absolutely no requests at all, Sir Apropos of Nothing - he who was spawned from the violent assault of a tavern wench by a group of drunken knights - has returned. This time his voyages take him to the land of Rogypt, a surprisingly ancient realm where the tragic people known as the Shews labor endlessly in building pyramids for their masters. When Apropos inadvertently interferes with he who is destined to be their savior, no less than a deity reaches down and points his fickle finger upon him, informing him it is now his responsibility to liberate the people.

The woods surrounding Lake Huron are filled with danger and bounty alike. Pirates frequent the waters, cold-hearted cannibals and stickies wander the woods, and the mystical Sea Hag and her Hag-Sworn keep an eye on it all. A local moonshiner has offered to escort the companions through the forest to the nearby Martkplatz where they can resupply at the ville’s annual trade festival. However, the companions get more than they bargained for when forces converge on Marktplatz and kick off the festival with a bang. 

As sleepy as Buffalo Peak's been, legendary marshal, Elwood "Firestick" McQueen, and his deputies "Beartooth" Skinner and "Moosejaw" Hendricks never expected a couple of drifters to wake it up—by kidnapping two lovely ladies in town. Hardly the sharpest quills on a cactus, these dim drifters call it courtin'. Firestick doesn't see it that way. Now the woman snatchers are heading for West Texas with their reluctant brides-to-be—and unwittingly plunging trackers Firestick and Moosejaw headlong into a rescue.

As an Ender, it is my place to protect the royal family at all costs. Despite being the best Ender our world has ever beheld, I have failed time and again as the personal sacrifices continue to mount. Lark has been banished to the desert by her father who is blind to the manipulation he has again fallen prey to. To bring about justice, I must seek out and destroy the one who intentionally wields her powers to bring pain to my people.

When the war ended, Dr. Samuel Knight went home to Texas—but the life he expected was in ruins, his wife married to a carpetbagger. Trying to defend what’s left of his previous existence, the good doctor is branded an outlaw and driven from Texas. Now he’s lying low in New Mexico, with his image on wanted posters everywhere. But when the town explodes in violence, Knight will risk his neck to save innocent lives.

Not many men get a second chance at life. But thanks to a chief U.S. Marshal who needs their help, the bank-robbing duo of Jimmy "Slash" Braddock and Melvin "Pecos Kid" Baker are on the right side of the law. As unofficial marshals, they've agreed to pick up three prisoners from a Milestown jail and escort them to Denver. Sounds easy enough—until they learn the prisoners are an unholy trio of sadistic cutthroat killers known as Talon, "Hellraisin'" Frank, and the Sioux called Black Pot. And they've managed to escape before Slash and Pecos even show up.