Vampire Babylon by author Chris Marie Green

GothicScapes

STRANGE SPIRITS, AVAILABLE NOW!

On your Kindle or other e-reader in December 2012

Mistletoe, dreidels, Father Christmas, and twinkly stars on the tops of trees. Don’t you love this most wonderful time of the year?

But there’s also a darker side to the holiday season – and renowned paranormal authors Chris Marie Green, Nancy Holder, and Linda Thomas-Sundstrom, have put some scary merrymaking into stories about STRANGE SPIRITS who might not believe in putting the “happy” in the holidays.

Into the Storm: a witch tries to keep Christmas in the middle of a violent, time-travelling war.

In Bad Spirits: a mysterious entity stalks a monster hunter on Dawn Madison’s team, and they’re about to learn that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!

Hot Holiday: The Dark Side has put a hit out on Santa Claus and sent a Recruiter named Wanda to seal the deal.

STRANGE SPIRITS are gathering for the holidays. . .

These rebooted Vampire Babylon/Dawn Madison novellas take place after the team’s adventures in Hollywood and London have ended. If you’d like to catch up on your VB reading, this is the recommended order:

Night Rising
Midnight Reign
Break of Dawn
First Blood (containing the VB “Double the Bite” novella)
A Drop of Red
The Path of Razors
Deep in the Woods
Those Who Fight Monsters (containing the VB “Soul Stains” short story)
GothicScapes #1, Undead for a Day (containing the VB “Raising the Darkness” novella)
GothicScapes #2, Strange Spirits (containing the VB “In Bad Spirits” novella)

Undead for a Day

UNDEAD FOR A DAY

On your Kindle or other e-reader in October 2012

Samhain. All Hallow’s Eve. A night when zombie-like revenants can be raised by a magic-using, ancient family to exact revenge on the hunter who wrecked their underground kingdom... A time when a redheaded blackbelt pits herself against warmongering witch clans... A holiday that allows the Underworld to open and the creatures to pour out, their freedom governed by a gentleman's agreement between the forces of Light and Dark.

Welcome to UNDEAD FOR A DAY, a collection of three novellas from a trio of reader favorite urban fantasy writers: Chris Marie Green, AKA Christine Cody (Vampire Babylon and Bloodlands series), New York Times Bestseller Nancy Holder (Wicked and Teen Wolf series), and Linda Thomas-Sundstrom (Vampire Moons and Wolf Moons series).

“Raising the Darkness” by Chris Marie Green (A Dawn Madison Vampire Babylon novella) reunites you with former hunter Dawn Madison, who hasn’t been the same since she retired from the life. She’s tired and drained from injuries sustained during the team’s last stand against the dragon, but when the clock strikes twelve on Samhain, everything changes. It seems that someone has sent raised-from-the-dark creatures after her, and they’re out for blood—as well as Dawn’s life.

In “Into the Fire” by Nancy Holder (A Story of the Favored,) Bridget Flynn leaps into a bonfire and goes from Samhain year wife at the first stroke of midnight to widow on the last. Caught in the middle of a feud between rival magical Houses, Bridget raises a battle force of her own. But can she survive in the midst of hot-tempered witches intent on destroying each other?

“Trapped in Stone” by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom takes us to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, where the forces of Good and Evil are playing a game of Chicken with one man's soul, and the woman he loves is a major player in a challenge that has continued for a century.

So who are the villains in “Raising the Darkness”?

Over a century ago, when the dragon decided to go underground to gather strength to rise again and command the world, he ordered minions to create “keepers” for him. These keepers—custodes—were his “Renfield”s, primary servants who would see to his safety in whichever Underground stored him. Although the dragon trusted his soldiers, he wanted these personal bodyguards to be dedicated to him while he couldn’t function during his underground rest, sleeping and gathering strength for two hundred years.

Hence, the Meratoliage family was bred to be these keepers (bred from the best soldiers and most wily of women). To keep their bloodlines “pure,” they interbred. Only under pressing circumstances, when a male “of-age” (16) Meratoliage wasn’t available, would a female be activated to duty.

There were always two called to duty at a time, and if one died or was “retired” for deviant behavior, the other was replaced, supplied with visions that educated them about the history of the dragon’s vampires. They were absolutely devoted to the dragon, even above the safety and good of any Underground.

The destruction of the London Underground, where the dragon was stored, led to the downfall of the Meratoliages. Although, right now, there are no family members of age who are available to be active keepers, they have used dark magic to find a way to perhaps raise the dragon on Samhain....

Read “Raising the Darkness” in Undead for a Day for more!

A noir-mystery-fantasy series by Chris Marie Green