Cormac Flynn, a raven shapeshifter, is ancient, Celtic, and cursed. Arianne Leone, a mountain lion shapeshifter, owns an art gallery in Deep Ellum, a popular tourist attraction and haven for musicians for decades. Together, they are charged with guarding the one who bears the Hermit's Stone, an ancient artifact that has held worlds together-and kept them separate-for eons. Possession of the stone falls to Ari's friend and art student, nineteen-year-old...

"I believe you have visitors," Giff said, setting the coronet on its velvet stand. "I know." I rubbed my forehead where the pale line showed from wearing the gold band. "People waiting on me and I have hat lines." Lissa expected her life as Queen of Le-Ath Veronis to run smoothly. At least for a little while. Reality has a way of intruding on even the most idyllic of circumstances. Complications arise in the form of creatures created by...

Eleven days. Eleven days it took, for me to become vampire. The beating had revived old nightmares and I only wished to die. I'd shaken my head and muttered no through lips so bloodied and swollen it was difficult to say the word. He'd asked me if I wanted to live. I said no. He asked me if I wanted to be strong and live forever. I said no again, with difficulty. "Wrong answer," he whispered and cut into my wrists. In the beginning, the One created...

"Reah, we have good information on Zellar." That had me jerking my head up to stare at Lendill. Zellar. Just the sound of that name had every member of the ASD seething. Zellar- the rogue warlock- who left drained planet cores in his wake. For years, he only worked on worlds outside the Alliance- the ASD had gotten too close to him on too many occasions. Burned him a few times- Ry had almost gotten him once, but Zellar had used the very last of a...

(Reah, I know you're not happy with us right now, but we didn't order the firebombing. RAA moved without consulting us.) (And I'm supposed to believe that?) (Reah, you're being disrespectful with a superior.) I didn't answer him. If he knew how disrespectful I wanted to be-I was staring at Xiri's bones, after all. I sobbed. (Reah? Reah, are you still there?) (You be respectful, Vice-Director, the next time a friend's bones lie beneath your hand.)...

I got out five years ago. Untalented, they said. In other words, they didn't know what to do with me, and murder usually leaves a mess. I understood messes. Saw too many of them in my dreams. That's why I live where I do, still in their shadow but outside their walls. The conditions, of course, are that I have to move every five years, check in now and then and never, ever, talk about them to anyone. It was time to move. Cloud Dust is a secret,...

"Just because you've never seen it doesn't mean it can't exist," I pointed out. "You just haven't been in the right place or time before." "Being in the right place and time with Sirenali sounds crazy and scary as hell," Jayson breathed. "Why can't it be some of those short, friendly guys?" "There are short, friendly guys, but they don't have any desire to invade somebody else's planet," I said, thinking of the Amterean Dwarves. The only thing they...

"Rene', what will you do if I kick his ass?" I jerked my head toward Tony. "Nothing, as long as you do not inflict permanent harm," Rene' smiled slightly. I got up to go after Tony, but Wlodek hauled me back. "We will not allow a brawl between our two youngest," he declared and settled me back in my seat. "Now, Anthony, where may we find your father and does he have other children?" Xenides is searching for Lissa and out for blood. Nothng less...

"It's our God given right to bear arms and hunt any animal." Congressman Jack Howard looked quite distinguished-from the threads of gray at the temples of his carefully cut hair to the designer jeans, cowboy shirt and snakeskin boots he wore. He smiled and blew smoke from the expensive Cuban cigar Obediah Tanner offered. He and Tanner stood inside Tanner's trophy room, which was elaborately decorated with various stuffed heads. In some cases,...

"Belen?" I blinked up at him. As usual, he was shining brightly, although he'd dampened it so I might look at him. "Lissa, this is certainly the beginning." He gazed around us. At leveled homes and devastated bodies. I understood what he said. All too clearly. It had been my suspicion, but I was too afraid to voice it aloud, as if saying it might make it real. It didn't need my words to make it real. It had already become real. The God Wars were...