Brighter, a supernatural thriller Read online

  Brighter

  Ramona Brinks is barely surviving her post-college angst, struggling to balance her partying with her job and her love life. She wants to move out and grow up. She doesn't want to worry about the fact she's seen a dead girl walking around in Elston or that she's seen pictures indicating certain people in town haven't aged in 60 years. She doesn't want to be bothered by nagging evidence that something ancient and evil is at work in town. But when someone locks her in a basement because she's asking too many questions, she can't help but begin searching for answers in earnest.

  As Ramona digs deeper, she begins to uncover a world underneath the seemingly quiet small town's veneer. A realm of violent deaths and vengeful creatures, protecting a source of ancient power. Beneath the surface of her twentysomething culture--kids playing at being adults, existing on cigarettes, bars, and caffeine--something far more sinister is at work. And whatever it is, it doesn't seem to want Ramona to leave.

  ...compelling...

  Release

  After seven years searching the galaxy, Keirth Transman has caught up to the Duke of Risciter, the man who raped and murdered his mother. Nothing's stopping his revenge, so when the duke's fiancé, Miss Ariana Gilit, allows the duke to escape, he's got no choice but take her ship and blast off in hot pursuit—even if she's still on board.

  Wanting rid of the prissy noblewoman, Keirth plans to dump her at the first port he can. Then he can focus his attention on what’s important. Killing the duke. But things get complicated when Keith realizes that the duke has focused his malevolent interest on Ariana. She is in mortal danger.

  Keirth’s no angel, but he's not a man who'll let an innocent woman be terrorized. He'll do whatever he can to keep Ariana safe from the duke. No matter how annoying she is.

  Invoke

  Reese and Wyn, two psychic students at a special college, never intended to fall in love with each other. But an exercise in the spirit realm has gone wrong, and now malicious spirits have taken over their bodies, intent on recreating the doomed love of Guinevere and Lancelot.

  Wyn and Reese aren't the only students affected. It seems everyone in the school has fallen under the influence of ancient spirits. The headmistress, behaving like Morgan le Fay, makes advances towards Wyn's boyfriend, who's dreaming about pulling a sword out of a stone. Another student pines over Reese, a la "The Lady of Shallot." But when these spirit games turn deadly, Reese and Wyn realize that unwanted romantic entanglements are the least of their problems.

  The full power of the spirits will be unlocked if three people die. One already has. Reese and Wyn have to stop the spirits from killing anyone else, while resisting their growing desire for each other, or Lancelot and Guinevere will take over their bodies forever.

  Faerie Changeling

  Things started going wrong for Russ Knight last year. He found out his girlfriend was cheating on him when she gave birth at the junior prom and left the baby to die in a trashcan. Russ didn't even know she was pregnant. Hell, he thought they were saving themselves for each other.

  Now, locked in her padded cell, his girlfriend is screaming that she was just trying to get the faeries to give her baby back. Russ doesn't buy it. But to shut her up, Russ tries a trick the old legends say will work, and the baby starts swearing and begging to be taken back to Faerie. He's got to accept the truth: the kid he's raising is a faerie changeling.

  The faeries are going to sacrifice the real baby at the Equinox if Russ can't get them to switch again. But the only person who can get the baby back is a biological parent, and Russ' girlfriend certainly can’t help. To save an innocent life, Russ will face ancient faeries with razor-like teeth, wrestle snarling skeleton dogs, and, maybe worst of all, track down every guy his girlfriend was sleeping with last year in the hopes of finding the baby's real father.

  And apparently, the father could be half his senior class.

  ...humorous in a twisted way...

  Little Sister: A Vampire Novella

  Ever since Jane Cassidy's big brother was killed in a car accident six months ago, she's been taking solace in watching cheesy vampire movies and yelling at the characters on the screen when they do stupid things. She can't control the tragedy in her own life, but in the movies, the characters can find ways out of the grip of death.

  A chance meeting with Bailey Westfield, her brother's best friend and her childhood crush, catapults her out of her cocoon of grieving. Bailey's kiss makes Jane feel tugged under a rushing waterfall of cold, sweet darkness. She only sees him at night, and she longs to feel his icy fingers trace the outline of her jaw.

  Jane doesn't realize that she's been (literally) sucked into the plot of a vampire movie. And she's not so snarky when there are teeth in her own neck.

  Mischief

  Iris Tanner grew up watching the PSAs. She knew it was a bad idea to take pixie dust. She knew there was a chance she'd get bad stuff—black pixie dust, the kind of drug that doesn't give nifty, magical hallucinations. The kind of drug that has the nasty side effect of turning people into ghouls. She should have just said no.

  Instead, she's raiding morgues for food. Her band abandoned her, and she bitterly has to watch them climb the Billboard charts without her.

  No one even talks to her except the tall, dark stalker/stranger that's been following her around. That guy might be hot, but he's mentally unhinged. He thinks the metal band Mischief is actually made of disguised pixies, and they want to feed their audience to an ancient monster.

  On the off chance he's right, Iris decides to help him. After all, saving the world is at least as good as a hit record. Right?

  Mischief is a 1980s glam metal urban fantasy. With pixies.

  V. J. Chambers is not for the faint of heart.