Showing results by author "R.A. Steffan" in All Categories

Unfortunately, running away from your problems only works for so long. Since I got pulled into the secret underworld of demons, fae, and vampires, it’s been one crisis after another. I’ve been dodging and ducking, rather than hitting back. Reacting instead of acting. Ransley Thorpe and I have been gradually backed into a corner, and we’re about to take the offensive. We may be punching way above our weight class, it's true. But if the alternative is death or captivity at the hands of our enemies, do we really have anything to lose?

With Nigellus poised to attack the Fae forces massed at Dhuinne’s gate, Neveah must decide what she is willing to sacrifice to alter the balance of power between long-standing supernatural enemies. Hell’s forces will soon spill into the human realm, and if the Fae queen gets her way, no safe haven will remain anywhere for humans, vampires, or demons.

So… yesterday was hell. Literally. Now, I find myself asking how a day could be that terrible, while also being the most amazing day of my life.When I fled my safe haven in the demon realm to deliver news of betrayal and conspiracy to Rans, I thought it meant I was losing everything. Again. Instead, I've just gained the most valuable gift I could ever receive. I’m hopelessly in love with the last vampire on Earth. That’s hardly a news flash at this point. But I never expected my feelings to be returned…and I’ve never been happier to be wrong.

The Fae Queen and the ruler of the Demon Council can agree on one thing. They want a war to end all wars, and they'll flatten anyone who gets in their way.

Or rather, he can try - but it should come as no surprise when he’s crushed by the vast powers arrayed against him. Caius Oppita knows this, but after what he’s seen, it suits him better to go down fighting than to crawl on his hands and knees. The empire he’s served faithfully since he was a boy now wants him dead, and the lover he thought he could trust has betrayed him in the worst possible way. Maybe Caius can’t win the fight he’s about to undertake, but he’ll damn well drag the imperial family's corruption into the light of day if it kills him.

Caius Oppita has served the Alyrion Empire for more than half his life, watching with growing revulsion as the royal family descends ever deeper into corruption and depravity. Powerless to do more than stand by as the land he loves slides toward civil war and social upheaval, he longs for his days as a general on the battlefield rather than a tame palace lapdog.

I never thought I’d see home again. Now, I almost wish I hadn’t. After giving myself up to the Fae, I expected to become the latest casualty of a war that should have ended centuries ago. Instead, I ended up inextricably bound to the last vampire on earth. My life since the Fae marked me has become unrecognizable. Inside, I’m still the 26-year-old waitress who struggled with working two jobs while being serially dumped by a parade of disgruntled boyfriends. Now, I’ve somehow become a figurehead, coveted, and despised in equal measure by two warring supernatural races.

Favian of Draebard has been a Seer since he was 13. His visions are never wrong. Now, he's leading a slave revolt along with a crazy shapeshifter, a ghost with an attitude problem, and the most stubborn, amazing woman he's ever met. The good news is, it looks like they might succeed. The bad news is, he'll have to die before they do. But if Favian tells the others what the future holds, he knows they'll move heaven and earth to stop it happening - even if doing so sentences untold thousands to subjugation and slavery at the hands of an evil tyrant.

Kathrael, Favian, and Ithric are traveling back to Rhyth - a city in the grip of chaos and rioting, teetering on the verge of full-blown rebellion. There, they hope to make a difference by lending their unique talents to the mysterious leaders of the slave underground. But with Favian having prophetic dreams, Ithric fighting his inner lion, and Kathrael questioning her sanity as the ghostly voices around her grow ever more consuming, can their fragile new relationship survive in a city that takes no prisoners?

Kathrael is a nobody - an escaped Rhytheeri slave with a face disfigured by an acid attack and a giant chip on her shoulder. Despite being alone in the world, with no possessions other than the clothes on her back, she has vowed to lead a rebellion against the brutal overseers who once owned her. First, though, she's going to murder the cowardly bastard of a shape-shifter who was prophesied to save them all, and didn't.

Ash is dead. Okay, that’s a lie. He’s not. Not really. Somehow, that doesn’t make things any better. After reports of a fatal hovercar accident outside the Capital - complete with a charred body and DNA identification - it seems at first that all is lost in the Shadow Wing’s quest to infiltrate the Premiere’s inner circle. But one member of the vigilante group refuses to accept the evidence of his human comrade’s death. Draven knows Ash. He knows that devious mind, and more importantly, he knows the martyr complex that lies beneath it.

Once upon a time, Menkhef stood up to a powerful pharaoh, and lost. That’s a poor track record for someone acting as the lynchpin in an imminent supernatural war. Humanity is caught between an absent Angel and a vengeful Demon. The Council of Thirteen still lacks its final two members, and Menkhef—better known to his friends as Snag—is the only vampire whose mate has not returned. Holed up in an underground tomb complex beneath the oldest pyramid in Egypt, he and his comrades must watch as Bael’s forces gather in preparation for the final battle.

In another lifetime, six vampires lost their mates—and their mortality—to an unimaginable evil power. Despite the veil of death separating them, the strength of love draws them together across the ages. But now, if they can’t reunite with the reincarnations of their lost soulmates soon, it may just mean the end of the world.

What’s the worst betrayal you can imagine? It doesn’t matter what you just answered. Duchess has done something worse. Before she killed her husband during a frenzy of vampiric bloodlust, he begged her to honor a single request. She failed him, and she’s been paying for that failure for the last four hundred years. But Duchess’ lost love has finally returned to her. Reincarnated as Chan Wei Yong, the former King’s Musketeer is now a hardened CIA undercover agent working in the seedy underbelly of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For people like Duchess and Chan, a happy ending just isn’t in the cards.

Despite decades spent in service to the Alyrion Empire, Caius Oppita has betrayed both Decian and the imperial family he purports to serve, all within the space of a few weeks.

His fate is to save a planet in crisis. Survival comes second to that. That’s what Kade of House Shadow Wing has always believed, ever since his parents were executed for their political beliefs, and he was jailed for daring to be their son. Just his luck that a female human diplomat with hard eyes and a silver tongue would choose the most inconvenient possible moment to barrel in, upending all of Kade’s carefully constructed plans.

No, cyborgs are only good at three things: following orders, destroying whatever target you point them at, and walking calmly into the vaporization chamber when it’s time for them to be decommissioned. PX-12, better known to his friends as Pax, adequately performed two of those functions during his stint in the Ilarian military. D-8, his unit-sibling, performed all three exceptionally well. For that reason, when D-8’s unique distress beacon activates some seven years after Pax saw him destroyed, it would doubtless be quite surprising if Pax were still capable of being surprised.

Ryder isn’t a stupid woman, and she knows better than to volunteer for things. Volunteering always gets you into trouble. So it’s really no surprise when her undercover operation to retrieve Temple Akenzua from the belly of a Regime prison goes tits-up in fairly short order. With Ryder stuck on the wrongs side of the bars, the rescue mission has now become a mission of survival. Her only hope - and Temple’s - lies with her comrades in the Shadow Wing. Ryder just needs to stay alive until they come up with a plan.

Skye Chantrell has just escaped a war zone. She's carrying the stolen antidote to a deadly bioweapon. When her damaged shuttle crashes on a remote lunar outpost, she's captured by the leader of a rogue group of barbaric aliens. Now her people's survival - not to mention her own - rests in the hands of the Seven Systems' most feared and hated criminal. A man with the face of a brutal thug, and the eyes of an angel. Hunter Tarthasian has every reason to hate the Regime. He and his comrades have turned vigilante.

War is coming to the island of Eburos. Andoc, Carivel, and Senovo can no longer live quietly in the shadows of the village of Draebard. As tribal Chieftain, Horse Mistress, and High Priest, it now falls to the three of them to organize a defense against the terrifyingly powerful Alyrion Empire. Senovo - a shape-shifter - has a desperate plan to save them all. But if he succeeds, it just might end up tearing the triad apart forever.