Showing results by author "Matthew S. Cox" in All Categories

Sarah Wright knows she’s in for a rough week when a ghost asking for help is the least frightening thing with which she has to deal. A month after waking up as a vampire, unlife is feeling pretty sweet. Her mood swings are easing off, she’s got a decent boyfriend, and best of all, the parents let her slide on being lazy. They understand it’s a little awkward to keep a job when daylight can kill her. Oh, and the whole magical powers thing is pretty cool, too. But after two weeks of quiet, her new normal blooms into a chaotic mess.

In the wake of a 20-year war, the people of Lucernia struggle to believe their former enemies aren’t demon-loving savages. However, that’s easy compared to the more alarming change: accepting their nation now has two queens. Many citizens in a land devoted to the God of Purity view the love between Kitlyn and Oona as unnatural, but the young women have earned guarded acceptance in the wake of their heroic deeds. Alas, unrest stirs in the shadows. Worse, Oona thinks the Talomir family line is cursed. All who have worn the crown before her have met with untimely deaths.

Princess Oona Talomir enjoys the little things that come with her station: a handmaiden, her lavish bedchamber, and scores of fancy dresses - the duty to win a decades-long war, not so much. Oh, did I mention assassins? Seers foretold the conflict would end by her hand. From the moment she drew her first breath, the neighboring kingdom has been trying to kill her so she could not grow powerful enough to destroy them. The burden of her crown becomes too much to bear, yet one thing lifts her spirits amid the gloom. Her servant girl, Kitlyn. Alas, in a kingdom obsessed with the god of purity, she is terrified to confess her forbidden love.

At 22, she's still slinging coffee at an Amazon Cafe despite having a degree in programming. It's not because she's unlucky, unmotivated, or even that she fancies herself an underground activist crusading against evil corporations. Hunting for a real job would take time away from her game. Axillon99 is the world's most popular multiplayer online experience, with a universe containing billions of planets to explore. Ever since video games broke the screen barrier, plunging players fully into their characters, reality just can't compete.

It started with the insects. Before society realized the danger, the Earth had inexorably begun a transformation into a place where life could not survive. A small group found shelter in the Arc, an underground refuge safe from the toxins ravaging the surface. After centuries of darkness, humanity’s second chance is running out - and Raven Wilder knows it. Her job fixing the machinery in the Arc makes her aware of how close everything is to breaking down. When her six-year-old begins showing signs of oxygen deprivation, Raven refuses to go quietly into oblivion.

Brooklyn Amari knew not to get in a car with a stranger. When a man tried to lure her - she killed him. As if taking a life at the tender age of ten wasn’t bad enough, her childhood home burned to the ground two years later. She doesn’t remember how she survived, but she’s felt a pull toward the conflagration ever since. After a troubled patch in her teens, she’s become a respectable firefighter, rushing again and again into the inferno that almost killed her.

Six months ago, Harper Cody stressed out over finding the right college. Now, she’ll be thrilled if she makes it to her 18th birthday. Unexpected nuclear war destroyed the world she knew, along with her dreams for a future. Violent thugs took away her parents and home, sending her fleeing into the ashes with her traumatized little sister. Following her best hope for survival, she chased a rumor of safety in the mountains.

Alexis Silver was ahead of her time, a woman too smart to fit into society at the turn of the century. She gave up her dreams of higher education for love, marrying young. But her husband, and the life she wanted, perished in World War I, soon after. Heartbroken and restless, she booked passage on a cruise along the West Coast in search of adventure, but adventure found her.

Samantha Moon spent the past 13 years fighting the evil trying to consume her, but at least she knew where it lurked. With the dark masters unleashed, her life has become one of constant vigilance and sleepless nights. One upside, though: She's on speaking terms with the sun again. Allison's vision of a ticking supernatural time bomb wiping out civilization sends them racing out to the Arizona desert. After hastily gathering reinforcements, they confront the harbinger of the end times before it can strike.  

Samantha Moon's newest friend turns out to be a supernatural the world has never seen before, not for real - a zombie, or at least something similar. The young woman isn't rotting or mindless, but no self-respecting dark master would want such a shell. Fearing this poor woman is the spearhead of the apocalypse, Sam rushes to find the source of the infection before humanity is doomed.

At long last, Samantha Moon’s learned the truth behind her vampire sire and why he turned her. But with that comes a revelation about an ancient evil that preys on innocent young witches. Turns out Sam has a unique connection to the fiend, but it might not be enough to help her find the monster. Of course, it’s not like she doesn’t have all the time in the world. That changes when the Red Rider abducts a 10-year-old girl, intending to devour her unusually strong magic.

Summer is a great time to visit scenic Richmond, Virginia - except during the start of the American Civil War. After her attempt to save a young woman goes disastrously wrong, Samantha Moon has wound up trapped in 1862 with no way home to her children. The great, great granddaughter of the voodoo priestess who hurled her back in time refuses to undo the spell. 

Life in suburban New Jersey with her mother is comfortable, not to mention boring, to an introverted 14-year-old. As if her friend’s surprise trip didn’t suck enough, her best summer ever falls to pieces when she’s sent across the country to stay with a father she hasn’t seen in six years.

Magical forces don't always play nice. In fact, they can be downright evil. Life is going fairly well for Detective Maddy Wimsey. At 35, she's an accomplished detective, practicing Wiccan, has a wonderful relationship with her long-time boyfriend, and even a much-needed vacation after dealing with a cursed gem. Alas, her break doesn't last long. A creeping darkness interrupts the solace of the woods with a supernatural vendetta against her coven. Maddy had opened a particular can of worms looking into the past, and the entity has decided to make her a target.

Coping with being attacked and left for dead isn't easy, but Samantha Moon is grateful that she survived - until she suspects she didn't. Vanishing from mirrors is only the first of a series of bizarre events that defies explanation, even to her trained investigative mind. A severe allergy to the sun, alertness at night, inability to eat food that isn't blood, and worst of all: She can't remember the last time she needed the bathroom.

Harper Cody used to worry about the SATs or a getting a new laptop for Christmas...but now, she only wants to keep her little sister alive. At 5:59 a.m. early in September, life as she knew it came to an end with a nuclear flash ninety miles away in Colorado Springs. For two months, her family sheltered in the basement of their home, surviving on whatever canned goods Dad could scavenge. Passing evacuees told of a safe haven in the mountains, but her father refused to leave. He thought their home was safe...until a gang of looters kicked in the door.

In 2411, overpopulation has spread a plaque of filthy, congested city to the corners of the Earth. Government has raised corruption to an art form, and no one hears the cries of those left to die in the dark passageways of civilization. Following the End of Nations, people cling to the only division left: social status. Since running away from home four years ago, Sima has managed to stay a step ahead of death - or worse. At 16, she’s getting too old to survive from begging, despite her best effort to pretend she’s younger.

Samantha Moon hadn't always been a vampire. Once, she had been a wife and mother, happily married to her soul mate and raising two adorable kids. Once, she had been a federal agent investigating a world teeming with sophisticated scams, drugs, human trafficking, and violence. That is, until she caught the eye of something evil....

Two weeks after waking up as a vampire, Sarah Wright is starting to feel comfortable in her fangs. She’s doing okay, if you don’t count wicked mood swings, crushing guilt, and a pervasive sense of existential dread. On the upside, her family is adjusting to the new normal of supernatural in stride, and she’s even testing the waters with a new guy. 

Detective Madeline Wimsey tends to stand out with her wild red hair, pentacle amulets, and offbeat methods, but she has a tool few other cops use - magic. After a man turns up dead in a grisly satanic rite, her fellow detectives are quick to crack jokes. Since they can't tell a pentacle from a pentagram, Maddy's happy to get the case. She suspects the ritual to be the work of amateurs, a theory that pans out when they track down the pack of clueless high school students who made the shrine in the woods. But then Maddy learns that the Devil's Eye is watching her....