Showing results by narrator "Elizabeth Phillips" in All Categories

Barely making ends meet in Baltimore, Aria finds it difficult to obtain gainful employment with no work experience and skills in jousting and swordsmanship. Just before she's served an eviction notice, the Mistress of the local vampire family offers her a job - to research a magical symbol. It's an easy task for a woman who has spent every moment of her life either in armor, or with her nose in ancient manuscripts. The money's good, and the seven day deadlines should be no problem.

Elizabeth Burton-Phillips is a teacher, an ordinary middle-class mother who had always tried to do the best for her children. She never imagined that her identical twin sons, who had been doing so well at school, would become involved in drugs. She was shocked when they were suspended from school for smoking cannabis, but this was just the start of a terrible, unimaginable journey - culminating in the knock on the door in the early hours by the police. They gave her the devastating news that her son Nick had killed himself in despair at his heroin addiction. 

Ten years ago, a deadly plague ravaged humanity. There were seven billion souls on our planet; now, there's just a handful. Our extinction event has come and gone, but a few of us did survive. We're the lucky ones, born with a rare genetic adaptation that gave us immunity to the plague. But the intervening decade had been brutal and unforgiving; so many more of us died.

Even the most powerful tracers can't track you if the magical trace you leave behind is too old. But I can track almost anything, even dead trace. That makes me a unicorn, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and the Loch Ness Monster all rolled into one. In a word, I am unique. A very special snowflake. And if anyone ever finds out, I'll be dead or a slave to one of the Tyet criminal factions. Riley Hollis has quietly traced kidnapped children and quietly tipped the cops to their whereabouts one too many times.

Cass Kennedy finally gets what she's been dreaming of for the past 10 years: a drifter ship to call her own. All the sim time and battle training is going to pay off in spades as she sets her course for the future. She'll be living on her own terms, not those of her father. But drifting through deep space with a crew of nutty strangers on the DS Anarchy carries a lot more surprises than she bargained for.

America once a thriving and prosperous nation, now an empty decaying wasteland - everything changed in the blink of an eye. In Grid Down: Reality Bites, a high-altitude nuclear blast causing an EMP (electrical magnetic pulse) destroys the power grid, catapulting life as they knew it, back to the 1800's. The saga continues in Grid Down Perceptions of Reality (Volume 2, Part 1), as Amy, Preston, Michael, Joe, and Jane desperately struggle to survive the chaos that ensues.

Solaria Ainsworth isn't a paladin, she's not even an ordained Templar Knight, but she can't resist poking her nose into police business when magicians are found murdered in Baltimore. When the murders spread to include those of the magical group Haul Du, she rethinks her participation in the investigation. Why should she bother to assist a group that kicked her out the moment they discovered she was a Templar, the group that forbade any of their members to have contact with her?

The end of the world? That's the stuff of Hollywood blockbusters and deep philosophical exercises in school. No need to sweat it. So when 16-year-old Tess's doomsday-dad builds a bomb shelter in their suburban backyard, everyone thinks he's gone crazy.... Until fire rains down from the sky, sinking whole cities into colossal craters and setting much of the world ablaze.

Their troubled past behind them, married couple, Rob and Louise, visit Venice for the first time together, looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Not just a romantic destination, it's also the most haunted city in the world and soon, Louise finds herself the focus of an entity she can't quite get to grips with - a veiled lady who stalks her.

Winter weather can spell death for the homeless, but the bodies found on Baltimore’s streets aren’t homeless, and they didn’t die from the cold. Are rogue vampires making a move into the city, emboldened by the fractured Balaj, or has Dario’s family taken to feeding indiscriminately? Dario swears it’s not the latter, but when it comes to light that one of the dead is a well-known Templar Knight, the Order’s eyes turn to the city with a vigilance not seen since the Crusades.

An epidemic is overloading Baltimore hospitals, and this time the vampires are finding themselves susceptible. Those infected are unable to control their hunger, crazed and insatiable no matter how much blood they consume. The timing couldn't be worse, with a rival Balaj in town for a feast - a rival that would be happy to take advantage of the situation and wrestle control of the Baltimore territory from Dario and his family.

Skinned bodies are turning up in broom closets and garages, but when these bodies are identified, the "victims" are found to be alive. Was there a mistake at the morgue? Is the murderer a serial killer with a gruesome fixation on taxidermy? Human killers aren't the responsibility of the Templars, even non-knight ones, but when a vampire is found dead and skinned north of the city, Aria suspects the killers aren't human. She'll need all of her friends to help catch these killers before they strike again.

Magical tracking expert Riley Hollis is on a mission to save five teenagers lost inside a mountain. But nothing is what it seems, and soon Riley finds herself bruised, bloodied, and embroiled in a battle to bring down a sadistic criminal dealing in human souls and the darkest of magic. Her only hope may be to swallow her pride and ask for help from her not-quite-ex-boyfriend and his notorious brother - Tyet criminal boss, Gregg Touray.

After three months of silence, Reynard shows up at Aria's door asking for her help in ousting a new mage who wants control of Haul Du. She sees no reason to help a man who was more than willing to toss her soul to a demon, but with the threat of an unknown enemy looming Aria needs all the friends she can get - and that might mean aligning herself with those who are more foe than friend. But a mage war is the least of Aria’s problems. The Conclave is in town investigating Dark Iron's disappearance. 

United Federation Marine Lance Corporal Tamara Veal catches the attention of recruiters who nominate her to serve as a Single Combat Specialist. Gladiators, as they are better known, are genetically modified human champions who meet Klethos d'relle in the combat ring when the Klethos issue a challenge for a human world. Win, and the planet stays in human possession; lose, and not only do they lose their lives, but the world as well.

Captain Cass and the crew of the DS Anarchy have been accepted into the Alliance, and plans are in the works to move forward as independent yet allied drifters. Unfortunately, the OSG isn't onboard with their plan, and people high up in the chain of command are determined to bring Cass to heel.

Captain Cass and her crew are drifting, waiting on word from the Alliance that they're ready to meet. But something pops up in her clearpanel that she wasn't expecting, and people with hidden motives are stirring up more trouble than she can handle alone. It's going to take a little help from some friends to get her out of this mess. Hopefully, she still has some left who are willing to take a risk on her.

Lauren's senior year is going exactly as planned. Her craft blog is getting more visitors every day, and she knows what she's going to do with her life after graduation: get her associate's degree, marry someone fabulous, and live happily ever after.Sure, she doesn't know what she's going to get that degree in, .and there's no Prince Charming on the horizon yet. But, still that's the plan.

Beneath the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas lies another city. A secret city in plain sight, full of warlocks and demons, shapeshifters and golems. A city that feeds off the chance magick that is generated by gamblers, and which is ruled by mysterious beings called the Oddsmakers. It is in this strange underbelly of the occult that Anne Moody runs a cursed pawn shop for the desperate, the curious, and the magickally inclined. The job can be tricky, but it keeps her under the radar.

A plan was laid out as the Evolution crushed mankind, a plan that was right under Eden's nose all along. And Eve is the key to everything. New Eden - mankind - they have a small chance at fixing their dismembered planet. But it will be a reckless sprint against time and the coming Bane to retrieve the final piece to the plot. New Eden's worst fears have become reality. The Bane are back in the city and they're smarter and more aggressive than ever.