Nate Kenyon is the author of seven novels and dozens of short stories in the horror, thriller, and sci-fi genres. His first novel, Bloodstone, was a Bram Stoker Award finalist and won the P&E Horror Novel of the Year. The Reach, also a Stoker Award finalist, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and was optioned for film. Kenyon’s novels StarCraft Ghost: Spectres and Diablo: The Order were based on Blizzard’s bestselling video-game franchises, and his next Diablo novel will be released in 2014. Kenyon’s latest novel is the thriller Day One from Thomas Dunne Books.
Sherrilyn Kenyon is a New York Times bestselling author who has claimed the number one spot sixteen times from 2010 to 2013. This extraordinary bestseller continues to top every genre she writes. With more than twenty-five million copies of her books in print in over one hundred countries, her current series include: The Dark-Hunters, The League, Chronicles of Nick, and Belador. Since 2004 she has placed more than fifty novels on the New York Times list in all formats, including manga.
Michael Koryta is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, including The Prophet, The Ridge, and The Cypress House. His prizewinning work has been translated into more than twenty languages and praised by writers such as Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Scott Smith, and Michael Connelly. A former private investigator and newspaper reporter, he lives in Bloomington, Indiana, and St. Petersburg, Florida.
Kasey Lansdale was born into the world of writing. Daughter of renowned horror author Joe R. Lansdale, she was first published by Random House at the tender age of eight for the short story, “The Companion.” Her nonfiction article “Growing Up Lansdale Style” was published in 2012 by Horror Zine’s online anthology and later in Horror Zine’s print anthology, A Feast of Frights. She is the editor of the forthcoming horror anthology Impossible Monsters, published by Subterranean Press in 2013. Lansdale is also known for her work as a singer/songwriter and has just completed her first novel.
Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over thirty novels and numerous short stories. He has received nine Bram Stoker Awards, an Edgar Award, and numerous other awards and recognitions. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas, with his wife, Karen.
Tim Lebbon is a New York Times bestselling writer with almost thirty novels published to date, as well as dozens of novellas and hundreds of short stories. Recent releases include Coldbrook, Reaper’s Legacy, and The Sea Wolves (with Christopher Golden). Future novels include Into the Void: Dawn of the Jedi (Star Wars) and The Silence. He has won four British Fantasy Awards, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Scribe Award. Fox2000 acquired film rights to his Secret Journeys of Jack London series, and his Toxic City trilogy is in development with ABC Studios. Find out more at www.timlebbon.net.
David Liss is the author of seven novels, most recently The Twelfth Enchantment. His previous books include A Conspiracy of Paper, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and won the 2001 Barry, MacAvity, and Edgar Awards for Best First Novel. The Coffee Trader was also named a New York Times Notable Book. A Spectacle of Corruption was a national bestseller, and The Devil’s Company has been optioned for film by Warner Brothers. Liss is the author of the graphic novel Mystery Men, has written Black Panther for Marvel Comics, and currently writes The Spider for Dynamite Comics.
Jonathan Maberry is a New York Times bestselling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and freelancer for Marvel Comics. His novels include Extinction Machine, Fire & Ash, Patient Zero, and many others. His award-winning teen novel Rot & Ruin is now in development for film. He is the editor of V-Wars, an award-winning vampire anthology. Since 1978 he’s sold more than twelve hundred magazine feature articles, three thousand columns, plays, greeting cards, song lyrics, and poetry. He is the founder of the Writers Coffeehouse and cofounder of the Liars Club. Jonathan lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Sara Jo.
Stuart MacBride is the number one bestselling author of the Logan McRae series, set in Aberdeen; the standalone Birthdays for the Dead; and the near-future thriller Halfhead. He’s won an award or three, been inducted into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame, and in 2010 he chaired the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. He lives in the northeast of Scotland with his wife, Fiona, and a small fuzzy serial-killer cat called Grendel.
Sarah MacLean is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical romance. Her love of all things historical earned her degrees from Smith College and Harvard University before she set pen to paper and wrote her first book. She lives in New York City.
Jeffrey J. Mariotte’s fifty-plus books include supernatural thrillers Season of the Wolf, River Runs Red, Missing White Girl, and Cold Black Hearts; horror epic The Slab; thriller The Devil’s Bait; and many more. He also writes comic books and graphic novels, including the long-running horror/Western series Desperadoes, Fade to Black, Zombie Cop, and others. He’s a co-owner of specialty bookstore Mysterious Galaxy with locations in San Diego and Redondo Beach, California. With his wife, Maryelizabeth Hart, he lives on the Flying M Ranch in rural southeastern Arizona, far away from almost everything. Find him online at http://jeffmariotte.com.
James A. Moore is an award-winning author of over twenty novels in different genres, including the critically acclaimed Serenity Falls trilogy and the young adult Subject Seven series. His latest novel is the sword and sorcery fantasy Seven Forges. His recurring antihero, Jonathan Crowley, has appeared in half a dozen novels, with more to come. You can find out more about him at http://jamesamoorebooks.com.
Mark Morris is the author of over twenty novels, among which are Toady, Stitch, The Immaculate, The Secret of Anatomy, Fiddleback, The Deluge, and four books in the popular Doctor Who range. His short stories, novellas, articles, and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of anthologies and magazines, and he is editor of both Cinema Macabre, a book of horror movie essays by genre luminaries for which he won the 2007 British Fantasy Award, and its follow-up Cinema Futura. His recently published or forthcoming work includes the official tie-in novel for zombie apocalypse computer game Dead Island, a novelization of the 1971 Hammer movie Vampire Circus, and The Wolves of London, book one of the Obsidian Heart trilogy, which will be published by Titan Books in 2014.
Holly Newstein’s short fiction has appeared in Cemetery Dance magazine and the anthologies Borderlands 5, The New Dead, In Laymon’s Terms, and Epitaphs: The Journal of the New England Horror Writers Association. She is the coauthor of the novels Ashes and The Epicure with Ralph W. Bieber, originally published under the pen name H. R. Howland. She lives in Maine with her fur kids, Keira, Remy, and Cielo.
Tom Piccirilli is the author of more than twenty-five novels, including Shadow Season, The Cold Spot, and A Choir of Ill Children. He has won two International Thriller Awards and four Bram Stoker Awards, as well as having been nominated for the Edgar Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Macavity Award, and Le Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire.
Carrie Ryan is the New York Times bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Forest of Hands and Teeth series, which has been translated into more than eighteen languages and is in development as a major motion picture. She is also the editor of the anthology Foretold: 14 Tales of Prophecy and Prediction, as well as author of Divide and Conquer, the second book in Scholastic’s multiauthor/multiplatform series, Infinity Ring. A former litigator, Carrie now writes full-time and lives with her husband, two fat cats, and one large dog in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can find her online at www.carrieryan.com.
Michael Marshall Smith is a novelist and screenwriter. Under this name he has published more than eighty short stories and three novels—Only Forward, Spares, and One of Us—winning the Philip K. Dick, International Horror Guild, and August Derleth Awards, along with the Prix Bob Morane in France. He has been awarded the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction four times, more than any other author. Writing as Michael Marshall, he has published six internationally bestselling thrillers, including The Straw Men, The Intruders, and Killer Move. His latest novel, We Are
Here, was published in 2013. He lives in Santa Cruz with his wife, son, and two cats. See more at www.michaelmarshallsmith.com.
F. Paul Wilson is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of nearly fifty books and many short stories spanning horror, adventure, medical thrillers, science fiction, and virtually everything between. More than nine million copies of his books are in print in the United States, and his work has been translated into twenty-four foreign languages. He also has written for the stage, screen, and interactive media. His latest thrillers, Cold City and Dark City, feature his urban mercenary, Repairman Jack. Paul resides at the Jersey Shore. Visit www.repairmanjack.com.
T. M. Wright is in his forty-third year as a writer (in training). Author of twenty-three novels (in and out of print) in various languages, a few short stories (he finds the novel easier to write), and lots of poetry, Wright is convinced that the quest for exactly the right word or phrase can hobble any writer. A father, grandfather, woodworker, and artist, Wright loves Boston terriers, Maine coon cats, and vegetarian cuisine.
Rio Youers is a multiplatform writer, working in books and comics. He is the British Fantasy Award–nominated author of End Times and Westlake Soul. His short fiction has been published by, among others, Cemetery Dance, St. Martin’s Griffin, and IDW Publishing. Rio lives in southwestern Ontario with his wife, Emily, and their daughter, Lily Maye.
Lidia Yuknavitch is the author of the antimemoir The Chronology of Water and the novel Dora: A Headcase, as well as three books of short stories. She thrives on moss and water in Portland, Oregon.
Copyright Notices
TRIP TRAP by Sherrilyn Kenyon and Kevin J. Anderson. Copyright © 2014 by Sherrilyn Kenyon and Kevin J. Anderson.
WELDED by Tom Piccirilli and T. M. Wright. Copyright © 2014 by Tom Piccirilli and T.M. Wright.
DARK WITNESS by Charlaine Harris and Rachel Caine. Copyright © 2014 by Charlaine Harris and Rachel Caine.
REPLACING MAX by Stuart MacBride and Allan Guthrie. Copyright © 2014 by Stuart MacBride and Allan Guthrie.
T. RHYMER by Gregory Frost and Jonathan Maberry. Copyright © 2014 by Gregory Frost and Jonathan Maberry.
SHE, DOOMED GIRL by Sarah MacLean and Carrie Ryan. Copyright © 2014 by Sarah MacLean and Carrie Ryan.
HAND JOB by Chelsea Cain and Lidia Yuknavitch. Copyright © 2014 by Chelsea Cain and Lidia Yuknavitch.
HOLLOW CHOICES by Robert Jackson Bennett and David Liss. Copyright © 2014 by Robert Jackson Bennett and David Liss.
AMUSE-BOUCHE by Amber Benson and Jeffrey J. Mariotte. Copyright © 2014 by Amber Benson and Jeffrey J. Mariotte.
BRANCHES, CURVING by Tim Lebbon and Michael Marshall Smith. Copyright © 2014 by Tim Lebbon and Michael Marshall Smith.
RENASCENCE by Rhodi Hawk and F. Paul Wilson. Copyright © 2014 by Rhodi Hawk and F. Paul Wilson.
BLIND LOVE by Kasey Lansdale and Joe R. Lansdale. Copyright © 2014 by Kasey Lansdale and Joe R. Lansdale.
TRAPPER BOY by Holly Newstein and Rick Hautala. Copyright © 2014 by Holly Newstein and Rick Hautala.
STEWARD OF THE BLOOD by Nate Kenyon and James A. Moore. Copyright © 2014 by Nate Kenyon and James A. Moore.
CALCULATING ROUTE by Michael Koryta and Jeffrey David Greene. Copyright © 2014 by Michael Koryta and Jeffrey David Greene.
SISTERS BEFORE MISTERS by Sarah Rees Brennan, Cassandra Clare, and Holly Black. Copyright © 2014 by Sarah Rees Brennan, Cassandra Clare, and Holly Black.
SINS LIKE SCARLET by Mark Morris and Rio Youers. Copyright © 2014 by Mark Morris and Rio Youers.
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A continuation of the copyright page appears on page 423.
DARK DUETS. Collection and introduction copyright © 2014 by Christopher Golden. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address HarperCollins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.
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FIRST EDITION
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