Man no longer worships the old gods; forgotten and forsaken, they have become nothing more than myth and legend. But all that is about to change. After the ruins of a vast, ancient civilization are discovered on the ocean floor, Coast Guard officers find a series of derelict ships drifting in the current—high-priced yachts and leaking fishing boats, all ransacked, splattered in blood, their crews missing and presumed dead. And that's just the beginning. Vacationing artist Larry Neuhaus has just witnessed a gruesome shark attack, a young couple torn apart right before his eyes....at least, he thinks it was a shark. And when one of these victims turns out to be the only son of Roger Hays, the most powerful man in the country, things go from bad to worse. Now, to stop the carnage, Larry and his new-found friends must work together to unravel a mystery as old as time, and face an enemy as dark as the ocean depths.

What would you do if you had unlimited power and eternal life? Would you...go back to high school? Attend the same classes year after year, going through the pomp and circumstance of one graduation after another, until you found the perfect date to take to prom? Would you...spend your days moping and brooding, finding your only joy in a game of baseball on a stormy day? Or would you...do something else? Anything else? The authors of this collection have a few ideas; some fanciful, some humorous, and some as dark as an endless night. Join us, and discover what it truly means to be "vampyre." Edited by Michael West Foreword by Michael West "A New Life" by J. F. Gonzalez "What Once was Flesh" by Tim Waggoner "The Darkton Circus Mystery" by Elizabeth Massie "Robot Vampire" by R. J. Sullivan "Beneath a Templar Cross" by Gord Rollo "The Weapon of Memory" by Kyle S. Johnson "The Excavation" by Stephen Zimmer "Skraeling" by Joel A. Sutherland "Dreams of Winter" by Bob Freeman "Dracula's Winkee: Bloodsucker Blues" by Gregory L. Hall "I Fuck Your Sunshine" by Lucy A. Snyder "A Soldier's Story" by Maurice Broaddus "Rattenkonig " by Douglas F. Warrick "Vampire Nation" by Jerry Gordon "Curtain Call" by Gary A. Braunbeck

Love and evil know no bounds! Turn the page and enter a world of shadow, as Michael West brings together his most disturbing short stories--twisted tales of forbidden desires and ghoulish deeds, where nightmares manifest in the most mundane and unlikely of places... The basement of a Japanese restaurant, where a seductive creature promises comfort to a lonely hitman, if only he will set her free... A ruined city, where survivors of a natural disaster have become prey to something unnatural... An Indiana farmhouse, where a frightened child attempts to fool the Angel of Death... And the darkest regions of space, where a man fights to protect the woman he loves from invaders only he can see... Ten reasons to lock your doors. Ten reasons to keep the lights on. Ten reasons why you may never sleep again. Praise for Skull Full of Kisses "(Michael West) gave me nightmares!" Anne Boedeker, E! -Entertainment Television "This is damned serious stuff, and it's scary, suspenseful, and sweat-inducing; but more importantly - perhaps most importantly - it's all disturbing as hell, and cannot be easily forgotten." Gary A. Braunbeck, author of Coffin Countyand Mr. Hands (on Dark Harvest) "Michael West proves himself to be a masterful storyteller, flawless in building momentum, and his skills in characterization match or even often surpass some of the most successful writers in the business." Nicholas Grabowsky, author of Halloween 4: the Return of Michael Myers, and The Everborn (on The Wide Game)

On the advice of his wife, Paul Rice is making plans to attend his 10th year High School reunion. Returning to his boyhood home of Harmony, Indiana, he finds that he is still haunted by memories of that time-memories of Deidra, his first love, and memories of the Wide Game. It was ten years ago that Paul and his friends watched their day of fun become a race for their lives, a fight for their very souls. Now, as he meets the survivors of that day once more, Paul makes a chilling discovery: the incomprehensible forces that toyed with them have yet to finish playing their own game.

Welcome to the Woodfield Movie Palace. The night the Titanic sank, it opened for business...and its builder died in his chair. In the 1950s, there was a fire; a balcony full of people burned to death. And years later, when it became the scene of one of Harmony, Indiana's most notorious murders, it closed for good. Abandoned, sealed, locked up tight...until now. Tonight, Professor Geoffrey Burke and his Parapsychology students have come to the Woodfield in search of evidence, hoping to find irrefutable proof of a haunting. Instead, they will discover that, in this theater, the terrors are not confined to the screen.