Showing results by narrator "Joe Hempel"

Clay's life has reached a standstill. Recently divorced, he spends his days drifting from his drab apartment to his equally lackluster job as an editor for a small Boston press and back again. His dreary routine has left him mired in a seemingly meaningless existence, until the night he meets Lucian - a demon - and everything changes. With the simple words, "I'm going to tell you my story, and you're going to write it down and publish it", Lucian catapults Clay's mundane life into turmoil.

The new vampire president and his psychotic right-hand man have been playing a dangerous game with the humans over the past six months. In the public eye, the two races appear to be at peace...but the situation below the surface is hot enough to boil. And while the untrusting humans mass their defenses, vampire armies have been building to match them - with plans to exterminate the planet's current inhabitants, saving only a handful of blood slaves.

Jim Bauer is shocked when he inherits a large sum of money and a historic mansion. The mysterious gift comes with a stipulation, however; he must use the funds to restore Mansfeld Manor to its original condition. What Jim doesn’t know is that this home has a terrible history. As he works to restore the manor, he begins to learn the terrifying secrets of its past. He discovers tales of missing persons, rumors of occult rituals, and sightings of a ghostly wolf on the grounds. 

Forty years have passed since the end of the vampire/human war. Vampires have taken over the planet and have settled in, making themselves comfortable in the infrastructure their predecessors built, with just a few adjustments to ensure a permanent night. Humans still exist, tightly controlled, because the alpha species needs to eat. But even after four decades of peace, Reginald can't shake his conviction that the war never really ended - that the archive he still holds in his blood warns of an ominous change on the horizon. 

Following Maurice's near-assassination and the overthrow of the American vampire council, Reginald, Maurice, and Nikki have fled to Luxembourg, where they've taken refuge under the protection of Karl Stromm and the EU Council. Things in America have continued towards chaos with no end in sight - until a coup shakes the world and a new American leader arrives with promises to restore order and derail the imminent human-vampire war.

Angels and demons, myths and legends. It's been six months since Reginald Baskin became a vampire too fat to live happily with the beautiful undead - six months in which Reginald and his 2,000-year-old maker Maurice have learned that safety does not come with power. These days, Maurice is deacon of the vampire nation, but plenty beneath Maurice are still plotting to depose him...or dispose of him. But when a new and ancient threat rears its head, the Nation faces extinction and the truest of deaths - and Reginald, Maurice, and Nikki might be the only vampires able to stop it.

On the night of a long-awaited comet sighting, Erich, a university student, comes back from the dead. Making a miraculous recovery after a horrific car accident, he quickly returns to his musical studies and seems to have a new zest for life. Though he mingles with his fellow students and dedicates himself to his work, those close to him can't help but notice something is wrong. Very wrong. Erich isn't himself anymore. His personality has changed radically, and where he was once a middling musician, he's suddenly and unaccountably developed a virtuosic talent....

Immortality has met its match. Ever since the ring of fire, the world's vampires have seen their mortality. They won’t live forever after all - not if the angels who created them decide to snuff them like candles. What do the angels want? What did their command to “restore balance” truly mean? For most, the angels’ decrees mean mass murder and mass turnings...but the humans aren’t sheep, and won’t just lie down and take it forever. As Deacon Maurice tries to maintain order with Reginald by his side, panic consumes the vampire nation.

Joe works at a facility that performs human experimentation. His work just followed him home. The government wanted to unlock hidden abilities in the human mind. They put subjects in extreme sensory deprivation. All the test subjects went violently insane. But the research continued. Today it has been perfected. Almost perfected. 

When a missing person case lands in the lap of Black Knight Investigations, Jimmy Black and his partner, Greg Knightwood, jump back into action - until their missing person rises as an uncontrollable vampire and all signs point to a supernatural coup orchestrated by an unknown vampire of immense power. With the case going sideways, more missing girls, and a new cop in town way too curious about Jimmy's perennial youth, life in Charlotte is about to get interesting again.

When overweight treadmill salesman Reginald Baskin finally meets a co-worker who doesn't make fun of him, it's just his own bad luck that tech guy Maurice turns out to be a 2,000-year-old vampire. And when Maurice turns Reginald to save his life, it's just Reginald's further bad luck that he wakes to discover he's become the slowest, weakest, most out-of-shape vampire ever created...doomed to "heal" to his corpulent self for all of eternity.

Just your average father-son story. But with abduction, torture, and murder. Out of nowhere, a retired 60-year old handyman goes on a murder-spree, abducting healthy young people and torturing them with hand-tools. After he's caught, a media fascination in The Handyman swells. People want to know why he snapped. They want to hear all the grisly details. But he'll only tell his gruesome story to one person - his estranged son.

Ted and Susan Merchant have been coming to the Pine Lakes resort for nearly 20 years. In that time, their annual getaway has become a tradition, a peaceful week nestled in the picturesque mountains of northern Pennsylvania. For them, it isn’t just a simple vacation spot, but a magical destination where time slows and they become one with nature’s magnificence. When a freak summer storm forces Ted to lose control of their car and plummet off the road, they’re relieved just to have survived, but relief quickly turns to dread as they find out all too soon they’re not alone.

Ten years ago, Lex was forced to skip town, giving up everything he’d ever known. But even his time in solitude couldn’t keep away the memory of the girl he’d left behind. The girl who’d offered him her innocence, and her heart. Thea had moved on from the boy who abandoned her. Good job, fiancé, comfortable life in New York...until everything is ripped away from her, leaving her to pick up the pieces alone. When the care of an ailing loved one brings them back to Blackwater, Lex and Thea are confronted by the pains of the past.

The White Wolf, the Beast of Brenton Woods, a legendary creature said to walk like a man. When the full moon rises, it will feast. Unseen for years, truth has turned to rumor, mere folklore. Until something lures the monster from exile, calling it home. For Tyler and Ben, a firsthand encounter leads to an exploration of the forbidden depths of Brenton woods, and for Ben, the discovery of a family secret. When Wendy and her friend's hangout in the abandoned cabin is compromised, the hunt begins.

The night uncovers all we wish not to see. A troubled man enters a dusky park before sunset. A young woman follows, hidden in shadow. Both have returned to the park to take back something the past has stolen from them, to make right six long years of suffering, and to find justice or perhaps redemption - or maybe they'll settle for some old-fashioned revenge. But something evil is alive and awake in those woods, creatures that care nothing for human motivations. They’re driven by their own insatiable need: a ravenous, bottomless hunger.

It's Julian's turn to search for answers. Recent events have convinced him there's something wrong with the Beacon estate after all, but is it too late for him to put his skepticism aside? The horrific history of the Beacon estate is revealed in this chilling final volume of Ambrose Ibsen's Black Acres serial. In Darkness is the fourth and final novella in the Black Acres serial by Ambrose Ibsen. 

Just outside of Tokyo lies Aokigahara, a vast forest and one of the most beautiful wilderness areas in Japan...and also the most infamous spot to commit suicide in the world. Legend has it that the spirits of those many suicides are still roaming, haunting deep in the ancient woods. When bad weather prevents a group of friends from climbing neighboring Mt. Fuji, they decide to spend the night camping in Aokigahara. But they get more than they bargained for when one of them is found hanged in the morning - and they realize there might be some truth to the legends after all.  

Kim's curiosity reaches a fever pitch. Reaching out to the people who knew the Reeds, she ends up with conflicting accounts of their lives and habits. Nothing is making sense, and with every passing day, she becomes less sure of what she knows. An unmarked grave just outside the woods. A series of revelatory dreams. A large, mysterious light fixture hiding in among the trees. When Kim switches on the amber light, she discovers the truth behind the disappearance of Marshall and Dakota Reed. Indeed, she learns far too much.

Kim and Julian try to adjust to their new home, but reminders of the previous owners are many. For Kim, it's difficult not to fixate on the mysterious disappearance of the house's last tenants and she quickly grows obsessed with learning more about them. All the while, the house's quirks and flaws become more than just an annoyance. They're becoming frightening. The strange door in the basement, which had been wallpapered over so as to keep it hidden, has opened of its own accord.