Shades of Reality: Tales of Horror and Dark Fantasy

A wheelchair-bound psychic who commands the dead to deliver justice a killer could never face in court. A detective driven by a dark compulsion to hunt predators — using methods that make him something far worse. A Special Forces sergeant trapped in a Bosnian war zone where the mass graves have begun to empty. A hitman sent to West Virginia to bag a target that shouldn't exist — the legendary Mothman. An artist whose paintings don't just capture reality — they consume it. A Marine on an ice-locked moon of Jupiter, drawn toward an alien signal that promises wonder and delivers madness. A World War One fighter pilot battling undead aces in a sky poisoned by a gas that turns the fallen into enemy soldiers. A desperate father willing to murder strangers to complete an occult ritual that could save his dying daughter. And a wisecracking Cthulhu adjusting to life as a down-on-his-luck private eye in modern-day America.

From the internationally bestselling author of the Templar Chronicles series and the Great Undead War saga, these stories span the spectrum of dark fiction — from psychological horror and military supernatural thriller to Lovecraftian cosmic terror and pitch-black dark humor. Each one peels back another layer of reality to reveal the monsters hiding underneath, whether human or otherwise.

Includes the Templar Chronicles story "That Cleansing Fire" featuring Cade Williams and Echo Team, plus fan-favorite "Saintkiller" previously published in Masques V..

FEATURING

* Carrion Man - When the circus comes to town and children begin to disappear, the police turn to Grayson Shaw, a man whose affinity for the living is surpassed only by his affinity for the dead.

* Becoming Michael - Sometimes it not whether you win or lose that matters, but what side you chose when its time to play the game.

* Down Among the Bosnian Dead - In the killing fields and mass graves of Bosnia, Sgt, Michael Raines discovers that sometimes dead don't rest as quietly as we might like them to.

* Roadside Memorials - Driver Martin Jones discovers that there's more to those impromptu roadside memorials than he ever imagined.

* Siren Call - From the depths of an alien ocean comes a call of haunting beauty and terrible consequence.

* Money Well Earned - A killer for hire who has had his fair share of unique assignments finds himself confronted with his strangest yet.

* In the Eye of the Beholder - They say that art is in the eye of the beholder, but painter Kensington Wales takes that saying a bit more literally than most.

* The Urge - How far would you go to put a terrible injustice to rights?

* Saintkiller - The sudden appearance of stigmata on the hands of Detective Michael Stone causes him to question both his faith and his purpose, especially when each episode is accompanied by the death of an innocent...