Unbeknownst to most people, the world is divided into three realms, the normal human world, the world of the Fae and the Borderlands between where both species mix with each other and a third group, humans with magic. Detective Danny Faraway born into a powerful magic family, left and became a homicide detective in the human realm, content to forget the Borderlands existed. As bodies start piling up, it turns out a homicide detective is exactly what the Borderlands needs. With six dead, Danny is on the hunt for a killer. All is not as straightforward as it seems and soon Danny realizes that the fate of the Borderlands themselves is at stake.
Prologue
"Legend has it he was killed on this very spot." As the words fell from Liza's lips, a low wail was heard in the distance. The tourists clustered together in a slightly tighter group, many seeming unaware that they actually moved. Liza reminded herself to tell Colin the sound effects were spot on.
Tonight's Haunted Mystery Tour was going well, better than any they had done previously. Even though the tours were running nightly, Liza viewed it as practice for the main event, Halloween. They had two weeks left to get it perfect. That would be the night that counted.
In many of their past tours, the sound was an issue. Colin couldn't resist getting overly dramatic. While she conceded that a sense of drama was nice, he tended to go so overboard that it tipped the tourists from tittering with nervous excitement into laughter at the farce.
Tonight, no one was laughing.
They wound their way through the old cemetery. Liza kept her steps measured and slow. She counted them as she walked, giving the last fright time to sink in before she began the next tale of woe.
'I'll have to talk to Colin about the dry ice machine,' she thought. He may have toned back the music but he was certainly overdoing it with the atmosphere.
The fog was getting especially thick. She liked the feel it gave the tour, which is why she approved the machine's use in the first place, but she didn't want anyone getting separated from the group and lost among the tombstones.
Barrowville Cemetery was old and vast, the oldest in the Borderlands in fact. Many of the older parts weren't kept up very well anymore and while Liza didn't believe in spooks and specters, she believed heavily in twisted ankles and bruised shins. At the moment she was having trouble keeping her own shins from banging against the headstones. It didn't help that in this section the rows were irregularly spaced.
Liza turned back to the group. She took a quick head count and found all present. The cluster of people condensed, the fog herding them together instead of separating them. She breathed a sigh of relief as it was one less thing to worry about. She reached out a hand and placed it on top of the next headstone. She felt the gritty limestone surface beneath her fingertips, so different from the polished granite of the newer stones in the front of the cemetery.
"And now we come to Lucille Morgan," Liza began. "Her sad tale echoes through the centuries, her unhappy end still causing her to walk these very fields." She paused for dramatic effect. "Or so some claim."
She kept the volume of her voice low so that the others had to lean forward to catch all the words. Confident in their attention, Liza allowed her gaze to drop to the headstone. As she shifted, she saw the edge of a shoe lying at ground level. It looked modern.
She edged forward a step, wondering if it was trash or if one of the tourists actually fainted. Both were regular occurrences on these tours. They had taken to patrolling the cemetery routinely to make certain garbage was all collected and disposed of the day before the tour. On her last pass through, Liza couldn't remember seeing any footwear. Liza edged a little closer and saw the shoe was attached to a leg.
A fainter then.
"It seems we have frightened someone to death," Liza said. "Or perhaps he has just fainted, shall we see?" she told the crowd. She smiled at them so they would realize that everything was in hand and going as expected, despite the fainter.
There were titters from the scared, an edge of relief to the sound as they weren't the ones on the ground. Liza moved over to help the fallen. The scent hit her before her eyes could register the sight. Blood, excrement and a raw meat smell that crawled into her nose and lodged like a lump in the back of her throat. Then, the fog rolled away revealing the tattered flesh. She blinked, recognizing the face.
"C...C...Colin?"
When his wife died aboard The Defender in the Matrovean attack, all Michael wanted to do was join her in death. He sought oblivion but the Guild needed his skills as a cartographer as they sent teams inland to survey the planet outside of the town limits of Haven. Pulled back from the edge of oblivion for one last job, Mateo promises Michael that there are plenty of things on the alien world that could kill him if he looks hard enough. Hoping for a quick death, Michael agrees, but soon finds out there is more to the survey than he expected. Will Michael find the death he craves and doom the rest of his team into the bargain?
Brownie Oxford, now going by the name Bonnie Brown, is trying her best to avoid notice. She found someone to teach her the skills she needs to control her abilities and people have stopped leaving dead bodies on the lawn in front of her apartment building. Unfortunately, she is surrounded on all sides by Federal Agents trying to confirm she is Brownie Oxford so she once again be an asset. Maintaining her guise as a mild mannered seamstress and student of fashion isn’t easy, especially when the beast supposedly trapped by the Searchers starts visiting and ghosts start making demands. Can Brownie manage to keep this new life she built when even one false step could betray her?
After the dawn ritual on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie is welcomed by those of Abraham's pantheon. While she knows she isn't a Walker no one is quite willing to tell her exactly what she is other than 'family'. They are excited about the skills she might develop as her training begins and she realizes that she is the latest entertainment to break up the long monotony of their eternity. As she struggles to maintain her place in the regular world and complete her midterms, the mystical world and her newly developing abilities threaten to intrude. The line between her separate worlds is thin and beginning to blur. How long can Cassie remain a part of both?
After surviving an attack by the Brotherhood, Ivy tries to get back to normal life preparing for the launch of Wildwood's retail venture. Unfortunately others have different expectations. The head of the Seers shows up demanding Irina and Nick be turned over to him and Hamilton demands she figure out who else the Brotherhood paid off. Can Ivy figure things out before more attacks occur?
After being shot, Ivy Chambers settles in to her home in Wildwood to recover and read through her purloined files. Her recovery time is interrupted when the Head of the Mage Clan calls reporting that the golems running the Shadow Council Headquarters are malfunctioning. While she knows very little about golems, Hamilton can't risk anyone knowing he's lost control and since Ivy's ancestor created the golems, she's the one who needs to fix them. With a crash course in golems under her belt, Ivy returns to the archives, but it isn't only her family's actions causing problems. It seems more than the golems are malfunctioning. Can Ivy settle things without taking more damage or is the world destined to spin even further out of control?
Brownie Oxford is on the run. After the death of both Matheson and Dave in the Mayenfield Cemetery, she takes Matheson's rental car and sneaks out of town, eluding those watching her. Unable to resist the lure of finding out more about her own past, Brownie finds herself making a brief stop at the Matheson Estate before finding a place to hide out. Unfortunately, the brief visit leaves her with more questions than it answered. Away from the estate, Brownie starts a new life under an assumed name and alters her appearance. As Brownie attempts normality a serial killer starts stashing the bodies of his victims in cemeteries bringing the attention of Swift and threatening Brownie's attempt at a normal life. Is Brownie's disguise enough to fool her old handler into believing she is someone else? And just who is killing all those people?
I received a pornographic video. "Do you like this?" The man speaking in the video is my husband, Mark, whom I haven't seen for several months. He is naked, his shirt and pants scattered on the ground, thrusting forcefully on a woman whose face I can't see, her plump and round breasts bouncing vigorously. I can clearly hear the slapping sounds in the video, mixed with lustful moans and grunts. "Yes, yes, fuck me hard, baby," the woman screams ecstatically in response. "You naughty girl!" Mark stands up and flips her over, slapping her buttocks as he speaks. "Stick your ass up!" The woman giggles, turns around, sways her buttocks, and kneels on the bed. I feel like someone has poured a bucket of ice water on my head. It's bad enough that my husband is having an affair, but what's worse is that the other woman is my own sister, Bella. ************************************************************************************************************************ “I want to get a divorce, Mark,” I repeated myself in case he didn't hear me the first time—even though I knew he'd heard me clearly. He stared at me with a frown before answering coldly, "It's not up to you! I'm very busy, don't waste my time with such boring topics, or try to attract my attention!" The last thing I was going to do was argue or bicker with him. "I will have the lawyer send you the divorce agreement," was all I said, as calmly as I could muster. He didn't even say another word after that and just went through the door he'd been standing in front of, slamming it harshly behind him. My eyes lingered on the knob of the door a bit absentmindedly before I pulled the wedding ring off my finger and placed it on the table. I grabbed my suitcase, which I'd already had my things packed in and headed out of the house.
Rose looked at the reports in her hand and was in shock... The reports said that she was one month pregnant, however, how can she get pregnant when she didn't have any man in her life... "Was it because of that dream? Could I get pregnant because I have sex in my dream?" She thought... She didn't have any mental problems, however, except for this she can't able to think about anything... However, she still didn't get out of her surprise when she met the man in her dream... Kevin Davis looked at the reports in her hand and asked, "Is this child mine?" However, Rose didn't answer but asked... "Was that night not a dream?" Kevin was angry because it was his first time and she thinks it was a dream... Kevin forced her to marry him however, Rose didn't want it... She wanted to abort the child but he didn't let her... In the end... Rose agreed to marry him... She looked at Kevin's blue eyes and said, "I will marry you, however, I had two conditions..." "First, after marriage, you can't control my freedom, I still had the right to do whatever I want. Don't worry I won't harm the child." "Second, if I ever found out that you had cheated behind my back then I will leave with my child and you can't stop me..." Both of them got married... However, after she falls in love with him... She found there are hidden secrets in his past...
For two years, Ashton had poured his heart into his marriage, yet Emalee's heart remained cold. Despite his dedication, Emalee presented him with divorce papers. She bluntly stated she could not remain married to a man whose net worth was less than a million dollars. Ashton signed the papers, closing one chapter of his life and stepping into a new beginning. Then, Ashton revealed his secret identities: a music mogul, a medical expert, and a martial arts master—each persona impressive enough to stun the world. As Ashton’s true capabilities came to light, Emalee was overwhelmed with deep regret.
Lenny was the richest man in the capital. He had a wife, but their marriage was loveless. One night, he accidentally had a one night stand with a stranger, so he decided to divorce his wife and look for the girl he slept with. He vowed to marry her. Months after the divorce, he found out that his wife was seven months’ pregnant. Did his wife cheat on him? Scarlet was looking for her husband one night and the two unexpectedly made passionate love. Not knowing what to do, she ran away in a panic, but later found that she was pregnant. Just when she was ready to explain what had happened to her husband, he suddenly asked her for a divorce. Would Lenny ever find out that the strange girl he had slept with was actually his wife? More importantly, would their loveless marriage take a turn for the better—or the worse?
Belinda thought after divorce, they would part ways for good - he could live his life on his own terms, while she could indulge in the rest of hers. However, fate had other plans in store. "My darling, I was wrong. Would you please come back to me?" The man, whom she once loved deeply, lowered his once proud head humbly. "I beg you to return to me." Belinda coldly pushed away the bouquet of flowers he had offered her and coolly replied, "It's too late. The bridge has been burned, and the ashes have long since scattered to the wind!"
In their three years of marriage, Chelsea had been a dutiful wife to Edmund. She used to think that her love and care would someday melt Edmund's cold heart, but she was wrong. Finally, she couldn't take the disappointment any longer and chose to end the marriage. Edmund had always thought that his wife was just boring and dull. So it was shocking when Chelsea suddenly threw divorce papers at his face in front of everyone at the Nelson Group's anniversary party. How humiliating! After that, everyone thought that the formerly-married couple would never see each other again, even Chelsea. Once again, she thought wrong. Sometime later, at an award ceremony, Chelsea went onstage to accept the award for best screenplay. Her ex-husband, Edmund, was the one presenting the award to her. As he handed her the trophy, he suddenly reached for her hand and pleaded humbly in front of the audience, "Chelsea, I'm sorry I didn't cherish you before. Could you please give me another chance?" Chelsea looked at him indifferently. "I'm sorry, Mr. Nelson. My only concern now is my business." Edmund's heart was shattered into a million pieces. "Chelsea, I really can't live without you." But his ex-wife just walked away. Wasn't it better for her to just concentrate on her career? Men would only distract her—especially her ex-husband.