After the events of Shadow Hunt (and the short story 'Nativity,' found in Companion Pieces), Los Angeles null Scarlett Bernard finds herself more out of her depth than ever before.
Cleaning up crime scenes and juggling supernatural politics is hard enough, but now Scarlett must face changes to every part of her personal and professional lives. What happens when the world's most powerful null goes on parental leave?
And what will the Old World have waiting for her when she comes back?
This novel-length story is structured as diary entries, recorded by Scarlett as she faces her most terrifying trial yet: motherhood.
'You can read this story without having read anything else by Olson, and I highly recommend it.'
-Charles de Lint, author of The Newford series and Moonheart, in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
All her life, Sashi’s mother warned her not to get involved with werewolf problems. But Sashi, a witch who uses magic to heal sick and injured bodies, has never made a habit of ignoring trauma. When she meets an abused shapeshifter that no one else seems willing to help, Sashi will risk everything –including a budding romance with a human, Will – to save a woman who can’t save herself.
From California to Colorado, the Old World is filled with complicated women, volatile creatures, and nulls with attitude. This unmissable collection includes the stories that run in between and alongside the Old World novels, allowing readers to catch up with favorite characters and find clues about the future of this bestselling series.
In the never-before-published 'Boundary Blood,' Allison 'Lex' Luther has to accompany her injured aunt on a road trip across the country-but Katia has secrets that could prove lethal even to boundary witches. In the original short story 'The Lost Girls,' Corry Tanger-college freshman, null and sometimes assistant to Scarlett Bernard-has to contend with a new vampire who wants to push all the limits.
It's just another day for Las Vegas healing witch Sashi Brighton (protagonist of Bloodsick), until she gets an urgent call from Los Angeles, kicking off a chain of events that will turn her life upside down in the all-new story 'Powerless.' Finally, 'Nativity' takes us into the delivery room with series lead Scarlett Bernard, who has to juggle her null abilities, new motherhood and a very powerful surprise visitor.
Featuring original bonus materials from Olson's other two series, plus fan favorites 'Malediction' and 'Sell-By Date,' this must-have collection will cast a spell over every admirer of the Old World.
Months after her battles in Wyoming, Allison “Lex” Luther is still struggling with the aftereffects of the psychic attack she suffered—and with the new developments in her own magic.
Then Lex’s boss, the cardinal vampire of Colorado, passes along a strange request from her counterpart in Atlanta. Hundreds of Civil War spirits have abruptly vanished in Beau Calhoun’s territory, and he wants Lex to figure out why. In exchange, Beau can help her understand boundary magic, which runs in his family line as well.
Despite her trepidation, Lex journeys to the Deep South, where she discovers that ghosts are everywhere…and that her host’s intentions are more complicated than he promised. It seems his teenage descendant is being hunted, and both Beau and Lex fear the young woman’s boundary blood may have made her a target.
With Atlanta’s history looming over her every move, Lex will have to face Beau’s ghosts—and her own—to prevent a boundary magic attack she never dreamed possible.
Years ago, boundary witch Allison “Lex” Luther made a promise to an alpha werewolf. Now, just when the supernatural community in Colorado is enjoying a period of hard-won peace, the alpha turns up at Lex’s door to call in his marker. Two of his pack members have disappeared in the Colorado sand dunes, and he needs safe passage to hunt for them.
With her friend Simon Pellar along for backup, Lex ventures into the dunes to search for the missing couple…but what they find is only the opening move in an ambitious assault against those who hold power in the Colorado Old World. An old enemy has returned to tear their peace apart, and Lex is soon embroiled in politics she doesn’t understand, from a time before she had magic.
To save her friends and her way of life, Lex will have to cross every line she’s drawn since learning what she is—and it may still be too late.
Melissa F. Olson's thrilling FBI vampire procedural Nightshades series concludes with Outbreak The Chicago field office of the Bureau of Preternatural Investigation is facing its deadliest challenge, yet?internal investigation! Alex and Lindy are on the hook, and on the run. But when all of the BPI's captive vampires are broken free from their maximum security prison, and Hector finally steps out of the shadows, Alex must use every trick to stay ahead of both the BPI and the world's most dangerous shade. Confrontation is inevitable. Success is not.
For years now, Scarlett Bernard has counted on two things: her ability to nullify magic, and Shadow, the bargest who guards Scarlett with her life. But after a sudden revelation turns Scarlett's world upside down, she panics and leaves town without warning, leaving Shadow with her partner, Jesse. In the chaos that follows, the bargest is stolen - and Jesse nearly dies from a brutal psychic assault.
It seems that an old enemy has returned for revenge...and the attack on Shadow was only the beginning. As Scarlett races home to find the bargest and rescue her friends, she is dragged deeper into a terrifying legend that has somehow found its way to present-day Los Angeles.
Now she will have to recruit every possible ally for a battle that will test her null ability to the limit. Scarlett has been in over her head before, but now she risks losing everything...and she's never had more to lose.
Alex Mckenna is the new special agent in charge of the Chicago office of the Bureau of Preternatural Investigations-the division tasked with investigating crimes involving shades.
Or vampires, as they're more widely known.
Children have been going missing, and agents are routinely being slaughtered. It's up to McKenna, and some unlikely allies, to get to the bottom of the problem and find the kids before it's too late.
Nightshades is a gritty urban fantasy from Melissa F. Olson.
Three weeks after the events of Nightshades, things are finally beginning to settle for the Chicago branch of the BPI, but the brief respite from the horror of the previous few weeks was never destined to last.
The team gets a call from Switch Creek, Wisconsin, where a twenty-something goth has been arrested on suspicion of being a shade.
The suspect is held overnight, pending DNA testing, but seemingly escapes in a terrifying and bloody massacre. But is there more to the jailbreak than a simple quest for freedom?
PRAISE FOR NIGHTSHADES
"A page burner that left me wanting to be able to one click that next book! You will not be able to turn away from Nightshades!" -SHANNON MAYER
"Nightshades is a fast-paced, action-filled clash between federal agents and vampires. For anyone looking for a new twist on the old mythology of bloodsucking fiends, Melissa F. Olson knows how to deliver the sharp end of the stake." -CHRISTOPHER FARNSWORTH
If there is one city that Scarlett Bernard hates, it’s Las Vegas. But when the cardinal vampire of Los Angeles convinces her to go investigate a new vampire-themed stage show, Scarlett quickly finds herself shoulder-deep in sequins, slot machines, and Old World intrigue. The show’s creators are vampire celebrities Arthur and Lucy Holmwood, who once inspired characters from the original Dracula.
Now, however, they have no qualms about announcing their true status to the human world, endangering the secrecy of the Old World and Scarlett’s mission to keep it hidden. But before she can begin untangling the Holmwoods’ motives, Scarlett also discovers that their new production has attracted more than just fans: Las Vegas’s many vampires are suddenly disappearing, and rumors are flying that actual vampire hunters may have followed Arthur and Lucy to town.
Now, without her allies, her bargest, or her frequent partner Jesse Cruz, Scarlett must navigate a new underworld of secrets and murders in a city where nothing is ever as it seems. And the stakes have never been higher.
Scarlett Bernard is used to cleaning up messes. As a human who cancels out any magic around her, Scarlett’s job is to keep the supernatural world hidden—at any cost. But on the eve of the Vampire Trials, a two-day tribunal that allows the otherworldly community to air their grievances, Scarlett receives a blood-soaked message from Molly, her estranged former roommate. Molly, a vampire, had been living with twelve human college students…and in one terrible night, she slaughtered them all. Scarlett believes Molly’s been set up, but no one else in the Old World agrees with her. Meanwhile, the true perpetrator is determined to make sure Molly goes on trial for the massacre—and the penalty is death. With less than two days to prove her friend’s innocence, Scarlett calls on former LAPD detective Jesse Cruz to help her dig into Molly’s past. But no one—Molly included—wants Scarlett and Jesse to bring the terrible truth to light.
Something wicked is at work in Colorado's supernatural community. Vampires are being paralyzed or killed with poison...a weapon favored by witches. This offense threatens to break apart the already-fractured alliance between witches and the undead.
The state's cardinal vampire, Maven, summons boundary witch Allison "Lex" Luther to stop the killing before it ignites a war. Lex has barely started investigating when she gets another surprise: the biological father she's never met arrives on her doorstep. He has answers to all of Lex's questions about her bloodline, but getting those answers could mean betraying the life she's already built.
Then the next vampire is poisoned-and this time it's Maven herself. The new evil that hunts Lex is powerful and ruthless enough to stop the strongest supernatural creature in the state. In order to find such a killer, Lex will have to face down her own birthright and call on every ally-both living and dead.
