Anita Blake, preternatural expert and feared executioner, is less interested in vampire politics than in the ancient, ordinary dread that women down the ages have experienced: am I pregnant? And, if so, is the father a vampire, a werewolf or someone else entirely?

The first warning is unexpected and calculated. Malcolm, head of the vampire Church of Eternal Life, is no friend to Anita Blake. So when he asks for her help against creatures so feared that no vampire will willingly speak their name, Anita is surprised. But the Harlequin require different rules.

Jason is a werewolf. He's also one of Anita Blake's best friends and sometimes her lover. And right now he needs her - not to be a vampire hunter, or a federal marshal, or a necromancer. Because his father is dying he wants Anita to make him look like an everyday guy, helping him say good-bye to the abusive father he never loved.

A fast-paced new novella in the New York Times bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, plus a mesmerising selection of exotic Laurell K. Hamilton short stories.

When Anita Blake meets with prospective client Tony Bennington, who is desperate for her to reanimate his deceased wife, she is full of sympathy for his loss. Anita knows something about love, and knows everything there is to know about loss. But she also knows that the thing she can do as a necromancer isn't the miracle he thinks he needs.

When a 15-year-old girl is abducted by vampires, it's up to Anita Blake to find her. And when she does, she is faced with something she's never seen before: a terrifyingly ordinary group of people, all recently turned and willing to die to avoid serving their vampire master.

JASON is an all-new novella in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, series by Sunday Times top ten and No. 1 New York Times bestseller Laurell K. Hamilton, author of GUILTY PLEASURES and AFFLICTION. Also included is an exclusive excerpt from the new Anita Blake adventure, DEAD ICE, which is published next year. "Enjoying pain with your pleasure is something you either get, or you don't. If you get it, then you don't really need it explained, because you know how good it feels, and if you don't get it then no amount of talking is going to convince you it makes sense." But sometimes you have to...

In her twenty-fifth adventure, vampire hunter and zombie raiser Anita Blake learns how far she'll go to save someone she loves...

I've never read a writer with a more fertile imagination' DIANA GABALDON An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, novella from the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author. FOR FANS OF CHARLAINE HARRIS AND ANNE RICE. My name is Anita Blake. I'm a U. S. Marshal for the Preternatural Branch, and I always have my friend's back. Even when they ask me to risk everything... Rafael, king of the wererats, is facing a challenge to his crown. He wants me, one of his closest allies, to help him take down a dangerous opponent unlike any he's fought before. But some of the wererats fear...