Urban Allies (2016)

English

In this impressive anthology, 20 of today’s hottest urban fantasy writers—including Charlaine Harris, Jonathan Maberry, Kelley Armstrong, Larry Correia, and C. E. Murphy—are paired together in ten original stories featuring their favorite series characters.

Urban Allies brings together beloved characters from two different urban fantasy series—Peter Octavian and Dahlia Lynley-Chivers, Joanne Walker and Harper Blaine, Joe Ledger and Agent Franks, Sabina Kane and Ava—in ten electrifying stories. Combining fictional worlds in one dual adventure, each of these stories melds the talents of two high-profile authors, many working together for the first time—giving readers a chance to see their favorite characters in an imaginative and fresh way.

Edited by acclaimed bestselling author Joseph Nassise—who is also a contributor—this outstanding collection showcases the brilliant storytelling talents of some of the most acclaimed fantasy writers working today, among them seven New York Times bestselling authors, two USA Today bestselling authors, and multiple Bram Stoker Award winners.

Contributors include:
Charlaine Harris and Christopher Golden • Carrie Vaughn and Diana Rowland • Jonathan Maberry and Larry Correia • Kelley Armstrong and Seanan McGuire • Joe Nassise and Sam Witt • Steven Savile and Craig Schaefer • David Wellington and Weston Ochse • Stephen Blackmoore and Jeff Somers • Catie Murphy and Kat Richardson • Jaye Wells and Caitlin Kittredge

32 Fangs (2012)

Español

Laura Caxton lo ha perdido todo en el transcurso de su lucha contra Justinia: la vida de su familia y amigos, su libertad... puede que hasta su humanidad. Pero incluso ahora, reducida a una existencia solitaria como fugitiva, Laura no se rendirá. De hecho, tiene un plan que obligará a Justinia a ir a por ella y que provocará que las dos enemigas se enfrenten por última vez. Pero Justinia es astuta y también tiene sus planes, planes que incluyen a algunos de los amigos supervivientes de Laura, un batallón de policía y un ejército de esclavos no muertos. Tras 13 balas, 99 ataúdes, Vampiro Zero y 23 horas, 32 colmillos cierra la serie Vampire Tales de David Wellington de manera espectacular.

English

The Final Reckoning
Laura Caxton's battles against the ancient vampire Justinia Malvern have cost her nearly everything—her badge, her freedom, her friends and family . . . maybe even her humanity.

And as she hides out in the deepest backwoods of Pennsylvania, pursued by the cops who were once her colleagues, Laura certainly looks beaten. But as Laura sees it, what little is left of her soul is perfectly adapted to the job of ridding the world of its last vampire. And thanks to the terrible clarity she's found, Laura's come up with a plan—one that will finish Malvern once and for all.

But the ever-wily Malvern has a few last aces left to play and is quietly dealing a hand that will involve a terrible fate for the few friends Laura's got left. When the two adversaries meet for the last time in their most epic battle, the vampires will force Laura to pay a price far beyond anything she's sacrificed before.

23 Hours (2009)

Following her conviction at the end of Vampire Zero for stepping outside the law and torturing a convict for critical information she used to destroy her former mentor-turned-vampire, vampire hunter Laura Caxton is imprisoned in a maximum security penitenary when it is invaded by Justinia Malvern, the world’s oldest vampire, intent on killing the former state police trooper. Malvern has used her vampiric skills to convert the prison's warden to her side, setting up the entire prison population to either accept her vampire's curse or become feeding stock for Malvern and her converts. Caxton must fight her way out of the prison and save her captured girlfriend as well.

Vampire Zero (2008)

After Pennsylvania State Trooper and vampire hunter Laura Caxton’s former mentor James Arkeley willingly took on the vampire curse to battle the regiment of undead Civil War-era soldiers when they were reanimated in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he promised to come back and let Laura kill him. When Arkeley reneges on his promise, Caxton is forced to hunt down the now undead U.S. Marshall. Because Arkeley was the world’s premiere vampire hunter, she finds it impossible to find any clues to his whereabouts until a wannabe vampire, Dylan Carboy—a boy with an unhealthy obsession with Caxton and vampires—tries to kill her.
This chance encounter leads to a reunion of sorts at the Arkeley’s memorial service with his estranged family: his wife, Astarte; his daughter, Raleigh; his son, Simon; and his brother, Angus. When Caxton starts questioning the family, she quickly discovers that Arkeley is intent on offering them the vampire’s curse. When Astarte and Angus refuse the curse, Arkeley quickly dispatches them, leaving Simon and Raleigh. Taking his offspring into protective custody, Caxton is hindered by the Arkeleys’ family history, her new status as a deputized U.S. Marshal, and her new boss, Special Deputy Fetlock. Pushed to her limit of endurance when Arkeley kills his former ally and mystic Vesta Polder and turns her into a half-dead, Caxton takes Carboy out of custody and tortures him until he reveals enough of his hidden relationship with Arkeley for her to learn the location of his lair.
Caxton tracks the vampire to an abandoned coal mine in Centralia, Pennsylvania, a former company town all but turned into a ghost town from the underground coal fire started in the 1960s. There she is captured by Raleigh, who has accepted the vampire curse and been reanimated, and taken to Arkeley’s den to be the first meal for Simon when he accepts the curse. Caxton is able to recapture her gun from Raleigh, shot and kill the vampire, and escape into the depths of the burning coal mine. Pursued by Arkeley and his half-deads, Caxton kills most of the minions but is all but crippled by Arkeley’s attack. Using her own blood as bait, Caxton lures the now blood-maddened Arkeley into a side-shaft of the mine and tricks him into falling down into the burning depths.
When Caxton finds her way back to the surface, carrying Simon, the only surviving member of the Arkeley family, she is immediately arrested by Fetlock for violating Carboy’s constitutional rights.

99 Coffins (2007)

After having faced down vampires in the previous novel, Laura Caxton is more than happy to continue her career as a trooper in the Pennsylvania State Police. Her life is upended again U.S. Marshal Special Agent Jameson Arkeley contacts her to help investigate the discovery of a cache of Civil War-era coffins underneath the grounds of the Gettysburg Battlefield. There are one hundred coffins in the underground crypt along with ninety-nine hearts removed from the moldering vampire bodies, but one coffin is smashed and the vampire body is missing. Hobbled by his crippled hand, Arkeley presses Caxton into service as his field operative to hunt down the missing vampire body before another horrific outbreak of vampirism infects the local population.
In a series of flashbacks told through letters, journals, and military reports it is revealed that the 150 year old vampires of the remains of a Union Army vampire corps that was used to turn the tide against the South at Gettysburg. Promised to be revived as human once a cure for vampirism was found, the soldiers were imprisoned in their tomb and were almost immediately forgotten by their commanders. The archeologist who discovers the tomb uses the vampires in a plot for his own personal gain.

13 Bullets (2007)

Thirteen Bullets takes place in Pennsylvania in the year 2003, in a setting similar to the real world, but where vampires and other supernatural forces are rare but accepted phenomena. It is widely believed that vampires were all but wiped out twenty years ago by Special Deputy Jameson Arkeley. The last vampire still in existence, Justinia Malvern, long imprisoned in a nearly abandoned sanitarium, has somehow managed to bestow her vampiric curse to the outside world and is working to free herself of human confinment. Pennsylvania State Trooper Laura Caxton is assigned to assist Arkeley hunt down the vampires running loose in rural Pennsylvania.

Los vampiros de la novela de David Wellington parecen perder todo su aspecto humano tras su transformación en vampiros. Sus orejas se agudizan, su cabello se les cae, todos los dientes de vuelven afilados la piel adquiere un colobr blanco pálido, sin importar la etnia ni la pigmentación en vida. El vampiro debe dormir en un ataúd durante el día ya que su cuerpo literalmente "muere" cada amanecer y la carne se disuelve en un fluido asqueroso con piel muerta y gusanos. Esta materia se regenera con el crepúsculo, reformando el cuerpo del vampiro con la noche. El daño físico es reparado cada mañana, pero no la atrofia derivada de la falta de sangre.
El método de transmisión del vampirismo es muy diferente del folklore tradicional. Para transferir la maldición es necesario aceptar la invitación del vampiro a la no muerte y entonces suicidarse para renacer.
Los vampiros también tienen el poder de resucitar a sus víctimas de la muerte para crear sirvientes no muertos. Estos "medio muertos" se pudren rápidamente y tienen cuerpos débiles y frágiles. En una escena Arkeley le dice a Caxton que los medio muertos son "cobardes" y fáciles de asustar, aunque parecen mantenerse en su lugar a pesar de sufrir daño en encuentros anteriores. En combate suelen utilizar cuchillos y armas cuerpo a cuerpo ya que son demasiado torpes para utilizar armas de fuego con eficacia.
Los vampiros son casi imparables. Exhiben una velocidad y fuerza superior (lo suficiente para romper una reja de acero con las manos desnudas). Mientras tengan un suministro de sangre pueden curarse heridas graves, incluyendo daños en el cerebro, en sólo unos segundos. La única forma de matar un vampiro es destruir el corazón, protegido por una zona de piel dura como el acero. El vampiro es más débil cuando regurgita sangre -normalmente para alimentar a otro vampiro- y puede potencialmente ser destruido de un solo disparo en ese momento. Arkeley utiliza una pistola Glock23 con balas que se fragmentan dentro del cuerpo del vampiro. Se sugiere que un vampiro con reservas de sangre en su cuerpo podría ser capaz de curar el daño de su corazón lo suficientemente rápido para evitar su muerte.