Shadow Touch - A Dirk & Steele Novel

Beneath passion and purifying fire is . . . The Red Heart of Jade

Dean Campbell can see and sense things that others cannot—an extraordinary ability that drew the ex-cop to the Dirk & Steele Detective Agency, a global association of more-than-human men and women. Dean and his peers—shapeshifters, psychics, and other paranormals—are dedicated to protecting life. But there are those who live for destruction.

Now Dean's investigation into a series of unthinkable killings is calling him to Taipei, where a pattern is emerging that is more deadly than anything he could have foreseen. At the center is a power that could change the world . . . and the woman who can truly complete him: Mirabelle Lee, the girl Dean loved in his youth, the childhood sweetheart he once believed dead. Now that his heart has been reawakened, he will not lose her again—even as the forces of an immortal evil gather to destroy them and everything they love.

Like every member of the Dirk & Steele Agency, Blue Perrineau is far from "normal"—and he believes in the organization's creed: Protect the innocent in secrecy. Now an obligation to the family that rejected him is leading Blue into the light and shadow of Sin City . . . and to a remarkable woman, beautiful, desirable, and untamed.

Iris is a headliner in Vegas, dazzling crowds with her feral sensuality and her uncanny affinity for dangerous beasts. But there is a darkness in her world that she never knew existed, and a champion has appeared to protect her—a man charged with electricity, who guards a secret as strange and powerful as her own. And every secret is a liability when darkest evil exists that follows no rule under heaven. Yet with passion and love sustaining them, together Blue and Iris might yet live to see the dawn.

Against her will, Kitala Bell can foresee the future.But only darkness and violence . . . and death. And nowit is her own future that is in peril.

Her fate is in the hands of a prince of the sea.More than a man—impossibly beautiful and dangerous,with a voice that can seduce and hypnotize—M’cal’s song manipulates lives the way Kitala coaxessweet music from the strings of her violin. Yet heis a prisoner, the captive of a malevolent mistress intenton using his powers to evil ends, and stretchedto the very limits of his endurance. For Kitala, he is lightand hope and fantasy, and survival for them bothrequires a bond more intimate and passionate thaneither has ever known. But it comes at a pr ice,for their love threatens not only the lives they’ve alwaysknown . . . but the very essence of their souls.

Duty called Dr. Rikki Kinn to the Congo. One of the world's top virus hunters working for the CDC, she is on a mission to investigate a deadly new plague. But there are those determined to stop her—at any price.

Shape-shifter Amiri was born in this land of untamed splendor. Here he woke with the sun and raced as the cheetah . . . until he was kidnapped and subjected to terrible experiments by the evil Consortium. Now his colleagues and brothers in Dirk & Steele want him to return to Africa to face his nightmares. For a good woman has been targeted for death—a beautiful healer who holds the fate of millions in her hands, whose destiny is intertwined with his—and whose need leaves Amiri vulnerable, threatening his heart, his passion . . . and his soul.

Long ago, shape-shifters reigned as gods.But even gods have laws that they breakat their own peril . . .

Each member of Dirk & Steele has a unique ability.Soria's is the gift of communication—which is why she'sbeen chosen to learn the language of a tormentedwarrior resurrected after thousands of years of icy sleep.

He is Karr, and once he was a king. Strong as a lion,quick and deadly as a serpent, he saw everything he lovedconsumed in flames. Death was to be his salvation,but thousands of years later he has been awakened againsthis will. Now a breathtaking human moves him inways he neither understands nor desires. But Soria cansee beyond his rage . . . and only she can speak thewords that will cool the destructive fury in his soul.

Words of love.

Those who look upon Lannes Hannelore see only anexceptionally handsome man. But his beauty is a prison, locking the dark truth inside his tormented soul. For Lannes is one of a dying race of remarkable creatures,hiding in plain sight among earth's human masters.His existence is solitary and sad—until the night he encounters a young woman on a deserted street, desperate,frightened, with no memory . . . and covered in blood.

She has no recollection of who she is or whatshe's done—and now she must trust a mysterious strangerwhose imposing presence masks a gentle heart.Her need draws Lannes into a mystery that will cause himto confront his worst fears and question everythinghe believes—and compel him to risk his secrets for the one woman who might well be the love of his life . . .or the destruction of it.

Long ago they roamed the earth -- dragons, tigers…shapeshifters -- men who wore the forms of beasts. Their world was magic. Now it is gone.

But some remain…

He looks out of place in Dela Reese's Beijing hotel room -- exotic and poignant, some mythic, tragic hero of an epic tale. With his feline yellow eyes, he's like nothing from her world,. Yet Dela has danced through the echo of his soul, and knows this warrior will obey her every command.

Hari has been used and abused for millennia. But he sees, upon his release from the riddle box, that this new mistress is different. There is a hidden power in Dela's eyes -- and with her, he may regain all that was lost to him. Where once he savaged, now he must protect; where before he knew only hatred, now he must embrace love. Dela is the key.

For Dela, he will risk all.

She could never forget the boy with the ice blue eyes . . .

She was only twelve when she saw the silver boy on the beach, but Jenny has never stopped dreaming about him. Now she is grown, a marine biologist charting her own course in the family business—a corporation that covertly crosses the boundaries of science into realms of the unknown . . . and the incredible.

And now he has found her again, her boy grown into a man: Perrin, powerful and masculine, and so much more than human, leaving Jenny weak with desire and aching for his touch.

But with their reunion comes danger. For Perrin and Jenny—and all living creatures—their only hope for preventing the unthinkable lies in a mysterious empire far beneath the sea . . . and in the power of their dreams.

Joining the Dirk & Steele Agency turned Eddie’slife around. A pyrokinetic and former car thief, he cannotrefuse an assignment to cross the continent in orderto rescue an extraordinary woman in peril . . . even thoughhe fears losing control of the destructive power offlame at his fingertips.

The last of her shape-shifting kind, Lyssa hides in theabandoned tunnels beneath Manhattan, seeking refugefrom those who murdered her family a decadeago and would now destroy her as well. Like Eddie, fire isher weapon, her destiny . . . and her curse. Yet shewants nothing to do with this mesmerizing stranger whoseeks her trust while enflaming her passion.For beneath Lyssa’s extraordinary beauty are dangerous secrets . . . and even darker, nearly irresistible urges.But she has won the heart of a fearless protector . . .and all the demons in the world willnot make him back down.

Previously published in the print anthology Dark Dreamers.

There are those who do terrible things in this world, and others who simply watch. As a gargoyle, sworn to protect the weak, Charlie can do neither. He has been imprisoned by a witch, and his only release will come at his own destruction-or through the help of clairvoyant Aggie Durand. Sweet as a kiss, she is the one dream he does not dare desire-and yet, she might be his soul's salvation.