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Like a biblical pestilence, the plague left only a handful of survivors to face a savage new world. In a deserted midwestern department store, a few people banded together, but beyond their temporary haven an insidious evil was stirring!

A drug-lord steals a mysterious green powder called "skullflush," an entheogenic drug used in shamanic rituals, from a fierce Venezuelan mountain people which then wreaks havoc on its unwitting abusers. Justin Gray, a former small-time drug dealer in St. Louis, has arrived in Tampa, FL, to start a new life. But on his first night in town his buddy Erik takes him to a disco, where he tries a mild dose of skullflush. Another of Erik's friends takes a larger dose and is tranformed into a ravenous beast who practically devours four people on the dance floor and then commits suicide. Local dealer Tony Mendoza begins a search for Justin, the only witness who knows what really happened in the disco that night. Mendoza himself is sought by the Yanomamo warrior Kerebawa, who travels to America to retrieve skullflush and avenge its theft before it is sniffed by too much of Tampa's "nightlife."

Chris, his brother, Aaron, and their friends expected their last summer before college to be a golden time of freedom on the shores of Tri-Lakes. But Tri-Lakes was the focus of an evil that recreated an ancient Viking bloodfeud, and only a sacrifice could banish it.

The rain beats down on the hot New Orleans streets... A derelict staggers, no longer a man, but an empty vessel poured full of voodoo...

This is the land of lace curtains and Mardi Gras. This is the world of the bayou and sizzling crawfish and a man in white who can kill at any distance.

A storm of corporate greed and human cruelty has descended on New Orleans, on a young advertising executive who has sold more than products, on a weary ex-CIA man, and on a Caribbean servent on the run from enemies he cannot understand. Two powerful businessmen, one legitimate, one a criminal, have built a common empire. Now it is coming apart, scattering blood and broken bones, flooding the Delta with voodoo--the dark magic of dark saints...

WFA nominated novella. It originally appeared in the anthology Love in Vein II: Eighteen More Tales of Vampiric Erotica (1997), edited by Poppy Z. Brite. The story is included in the collection Falling Idols (1998).

"You wouldn't think events happening years apart, at points in the solar system hundreds of millions of miles distant, would have anything to do with each other."

When she was six, Daphne was taken into a neighbor's toolshed, and came within seconds of never coming out alive. Most of the scars healed. Except for the one that went all the way through.

"You wouldn't think that the serial murders of children, and the one who got away, would have any connection with the strange fate of one of Jupiter's moons."

Two decades later, when Daphne goes missing again, it's nothing new. As her exes might agree, running is what she does best... so her brother Tanner sets out one more time to find her. Whether in the mountains, or in his own family, search--and--rescue is what he does best.

"But it does. It's all connected. Everything's connected."

Down two different paths, along two different timelines, Daphne and Tanner both find themselves trapped in a savage hunt for the rarest people on earth, by those who would slaughter them on behalf of ravenous entities that lurk outside of time.

"So when things start to unravel, it all starts to unravel."

But in ominous signs that have traveled light--years to be seen by human eyes, and that plummet from the sky, the ultimate truth is revealed:

There are some things in the cosmos that terrify even the gods.

The Weight of the Dead by Brian Hodge is a dystopian science fiction novelette taking place years after all electronics have been fried by the sun. Two siblings live in an enclave with their father, who's about to be punished for a crime, sparking fierce but secret rebellion by the daughter.

Read the full story for free at Tor.com.

Born with the power to heal, Paul Handler is one of a long line of Scapegoats, beings who take the anguish of humankind upon themselves, and he must make a lonely journey toward his destiny, pursued by one who seeks to destroy him.

Fifty years ago, a blood-red, cloven-hoofed demon was conjured up by Axis powers at the end of World War II, but adopted by the United States government, which gave him the name Hellboy and raised him in secrecy. Today, Hellboy is a top field agent for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. He questions the unknown -- then beats it into submission.

His latest case: Angels have attacked the Vatican, destroying an entire floor of the building's precious library. That's a new one, even for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense. The BPRD dispatches Hellboy and his amphibious colleague, Abe Sapien, to investigate. When they arrive on the scene, they discover that thousands of documents from all eras of history have been destroyed -- except for one, saved from the holy fire by an obsessive scholar. His prize? An ancient scroll allegedly written by Jesus the Nazarene -- decades after the crucifixion. Hellboy's first thought is that the scroll was the focus of the seraphim's attack -- but why would heavenly creatures undertake such violence and ruin?

The answer to this puzzle will lead Hellboy down a terrifying trail to ancient gods, vengeful demons, and a hidden world made of the purest evil....