V. J. Banis

In the distance Kelsey House stood framed against the sky, its windows gleaming brightly. There was an eerie glow to the scene, that seemed to come not so much from the moon, now rising, but from things themselves, as if she were seeing the very essence of them. But there was more to the scene than the house alone. Between where she stood and where the house stood, a group of ghostly figures danced what might have been a child’s game, or even a primitive rite of some sort. They twirled about in...

"I see two women struggling together by the lake. I see them fall into the water… The wind rustles the branches of the willows and it is the sound of gentle sobbing in the night… Someone screams…" Something dark and mysterious haunts the halls of stately Green Willows. Village gossip says it's the ghost of Jonathon Tremayne's wife, the beautiful and saintly Angela, who was treacherously murdered here. Pretty Mary Kirkpatrick, hired as governess to Jonathon’s only child, Elizabeth,...

Maggie came with her sister Rebecca to Heather House, to recover from the drowning deaths of their two husbands. They thought a few months in the country would be wonderful therapy. But the house seems to be haunted by the ghost of its one-time owner, Heather Lambert, who (it is said) waits in the tower room for the return of her errant husband. And when Maggie discovers the portrait of Heather hidden in the cellar, the woman from the past seems to come alive for her. She sees someone just out...

Forced to leave the genteel and pampered world of her South Carolina plantation to migrate to the raw new state of Texas, Joanna Harte surmounts countless obstacles to create a powerful dynasty in the land she loves more than anything else. There Joanna dares to gain the power and prestige so long denied her in a man's world by building an unrivaled cattle empire near San Antonio. But her own family proves to be her biggest challenge, as their bitter jealousies and deadly passions explode...

Shot while trying to prevent the kidnapping, murder, and brutal despoilment of her thirteen-year-old daughter, Southern California book editor Catherine Desmond has a “tunnel-of-light” experience. “There is something only you can do,” the spirits tell her, and she is returned intact to her former life—or is she? When she recovers, Catherine finds herself gifted—or cursed—with astral projection, and to her dismay finds herself linked psychically with her daughter's murderer. But he too...

Trapped in a loveless marriage, April Nightsong longs for the China she once knew as a child, and for her forbidden lover, David McNair. When the lovers find themselves together in Paris, they set out together for China, unaware of the half-sister that awaits April there–or the evil that threatens to destroy the two lovers. Meanwhile, back in the United States, despite a surface existence of power and wealth, Lydia Nightsong, April's mother, suffers anguish and terror at the never-ending...

After eighteen long and friendless years in an orphanage, Julia has finally traced her father, the handsome Dr. Lucius Cagliostro, to a small New England village. But her happiness soon turns into nightmarish terror. The town of Belham is home to unspeakable evil, and the dark and sinister forces that have tormented her all her life are also present too. She quickly finds herself the prey of a demon-worshipping society that wants to make her a slave–or a sacrifice–to the great Lucifer himself. A...

Captive of a forbidden passion for the one man she must never love, Caroline Andrieux escapes into the powerful arms of a mysterious and magnificent lover. He offers her the sweet forgetfulness of sensual abandon, and the shocking reality of mortal danger, among the glittering Palazzi and decadent grandeur of Venice. But a Nightsong daughter cannot hope to find peace from the legacy of the tormented desire that rules her life: the desire that leads April into a deadly dream world in China…the...

When Liza Durant is saved from drowning by Jeffrey Forrest, she little realizes how much this chance meeting will change her life. For Jeffrey is the heir both to a large business, and to the great estate that lies near it, dominated by the old manor house called La Deuxième–"The Second." <P> Within days he proposes to the beautiful young woman; she neither accepts nor declines, but says that she&apos;ll visit him at his country home. But Jeffrey&apos;s father is killed, Jeffrey&apos;s...

Alice Whelan isn&apos;t imagining the horrors that she finds on Falcon Island, home of her retired movie star mother, Diana Hamilton, and her sixth husband, Leland Braddock. Who&apos;s the mysterious girl named Sarah who&apos;s locked away in the mansion tower? What connection does the captive have with the elaborate greenhouse that Leland and his brother Justin are maintaining in the nearby woods? And what strange and unholy experiments are the two men conducting with their…FATAL FLOWERS? ...

Disllusioned with life in the Imperial palace in 1890s China, April brings her young son back to San Francisco, and sets out to exact revenge on her mother and Peter McNair, whom she blames for the death of her beloved. Lydia, Peter, Raymond, Leon, even her sister Mei Fei, all must suffer–but it is April herself who will pay the highest price of all for her sins. The thrilling continuation of the chronicles of the Nightsong family and their perfume-based commercial empire, a tale of lust and...

Young Christmas Channing returns to Jeff because he tells her that his life&apos;s in danger, that he&apos;s being poisoned with arsenic by his wife. But when she arrives at Morgan House, she doesn’t find what she expects–only David, the strange, secretive brother-in-law; Mary, Jeff&apos;s cunning, crafty spouse; and Jeff himself, the handsome but vastly changed young man whom she’d once loved, but does not now understand. Chris is lost, confused, and swept into a powerful undertow of danger,...

This book is a how-to-do-it of black and white magic, and a how-it-is-done record, showing the magic at work of other times, peoples, places. Within these pages, you&apos;ll find special sections on methods of healing, matters of love, the divining arts, how to deal with demons, how to alter the form, how to gain wealth and importance, how to use talismans and how to use magic to create mischief. Here are charms that will chill your bones, answer your most intimate questions, and draw you deeper...

Fleeing from the tragedy of a loved one&apos;s death, Ellen Miles came to her aunt&apos;s Southern mansion to regain her strength. Although she had only recently suffered a nervous breakdown, Ellen found herself drawn to two handsome, charming men, and finding love with one of them. Suddenly strange, terrifying events began to haunt her. Were the mansion and its garden really possessed by some diabolic force from the past? Or was Ellen&apos;s illness slowly, subtly returning to poison her...

Jennifer&apos;s dream vacation in sunny Portugal has suddenly turned into an unending nightmare! The two brothers she encounters are bound by the same strange family heritage: a fascination with fire. Jennifer is attracted to both Neil and Philip Alenquer, but one of them is lying about the tragedy that has taken place in their castle overlooking the Atlantic. Philip claims that Neil had set the blaze that killed Neil&apos;s young wife after he&apos;d discovered her in Philip&apos;s arms. Neil...

“My home is nowhere, as is yours,” the old Cajun woman said. “Bloodstone is a place to forget.” “Forget? Never,” Vanessa said. “We came from Bloodstone. We will return to it. Why prevent me from going where happiness waits for me?” “You do not belong at Bloodstone. It is dead, and if you return you too will be dead....” A crumbling castle, a haunted village–and a love that would fulfill her destiny. But first, she must overcome…The Curse of Bloodstone! A riveting tale of gothic romantic suspense...

From childhood Peggy had loved her adopted sister Allison with a protective warmth that could only have come from a true Leo. But when Allison disappears from the family lake cottage, Peggy must call on her last ounce of strength and will to overcome the terror that confronts her at every turn. And when she finally finds the erratic young womanliving on the regal Lions Island Estateshe finds herself in the midst of an agonizing web of deceit, with Allison seemingly under the spell of the...

In all the history of the sun-scorched Holy Land, there&apos;s never been a knight like Sir Kenneth, «The Falcon.» His sword is swift and true, and in battle he fights with a savage intensity that lifts the spirits of all who fight under the English banner. And these are the women in his life–Elaine, the dusky, beautiful gypsy girl who earns her living dancing and singing for the Christian troops–but would gladly give it all up, if Sir Kenneth would only take her into his tent; the Lady Joan,...