Many Bloody Returns

Never-before-published vampire stories by Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, Kelley Armstrong, and many others. Suspenseful, surprising, sometimes dark, sometimes humorous-these all-new stories will ensure that readers never think of vampires (or birthdays) in quite the same way again. In New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris's "Dracula Night," Sookie Stackhouse is the only human at the annual commemoration of Dracula's birth. But this year, the Prince of Darkness actually shows up-and finds Sookie to be a tasty-looking present. New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher's crime-solving wizard Harry Dresden, of the Dresden Files novels, heads to a role-playing party to give his vampire brother a birthday present in "It's My Birthday Too," only to discover there are some bloodthirsty party crashers who don't share their brotherly love. In "Twilight," Cassandra DuCharme, who appeared in New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong's Dime Store Magic, knows she has to kill to live as a vampire another year-but finds herself disturbingly disinterested in the hunt. Plus ten more bloody good birthday stories that take the cake. Contents xi • Preface: A Few Words (Many Bloody Returns) • (2007) • essay by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner 1 • Dracula Night • [Sookie Stackhouse 4.3] • shortstory by Charlaine Harris 21 • The Mournful Cry of Owls • novelette by Christopher Golden 50 • I Was a Teenage Vampire • novelette by Bill Crider 73 • Twilight • [Women of the Otherworld Short Fiction 7.2] • novelette by Kelley Armstrong 100 • It's My Birthday, Too • [The Dresden Files 9.2] • novella by Jim Butcher 146 • Grave-Robbed • [Vampire Files] • novelette by P. N. Elrod 176 • The First Day of the Rest of Your Life • [The Morganville Vampires: Extras 2.5] • novelette by Rachel Caine 201 • The Witch and the Wicked • novelette by Jeanne C. Stein 230 • Blood Wrapped • [Henry Fitzroy] • novelette by Tanya Huff 254 • The Wish • shortstory by Carolyn Haines 265 • Fire Ice and Linguini for Two • [Garnet Lacey 2.5] • novelette by Lyda Morehouse [as by Tate Hallaway ] 290 • Vampire Hours • novelette by Elaine Viets 318 • How Stella Got Her Grave Back • novelette by Toni L. P. Kelner