Vera's Husbandappears in Blood

Though he grew up in the same city as Dracula had lived, he felt never so much as a tingle on the many occasions he had walked by his home on the way to school. He had even fallen asleep in the theater on the occasion that he took his wife to see Frank Coppola's version of Dracula. Now, living in Dublin with his wife, no one was more surprised than he was when he began having cravings. The urge to consume blood came the first time when he saw steaks on the counter, waiting to be prepared for dinner. The blood on the plate drew him as surely as a magnet. Though certain he had it all under control, the next craving had him consuming the liquid gathering under chicken. That episode had left him weak and ill, and he punished himself by remembering it vividly until his stomach had emptied many times and nothing was left behind. Still, even though he was certain that was the last time, he found himself drawn to the lamb in the fridge next. None satisfied the hunger and need he felt however, and he soon began looking at the neighbors chickens. It wasn't long before he hopped the fence in the dark of night and caught one, biting its head off. When Vera found the head in his sock drawer, she gave him a way to explain himself, but unable to keep the secret any longer, he finally confesses his part in the chicken's death.

He wasn't sure how she'd react. Would she leave him? To his surprise, she appeared neither shocked nor revolted by the news that he was responsible, and after a moment's contemplation, simply inquired as to how it was.

Veraappears in Blood

Vera is an outgoing woman who discovers she is married to a man drawn to blood as surely as Dracula himself had been. Though he manages to conceal his need for some time, she eventually discovers the head of their neighbor's chicken in her husband's sock drawer. His honesty about the item inspires Vera to open up a little herself. Rather than be shocked or horrified, she simply inquires as to what the experience was like.

Edward Waldmanappears in Fossil-Figures

Edward is the smaller of the twins born to their mother, and never enjoys the robust health of his brother Eddie. Edward was carried in the womb embraced by his brother from behind, and at birth was so small and sickly that his very survival was doubted by many. At only five pounds nine ounces, he was born with an over sized head, a caved in chest and curved spine. While his brother enjoyed strength and health, he lived with increasing and debilitating pain, eventually confining him to a wheelchair. He finds what solace he can in books and in art, but what he desires most is acceptance from his brother.

Caring for him is a strain for his parents and eventually results in his father leaving his mother to care for him alone. She does so until ill health takes her life. Alone, Edward continues to live in the house, creating artwork that is good enough to earn display in a local gallery. Edward remains a shut in until the day his brother returns, having had his life turned upside down by charges of bribe taking and perjury. Edward welcomes him, and they are eventually found together, having died in the same position they occupied in their mother's womb.

Edgar (Eddie) Waldmanappears in Fossil-Figures

Eddie is the larger and stronger of the twins born to their mother and is the first at everything from that day forward. He excels in school, sports and in every other way, wondering why it was that his sickly brother was given the breath of life at all. He graduates university and enjoys success first in the legal profession and then in politics as a U.S. Congressman. He enjoys success at first, distancing himself from a family he is ashamed of, but he can't quite forget the brother who shares the day he was born.

When the indictments come, and he faces the end of his career in politics and returns to the one place where he knows acceptance is all but guaranteed. Edward accepts him, and he returns to the home he grew up in. Their bodies are found frozen in decay, preserved together on the sofa in the same position they had shared so many years before in their mother's womb.

Lukas (Lucky) Wildeappears in Wildfire in Manhattan

One of only two surviving members of the band Wildfire, Lukas Wilde still plays when he gets bored in a fetish bar known as the Red Room. On their only U.S. tour, their act played fifty venues and suffered thirty one direct lightening strikes. In only nine weeks, they lost four drummers, six roadies and a great deal of gear. Lukas is a twin in this 'aspect' or lifetime. He is Wildfire while his brother is Hearth Fire and though both brothers are considered fire gods, they have little in common.

Brendan Wildeappears in Wildfire in Manhattan

Brendan is a twin to Lukas and owns and operates a restaurant called the Flying Pizza which serves the best steaks in the business. He is the more sensitive of the two men, with hair the color of embers. He is tall, and quick, and has a slim build with eyes that are green and red which are the opposite of his brother's which are red and green.

Chaosappears in Wildfire in Manhattan

Chaos is the name given to the shadow men who stalk and absorb those gods who escaped the end of the world and now exist in this aspect. They glide rather than walk with incredible speed and have a rank smell that cannot be mistaken. They have inhuman strength and appear to have no body beneath the clothing they wear. Instead, there is merely a shadow which is the blackness of Chaos. It is a blackness that has no color - a hole which devours all in its path. They are sent by the Shadow - his minions that in another lifetime would be wolves - boxed now in heavy overcoats.

Calum MacInnesappears in The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains

Calum MacInnes was a reaver in his youth and is comfortable traveling light. When asked to act as a guide to the cave on the Misty Isle, he takes only a rope and a dirk. He is married and has one son. He is a tall man, with a loping stride and eyes of gray. He has a face that is long and somehow wolfish in appearance and his hair is streaked with the gray of age. In good health, he is engaged as a guide to lead a wee man to the cave on the Misty Isle.

Dwarfappears in The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains

A dwarf arrives at the residence of Calum MacInnes and asks that he guide him to the cave on the Misty Isle. The man, formerly a reaver, agrees and they leave immediately. The dwarf is the size of a child, but much stronger, and much faster. He tells Calum that he seeks the gold within the cave to bring the King across the water to rule and bring about a land of prosperity and joy. In truth, he is but an honest man seeking to bring about the vengeance due for the death of his daughter, killed by Calum when Calum was just a young man.

Deel Arrowsmithappears in The Stars Are Falling

Deel Arrowsmith returns from France feeling like he is already dead. He had gone to France to do his part in the war, caught up in the adventure of it, and now is returning to his home, wife and son. Deel finds his way back, but life is not what he remembers. His wife and son are distant and seemingly more interested in the young man who helped them while Deel was gone. Deel is a decent man, but when he realizes that his wife is sleeping with Tom and his son is likely Tom's as well, he loses the will to come back. He shoots Tom and his wife dead, and is happy to allow Sheriff Lobo to take his life.

James Tremont (aka Juvenal Nyx)appears in Juvenal Nyx

James loses his identity in the beginning of this tale, renamed by the woman who calls herself Julia and inducts him as a child of the night. He spends more than twenty years following her example and living on the outside of humanity until he meets Iridia Lamone. Then, Juvenal decides to buck the trend and return to the land of the living as much as is possible. After saving her life, her mere presence is enough to return him to some semblance of humanity.

He began life as James Tremont - a black man with a cause - part of the Amalgamation of Black Student Unions and met 'Julia' at one of their Saturday night meetings.

Julia appears in Juvenal Nyx

Julia tells James she is from Rumania. Her parents are dead, and she works as a freelance copy editor. She enjoys going to meetings at night, but lives alone, preferring the solitude. She claims to be young, but talks of escaping the Communists to Munich and tells James that she lived for a time with Gypsies.

She explains, after she has bitten him and he is under her control, that they are different from humans in that they cannot multiply the same. Their lovers are people who to them taste unusually sweet and this taste they carry with them as part of them. She leaves James after four days with a new name and a very different life.

Iridia Lamoneappears in Juvenal Nyx

Juvenal Nyx is directed by one of the unseen voices to go to the Brooklyn Bridge and upon his arrival, he finds Iridia on the edge and about to take her own life. He grabs her just as her feet leave the girder. She was born in northern California and made her way to New York to study painting. She paints in watercolors and lives for the artwork she creates. She married her high school boyfriend, but admits that they do not get along, telling Juvenal that Tarver is always depressed. She didn't want to go home to him again.

Iridia believes in fate and since Juvenal saves her at the last possible moment, she believes he is meant to be in her life. Despite the love she feels for Juvenal, she refuses to leave Tarver, fearing that he will take his own life. She has a brother named Montrose.

Philipappears in The Knife

Philip is a young man who in 1938 finds a knife after an altercation with the head prefect of the house he lives in. Stafford has turned Philip into his principle victim, and after the first beating occurs, Philip is in no hurry to have it repeated. He takes the knife he found and later that night, he uses it to end Stafford's life. Philip is never caught, but many years later he confesses the truth to his godfather who advises him to keep his secret and assures him he will not tell a soul.

Abeappears in Weights and Measures

Abe has dark curls which are graying at the temples and is forty two years old. He met his wife Sarah at a cigar club in Los Angeles. They were married within six months. After his daughter dies, he begins to shrink at a rapid rate.

Johann (Jack) von Grimmelshausenappears in Goblin Lake

Jack is a young officer in a time period just shortly before the end of the Thirty Years War. He is part of a Hessian patrol who is using a local peasant as a guide in the Spessart region of Germany. He follows the peasant down to the Mummelsee after the peasant tells them stories of how the water changes things that are thrown in. He is faced with a choice of eternal life in the pages of a book, or a return to reality in which he has grown old, and his wife has become fat. Still, he loves her and she loves him, so the choice is relatively simple.

Spencer Mallonappears in Mallon The Guru

Spencer is an American Guru who spends four months in India with his spiritual leader, Urdang. They are granted an audience with a holy man in the village of Sankwal and upon their arrival, Spencer spontaneously heals a young village boy. The holy man seems to either fear or envy Mallon as he sends them on their way, advising Urdang to distance himself from Mallon at the first opportunity.

Urdangappears in Mallon The Guru

Urdang is a fearsome German who has a calm and deceptively gentle manner. He is the spiritual leader for Spencer Mallon.

The Fishermanappears in Catch and Release

A serial killer, the fisherman has adopted a catch and release program with his victims. He hunts, catches and then leaves them unharmed, going home to fantasize about what might have been. Occasionally however, he does slip up, and rather than release his prey, he reverts to the catch and kill format, but he does so without guilt. He feels that every man must be true to his own nature now and then.

Dexappears in Polka Dots and Moonbeams

Arriving in a Belvedere convertible, Dex picks Adeline up at exactly seven for a night of drinks, dancing and watching the stars fall. He is asked by Killheffer to kill Mondrian the maitre d'.

Adelineappears in Polka Dots and Moonbeams

Adeline is Dex's girlfriend and perpetual date to watch the stars fall.

Mondrianappears in Polka Dots and Moonbeams

The maitre d' for the Ice Garden is named Mondrian.

Killhefferappears in Polka Dots and Moonbeams

Killheffer claims the world is made of numbers and offers Dex a way out of the perpetual loop in which he is stuck. He dies in Mondrian's place.

Samanthaappears in Samantha's Diary

Samantha is the one who is plagued by gifts from a secret admirer that follow the traditional poem of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Franz Dodecaappears in Samantha's Diary

Samantha's secret admirer, Franz Dodeca, is rich and described as obsessive.

Ollieappears in Land Of The Lost

The German shepherd who is the sole companion of the woman who works as a cashier at Bilo in Perry

Leifappears in Leif In The Wind

Leif is part of a team sent to Beta Andromedae to collect rock samples and cores, and to determine whether life can exist there. He discovers an alien life form that joins with him and when he returns to the ship, they return with him. Leif's team members don't believe him at first, but the presence of birds on the ship supports his claim that he saw birds and became the tree in which they lived. Leif tries to return to Beta Andromedae and in the process almost sabotages their mission.

Enaappears in Leif In The Wind

Ena is another team member who is sure Leif is hallucinating and later discovers that he told the truth. The alien birds are capable of inhabiting human beings.

Arletteappears in Unwell

Arlette is jealous of her younger sister Yvonne. Yvonne is in the middle of planning her wedding but Arlette feels that Yvonne is breaking an unwritten code that the oldest girl in the family should be married first. After some digging, she discovers that Yvonne's groom is living a lie and is not who he says he is.

Yvonneappears in Unwell

The younger sister to Arlette, Yvonne is planning her wedding to Arthur - a man she and Arlette met on a seniors cruise. She drops everything to attend to her sister who claims to be unwell, and when she arrives, her sister gives her a box of Christmas ornaments that once belonged to their mother. She doesn't know that Arlette has wrapped one of them in the America Most Wanted advertisement of her husband to be.

Ava Malcolmappears in Let The Past Begin

Ava is a journalist who enjoys assignments that take her to dangerous places in the world. She is fearless although somewhat impatient at times and filled with self confidence. She becomes pregnant which ends her time in armed outposts or barren villages. She is shot during a robbery in a corner store, but it is a shoulder wound so she survives.

Dr. Martin Kobelappears in The Therapist

A doctor of behavioral therapy who specializes in anger management and addiction, Dr. Martin Kobel is found not guilty by reason of insanity for killing Annabelle Young and insisting she was under the control of a neme.

Annabelle Youngappears in The Therapist

Annabelle Young is a grade school teacher in Wetherby, North Carolina whom Dr. Martin Kobel believes is under the influence of a neme.

Glenn Hollowappears in The Therapist

The prosecuting attorney who fails to get a guilty verdict in Dr. Martin Kobel's trial, Glenn Hollow loses his bid to be the Attorney General as a result as well as his job/career.

Veronica (BeeVee) Erlichappears in Parallel Lines

Twin sister to Caroleen Ann Erlich, Veronica (BeeVee) Erlich dies just before they turn seventy-three. She tries to work her way back into life by entering the body of the woman who cleaned/shopped for them, but is foiled by Caroleen. Veronica has a strong personality and unforgiving demeanor.

Caroleen Ann Erlichappears in Parallel Lines

Twin sister to BeeVee Erlich, Caroleen Ann Erlich is lost behind her until her death just before their seventy-third birthdays. Caroleen learns what it is to live once she is out of the shadow of BeeVee.

Nancy Zuckermanappears in Human Intelligence

Nancy Zuckerman is an explorer who stumbles on the Arctic station used by Nicholas Walker who is an alien intelligence.

Nicholas Walkerappears in Human Intelligence

Nicholas Walker is an alien being who has been on earth since 429CE. He has been monitoring Earth for fifteen hundred and eighty-one of his eighteen hundred and seven years of age. He is grateful that he has been found and is ready to have the world know he exists. Based on his people's lack of contact, he is convinced that something catastrophic befell his home planet. He has recorded (and is willing to give Earth) 73,496 hours of video of round the world chronicles for the duration of his time on Earth.

Rex Fischappears in Stories

Rex is the writer who takes his own life in the Lake District Library on a Sunday in September. He was born and raised in Wrigley, Texas and wrote better than most in his league.

Chick Archerappears in Stories

Chick met Rex in an S&M bar in Paris, fell in love with him and spent the rest of his life with him. When Chick dies, Rex loses his way.

Leonard Scopesappears in The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon

Leonard works for the Museum of American Aviation and Aerospace and holds the current job description of Museum Effects Specialist. For twenty years he has recreated all manner of aircraft that have never actually flown. He is also the one who recreates the Bellerophon.

Maggie Blevinappears in The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon

Maggie was hired by the American Aviation and Aerospace Museum to organize the archives known as the Pre-Langley collection or more commonly as the Nut Files. She dies of advanced breast cancer.

Quirinus Calvinoappears in The Devil on the Staircase

Quirinus was born in Sulle Scale to a bricklayer whose job it was to keep the many staircases that make up the village on the steep mountainside in good order. When he dies, Quirinus goes to work for a local winemaker. He jealously kills an Arab trader, meets the devil's son and then returns to kill the winemaker's daughter as well. He accepts a gift from Satan's son - a tin bird that sings whenever he lies, and the bird sings often, beginning when he lies to the police about the murders. He leaves Sulle Scale, having become as rich as any man needs to be by becoming one of the richest traders on the Amalfi coast and even achieving the title of mayor as a result of a new fear of heights.