Programming nanites isn’t a hobby; it is in her blood. Time to break the mold and see what she can do. Lucky was holding the bomb that blew the staff of Adaptation Base to pieces. Instead of suffering from the blast, the acid in the device consumed her soft tissues. From the moment she came out of medical on a new base, she has been working to assist the cyborgs of the base with customizing the fit and flex of their new adaptations. When her friends come for her, she is relieved, but the station isn’t interested in parting with her quite that easily. The resulting hostilities drive some wedges in the two factions, but a Splice attack has everyone seeing sense in no time. Nervous around human men, her friends assign Lucky a bodyguard with large wings and rainbow eyes. He is polite, charming, a biologist, and very attentive. If he plays his cards right, he just might get Lucky.

Keeping her nephew safe is her focus, and she applies to an orc clan for protection. The price is set at one night. Jennel is looking to settle down, and Redbird City is the place for it. She and her nephew, Corit, are looking for a place they can be safe from hostile orc clans and a decades-old vision. She registers as an elemental with the local mayor’s office, and they connect her with the orc clan speaker. She can apply to him to gain protection for her nephew and, hopefully, entry into a clan. Once she’s registered, she returns to her new house to meet the movers, and a parade of orcs moves stuff from the van to the house when she meets her new neighbour. Day-ek just got off a shift and noticed the fae woman sitting on the deck and a set of three orcs moving furniture into the house. He comes over to introduce himself, and he takes in her curves and the very frank assessment she gives him and offers to give her a hand. Jennel introduces Day-ek to Corit, and when her mention of having to meet the speaker inspires a grin, she gets a funny feeling about her neighbour. When she meets the speaker and he gives her that cheeky grin while he demands a night with him for each of the three clans he speaks for, she knows that Corit is safe, and she’s got a date. And then... things get complicated.

A dim memory becomes her only chance to save her nephew, but she will need the most terrifying of help. Krampus. When Leda was a child, she was taken to a land of glitter and soft voices and told she was there to stay. In a rush of confusion, a creature appeared and demanded that she and others be handed over. In the blink of an eye, she is back in her bed, but she remembers the creature, she remembers being taken, she remembers everything. The day her nephew went insane, she had her suspicions, and when she ran a test, she knew. He had gone naughty right before the holidays, and she was the only person who knew why. She had a mission. She had a goal. She had to go talk to a monster known for abducting children.

Lexa’s life has been a fight, but now, an alpha from her past has offered her protection and safety with the help of two others. For her daughter’s safety, she will pay their price.

A stranger walks through the woods and offers to take her from her broken world. Hell yes. With conditions. With the asteroid looming, she makes a run for a family farm and the animals therein. After the crash with communications cut off, she lives a routine of subsistence and survival with no other soul to speak to. When a stranger walks up to her, silver skin and black hair, he introduces himself and offers her a way out. Life in the stars with him. She counters that her animals have to come as well. There is some negotiation, and he agrees to send her a tutor so that this is all done legally. Then, he flies away. To her surprise, her hallucination was as good as his word, and she is swept into a world of etiquette, manners, and languages. Her life in the stars has a specific pattern. She is a body servant, a bondservant, a companion, and a mistress, but she has to do it all with the same haircut. Tricky stuff.

A new job selling the most haunted property in town leads to a possession, then another, and finally, it is time to put the hammer down. Hannah has always stuck out in her family. The carrier of a recessive skin tone, she knows a little magic, knows a lot about construction, and is happy to have found a new career to focus on, just like everyone else in the family. On the day that she got the listing for the most haunted house in town with murders like clockwork every twenty-five years, she accidentally triggers the house’s most recent victim. Five years earlier, an XIA agent had been investigating the house, and he had fallen into a coma. On her first day, something lodged inside Hannah’s brain. With no other option, she calls a spectral consultant, and the woman and her tiny cat identify the person who is hitchhiking behind her eyes. A portion of the XIA agent’s spirit has gotten stuck in Hannah’s, and he is using her to power his return to consciousness. She has to get him out. Going back alone is stupid, but she doesn’t feel she has another choice. She doesn’t want to involve her family, and the XIA can’t help because no crime had been committed in the last five years. She gets the agent out of her head, gets the attention of the ancient entity that craves blood, and finds herself in a fight for her life with unexpected allies and one persistent dark elf who will not leave her side. According to her mother, she could do far worse.