In the aftermath of an emotion-manipulating virus that nearly wiped out the Cleaners, Dani has immersed herself in company work and training. After all, who has time for self-reflection when there are monsters to be mopped up? However, during one shift, she finds herself face-to-face with Sydney, the entropy wielding Scum able to turn anything to dust with a touch. He’s come to remind her of the deal she made so he’d spare a child’s life, and he’s not leaving until she upholds her side of the bargain—by going on a date with him.
Ben, on the other hand, is dodging trouble of his own. Desperate to restore his powers, he’s submitted increasingly absurd ideas for doing so in the Employee Suggestion box, though he expects them to just be laughed off. When a concept gets unexpectedly approved for a trial run, it makes him a target for his coworkers, who are all-too-eager to put his theory to the test. Pity that it’s designed to leave him as miserable and paranoid as possible.
Even as the two wage their private wars, strange forms of Corruption strike in the heart of Denver, transforming swaths of parks and neighborhoods into lifeless deserts and turning everything and everyone caught in the phenomena to sand.
Scrambling to contain the situation, the Cleaners quickly target Sydney as the likeliest source of the disaster. While the entropy mage denies any involvement, his reputation is hardly spotless, and plenty of Cleaners are prepared to put him down at all costs. But after encountering another potential culprit, Dani finds herself inexplicably defending her would-be beau. As her own loyalties are called into question, she must still prepare to face her greatest challenge ever …
In an age of augmented reality, love is found in the most dangerous places. Stranded on Mars, megacorp programmer Derek Tobbit drowns his sorrows in augmented reality sex, only to have his drug-fueled midlife crisis hijacked by a conspiracy that threatens the solar system. It will take all his hacker skill, the friendship of a rogue AI, and the redemptive power of an impossible love to save them.
Heaven doesn’t want them; do they stand a chance in Hell?
Jim is Satan’s son, who keeps a vow of silence and wants to be left alone. Eddie sold his soul but was cheated, and became the world’s greatest tambourine player for his trouble. Adrian is a powerful wizard...when the narcolepsy doesn’t knock him out. Twitch is an outcast, shape-shifting fairy. Mike is a drunk, haunted by the ghost of the brother he accidentally killed.
Follow the dogged band of damned rock and rollers as they struggle to save themselves. Can they get the fragment of Azazel’s hoof, their bargaining chip? Once they get it, can they keep it? And who else might have designs on the hoof... or on the members of the band?
This volume collects the installments 4–6 of Rock Band Fights Evil: Devil Sent the Rain, This World Is Not My Home, and The Good Son.
And don’t miss Band on the Run, the first omnibus volume.
My name is Noel Glass. I once was a respected scientist and madly in love. All that ended in a splash of scarlet. I can never forget, and I will never forgive myself.
It’s 1953 and I’m a shamus working the streets of Industry City. I don’t rely on instinct; science is my game. The cases I get, and the booze I drink, keep oblivion just a step away. That is, until some rich recluse walks in and tells me that accident from all those years ago was a set-up, a frame job, and I was meant to take the fall.
Now I have to clear my name … like that’s easy. Everyone’s keeping secrets. Who can I trust? My neighbor, the mysteriously connected Wan Lee? Or the songbird Merlot Sterling? Her lies are almost as beautiful as her voice. Even the muscle-bound bodyguard I inherited can’t keep the hit men, spies—or my own government—from trying to put me six feet under.
You see, this secret organization believes I know something and wants to keep me quiet. All I do know is they’re aiming to remake the world into their own twisted image using a device I created. They’ve already axed one world leader, and Ike could be next.
God, I could use a shot of bourbon and some answers, but neither comes cheap these days.
