Dread and Ashes: A Dark Urban Fantasy Vampire Thriller

by Annathesa Nikola Darksbane

People thought Ashes was the scariest thing around. They couldn't have been more wrong.

After barely surviving an Ur-demon's wrath, Ashley Currigan had hoped for a breather. To recover from the loss of one love, and explore the possibility of another. Instead, she's hounded by a literal pack of wolves, an avatar of terror, and a mysterious vampire with delusions and deadly skills.

And then there's the worst mistake of her life, one that won't stop coming back to haunt her and that she'll stop at nothing to erase.

But when these disparate enemies target her friends and their families, Ashes realizes she's facing something far more insidious than a collection of supernatural grudges. Someone is hunting the city's oldest secrets to fuel a ritual that could consume every soul in the Magic City. And while Ashes fights to stop it, Tamara—the woman she loves and lives with—is slowly falling apart, starving herself as the weight of her world crumbles down.

Outnumbered, outgunned, and running out of time, Ashes must rally unlikely allies and face impossible choices. Because with more than she even realizes at stake, every misstep will leave a wound that may never heal…

…Even for the dead.

Perfect for fans of The Dresden Files, Hailey Edwards, and Daniel Faust. Dive deeper into a gritty, thrilling world of chilling stakes, monstrous magics, and a heroine that's barely holding the line against darkness both inside and out. Grab this book today!

404 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 7, 2025

About the author

Annathesa Darksbane loves writing books, which you may or may not have noticed. Specifically, she loves writing more of what she’d love to read the most: action-packed books with likable, diverse characters that keep the pages turning—and with two published series and more on the way, she’s only getting started. She likes to put some twists, suspense, a bit of romance, and a lot of herself into every book she writes with the hope that you’ll enjoy reading them half as much as she enjoyed writing them.
On the off chance she’s not writing, she enjoys video games, martial arts, philosophy, psychology, learning more about almost anything, taking care of her little family, and dreaming of becoming an actual cyborg.

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