From the haunted hills of Roman Britain to the sewers of occupied Warsaw . . . in the bloodied streets of Revolutionary Paris, and the anarchy World War II Shanghai . . . out of the wilds of America, India, Africa and Europe . . . down the long savage darkness of the centuries, monsters have fed upon us. They are shapeshifters, vampires, sorcerers and spirits--things named only in myth, and things for which we have no name. They are our demons, our reflections, our desires and our nightmares. And all too often, they are . . . only human.

In this second collection from Gemma Files featuring the award-winning The Emperor s Old Bones (winner of the 1999 International Horror Guild Award for Best Short Fiction), and five never-before-published stories we tour the overlooked intersections between wilderness and civilization where secret dances of fear and pain are performed and hunters and hunted change roles.