Ruby Callaway: The Complete Collection
D.N. Erikson
Copyright © 2017 D.N. Erikson. All rights reserved.
Published by Watchfire Press.
This book is a work of fiction. Similarities to actual events, places, persons or
other entities are coincidental.
Watchfire Press
www.watchfirepress.com
www.dnerikson.com
Cover illustration by Alberto Besi
Color adjustment and typography by Kerry Hynds
3D cover design by eBookLaunch
Ruby Callaway: The Complete Collection/D.N. Erikson. – 1st ed.
Contents
Also by D.N. Erikson
Get Storm Pale for Free
Foreword
Reading Order
Lightning Blade
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Shadow Flare
Book 1 Recap
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Blood River
Book 2 Recap
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Epilogue
Bone Realm (1812)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Epilogue
Silver Tempest (1993)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Kentucky Clear (1959)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Going Home (2006)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Epilogue
End Notes
The Half-Demon Rogue Trilogy: An Excerpt
Chapter 1
Also by D.N. Erikson
THE HALF-DEMON ROGUE TRILOGY
Half-demon Kalos Aeon lives by a simple code. Don’t screw over people who don’t deserve it. Talk is cheaper than a fool’s gold. And always deliver what you promised.
Demon Rogue (Book 1)
Blood Frost (Book 2)
Moon Burn (Book 3)
The Half-Demon Rogue: The Complete Trilogy (Books 1, 2 & 3)
THE RUBY CALLAWAY TRILOGY
After twenty years in supernatural lockup, bounty hunter Ruby Callaway finds the world she once knew has changed. And this one’s not so friendly to magic...
Lightning Blade (Book 1)
Shadow Flare (Book 2)
Blood River (Book 3)
Ruby Callaway: The Complete Collection (Books 1, 2 & 3 and All 4 Side Stories)
THE SUNSHINE & SCYTHES SERIES
Con artist turned FBI consultant Eden Hunter has a little secret that could get her killed. Again. Maybe paradise isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Rain Dance (Book 1)
Heat Wave (Book 2)
Cold Spell (Book 3
)
To receive news on my latest novels, discounts, and subscriber-only free books, sign up for my free author newsletter at dnerikson.com/storm.
You’ll also instantly receive the free, exclusive urban fantasy novella Storm Pale, featuring Ruby Callaway’s ally, the immortal half-demon Kalos Aeon, as he ventures across the frozen wilds in 1000 BCE with his loyal dog Argos in search of a woman who will forever change his destiny.
Foreword
Three novels. Four side stories. Almost a quarter million words. As an author, it’s a little strange to hold the bulk of a year’s output in a single hand, a cross between the cosmic this is all I did? and damn, I can’t believe this actually all came together!
Ruby Callaway, like many of my characters, traveled a somewhat circuitous road to the collection you now hold. She began life as a side character when I was writing the final installment of The Half Demon Rogue Trilogy—titled Moon Burn—in the Fall/Winter of 2016. I was knocking around ideas for a spinoff to that trilogy, and wanted to see if Ruby had the chops, so to speak, to carry her own narrative. So, as I worked on that book, I also wrote a novella starring Ruby, aptly titled Bone Realm (you’ll understand once you read it).
And it worked. By that point, I’d written enough characters that hadn’t to understand the difference. When you find this little heartbeat in all those words, you know you’re on to something. She clawed to survive. Didn’t take any crap. Avoided dumb situations, often with a bounty hunter’s extreme pragmatism. And had her own unique sense of morality, expressed as only she could.
And I took it, and I ran. After that novella, I wrote a trilogy and three more side stories starring the supernatural bounty hunter. Most spinoffs are not particularly good; this one, however, surpassed its originator in every way—a good feeling, as a writer. No one wants to spend a year going backward.
Which, I suppose, is why it’s appropriate that the unifying theme of Ruby’s character arc through this collection is time. Most long-lived characters don’t pause to reflect on the passing centuries too much. In fact, my own The Half-Demon Rogue Trilogy doesn’t ponder the weightiness of its protagonist’s 7,000-year life.
For Ruby, however, time plays a big role: the passage of it, the manipulation of it, the past, how fighting to survive for two hundred years has shaped her approach to living. I’ve tried to bring that through in the variety of time periods presented in the stories, as well as within their varying structures. This theme is subtle, as an author’s first charge is, of course, to be entertaining. But, I hope its subtle presence shades in the corners of Ruby’s world, and makes her just a little more real.
As a final note, readers from around the world have written reviews and messaged me to say how much they’ve enjoyed Ruby Callaway’s travels. All those who have supported this series over the past year have my warmest thanks. And if you’re about to experience Ruby’s adventures for the first time, I hope you, too, find this collection tremendously enjoyable to read.
Because that’s the whole point, right?
D.N. Erikson
November 2017
Reading Order
A quick note on reading order, since I’ve fielded a question or two about it in the past.
The main trilogy of novels—Lightning Blade, Shadow Flare, and Blood River—must be read in order. The four side stories, however, were written as standalones, meaning that they can be read in any order at any time. I’ve organized the volume so that the main trilogy is at the front, and the side stories are featured at the back. You can read them in this order with zero problems.
If you aren’t a big reader of novellas or short stories, don’t worry: these side stories simply expand and fill in Ruby’s backstory.
For those mainly interested in the core narrative, I’d suggest this order:
Lightning Blade (Bone Realm before, or after, depending on preference—it’s not mandatory, but this novella serves as Ruby’s origin story)
Shadow Flare
Blood River
You can skip Bone Realm if you’d like, and just read the three main novels. I assure you that everything will make sense.
If you’d like to read the three additional side stories, too, you have multiple options, as they can be read before, during or after the main trilogy. However, each side story stars a side character featured in one of the main novels and shows how Ruby first met them.
“Silver Tempest” reveals how Ruby met a character featured in Lightning Blade (Book 1).
“Kentucky Clear” reveals how Ruby met a character featured in Shadow Flare (Book 2).
Going Home reveals how Ruby met a character featured in Blood River (Book 3).
Thus, if you want to read everything, and are looking for the “optimal” reading order (if such a thing exists), here’s what I would suggest:
Bone Realm
Lightning Blade (Book 1)
“Silver Tempest”
Shadow Flare (Book 2)
“Kentucky Clear”
Blood River (Book 3)
Going Home
Lightning Blade
The Ruby Callaway Trilogy (Book 1)
1
Day 1
June 7, 2039
Tempe Supernatural Internment Camp
I slashed the pen through the fourth name, red ink dripping from the dog-eared paper. It was difficult to tell where the ink on my fingertips ended and the blood began. I dug glass from my palm, barely feeling the sting.
Twenty years in supernatural lockup will blunt your feelings like that. My shifter bunkmate stirred above me, groaning in response to a disturbance I couldn’t yet hear.
I stiffened, listening to her soft, fox-like yips. Stevens was coming for me. It seemed the leaders of the Tempe camp had finally caught up to my plans.
About time. I’d killed four people within these fences over the past twenty years, getting my revenge piece-by-painstaking-piece as the endless gray months had rolled into decades.
But three names yet remained.
Three names to strike from my dog-eared list before justice had been properly served.
For what they did to me two decades ago.
For what they did to Pearl.
Footsteps pounded outside, marching across the dusty, grassless field. A small smirk of satisfaction rested on my lips. Being sent to the dark room was worth it to watch Dewitt bleed.
Even if it made killing the next three harder.
The door to our quarters crashed inward in a plume of hazy dust.
“Get on your knees!” Even with the magical dampeners around the camp, I could feel the hatred and contempt slice through the dry summer air like a blade. A gun swung through the broken entrance. “I’ll shoot any goddamn freak that moves.”
My awakened bunkmates wisely kept quiet and to themselves as the containment squad entered.
I dropped slowly to the dirty ground, still staring at the worn paper pinned to the peeling corkboard. Rough hands shoved me face-first against the tile floor. Catching the hint of a black centipede moustache behind me, I tensed, bad memories flashing briefly past.