Between midnight and dawn the world is clocked in shadow and hearts pound in dread. Every step is suspect, every sound feared. This is the hour when panic takes hold. Terror does not distinguish among class or race or place. See it stalk its prey in a murky basement in Spanish Harlem under a haunted voodoo moon on a Caribbean isle by ghoulish candlelight in a Mardi Gras backroom. No one is spared. Not parish priest or fortuneteller. Not homicidal boy or cunning woman. Paid killers roam city streets and murders reborn emerge from chambers of the undead. Life slips away to ungodly applause, amulets work black magic, and satanic traditions throw blood at the stars. Now is the moment when there is only fear Smell it in the heat of lupine passion. Taste it in a vampire's kiss. Feel it in the eternal caress of a lover to die fore. Experience it in every spine-tingling page of these provocative horror tales. From slavery and infinite consequence to Nazi torture and undying aftermath, from suicide of the soul to death of the body, here are stories that cut to the bone and sear the psyche. Life after Bas—The tenderness of Monsieur Blanc—The ultimate bad luck—In my father's house—The inhuman condition—Bordering on the divine—Havoc after dark—The blasphemer—Arbeit macht frei—Speak no evil—Punish the young seed of Satan—A lizard's kiss—The Garden of Evil—The wisdom of the serpents