"You never knew what it meant to get involved with a witch." Grad student Ekkehard Schneider doesn't believe in magic until he discovers his boyfriend, Zven, is a pyromancer. When Zven panics and sets a police officer on fire at a riot he didn't intend to be at, Ekkehardt can't bear the thought of a life without him. Attempting to flee to West Germany together, Zven is killed and Ekkehart is left with a bullet in his chest, a heavy survivor's guilt, and the ability to see spirits. Recovering in his parents' home in Leipzig, Ekkehardt finds an old journal belonging to his late aunt, where she describes bringing her boyfriend back from the dead. Though the last pages are missing, Ekkehardt knows he has to make things right. He doesn't expect it to work, and he certainly doesn't expect to wake up battered and bruised with no idea of how he got home. Zven isn't the only spirit he brought home, and they want his blood.

Physics major Dieter Lindemann is perfectly content living in a world where the Shadows he sees and hears are nothing but hallucinations. But when one attacks him, he's forced to confront the fact that maybe he isn't the only witch in the room. He meets Necromancer Alistair Cudmore and discovers that the Shadows are not only real but dangerous. Though Alistair offers to help him, Dieter quickly realizes that what he and Alistair want are two very different things, and it's a difference that could cost him his life. Controlling and possessive, Alistair pushes him further and further into blood magic. Dieter tries to resist but when an incident at a club forces him into Necromancy, he has no choice but to be dragged down into a world he never wanted any part in. As the spirits and Alistair grow more and more violent, Dieter realizes he must break away from his mentor and learn to control the Shadows on his own before they destroy him. And Alistair isn't about to let him go without a fight.

"Does the name Bad Omen mean anything to you?" Lindy Lindemann always thought she would like to work in a library. Instead, she’s a police dispatcher using her abilities as a precognizant to help the people who call her and feed information to the police when she can. One by one, the high-ranking witches in the city start being picked off, and after every murder, a man identifying himself only as A calls to let her know it’s him. With the police quickly running out of leads, Lindy is brought in to work with the lead detective. Lindy discovers that these killings are connected to the murder of a family that happened over ten years ago. The only problem? The person that Lindy suspects is Staff Sergeant Siobhan Cockburn, the one who brought her into this in the first place. Now, Lindy not only has to stop A from killing anyone else, but she also has to prove that Cockburn isn’t what she appears before A adds them both to his list.