Julian Nash should be excited: he's just earned a huge promotion at work and is going out to celebrate. But his happiness fades when he discovers his date cheating on him an hour before. Suddenly alone when everyone knows he's supposed to have a plus one, Julian is set for a long night until longtime acquaintance Ryan Dean bails him out of the embarrassing situation. During dinner, they discover they have more than just friendship between them: there is mutual admiration and heated attraction. But getting to know Ryan better-and finding a place in his life-will bring Julian surprises and danger he never expected or dreamed existed.

Nineteen-year-old Dylan Shaw is possibly the most beautiful thing Malic Sunden has ever seen. After Malic rescues Dylan from an attack, Dylan makes it very clear that he is more than interested, but Malic won't even consider sleeping with Dylan because of his age. Malic is sure he's not good enough for Dylan, who has his whole life ahead of him, and can't conceive of burdening Dylan with his secrets. But the darkness in Malic's life won't be denied, and soon Dylan is drawn into the dangerous paranormal world that is Malic's reality. Malic fights tooth and nail to push Dylan away, to keep him safe... no matter that Dylan is the key to Malic's strength and the only hope for his future.

Simon Kim is very much in love with Leith Haas, but Leith is a Warder. His job-hunting demons-is dangerous and important, and Simon doesn't want to distract the man he loves more than life with the small stuff. But he doesn't quite get that when a Warder takes a Hearth, the Warder gives his heart without reservation. When Leith claimed Simon, Leith bared his soul, leaving himself vulnerable before the only man he's certain he'll ever love. When Simon is sucked further into Leith's perilous world-and into an alternate dimension-Simon realizes that the only strength he can give his Warder is the strength of his love. Can Simon sacrifice the control he has come to treasure for the man who already owns his soul?

As a warder, Jackson Tybalt is one of the good guys until he sees the man he loves kissing another. Betrayed and angry, Jackson tempts danger and death, ignoring the pleas of other warders to be careful. It's a vile mood in which to start a romance, but that doesn't stop the kyrie Raphael, who more than anything wants Jackson for his very own. Jackson doesn't want a hearth, he doesn't want a lover-he just wants dark and painful, and Raphael will give him what he wants. But sometimes the sins of the flesh are just what a body needs to bandage the wounds of the heart, and Raphael will hide the tenderness he feels for Jackson for as long as the warder wears the guise of the Sinnerman.

Marcus Roth is an accomplished criminal attorney by day and a demon-slaying warder by night, but he is merely one of five in his clutch—of no real significance to anyone but his hearth, Joseph Locke. Or so Marcus believes. On a trip to Lexington, Kentucky, to celebrate Joe’s grandfather’s birthday, that belief is challenged when Marcus stumbles upon a paranormal crime and ends up revealing his warder identity to Joe’s family. Faced with a traitor, demons, and the return of an old enemy, Marcus puts his own needs aside to save his friends—though in doing so, he risks losing the man he loves forever. Surviving the battle may not be enough if Marcus can’t forgive himself for forsaking his hearth. He will come to learn what it means to be the center, the nexus, and that neither his hearth nor his clutch can thrive without him.

Malic Sunden is in hell only not literally... yet. As a warder, Malic is used to fighting demons and squaring off against all kinds of creatures from the pit, but this year he’s facing a new and terrifying prospect: Christmas holidays with his much-younger boyfriend and his family. He loves Dylan, his hearth, but Dylan’s parents, the Shaws, are another story. They think Malic is a cradle-robber, among other things. At least their neighbor, Brad, seems to like him. Then again, maybe not. When Malic gets offered to a demon who wipes his memory of everything but Dylan’s name, it will take all Malic has to escape his new life in a hell dimension and return to the man he calls home.

Jackson Tybalt is living his best life even though, to others, it might sound a little odd. For starters, Jackson’s a warder. Duty bound to patrol the city of San Francisco, doing battle with demons and things that go bump in the night. Second, Jackson’s married to an ex-demonic bounty hunter. Raphael Caliva isn’t quite a man, more of a creature, with a very normal job as a general contractor, which he really loves. But what Raphael loves most, though, is Jackson. So much so that he's sealed his fate to Jackson’s. If one dies, so does the other. No muss, no fuss. This is the first of the surprises Jackson receives when he and his fellow warders meet one cold afternoon in February. Turns out, a blood witch they believed they’d vanquished has returned, intent on revenge. Nothing is as it seems, and now Jackson and the others have to prepare to fight not only an elusive enemy, but also the fatal curse she imparted. But sometimes, it’s not quite as bad as it seems. More a trick of light than life and death. Or is it?