The original series follows Kate Daniels, an irreverent and impulsive swordswoman, mercilessly trained from childhood to operate as a lone wolf, cutting down her opponents without hesitation. She supports herself as a for-hire mercenary, living paycheck-to-paycheck in purposeful obscurity in Savannah, GA, until her former guardian is murdered in Atlanta. As she finds herself pulled deeper into the politics of shapeshifters, necromancers, witch covens and law enforcement organizations that hold power in the city, she must come to terms with her upbringing, and that it is ultimately up to her to define her life's purpose.
Main series novels
Magic Bites
Kate Daniels's former guardian is murdered; she risks raising her profile in exchange for vengeance. Always a loner, she must cooperate with the Pack, Atlanta's shapeshifters, and the People, an organization dedicated to piloting the dead like drones. Kate discovers that an upir murdered her guardian and has been targeting shapeshifters and the People in order to set off a factional war. His true target is Kate, whose power he needs to reproduce. Together with Curran, the Beast Lord of Atlanta, and Nick, a member of the Order of Merciful Aid, she kills the upir, though they barely escape with their lives. Impressed by her performance, the Order gives her a full-time position, ending Kate's financial insecurity.
Magic Burns
Kate is hired by the Pack to investigate a vanishing crossbowman. She encounters a street kid, Julie, who hires Kate to find her missing mother.
Kate learns that the crossbowman, Bran, is the Hound of the goddess Morrigan, able to disappear into her mist. He is working to prevent an invasion of Atlanta by the sea demon Bolgor the Shepherd and the formorians, who have made a deal with Morfran. Bolgor is after a necklace, which Kate leaves in the Pack's care. Julie is taken by Bolgor, who negotiates with Curran to trade the necklace for her. It's a trap; Curran loses Julie and, with the necklace, Morfran gains the power he needs to manifest along with his followers.
Kate, the Pack, Bran, the People, and the witch covens come together to face the invading force. Bran retrieves Julie, who has seen her mother murdered by the fomorians, but he dies on the battlefield. The Atlanta force is victorious, and Kate takes the orphaned Julie in as her ward.
Magic Strikes
Kate's werewolf friend Derek is in a coma after a brutal attack; the healing magic of his shift has not kicked in. Jim, the Pack's security chief, had assigned him a forbidden mission: infiltrate the Midnight Games, an underground gladiatorial tournament. He and his crew are in hiding from Curran because participation is illegal.
Kate discovers that Derek was attacked by the Reapers, a team in the games who are rakshasas, shape-shifting demons. They prevent their shift to maintain their cover as humans via stolen shards of the Wolf Diamond, the top prize in the Games. Shards are found in Derek and removed; he recovers. Recognizing the threat of the stone to the Pack, Kate and Jim's crew form a team to enter the Games. Enraged, Curran finds them and, shocking them all, joins their team.
They make it to the last round of the Games against the Reapers, who now have an unbeatable weapon: a sword made by the sorceror Roland, who is secretly Kate's father, given to them by Hugh D'Ambray, Roland's warlord. The sword can only be destroyed by their shared blood, so Kate sacrifices herself on it, realizing that she is revealing her identity to Hugh. Recognizing they've lost, the Reapers escape with Kate, demanding the Wolf Diamond as they go. Curran and the Pack track them, rescuing Kate and recovering the stone. After she recovers, Kate and Curran arrange a dinner date.
Magic Bleeds
Kate investigates a bar fight where a man has been killed, his body infected with a strange, nearly-sentient virus. A second follows; both victims are shapeshifters, who are normally resistant to infection. Kate must cooperate with the Pack, which is awkward after Curran had stood her up for their date. After a public confrontation, they resolve their differences and sleep together. In the morning, he demands she move in with him at the Pack's keep; she refuses and he leaves, unwilling to compromise.
Kate learns that behind the attacks is Erra: plague-bringer, Roland's sister and therefore her aunt. Erra pursues Kate relentlessly, including targeting the Pack after figuring out Kate's relationship with Curran. Recognizing that she is now a risk to his people, Kate agrees to return to the Keep with him. She admits to him that Roland is her father, which will always make her a target. He tells her that his family was killed by loups, and that he built the Pack and the Keep to keep his future family safe.
United, they prepare for battle with Erra. She is a greater threat to men and shapeshifters; Kate warns Curran to stay out of the fight. Curran jumps in anyway and is stunned by Erra's magic, turning wild. Kate kills Erra and passes out; she wakes in a cage with Curran, who has carried her back to the Keep. He falls into a coma; Kate refuses to leave his side. She is forced to defend her position as consort, killing dozens of shapeshifters when they challenge her. Curran finally wakes, his humanity restored and feeling betrayed that the Pack hadn't supported Kate, his chosen mate.
Magic Slays
Kate - who, after quitting the Order, has started her own private investigation firm - is hired to investigate the kidnapping of an inventor and the theft of his top-secret work. It comes out that his device removes magic from its surroundings; it will incidentally kill any magic users in its range. The device has been stolen by a gang of human-supremacists, the Lighthouse Keepers.
The Keepers have activated their sleeper agents, including an elite Pack combatant; she attacks Kate's office, biting and turning Julie. Her shift fails; she is put in a coma, but is doomed to go loup and will need to be euthanized. The Keepers set off a device in a market, killing everyone. Kate and the shapeshifters capture them as they are transporting the device out, and learn there is a second, larger device that could reach all of Atlanta. With the used device in hand, Kate theorizes she can channel its concentrated magic to cleanse Julie's blood with her own.
The entirety of Atlanta's magic community unites to find the Lighthouse Keepers. The volhvs had captured the inventor before the Keepers could; he provides instructions to disarm the device. The coalition tracks down the Keepers and attacks their compound, killing everyone; Kate deactivates the second device. Some days later, Kate performs the ritual on Julie, cleansing her of the shapeshifter virus. This comes with a terrible cost: Julie is now bound to Kate and cannot disobey her.
Magic Rises
Kate, Curran and a team of pack members sail to Gagra, Georgia, in hopes of obtaining panacea, a tightly-controlled treatment to prevent shapeshifters from going loup during childbirth and puberty. There, they stay as guests of the local lord, their objective to guard the werewolf Desandra, who is pregnant with twins by two different fathers belonging to two different powerful European packs; the children's birth order will determine a desirable inheritance, putting Desandra and her babies at risk. However, Kate and Curran's united front is soon torn apart by the European packs' politics, attacks from mysterious winged monsters, and the flattering attentions of the Alaskan pack princess, Lorelei, towards Curran.
The Atlantans discover that the monsters are lamassu, created when genetically-predisposed shapeshifters commit cannibalism. Furthermore, one of Desandra's children is lamassu, meaning the attacks are coming from one of the fathers' packs. Kate is despondent that Curran is responding positively to Lorelei. At the end of her rope, she is goaded into a sword fight with the lord of the castle, who is actually Hugh D'Ambray. She wins, and takes as her prize a man named Christopher, who has been held captive by Hugh and seemingly tortured, his mind fractured. Curran admits that he knows Lorelei is a trap, but he is going along to keep Kate from becoming a target of the European packs. However, she is still not safe, because Hugh is determined she will stay with him in Georgia.
Hugh threatens them: if Curran leaves without Kate, he will leave with panacea, because Hugh secretly controls the supply. They refuse, and Hugh declares war. The Pack escapes with Desandra, her newborns, and Christopher, though they lose Aunt B, the Alpha of the Hyena Clan, who is murdered by Hugh's goons. Curran nearly kills Hugh, who teleports to escape after his back is broken. Kate and Curran are trapped as the castle burns around them; Curran proposes, and they are saved by a shepherd deity of the mountains. Once on their ship, they discover the casks of panacea that had been loaded when Hugh made his offer have been sabotaged. Sensing Kate's despair, Christopher tells her he can make more, which he does. They return to Atlanta and start producing panacea under Christopher's guidance. Curran proposes to Kate again, with a stone cut from the Wolf Diamond.
Magic Breaks
Hugh appears in Atlanta having framed a shapeshifter for the murder of a Master of the Dead. Kate must turn over the perpetrator or the People will declare war. Kate enters vampire territory to determine the truth. They discover the murderer is a wolf, Dorie. After narrowly escaping Hugh, Kate decides to hand Dorie over to local law enforcement, sidestepping Hugh's manipulation.
The People and Hugh approach in force. As law enforcement arrives to arrest Dorie, a spectator douses Kate with a bottle of water, also hitting Ghastek, the local leader of the People. Curran returns just as Kate and Ghastek are magically transported to a well prison. Hugh lets them starve, only communicating with Kate via her dreams; he wants her to visit Roland with him. She refuses, confident that Curran will find her.
He does - it's been many days; they are in Roland's prison, Mishmar. Christopher led them; he was once Roland's Legatus, the top leader of the People and equivalent to Hugh, before being imprisoned and tortured. Mishmar is mazelike and takes days to navigate. They finally enter a cavern filled with powerful magic, emanating from a large stone room. Kate discovers it is the grave of her grandmother, Semiramis, who allows the group to pass. Outside, Hugh is blocking the bridge out, however, they are soon overrun by unpiloted vampires. They escape because Christopher knows how to operate the gate; he and the Rat Alpha, Robert, sacrifice themselves to save the others.
Overnight, Kate is approached by the current Legatus. He offers her Christopher and Robert, who had been saved by Roland, if she is able to walk out with them. Kate agrees. At Roland's palace, Kate is challenged to display her strength. She reaches Roland, who is behind a blood ward; she breaks it. Realizing she could kill him now and fulfill the task she had been raised to do, she instead claims her people and leaves.
Back in Atlanta, Roland attacks, attempting to claim the city. Kate rebuffs him, claiming it herself. The next night, Roland walks into their quarters, having enchanted the Keep's security: he will allow Kate to keep Atlanta, but she cannot remain Consort. Roland leaves and Curran tells her he will step down as Beast Lord.
Magic Shifts
Eduardo, the mate of Curran's foster sister, George, has disappeared. Kate and Curran track Eduardo's car; they can see he was magically transported elsewhere. Later, Kate visits the Mercenary Guild and finds a giant attacking. She uses a power word, but it backfires. She notices it is wearing a jewel, but after it's dead, the jewel is gone. She suspects another merc, Lago, of stealing it. The magic falls and suddenly Kate is overcome and passes out. She wakes in the med ward, profoundly disabled from a stroke. She recovers quickly due to risky med magic, however, she has blacked out on everything after the giant died, including the missing jewel.
Kate refocuses on the hunt for Eduardo. The magic at the scene of his car and of the giant were both bronze, which indicates a djinn. She talks to Mitchell, a friend who was once a human but is now a ghoul; he can feel the djinn calling, and knows it has a man in a cage - Eduardo. She is approached by Lago, who appears younger. The djinn bespells Rowena and Lago kidnaps her. Lago loses control of his car and emerges a giant. Kate sees the jewel pierced to his skin and remembers he took it. She kills the giant. Nick, now the Knight Protector of the Order, arrives at the scene, claiming jurisdiction. He takes the jewel back to the Order, ignoring Kate's warnings. Roland has cornered her into a family dinner. She prods him for information on the djinn. Later, Christopher explains to Kate that ghouls are lesser forms of djinn. They require an influx of magic to reach the next level of being.
When she returns home, Nick is there - the jewel is gone, stolen by the expert called in to examine it. There is a knock on the door: it is Bahir, Eduardo's estranged father. The djinn, Shakush, has a vendetta against their family; Bahir knows how to capture him. Because of the djinn magic in her blood, Kate can help Mitchell ascend; he swears to fight Shakush in exchange. With her blood and magic, he transforms into an ifrit hound, asking to be renamed. She chooses Adib. With Adib's help, they find Shakush. After killing his latest victim, they face the challenge of the jewel: the enchanted box that will trap it cannot be moved. Kate and Curran carry the jewel step by step, tempted by the djinn. George takes the last steps, and Eduardo slams the lid of the vessel shut; it disappears, absorbed into the earth.
Magic Binds
Roland kidnaps Saiman, local businessman and demigod, refusing to negotiate for his return. Meanwhile, Kate and Curran are planning their wedding. The Witch Oracle presents her with a vision: if she marries Curran, he will die by Roland's hand. If she doesn't marry Curran, he and their son will die. The pivotal battle can happen in as soon as two weeks. Kate devises a plan: she will obtain a flying horse and return to Mishmar. Curran will rescue Saiman in her absence.
The local sheriff asks for a favor, sending Kate after a missing elderly woman, who is actually a land spirit who feeds on children. Her head, according to the witch oracle, is an anchor, or a crossroads, in Kate's future. They kill the creature; as they are leaving, Kate is challenged by a woman who has been brainwashed by Roland and trained as an assassin: a sahanu. The woman nearly dies, but Kate saves her, breaking Roland's claim.
To learn how to mount a pegasi, she contacts Teddy Jo, who is actually Thanatos. He needs a favor too; the next morning, Christopher senses him approaching and transforms into his suppressed self, a winged avatar of Deimos. Later, Christopher explains his past to Kate; Roland had forced him to absorb Deimos, so he fractured his own mind so that Roland would never benefit from his cruelty.
That night, Kate departs by pegasi for Mishmar. She enters the prison and returns to her grandmother's grave, presenting her with the remains of Erra. Her aunt's spirit agrees to help as long as Kate abandons her claim to Atlanta once Roland is dealt with.
In Atlanta, Curran has rescued Saiman. Kate gets a call that Andrea's newborn is the next anchor. As Kate reaches for the baby, Jezebel, her longtime friend and advisor, attacks; she, too, is sahanu. She misses the baby, instead critically injuring Dali, Jim's Consort. Saiman agrees to reveal the script Roland wrote on Kate in the womb: it is poetry, binding his life to hers. The next day, Kate and Curran receive word that Jim has destroyed Roland's base outside of Atlanta while he was away; it is effectively a declaration of war.
Erra helps them devise a strategy - they need an army. Kate and Christopher, now recognizable as the former Legatus, go to the People to convert them to their side. Ghastek swears himself as Kate's Legatus. Five days later, they prepare to face Roland at the Keep. Without Hugh, Roland defaults to primitive battle tactics; Kate's forces overcome his with ease. He transports himself from the battlefield before Kate can reach him.
Kate and Curran marry as planned. Two weeks later, she learns she is pregnant.
Magic Triumphs
Kate gives birth to a son, Conlan. Roland attempts to take the newborn; Kate rebuffs him with her magic.
A year later, she is back to work, facing an elder power that is kidnapping entire communities, leaving only puddles of their liquified flesh. She receives a small box containing a knife and a red rose atop a bed of ash. The next day, her office is under attack by unsettling beasts when she sees a fireball in the distance. It is Yu Fong - a friend of Julie's - who has fallen from the sky. He is in a coma, but survives because he is Suanni, a dragon thought to be myth. When they come home with the body of one of the beasts, Erra sets fire to their vehicle in rage, recognizing it as the creatures that murdered their family in ancient times. She tells Kate the box is a means of declaring war and insists she ask Roland for assistance, even though he is mobilizing to attack Atlanta. Kate attempts to contact her father via magic fire; he ignores her. An unknown man cuts into the call, but before he can speak, the magic falls.
Kate goes to the Witch Oracle for a prophecy, to understand who would murder an entire neighborhood. All they can show her is a fiery battle. Another neighborhood is stolen. At the site, the unknown man appears in fire again; Kate recognizes his armor from the witches' vision and realizes the box is connected with the murders. He is Neig the Undying; his brother had killed Roland and Erra's family. Kate calls her father again, and he ignores her again. Kate visits the druids; they tell her Neig is a dragon, which is why he attacked Yu Fong.
In a show of power, Neig takes a community of 1000 and burns their town to nothing, then traps Rowena in a molten glass cylinder. Kate knows she doesn't have the magic to save Rowena alone; she calls Roland, this time burning her arm in the fire. He appears, and backs her up so she can release Rowena unharmed. Roland tells Kate that Neig exists in a pocket reality; he and his troops require more magic than the world contains, so they consume human bones as a source of concentrated magic. He warns her to never visit the dragon's realm. Neig had also sent a boar god, Moccus, as a distraction; Curran kills it and eats it, transforming into a winged demigod. He admits that it's the sixth animal god he's consumed. Kate is devastated, because Curran's existence is now dependent on faith.
Yu Fong is still in a coma, but Saiman devises a way to communicate. He tells them that every dragon's domain centers on an anchor, something precious to the dragon. Julie surprises everyone when she shows up with Hugh and his wife. They have encountered Neig in battle and offer to field troops. Hugh is apologetic to Christopher and Kate. Hugh heals Yu Fong, discovering a fragment of Neig's tooth in his body. Kate accepts an invitation to Neig's realm. She quickly identifies his anchor: a ruby embedded in his throne. He shows off his army to her - it is over ten thousand strong. She challenges him to battle and returns to reality to find her father, furious that she has visited Neig. He tells her she could've died, revealing his actual concern is for himself. He agrees to join the fight. Yu Fong wakes and tells them that if they steal the anchor, it will force Neig to temporarily stay in their reality so he can be killed.
In battle with Neig, Roland appears at the last minute, turning the tide. Julie steals and delivers Neig's anchor to Kate; its magic pulls heavily on her. They defeat Neig and Roland turns on Kate. Out of options and remembering the magical pull of the anchor, Kate sacrifices herself on her sword, dooming both herself and Roland. She offers him the stone and Roland absorbs its magic, desperate to preserve his life. He disappears into Neig's realm, having made himself its anchor. Erra pours her magic into Kate in an effort to save her life; it's not enough - Erra fades and Kate dies. In the afterlife, Kate meets Curran in his god form. He resurrects her; because Erra's magic was in Kate's body, she is also resurrected. Curran is now human again, having only enough divinity for one miracle. Death has freed Kate from her claim on Atlanta and her bond with Julie.
After the battle, Erra leaves Atlanta hoping to reclaim the innocence of her youth, before grief and rage turned her and Roland into tyrants. Julie has followed her, wanting to start fresh. Erra accepts her, recognizing Julie's magical potency and potential.
