Showing results by narrator "J.S. Arquin" in All Categories

Sex. Horror. Discomfort. In five stories and one poem, you'll find questions and answers, and you might learn something about yourself along the way. Something uncomfortable. Something dark. Come on in and join us. Lean back, open up, and let us take a look at that tickle. We're sure it's nothing serious. Just...something in your mouth.

The Core Series continues with the second installment, where we see the battle on earth over and Chardon taking his place as the leader of New Lassa. Halfar returns to Azrom resuming his role as Supreme Ruler. A new conflict rises from the reptilian race, Razznians. Bitter about a broken deal set up long ago by Chardon’s mate, Sestis, they are coming to collect. Discontent among the Lassians and Azrominans rears its ugly head yet again as members in their trusted circle seem to have their own agendas. The two leaders have a lot of work to do as an enemy assault lurks in the horizon.

Dozens have fallen before a mysterious menace hiding among them. Their only connection is the grisly condition of their bodies — hollowed-out chasms where their eyes used to be. Setting aside the aging case on his wife’s murder, Detective Greg Loren has returned to the city with the task of stopping the bearer of the Medusa coin — an artifact with power over Death himself — from continuing to slaughter the people of Portents.

The beasts Detective Loren and Soriya Greystone battled in Lou Paduano’s debut book Signs of Portents were just a hint of what lurks in the city. Tales from Portents explores the city’s immersive history, including stories of Loren’s descent after his wife’s death - and his opportunity to have her rise from the grave. Soriya battles gremlins, navigates lessons with Mentor, and meets the werewolf Luchik. Follow new characters with expansive histories as they come face to face with the horrors of Portents - both human and otherwise.

When you've lost everything, there's only one way to go...unless you find a new direction. Stranded in the scablands, Twist is lost in the dust again. To find his way out, he’ll have to make new allies, learn new skills, and overcome crippling self doubt. Will Twist find himself in time to save Canyon City?

After three years of searching, Twist finally has the power to track his sister. But when her trail leads him to dark secrets, he learns some things are better left alone. Twist must risk everything for the sister he loves, confronting both Overlords and the Underworld. Will his gamble be enough? Or, will he lose everything?

Martial arts master Lin Su Yoshimura is a force to be reckoned with. Now in the US after being shunned as a mixed-race Chinese-Japanese girl, then kidnapped as a teen and sold into the sex-trafficking trade, Lin Su is rescued from an abusive New York pimp by one of the city’s top-level cocaine dealers. Navigating both back alleys and opulent venues with lethal grace, Lin Su finds her way forward through the underbelly of the city, as she wrestles with the horrors of her past.

Valentinian and his friends never imagined being trapped underground with their worst enemies - the Widow and her crew. Above-ground, an entire tribe of sex-crazed cannibal mutants rampages, coming for their souls. Enemies must make deals with each other, planning for the inevitable double and triple-crosses, as well as ferreting out the secrets of the long-forgotten vessel known as Princess Rualoh. Princess Rualoh - the sixth novel in the Shadow of the Dominion series - forges new deals and trickery between enemies as well as friends.

Valentinian won a treasure map in a crooked card game. Its call brings him back to the planet Kryuome. There, he and the crew must outsmart the locals, the mutants, as well as the Widow aboard her new warship, in order to uncover a secret two thousand years in the making. Or die trying.

Kryuome: the desert world on Valentinian's treasure map. A place where he hopes to find friends and surprises if his crew can survive the dangerous aliens of Wildspace, while the Widow tracks him and his crew mate. The next exciting installment of the Shadow of the Dominion series!

The Widow never rests. She takes the ship Dominion-427 across the galaxy to chase down her ex-husband and his friends. Athanasia and Glaxu duel on far-flung planets, and double-cross one another again and again, until someone dies. And Valentinian keeps running. Dominion-427 - the fourth novel in the Shadow of the Dominion series - puts friends in danger while continuing to explore this fascinating new galaxy of characters!

Valentinian and Dave have escaped the Dominion’s Internal Security Bureau. Now they’re fleeing for their lives, heading for systems outside of Dominion control, looking for a place where they can rebuild their lives. Figure out what comes next. Who they want to be, or to become. Hard Bargain - the second novel in the series, Shadow of the Dominion - takes you even further into Wildspace, human variants, and maybe even a crooked card game or two.

Valentinian just wants to make a living hauling cargo between planets and stations. His new charter promises to be profitable, hauling an all-girl band all over the Dominion. But trouble starts before they take off, and Valentinian has just hired a crewman with a shadowy past, big muscles, and the sort of military training that only the Dominator’s Elite Assault Cavalry wields. What else could possibly go wrong?

When Duncan MacGuire sets out to help a slave escape the Great Houses of the South, little does he know they'd send a demon to capture them. Set in the Boston Metaphysical Society alternate history universe, this short story is a prequel to the award winning novel, Boston Metaphysical Society: A Storm of Secrets and the popular graphic novel, Boston Metaphysical Society.

Threshold is a genre-bending adventure that blurs humor, horror, and science-fiction in a loving tribute to classic teen thrillers. Starring a diverse group of slackers, nerds, and outcasts, "Threshold" begins as a slice of life into a dying small town. Set against a rising tide of darkness, the story transitions into a rousing adventure as our heroes uncover the awful truths surrounding them. First ignorant of the threat, then avoiding it, the heroes will find themselves hurled against conspiracies, cults, and forgotten evil.

The common people have become the currency, outlaws have shifted to mercenaries, and freedom is no more than a thought of the past. Fear, violence, slavery - throughout his adult life, Barloc has known no other way. A quarter of a century has passed since King Sclavus decreed slavery legal in the Kingdom of Kuldaire. When Barloc is sold to Lord Harbor, his new owner offers queer promises of freedom. Barloc is forced to question everything around him as he embarks on this new trial.

Soar among the redwoods in this bite-sized adventure with Chloe, the recently divorced fairy inventor. She's the one who'll discover the encroaching zombie horde, but what will she do when she does? Come for the campy creature face-off. Stay for the inventiveness, adventure, romance, and intrigue. Torn between her handsome ex-husband and the brave and beautiful captain of the fairy guard, Chloe must fight to save her unborn young and the rest of the fairies.

Betrayal. Ambition. Violence. Magic. Stranded in a winter wilderness, a young girl fights to survive after the massacre of her family. Her motto is simple: Always create opportunity. It's not long before she runs into an old friend, but can she trust him? This majestic fantasy short story defies cliché and stirs the soul.

Some few survivors that had resisted the zombies were rounded up too, and were put in the fridges to freeze them until needed, so that one day, when they all awoke sometime in the future, there would be slaves to work for them. As they slept, the steam powered breeding machine bred workers and stored them for using when the time came. Among the frozen survivors was Blue-Jane, See-through Mary, Captain Crust, and some others that in their frozen sleep dreamed about a story that ate itself to become a paradox monkey that was hard to figure out.

Helping a holy order find a missing sister should be a simple enough job—and Ruby owes the Aymaya Apostles everything after they took her and her brother in as children. Simple enough, until the missing holy sister's trail takes an unexpected turn, landing Ruby and the rest of the crew in the middle of a high-society soirée—and into the crosshairs of Ruby's ex, Kitty. Something sinister is lurking beneath the surface of whatever Kitty and the holy sister are caught up in, and the skills of the entire crew are put to the test when they go head-to-head with the ultimate con artist.