Showing results by narrator "Zachary Johnson" in All Categories

Alexis Ravenel: Rule breaker, risk taker, game changer. With the fae and sirens waging war at Blackwood's gates, and no one else stepping in to help - thanks a lot harpies - it's up to me and my sexy Storm Princes to save our kingdom from eminent doom. To do this, we'll have to meet Hydratica head-on in a battle the likes of which we've never seen. See, there are more than sirens lurking in their murky waters, and whatever is down there, I think it's guarding the Eye of the Sea - the elusive object we need to find on behalf of the Storm King.

In the city of Puerto Manada, orphans never get a chance they don’t make for themselves—especially not rare badgerboy orphans, such as the unnamed protagonist. Struggling to even find a little bread to feed himself, he survives by working as a pickpocket for local crime bosses, while his world is ravaged by a war between its two great superpowers. But everything changes when an enigmatic member of the elite wolfmen hands the badgerboy a mysterious package to deliver to a faraway land.

Ten thousands years ago, the Furies nearly exterminated all life in the universe, before being defeated by a coalition of worlds led by the Olympians. Or so everyone thought.... Now they're back and a new reign of terror has begun. Chase trains to increase his powers tenfold in the hope to defeat the Furies once and for all. But will it be enough to stop an unstoppable enemy?

Two years ago, the Makanza virus was eradicated from the public. Now, everyone thinks they’re safe - including Davin. As the oldest among his siblings, Davin plans to leave for college after a short visit with his divorced father on the Cheyenne River Reservation. But then the Makanza sirens go off, and everything changes. The warning alarm splits the soft April skies over the vast South Dakota prairie. Against all odds, the virus has returned, and the outbreak is only a few miles from his father’s ramshackle home.

These stories and more are featured in the third short story anthology for the System Apocalypse, continuing the saga of survival in a world transformed by the arrival of the System. Humanity has adapted to a new reality filled with Classes, magic and monsters, but the struggle for life, love and purpose never ends. This anthology brings together gripping tales from returning authors and two new short stories by Tao Wong.

Prue is an earth witch, blessed with power from the Triple Goddess. Still mourning the loss of her twin sister, Prue summons the devil himself from the Underworld, intent on bringing her sister back from the dead. But when she meets him—a handsome man named Cyrus—he is more deadly and alluring than she anticipated. Prue tricks him into binding his blood with hers, granting her access to his powers over the dead.

She’s booked every weekend, and her name is quickly becoming well known in the area. So it comes as a shock when her booking agent slowly stops calling her. That is, until she runs into the musician who’s been stealing her gigs. She can’t deny he has a voice to die for and the body of a god, but neither helps the fact that his personality is pure poison. Their exchanges never fail to boil her blood, but it’s a game she starts to look forward to, and she’s determined not to back down first.

Karli and Hudson's affair was filled with sugary romance and explosive sex encompassed in a close-knit friendship. As they begin their new life together as husband and wife, the idea of who they are as a couple quickly begins to fizzle as the pressures of real-life surmount. The newlywed couple struggles to keep their old loving ways intact, while unknowingly being thrust into plots determined to separate their union. The weave of deceit they spun with their relationship opens Pandora's Box as friends turn into enemies and long-buried secrets are resurrected that will rock them to their core.

When I spot Serena Lambert in danger, I don’t think twice—I jump in to help. It’s only after that I realize what I’ve done: I’ve played the knight in shining armor for the woman who probably hates my guts more than anyone else on the planet. Serena, the Blizzard’s PR director and the bane of my existence, looks just as shocked as I feel. Guess she thought she was finally rid of me. But bad pennies? We always turn up.

When it comes to poker, Rose Alfieri and Levi Ivanovich have more in common than just playing the game. It’s what they’ll do to win. Rose is a lie detector in stilettos with a keen eye for body language and seeing a bluff in a single bead of sweat. Then Levi enters her orbit. A nightclub owner and renowned poker player, he’s on the verge of becoming the best. One obstacle stands in his way: Tito Ferragni, a champion who destroyed Levi’s family and left it in ruins. To win a tournament against his sworn enemy, Levi needs a secret weapon like Rose. She’s ready to play.

Bhasura would have everything she could ever want. Freedom, respect, family, and her mate. Her aitanta. But behind the island’s beautiful cities and smiling citizens, she can hear the lies poisoning their stories. She wants to believe it's all in her head, but a dark anger starts to grow inside her, and she can't ignore the feeling that something is wrong. Something besides the vivid dreams that plague her sleep the moment she sets foot on the island.

As a summer fae princess and chief enforcer for the Mage Police, it’s my job to stop shifters dead in their tracks. And if one criminal slips through my fingers while I bag another, well, that’s not a good enough reason to demote me - in my opinion. Determined to prove myself to the mages, I go after the worst criminal out there: The Shadow. But when that mission gets blown all to hell, I find myself a captive of three shifter warlords. Being their prisoner shows me all about the darker side of the war. But the thing is…I’m not afraid of the dark. Or them.

There’s only been one woman for me, and she’s never truly been mine. But I don’t have much time for anyone anyway, with my focus on my career. I’m a military man through and through, from generation to generation. This one girl, though. She stole my heart when we were kids, but it’s taboo, forbidden. She’s my best friend’s little sister, and he’d kill us both. After my mom recently lost my dad, a quick trip home to help her brings me face to face with the past.

Kai thought he had the best job in the world. Playing VR games for a living. Not if the games are trying to kill you. The Net is the last great frontier, a wilderness of data filled with mysteries beyond imagination. Bugs, a harmless annoyance in earlier decades, have become a deadly menace in times when gamers connect their brains directly to VR.

Tall, dark, and…Russian. Three things that Elena swore she’d never fall for again, but that’s exactly what happens when she meets Dimitri Razin on an international flight leaving Moscow. His penetrating blue eyes peer straight into the core of her soul, leaving her vulnerable and all too aware that he’s the kind of man she had fantasies about before her world fell apart.

Kai barely survived his encounter with the rogue AI calling itself “The God in the Machine” in the dark net. Promoted to level two with no time to recover, he has gained access to all Helltek has to offer. Life on the campus could be perfect except that Cyber Squad is one of the most high-risk jobs in the world. If the murderous AI wasn’t bad enough, the hackers who attacked TSOTA are up to no good, and a traitor within the Cyber Squad is helping them.

Casey Stevens awakens within a crashed alien vessel 35 years after she was abducted. Navigating inverted tunnels, she’s plagued by ghostly apparitions from her past and stalked by a ravenous, mutated experiment gone horribly wrong. When Casey discovers her own body is changing - becoming blotched with grey, scaly patches - she fears she may face the same fate as the once-human creature that now hunts her.

It feels like everyone wants to make us the villains—so fine, they can do that. I just don't feel like I'm evil. I managed to find love, and for the first time in years, I have people around me that I can actually call a real family. They're the only thing I have left to lose. This insane life I've found myself in has taken everything else. The Order of Martyrs is hunting us, convinced that we're traitors because we won't simply lay down and die. The demons want to break the seal open. We just want to stop the Apocalypse, because it is real, and it is coming.

During a public relations trip to Europe the first lady Abby Patterson; her daughter, Beth; and son, Dave, lose their lives to a very fast and suspicious virus. As the virus takes over the world the president of the United States Arnold Patterson must deal with the collapse of the United States Government. His trusted adviser Admiral Nial Hagerly does his best to keep the military viable but it is a losing battle. The government moves to Camp David while they deal with the collapse then ultimately they are forced to move to an aircraft carrier in the Atlantic where they plan to rebuild the country and Earth.

Jackson Pryde and the great guilds of the Black Market are recovering in the aftermath of the fae attacks. With Xander Wright at his side, Jackson finds the strength and spellpower to rebuild.