Desire - Chapter 9 - The First Woman (1)

A conversation with a handsome stranger leaves Ariane chained in a cellar with a strange affliction. She soon discovers that the darkness of the nineteenth century’s Deep South hides many dangers. Mages, wolf shifters and the humans who hunt them play a risky game where to stumble is to die, all under the amused gaze of the apex predators of the supernatural world: vampires.

It is never healthy to attract the gaze of the aristocracy of the night. It takes much to survive in this merciless world, but Ariane will not let that deter her. The southern belle has a bite, and she is willing to learn and to grow in this hostile new world. She will use whatever means necessary to reclaim her freedom, be it guile, charm, or those intriguing new instincts that make blood so delectable.

This is a story of vampires as I believe they should be, with their strengths and weaknesses, with their remnants of humanity and the beast inside. Updates every Friday. Mind the tags.

Cover by Antti Hakosaari: https://www.artstation.com/haco

Special thanks to Svensonsen for getting me started, as well as Omi Nya, Hesketh, Rhaegar, Yaksher, Selkie and Raven for proofreading my stuff. Thanks to my patrons and you dear readers, for the support. I could not do it without you.

Journey is on Amazon, both in ebooks and audio. here is a link to the first one:

https://www.royalroad.com/amazon/B08DK6G8Y8

The story probably exists in your local marketplace as well of I can tempt you.

Chen Xi was a jinx who radiated misfortune the way a torch radiated light, and everyone around him knew it. His entire clan was annihilated when he was young, and not too long after that his parents disappeared. His marriage contract? Poof. Torn to shreds and gone up in smoke before the eyes of everyone in the city, almost humiliating his grandfather to the point of suicide! Cultivation? No time for that, he had a family to take care of!

This is the story of Chen Xi, a youth forced to stop cultivating and instead craft talismans to pay for his younger brother’s tuition… and who, in the process, would rise to become known by all as the Talisman Emperor!

I don’t know the length of Hydra, or the depth of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I don’t know that Ant-Man has an outfit, and I don’t know that the Winter Soldier has an iron fist.

I don’t know that there is chaos in the Bliss Space, and I don’t know that Miss Xiaoyu wants to get married.

I don’t know if the walking corpse is cheating, I don’t know whose fault the alien is.

I don’t know the legend of mutants, I don’t know that Kryptonians can’t afford to provoke them.

I don’t know that Black Panther’s family has a mine, and I don’t know that Iron Man is a mess.

I don’t know what happened to Lei Shen’s family, and I don’t know that Thanos is thinking about making troubles.

He doesn’t know the past or the way forward, he only knows that he stands firm at the critical moment and cannot be cowardly.

- Description from novelbuddy

“I turned into a young dragon and was captured and raised by an Evil Dragon. As we spent more time together, I noticed that the way the Evil Dragon looked at me started to become increasingly odd. It seemed... he was raising me as if I were his wife!” Princess Lucia, transformed into a young dragon, wrote down her discovery with trembling hands in her notebook.