Silent Madness

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

The day my adopted sister Xina was diagnosed with a rare blood disease, I was captured by rival pack hunters and taken across pack territories. In a hidden den beneath the mountains, I was chained like an omega during the day and subjected to endless humiliation. At night, they locked me in a moonless chamber and extracted my blood and bone marrow while I was conscious. By the time my pack found me, my body was broken beyond recognition, covered in bite marks, and infected with numerous diseases that even our supernatural healing couldn't combat. My mother, Alpha Serena, looked at me barely clinging to life, and howled so painfully she collapsed several times. My brother Ivan even traveled beyond our ancestral lands to find healers who could treat me. But in my half-conscious state, I accidentally overheard their conversation: "Mother, we captured Lisa just to save Xina, and let her be violated by so many rogues. Now we're taking one of her kidneys too—isn't that going to kill her?" Mother was silent for a long time, then choked up and said: "For Xina, I had no choice." "Besides, Lisa challenged Xina's rank all these years, made her severely depressed. This is just me atoning to Xina on her behalf." "It doesn't matter if she's been tainted. From now on, we'll keep her in the packhouse and take care of her. That'll count as compensation." As the silver blade sliced into my body, tears streamed uncontrollably from my eyes. A den with four wolves... was simply too crowded.

Eleanor Bella Starr is Black and You magazine's lead writer. After being threatened by her egocentric boss to either get something interesting enough to wow him, or take a tumble in his sheets, Eleanor hightails it to Orlando, Lake Creek. Lake Creek, home of the internet's weirdest stories. DESCRIPTION: STAY OUT! SAVE YOURSELF! How do you keep a writer away from that? Moreso, one as inquisitive as Eleanor. The mysteries begin the minute she arrives. The deeper she goes, the loopier it becomes. She is in a world of madness of the mind, death and bloodshed. She brought herself in.... But she can't get out. She hears things she can't fathom, sees things that are mind boggling and becomes something that definitely wasn't in her plans. Plans? There are no plans anymore. Plans can't exist in a world like this. Kill or be killed. Will the hunter become the hunted? Or will the hunter laugh last? Strangely enough, love blooms. She falls right into Andreas. Literally. Ever heard of the term, soul mates? How do you realize someone is yours, only after his mouth has been assaulted by someone else's, in your presence? In what world is that fair?!

"We need to stop," I panted when he began kissing my neck, even though the last thing I wanted was for him to actually stop. "We should," he agreed, but made no move to put a distance between us. Instead, he snapped his hips forward, making my arms around his neck tighten as waves of pure bliss engulfed me. His hard bulge rubbed over my towel-covered apex, sending more heat to the area. "Again," I whispered, lifting my hips as he ground into me. My mouth parted open, allowing air to enter my burning lungs in gasps. "Like this?" he rasped, pressing his front further onto mine. "Oh ye-s," I stammered, lowering my hands to the hem of my towel to unwrap it, but he placed his hand on mine. I watched him with eyes blinking rapidly, a silent question passing between us. "Are you sure you want to unwrap that towel? Because I'm not sure I will be able to control myself when I see your delectable body." ********* A single signature on a piece of paper, turns Ronika's life upside within the blink of an eye. Her world of twenty years as the alpha's daughter shatters when she learns of her father's betrayal, during an attack by an enemy alpha. Forced into a foreign pack, as a servant to her enemy, alpha Quinlan, Ronika loses her status and the possibility of taking over after her father. There, she struggles with the reality and the growing feelings for the very man who ruined her life. She plans to play along, escape and avenge but does fate allow her? Secrets are uncovered, and the truth behind the agreement leaves Quinlan and Ronika in an unexpected position. Enemies are made, and the two must work together, or risk losing the war.

"You know, don't you?" I took a deep breath. His gaze was still on me. "What do you mean—" "Don't play dumb," he cut me off, and I swallowed. "I..." I paused and stared at the ground. "I don't know much... I don't know yet." "Do you know who I am?" I shook my head. "I know you're not normal." I looked up. "But I don't know why." His eyes flashed silver as I tried to read his expression, but came up empty. "I know your eyes change color because of your emotions. But I don't know what it means." As the room fell silent, he averted his gaze. ******* On her first day on campus, Rayline Hale, an average girl just starting college, never thought her world would change. That's when she meets Cole Spencer, a handsome young man who seems to be every girl's walking nightmare. With his cold stare and mysterious aura, Cole is a young man unlike any other. But behind his frightening appearance, Cole hides a secret that Rayline cannot understand. He is no ordinary man. This is the beginning of an adventure that will change Rayline's entire life. He opens the door to a world far beyond her imagination, where supernatural creatures roam and ancient secrets shroud human reality. The deeper Rayline digs for clues, the clearer the hidden truth becomes. But the closer she gets to Cole, the stronger her feelings for him become. The love that grows between them seems magical, though Rayline is terrified. How can she love someone who is not human?

My husband's true love developed acute kidney failure, and I was the only matching donor. To save her life, he forced me to terminate my pregnancy at six months. Despite his gentle tone, he said the most heart-wrenching words, "Can't you be a little kinder? You're just losing a child, but she's losing her life." I resisted with every fiber of my being, but he threatened his own life to force my hand. On the operating table, both my child and I died. Meanwhile, his true love's transplant was a success, and she lived. Although the outcome was exactly what he wanted, he spiraled into madness upon hearing news of my death.

Yasmin has survived five years of Cole Martinez’s cruelty—his icy contempt, his mother’s vicious words, and the humiliation of watching him parade his mistress around town. She’s learned to stay quiet, stay small, and never fight back. But two pink lines on a pregnancy test change everything. Cole made it clear he never wants children. If he finds out about the baby, Yasmin knows exactly what he’ll demand. Yet for the first time in years, she feels something stirring inside her that’s stronger than fear—a fierce, desperate love for the tiny life growing within her. Now she faces an impossible choice: stay silent and risk everything when her secret shows, or find the courage to run from the only life she’s known. In Cole’s world, defiance comes with a price. But some things are worth fighting for, even if it means losing everything else. Can Yasmin break free before it’s too late, or will her secret become the final chain that binds her forever?

"Read that to me again, but this time cover your face." Janette has been told one thing all her life. "You're fucking ugly." Judged and humiliated because of her looks, she hopes to live a silent and uneventful life filled with unrealized dreams and solitude, but all that changes the moment Billionaire father and son, Ayden, and Xavier Bravlov make an entrance into her life. Ayden is a man well known for his striking good looks and amazing business prowess. He's a social recluse and also a veteran actor. Everyone knows that since the death of his wife, he has withdrawn from society and hardly steps out of his mansion, yet he breaks his protocol, interrupts a class, and takes a young girl into his custody. It's strange, but Ayden Bravlov isn't a man who does things without a reason. With Mr. Ayden as a former actor himself, and with her passion for acting and her aspiration to become an actress, Janette agrees to his strange terms and soon finds herself thrust into a world of conspiracies, discoveries, and forbidden passion. He is older than her, and way out of her league, but a girl can hope can't she? Apart from Mr. Bravlov though, there is also one person she didn't see coming. One person her heart aches for in a totally different way, and who she can't get her mind off. She knows she's doomed when he's the son of the billionaire she's working for, but she can't control the attraction that grows deeper between them by the day. Will Janette be able to decide between these two men? And what happens when she finds out that she might not be fully human? The same way the two men her heart aches for are also not fully human.

Curiosity isn't a bad thing... Particularly for two powerful men locked in a silent battle they refuse to acknowledge. When they allow a human to open a mysterious business between their tattoo shop and gym, they soon realize their new tenant plans to help them explore more than just surface-level issues. They're about to learn that desire isn't something you can control... and being stuck in the middle might just be the best place to start becoming more fluid in their beliefs.

Ezmira Franchild was adopted at the age of eleven. No one knew where this silent little girl originated from, all they knew was that she was found under an old broken-down bridge, curled up into a ball and trembling with fear. It took her an entire year before she began to speak again but once she did, she never spoke of where she came from or who her parents were... she simply clutched to the dirty old bag that she was found with and never allowed anyone to search it or take it from her. Years later, Ezmira is still a quiet child, living in a small town with her sister, Liza Franchild and trying to make the best of her life. Little did she know that her past was not something she could run from or ignore. Once a witch, forever a witch. “I'm afraid to live. I'm afraid to let people in again because I'd never know when they'd leave. My existence is a curse.” ~Ezmira “I've been cursed for many years, but you're the first curse that I've ever willingly accepted. If you're afraid just hold onto me, we can face our fears together.” ~Axil Book 1 of the Divinity Series.