City of Witches - Chapter 318: Gehenna’s Host Club (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.

Your prospects in life are determined by the elemental affinity for magic and streaks of the elements you possess.Logan Kress, a young boy who lost his parents to a plague, loses his elemental streak and affinity but gains something far more potent and potentially lethal in exchange.With his hair now pure white, he can wield magic like never before seen, opening a lot of opportunities for him but inciting the fury of beings infinitely more powerful than him.Read his journey for revenge as he hunts down those responsible for the plague, making allies and creating dangerous enemies along the way.

Her birthday was marked as the day when her whole world flipped. She was rich, spoiled, and beautiful but all of it vanished when her cold body laid on the road, wrapped in her brother's arms. She thought it was her end but the young CEO finds herself at a loss when she wakes up in the body of Yu Mei Zhen, the illegitimate daughter of a rich family. She is married to one of her old university friends but he is no longer the gentle guy she once knew.

Enigmatic and wealthy, Jun Zixuan is the epitome of perfection. He has everything, including a suicidal and scheming wife whom he hates to the core until one day when she pours a glass of juice on him, her poison-laced words and countless insults following behind. That's where it starts. He could not take his eyes off his dumpling-like wife all of a sudden. Was he a masochist?

She decides to take one step at a time. Lose weight first, make money, get a divorce, settle the people who killed her unreasonably, and find a way to go back to her brother.

But wait...why is this cold and unapproachable husband acting like a white lotus?

...

“I want a divorce,” She indifferently said.

“Fine,” the man coldly responded without any shift in his expression.

One month later:

“When are we getting divorced?” She asked calmly, not wanting to deal with a moody husband anymore.

His gaze darkened, “The procedure is going on.”

Three months later:

“Jun Zixuan, where the heck is our divorce paper?!” She lost her patience and snapped at him.

One of his arms wrapped around her waist as he pulled her closer, “Are you that eager to leave me?” he asked, sadness flickered on his face despite that indifferent look.

“Uh-huh.”

“Oh, so sad~” The man narrowed his eyes, his lips tilted up in a crafty smile before he continued, “The lawyers said that our case is a complicated one, it might take them a lifetime to draft the divorce papers.”

And in the next second, his lips descended on hers shocking the hell out of her existence.

To exist in a certain place, at a certain time—it's always either by chance, or by choice.But sometimes,There is a third force.One that doesn't ask.One that doesn't explain.It simply places you—wherever it wants.Arséne had always been dragged into places he never chose.Situations he never asked for.Realities he never belonged to.And when, at last, he decided to act on his own terms—To take the initiative,To move first,To choose…He simply died.