The finale to the best-selling Pure/ Dark Ones series... An unlikely hero… He was once known as the Creature. An indefinable “it.” His life had never been his own, used and abused by despicable beings. Worst of all, he never knew himself. Despite his tortured past, despite the darkness inside him, he has chosen a brighter path. He has a name—Erebu. His first stand was to defy the Master who created him to save his son. But instead of destroying the greatest enemy of all, he himself was destroyed… An unlikely love… From distant lands, across fathomless seas, someone heard the Creature’s cries. He gave Ere a second chance, a miraculous rebirth that came at a steep cost, remaking Ere with his own breath, body, blood and soul. This mysterious savior has a past of his own to face, and a future to define and embrace. Will Ere be able to find him in time? Will they forge their path together or pursue separate destinies? An end and a beginning… No matter their decision, one thing is certain: they must work together to unite all Kinds if they have a hope of defeating their ultimate nemesis. The end is near… And so is a brand new beginning. * M-M PNR-fantasy romance novel with explicit content. *

*** 2018 Reader's Favorite Finalist *** Enter the world of Pure Ones, a race of immortal, supernaturally powerful beings who protect humankind, where sexual intercourse with anyone other than one’s Eternal Mate leads to a slow, painful death within thirty days. The Healer of the race, Rain, is the only exception to this rule. To harness and accumulate enough energy to heal severe wounds, especially as the war between her people and the vampire hordes accelerates, she must take a Consort once every ten years and draw strength from his blood and body. But as the war wears on, few Pure-males who are strong enough to serve as her Consort remain. Valerius, Protector of the race, is the strongest candidate. Despite their instant attraction ten years ago when they first met, Valerius has staunchly avoided applying to be the Healer’s Consort. The brutality and violence he suffered as a Roman sex slave in his human life ate away at his soul, leaving a dark abyss of torment and self-doubt. Now, as Rain’s strength drains with every healing act, Valerius cannot escape the fact that he may be the only one who can save her, and in so doing, afford his people greater hope for the future as battles intensify. Will Rain and Valerius find their way to each other as the struggles between good and evil evolve? *** Trigger Warning * Sexual Abuse. ***

All my existence, I have loved one woman. But she was never meant to be mine. I loved her when she was the intended bride for another. I betrayed him too. I loved her after they married. I took what wasn’t mine. I paid my penance by dying in his stead. But it wasn’t enough to restore the Balance. When the Goddess gave me a chance to make things right, to serve as a soldier of the Pure Ones, I embraced that offer. Even though what I really wanted to do was stay dead and numb. Never to be reawakened in this world. Never to feel again. To yearn and desire and seethe with jealousy and despair at my own helplessness. The Goddess warned me at the moment of my death and rebirth not to want her again. For our paths would cross in the future, though I wouldn’t know the time and place. Nor would I recognize her physical incarnation. For she was never meant to be mine. Will never be mine. But the moment I realized who she was—the Pure Queen I’d been assigned to protect as the Paladin—the moment I recognized her soul, I Fell again. I wanted. I craved. I yearned. I seethed. I resisted. I pushed her away over and over again. Made her angry and confused. Made her hate me. But Goddess above! I cannot change how I feel. I cannot stop wanting her. Cannot stop loving her. All my existence, my body, heart and soul have belonged to one woman. Even though she can never be mine. I love her still. I love her forever. This is the beginning of the end of our story. Judge me if you dare.

Their love is outlawed by both their Kinds… Tal-Telal, the legendary General who led the Pure Ones to freedom, paid the ultimate price for his people: breaking the heart of his one True Love. Her shattered heart continues to yearn… Ishtar Anshar, once royalty reigning over a vast, ancient empire, lost everything she held dear. Deceived by those she trusted the most, she blamed the one male who sacrificed all to protect her. No matter the distance and time, love is a renegade that cannot be ruled… Now Fate has reunited them in this modern time to combat a burgeoning threat. Can they put the darkness behind them and forge a brighter future together?

This volume is the first in a series of full-length English translations from one of the foremost classics in Daoist religious literature, the Zhen gao or Declarations of the Perfected. The Declarations is a collection of poems, accounts of the dead, instructions, and meditation methods received by the Daoist Yang Xi (330–ca. 386 BCE) from celestial beings and shared by him with his patrons and students. These fragments of revealed material were collected and annotated by the eminent scholar and Daoist Tao Hongjing (456–536), allowing us access to these distant worlds and unfamiliar strategies of self-perfection. Bokenkamp's full translation highlights the literary nature of Daoist revelation and the place of the Declarations in the development of Chinese letters. It further details interactions with the Chinese throne and the aristocracy and demonstrates ways that Buddhist borrowings helped shape Daoism much earlier than has been assumed. This first volume also contains heretofore unrecognized reconfigurations of Buddhist myth and practice that Yang Xi introduced to his Daoist audience.

Aella Alexander: An Amazon warrior in her human life, Aella has always taken and fought for what she wanted, and what Aella wanted, she got. Until him. Cloud Drako: The mysterious new recruit to the Pure Ones’ team of Elite soldiers is not what he seems. He has a critical role to fulfill to maintain Balance in the universe… He cannot afford to be distracted by her. Destiny is shaped by choices made: The past cannot be changed, a past that neither Cloud nor Aella remembers. But the future is yet unwritten. In this present time, with this second chance, Cloud must make his ultimate stand: to carry out the role he’s been assigned, or to embrace an uncertain future, knowing that his choice would be irrevocable. Absolute. And that the souls of countless innocents depend upon it… Can Aella help him choose wisely, or will she lead them all to ruin?

***2018 Reader's Favorite Winner!*** “Every story has more than one side, like a crystal that captures and reflects different colors of light. Do not take for granted what you think you know, for until you hold the entire jewel in your palm, the temptation is to fall prey to illusion and deception.” This is a story of the Dark Ones… Ryu Takamura is the Dark Ones’ Assassin. He has never missed his target…until now. Until her. Ava Monroe is a talented geneticist who holds the key to the vampire race’s future…and perhaps her own as well. Their attraction is explosive from the first. She would do anything to have him. He would sacrifice all to protect her. But will their love triumph over seemingly impossible odds as they battle enemies new and old? Especially the demons from Ryu’s past? And deep within his heart?

This book introduces an integrated framework with corpus-assisted approach to deal with large set of data of discourse with multimodal factors to investigate how policy addresses (the government reports of Macao SAR) as a discourse type function in the social changes of Macao SAR through discussing the social factors to the production and consumption of policy addresses. The book explores research models or methodology in dealing with the contemporary topics in translation studies with a detailed presentation of the application of an analytical framework which marries corpus-assisted analysis, discourse analysis from socio-cultural perspective and multimodality with translation studies. Withal, the book is with the chapters to review the development of the social approach to discourse analysis and to introduce the stories of Macao with the summary of the development of this special region, in academic field, political and cultural fields.

Drone: a rebel CIA director takes on China and almost turns a trade war into a real one. Thunderbolt: a US senator’s scam has North Korea prepping their nukes. Condor: a shot at the intelligence jackpot of a lifetime occurs, deep in the heart of Russia. At the center of all three? Miranda Chase: air-crash genius investigator for the NTSB, team leader, and high-functioning autistic. What’s at risk if she doesn’t solve the crash and the crises? Everything!