thanh.nguyenhoang.1403@gmail.com
Stories
168
Chapters
1,512
Words
3.2 M
Comments
0
Reading
11 d, 4 h
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ZARA The heavy, pulsating bass of the meatpacking club above us vibrates through the concrete walls of the storage alcove, but the silence between Elias and me is absolute. It is the suffocating, deadly quiet of a bomb counting down its final seconds. He is looking at my coat. He is looking at the pocket where the thick parchment of the Sanguine Court’s assassination contract rests against my ribs. "My mother," I repeat, the words scraping against my throat like dry glass. "She is the…-
26.0 K • Completed
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ZARA "Kill the hybrid," Valeria commands, her voice echoing with the absolute, chilling authority of the Sanguine Court. She waves a pale, elegant hand toward us, her eyes flat and dead. "But try to keep Mr. Crowe’s torso intact. His canvas is far too exquisite to ruin with jagged blade work." The four armored enforcers do not hesitate. They are pureblood vampires, their movements an unnatural blur of speed and violence, their fangs already descending as they cross the black marble…
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26.0 K • Completed
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ELIAS The metallic click of twenty weapons cocking in unison is a sound that leaves no room for debate. It is absolute, mathematical, and fatal. Through the rusted iron slats of the substation grate, the hollowed hybrids stand in perfect, horrifying synchronization. Their eyes are milky voids. Their fingers hover over the triggers of silver-plated shotguns and the heavy grips of iron pipes. They are not acting on instinct. They are acting on the direct neural command of Valeria Quill, transmitted through…
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26.0 K • Completed
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ZARA The tether snaps back into my physical body with the force of a high-speed collision. My spine bows violently against the damp concrete of the drainage pipe. I gasp, but no air reaches my lungs. A torrent of hot, dark blood spills from my nose, dripping rapidly onto the collar of my silver-ash leather jacket. The migraine is absolute—a blinding, white-hot spike driven directly through my frontal lobe. For ten agonizing seconds, I cannot see, hear, or move. I am trapped in the horrific sensory echo…
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26.0 K • Completed
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ZARA The silence that follows the collapse of the world is heavier than the falling stone. We dig our way out of the subterranean nightmare not as assassins or hunters, but as survivors. The air in the service stairwell leading up to the Chicago streets is choked with ancient dust and the metallic tang of pulverized rebar. Every breath I take feels like swallowing broken glass, my left side throbbing with a dull, rhythmic agony where the silver shrapnel had torn through my muscle. Beside me, Elias leans…
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26.0 K • Completed
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NOVA The vacuum of space does not carry the roar of the Hegemony boarding pods, but I can feel them. The vibration travels down the massive, skeletal gantry of the Selene Solar-Mirror Network, a rhythmic, terrifying shudder that reverberates through the magnetic soles of my boots. Above us, the five colossal warships of the Hegemony orbital strike fleet hang in the star-choked void like jagged black knives, their stealth fields fully deactivated. They are arrogant in their absolute power. A dozen…-
26.6 K • Completed
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NOVA Adrian’s scream over the comms does not just break the silence of the vacuum; it shatters the very foundation of my world. It is a sound of absolute biological ruin, the agonizing death knell of an immortal architecture burning down to the studs. I slam my gauntleted fists against the heavy exterior blast doors of the Mirror Control Spire, screaming his name, but the localized channel has already dissolved into a wall of blistering white static. Then, the lunar crust trembles beneath my magnetic…
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26.6 K • Completed
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NOVA True sunlight is entirely different from the sterile, fluorescent glare of emergency lighting. It has weight. It possesses a physical, enveloping warmth that sinks through the skin, straight down into the marrow of the bone. I stand at the center of the Selene Central Plaza, bathed in the blinding, magnificent light of the restored array. Above us, the massive reinforced glass of the station’s primary habitation dome offers a completely unobstructed view of the Shackleton Crater. The colossal…
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26.6 K • Completed
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Selene Station — One Orbit Before Dusk My wife shoots the mirror key out of my hand. The sonic round crosses the command chamber before the key completes its fall. Silver metal spins through low gravity, strikes the armored glass, and drifts between us while every alarm in Selene Station begins to howl. Nova Reyes keeps the pulse rifle trained on my heart. "Step away from Array Four," she says. Six years ago, I erased our marriage from the lunar registry to keep the Hegemony from…
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26.6 K • Completed
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NOVA The demolition charge on the exterior hinge detonates with a concussive roar that rattles the teeth in my skull. The heavy titanium blast door of the Dual-Command Chamber buckles inward, tearing off its reinforced tracks in a shower of white-hot sparks and twisted metal. I dive behind the dense plating of the tactical table, dragging Adrian down with me just as a shockwave of depressurized air and shrapnel rips through the vault. Dust and smoke billow into the room, thick and suffocating,…
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26.6 K • Completed
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