A Covenant of Blood

1987.

Miami strip.

Two factions of a holy war between the sibling gods, Apo Laki and Mayari, battle for control of the city of Impiyerno in the sweltering, summer heat; where neon signs illuminate the path towards capital and sees the money that flows through the streets make the city turn properly on its axis.

The chosen of Apo Laki, clan Sa Kalis, are the undisputed rulers of the underground, and they hold up the foundation of Impiyerno’s other criminal enterprises. Second-born, Alekandre, acts as the harbinger of his patriarch’s will as his hitman. His only purpose—since transitioning into a man—is perpetuating the wrath of Sa Kalis violence, and it’s a cycle he’s now all but trapped in, with no tangible hope for his autonomy or individuality to break free from its chains.

The chosen of Mayari, clan Sa Dugo, are the governance that wants to see the Sa Kalis in handcuffs. First-born daughter, Mayari, is the heir to her father’s legacy, and she has been groomed to inherit his kingdom since the very moment she was born. Cunning, calculating, and efficient, she has the temper to put her father’s lofty ideas into tangible creation, acting as the brain of Impiyerno’s ruling authority while her father acts as its corresponding heart and face.

Eventually, when Alekandre and Mayari meet, the star-crossed lovers must grapple with the weight of the roles they each have been given, and if they even want them to begin with. Then, a fierce, all-consuming attraction soon blinds all five of their immediate senses, and now acts the narrator dictating the final act of heir star-crossed love affair, where their flesh will be given for flesh, and their blood will be given for blood.

ARTWORK BY DENNY S.

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A Hospital for Souls
(The Downfall of Us All, #1)

Every year in Sempiternal, thousands of humans willingly volunteer for The Dragnet Games with the hope to transcend their subjugation by winning and laying claim to the prize; upward mobility into the vampire ruling class by being allowed to become one. 

But, eternal life is an afterthought when Dante Alonso Hidalgo enlists in The Games hellbent on vengeance instead.

Five years ago, his older brother, Xavier Alonso Hidalgo, became Sempiternal’s sole authority in light of his victory at the inaugural Dragnet Games. Forced into exile, Dante was then taken-in and hand-trained by his uncle, Clayton Alonso, who used to be the leader of an underground resistance of vampire hunters called The Masquerade. In light of mastering his uncle’s teachings, Dante comes back to Sempiternal with a clear plan having since transitioned into a man: enroll in The Games to gain access to the Sulod District where the vampire elite currently live. Then, kill his brother to rectify the current imbalance between the realms of the living and the undead.

However, his first night back, Dante realizes that he cannot survive The Dragnet Games entirely on his own. After Xavier announces that he will act as the leader of The Games’s Hunters; a group of hand-picked vampires that seek to eliminate all the human Participants—who can only win if all the former are killed—Dante enlists the help of two other Dragnet Games hopefuls, Chase Zhu and Rue Alvarado; the latter of which bears supernatural powers of unknown origin that are his best shot at survival. However, as Chase, Rue, and Dante begin to uncover the true motive as to why The Games are held, they all soon realize that it not only implicates the whole of the government, but the entire foundation of their society that has become dependent on Smart Objects; AI-powered technologies with a human-like interface that has launched Sempiternal into its current, digital age.

But, as Rue and Dante grow closer while daring to unearth the roots holding up the entire conspiracy, Dante must also confront the truth of his past and ask himself, can love blossom despite circumstance, or is it because of adversity that truly sees it conquer all?

Really, It Gets Better

After their family is violently torn apart, Apollo Galczynski is dropped on the front doorstep of his estranged, older brother, Jace Galczynski, and forced to start his life over an entire coast away from home.

Further complicating things is Apollo having since transitioned into a man, which requires Jace to reacquaint himself with a stranger. However, where Jace lacks understanding, Apollo makes up for it in scorn. Five years later, Apollo still resents Jace for forcing him to live with each miserable half of their family when he moved out the second he turned eighteen. Mostly because Jace promised Apollo that would come back for him, and now, their murdered mother and incarcerated father are tangible proof that he never did.

Apollo’s flight lands in New Hampshire on Christmas Day, and he and Jace immediately get into an argument. Apollo storms out of the house where, by a sheer stroke of luck, he meets a girl named Thea Simmons, who is everything Apollo is not: kind, sincere, and most strange of all, popular. After Apollo comes to Thea’s recuse in her botched attempt to buy a vape, the two strike up a friendship that eventually develops into something much more intimate when the pair usher in the the new year with a kiss.

When their allotted winter break ends, Apollo is now thrust onto the highest echelons of Crowfoot High School’s social hierarchy as Thea’s boyfriend. Now forced to navigate a world that was once entirely unknown to him, Apollo must now adjust from living a life solely to survive to living simply for the sake of living itself. 

But when Thea’s ex-boyfriend and the captain of the football team, Arthur Lang, threatens to out Apollo’s past to the entire school, Apollo must choose between staying within the comfort of his guilt, insecurity, and shame, or stepping into the promise of the future by finally forgiving himself in spite of it.

A Waltz into Ruin

Antonio Ortez haunts Cleyo Frontera in gory visions where he oversees their destiny of mutual ruination.

The star-crossed lovers are then face to face after Cleyo is also hand-picked by to learn under Schaffer University’s tenured professor of Philippine mythology. Despite the insatiable, cosmic draw that links her to Antonio’s world, Cleyo cannot be with Antonio because she has already promised to uphold her parents’s expectations in the place of her sister who was murdered last year. Besides, Antonio is currently with Octavia, and Cleyo, in turn, has agreed to be with Octavia’s younger brother, Caesar. If Antonio dares to be unfaithful to Octavia again, Caesar is not afraid of using violence as means to correct all Antonio has already wrought at Octavia’s expense.

But the fate Cleyo and Antonio are destined for involves powers infinitely grander at play than they could ever begin to imagine. Because the scorned wife of a once whole Bisayan pantheon seeks atonement for sins committed eternities ago, and she will not rest until Cleyo and Antonio pay their eventual price.

ARTWORK BY KAT

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