Novels by neon swanson

This time, Elias Vance held nothing back. The open-handed strike connected with such force that Dexter Hayes was literally launched off the ground, his body spinning through the air before crashing back down in a graceless heap. He tumbled across the linoleum like a ragdoll, rolling until he came to rest at the feet of the woman who had just arrived. Blood covered his face in a slick mask of red, and his eyes fluttered as consciousness threatened to abandon him entirely."Oh no. We're done for."Leo slapped his own forehead hard enough to leave a mark. This time Elias had truly crossed a line he couldn't uncross, and there was no way he was walking out of Cresthaven after this."You..." The woman's head snapped up, and in the span of a single heartbeat, the fury in her expression dissolved into something far more primal: raw, undisguised fear.Elias regarded her with the same flat calm he might offer a stranger on the street. "It's you."The newcomer was Chloe Sinclair, and the bloody

Dexter Hayes had barely stepped off the elevator when Dr. Victor Finch scurried over to report. His voice was low and eager to please as he informed Dexter that Elias Vance had already called in a surgeon to operate on Elena Croft."Are you kidding me?" Dexter's face twisted with fury. "I already put the word out. Who the hell has a death wish big enough to operate on that woman?"Leo Croft clenched his jaw and started forward, every muscle in his body coiled to fight, but Elias raised a hand and stopped him without a word.Dexter's gaze locked onto Elias, cold and contemptuous. "So you're the one giving me trouble? Insisting on getting her into surgery?""That's me." Elias stepped forward, his tone utterly flat. "And you're Dexter Hayes?"Dexter looked him up and down with open disdain, then let out a short, mocking laugh. "Who the hell are you supposed to be? Willing to cross me just to save Elena Croft. What, are you sleeping with her?" He snorted and shook his head, lip curling wi

Maya Brooks came running toward them with all the color drained from her face, and the moment Leo Croft saw her expression, a cold weight dropped into his stomach. Something had happened to his sister.Elena Croft was Elias Vance's benefactor. Years ago, when Elias had been nothing more than a starving child on the verge of death in the streets, it was Elena who had taken him in, fed him, and brought him back to Everheart Orphanage. Without her kindness, he never would have survived that desperate winter. The following year, the Vance family adopted him and gave him a home."She jumped from the third floor," Maya choked out, her voice breaking as tears welled in her eyes. "Both her legs are broken. They rushed her to the hospital, and she's still in emergency care." Her whole body trembled, and she wrapped her arms around herself as though she might fall apart."What?" Leo's voice cracked like a whip. "I told you to stay with her! How the hell did she end up jumping from the third flo

The moment Elias Vance finished speaking, the banquet hall fell into absolute silence. Not a whisper, not the clink of a glass. Some of the guests had stopped breathing entirely, their champagne flutes frozen halfway to their lips.Arthur Vance had been a titan in his day. A single stamp of his foot could send tremors through all of Cresthaven. But even Arthur, at the peak of his power, had never been brazen enough to openly challenge every elite family in the city at once.And now his sworn brother, this man who had appeared from nowhere, had done precisely that. He had declared war on every powerful house involved in the conspiracy, a proclamation so wildly arrogant it bordered on insanity. By any rational measure, the smart play would have been to co-opt some factions, suppress others, and divide the rest, but Elias had chosen none of those paths, had instead burned every bridge in a single breath."He really is Arthur's brother," Vivian Sterling said, her voice cutting through the

Every head in the room turned toward the voice. A woman approached from across the banquet hall, her bearing unmistakably aristocratic. She moved with the unhurried grace of someone who had never once been denied anything in her life, each step deliberate, each gesture radiating the cold confidence of absolute authority.The woman was none other than Vivian Sterling, the undisputed power behind the Sterling family.At her side walked a man even broader than Gideon. His skin was sun-darkened, his hair cropped close to the scalp, and his eyes burned with an almost unnatural intensity, as though live current ran behind them. His temples bulged visibly, the telltale sign of someone who had trained their body to its utmost lethal potential. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of combat could see it immediately: this man was an elite-level fighter.Silas Carmichael clutched his severed finger, his face drained of color. He cast one final look at Gideon and forced the words through clenched

Julian Sterling had only just received the report from his men. Someone had visited Rat Vance's grave, and the two operatives stationed there had been crippled, their legs shattered, forced to kneel before the headstone. He had received that phone call from Elias Vance earlier and dismissed it as some kind of prank. It never crossed his mind that it could actually be real.At that moment, a silver-haired old man emerged from the inner hall. He wore a brilliant crimson ceremonial robe, prayer beads threaded between his fingers, his posture as straight as a man half his age. His stride was powerful and deliberate, carrying the weight of authority accumulated over decades, and his expression darkened the instant he took in the scene before him."We welcome guests from afar," Reginald Sterling said, his voice deceptively calm but edged with steel, "but it seems our two distinguished visitors have no intention of showing this old man any respect. Causing this kind of commotion at my birthd