He looked over at me in the dimness, fingers loose in my grip. "You are hurting me," he said, without interest. He had caked powder on his already pale skin, all of one shade except for points made by a hot pencil. Though it was no longer the mode at court, the new fashion more ostentatious and overdrawn, he still favored it, and as I did. My fingers crept up his wrist. I felt rough punctures, half healed and raw, a scattering of them, and I pulled. Laurent could not resist, weakened by the drawing of his blood. My vocal cords had been severed by the younger one's teeth, and so I could not speak, but I pushed up his sleeve, the luxury of his white linen, and found his arm colored like a polluted river. I touched the bites with my fingertips, ten, fifteen, twenty. "I have felt your judgment already," L whispered, trying to pull his arm back, "I have felt it these now two hundred years. Judgment judgment. Cry not. Is it pity? You are a cold thing, without heart, to judge me for what I do. Prideful toad." His arm muscles worked against my grip beneath his blood bruised skin. "Unhand me. Wretched, lye-broken flesh." After a time, he made a sound like a trapped fox, a dying child's keen, and gave up, lying back on the bed such that his hair fell across my face. My other hand found his neck and stroked him. "You will not know what it feels like, good heart," he said to me, softly, doing me one of his gentle nips of an insult, "for love to change you in an instant." He relaxed under my stroking, and his tone softened. "I only meant to help him die." ** After his untimely death, the story of the vampire "L" comes together. Devotees tell the story from many points of view across history, painting a portrait of a man crushed by great loves, desperation, and the indifferent march of time. featured 3/9/16 complete 8/31/16 Editing, as of 5/11/2018. Log: 0/129 chapters edited. 0 added. Cover by @ferret-bird

[Featured Story and Wattpad Prize Winner 2014] When Malachi, an exiled murder, activates a magic relic and duplicates his world, he uses his newly found power to win over the Larks, dog-like creatures from the North. Seeking to locate his missing daughter and plot revenge on those responsible for her disappearance, Malachi marches south, leaving destruction in his wake. Whik Winfield, a young, adventurous Hemonstalian, is swept up in the chaos. He escapes with fellow survivors to the mysterious island of Sebolt, leaving everything he knew behind, including his best friend Sonora. Whik hoped peace could be restored in his new home, but when he finds a mysterious device and creates a world of his own, his troubles double. Can Whik understand how to wield his world-building power before Malachi takes it all away? When the path of worlds can change with a shift in the wind, Whik learns that all second chances come with a price. This dark fantasy novel interweaves Whik's story at ages 9 and 17, as he comes to terms with creating another him, attempts to stop the fall of his nation from a ruthless murderer, and realizes that in order to save the girl he loves in one world, he may have to die in another.