Xander Laveign has been your average Trans Guy trying to survive high school, trying to get his grades up, trying to avoid confrontation with most of his teachers, trying to hang out more with his friends, like a normal high schooler should. But when one interesting guest arrives at his school with his serums and other classified experiments in his briefcase, Xander get curious and wonders what the serum can really do. Little does he know, the guest is one of the head workers of the city's most dangerous mutation testing facilities, and is also a bad man. When Xander tests the serum, it goes wrong and mutates him into a demonic looking creature, with bat wings, spiky shoulders, a third eye, and powers that are hard to control, leaving him mutated into a monster who has to learn how to control his powers, and possibly save the city from the evil guest. So he makes a "superhero-like persona" and names himself Cypress, which he has to keep on the down low when he's at school. The guest does notice one of his vials of serum is missing and everything goes to chaos. Will Cypress learn to control his powers and stop the evil guest who came to his school? Or will the serums effects take control over Cypress and will he also destroy the city and side with the evil guest?
A ragtag gang of teens teams up with a neighboring girl gang when a major cartel moves into town, threatening their families, their turf, and the community they've worked so hard to protect.
*****
Cash West formed the Seven 20s - a gang of six overzealous teens with guns - to keep his tiny, crime-infested town in nowhere California safe. His methods are unorthodox and frankly illegal, but the town loves his Robin Hood heroics. However, the gang gets more than they bargained for when the Mendoza cartel rolls into town, determined to knock them off the map. As the threat hits closer to home, Cash has no choice but to team up with his ex-girlfriend Tiana's neighboring girl gang, the Hearts of Spades. Soon allies become enemies, families get trapped in the crossfire, and romance brews as Cash fights to unravel a massive conspiracy that puts everyone that matters to him at risk. When the stakes are life and death, will the gangs be able to overcome an enemy more powerful than any of them could have predicted?
Book One of The Seven Twenties Series
Content and Trigger Warning: contains violence, drug use, mentions of domestic abuse, and mature themes.