Author: kimlong

Chapter 1: The Vibration in the Grease The heat in San Antonio wasn’t just a weather pattern; it was a physical weight. It was a Thursday in late September, but the Texas sun didn’t care about the calendar. It hammered down on the corrugated tin roof of the “Iron Saints” garage, turning the air inside…

Chapter 1: The View From the Floor The floor of a high school cafeteria is a geography of shame. I know every inch of it. I know the sticky patches of dried soda near the vending machines. I know the scuff marks left by expensive Jordans. I know that if you get close enough, the…

Chapter 1: The Promise of Iron and Blood I’ve been called a lot of things in my life. Outlaw. Biker. Trouble. But the only title that ever mattered to me was “Dad.” When you look at me, you see the stereotype. I’m six-foot-four, three hundred pounds of bearded grit. I have tattoos that run from…

CHAPTER 1: THE SILENCE OF THE RAIN The rain in Seattle doesn’t wash things clean. It just makes the grime slicker, turning the city into a blurred watercolor painting of grays and muted blues. It was a Thursday, late October, the kind of gray, miserable afternoon that settles into your bones and makes old shrapnel…

Chapter 1: The White Crow The world is designed for people who can stand the light. I am not one of them. My name is Lily Sterling, though at Oak Creek High, I answer to other names. “Casper.” “Powder.” “The Vampire.” I was born with Oculocutaneous Albinism. My skin is the color of milk, my…

Chapter 1: The Weight of a Feather It wasn’t the pain that made Amelia flinch; it was the sheer, casual malice. The polished aluminum of her custom-fitted prosthetic leg—the one her dad, Lieutenant Colonel David ‘Iron’ Reyes, had scrimped and fought for—slid out from under her, a sickening scrape on the asphalt of Westlake High….

Chapter 1: The Weight of Scars Alex “Rigger” Riggio knew the cold-sweat-in-the-daylight feeling. It wasn’t the desert sun or the thud of incoming mortar fire that brought it on anymore; it was the soft, sterile smell of the elementary school parking lot in West Falls, Virginia. This was the quiet, manicured enemy territory of suburban…

CHAPTER 1: THE SILENT ALARM My phone buzzed against the metal worktop of the garage, rattling a loose socket wrench. I almost ignored it. I was elbow-deep in grease, tuning the carburetor on my ‘67 Shovelhead. It was a Tuesday morning, and the Iron Saints clubhouse was quiet, just the low hum of the classic…

Chapter 1: The Shadow Over the Sanctuary My hands are a roadmap of bad decisions and hard work. The knuckles are swollen, permanently stained with the kind of grease that lives deep in the pores, impervious to orange soap or stiff brushes. Scars zigzag across the back of my hands like lightning bolts, each one…

Chapter 3: The War Room I woke up to the sound of hushed voices and the rhythmic beep of a cardiac monitor. The air didn’t smell like a school gym anymore. It smelled of lilies, espresso, and aggressive sterilization. I opened my right eye—the left one was swollen shut, sealed tight by dried blood and…