Sixteen Seconds is the distance between a thought and a revolution, between who you were and who you might be. The world didn't end with the extinction of mankind, rather the annihilation of human thought with the implement of a devastating neurological device, relegating the world to darkness, chaos, and war, where it's too late to realize something is dangerously wrong with the children; too late to stop the consequences before the future of humanity is forever tainted. When the country's leaders banned and confiscated the citizen's firearms and executed martial law, those in command didn't think twice. When taxes and gasoline skyrocketed and families were left with only the streets, officials lined their bloody pockets and didn't bat an eye. When poverty overran the country alongside disease and starvation, tyrannical rule found a death grip, strangling the heart and soul of a nation and stripping away the human rights of an entire population. Kenneth Ridley has been searching for another like him, someone who shares and understands his special talent; someone who can teach him to control the force of his thoughts. He never guessed the answer would come from Sera, a young girl more powerful than his wildest imagination could conceive. The last thing Ridley intended to do was give away the only defense the broken population had left, but that's exactly what he'd done when he organized and trained the others like him; when he sent his unit into battle against the regime and destroyed their facilities. Their raw talents were manifested by Ridley's fine tuning into the ultimate weapons; minds capable of utilizing thought more adequately and effectively than any firearm. Repercussions came swiftly. A new form of control, the NID, was to be implanted in every citizen's brain, a devastating electric pulse triggered at eight seconds of thought preventing anyone from reaching such a level of influence again. Humanity doesn't fire in eight second synapses, survival does. Tragedy gave birth to a new generation. Blank canvases, human forms possessing no human emotions took the place of every normal child, empty and satisfied by the most basic of animal needs. The offspring of parents who could no longer think to comprehend were discarded, abandoned along with shame. To a world incapable of thought, they were the absolute embodiment of fear. Mankind didn't need more than eight seconds to realize the impending doom; to run from what they couldn't understand. The revolution ended. In the next six years, so did everything else. Roland spends his days eight seconds at a time, darting from thoughts to avoid the obliterating fry of the NID. Food is scarce. Water is a small miracle. Other survivors are dangerous. Roving bands of marauding cannibals plague the remains of the cities alongside the eerie throngs of the abandoned blanks enduring in the same fashion. Today might have been his last had C not appeared with her monster of a dog and driven off the pack before he'd been torn to shreds; taken him back to her camp where people are...normal. They've organized a community. They're rebuilding the foundations of society. They've found a way to disable the NID, if you're willing to take the risk. For the first time there is hope; maybe even the chance to set right the most devastating of wrongs and resurrect the future of humanity. Fearing the ascendancy of the mind initiated the demise of civilization. Fearing what we've become without thought fuels the necessity to reclaim it.

Finding yourself wrongfully accused of a crime is a terrible thing, but becoming the prime suspect under the pursuit of a vengeful collaboration of vampires is far worse, especially if you don't know why they want you dead. Rhiamon is running out of time, something she never considered would conflict with immortality. She must find a way to stop them before everything she loves is gone forever. Hollowed by a loss still unyielding of a perpetrator, Rhiamon Delaney bends to her curiosity and becomes unwillingly entangled in a bloody web of murder, lies and deceit, where the only ones who know the truth may be dead and the ones who want her dead are not alive. There is a type of pain, a stagnant, lingering ache that even an eternity cannot persuade a heart to release. There is a type of danger, a blatant, violent desire to take life that even the invincible cannot evade or incapacitate. There is a type of love, a fiery, all-consuming possession of heart and soul that defies the notion of pain or danger; a madness capable of deeds measured only in the moments between two beating hearts. Las Vegas is a beautiful place to visit, to take in the sights, to let your inner-sinner out; a beautiful place to die. She should have left him there, young Rory, bloodied and broken on that warehouse floor. Rhiamon Delaney paid little attention to worry, before tonight. She'd spent two years patient in solitude, where memories remained silent; haunting the back alleys of Las Vegas and killing only when the need arose. That was, of course, before they showed up, raining discontent on the comfort of boredom and numbness she'd grown accustom to. She had to poke her nose in. She had to save the kid. They weren't going to give up though. They wanted her dead, these demon strangers with bloodied lips, just as they'd come for Rory. The only way to the truth was through the past, where ghosts carry burning torches and vials of salt for old wounds. With every step backward, Rhiamon stumbles deeper into truths she cannot accept, faced with a sudden love she never believed in. She is forced to confront things about herself she cannot change, and to realize others can change her in ways she'll never forget. With unknown enemies at the back of her heels and the betrayal of true friends twisted in her back, Rhiamon must quickly take the upper hand and end this hunt. How can she stop an enemy she doesn't know without losing another friend? This is different. This time it's Rory. Losing him would mean losing her soul, and she would die first.