Nicolas Delacroix has always been a magnet for trouble. His life as a vampire has been one of debauchery and luxury. With money to burn, nothing is beyond his reach, and the excessive lifestyle of the affluent vampire playboy is his for the taking. His nights of hitting the town to find a temporary female friend are thrown into chaos when he is placed as co-leader of the Lancaster family dynasty with his younger sister, Martine. Without a true Lancaster ruling the dynasty, it is weaker and susceptible to attack. Lycans openly attack as retribution for their inability to return to their home world, blaming the vampires for their suffering. And if being a leader of a vampire dynasty wasn't enough for Nicolas, he comes across a woman that holds a secret, one that will change his world forever. Rowan didn't want to fall for the charming womaniser; she wanted to hide from the pain that his influence on her life has caused. But some secrets aren't meant to be kept. Distracted by the issues in his life, Nicolas doesn't see the dark figure in the background, hiding in the shadows. Slowly the figure brings their plan for complete domination into fruition, gaining more power with each passing day. The ultimate prize is worth fighting for, and the shadow figure will do whatever it takes to get it, even if it means death. Stopping the shadow figure at every turn, Nicolas does everything he can to protect those that he loves and in doing so, becomes something that he never believed possible.

In July 2011, billionaire Jonah Shacknai's Coronado, California, mansion was the setting for two horrifying deaths only days apart--his young son's plunge from a balcony and his girlfriend's ghastly hanging. What really happened? Baffling questions remain unanswered. Rule looks at the closed cases through the eyes of a relentless crime reporter. The second probe began in Utah when Susan Powell vanished in a 2009 blizzard. Her controlling husband, Josh, proved capable of a blind rage that was heartbreakingly fatal to his innocent young sons almost three years later in a tragedy that shocked America as the details unfolded. If anyone had detected the depth of depravity within Josh Powell, perhaps the family that loved and trusted him would have been saved. In these and seven other riveting cases, Ann Rule exposes the twisted truth behind headlined and little-known homicides and speaks for vulnerable victims who relied on the wrong people.

In its case law on the use of lethal and potentially lethal force, the European Court of Human Rights declares a fundamental connection between the right to life in Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights and democratic society. This book discusses how that connection can be understood by using narrative theory to explore Article 2 law's specificities and its deeper historical, social and political significance. Focusing on the domestic policing and law enforcement context, the book draws on an extensive analysis of case law from 1995 to 2017. It shows how the connection with democratic society in Article 2's substantive and procedural dimensions underlines the right to life's problematic duality, as an expression of a basic value demanding a high level of protection and a contextually limited provision allowing states leeway in the use of force. Emphasising the need to identify clear standards in the interpretation and application of the right to life, the book argues that Article 2 law's narrative dimensions bring to light its core purposes and values. These are to extract meaning from pain and death, ground democratic society's foundational distinction between acceptable force and unacceptable violence, and indicate democratic society's essential attributes as a restrained, responsible and reflective system.

Spunky and outgoing, nothing much bothers medical examiner Serena Hopkins--except for the thought of falling in love again. But when a serial killer is picking off her former classmates, Serena's life becomes intertwined with her old high school crush, FBI agent Dominic Allen. Is the secret she's keeping putting her next on the killer's hit list? Can she trust Dominic with the truth before it's too late? Intense, emotional, and fast-paced, When a Heart Stops will have readers up late as they race to the finish to find out what happens.

"Because of the increasing use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, also commonly known as drones) in various military and para-military (i.e., CIA) settings, there has been increasing debate in the international community as to whether it is morally and ethically permissible to allow robots (flying or otherwise) the ability to decide when and where to take human life. In addition, there has been intense debate as to the legal aspects, particularly from a humanitarian law framework. In response to this growing international debate, the United States government released the Department of Defense (DoD) 3000.09 Directive (2011), which sets a policy for if and when autonomous weapons would be used in US military and para-military engagements. This US policy asserts that only "human-supervised autonomous weapon systems may be used to select and engage targets, with the exception of selecting humans as targets, for local defense ...". This statement implies that outside of defensive applications, autonomous weapons will not be allowed to independently select and then fire upon targets without explicit approval from a human supervising the autonomous weapon system. Such a control architecture is known as human supervisory control, where a human remotely supervises an automated system (Sheridan 1992). The defense caveat in this policy is needed because the United States currently uses highly automated systems for defensive purposes, e.g., Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar (C-RAM) systems and Patriot anti-missile missiles. Due to the time-critical nature of such environments (e.g., soldiers sleeping in barracks within easy reach of insurgent shoulder-launched missiles), these automated defensive systems cannot rely upon a human supervisor for permission because of the short engagement times and the inherent human neuromuscular lag which means that even if a person is paying attention, there is approximately a half-second delay in hitting a firing button, which can mean the difference for life and death for the soldiers in the barracks. So as of now, no US UAV (or any robot) will be able to launch any kind of weapon in an offensive environment without human direction and approval. However, the 3000.09 Directive does contain a clause that allows for this possibility in the future. This caveat states that the development of a weapon system that independently decides to launch a weapon is possible but first must be approved by the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (USD(P)); the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD(AT&L)); and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Not all stakeholders are happy with this policy that leaves the door open for what used to be considered science fiction. Many opponents of such uses of technologies call for either an outright ban on autonomous weaponized systems, or in some cases, autonomous systems in general (Human Rights Watch 2013, Future of Life Institute 2015, Chairperson of the Informal Meeting of Experts 2016). Such groups take the position that weapons systems should always be under "meaningful human control," but do not give a precise definition of what this means. One issue in this debate that often is overlooked is that autonomy is not a discrete state, rather it is a continuum, and various weapons with different levels of autonomy have been in the US inventory for some time. Because of these ambiguities, it is often hard to draw the line between automated and autonomous systems. Present-day UAVs use the very same guidance, navigation and control technology flown on commercial aircraft. Tomahawk missiles, which have been in the US inventory for more than 30 years, are highly automated weapons with accuracies of less than a meter. These offensive missiles can navigate by themselves with no GPS, thus exhibiting some autonomy by today's definitions. Global Hawk UAVs can find their way home and land on their own without any human intervention in the case of a communication failure. The growth of the civilian UAV market is also a critical consideration in the debate as to whether these technologies should be banned outright. There is a $144.38B industry emerging for the commercial use of drones in agricultural settings, cargo delivery, first response, commercial photography, and the entertainment industry (Adroit Market Research 2019) More than $100 billion has been spent on driverless car development (Eisenstein 2018) in the past 10 years and the autonomy used in driverless cars mirrors that inside autonomous weapons. So, it is an important distinction that UAVs are simply the platform for weapon delivery (autonomous or conventional), and that autonomous systems have many peaceful and commercial uses independent of military applications"--

This is the story of the Reigns Family, a mob family that controls the streets and everything moving, it is their rise and their fight to stay on top as the world's most notorious crime family.

This is book 2 of the Lethal Darkness MC trilogy. Book 3 is available everywhere now! I accidentally knocked up my enemy's daughter. MICAH When Paris shows up at my doorstep, begging for a man, I don't even think about saying no. I f**k her until she cries out in ecstasy. I had no idea that I'd just screwed the daughter of my greatest enemy. Her father comes knocking four months later… And demands that I marry his now-pregnant daughter. The man could destroy everything I've worked my whole life to build. I have to decide: do I want war or a wife? There is no choice but to agree to his ultimatum. Now, I have a crucial weakness. And Paris's father is determined to end me for good. I find out just how far he's willing to go when he threatens his own grandchild. Big mistake. I didn't ask for a family. But now that I have one, I'll go to hell and back to protect them. So if her father wants a vicious war, then that's exactly what he'll get. PARIS My whole life, I've been a princess in an ivory tower, not allowed even to look at a man. I couldn't take it anymore. So I snuck out to have a taste of forbidden passion. I never dreamed it would leave me pregnant. Now, my father is making me marry the man who did this to me. I never thought I'd see Micah again… Especially not like this. That strong jaw, those inked muscles, that steely, unflinching gaze… Standing on the altar across from me. Lifting my veil. And claiming me as HIS. I tell myself I didn't want this. That I never wanted a man like Micah for more than one night. But when my life is threatened—along with the life of my unborn baby—I know one thing: Trusting Micah is the only way I can survive.