Waterfall
A Dragon’s Fate Novella. Book 1
by Lacy Danes
Genre: Romance,
Alternate Worlds, Paranormal, Steamy/Erotic
Publisher: Samhain
Publishing
Number of pages:
138
Word Count: 38K
Cover Artist: Kanaxa
Book Description:
It’s
easy to fall in love. Destiny requires tooth and claw.
Curses
are designed to be cruel, but the one afflicting Jordan and his brothers is almost beyond bearing. A dragon born by
blood magic, he is an immortal trapped
in human form, with only one hope of finding his eternal mate. He must bite her—and pray she lives.
One
dark night, he senses the wounded heartbeat of a woman in the shadows, begging
him to end her life. Ever the gentleman, he chivalrously obliges her wish. Only
to discover three days later that she lives. And has married another.
Celeste
always dreamed of marrying for love, but the nightmare of living in her
father’s home drives her to wed the Duke of Hudson. Yet on her wedding eve, she
is compelled to follow a mysterious man who professes to know her secret. A man
with curious blue scales on his muscular arms—whose shadowed eyes reflect a
dangerous mix of destiny and desire…
Warning: This novel contains explicit
sex, sex in water, four super-hot dragon brothers, and a curse born from
magical power that has left them wondering who they are all their lives.
Available at
Samhain BN Amazon iTunes Google
Books
Excerpt:
Carefully stepping around scattered, fractured boards, trunks and
lengths of tangled rope, Jordan and Ferrous neared the last grouping of rocks
at the trees’ edge. Jordan sighed. About time.
A faint heartbeat crawled out of the obscure shadows, stalked up his
spine. Something lived from this bloody mess. Though barely.
Jordan stilled.
Ferrous turned to the left. “I feel it too.”
Jordan followed.
On the opposite side of the rocks, jagged boards bumped, clattering
against a boulder. A mass of tangled human remains bobbed and swayed with each
lap of water against the shore.
From this mess, a heartbeat cried. Jordan closed his eyes and sighed as
his stomach flipped. He would find it. He stepped into the water amid the
carnage and shuddered. I must move as hastily as possible. I can do this. The
sound of life grasped him as if a hand itself clasped his flesh. He flinched,
then turned to the left.
An arm’s length away, half in the water, lay a woman. Her limbs were
twisted and broken, as if made of nothing more than weeds. A man’s head,
severed from the body it had once belonged to, floated close to her hand.
Jordan’s heart pinched, and the scales on his elbows prickled anew.
No one deserved to be half alive after experiencing a tragedy such as
this. He stepped up next to her, knocking the human debris away with his boot.
He leaned down and wrapped one hand about her slim, bare shoulders. The other
he slid beneath her knees, fisting up a handful of her full skirts. She should
have drowned in such a garment. He lifted her, pulling her body up against his.
She hung like a sack of barley in his grasp. Her long, wet skirts and
hair trailed cold water in a stream, trickling over the rocks and babbling down
into his boots. He turned and stumbled along the slag toward the trees.
Ferrous turned after him. “She won’t live, Jordan.” He strode behind
him. “Leave her.”
Her clothing, laden with seawater, soaked his coat in blood. Was it
hers or the rotting blood of the pool in which she had lain? He shook his head.
Don’t think about the stench. He grimaced. Think about her.
Ferrous was right. She would never live.
He fell to his knees and laid her on the high grass that bordered the
trees. Her dress was that of an aristocrat, finely tailored with small pearls
and embroidery now torn open down to her flesh in several places. Her hair had
been swept up with the sun, golden rays that now hid beneath a cloud of red
death. “I will end her suffering.” Yes, that was the correct thing to do.
“For bloody sake, Jordan. You are not to indulge unless you have an
inkling she may be the one. There are no exceptions to our rules. Look what
happens to Ilmir when he breaks one. Who knows what calamity awaits us in
London.”
Jordan’s jaw clenched, and he narrowed his eyes, refusing to look at
Ferrous, who stood behind him. “This is different, and you damn well know it. I
am not Ilmir, and she is not a woman I am courting. She is dying.”
“Being chivalrous?” Ferrous threw up his hands, grumbled and walked
through the trees back toward the shore. “Make haste. I wish to make this
hellish scene vanish this hellish scene and be to London to deal with Ilmir.”
Did Ferrous truly think he wanted to do this? To kill another woman was
the last thing he wished. Twenty years had passed… Jordan inhaled a deep breath
and blew it out between tense lips. He ran his fingers down her pale cheek and
around her chin, tilting her face toward his. A slender nose, full, angelic
lips, and noble cheekbones. A beauty. “To a better afterlife, dear.”
He raised her chin, exposing her long, graceful neck and faintly
beating pulse. Another death…
Dash it. He stared unblinking at the slight flutter of her blood
beneath her skin. Relax, Jordan. He closed his eyes and exhaled. All will be
well.
Prickling pain clawed through the roof of his mouth as his two pointed
teeth extended into thin slivers of bone. He stared down at her neck. She had
been floating in blood and seawater. He spit on her neck, twice. His saliva
glimmered as it slid down her throat to the grass below. There, that should
wash away the dirt she had stewed in. Or would it? His throat tightened. Don’t
lick her. Be done with it.
He leaned in and pressed his teeth to her vein. His mouth opened,
saliva pooled heavily, and his tongue thickened. The pouches by his back teeth
filled with poisonous blood, forcing his jaw still wider. He inhaled a jagged
breath. His heart leapt and pounded, vibrating through his entire being…
Bite her, Jordan. Be done with it. Bite her.
Her faint pulse bumped against his teeth, willing him to take her as
his mate. Mate? Well, that urge was pointless. She would pass just as swiftly
as the others. He rolled his lip back and hissed, then pressed, slicing through
her soft, salty outer skin and into her tepid blood flowing below.
She didn’t flinch.
This was the first time he had taken a woman when he was not
passionately joined with her. Odder yet not to have her scream. To have her do
nothing but lie on the wilted grass.
He swallowed. Dirt be damned, he needed to taste her and know that one
essence of the life he now took. He fluttered his tongue on her smooth skin.
Warm, salty blood slid thickly down his tongue. Damn. His muscles quivered as
his poisonous blood streamed from his pouches and down his teeth, twisting into
her veins. His cock pressed painfully hard against his thigh.
The task was done. There would be no more. He would not take his
pleasure in her. He would not know the feel of her flesh against his. He would
never know her favorite color. This woman, like all the others who had come
before, was not meant to be his. Enough!
He growledand opened his mouth wide. Her soft flesh slipped from his
fangs. He pulled his head back, and their mixed blood trailed in streams down
her neck and dress. His vision shifted and popped. Adrenaline mixed with power
bubbled through his veins. This…this, he had missed.
This was what he was meant to be. His full elemental power at a
glimpse. He tossed his hair back and then growled a dragon’s cry up to where
the moon should hang in a radiant, colored vision. Yet only the ebony fog
resided tonight. There was no moon to lighten this scene. His vision rippled
with detailed clarity. Ah. Indeed. This was the power that years of existence
without his mate had diminished. He wanted this power back. It had been too
long. In a burst of speckled light, everything changed back to somber mist.
Bloody hell. His throat closed off, and his eyes burned. No! He swallowed hard,
and his shoulders sagged. This was a tease. A temptation.
He closed his eyes and shook his head. He would never know more of what
the Zir were than this… Death and a glimpse of the exhilarating power they were
destined to have.
He inhaled and smelled her metallic, sweet blood on his lips. His
tongue traced his teeth and upper lip, gathering up the enslaving essence.
Sweet orange blossoms and candied cherries. His made-up version of what she
should taste like. Remember her. His jaw trembled as hot blood pounded through
him to his groin. His soul wanted more of her. To mate. To love. To live a
lifetime of companionship.
He clenched his teeth, and his fangs pierced his lower lip. You have
done enough to end her suffering. Quite enough. Let her be. He opened his eyes
once more.
A shadow shaped as Ferrous stood head down and arms straight out in the
air at the rocks’ edge. “Make haste. I wait no more.”
Jordan placed her head softly back on the grass. “Will scant be a
moment more of pain, beauty.” He trailed his hand down her broken arm to a
heavy, thick bracelet looping her wrist. He unclasped the chain and slowly
rubbed the metal between his fingers. His token of her death. He tucked the
jewelry in his inner coat pocket, then rose to his full height. Turning to his
left, he skulked into the inky woods.
About the Author:
Lacy
Danes made a New Year's resolution to write a hot, historical romance.
A
year and a half later, she achieved her goal. She lives in Portland, Oregon,
where besides writing she enjoys playing cards, chasing her kids around, and
savoring a great martini with the man of her dreams all while watching the
world go by.
Visit
Lacy at her web site.
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