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Of Wings and Shadows Excerpt #2

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : July 22, 2023

Tags:blog post, diverse reads, dragons, excerpt, fantasy, fiction, kyoko m, new release, novella, of cinder and bone, of cinder and bone series, of wings and shadows, science fiction, science fiction novel, sff, short fiction

It’s finally here!

Of Wings and Shadows (Of Cinder and Bone #5.5) is now available on ebook and in paperback! Get it today-only for .99 cents. The price will increase tomorrow. Read excerpt one here if you haven’t already.

In a modern-day world teeming with marauding dragons, there is only one solution: The Wild Hunt.

The United States government has decided to hold a tournament called The Wild Hunt to determine who will be responsible for the capture of wild dragons by the Knight Division. The four challengers Noah Wilson, Charlie Howard, Su Jin Han, and Beowulf have to catch five deadly dragons alive if they want to win the tournament and become the new Knight Division dragon hunters. Their journey will take them through the mountains of South Carolina, the seas of Key West, the caverns of Ruby Falls, the Redwood forest, and finally, the murky bayous of Louisiana. Will they succeed against their competition, or will the dragons of the Wild Hunt be too wild to tame?

Of Wings and Shadows is the sixth book in the Of Cinder and Bone series. It takes place in medias res of Book Five, Of Claws and Inferno. It follows Of Cinder and Bone, Of Blood and Ashes, Of Dawn and Embers, and Of Fury and Fangs.

Here is an all-new excerpt for your reading enjoyment!

–

“Well, at least we picked a nice day.”

Charlie chuckled as he held his hand out for the camerawoman to steady her as she stepped onto the bay boat. She was a stocky Brazilian woman decked out in a fisherman’s rain slicker, the camera rig on her shoulder already outfitted with waterproof plastic as well. Rain pounded down from the heavens, thick droplets splashing all over the marina, but that was normal for this time of year in Key West. After all, they were currently in hurricane season, which might have been why the storm dragon had been so active in the area.

“I’m Elena,” she said, shaking his hand once before letting it go. “The fella with your eye in the sky is Kevin. We’ll be coordinating to make sure we get a good capture, but I’ll stay out of your way as much as possible.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m assuming you’re well-versed in boat safety?”

“Absolutely. They tapped me for this specifically since I’ve shot a few documentaries about fishermen in the area, so we’re good to go.”

“Great.” He pointed to one of the larger boats to their right. “The Florida Department of Natural Resources is on standby to help us transport the storm dragon once caught. They can back us up if things get really ugly and we have to reassess how to catch it. The plan is for Penelope to spot it, then we’ll chum the water to draw it closer and employ the netting.”

Elena saluted him. “Got it. Yo-ho, a pirate’s life for me and all that.”

“Ha! In this kind of weather, it does feel like we’re in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, doesn’t it?” Charlie took his spot by the helm and fired up the engine to pull out of the marina. Elena took a seat at the stern and began to film.

“Agent Okamura, do you read me?” Charlie said into the comm-link.

“I’ve got you, Charlie,” Yusuke replied. “Though it is a bit spotty on account of the bad weather.”

“Tell me about it. I wish I had windshield wipers on this helmet. We’re leaving the marina now. How’s Noah?”

“He’s seen a medic for the bruised ribs. Should be headed for New Orleans shortly.”

“Good. That midnight dragon was one tough customer. I’m glad he’s alright.” He glanced at the panel on his armored suit. “We should reach open water in a bit, but it’s likely going to be a long hunt. There is a lot of ground to cover, metaphorically speaking.”

“Understood. Just be careful. We’ve already seen these creatures can throw quite the left curve at you when you least expect it.”

“Amen to that. I’m gonna check in with Penelope; back in a few.”

Charlie switched channels. “Penelope, this is Charlie, over.”

“Got ya, Charlie,” the pilot replied. “Having fun so far, over?”

“Oh, I’m having a ball. Lead the way; we’re ready to rock and roll, over.”

“Great. The dragon’s last sighting was a little after six o’clock this morning.” She read out the coordinates of where they were headed and Charlie adjusted the boat accordingly to follow. Once they left the marina, he went to full throttle. The DNR boat followed at a safe distance. Most of the path had been cleared by the Coast Guard. Key West saw less visitors during this part of the year, so unlike Libby’s hunt of the aquatic dart-backed wyrm, civilian interference was far less likely.

“Charlie, I’ve got a visual. Can you confirm, over?” She read the updated coordinates to him and he adjusted his course, then slowed the boat. He then adjusted the HUD scope to zoom in as he spotted the shifting waves.

The storm dragon had been circling a school of fish, borrowing some technique from the local sharks—it would stalk them at a distance, then close in and attack from below, pushing the fish up to the surface where they would be easier to catch. Its dark blue scales blended in with the deeper sea water and made it harder to detect. It also shared traits with seabirds, being covered in plumage that allowed for buoyancy and protection against the salty waters and harsh winds during hurricane season. It had a long, narrow body that was fifteen feet from snout to tail and webbed feet with sharp talons on each, its wings doubling as fins when it was fully submerged.

Charlie whistled. “Thar she blows. Sighting confirmed, Penelope. I’m going to start chumming the water and I need you to keep an eye out for other predators in the area, since it’s bound to attract some that want a free meal, over.”

“Roger that, Charlie. Be careful, over.”

“Thanks. You too, over.” Charlie headed towards the stern where he’d had a cooler waiting, the bucket of frozen chum inside already prepped. “Elena, we’ve got the dragon in view.”

“Fantastic.” She headed for the bow and took a look. “Wow. Que linda. You all ready to go, Plankton?”

Charlie paused. “Plankton…cute. And yeah, let’s see if we can get Moby Dick over here.”

He shut off the engine once they were several meters out and then dropped the anchor. He picked the side of the boat facing the marine reptile and lowered the metal mesh chum bucket into the ocean. Though visibility was harder thanks to the storm, he could see bubbles and blood beginning to blossom out from the bucket and spread into the ocean water.

They waited. The storm dragon had submerged but hadn’t left the area. Charlie knew from experience that it wasn’t always an instantaneous reaction. He resisted the urge to pace, as the vibrations it would cause in the hull might deter the dragon.

“Uh-oh,” Penelope said over the channel. “We’ve got incoming. I’m spotting something on radar headed your way, to your starboard about fifty meters out, over.”

Charlie went over to the right side of the boat and peered through the rainfall, muttering under his breath, “Please be a hammerhead. Please be a hammerhead.”

As it reached twenty meters away, Charlie could see a fin and a wake, giving him an idea of the species. “Shit. Looks like a Mako, at least ten feet long. Things are about to get messy.”

“Why?” Elena asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Not all sharks are aggressive,” he told her as he pulled up the anchor and then turned the engine over. “In fact, Key West has never had a fatal shark attack in its entire history, but Mako sharks are among the aggressive ones, which means we might have a confrontation here in a second. We need to be ready to boogie if that happens; a fight could capsize us.”

Sure enough, the storm dragon changed directions to head for the chum just as the Mako made contact and began eating the bits of barracuda that had floated loose from the bucket. Charlie gave the boat a bit of gas to help it float along at a steady pace, then began working on laying the net while keeping a wary eye on the two approaching predators.

The storm dragon circled behind the Mako and then dashed towards it, aiming a bite at its caudal fin. The Mako had anticipated as much and darted out of the way, then swung around to face its rival. Its powerful jaws snapped as it attempted to bite the right wing of the dragon when it swam past, missing by mere inches.

The storm dragon dove out of sight beneath the boat, the water swirling behind its long, powerful tail.

“That can’t be good,” Elena remarked, practically reading Charlie’s mind. He gave the boat more gas as he started to try and strategically lay the nets in a wide semi-circle around the area. The storm dragon proved them both right when it surged up from below and rammed the shark, causing it to flip upside down. The shark wriggled for less than a minute, but then went completely still on its back along the water’s choppy surface.

Charlie’s eyes widened beneath his helmet. “Holy hell. It’s figured out tonic immobility.”

“Who-whatta-huh?” Elena asked.

“If you flip a shark upside down, it enters a kind of trance and can be motionless for up to fifteen minutes or so. It’s how orcas sometimes catch and eat sharks. This dragon’s not only smart, but definitely experienced.”

Both of them jumped as the storm dragon grabbed the motionless shark and bit a hole into its side. The water churned red with blood as it began tearing chunks of its soft sides and belly off.

Elena swallowed hard as she watched. “Yeesh.”

“You said it,” Charlie agreed. “Nature don’t play.”

He switched back to the comm-link. “Agent Okamura, we may have a bit of a problem. Our storm dragon decided it wanted some Mako shark instead of sushi for lunch. I’m working on laying the nets now, but I’m not sure how long it’ll stay stationary.”

“If it gets airborne, we might have trouble following it with this weather. The best bet might be to dart it and slow it down while it’s distracted with the meal.”

Charlie winced. That was risky, but he knew he was running low on time. The tournament timer had already clocked him past the hour mark, so he had to finish this hunt now or it would hurt the team’s average. “Copy that.”

He grabbed the tranquilizer rifle leaning up against the helm and checked that it was properly loaded. Then he stepped over to the starboard side of the ship and took careful aim at the wriggling mass of dragon beneath the Mako shark carcass, which it had already eaten a great deal of in only several seconds.

“Charlie, we’ve got more incoming,” Penelope said. “One to your one o’clock, the other at your three o’clock, over.”

No sooner than she said it, the storm dragon released the Mako shark’s corpse and swam deeper beneath the surface.

“Dammit,” Charlie swore as he readjusted the sights on the rifle to look at the surface of the water. “We’ve got a feeding frenzy on our hands. Visibility is next to none. I think I’m gonna have to go down there.”

“What?” Yusuke demanded. “Charlie, that’s too dangerous. You can’t possibly out-swim it and there are other predators being drawn to that spot.”

“With all due respect, sir, we’re already lagging behind. If I can get in range, I can attach a syringe to a harpoon gun and dart it from a distance. The sharks will be more concerned with the chum and the Mako carcass than me.” He pulled open a waterproof suit bag that contained scuba gear as well as a diving oxygen tank. “I’ve spent my entire adult life around these animals. I need you to trust me, Okamura.”

There was a long pause, then he heard him sigh. “Alright. I trust your judgment.”

“Thank you.” Charlie removed his helmet and replaced it with the breathing apparatus, sliding his arms into the straps for the tank. He removed one of the syringes from the tranquilizer rifle and attached it to the end of the harpoon gun he’d brought with him. He fitted the flippers onto his feet and took the mouthpiece out long enough to address Elena. “I’ll be back as fast as I can. Keep an eye on the activity at the surface. If it gets too rough, move the boat.”

She nodded. “I will. Be careful, huh?”

“I will.” He smiled before putting the mouthpiece back in and grabbing the harpoon gun. The boat rocked slightly as he walked to the port side away from the bloody mess and jumped into the water.

Charlie let his weight allow him to sink several feet below the surface and switched on his head lamp. The two sharks that closed in on the Mako shark’s body were a bull shark and a tiger shark. The two predators didn’t want to be bothered with one another, so in the time it took him to prep, they’d torn the corpse in half and were devouring the remains. He swam below them, keeping a wide berth, and spotted a dark shape moving towards the chum bucket that was up near the surface.

Though a formidable opponent, the storm dragon must have reasoned it couldn’t fight two fully grown sharks for the rest of its meal, so it returned to sate itself with the chum. He knew he had to work fast; once it was full, it would likely fly away or simply swim back into open water. The nets he had lain had straightened out and surrounded them, meaning he would need to dart the dragon and then guide it into the netting, so he swam forward steadily to make his presence known.

And it didn’t take long for the storm dragon to notice him.

The marine reptile had been nosing at the bucket to release more tidbits, but it angled its head when it spotted his light. The glow of the flashlight shone over one of its pale blue eyes, its pupil contracting, and then the dragon let go of the chum bucket to focus on him instead. There had been many a time it was just him and a large aquatic predator in the shifting seas and something in him was always awed and terrified at the same time.

The dragon swam towards him much like a crocodile, its streamlined body cutting through the water, and stopped just shy of a few yards to examine him. The creature had encountered humans before, and unfortunately took a man’s life, but it had been an accident when the fishermen pulled up their nets. It seemed rather curious instead of afraid or agitated. Charlie let it observe him for a moment, then cautiously offered his hand to the creature, palm out. The dragon drifted closer. His hand landed on its snout and petted it gently. It didn’t seem to mind.

Its curiosity satisfied, the storm dragon glided past him. Charlie prayed for the safety of himself and his colleague as he let it go by, then turned and fired the harpoon gun. The syringe struck the dragon’s tail on the underside near the base. He hoped with the creature’s size that such a small prick wouldn’t be felt.

The dragon’s head snapped around, its teeth bared.

Hope is a thing with feathers, Charlie thought to himself.

Then he swam as fast and hard as he could for the boat.

–

Read the conclusion to Charlie’s hunt in Of Wings and Shadows, out now on all platforms! Thanks for all of your support so far and happy reading!

Of Wings and Shadows Excerpt #1

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : April 20, 2023

Category: Author Events

Tags:blog post, book excerpt, dragon hunting, dragons, excerpt, fantasy, fiction, kyoko m, of cinder and bone series, of wings and shadows

Ready to catch dragons with the Knight Division? If so, please enjoy the first excerpt from my upcoming novella, Of Wings and Shadows (Of Cinder and Bone #5.5).

–

Agent Okamura then used the clicker for the projector to get the slide started. “I thought it best to show you one of the group hunts by the Knight Division. This is their capture of a crystal dragon that was discovered near the Wegner Quartz Crystal Mines in Arkansas last spring. Crystal dragons have the second hardest scales next to the Highlander dragon, hence the name, and they’re among the rarest dragons in history. As you can imagine, it made subduing it quite a challenge.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Beowulf said. “How the hell did something called a crystal dragon end up in a place full of crystals?”

“The working theory is that when it’s not the illegal dragon cloning farms, it might be conservationists who clone and release them not only to repopulate the Earth, but also to study the effects they have on the environment. This one is specific enough that it’s likely a conservationist released it into a habitat where it would have naturally lived had dragons not been hunted to extinction. Crystal dragons lived in quartz mines. That’s how they evolved to have their eponymous crystalline scales.”

Yusuke hit Play. The footage had been taken from the bodycam of one Dr. Rhett “Jack” Jackson—the MIT scientist responsible for the dragon resurrection project that had later kickstarted the resurgence of the reptiles into modern society. He stood at 6’2’’, dressed in an armored suit similar to theirs, but it was gunmetal grey. The visored helmet provided a heads-up display with different kinds of information like the area’s temperature, the distance to target, and the vital signs of his three other team members. The small plaque built into the armor had his codename, Gawain, embossed upon it.

Jack had just stepped out of the Knight Division van and turned to help his fellow hunter and girlfriend, Dr. Kamala Anjali. She was a petite but curvy woman at 5’4’’, her long jet-black hair pulled back in a bun at the base of her neck, her helmet tucked under one arm. She had a gold stud in her nose and her suit’s plaque read Parvati.

She was followed by a slightly taller, slender, tattooed black girl in her early twenties, Libby Calloway, and her older brother, Bruce Calloway, who was near Jack’s height and muscular with a beard neatly trimmed into a goatee. Their plaques read Bast and Sobek respectively. The last person out of the van was a tall, dark-haired man in a black suit, black tie, and crisp white dress shirt with a gun on his hip.

“Quite a day for a hunt,” Agent John Shannon said as he tucked his aviators into the front pocket of his suit jacket. He walked around to the back of the van and pulled open the double doors. Their equipment was neatly stored in the rear, either bolted to the walls or in large reinforced cases. There was already a shatterproof cage in the parking spot beside them that had been provided by the Arkansas Department of Natural Resources. “Libby, can you get an eye in the sky for us?”

“Yep, I’m on it.” She opened one of the smaller cases and retrieved a fairly small drone and the tablet that controlled it. She held the drone flat on her palm and then switched it on. The four rotors began to spin and the drone took off into the air. “What’s the last known location?”

“There should be a burrow near the Phantom Mine according to the dragon tracker,” Shannon answered, handing her brother one of the net launchers. “The park rangers said it’s been collecting quartz pieces for its lair, so they’ve cleared the area and set up security cameras to track its movements.”

“Got it. Let’s see…” She guided the drone away from the parking lot and onto the premises of the Tailings Pile—a huge open area with blasted soil from the mines where visitors could dig to find different types of crystals. The soil had a reddish-brown hue and it was easily walkable as it had been set in a field. There were trees and picnic tables surrounding the pile and the whole area was inside of a valley in Ouachita National Forest, giving them a rather breathtaking view. “I’m seeing tracks towards the bottom edge of the Pile. They look fresh.”

“Crystal dragons are sensitive to light,” Kamala said as she pulled on her helmet as Libby and Calloway did the same. “It’s possible it went searching for quartz to bring to its lair last night and it’s resting right now.”

“Good call,” Calloway said as he shouldered the net launcher onto his back. “After all, it’s not exactly the most inconspicuous dragon there is and it probably wouldn’t want to draw too much attention to itself. From what I’ve read, it’s not one of the more aggressive breeds.”

“Which is a blessing and a curse.” Jack shut the doors to the van. “That means it might opt for flight instead of a fight, which could drag this hunt out for a while if we’re not careful.”

“Agreed. Your main focus is to try and keep it on the ground. Once Libby locates it, we’ll use the drone to lure it out into the open. Jack and Calloway will flank and Kamala will run point. I’ll keep an eye on the perimeter to make sure we don’t have some meddling kids interfering.”

Jack snorted softly. “I’d say that was a Scooby Doo reference, but there is no way in hell you’ve seen a single episode of that, even as old as you are. You were probably alive when Hanna Barbera was first created. Hell, they probably based Captain Caveman off of you, didn’t they?”

Shannon didn’t even blink at the insult. “Who?”

Jack shook his head. “Heathen.”

“Aha!” Libby said, perking up a bit as she watched the drone footage. “There. We’ve got some movement. Looks like it’s digging to expand its burrow. Sending the coordinates to your HUDs now.”

She tapped a few keys. A moment later, the digital panels on their right forearms chimed and then the coordinates loaded into their helmets’ displays. The team left the parking lot and entered the grounds. Once they were several yards out, they split up. Jack and Calloway stayed upwind of the dragon’s nest and settled above the entrance to the burrow, which had an outcropping of a few feet. Calloway prepared the net launcher while Jack switched his HUD to X-ray so he could examine the tunneling that the crystal dragon had completed so far. The burrow went into the hill horizontally for about ten feet, then expanded down twenty feet into the earth. They weren’t directly above it, so the dragon hadn’t noticed anything yet. Often, the element surprise was the best way to capture a dragon safely, after all.

“Alright, crew, the early reports appear to be accurate,” Jack said quietly as he knelt beside Calloway. “It looks to be about nine feet long from snout to tail. It’s not as dense as, say, a Hercules dragon, so it’s probably very agile. If we don’t get it with the first shot of the net launcher, I’ll try and keep it from going back into the burrow while Kam and Libby intercept. Ready, little bit?”

“Ready,” Libby said.

“Hit it.”

Kitty Kallen’s “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” began to play from a small speaker built into the drone.

Jack held his breath as the shuffling dirt inside the burrow stilled. Then, a moment later, the crystal dragon emerged.

It was a long, slender creature with sharp spines down its back and a few horns along either side of its jaws. Its unique scales gleamed under the sunlight, nearly transparent, and colors of the rainbow reflected off of them. Its eyes were pale blue and its claws were blacked and hooked much like a bird of prey with webbed skin in between each one for digging. Its wings were tucked against its back as it walked outside of its den and focused its gaze on the drone hovering twenty feet overhead.

The dragon cocked its head as it listened to the song, which was part of the Knight Division’s strategies for catching dragons. They had discovered that there was an underlying tone embedded in the song that could sooth certain wild dragons. It appeared curious, its tail lashing back and forth in the rust-colored dirt as it observed the device.

After thirty seconds, Kamala emerged from the forest and approached the dragon slowly, her tone friendly as she held out a hand. “Hello there.”

The dragon shifted its body weight, its nostrils flaring as it drew in her scent. Kamala continued forward until she stood within arms’ length of the reptile, allowing it to smell her. It gave her an uncertain look as her gloved fingertips grazed its snout.

“That’s it,” she cooed as she gently stroked between its brow. “I’m not going to hurt you. It’s alright.”

“The dragon whisperer,” Calloway murmured to Jack. “Never ceases to amaze me.”

“Right?”

Just then, Shannon spoke over the comm-link. “Shit. We’ve got incoming.”

“What is it?” Kamala asked.

“Someone must’ve seen Libby’s drone,” Shannon said. “We’ve got a second one that just appeared out of the tree line to your ten o’clock.”

“I thought the park rangers cleared this place,” Jack said as he adjusted the helmet’s field of view to zoom in on the second drone. It was larger than Libby’s and had a camera on front, likely recording the capture for whomever was controlling it.

“They did, but sometimes these little punks skirt the rules by parking outside of the area and then send their drones in so they can sell the footage. I’m concerned shooting it out of the air is gonna spook the dragon. Calloway, do you have a clear shot?”

Calloway lined up the sights on the net launcher. “If Kam steps to her right, I should.”

“Alright, we’ll try to do this simultaneously. On three.”

“Got it.”

“One…two…thr—”

The second drone’s top compartment burst open with a tiny explosion of brightly-colored confetti and the strobe lights on its hull began flashing.

The crystal dragon roared and leapt into the air after it.

“Dammit!” Calloway pulled the trigger on the net launcher. The net shot out from the barrel and expanded in the air, but missed the dragon by a scarce inch.

“Jack!” Kamala called out as she raced uphill towards him. “Spring board!”

“On it!” Jack cupped his hands together and dug in his heels as she ran towards him, then jumped. She landed with her feet in his grip and he then launched her up. She spun backwards, twisted her body, and then landed on the dragon’s back in mid-air. The dragon screeched and went into a spin, trying to get her off. Kamala planted her feet on its hindquarters and held on for dear life, dragging herself up so she’d be straddling it as one would a horse.

“Madarchod!” Kamala exclaimed. “I did not think this through!”

She wrapped both arms around the dragon’s neck and pulled its head back towards the ground, which was quickly getting farther below them.

“We’ve got you, girl!” Libby hurried over to Jack and Calloway, who were quickly unraveling the diamond wire net and spreading it out. Kamala craned her neck to look at the dragon’s wings as they flapped up and down trying to keep the two of them aloft, then placed her feet onto its shoulder appendages and pressed hard. The dragon’s wings then extended outward into a glide and its body pitched towards the ground.

“Incoming!” Kamala waited until they were just a couple of feet from the net and then launched herself from the dragon’s back. The crystal dragon landed in the center of the net as she rolled across the dirt and skidded to a halt in a crouch. Jack, Calloway, and Libby twisted the net around the creature so its limbs and wings were pinned to its sides, then lowered it to the ground carefully. The dragon wriggled, but ultimately stilled when it realized it couldn’t move.

“Jesus, Kam,” Jack said with a sigh. “They ought to have you as a guest acrobat on Cirque du Soleil.”

“Not my smartest moment, I admit, but at least it worked.”

Jack snorted. “Now you sound like me.”

“Yes, recklessness is usually your department, isn’t it?” she teased as she grabbed one corner of the tangled net and helped lift the struggling reptile between the four of them.

“Hey! You’re not wrong, but hey.”

“I’d thank you to leave it to him next time,” Agent Shannon said as he descended the hill. “My blood pressure’s high enough as it is.”

Then, without even blinking, he pulled out his gun and shot the second drone out of the air. It exploded into a shower of sparks and metal scraps as it tumbled to the ground. “Now let’s get this show on the road.”

The video stopped playing.

–

Release date: July 22nd, 2023

Pre-order now for only .99 cents on Amazon and all major retailers. The price will go up July 23rd. Don’t forget it to add it to your Goodreads TBR shelf as well. Excerpt 2 is here for your viewing pleasure as well.

Of Claws and Inferno – Excerpt #3

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : April 4, 2022

Category: Author Events

Tags:blog post, book giveaway, dragon eggs, dragon hunting, dragons, excerpt, exclusive preview, fiction, Kamala Anjali, kyoko m, libby calloway, of cinder and bone, of cinder and bone series, of claws and inferno, Rhett Jackson, smuggling

Book Five in the Of Cinder and Bone series, Of Claws and Inferno, launches April 22nd! Here is the final excerpt for your reading enjoyment. As always, spoilers ahead. Smaller warning for a bit of language. You can catch up on Excerpt 1 and 2 before jumping in for Excerpt 3.

Don’t forget that the special pre-order price of .99 cents will only last until launch day. The price WILL increase on April 23rd. Happy reading!

–

A common element in dragon smuggling was the use of privately owned pet stores or exotic pet shops. The transportation would use the company’s logo or even one of their actual vehicles to move the animals across state lines without drawing too much suspicion and to be able to operate in daylight hours. Often, the smugglers paid the shop owners to use their stores to keep the dragons temporarily so they could either go to a dragon fighting ring, be sold to a private owner, or be sent to an illegal cloning site. Given how many shops there were in every city, it made it virtually impossible for the authorities to be able to monitor them all for illegal activity. Tips usually came from a neighbor or bystander who happened to see or hear something unusual, occasionally an employee of the shop who knew something fishy was going on.

This particular tip came from an anonymous source who likely had been cut out of the deal, as they hadn’t identified themselves—just given the Knight Division the location and the possible time of the exchange. They often hit dead ends or were given useless information, but each case had to be investigated. The location was The Wild Ones: an exotic pet shop that sat by itself in a parking lot off of Loop 101. It presented a challenge since it would be easy for someone to see them coming due to the long stretch of road approaching the property.

Which was where having a dragon came in handy.

“Where are you, little bit?” Jack asked over the comm-link.

“Turning onto the exit now. How’s it looking?”

“Parking lot’s empty,” he said as he zoomed in on the property from the tree line on the outskirts, roughly thirty yards from the building. The Wild Ones was one of the largest pet shops in the state with dozens of birds, reptiles, and other animals. The building was the size of an average supermarket. Jack and Hawn had hitched a ride halfway there with Libby in the Knight Division’s decked-out van, then had flown the rest of the way to remain covert. There was bound to be a lookout and so they’d been at a high altitude, then dropped into the woods to stay out of sight. “The tip said they should be here in the next few minutes, assuming it’s legitimate.”

“I love trusting the word of potential criminals.”

“Hey, at least you’re not a detective. They have to do that twenty-four seven.”

“If I’m gonna risk my life for a living, I’d rather get paid better than that.”

“I feel you on that front.” Hawn bumped his side with her head. Jack reached out and petted the dragon’s neck. “Patience, girlie. Shouldn’t be long now.”

Sure enough, a mid-sized cargo van turned into the parking lot and drove past the side of the building to the rear. “Looks like we’re on.”

“Ten-four. I’m about to go past and head for the field half a mile up. Be careful, Barry.”

“Roger that.”

Jack and Hawn stealthily slipped through the woods until they could see the back of the building. There was a loading dock to the left side and a large pull-down garage door. The rear entrance to the shop was towards the right. The cargo van backed into the loading dock space, but the engine remained idle. Jack switched the heads-up display to thermal readings. “I see two people in the cab and the crate of eggs in the rear.”

“Is the igneous dragon with him?”

Jack muttered a curse as he scanned. “Yep. Looks like it’s caged up in the back watching over the eggs.”

“Dammit. I’ll hail Shannon and let him know. Stand by.”

“Ten-four.” He heard the link click and hit record on the feed in his helmet. The cab doors opened and Farhad stepped out onto the pavement. Jack winced as he noted the guy had bulked up quite a lot since the photo he’d seen. He wore an off-white linen shirt, unbuttoned, over a sleeveless tank and khakis. Jack also spotted a handgun on a holster beneath Farhad’s left arm. He definitely didn’t want to tangle with this guy if he could help it.

The driver hopped up onto the waist-high wall of the loading dock, finally giving Jack a look. She was olive-skinned as well, her black hair sporting an undercut. She wore a black t-shirt and matching jeans and boots. Jack noted a gun on her hip as well. She’d left the van idling with the keys in the ignition, which implied it would be a short visit.

The rear entrance to the store opened and a stocky, short-haired brunette woman in a white golf shirt and cargo shorts emerged. They’d done a quick check on the store before arriving, so he knew she was the store owner, Bethany Hrapski. A large, sun-tanned man with sandy hair flanked her wearing the same outfit; her husband, Jeremy Hrapski. Neither appeared to be armed, which led him to believe they probably weren’t career criminals. It was likely they’d been contacted and given an offer for some extra cash to smuggle dragon eggs. It was less risk than smuggling young or fully grown dragons. Neither had a criminal record based on what the Knight Division had pulled from their backgrounds. Until now.

Jack wasn’t close enough to be able to get audio, so he zoomed in enough to read their lips. The general gist of the conversation was confirming the cargo and the amount of money the shop owners would be paid. The eggs would be kept there in secret to be auctioned off later that evening to a group of buyers. There were twelve eggs total: three Hercules dragons, six Australian desert dragons, and three crystal dragons.

“I’m back,” Libby said over the comm-link. “Instructions are to neutralize the igneous dragon and then the cops will move in.”

“Oh, good,” Jack said, rolling his eyes. “An easy job at last.”

“I know,” Libby replied, irritation clear in her voice. “We’re still getting quite a bit of resentment from the cops due to the nature of our work, so they assume we can handle this on our own.”

“Well, I’ve only met four cops in my entire life that I ever liked, so the feeling’s mutual.”

“That’s four more than me, so no judgment here. What do you think?”

“Best bet would be to create a distraction and steal the cargo van. That way, Farhad can’t spring the igneous dragon to wreak havoc and the cops can raid the joint and take everyone into custody. Do we have air support?”

“Yeah, they’re just waiting on the signal.”

“Good. If anyone tries to hoof it, the helicopter should be able to track them. I’ll puncture the tires on the Hrapskis’ car first and then go for the cargo van. Still, it’s four against one. The Hrapskis don’t appear to be armed, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have firearms in the shop. I need you and Jayna to head over to back me up in case this goes sideways.”

“Alright, we’re on our way. Let me know when you’re ready.”

“Ten-four.” Jack patted Hawn’s side to get the dragon’s attention. “Stay. I’ll whistle if I need you.”

The dragon sunk into the dirt in sphinx position at the command. Jack almost smiled. It never ceased to amaze him how intelligent the dragons were. If the world weren’t so aggressively awful, some of them could certainly be domesticated.

The Hrapskis had a silver Nissan minivan parked one space down from where the cargo van had parked in front of the loading dock. Jack slunk through the woods until he was at an angle obscured by both vehicles and waited until Jeremy lifted the garage door and the group began to unload the dragon eggs from the back.

“Moving in now.”

“Gotcha. Be there in five. I’ll perch on the roof.”

Jack eased across the lot and took out his pocketknife before crawling beneath the van and strategically poking holes in each tire. He then rolled under the cargo van and wriggled towards the rear on his belly. He waited for them to finish unloading the dragon eggs until they were all standing on the docking platform and then slipped a flashbang from his utility belt.

He took a deep breath and pulled the pin. “Here goes nothing.”

Jack popped up enough to toss it at their feet and then ducked underneath the cargo van.

The flashbang detonated. An explosion of light illuminated the surrounding area and he heard the group yelp in pain and alarm.

Jack scrambled for the front of the cargo van and wrenched the driver’s side door open. He jumped inside and locked the doors. He checked the back to see a wire net between the cab and the rear where the cargo went. The igneous dragon had screeched when the flashbang went off, as the back doors were both open. It stood at around the same height and weight as Hawn with dark grey scales and white spines down its back, its white wings tucked into its sides as it shook about in its metal cage.

He shifted gears and slammed the gas pedal just as he heard Farhad and the others shouting angrily about being ambushed. The van lurched forward clumsily over the hot, cracked pavement of the lot, jostling both Jack and the dragon violently back and forth as he headed for the side of the building. Gunshots barked a second later. He could hear some of the bullets pinging off the side of the van’s exterior and ducked his head down.

“Libs, did I get them all with the flashbang?”

“The Hrapskis are down, but Farhad and his driver aren’t,” Libby said. “I’m gonna give you some cover, hang on.”

Jack swerved the van in evasive actions as the shots kept coming. He had several yards before he’d be out of sight, but if they’d taken off running after him, they could still hit him or the tires before he cleared the lot back onto the street. He checked his rearview mirror to see a cloud of tear gas explode on the platform, swallowing the driver and the two shop owners in a haze.

Farhad had already leapt off of it and was sprinting after them with an eerie, Terminator-like precision. He took shots every few feet, tearing holes in the wildly swinging doors and along the bumper.

“Dude’s pretty spry for an old guy,” Jack said as he finally swerved around the corner to the left side of the building. “Can you take him out, little bit?”

“I’m on it.”

A second later, a pair of bolas whipped around Farhad’s knees and he smashed into the pavement face-first.

“Oh!” Jack exclaimed. “Shit, that’s a broken nose alright.”

“Crime don’t pay,” Libby cackled.

“It damn sure doesn’t. I’m almost to the street. You can call in the cavalry and get clear.”

“Happily.”

Just as Jack reached the street, he noticed Farhad moving from where he’d faceplanted on the pavement. He’d rolled over and held something out in Jack’s direction. Jack couldn’t see what it was from so far away. “The hell?”

Then, the door to the igneous dragon’s cage swung open.

The cage door was remote-control activated.

“Fuck. Me.”

–

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Of Claws and Inferno – Excerpt #2

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : March 4, 2022

Category: Author Events, Book & Movie Reviews

Tags:blog post, contract killers, dragons, excerpt, faye worthington, fiction, hitman, kyoko m, of cinder and bone, of cinder and bone series, of claws and inferno, stella, winston

We’re coming up on the release date for the fifth novel in the Of Cinder and Bone series, Of Claws and Inferno, so here’s your second excerpt! Spoiler alert, as always. Read the first excerpt here if you’re not caught up yet.

CHAPTER FIVE

ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES

The abyss gazed back.

That was what Faye Worthington, MIT engineer and designer of the Knight Division’s dragon tracker technology, had learned over the last year.

“Hold your arms out, please.”

Faye spread her arms and legs. The guard swept her from head to toe with the metal detector, then gave her a pat down. She smirked when he returned in front of her, fluffing out her natural blonde locks around her shoulders. “Wow. You didn’t cop a feel. I’m proud of you.”

The guard gave her a stony look. She smiled wider, batting her lashes. “You have ten minutes, Ms. Worthington. Don’t make him late for his appointment.”

“Of course. Then I’d be late, since we have the same appointment.”

She heard a loud buzzing noise and then the iron gates unlocked in front of her. The guard pulled them open and she walked through them, her stride easy, relaxed, despite how she actually felt inside. Her stomach wouldn’t stop doing jumping jacks. She hadn’t been able to eat anything as a result. It annoyed her to no end.

Another guard opened a second door for her into the visitation area of the Cedar Junction Massachusetts Correctional Institution. Her heart thumped clumsily against her sternum as she walked through the maze of tables to the one designated for her and the room’s only occupant.

The man sitting at the table was of indeterminant age. His features were plain and ordinary as could be but for his dark brown eyes. Somehow or other, the fluorescent lights didn’t seem to reach them, as if they were perpetually in darkness, like twin black holes set in his brow. His head was completely shaved bald and beneath his dark red jumpsuit was a compact, muscular frame.

“Well, well, well,” Winston, hitman extraordinaire, drawled, his mouth stretching into a pointy grin. “Look what the cat dragged in.”

Faye snorted as she pulled the chair out from the table and sat down. “Excuse you. I’m wearing Prada. Nobody dragged me anywhere.”

Winston chuckled as he glanced over her exquisite red dress. “Acknowledged. I’m flattered you dressed up for me.”

Faye rolled her eyes. “You wish, bastard. Do you know how many members of the press are showing up to this farce? I have to keep up appearances. Besides, pretty sure having a nice rack will positively influence the media to give me sympathy points.”

“You’re being downright tactical about it, huh?”

Faye shrugged. “Can’t hurt my chances.”

“Chances, heh. Even without me talking, it’s pretty open and shut. I ain’t a rich politician. I was never getting off for this shit, even if I had gone with a fancy lawyer.”

Faye crossed her arms, her blue-grey eyes fixed intently on him. “And why didn’t you? We both know you’ve got the means to make it happen.”

Winston rubbed his scalp, his handcuffs jingling. “Why bother wasting the money?”

“Aren’t you up against the death penalty because you wouldn’t talk?”

Winston shrugged. “Lived a good life. If they wanna kill me, they can go ahead. Wouldn’t do what I do for a living if I were afraid of death.”

Faye’s eyes narrowed. “You said do, not did.”

Winston smiled. “Did I?”

“Uh-huh. You’re up to something.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You offered to meet with me before we go to the sentencing. Why?”

Winston touched his chest, pretending to be offended. “Blondie, I’m hurt. Are you saying you didn’t want to say goodbye? After all, this concludes our little cat-and-mouse game. They’re not going to let us have another private chat after this point. Especially not if I get the needle.”

“Let’s just say I’m skeptical that you don’t have some scheme to break yourself out of prison waiting in the wings.”

The grin returned. “You really think I’m capable of it?”

“I am more than sure you are. As much as I’d like to believe that I won our game, I’m not convinced. You let me win. I take issue with that.” The pretend amiability left her expression. Steel replaced it. “I’m not a child, Winston. You said you wanted a worthy opponent. You said you wouldn’t mind a beautiful Valkyrie like me putting you in the ground. So tell me what’s really going on here? Why didn’t you try to break out of prison to come after me?”

Winston clucked his tongue. “Too easy. That mystery you’ll have to figure out on your own. You’re smart. I’m sure you’ll get there soon enough.”

Faye shot him a sour look. “So then you brought me in here just to screw with me?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then what? Do you expect me to humanize you and ask twenty questions like the Iceman Chronicles or something?”

Winston flashed his teeth. “You know goddamn well I ain’t human, blondie.”

“Ain’t that the truth?” She sat back in her seat and scrutinized him. “Fine. If I’m not here for you, then I have to figure I’m here for Stella.”

“Winner, winner, chicken dinner.”

“What’s there to say? She’s in hot water, same as you, only worse because she shot Deputy Burns in the leg in front of the whole precinct. A lot of cops got hurt during that raid on her safe house, too. She did opt for the fancy lawyer, but we both know she’s not getting out of this either.”

“You’re assuming I brought you here to tell you something and not the other way around.”

Faye blinked in surprise. “What the hell does that mean?”

“I want to know if she’s sent anyone after you since she’s been in slam.”

“Oh. That. Yeah, she has.”

Winston scowled. “Tell me.”

Faye ran a hand through her hair. “Let’s see. There was the suspicious package delivered to our front door. We had to evacuate and call in the bomb squad, but it turned out to be a false alarm. All that was inside the box was an hourglass and a note that said, ‘You’re living on borrowed time.’ Technically speaking, it could’ve come from one of Jack and Kam’s enemies, but I wouldn’t put it past Stella. A week after that, I was walking to my car and Jack called me. Apparently, that shorted out the nice little car bomb someone attached to my Honda Civic and set it off early.”

“Jesus Christ,” Winston swore.

“Yeah, she’s a real piece of work, your ex-wife. When the bomb didn’t work, she sent McKenzie.”

Winston sucked his teeth. “Oh, that punk.”

“Yeah. He was hiding behind a dumpster when I got out of my evening hair appointment. Tried to strangle me in the parking garage.”

He snorted. “How did that go for him?”

Faye smiled. “Three broken ribs and a gunshot to the right foot.”

Winston whistled. “Atta girl.”

“And then there was Silicon Valley.”

Winston frowned. “What happened in Silicon Valley?”

“Sniper. I was leaving a conference center after a lecture about the dragon trackers. I sneezed right when he pulled the trigger, which made him miss. The bullet hit the trunk of the Uber I’d been about to get in. Total dumb luck. I took cover before he could try for another shot.”

“Did they catch the culprit?”

Faye shook her head. “Unfortunately, they think he was perched on top of a hotel. Once he blew the shot, he probably just went back inside to his room and waited it out. No one remembers seeing anything and the hotel’s old school, no cameras on the rooftop or in the hallways.”

“And when did that happen?”

“Six months ago.”

“Nothing since?”

“No.”

Winston’s frown deepened. “Don’t you think that’s suspicious?”

“I don’t think anything. I know it is. Stella’s sentencing is this Friday. Dollars to donuts, that’s when she makes her final play.”

“And just what are you going to do about it?”

“I’ve survived her twice already. Third time’s the charm. I’ve been in martial arts and sharpshooting classes since last April and I’m licensed to carry. If she’s stupid enough to try anything, then she won’t have to worry about a needle.”

Winston nodded. “Good girl. Death penalty’s up in the air for me, but the stuff they managed to unearth about Stella almost guarantees the death penalty, especially with her accepting the contract on Dr. Anjali while she was pregnant. Juries and judges aren’t supposed to be influenced by things like that, but in truth, they are. You try to kill a kid or a baby under their watch and you’re done. That’s why I never went after anyone younger than twenty-one, no matter what the price tag was. Stella doesn’t have my scruples. Predators are most dangerous when they’re cornered. This is the endgame, blondie. You’d better be ready.”

“I will be,” Faye whispered. “And this time, you won’t be there to stop me from pulling the trigger.”

“I’ve had time to think about that. And I realized this whole time you’ve been toeing that line between vengeance and justice. To some degree, I’d hoped you’d be able to keep your hands clean. Protect without becoming a killer, like me. But life doesn’t work that way. That first kill changes you.”

Faye tilted her head slightly. “When was your first kill?”

Winston met her stare for a long while, then exhaled. “I was nineteen, fighting a war I probably shouldn’t have been fighting, but it’s not like I knew that at the time.”

“Mm. Did you regret it?”

Winston grinned, but she could see the dark edges to it. “What? You think I come from some tragic backstory, blondie? That I’m a broken little boy who kills to fill that hole inside of my chest where my soul used to be? Nah. This ain’t one of them stories. I can’t dance or roll my tongue, but I can kill people pretty good. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been good at and when I lay my head down at night, I sleep like a baby. I don’t see their faces. Never have. Probably never will.”

A chill spilled through her. The matter-of-fact nature of his confession scared her more than almost anything else she’d ever heard him say.

Faye licked her lips. “They told me no one’s been able to ID you. You don’t have any family? Friends?”

“Do you think I’d tell you even if I did?”

Faye snorted. “Yeah, guess that was a stupid question. I’m going out on a limb here and guessing you left home to join the military, then faked your own death, changed your face and name, and came back a new man. That’s why no one’s recognized you even after your trial went viral. The last time they’d have seen you, you’d have been a teenager. Doesn’t matter if your family’s still alive; they’d have no way of recognizing you. The tip line turned up bupkiss, given your reputation. No one in your assassin’s guild is gonna give you up either since they know it’s a death sentence if they do. If you’ve taken any government contracts, they’re not gonna talk either to avoid implicating themselves. Given the circles you’ve traveled in, why are you still alive, Winston?”

“‘Cause I didn’t talk and I didn’t cut a deal,” he grunted. “If I’d have done either, oh, yeah, trust me, I’d be worm food right now. Great thing about having a reputation for going on a few decades is that if other killers and their handlers know you don’t talk, then there’s no need to waste resources trying to shut you up.”

Faye narrowed her eyes. “So you’re telling me no one’s tried anything with you since you’ve been caught?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Let me guess: the mob guys in Boston that you pissed off when you killed that driver?”

“Bingo. But their guys are sloppy. Too used to using brute force. They’re pretty easy to stop, comparatively speaking.”

Faye jumped slightly as she heard the guard knock on the door to give her a warning that her visitation had ended.

Winston smiled. “Time’s up, blondie. Gotta say, it was fun while it lasted. You’re something else. Watch your back.”

Faye smiled in return. “You’re a monster. You deserve to rot in a jail cell and I’m glad that I’m the one who put you in it. Just like I said I would.”

“Yeah,” he said, his eyes glittering with strange and troublesome things. “Just like you said you would.”

Faye stood and pushed in her seat before dusting off her gorgeous dress. “Goodbye, Frank.”

“Goodbye, blondie.”

She left without looking back.

–

Find out the conclusion to the cat and mouse game between Faye, Winston, and Stella in Of Claws and Inferno.

Release date: April 22nd, 2022

Pre-order available on Amazon and all other platforms for only .99 cents. Get it before April 22nd. The price will increase on April 23rd. Don’t forget to also add it to your Goodreads To Be Read shelf.

You can also sign up between now and April 22nd for the ARC program. Get a free copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review by signing up here.

See you guys back here in a month for the third and final excerpt!

Of Claws and Inferno – Excerpt #1

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : February 4, 2022

Category: Author Events

Tags:blog post, book giveaway, dragons, excerpt, excerpts, fantasy, faye worthington, fiction, Kamala Anjali, kyoko m, new release, of cinder and bone series, of claws and inferno, Rhett Jackson, sneak peek

It’s time for our first look at the fifth book in the Of Cinder and Bone series, Of Claws and Inferno! Below the synopsis is a sneak peek at the action. Enjoy!

In a modern day world teeming with marauding dragons, there is only one solution: The Wild Hunt.

Dr. Rhett “Jack” Jackson and Dr. Kamala Anjali have worked for the Knight Division capturing wild dragons for years, but now the government has decided to hold a tournament called The Wild Hunt. Jack, Kamala, and their teammates Calloway, Libby, Agent Shannon, and Yousef, must capture five of the deadliest dragons alive before the opposing team or they lose their jobs at the Knight Division. Jack and Kamala are also chasing after Kazuma Okegawa, the yakuza lieutenant who has been trying to kill them. Okegawa is planning a hostile takeover of the worldwide illegal dragon trade and if he succeeds, everyone will be in grave danger. Between the Wild Hunt and Okegawa’s plot to destroy everything in his path, Jack and Kamala have to rely on each other to stay alive in the middle of an inferno.

Of Claws and Inferno is the fifth book in the Of Cinder and Bone science fiction/contemporary fantasy series. It follows Of Cinder and Bone, Of Blood and Ashes, Of Dawn and Embers, and Of Fury and Fangs.

–

CHAPTER ONE

THE MAD HARVESTERS

The abyss gazed back.

That was what Dr. Rhett “Jack” Jackson, MIT scientist and Knight Division dragon hunter, had learned over the last year.

Jack wiped the sweat from his brow, brushing his dark brown hair away from his sticky forehead, and then concentrated on the high-powered binoculars in his hands again. He winced as a bit of reflection off the water seared his retinas for a brief moment and then did another careful sweep of the area before him. Nothing yet.

He sat back on his haunches and popped open his canteen of cold water, the ice cubes inside it rattling around as he took a sip. He set it down beside him and then checked the digital screen built into the forearm of his gunmetal grey armored suit. The screen showed him numerous dots indicating the massive flock of flamingos several yards away, feasting on the spirulina algae that made Lake Natron its unique reddish-orange color. He adjusted the dragon tracker to expand the area and studied it. Still no sign of their mystery guest who had been gobbling up flamingo eggs and leaving behind torn up bird corpses as of the last two weeks. However, the lake’s natives had been kind enough to give him detailed information about the sightings of the unidentified dragon interfering with the local ecosystem. They’d said it usually fed around this time, so he just needed to be patient. Which, unfortunately, wasn’t exactly Jack’s strong suit, but the more retrieval missions he went on, the more he learned to be patient.

Besides, he had a two-year-old daughter back home. Parenting a two-year-old meant he’d had to acquire oodles of patience lately.

“How’s it coming, boss?” a male voice said through the link in his ear.

“Somehow both boring and weird?” Jack said. “I’m not sure how that works.”

“Life’s funnier that way,” Yousef al-Badri mused. “I take it our party guest is being shy, then?”

“I can’t imagine he or she can smell me, not with what’s going on in the lake. Maybe they just want me to get a tan.”

“You are pretty pale sometimes, cowboy.”

Jack pretended to scowl and deepened his voice into indignation. “That’s racist.”

Yousef laughed. “My bad. I need work sensitivity training.”

“Clearly.” Jack’s forearm beeped. “Oh, wait a sec. We might be on.”

He picked up the binoculars again and focused on the muddy bank roughly forty yards out where he spotted several nests clustered together. A few of the pink birds had nestled on top to nap in the afternoon sun, but some had been left bare as the flamingoes had gone into the caustic waters to feed. The beeping had indicated that the dragon tracker picked up on a reading consistent with a dragon. He swept the area twice and didn’t confirm a visual, frowning as he glanced down at the screen again to see a blob quite a bit larger than the dots that represented the flamingos. “I don’t know if I should have Faye take a look at my equipment or if I’m going blind. No visual, but I’m getting a reading on the tracker.”

“You sure the sun hasn’t cooked your brains?”

“Not yet, I don’t think.” Jack rubbed his sinuses, then his eyes, and checked the area again.

And this time, he spotted something unusual.

Lake Natron resided in northern Tanzania near an active volcano known as Ol Doinyo Lengai. It was part of the reason the lake had such unique characteristics. The mud had a curious dark grey color over where he’d been set up for observation, and he noted that there was now an odd-looking mound of it to the right of one of the flamingo’s nests. He zoomed in further and further, peering at it, and then realized what he was actually seeing.

The dragon had crouched down beside the nests and blended into the mud. From snout to tail, Jack calculated it had to be twelve to fourteen feet long. Its wings were folded against its back, which had small spines running down the length to a spiky tail. It had a fin with three prongs along the base of the skull and webbed feet tipped with sharp black talons. He estimated the dragon was about the size of a large hyena. It peered up at its prey with beady red eyes, its black forked tongue darting out every few seconds. Its shoulder muscles bunched and its hind legs tensed.

Then it pounced.

The dark grey dragon leapt onto one of flamingoes atop its nest and seized it by the throat. The bird squawked in distress and immediately beat its wings, trying to free itself. The others around them took to the skies in panic. The dragon slammed it into the mud and closed its jaws around the animal’s throat, blood spilling everywhere. The flamingo yelped out its last breaths and then finally stilled. The dragon dropped the limp carcass and sniffed the eggs before beginning to swallow them whole one at a time.

“Holy shit,” Jack muttered.

“Have we got a visual?”

“Oh, yeah. Based on the size, the natives and the conservationists were right to be concerned. It can probably wipe out a serious number of wildlife in a short amount of time based on what I’m seeing. There’s only a handful of fauna that can survive in these conditions and it could make mincemeat out of them.”

“Alright, so what’s the plan?”

“They told me it’s very agile, which is why their attempts to capture it haven’t worked. I’m going to see if it responds to any of the usual stimuli. So far, they said it doesn’t appear to be aggressive.”

“Copy that. Be careful, cowboy.”

“Ten-four.” Jack glanced down at his utility belt and opened the pocket on his left side, withdrawing a thin silver whistle. He put it to his lips and blew for several seconds. Much like a dog whistle, Jack couldn’t hear anything.

But the dragon’s head creaked around and those beady red eyes locked onto him.

Jack lowered the whistle and licked his dry lips. “If I were in a movie, this would be the part where I said, ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this.’”

The dragon roared, its grey wings extending out from its body, and then flew straight at him.

“Shit!” Jack leapt to his feet and slid down the muddy hill in a hurry. At the bottom of the hill, there was a miniature camp with his supplies and weaponry awaiting him. He scooped up the net launcher—an over-the-shoulder device similar in size and build to a grenade launcher—and then his helmet. He slapped on the helmet and hailed Yousef as he sprinted towards the shallow outskirts of the lake. “We’re on, Yousef! Fire up the engines!”

“I’m on it, cowboy.”

As he ran, a shadow swept across his 6’2’’ form. Jack ducked and the dragon flew over his head, missing with its sharp talons by mere inches. The dragon wheeled around in mid-air and swiped at him again. Jack threw himself into a roll. The dragon missed a second time. Jack knelt in the shallow, muddy water and peered through the net launcher’s scope, sighting down the barrel for a shot. “Non-aggressive, my ass.”

He fired. The diamond wire net shot from out of the barrel end and opened as it flew through the air towards the dragon. It flapped its wings once, hard, and the net missed it by a few inches. Jack cursed under his breath and slid it around on its strap to his back as the dragon dove at him again. He waited until the last possible second, then rolled to one side. The dragon hadn’t compensated for flying that low and lost its trajectory. It splashed into the shallow, salty waters and rolled a few feet away, hissing in annoyance. The reptile struggled onto its feet and faced him again, shaking the water off its scales as it crept forward.

“Alright, so we know you don’t like the whistle,” Jack said, keeping an eye on the agitated dragon as he hit a few things on his armor’s display. “Let’s see if maybe we need to change the tunes.”

Once more, the dragon’s muscular shoulders bunched in attack position and its hind legs tensed to propel it forward at him.

Until Kitty Kallen’s soothing voice filled the air.

The dragon’s hissing lowered in volume. Instead of pouncing, it remained in the same spot of shallow water, now focused on the sound of “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” playing from the speakers in Jack’s forearm. To the average person, it wouldn’t sound like anything more than a great song from 1945. However, to a dragon, there were subtle notes that the Knight Division had picked up that seemed to sooth the powerful creatures into a far less aggressive state.

“That’s it,” Jack said. “I’m not here to hurt you. Take it easy.”

As the song continued playing, Jack eased closer to the creature. It eyed him, snorting uneasily, but remained standing still. He cautiously held out a hand and the dragon barked at him, displeased. He rethought the gesture and instead checked the water where they stood, which was up to his ankles. He spotted one of the only fish who could survive in Lake Natron’s waters—the alkaline tilapia—and managed to snatch one up. He held the wriggling fish out to the dragon. It continued watching him warily, but snapped up the fish when he offered it. The dragon swallowed the fish whole.

Jack held his hands out in supplication. “We good?”

The dragon continued eying him.

Then it tackled him right off his feet.

Jack landed in the shallow water with a pained groan, winded, his shoulders pinned by the dragon’s legs. “I guess that was a stupid question, wasn’t it?”

He unholstered his tranquilizer gun, but to his surprise, the dragon didn’t try to bite or scratch him. Rather, it peered down at his helmet as if simply curious, the tip of its tongue lightly touching the visor. Jack decided to follow his instincts and kept perfectly still beneath the reptile. After a moment, the dragon folded its wings, indicating a change in mood from aggression to docility.

“Talk to me, Jack,” Yousef said.

“I think we’ve reached an understanding,” he said, though strained. “The frequency seems to be working. I’m up close and personal. Looks to be a female, so we need to sweep the area for a nest in case she’s already migrated and laid hers.”

“Got it. Do you have a clear shot?”

“Not sure. Scales appear to be incredibly thick. I’ll try to find a soft spot.”

“Alright, I’m inbound for pick up. Be careful.”

Jack cleared his throat. “No offense, madam, but I’ve got two girlfriends who are very jealous women. You wanna get off the goods now?”

He reached up to push the dragon off of him, but it hissed and shoved down on his shoulders again to keep him flat. The salt deposits in the water dug into his back painfully. He could hear the distant sound of the rotors on Yousef’s helicopter as it approached. In general, dragons didn’t like any flying vehicles. He didn’t want to scare her off, so he’d have to gamble on what he knew about dragons around her size.

Jack drew his penlight from another pocket of the utility belt and set it to strobe. The dragon focused on the flashing light and sniffed at it curiously. Carefully, Jack angled the barrel of the tranq gun at the creature’s belly, which had white scales from its chest to its hindquarters. He could see spaces in between the scales where its flesh would be and took a deep breath, praying before he pulled the trigger.

The dart hit a spot below the dragon’s sternum. The prick of the needle made the dragon roar and snap at his head. Jack dodged and brought up his right forearm to block the next bite. The dragon worried him like a dog with a bone, trying to chomp through the armor, and he fired a second dart near the first one. The dragon still didn’t drop, so he shoved a foot against its midsection to get from under it. He struggled onto his knees as the dragon’s jaws closed even harder over his arm, trying to keep him from getting loose.

“Okay, now you’re just being a bitch!” Jack rolled and then jerked his arm hard in the opposite direction. His arm yanked free and he reached for the net launcher on his back as the dragon charged him again. He fired just as it reached an arm’s length away. Too late, the dragon tried to launch itself into the air. The net wrapped around its upper torso and pinned its wings to its sides. It flopped into the shallow water with a yelp a scant foot from Jack’s legs.

He heaved a sigh of relief. “Jesus Christ. No wonder you’ve been giving the locals so much trouble, girlie.”

Jack withdrew a nylon band from his belt and carefully straddled the wriggling creature, slipping it onto her jaws once he’d pinned them closed. He tied her hind legs with a tether and then carefully hauled her back onto the muddy banks of the lake just as he spotted Yousef’s helicopter on its way over. As it approached, the dragon’s movements slowed. He checked her pulse and it was steady. Depending on the dragon, the sedatives in the tranquilizer gun didn’t always take effect immediately. He’d have to consult with Libby about the animal’s initial resistance.

Yousef landed the helicopter in the shallow end of the lake. He was a tall, broad-shouldered guy with a bright smile and a goatee, dressed in a Kevlar vest, black t-shirt, and cargo shorts. He helped Jack load the unconscious dragon inside. A cage with shatterproof glass, air holes, and food and water awaited her. They shut her safely inside and then swept the area for signs of a nest. After half an hour’s search, they found her nest away from where the flamingos collected, closer towards the volcano. Like many reptiles, it had buried the eggs most of the way. They were oval-shaped and had a faint greyish tone, about the size of an alligator’s eggs. Jack and Yousef collected them all and put them safely inside a basket to be transported back with their mother.

Once they finished loading them up, they called in the capture to the Knight Division headquarters.

“We’ve got our troublemaker in custody,” Jack said as he snapped photos on his cell phone. “I’m sending over proof as we speak. We’ve got twenty eggs we’re bringing with her too.”

“Good work,” Agent John Shannon’s gravelly voice said without much inflection.

“What, did I catch you before coffee, old man?” Jack snorted. “You sound like that stick up your ass got even bigger while I’ve been gone.”

“You don’t know the half of it, smartass,” Shannon said.

Jack frowned. “Wait, I was just trying to annoy you. What’s up?”

Shannon sighed. “You’ll find out when you get here. I need you back on the first thing smoking. We’ve got trouble.”

Jack and Yousef met eyes, both men worried. “How bad?”

“I’m not a fan of irony, fellas, but the Knight Division might be going extinct.”

TO BE CONTINUED

Excited yet? Of Claws and Inferno is available for pre-order for a special release price of only .99 cents. The price WILL increase to $4.99 on April 23rd, so grab a copy now. Don’t forget to add it to your Goodreads To Be Read shelves as well! You can also enter to win a $10 Amazon gift card.

Of Fury and Fangs Excerpt #3

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : September 24, 2020

Category: Author Events

Tags:blog post, blog tour, bruce calloway, dragon hunting, dragons, excerpt, Kamala Anjali, of cinder and bone series, of fury and fangs, Rhett Jackson, virtual blog tour

We have just one month to go before the fourth novel in the Of Cinder and Bone series, Of Fury and Fangs, hits bookshelves! Here’s the final excerpt. As always, spoilers ahead.

–

Several pounding knocks on the door to her suite awoke Dr. Kamala Anjali from slumber.

The 5’4” scientist groaned into her pillow, but lurched from her bed and shuffled across the carpet to open the door. When she did, she was met with an attractive black man in his thirties. He had a goatee and wore a gun-metal grey Kevlar suit with a helmet tucked under one arm, and he was beaming down at her with excitement.

“We’ve got a live one, doc,” Bruce Calloway told her. “Get dressed.”

Kamala sighed. “Now? I only finished my last analysis four hours ago, Calloway. I’ve just barely gotten any sleep.”

“Oh, I know how to put the pep back in your step.” He leaned in slightly. “It’s a mimic dragon.”

Kamala’s honey-brown eyes widened. “What?”

“Yep. Someone called it in about fifteen minutes ago and dispatch sent word just now.”

“Have any of the hunters caught word of it yet?”

“No. We’re first on the case.”

“I’ll be ready in five,” she promised, and then shut the door. She scurried over to her closet and ripped off her boyfriend’s oversized MIT t-shirt and shimmied out of her shorts in favor of grabbing an armored suit nearly identical to the one Calloway wore. However, hers was much smaller and tailored to fit her curvy frame. She zipped it up and checked that the pouches on her utility belt were all snapped shut before slipping her phone into one, snatching up her helmet, and rushing out the door.

“Where?” she asked Calloway as they hurried down the hallway of the barracks towards the hangar.

“Farm on the city outskirts,” he said, punching in some coordinates in the digital interface built into the forearm of his suit. Kamala’s suit beeped and then she brought up the information he’d transmitted. “Guy went to go check on his herd when he heard an uproar and found the mimic dragon inside munching on a calf. Scared him half to death, so he called it in and holed himself up in the house with a shotgun just in case.”

“Good man,” she said. “I’m glad some of the civilians aren’t trying to go after them on their own. I can’t believe it’s a mimic dragon. They’ve never been seen in North America before.”

“Exactly,” Calloway said as he hit the button for the elevator. “Civvie said that he didn’t want to open fire and cause a stampede, and that after he calmed the cattle, he couldn’t find it again.”

“Incredible,” Kamala said. “Aren’t they the size of a large dog?”

“Or bigger, from what the history books say,” he agreed. “So the chameleon thing must be real. But it begs the question where those clowns even found the DNA to replicate it. Like the arctic dragons, mimics are incredibly rare with less than a hundred ever sighted in the wild before the worldwide extinction.”

“If we get one thing right in this endless mission, I hope we find out just how the Apophis Society is gaining access to those DNA samples,” Kamala growled, watching the numbers on the elevator click up to the launch pad level. “They are insanely well connected. We’ve been keeping tabs on nearly every source of dragon DNA on the planet and yet we’re always one step behind. Did you hear the rumor that some remains of an intact diablo dragon went mysteriously missing?”

“Yeah,” Calloway sighed. “Them’s the breaks. Especially when your evil global organization has access to pretty much all the money you’d ever need to fund your illegal cloning operation. I just pray they haven’t had a successful trial. The diablo dragon’s the second deadliest species on Earth and we’ve already got out work cut out for us.”

The elevators opened onto the roof of an enormous hangar. It was the wee hours, so there was only one helicopter on a designated pad with its console lit up. Spotlights bounced off its polished steel and illuminated the white emblem on the side that depicted a heater shield with the initials K.D. upon it.

Calloway and Kamala climbed inside to find the pilot waiting. He was tall, olive-skinned, and mid-thirties with a thick beard and a winsome smile he aimed at his teammates as they boarded.

Calloway gave him a grin and a fist-bump. “Yousef, my man. Who did they drag you out from under to come fly us out?”

The pilot laughed. “Shit, they offered me time-and-a-half so I told her I’d buy her breakfast when I got back.”

Calloway shook his head. “Incorrigible. Got your coordinates already?”

“Hell yeah. Let’s kick the tires and light the fires, kiddies.”

Calloway and Kamala strapped in while Yousef did the pre-flight check and made sure their gear had already been loaded as well, and then the helicopter took off into the night sky.

“When’s the last time you checked the feed for any hunters in the area?” Kamala asked over the roar of the helicopter rotors.

“About fifteen minutes ago,” Calloway said. “It’s quiet so far, but we both know that doesn’t mean shit since any pissant can give it a go these days.”

“Tell me about it. I will never understand why they endanger themselves for money and the pretense of fame.”

“That’s because you’re a grownup, doc,” Calloway snorted. “Most of these ‘hunters’ are kids. Either adrenaline junkies or rich little Youtubers trying to increase their follower count. Until we get the legislation in place, it’s a damned free-for-all.”

“As if our job isn’t hard enough. You’d think the death toll would dissuade them by now.”

Calloway shrugged a shoulder. “Get rich or die trying. Emphasis on the die part.”

Kamala shook her head. “Every morning, I pray that this world returns to some form of sanity before my daughter is old enough to have to participate in society.”

Calloway gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Who are you kidding, doc? The world was never sane to begin with.”

She gave him a regretful smile in return. “Touché.”

The ride wasn’t terribly long–just under fifteen minutes, and mid-April meant a cool night in the Midwest. They came up on a mid-sized farm with plenty of open acres, its grass and forests already green from the beginning of spring. Yousef found a flat stretch in the field to touch down and they climbed out. Calloway strapped a net launcher across his back and Kamala activated her dragon tracker as they approached the barn.

“Shit,” she muttered as she examined the interface. “The interference with the cattle is pretty bad. It’s throwing off the readings. Plus, they’re almost in a frenzy. We’ve got to get it out of there before they all go berserk.”

“Roger that,” Calloway said as he tugged his helmet on and slid the launcher around to his hands. “What are you thinking?”

“Strobe lights,” she said. “The noise of the cattle is too loud to try an audible distraction, but it’s probably dark in there and it’ll be attracted to light. I’ll be the bait. Just be ready.”

“Yes ma’am.” He offered his fist. She bumped it and then took a deep breath before continuing forward on her own.

The farmer had left the barn’s side door unlocked for them, so Kamala carefully pushed it open to reveal the large space with its dirt floors and iron bars where the cows were corralled daily to be kept at night. By now, she’d gotten used to the stench of the livestock; after all, the smell pervaded the air for miles and she’d gotten a whiff as soon as they left the helicopter.

The cows shifted and mooed in protest with nervous energy, their eyes glowing from the few spotlights in the ceiling. It was almost completely dark inside and the constant shifting of the frightened cattle made it difficult to concentrate, but she managed as she shut the door behind her.

The iron bars that held the animals were securely posted in the ground, but she knew if all the animals panicked at once, they could trample them or bend them out of shape. She walked forward slowly with a small, military-grade flashlight in one hand and her tranquilizer gun in the other. She had hoped the cattle had grouped together in one spot to avoid the predator, but they were scattered throughout the enclosure and seemed just as confused as she was of its whereabouts. The stench of gore and spilled guts reached her and she glanced to her right to see the corpse of the calf the dragon had already devoured. Most of its internal organs were gone, leaving a pool of blood and torn fur behind. She suppressed a shudder and slid into the pen to examine the area.

She checked the claw marks in the dirt and glanced up to see that one of the skylights had been shattered. The dragon had dropped down from above much like an eagle scooping up prey and had killed the calf on the spot. The cattle had run to the other side of the pen to avoid being mauled as well, and currently were bumping into each other to stay away from the fresh kill. She spotted a trail of blood leading away from the corpse and squinted at the cattle. A few of them had scratch marks on their pelts. The dragon had likely gotten spooked by them, or by the farmer when he entered the barn to check on the noise, and would have attacked in self-defense.

Kamala lifted her flashlight to the walls of the barn, going slowly, and checking it against the dragon tracker built into her suit. She didn’t see anything on the ceiling or on the walls. There was a chance it had left the barn again, but her gut told her otherwise. She continued towards the cattle and checked among them for anything unusual, but she didn’t spot the dragon trying to hide among their ranks. With a frustrated sigh, she turned to head back to the door.

Then, her tracker beeped.

There, not three feet from the shredded calf, lay what she had thought was a pile of hay and dirt. The heads-up display in her helmet switched to a different field of vision to reveal that it had been the mimic dragon in camouflage the entire time.

Kamala froze and swallowed hard. “Maa ki aankh.”

And just as she recognized it, the dragon opened one grey eye and stared directly at her.

“Calloway,” she whispered. “I’ve spotted it.”

“Atta girl,” he said over the comm-link. “Are you coming out of the side door or do you think it’s going to make a break for it out of the skylight?”

“Not sure,” she replied. “No scarring. Based on its lack of aggression, it may never have interacted with anyone since it was cloned. We know there are different sites out there, not just the ones planted by the yakuza and the Apophis Society. Did the farmer say it tried to attack him?”

“No. It gave him a warning, but he’s not hurt at all.”

“Then there is a good chance that it will simply be attracted to the light instead of attacking. I’ll try and get it to come out of the side door.”

“Ten-four, doc.”

Kamala muttered a quick protection prayer before she switched the flashlight from a constant beam to a strobe setting.

The mimic dragon opened both eyes, and its scales changed from the dark brown and light-yellow imitating the dirt and hay to a light green with mottled dark green patterns along its back and down its tail. It was roughly the size of a North American wolf, just as she’d suspected; big enough to be dangerous, but not impossible to catch if one had the know-how. The dragon unfurled from a ball and shook out its wings, staring intently at the flashing light. Calf blood dripped from its fangs and dribbled down its mandible as it walked towards Kamala, its nostrils flaring as it took in her scent.

Behind them, the cattle mooed loudly in fright, and the walls of the barn shook as they tried to pack themselves against the far side. Kamala eased out of the pen and took slow steps backwards. The dragon followed her as if hypnotized. “We’re coming out now, Calloway.”

She pushed the door open with her heel and walked through it backwards, her gaze never leaving the creature as it trailed after her. She needed just a few more feet to give Calloway a clear shot and then they’d be home-free.

Just then, a strange buzzing noise sounded overhead.

Frowning, Kamala glanced up to see a drone appear from over top of the barn. “What the hell?”

Before she could move an inch, the drone shot a blast of glow-in-the-dark ink at the mimic dragon. The reptile snarled and shook out its wings, then leapt into the air after it. The drone flitted away into the night sky like a bat out of hell.

“Shit!” Kamala snarled. “Someone else is out here.”

Calloway swore. “It’s probably leading the dragon to whoever owns that damn droid. Come on!”

They booked it through the field after the fleeing drone and the angry dragon, heading towards a line of trees near the border of the property. Kamala pulled a silver whistle from her utility belt and slid up the visor of her helmet, bringing it to her lips. She blew hard.

The mimic dragon swerved mid-flight and circled around, flying towards them instead with a roar of annoyance.

Calloway skidded to a halt and planted his feet, aiming.

“Down in three…two…one!”

He shot the net launcher. The diamond-wire net deployed, but the dragon spun nimbly out of its path and ploughed right into him at top speed. Calloway and the dragon tumbled backwards in the tall weeds in a heap. The dragon dragged the launcher from his grip and slung it several feet away from him. It turned to one side as Calloway sprang to his feet and cracked its tail at his midsection. Calloway brought up a forearm and blocked the blow before grabbing the dragon’s appendage and latching on. The creature wriggled and snapped its head around towards him, much like a captured gator, but he turned counterclockwise out of the path of its jaws.

Snarling, the reptile’s throat bulged and then it spat a fat glob of venom at his head.

“Shit!” Calloway ducked just in time and heard the weeds behind him sizzling as the acidic substance ate straight through them. “Aren’t you just a charmer?”

“Hang on!” Kamala called as she hurried over, but as she did, the drone zipped past her, missing her by mere inches. Bright flashes lit up the clearing as the drone’s camera snapped photos of the beast. The dragon thrashed angrily and lobbed a mouthful of venom at the drone instead, but it veered to one side and kept taking pictures.

The dragon snapped at Kamala’s heels as she scampered past it and dive-rolled in the tall grass. She snatched up the net launcher when she came up on one knee and shouted, “Calloway, down!”

The other dragon hunter released the dragon’s tail and jumped back just in time. A second net shot out and engulfed the dragon. It yelped and fell in a tangled bundle to the grass.

“It’s alright,” Kamala said soothingly, rolling it onto its belly. “Easy, easy, now.”

She retrieved her tranquilizer gun and measured the dosage carefully before injecting the dragon in a soft spot beneath its jaw. The creature’s wriggling slowed, and then stopped altogether. She checked its pulse and sighed in relief that it was stable.

Then she stood, reached for her flare gun, and shot the hovering drone right out of the sky.

It exploded in a shower of sparks and fell to the ground in a mass of broken metal and glass. She stalked over to it and dug out the camera attached, which still had a little red light indicating that it was recording.

“Whoever this is,” Kamala said, seething. “Do not ever try this again. You are not a dragon hunter. You are a reckless, ridiculous child seeking attention and you nearly endangered my life, my colleague’s life, and the life of this dragon. Cease this madness immediately or we will come after you with the full force of the Knight Division and the U.S. government.”

With that, she threw the camera to the ground and stomped it to cut the feed.

“Well,” Calloway said mildly. “That’s one way to make an impression.”

“I tire of these fools,” Kamala growled as she swept off her helmet and dusted the dirt away. “How many more innocents will die while they play these games?”

“I’m sure a few centuries ago, some folks just like us were asking the same questions,” he said solemnly as he signaled Yousef to fly over to them. “Ain’t nothin’ new under the sun, Kam.”

He nudged her shoulder with his own as he removed his helmet and gave her a reassuring smile. “But we’re still making a difference one dragon at a time.”

“We are, but will it ever be enough to change the tide?”

“Guess we’ll find out together. Good work, doc.”

She smiled back at him. “Good work, Calloway.”

Just then, her cell phone buzzed from inside one of the belt’s pouches. Confused, she withdrew it to find her boyfriend calling. Strange, she thought. It was nearly two a.m. in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“Jack? Honey, what are you doing up so late?”

She heard him exhale shakily into the phone. “I know, baby. There’s…there’s been an accident at the house.”

Kamala’s blood turned to ice in her veins. “Oh God, Jack, are you okay? Is it Naila?”

“She’s fine. We’re both fine, but…I need you to come home. It’s a mess. Everything’s a fucking mess and I need you here.”

“I’ll be there as fast as I can. I swear it.”

“Thanks, angel,” he sighed. “Call me when you land.”

“I will. I love you.”

“I love you more.”

–

Pre-order Of Fury and Fangs for only 99 cents on Amazon! The price will go up on October 25th, 2020. Don’t forget to add it to your Goodreads To Be Read shelf. Read Excerpt #1 and Excerpt #2. Join me on Facebook for a live reading on release day October 24th. Stay tuned on the She Who Writes Monsters for our blog tour, which kicks off today.

Of Fury and Fangs Excerpt #2

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : August 24, 2020

Category: Author Events

Tags:Amazon, dragon hunting, dragons, excerpt, Kamala Anjali, kindle, live reading, new novel, new release, of cinder and bone series, of fury and fangs, Rhett Jackson, spoiler alert, spoilers

We’re just two months away from the launch of Book Four in the Of Cinder and Bone series, Of Fury and Fangs! Time for another excerpt!

Spoilers ahead. Proceed with caution.

–

Jack ran a hand through his windswept hair. “Alright. I can set off Thornton’s car alarm. That should draw him and his buddy outside and you can slip in to see if you can film the dragons. Then we split.”

Kamala blew out a long breath to ready herself. “Be careful, my darling.”

He kissed her. “You too.”

Jack crept back the way he came along the wall and around the corner, waiting by the door. He heard the squeal of one of the metal doors to the container opening. “That’s my cue.”

He hunted along the shipping yard until he found a sizeable slab of rock and slipped to the other end of the warehouse. Then he hefted it and chucked it at the hood of Thornton’s Jeep.

The car alarm immediately let out a panicked squawk.

Roughly ten seconds later, Thornton and Joe spilled out of the warehouse, bewildered by the ruckus. Jack hustled around the rear of the building as the men hurried over to the vehicle. Thornton cursed up a storm as he surveyed the dented green hood and spun around, searching for the culprit.

While they were distracted, Kamala slipped inside the open door to the warehouse, staying low, and quickly crept towards the red shipping container with its massive door ajar. Its contents made her stop in her tracks.

There were four large iron cages inside, but two of them were empty. The other two housed a dragon each; the creatures bound in manacles with their jaws clamped shut in muzzles.

The first dragon was brown and so round and bulky that it could have been mistaken for a Grizzly bear. As a matter of fact, she knew that it had, for it was an urso dragon. Its lurching shape had often been mistaken for a bear from far away in the Alaskan woods and any hunter that shot it would find itself in a heap of trouble, for its scales were so thick that they could repel most common types of weaponry. The dragon could also reach a sprint speed of up to twenty-five miles an hour, at which point it could generate enough energy to flip an SUV with ease. Its wings had been clamped with round bands of metal as well. Its yellow eyes flicked open as it heard her approach and it snorted once before settling into its enclosure again, apparently not feeling threatened by her small stature.

It had two dark brown horns on the crown of its head, but one had been snapped in half, which it would regrow. She didn’t see any marks on its scales, but it made sense. It would be quite a contender in the ring of a dragon fight. She did, however, see smudges of ash along its right side and its legs, so she suspected it was still susceptible to fire.

The second dragon had iridescent scales that refracted the bits of sunlight from the warehouse windows. Its scales glittered as if made of quartz and stuck up in random, sharp spikes from head to toe. Two pinpricks of black looked up at her as she stared at it in wonder. She couldn’t help herself. It was her first time seeing a crystal dragon in the flesh. They were rare cave dwelling creatures famous for hoarding gemstones in diamond mines and other underground caverns. Many adventurers of yore would seek them out, but never return, for crystal dragons were among the most violently territorial of their species. Their scales were as rock hard as their namesake, which was why they were one of the first dragons to go extinct; people would obsessively hunt them for their beautiful hides.

Like the urso dragon, she didn’t see any outward injuries. It was clear the dragon fighting rings had gotten more thoughtful with which species they accepted for fights. It was likely both of them had survived quite a few matches with their unique characteristics.

She made sure to record clear footage of both dragons and snapped a few photos as well before she snuck out of the warehouse’s rear door, where she met Jack. Thornton and Joe had aggressively started to search the grounds, so the two hustled out of the yard back to the Volkswagen.

“What did you find?” Jack asked as he snapped on his seatbelt.

“An urso dragon and a crystal dragon.”

“Holy shit,” Jack gaped. “Seriously?”

She handed him her phone and Jack watched the video clips, whistling. “Incredible. And I thought the Knight Division had been able to crack down on the DNA sources lately.”

“Obviously, some of them have slipped through the cracks. If we’re able to get this back to the precinct in time to seize the dragons, I’m sure they’ll produce plenty of relevant data that we need.”

“Definitely,” Jack said as he started up the Beetle. “I’d love to take a look at—”

He abruptly stared past her head through the passenger window and paled. “Oh, shit.”

A second later, the urso dragon that had been sprinting towards them with its head lowered smashed into the side of the Beetle.

The impact threw the car up on two wheels and smashed its roof into the wall of the electrical shed. Glass exploded on Jack’s side of the car and there was a horrible crunching sound of metal and stone and dragon hide. The engine immediately sputtered out and died as the car lurched back onto all four wheels. The side air bags had deployed upon impact, stunning both Jack and Kamala. Ears ringing, Jack peered through the shattered window to spot the attacking dragon, but it wasn’t there any longer. He heard a snort and a throaty bellow and twisted in his seat to see the dragon behind the car, its head lowered as it prepared to ram them again.

“Shit!” Jack tried the engine once, twice. It coughed and protested, but wouldn’t turn over. He cursed again and tried to unhook his seatbelt, but the impact had jammed it. He grabbed Kamala’s shoulder and shook her hard, rousing her from her dazed state. “Hang on!”

WHAM!

The urso dragon barreled into the back of the Beetle and sent them skidding several feet across the gravel. Jack grabbed the steering wheel and tried to twist the tires to keep them from sliding towards the hill into the warehouse yard, but gravity got the better of them. Kamala tried to free herself from the seatbelt as well, but hers was also jammed. Briefly, they spotted Thornton and Joe near the fence, sneering in triumph.

“Why aren’t they shooting at us?” Kamala asked as she tried to wriggle herself free from the seatbelt.

“No need,” Jack gasped out as he did the same. He watched in the askew rearview mirror as the urso dragon prepared for one more lunge. “The dragon’s gonna push us into the river.”

“Sulemaga!” Kamala spat.

Jack yanked on the seat lever and wriggled his arm towards his pants. “I’m trying to reach my pocketknife. I’ll cut us loose. Then we’ll have maybe a minute or two to climb out before the car sinks too deep and we drown.”

The dragon charged them again. “Head down!” Jack yelled, covering his own just before the creature slammed into the vehicle one last time. The car tumbled down the gravel hill and rolled off the side of the embankment into the Charles River.

–

Pre-order Of Fury and Fangs now for only 99 cents from now until October 24th, 2020. Please remember the price will increase to $4.99 on October 25th. Don’t forget to read the first and third excerpts and add it to your Goodreads shelf.

Join me on release day for a live reading of an all-new chapter as well!

Of Fury and Fangs Excerpt #1

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : July 4, 2020

Category: Author Events

Tags:Amazon, dragon hunting, dragons, excerpt, facebook event, facebook virtual launch party, Kamala Anjali, kindle, new novel, new release, of cinder and bone series, of fury and fangs, pre order, Rhett Jackson

Great news! The pre-order for the fourth novel in the Of Cinder and Bone series, Of Fury and Fangs, is available! In celebration, here’s an exclusive preview for chapter one! Spoilers ahead!

Of Dawn and Embers Excerpt #3

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : July 13, 2019

Category: Author Events

Tags:dragon hunting, dragons, excerpt, exclusive preview, faye worthington, Kamala Anjali, kyoko m, of cinder and bone series, of dawn and embers, Rhett Jackson

We’re just one week from the release of my all-new novel in the Of Cinder and Bone series! So let’s hit you with one final excerpt before it arrives to your digital bookshelves.

Please be warned: this is a minor spoiler for new characters and there is a bit of violence and language.

“Closing in on the compound,” Agent Shannon said as quietly as possible. It wasn’t easy. He could hear the low growling hiss slithering out of the throat of the dragon standing several feet away, hidden in the brush. She hadn’t taken her yellow eyes off him since he’d appeared. He felt her glare like razor wire raking down his skin. Calloway stood to her left, one gloved hand on the dragon’s neck, the other holding a pair of binoculars.

The building had once been a Home Depot, if the lingering orange paint on the roof was any indication. The empty parking lot had grass poking out between the cracks in the concrete and an overturned cart that had been turned into a nest, perhaps for rodents of some kind. It was in a bad part of town on a long stretch of road in the backwoods, hence why the retail store hadn’t survived in the long run. It sat on a couple acres of land as well, so it had no immediate neighbors and no houses across from it that would notice anything.

The only thing out of the ordinary was the semi-tractor-trailer parked at the loading dock behind the building.

“Four men,” Calloway said.

“They armed?” Agent Shannon asked as he opened his equipment bag.

“Looks like handguns mostly.”

“Right. Tether the dragon, will ya? Don’t want her breathing down my neck while we get ready.”

“Give her a break already,” Jack said over the comm-link. “If she hasn’t spat venom into your eyeballs by now, you’re safe.”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“I’d take a picture and get it blown up to a 24 x 36 print, then frame it on my wall.”

“Guys,” Calloway said as he set the binoculars aside. “Cool it. I know we’re all a bit tense about catching these clowns, but we need to keep focused. Where are we at with SWAT?”

Shannon checked his phone. “ETA twenty minutes. They were running short on staff this morning. We’ll maintain surveillance until they arrive—”

Before he could finish that sentence, the tractor-trailer rattled as a roar bellowed from inside it.

Two of the men came running down the ramp, shouting something at the ones standing at the top of the loading dock. Seconds later, a Highlander dragon came barreling out of the truck bed at full speed. One man had already begun sprinting across the empty parking lot; the other hastily climbed onto the loading dock and screamed for them to close themselves inside the garage. Unfortunately, the other two men got there first and locked the door on him. The dragon flapped its wings and landed on the loading dock. Its long, spiny tail lashed behind it as it crept towards the man, who drew a .9 mm Beretta and took aim at the dragon.

He fired. Both shots ricocheted. One hit the wall. The other hit his right thigh.

“Shit!” Calloway hissed, grabbing his helmet. “Shannon, we gotta go!”

“Goddammit,” Shannon complained. “I’ll get the net launcher ready. You go.”

“What’s going on?” Kamala demanded.

“Highlander dragon’s loose,” Calloway said as he raced down the grassy hill towards the loading dock. “The crew bailed. He’s got a guy pinned. I’m gonna intercept.”

The man tried to crawl away from the dragon, his injured leg trailing blood in a long smear on the concrete. The dragon clamped its jaws down on his ankle and dragged him back. The man shrieked and kicked at it with his other leg in vain.

“Highlander dragons react to loud noises,” Kamala said. “See if you can distract it.”

“Hey, Lake Placid, over here!” Calloway shouted.

The dragon dropped the man’s ankle and snapped its head in Calloway’s direction. The man tried to wriggle out of range, but the dragon hissed and he curled into the fetal position to make himself a smaller target.

“What else ya got?” Calloway asked.

“Eyes,” Jack said. “Got anything that can blind it?”

“Yeah, a flashbang.” Calloway addressed the man. “Cover your eyes!”

He pulled the pin and flung it towards the dragon. The flash grenade bounced once, twice, and then ignited. The entire parking lot flashed with blinding white light for an instant.

The dragon roared in pain and backed away from Calloway, its head whipping to and fro in panic. Its deadly tail slashed at the air around it in erratic swipes, trying to hit something, anything, now that its vision had gone out.

“Calloway!” Agent Shannon barked as he approached with the net launcher in his hands. It was about the size of an automatic rifle with a wide, open barrel. He planted his feet and aimed as his partner moved over to one side.

Just before he could pull the trigger, the door to the abandoned building flung open and the dragon smugglers opened fire.

Agent Shannon cursed and raced for the other corner of the building for cover. Calloway followed him and narrowly escaped the men’s gunfire.

“This is going great so far,” Calloway said, flattening himself against the brick as the shots continued tearing holes in the wall.

Agent Shannon handed him the net launcher and drew his gun, waiting for a pause in the gunfire. “I’ll try and take them out. If I can’t manage it, I’ll see if I can lead them away from the dragon.”

“Any chance you guys can request a chopper?” Jack asked.

“Wouldn’t do us much good. There isn’t one close enough to make a difference. We’re on our own for now.”

“I’ve contacted the incoming SWAT team,” Libby said. “They’re hauling ass now, but they’re still ten minutes out even with their sirens going to cut through traffic. Be careful.”

“No worries, little bit,” Calloway said. “We got this. If we can manage to trap it, how the hell am I going to sedate it with scales that thick?”

“Underneath the jaw is a soft spot,” Kamala said. “Inject it there.”

“Gotcha.” He glanced at Agent Shannon as they heard the telltale clicks of the smugglers’ guns going empty. “Ready?”

Shannon nodded. “Follow my lead.”

He gauntleted the Beretta in his fist and whipped around the corner, firing twice. One of the men cried out and hit the ground with a shot to the leg and another in the shoulder. The other one took cover behind the tractor-trailer. The first injured man had managed to wedge himself in a corner away from the snarling, blinded dragon.

“Listen up,” Shannon said as he pressed up against the other side of the tractor-trailer. “I’m a federal agent. Lower your weapon and come out from around the truck with your hands up. I am authorized to use lethal force if you do not cooperate. If you fire on me or my partner, you will be shot.”

“Federal agent, huh?” the remaining smuggler said, his voice heavy with a New York accent. “Killing you oughta make my rep forever, then.”

“You sure you wanna go down this road, son?”

“Hell yeah.”

The tires behind Shannon’s legs abruptly punctured and deflated as the man ducked and tried to sneak a shot. Shannon knelt and held still as the truck groaned under the weight of the trailer as it shifted to one side. The smuggler closed in on him, all but emptying the clip in hopes of hitting him through the tire. A bullet grazed Shannon’s shoulder, but he didn’t budge.

Just as the smuggler got close enough for a point blank shot, Agent Shannon grabbed the man’s wrist and jerked his arms up. He fired a single shot into the man’s temple. Blood splattered against the side of the tractor-trailer and the man crumpled to the concrete.

Agent Shannon kicked the gun away from his twitching fingers just to be safe. “Clear.”

Calloway rounded the corner with the net launcher as Shannon went to subdue the other smuggler with the two gunshot wounds. The dragon still couldn’t see, but he could tell it knew where he was, based on scent and sound. It charged him each time he tried to get a clean shot, snapping its jaws or flicking its tail in his direction, missing him by a few inches. Calloway finally got just far enough away to fire, but then the dragon spread its wings and vaulted into the air.

“Son of a bitch,” Calloway whispered. “This just went from bad to worse.”

Of Dawn and Embers is out July 20th, and don’t forget there’s a Facebook Launch Party you can attend for a chance to win a free paperback copy. Pre-order now for a special price of .99 cents. It will go up to $4.99 on July 21st, so grab while you can.

Of Dawn and Embers Excerpt #2

Posted by :letitia.carelock@gmail.com On : June 20, 2019

Category: Author Events

Tags:dragon hunting, dragons, excerpt, exclusive preview, faye worthington, Kamala Anjali, kyoko m, of cinder and bone series, of dawn and embers, Rhett Jackson

Are you ready for the next excerpt of Book Three in the Of Cinder and Bone series? Here it is! Please be mindful of spoilers for Of Cinder and Bone and Of Blood and Ashes!

CHAPTER ONE

UNTETHERED

“Jack…why is there a dragon in our backyard?”

Dr. Rhett “Jack” Jackson spit out his coffee and gaped at his pregnant girlfriend. “Wait, what?“

He pushed his chair out and stumbled to Dr. Kamala Anjali’s side. She had the curtain drawn to one side, her jaw hanging open slightly, her brown eyes wide as they beheld the mythical beast that was calmly sniffing the red snapdragons in her garden. Jack rubbed his eyes with his palms just to be safe, but there was no mistaking it. He ripped the sliding door open and padded out onto the neatly cut grass in his faded grey MIT t-shirt and black pajama bottoms.

“Pete? Is that you?” The scientist asked, of course knowing the creature wouldn’t answer, but he just couldn’t help himself.

The dragon Pete hadn’t changed much since the last time he saw her. She stood at the height of the average horse with long limbs and a muscular, streamlined body covered in leaf-green scales aside from her belly, which was a pale cream. Her wings were folded along the groove of her spine, rustling slightly as she lifted her head as he approached. She blinked large golden eyes at him and her tail lashed in the rose bushes behind her, scattering pale pink petals. Her long, sharp fangs protruded down over her lower jaw, but it was closed; she had a muzzle on. She flared her nostrils as he cautiously extended his hand towards her snout, palm flat. The dragon sniffed it and a soothing set of vibrations filled the air.

“Goddess above,” Kamala whispered as she reached Jack’s side. “It is her.”

The dragon chittered slightly in delight and nuzzled Kamala’s cheek, then blinked in confusion at her protruding belly. Kamala laughed slightly in spite of her puzzlement and rubbed the bumpy crown of the dragon’s head as she sniffed her enormous stomach. “Well, I guess introductions are in order. Pete, meet the baby. Baby, meet Pete.”

“Kam…how the hell is this possible?” Jack asked, pushing one hand into his dark brown hair. “How did she get here? How did she even find us?”

“Excellent questions,” Kamala agreed. “Which we will answer momentarily. First, we need to keep her out of sight before the neighbors start panicking. Do you think we can sneak her into the house?”

“I don’t know,” he said, scanning over their eight-foot wooden fence to see if anyone had spotted them yet. It was still early, barely past seven o’clock in the morning. Cambridge tended to wake up on the early side, as both the MIT and Harvard students and alumni would be flitting about getting ready for the day. “She’s kind of skittish about small spaces. Let’s try to get her into the garage.”

Kamala clucked her tongue. “Come along, Pete.”

She walked back inside and the dragon followed with slow, steady steps, ducking its head beneath the threshold. Pete’s forked tongue darted in and out, testing the air, as she glanced about the two-story house. The den had vaulted ceilings, so she had no trouble standing on all fours. She sniffed the couch as Jack pulled the sliding door shut and tugged the curtains together. He gave the dragon a nudge and she got moving again, following Kamala to the two-car garage. Jack’s trusty old Mazda Protégé and Kamala’s powder blue Volkswagen Beetle were already inside, but it wasn’t too cramped. Kamala led the dragon between the two cars and gently pushed on her shoulders until the creature sat on its hindlegs.

“Did anyone see us?” she asked.

“Not that I noticed, but if she flew in here, there’s got to be somebody who saw her,” Jack said, taking his phone out of his pocket and Googling dragon sightings in the last hour. He noticed quite a few hits; mainly a blurry figure or a short video of a shadow sweeping someone’s backyard. Neither he nor Kamala had any social media accounts, so he had to check to see if dragons were trending, and they were at the moment. Plenty of people were trying to prove or disprove the sightings, but no one had convincing evidence yet.

“I don’t get it. The government shut down our project almost six months ago and seized her as well as our other dragons. How could she possibly have gotten loose?”

“Dunno,” Jack said, pacing between the cars and rubbing the five o’clock shadow he hadn’t shaved off just yet. “Maybe they were transporting her somewhere and she busted out. Does she have any abrasions or injuries?”

Kamala flicked on the overhead light and examined the dragon. “No injuries, but take a look at this.”

Jack stepped next to her and peered at where her fingers rested on the dragon’s neck. He could see one of her scales had been removed, so there was just smooth pale skin beneath it. The species of dragon that Pete was, varanus lacerto, had multiple epidural layers: thick outer scales about the size of a quarter, and then a protective layer of fat over the muscle. Someone had removed the first layer by force, it appeared, and there was a small scar as if she’d been sewn up from an incision.

“Shit,” Jack muttered. “Dollars to donuts that’s where they placed a subcutaneous tracker.”

Kamala shut her eyes for a second. “Which means the bastards are on their way right now.”

“More than likely,” Jack sighed. “Dammit. Ten bucks says they’ll find some way to blame this on the two of us.”

“I’ll take that bet,” she groused, stroking the dragon’s swan-like neck. “That still doesn’t explain how the hell she found us. She’s never been anywhere aside from MIT campus. Is her sense of smell truly powerful enough to locate us from literal miles away?”

“In theory? Yeah, I guess so. She imprinted on us at birth, and dragons’ senses are sharp as hell. Even though we’re indoors, we’ve lived here for a good while, so our scent’s on everything around here by now. Still, this is insane.”

Kamala smiled a bit. “Yes. But in spite of it all, I…missed her.”

Jack rubbed the bumpy scales over Pete’s right eye and listened to her purr. “Yeah. Me too, Kam.”

The doorbell rang.

Jack shut his eyes. “And here comes trouble.”

“I’ll stay with her,” Kamala said. “Make sure they show you a bloody warrant first.”

Jack shuffled back to the door, snorting. “Like that’ll matter.”

He shut the garage door, grabbed his coffee from the dining room table, and then opened the front door.

“Morning, assholes!” Jack said brightly. “What would you like to steal from us this time?”

Two men stood on Jack’s welcome mat. The one on the left was tall, sturdy, and had brunette hair and deep frown lines with a no nonsense expression on his face. He wore sunglasses, a black suit, black tie, a white dress shirt, and polished shoes. The one on the right was slightly shorter, pudgy, and had curly brown hair and a beard. He wore a lab coat over a stained Firefly t-shirt, khakis, and sneakers.

“Climb down off that cross, Dr. Jackson,” the man on the left said, folding his sunglasses and tucking them in the pocket of his suit.

Jack stared at him and then pointedly tilted the mug enough to spill coffee on the man in black’s shoes. “Oops. Clumsy me.”

The man sighed laboriously and shook his feet. “So infantile. You know why we’re here. Where is it?”

“What?” Jack asked innocently. “Oh, your hairline? I think it’s on the back of your head.”

“The dragon,” the man snarled. “Where is the dragon?”

Jack leaned against the doorjamb and purposely slurped his coffee before answering. “Oh, I’m sorry. Have you lost one of our dragons? What a pity. It’s almost like you two chuckleheads and the rest of your department have no idea what you’re doing.”

“It wasn’t my fault,” the pudgy man insisted. “The handler was careless.”

Jack glanced at him. “You’re really not helping your case here, buddy.”

“Dr. Jackson,” the man on the left said through his teeth. “Where. Is. The. Dragon?”

Jack leaned in, pronouncing every word slowly. “Up. Your. Ass.”

The man stared at him with his dead brown eyes for a long moment before smirking. “You know, if you weren’t so high-handed and pretentious, I’d probably like you. Fine. We’ll do this by the book.”

He reached into his suit jacket and withdrew a document, slapping it against Jack’s chest. “Here’s the warrant you’re about to ask for. Not that it matters.”

He jabbed a thumb at the man beside him. “Dr. Whitmore’s got the tracker to prove the asset is within these premises. So scurry along and go get it before I call local P.D. to kick the door down.”

Jack scowled and flipped the document open, again slurping his coffee obnoxiously loud and reading it as slowly as possible. “Well, seems everything’s in order here. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll see what I can do about facilitating the evidence of your complete and utter ineptitude.”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Dr. Whitmore whined, but by then, Jack had slammed the door in both their faces.

Jack returned to the garage and handed Kamala the letter. She growled and crumpled it in her small fist. “Four hours. She’s been missing for four hours according to this nonsense. They couldn’t pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel.”

“Agreed,” Jack said. “But this is a fight we can’t win right now. Maybe we can use it later, but we have to turn her over to them.”

“Bastards,” she spat.

“Hey,” Jack said gently, kissing her temple. “Stress levels, remember?”

She exhaled, rubbing the top of her swollen stomach. “Right. Pete won’t go willingly. Find out if they have a tranquilizer first. I’ll administer it so she doesn’t get upset.”

“Will do, angel.”

Jack opened the front door again. “Agent Shannon, I assume you have something that can subdue the dragon.”

“Yes,” he said. “What about it?”

“Mind handing it over? I’m pretty sure she’ll rip your face off if she sees you coming at her with one.”

Agent Shannon lifted a thick eyebrow. “You want me to hand you a tranquilizer gun? So you can knock me out and take the asset and run?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Actually, I don’t want your big, ugly body on my driveway. You’ll scare my neighbors and cause the property value to plummet.”

Agent Shannon sucked his teeth and glanced at Dr. Whitmore. “Doc?”

“He’s right. The dragon is, uh, rather averse to your presence. It’s imprinted on the two of them and should allow them to inject it.”

The government agent gave Jack a long stare before walking over to the large unmarked truck with a long, metal trailer attached. He unlocked it and pulled out a silver briefcase. He popped it open and withdrew a tranquilizer gun.

“Any funny business,” Agent Shannon said, slapping it into Jack’s hand. “I take you down.”

Jack smiled. “Yeah, because that worked so well last time.”

Agent Shannon sneered. “It was a cheap shot, Jackson. Want to try me again when I’m paying attention?”

“No, I think I’ll just let you live with the shame of knowing a civilian put you on your ass.” Jack slammed the door shut a second time and headed into the garage.

Kamala took the tranquilizer gun and gave it a detailed once over, checking that the dosage looked correct and would subdue the dragon. She sighed and pressed her forehead to the dragon’s, her voice slightly hoarse. “I am so sorry, meri priya. We will save you. I swear it.”

She injected the sedative. The dragon flinched slightly when the tiny needle pierced her skin. The effect was almost immediate. Pete swayed and Jack caught her upper body, lowering her to the ground as gently as he could. A thin green film slid down over her golden eyes and she fell asleep in minutes. She even snored, which they both thought was cute.

Jack heaved another sigh and walked over to the garage door. He hit the switch and the door rumbled and roared as it slid up from the ground. Agent Shannon and Larry were already standing there with an altered version of a hand truck. It was collapsible and about eight feet long and a couple feet wide. Agent Shannon smiled as he spotted Kamala.

“Dr. Anjali,” he said politely. “Don’t you look radiant.”

“Don’t you look smug and unintelligent,” she replied, and then swept back inside the house without another word. He chuckled and helped the chubby scientist load the dragon onto the carrier. They wheeled her up into the trailer and locked it shut. Dr. Whitmore got inside the truck and Agent Shannon slid his aviator sunglasses back onto his face.

“Thank you for your cooperation, Dr. Jackson.”

Jack smiled again. “I hope you step on a Lego. Barefoot.”

Agent Shannon bared his teeth in a grin and climbed inside the truck. He backed out of the driveway slowly and then pulled off into the street. Jack spat the sour taste in his mouth out into the bushes and returned inside.

Kamala stood in the kitchen, furiously stirring a spoon into her chamomile tea. “This is unacceptable.”

“Yep,” Jack agreed, pouring the remainder of his coffee down the drain.

“Who do they think they are? They lose our dragon–they risk her life with their idiotic inability to comprehend her abilities–and then demand that we return her to them without any consequences whatsoever? I have never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life.”

“Yep,” Jack agreed, rinsing out the mug.

“What if someone had gotten hurt, eh? What if some gun-toting moron with a twitchy trigger finger spotted her before she came to us? She could be gone, just like that. Taken from this world through no fault of her own.”

Jack stepped up behind her and slid his arms around her shoulders. Kamala’s stiff spine slowly relaxed against the front of his chest. Her eyes drifted closed as he ran his large hand over her belly in soothing circles. He kissed her ear, his voice low and soft. “I know. And we’re not going to let them get away with this. We’re going to give them hell. We’re not going to give up on the fight until our dragons are back where they belong, safe and sound.”

She shook her head slightly. “You always know just what to say.”

“Hardly,” he said. “You were stirring that tea pretty hard, Dr. Anjali. I just didn’t want you to break my favorite mug.”

Kamala turned in his arms. “Yes, we both know you’re terrified of my superhuman maternal powers. I’ll try not to scare you so much.”

“You kidding me?” he said, lacing his fingers over the small of her back. “I’m counting on them to save us someday. You should be wearing a cape instead of stretch pants.”

She sighed. “Oh, don’t bloody remind me. I went up another size this week. I need to get this blasted child out of me before I become a manatee.”

Jack choked on a laugh. “Stop it. You’re gorgeous no matter what size you are.”

She pursed her lips. “Don’t try to get back on my good side, Dr. Jackson. Remember, it’s all your fault that I’m like this.”

“Oh, lest we forget. The rugrat was conceived the first time we, uh, fondue’d, and I believe you were the one who initiated that.”

Kamala blushed. “Point taken.”

She pressed her forehead against his and sighed. “This sucks.”

“Yes,” he said softly. “It does. But you know what doesn’t suck?”

She glanced up at him. “What?”

Jack leaned in and kissed her gently between words.

“Slow…” Smooch.

“Heartfelt…” Smooch.

“Intimate…” Smooch.

“…oral sex.”

Kamala collapsed into stunned giggles. “You are an idiot, Dr. Jackson.”

“What? I mean, am I wrong?”

Her smile turned a bit wicked. “Not in the slightest. It would be an excellent distraction from the chaotic morning we both just had.”

She eagerly gripped his hand to drag him into their bedroom, but then her cell phone rang. She sighed and answered it with a brisk, dismissive tone. “Yes?”

“Kam,” Faye Worthington’s resigned, annoyed voice said. “I’m in jail.”

Hungry for more? Pre-order Of Dawn and Embers now on Amazon for a special price of only .99c through July 20th! Remember, the price will increase to $4.99 on July 21st, so grab it while you still can!

More to come soon, my darlings!

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