Good morning everyone,
I haven’t really had any news to share so I’ve been quiet on the blog, not mention all my hospital stays. As far as Seducing Serena, my agent wants that one extended to 70 thousand words. He feels it has a lot more potential then a quickie. So, it has to be completely rewritten. While I’m working on that one in my head, I’m working on something new…Draco’s Choice. Here’s a snippet of what I’m currentl
Prologue
He dwelled in the shadows, always aware that one wrong move could cause disastrous consequences for his people. He walked a fine line between doing what was right for humanity and what was right for those that had come to depend on him for their safekeeping.
Human history portrayed his kind as vicious killers, voracious beasts with an appetite for human blood and unparalleled carnage. If they only knew how much the dragonkind detested needless death.
Hunted until nearly extinct, they were forced to hide their true selves in order to survive among the humans. For centuries they lived in caves before finally battling back their inner dragon and taking the shape of man to fit in.
Now they had no choice but to come forward, to announce to the world that dragons are not the mythical creatures of legend before all humanity suffered at the hands of their greatest enemies to date. So much time had passed and yet nothing at all had changed when it came to humans and their fear of anything different. Racism and bigotry still ran rampant all across the world. How could Earth’s citizens cope with anything otherworldly when they can’t even get along with others having a different skin tone than their own?
Draco Hunter stared out into the courtyard, aware that his decision could start the Great Dragon Hunts all over again. The dragon population remained at its lowest ebb, slowly dwindling over the last thousand years until only a few hundred of his kind still lived. If they didn’t start mixing with humans they would be extinct, finally becoming the myths humans had long ago named them.
But Dragonkind survival wasn’t his only concern. The demon and werewolf societies already managed to infiltrate crime syndicates throughout the world. They controlled many terrorist organizations, with access to weapons of mass destruction. They’d gathered strength and soon would launch an attack that could cripple the world, leaving them free rein to do as they wish.
Yes, he had a decision to make. Expose his people to the humans, or wait around until the other Supernaturals destroyed humanity. Hunter closed his eyes and let his shoulders droop, if only for a moment. It wasn’t much of a choice.
With a wistful sigh, Draco tilted his head back and gazed at the shimmering red halo surrounding the moon. If only he weren’t so alone. Among his people he held the title of king, but without a queen by his side the years seemed to go on endlessly. For the last five years he’d ruled alone, it was time to change that.
If only he could find a woman out there equal in courage and character, he’d snap her up before she knew what happened. If only…
Chapter One
“Halt! This is the police. Stay where you are and put your hands behind your head.” Without missing a beat, Arianna Andrews approached the suspect. Twenty minutes ago, the call went over the radio that the suspect in several rape/murder investigations fled his latest victim’s home on foot. She knew intuitively that he’d head to the waterfront district and made her way there with all the speed her state issued sedan could manage.
Sometimes she just knew things, and she knew without a doubt she’d managed to locate the one responsible for the horrendous deaths of several local area women. The most bizarre elements of the murders, the exsanguinations of the victims of not only their blood but all bodily fluids, had not been released to the press. Nor the fact that other than the obvious signs of strangulation, no other injuries were found that could account for the dried and shriveled corpses. Too much hysteria had already surrounded this case, they didn’t need more fuel to add to the flames.
She approached the suspect slowly, always aware he could have a weapon just out of her line of sight. Too bad her partner was on his way to the hospital with his wife. She could sure use back-up right about now.
Chuck’s wife, having gone into labor just an hour before, had paged her husband and within minutes of the start of her shift, Arianna had dropped her partner back at the station. With a happy wave, and a quick ‘Good Luck’, she watched him run to his car and then headed back out on her patrol.
Although she seemed to have everything under control, she had a horrible feeling that she should have waited around to have another officer do a ride along tonight. No time to worry about that now, she thought. The time for that would have been when Lyndsey called not as she’s about to approach a suspected criminal with only her gun, and wits for protection.
As she moved closer to the suspect she couldn’t believe his size. Even with darkness shrouded him, she could make out enough of his shape to know he was one huge bull of a man. His shoulders were as wide as a doorway, and he had to be closing in on six and a half feet tall. She couldn’t see his face though. A dark grey or black ski mask covered his entire head. Other than the suspect’s meaty white hands which showed he was Caucasian and the height and width of the suspect, she had no other means of identifying him if he managed to get away.
Keeping that uppermost in her mind along with the knowledge that if she didn’t bring him in more women would surely die, she swallowed her fear and closed the distance between them.
As she reached for the suspect’s hands to cuff him, he whirled to face her with in-human speed. Before she could reestablish control of the situation—before she could even blink—his hands wrapped around her neck and he lifted her into the air. Her feet dangled three feet above the ground. She struggled to breathe as his fingers squeezed together.
God, he was trying to crush her throat, to squeeze the life right out of her, and it was working. Her vision dimmed, and it was then, as her life slowly ebbed away, that the desire to live outweighed her desire for peace. She refused to die this way.
Arianna stopped her struggles, lifted her quivering right arm, and placed a bullet in the center of the suspect’s forehead. She dropped to the ground with a thud, confident the women in her city could now rest easy.
But it wasn’t to be.
Unbelievably, he still stood. He stared down at her, his eyes soulless orbs that could freeze the warmest heart. Hell hath frozen over, Arianna thought. What manner of creature was she dealing with? What could withstand a bullet to the brain and still smile down at her with an evil sneer?
Before she could come up with a logical answer, he bent over and reached for her again. She evaded his grasp. Barely. She scurried backwards, desperate to escape before she too became a victim. Where was her backup? They should have been here by now?
“Did you think your human weapons could stop me?” His voice grated on her nerves. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Shivers raced down her spine and her every instinct told her to stall, that help was on its way.
“Human?” What else could she say? That question had been uppermost in her mind since the bullet passed through his head and left him standing.
“Haven’t you wondered why the bodies you found were drained of all fluids yet no punctures marred their bodies?”
Arianna’s heart leapt in her chest. What was he saying? “You telling me you’re a…” God, what could she possibly be thinking? Some sort of vampire? Demon?
“That’s right. Go ahead. Say it. Demon. It’s really not that hard to say, is it?”
“That’s just not possible?” Was it? Oh, god. Oh, God. Oh, God…
The suspect shrugged. His long brown hair escaped the confines of his mask, hanging just past his shoulders. His bright green eyes glistened with malice. Weren’t demons supposed to look like monsters, have red demonic eyes or something?
Arianna swallowed the bile that had risen in her throat. What in the hell was she going to do? Okay. Calm down girl. You’re a cop first, a terrified woman next. Fall back on you’re training. Now if she could only follow her own advice she might survive. Maybe.
She straightened her shoulders and firmed her spine. Bracing her feet, she prepared herself for whatever might happen. She wasn’t going to cower while she waited for her own death. If she were going to die, she would do so fighting.
She raised her gun, aimed and fired her entire clip into his body. He didn’t flinch. Instead he laughed then reached for her. Grabbing her by the ankle, he dragged her into the darkened alley, and tossed her against the brick wall. “Go ahead. Fight me. All that adrenaline just makes the blood that much sweeter when I drain you dry.”
“Maybe you should let the lady go.”
Arianna’s breath whooshed from her body. It was about damn time backup showed up. Every muscle in her body hurt and she still had to find a way to bring the creature down. Then she’d freak out. But first they had to take him down.
But it wasn’t Matt Jennings. It was a civilian. A very gorgeous civilian, but a civilian none the less. Now what in the hell was she supposed to do? She couldn’t allow him to interfere. His life was forfeit if he didn’t leave now.
“Whoever you are, get the hell out of here.”
“Sorry, no can do.”
Arianna shook her head. He didn’t sound in the least afraid. In fact, he sounded amused. What was he, some kind of idiot? Couldn’t he see that the monster before him had her plastered against the wall and held her there with just a single hand?
“Don’t interfere. You won’t like the consequences if you do. Humans aren’t your concern, Dragon,” the demon warned.
This was just getting too bizarre for Arianna. Dragon? Maybe she hit her head and this was one vivid hallucination.
The hand around her throat tightened. Spots danced in front of her eyes. If she lost consciousness now the stranger might die. She couldn’t live with that.
She gasped, drawing the demon’s attention. “If you’re going to kill me, then go ahead and do it already.”
“Brave words for one so weak.”
“I’ll show you who’s weak.” Arianna used the last of her strength to kick out at the demon. He didn’t recoil when she planted her legs in his chest and shoved. He didn’t move at all. She knew death awaited her. She looked up, straight into the eyes of the civilian. He has the most beautiful golden eyes, she thought, just as the world started to go black.
Before she could succumb to the waiting darkness, the demon released the pressure on her throat. She gasped, sucked in a lungful of air. Stars twinkled in her line of vision. She couldn’t focus. “What, don’t want to kill me yet?” she choked out, not willing to show fear in front of the killer.
The stranger with the golden eyes shook his head and moved with lightning reflexes. One minute the demon had her trapped against the wall, the next the golden-eyed civilian stood in front of her, blocking the demon from view. “When I tell you to run, get to your vehicle and drive away from here.”
“Do you think you can save her, Dragon? She’s mine.”
“Not tonight she’s not.” He surged forward, threw himself at the demon. The force of the blow launched them both against the opposite wall.
“Now! Run!”
She took a step to run, but she couldn’t do it. She’d never leave anyone to face the creature alone. “No. I can help.”
“Do as I say, dammit! I can handle this.” She almost turned and obeyed him, but something in her told her to resist his demands—pride maybe. Either way, she wasn’t about to leave him. He would not face this monster alone.
“I don’t think so.”
He turned to look at her, his mouth gaping open in what she could only assume was disbelief. His face contorted in fury. Flags of color spread across his face, down his neck, and finally disappeared beneath his turtleneck. Whatever the stranger would have said was cut off by the demon’s sudden disappearance.
In the blink of an eye, the man with the golden eyes had lost his quarry when he simply vanished from beneath his hands.
Arianna’s jaw dropped in astonishment. What the hell? Can demon’s teleport or something? This day was getting stranger and stranger by the minute, and from the look on her savior’s face it wouldn’t be ending anytime soon.
Now would be a good time for that back-up to arrive. As if the heavens were standing by just to answer her prayers, Arianna heard the wailing sirens of a police cruiser quickly approaching, and turned her head to watch its arrival. When she turned to look back at her savior, only the inky darkness of the rat infested alley met her gaze.
“Perfect. Just perfect. Now I have no suspect, and no witness. Can this night possibly get any worse?”
As she tried to come up with a plausible explanation of tonight’s events to put in her report, the back-up she’d called nearly ten minutes earlier finally arrived, parking in front of the now empty alley. The cruiser’s red and blue lights flashed over the brick where a minute before a demon was pinned beneath the weight of a dragon. Well, at least that’s what the demon called him. And, God, she must have lost her ever loving mind, because she believed every word the vile creature had uttered, even if the golden-eyed hunk did look like a man. And what a man he was.
After a wistful sigh that she’d never get a chance to thank him in person, or to gaze at all that male perfection again, Arianna shrugged her shoulders, straightened her uniform, and headed toward the waiting patrol car. She might as well get the interrogation over with now, then head back out on patrol. She doubted the killer would hang around down here the rest of her shift just so she could bring him in. He was long gone by now.
*****
From his rooftop perch above the alley, Draco Hunter watched the police woman limp toward her reinforcements. He didn’t know whether he should thank her for her willingness to stay behind and protect him or paddle her ass for her willful disobedience of his orders.
His lips tilted up into a smile. He couldn’t wait to see just which reaction she elicited the next time they met. And meet again they would. Soon.
But first, he needed to find the demon from tonight’s attack. Perhaps, if he brought this city’s serial killer to justice, he’d have some form of leverage to use to gain the trust of the humans he’d lived among for more years than they could ever imagine.
Besides, he had a more personal reason to destroy the demon currently terrorizing this city. His future mate now had a target painted on her back by the evil creature. He wouldn’t just let her go. His ego would demand he hunt her for her blood, and ultimately her death.
Draco stood to his full height and looked down upon the scene below him. Outlined in the flickering strobes of red and blue, his mate unconsciously rubbed her throat where the demon had gripped her. Her voice was soft and melodious as she described the night’s events to her back-up.
Rage whipped through him when the other officer reached up to his woman and rubbed his hands along the column of her throat. How dare anyone touch her like that? She was his, dammit.
Move away from that man.
He knew it was too soon to speak to her in such a manner, but he couldn’t help himself. He wouldn’t allow anyone else to touch her. She was his and she would know it.
He watched her stiffen as his voice blasted through her mind. She glanced around, as though looking for someone standing behind her, yet she didn’t order the other man to stop touching her. Dammit. I said step back or you won’t like the consequences.
She glanced nervously around, but finally she casually stepped back to lean against the front bumper of the cruiser. “I’m telling you, Matt. I know what I saw.”
“Yeah, I hear you. But you know if you go to the station with that story, they’ll take you off the streets faster then you can blink. You’ll spend the next six months sitting on the shrink’s couch, being psychoanalyzed while they covertly measure you for a straight-jacket.”
“Tell me what the hell to do then. This guy we’re after isn’t human. And if bullets won’t stop him, our people need to know that. I can’t just let them go after this guy without telling them what they’re up against.”
The blond, Matt, shrugged his shoulders. “That’s your decision. I wouldn’t say anything if it were me. Besides, cops take the chance of getting killed every time they step into uniform and strap on their sidearm.”
His mate’s back straightened. Her voice grew clipped and cold. “And that is why I’d never date you. You care only about yourself.”
“The hell you say. I’m a cop, aren’t I?”
“Only because every other male in your family is. And, of course, chics dig cops.”
With grace and dignity, the woman turned her back on the other officer and slowly limped toward her vehicle parked a few feet away.
“Hey,” Matt hollered, “what are you going to do?”
She looked over her shoulder, a self-depreciating smiled hovered on her lips. “Tell them. It’s the only thing to do.”
“Hey, it’s your funeral. Don’t come to me later saying I didn’t warn you.” He gave her a look that clearly said he thought she was nuts.
With one last glance toward the alley, his mate opened her car door, slid behind the wheel, and pulled onto the road. If she followed through, and told the authorities what she knew, her fate would be sealed. A woman of such strength, courage, and integrity would make the perfect mate for a dragon.
y working on: