SOUTHERN FRIED DRAGON 1st Pages

26. February 2012 by admin.

I hope you enjoy my opening…

CHAPTER ONE

Charleston Harbor, South Carolina

December 1860

 

The men were on her in a heartbeat. They groped, pawed, and mumbled filthy words, expecting Dru Little to welcome their company. Blazes. Just my luck. A trio of smelly, drunken seamen had wandered down the alley behind the inn, moments after she’d stepped outside. How careless to lose awareness of her surroundings simply fetching a bag of flour. Even with her supernatural senses, she’d smelled liquor-tainted breath and soured uniforms too late to avoid the attack.

When a large meaty fist squeezed a breast, she hissed. The hand disappeared, but returned quickly. Her attention swung to another man who yanked the hem of her dress above her knees. She squirmed as she gathered strength to hold her nature at bay. Dru kicked until her booted foot met bone. A dark shape dropped to the dirt.

“Bitch.”

Dru smiled. Her tongue licked the tips of her lengthening fangs still hidden from her assailants. A third man stepped back, his eyes wide.

Maybe, not so hidden.

The sudden splitting of thin human skin tore a scream from her dry throat. The pain increased each time her talons escaped from beneath her human fingernails.

She grabbed the hand on her breast and squeezed. Its owner howled as the tips of her claws sunk into his flesh.

The satisfaction was short-lived. The man she’d kicked had jumped to his feet only to lunge at her with murder reflected in his lamp-lit eyes. Two filthy hands with calloused fingers encircled her neck before she could take a deep enough breath to summon a ball of flame. A suffocating near-silence, peppered with grunts, enveloped Dru as they pulled her to the ground.

How sad to die in human form. How inexcusable to not have torn the men to pieces before they’d gotten the best of her inner dragon. 

“Who goes there?” A deep voice split the night, and heavy footsteps grew close. A man raced toward them through the darkness. His blue uniform screamed authority. His outraged yell made her attackers pause. When he brandished what she assumed was a sword, the drunks scattered like rats.

Two tripped over each other, then scrambled to their feet, while the stranger’s weapon swooped and slashed. Oddly, Dru’s superior senses did not smell blood. The alley’s rancid odor made her sneeze, which garnered her savior’s attention.

Dru retracted her talons, sat up, and fussed with her hair. The bun she wore while working, required by her employer, had come undone during the drunkards’ attack. She had felt no fear.

I am a dragon.

The scoundrels should thank their lucky stars the soldier’s appearance halted her transformation, or they might have found themselves her late night snack.

When the tall shadow moved and crossed the dark alley to stop in front of her, she smelled the sea. Wild, fresh, and sexy. It enveloped him, a more pleasant smell than the stench of the alley and the three drunkards. He offered his hand.

The hand not holding the weapon. Dru accepted it, now that her fingers had returned to normal. Normal for her human persona, anyway.

The author (me!) inside the crumbling remains of Fort Sumter 

And I hope you want to read the rest!

Title:  SOUTHERN FRIED DRAGON

Author:  Nancy Lee Badger

Genre: Paranormal Historical

Length: 30,000 Word Novella

Amazon ASIN: B0074CX7SE

Buy Link: http://amzn.to/zgv30B

Nancy

 

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KISS A DRAGON

8. February 2012 by admin.

Valentine’s Day is February 14th and I had a great new idea…I should coordinate THIS SPECIAL DAY FOR LOVERS with the release of my latest book.

SOUTHERN FRIED DRAGON has a dragon, a soldier, a half a dozen forts, southern hospitality, conflict, cannons, and more. But…above all, it is a ROMANCE.

BOOK BLURB:

Amid cannon fire, and the first terror of Civil war, love and trust will find a way.

Dru Little flew away from her home in a cave beneath a Scottish Island to end her lonely existence and find companionship across the sea. Her journey in late 1860 has led her to the modern American city of Charleston, South Carolina. Hiding her true self, she takes over the life of a serving girl and enjoys the hard life working in a tavern near the wharves. She has no idea that her life will turn upside down in a dark alley the moment a handsome soldier saves her life.

Lieutenant Shaw Stenhouse has his own worries. Southern secessionists are talking up a storm in Charleston. His fellow Federal soldiers are suddenly at risk from the community they are here to protect. The possibility of civil war takes a backseat when he saves a comely lass from drunken soldiers. A good deed and a stolen kiss put a smile on his face until the threat of war becomes a reality. Their instant attraction proves disastrous when Dru’s spots her former lover working for General Beauregard and the southern troops. As the clandestine group plan their attack on Fort Sumter, and Shaw’s soldiers, she takes to the sky.

Dru fights against the threat of detection, while she fears losing Shaw’s love. What will he do when he finds out that she is a powerful Scottish dragon Hell-bent on carrying him to safety? When Shaw discovers her inside the heavily guarded fortress, thoughts of espionage—and worse—catapult the two lovers into danger from many sides.

When her former lover, the mysterious Black Dragon, threatens Shaw, Dru must decide which is more important: protecting another of her kind, now nearly extinct, or protecting the human male, the man she has come to love.

Did you know that the Chinese have designated 2012 the YEAR OF THE DRAGON? How appropriate. DRAGON’S CURSE and DRAGON IN THE MIST started my foray into the historical paranormal, using Scottish dragons. If you love a happy ever ending filled with strife, conflict, and sexy situations between consenting adults, check them out!

DRAGON’S CURSE  http://amzn.to/y3Ipw0

DRAGON IN THE MIST  http://amzn.to/zgguKW

SOUTHERN FRIED DRAGON  http://amzn.to/zgv30B

 

 

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