Up in Smoke (15 page)

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Authors: Alice Brown

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Books by Alice Brown

Published with JK Publishing

Vampires Among Us

A Special Gift – Book Two

Texas Vampire Rangers

Up in Flames

Up in Smoke

Dragons of Dragonose

Co-authored with Lady V

Sapphamire

Fire and Ice

Ivormantis

Remathyst – Coming Soon

My Beloved

My Beloved Werewolf

Christmas Anthology

Bite Me Baby

With other Publishers

Vampires Among Us – Book One

The Music Box

We would love to hear from you!

Website: Alice - http://AuthorAliceBrown.com

Email: Alice - [email protected]

Facebook: Alice - http://www.facebook.com/authoralicebrown1

Excerpt from Up in Flames

Texas Vampire Rangers Book One

By Alice Brown

Opening the door to the bar was like being hit with a Mack truck. The music would only have been obnoxiously loud to the normal individual, but to her sensitive ears, it was downright painful.

Plastering a smile on her face, she forced her legs to carry her over the threshold. Once inside, she spotted her classmates immediately and headed over to the table. On her way she spotted her lab partner, Cindy, on the dance floor with a tall cowboy.

Every step she took, her head pounded unmercifully. By the time she reached the table, she knew she had to leave, quickly. Her head pounded in rhythm with the bass that was so loud it was shaking the furniture. No, she couldn’t stay. There was no way her head was going to stay on her shoulders if she didn’t get out of the loud, noise-filled room.

“Hey, guys, I know I said I would come and celebrate with you, but I can’t stay. I’m sorry, I’ve got a massive headache coming on, and this music isn’t helping.”

“Well look at you, girlie. All dressed up. You sure you’ve got a headache, or a hot date?” Shirley inquired from the next chair over.

“No, I really was going to try to stick it out, but the headache is doing nothing but getting worse, and I’ve got to go lay down.”

She didn’t even wait to see whether anyone else would say anything about her leaving. She just turned around and walked right back out the door she had just entered through not three minutes ago.

Once outside, she sighed deeply. Her ears were still ringing, but at least the pounding in her skull had dulled a little. Her feet carried her away from the sound, walking without a conscious decision. Before she knew it, she was halfway home. As she walked past a small park, a noise to her right caught her attention. When she looked around, she spotted what looked like a man holding a struggling woman. Meredith hid behind a tree, watching, trying to decide whether to attempt to stop the man herself, or call 911.

Then she saw what was really going on, and knew she would have nightmares over it for the foreseeable future. The woman looked battered and bruised. The man had been holding her from behind. When he lifted his head, his fangs were clearly visible
. His fangs
! He had been feeding on her! She spotted a large knife in the hand he wasn’t using to hold her with. Before Meredith could utter a sound, the man slit the woman’s throat from ear to ear, letting her body drop, then fleeing the scene.

Excerpt from Sapphamire

Dragons of Dragonose Book One

By Alice Brown and Lady V

He quickly did up his tie and headed downstairs to his waiting date, Amberlynn. He glanced around, but Natasha was nowhere to be seen. He stopped one of the guards walking past and quietly inquired as to the whereabouts of his new assistant. They quickly informed him that she had been pulled away temporarily and had sent a message down that she would join him in just a few minutes. Groaning inwardly, he offered his arm to his date before entering the room. All the elders stood as he and his date entered the formal dining room. “Please, be seated and enjoy the great food at Dragonmire Castle!” He walked around to the head of the table, seated his date on his left side, and took his own seat.

He was proud of his home. When he had decided about eight years ago to access Earth through one of the portals on his home world, Dragonose, he came with the belief that finding his mate would be a rather easy job. Then again, he had come under the assumption that only humans resided on this planet. Now, he knew both assumptions were incorrect. The king had granted his request to leave, only requesting that Blain keep the knowledge of the Iceland portal away from all others. That was an easy promise to make his king. Since then, he only got called upon by his king when the Raptorians grew bored and decided to start a fight. The king would then send out an emergency distress call to each and every one of his dragons, expecting them to return home immediately to help defend their world.

“Ms. Clayton, where is she?” Councilwoman Kristin, who was a pixie, inquired in an almost frightened voice from the other end of the table.

“She was pulled away to tend to some business before joining us tonight. She shall be along shortly.” He certainly hoped so, anyway. It would look so much better for her if she were sitting next to him.

“Does she please you?” another council member questioned.

“I’d rather wait to discuss the business involving Ms. Clayton, at least until she is in attendance to hear it for herself,” Blain replied with a bit of a sting to his words, then he picked up the small glass sitting at the top of his plate, swallowing the liquid, and enjoying the burn. His guests watching him, quickly followed, all except the vampire in attendance. She had her own goblet of fresh blood sitting at her plate. He heard several “ohs” and “ahs” as his guests enjoyed their pre-dinner treat.

“Delicious!” Councilwoman Hazellette, who was a witch, exclaimed in delight as she ran her tongue across her lower lip. “What is this drink called, Blain?”

He couldn’t hold back his smirk or his chuckle. His guests were not going to see the humor in his answer as he did. “Dragon Piss.”

Total silence descended upon the room for about ten seconds before the double doors were flung open, and a beautiful redhead sauntered into the room. She was wearing a black evening gown that glittered in the light; it was a one shoulder strap ensemble, and he immediately spotted the slit that ran all the way up the side to her hip. She walked up to him with such a regal air that he knew she was the envy of the females in attendance—his own date included.

“My apologies for being late, sir,” she stated when she reached his side. He immediately jumped up to pull her chair out for her.

It was a good thing he didn’t need to speak at that moment, because he suddenly found that his tongue wasn't working as he gazed down at her in awe. He had only thought her beautiful when they met earlier today. But now? Now she was absolutely stunning. She put his date and her short red cocktail dress to shame.

“May we proceed now?” Councilwoman Hazellette snapped out.

Yep, let the envy begin, ladies.

“Yes, Councilwoman Hazellette, I apologize if I was the reason for any hold up,” Natasha quickly replied, seeming to know already that Blain was without words at the moment. He suddenly didn’t give two cents about this dinner. And he certainly didn’t give two cents about this Council harping on his mate. All he wanted was for everyone to get the hell out of his castle so he could spend some time getting to know her.

“You…” he started, but his little mate was quick to cut him off as she leaned in close to him and whispered in his ear.

“Please forgive me for being so late, but there was a very important phone call I had to take.”

“Ah…of course,” he stuttered out, gracing her with a smile. He was getting ready to tell the battle-ax of a witch that she needed to show his mate respect, and that would not have gone over very well at this point.

Leaning back in her seat, Natasha graced him with a gentle smile. His heart did a quick leap into his throat before plummeting down to his groin.
Oh, good God, was she perfect.
One of the elders broke into his deep thoughts as they repeated the earlier question.

“So then, are we to believe Natasha pleases you, and can handle whatever you throw her way?”

Natasha sat silently, but fuming inside. How dared they? This was a paid position, but then again, they had choreographed her numerous forced matings, thinking that it would surely bring on her powers, all the while knowing these “potential” mates were little more than animals.

“Yes, yes, I believe Natasha will fit right into her new position with no problems,” Blain answered with a cold bite in his tone. He still didn’t understand why they seemed so interested in her working for him. Why did they feel it was their business to know how he felt about her? '
Does she please us? Only every damn fucking moment we get to spend looking at her!'
his dragon broke through his thoughts.

“Has Ms. Clayton informed you of the chance of danger you are entering into with signing her contract?”

He watched out of the corner of his eyes as Natasha carefully sat her fork down, but refused to look at him as she awaited his response. He could easily read her body language and knew she feared he might have changed his mind in the past hour. She knew all too well what a simple change of his mind would mean to her. Unfortunately, she had no clue how determined he was never to let her out of his sights.

“Yes, she has. And I’m more than willing to risk my chances at having her here,” he said strongly.

“If you sign the contract, there is no going back. She will be your responsibility, and yours alone. With that in mind, are you still willing to sign?”

“Yes, the damn contract is already signed!” Blain gave his most irate expression to each and every one of the Council members, silently warning them he would kick every one of their high asses out the door if one more word were to be said negatively about Natasha. They were way out of line, and sooner or later they were going to be put in their place. And he had a gut feeling when that time came about, he would be right there, handing their asses to them. There was no way he was going to forget tonight. He would never forget how they basically treated her as if she were an animal. How they belittled her right in front of him.

“Soon
,” his dragon promised. “
Soon we can take her, mate her, and then we will have all rights to protect her!”

For once, he agreed with his dragon completely.

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