Kiss of Fire Giveaway Winner

What a fantastic week! Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing the fun with all our dragons. But now it's time to pick the winner for giveaway, and the winner is...

Milica Who!

If you can email me at vivien_dean@yahoo.com with your format of choice, I'll see that you get your prize as soon as possible.

Don't forget to stop by in April, when we'll have a brand new pax all about the 60s. See you then!

Trailing Air by T.A. Chase

Hey everyone. Thanks for stopping by the Amber Allure Pax Blog. My story for the Kiss of Fire PAX that came out this past weekend is Trailing Air.

Trailing Air is book Four in the Preternatural series and is Rover’s story. We find out if all of our heroes manage to save themselves and the world, or will it all go to hell in a hand basket? 

Also, Rover needs a happy ever after and I hope you fall in love with his hero. Elwin Ice Cloud is a dragon that has to make some choices to save someone important to him. Yet he’s not willing to destroy the world to do it, so he has to figure out how to do both without anyone dying.

When I started the Preternatural series, I didn’t have an plan that there were going to be any more stories after Allergies, but I introduced an amazing family of wolf shifters. As I wrote them, I realized there were more characters we needed to meet and new places for us to go and visit. So I decided to write Nick of Time and Love’s Baggage. Then everyone decided Rover needed his story told next.

I know this story has been a long time coming and I’m sorry about that. But I hope it’s worth the wait. Please enjoy it. Thanks for stopping by and chatting for a little bit about Rover’s story.  

*_*_*

Trailing Air by T.A. Chase is now available at Amber Allure.

If you'd like the chance to win the entire pax collection, just leave a comment on today's post. On Saturday, a winner will be picked at random from all the comments made this week on the blog. Comment on all, and that's multiple chances to win!

Morphing Into Pandemonium by Darcy Abriel

Pandemonium: a place or scene of riotous uproar or utter chaos.  Bedlam.  Turmoil.  Babel.  The capital of Hell.

I saw a cave, I saw two men, and I began to write, and I called this piece, “Dragon City.” I let it take me where it wanted to go.  Crispen had heard the rumors, but until this moment, he hadn’t believed they were real.

One sentence leads to another, one thought follows, and barrels into the next.  The man glared at him steadily until Crispen was certain he could see flames in both his eyes.  He reared back, landing against the wall.

And suddenly a premise materializes: It was the animals who ran the asylum and the humans who served.  But tied into that premise is the next: that humans are sometimes the savages, the predators.  And thus the crazy world of Pandemonia began to morph.

“You have no life anymore.  You belong to me now...”
“Forfeit,” Crispen said.
“For as long as I want it.  Isn’t that the law in Dragon City?”

And so it began, the morphing of a world, the shaping, the creation, the defining of character.

Pandemonia is a dangerous future, where earth is now made up of prison colonies and societies are not what they once were.  Pandemonia is controlled by a conglomerate of scientists called the Nucleate.  And mutants, such as Drayce, one of the gen species they gleefully, maniacally create, have been incarcerated in Pandemonia when the end of the most recent intergalactic war ended their usefulness to the interglobal councils.

Societies and civilizations turned and twisted, no longer recognizable, laws of humanity mutilated by needs, instinct, and the powers of the Nucleate.  This is the world of Pandemonia, a future world gone reimagined darkly.

Here’s an excerpt from the most recent story in this series, part of the AmberPax Kiss of Fire.  Pandemonia: Combustible.

*     *     *

"What do you think the crazy bastards are up to this time?" Zadrian Rigel, Drayce's second in command, asked.

"Who the fuck knows? Some abomination they want to parade out in front of us," Drayce responded. He should know, he was dragogen after all, patterned after a species millions of years old. Spliced DNA from biological material discovered in 3939 through a discovery made by archeologists. And Zadrian was caninogen, a wolf-like creature. They were both products of an experimental program at a time when the world had no hope of combating its feral alien enemies. Now incarcerated in this electronic grid-locked hell hole.

Drayce glanced around at the surly crowd. Saw a knife fight break out. In another corner, a prostitute plied her charms. And in another, a gang of children worked the crowd in hopes of eating tonight.

Paris, a city of the Old Earth, part of a separate country once known as France, was simply another quarantined sector of Old Earth, which was now no more than a prison planet after the last peace treaty ceded the administration of the Old Earth sectors over to the powerful Nucleate. The majority of law-abiding citizens had been transported to other planets in other solar systems.

Old Earth had become a dumping ground for criminals, toxic waste, and anything else that most civilizations considered refuse and of little value. But it had since grown into a society with generations of families now confined within its borders. And its residents now included mutant discards the governments had subsidized but had no further use for, such as men like Drayce.

The giant screen flickered to life, and Drayce returned his attention to the screen. A long view of the main room and choir came into view, with the top scientists seated along the sides, arrowing past the stained glass windows flooded with light, and then focusing in on a modern podium, where a man in a white coat, looking, as usual, self-satisfied and smugly superior stood.

These scientists, ranging from biologists to physicists, chemists to mathematicians and geneticists, had eagerly sought these positions, able to come and go at will, able to perform experiments without government control, per se. A core, select representation of the Nucleate appeared on screen. There were others, though, who had been exiled on Old Earth, a part of the criminal system itself, who were allowed to continue their deviant experimentation on the throwaways of other societies. And they did the grunt work, but received none of the recognition.

Drayce looked at the rows of seated scientists in their pristine white coats. Each one with a human "disciple" leashed and kneeling beside him or her. Male and female humazoid companions chosen from the masses to serve as diversions from their work, personal servants to attend to their needs. Sex, body servant, spy, whatever they wanted. In contrast to the scientists in their sterile white coats, each servant sparkled with expensive jewels and silky designer attire. Hair fashioned elegantly, faces made up, each scientist obviously trying to outdo his associate in elaborate flesh and blood disciple display.

Drayce's attention was caught as Dr. Francois Beljon, the assistant director of Scientific Interrogations stepped to the podium, his leashed humazoid trailing behind, holding a stack of papers, head bowed.

"He's new," murmured Drayce. He wondered what had happened to the last disciple he'd seen with Beljon three months ago. Used in experimentation, dead, released to the streets? Could be any of the above, or all.

Drayce peered closer at this new toy of Beljon's. Young, pretty, athletic but lithe. Bronzed body. Not the usual. Beljon usually enjoyed more brawny types. This one seemed a rarer sort.

Beljon reached behind him for the sheaf of papers and the boy obediently handed them to the scientist. But Drayce wasn't focused on what Beljon had to say. These semi-regular broadcasts where more to show the Nucleate's far-reaching power than anything else. All Beljon was going to do was read the list of the latest additions to the Pandemonium community, and their crimes. Which of late always seemed to be more political than anything else.

Drayce watched the disciple, who stood still as a statue, gaze cast downward. Drayce's cock began to stir as he studied the boy. There was something about him...something different. He stood in a subservient pose, just as the others did. But there was a tightness in his lithe body, an awareness, almost a pride, that the others lacked. And it made Drayce curious.

"I think I want to know more about him," Drayce murmured. "Things have been far too quiet of late. We need some excitement to stir the blood."

"Beljon?"

"No. The trained whelp. He might be useful. There's some oddity to his manner. Some value in him."

"I wouldn't think so. Beljon changes disciples as often as he does his underwear."

Drayce slid a glance to Zadrian, hearing the lingering bitterness in his voice. "That was a long time ago. You should move past it."

Zadrian didn't respond for a long time. "Beljon doesn't forget. He twists the knife at every turn when he can."

"You're free of him now. At least as free as one can be in a place like this. It doesn't pay to care, you know that."

"One would assume I've learned my lesson," Zadrian responded. "But he doesn't give up you know."

"Obsessed is a word I'd use when it comes to him."

"I won't go back. You can count on my loyalty."

Drayce refocused on the screen. Beljon had completed his list. He turned back to the whelp. He patted him on the head like a prized pet and then they moved off to the side, and another pair took his place. This one spoke of the recent death sentences that had been carried out.

The scientists droned on. Drayce scanned the crowd, wondering who would be the next to die by the decree of the Nucleate. A new lottery would likely occur within the next month.

"Find out more about him," Drayce said. "I want him. He means something to Beljon, and so I mean to have him. Beljon will throw a tantrum, and I love when that happens. He always makes mistakes."

"Poking a stick at the bear can bring you nothing good. I think you're making a mistake," Zadrian said. "Don't let that dragon cock of yours lead you into doing something you're going to regret."

"Just get me the intel on the disciple. Then we'll go from there."

"Whatever you say, boss. But leashed like he is, it's probably not going to be easy to get to him. Not if Beljon has taken a shine to him for the moment."

"You'll find a way. You always do," Drayce said. "And I want him before Beljon decides to mod him."

*_*_*

Pandemonia: Combustible by Darcy Abriel is now available at Amber Allure.

If you'd like the chance to win the entire pax collection, just leave a comment on today's post. On Saturday, a winner will be picked at random from all the comments made this week on the blog. Comment on all, and that's multiple chances to win!

[Image: Pandemonium circa 1825) by John Martin (1789-1854); Wikimedia Creative Commons]

Lions and Tigers and Dragons…Oh My! By A.J. Llewellyn

I have always loved dragons. 

As a kid, I grew up on fairytales and loved the legends associated with them. I adored the song Puff the Magic Dragon and tried not to listen when my teenage cousins tried to tell me it was a metaphor for puffing a joint. I didn’t want to hear that. I wanted to be Little Jackie Paper. I wanted to be the one who brought Puff strings, sealing wax and other fancy stuff, like the song lyrics stated.

I did, however, always wonder what the other fancy stuff might have been and didn’t want to believe it might have been stuff like Zig Zags, a Zippo lighter, a roach, or an apple bong. I had a cousin who smoked his weed via an apple converted into a bong. It was bizarre. 

Bizarre. Bizarre. Bizarre.

I liked to think that other fancy stuff entailed food. Preferably cream cakes, cookies, and chocolates. I had a sweet tooth and I assumed dragons would too.

When the Dennis Quaid movie Dragonheart came out in the mid 1990s, I adored it. I saw it three times at the movies and was crushed, absolutely gutted when film critic Roger Ebert said at the time, "While no reasonable person over the age of 12 would presumably be able to take it seriously, it nevertheless has a lighthearted joy…”

Excuse me. I took the movie damned seriously. I couldn’t wait to get it on video, then DVD. I became so obsessed with dragons, I even bought one in Maui, a 3D big green thing that’s been on my living room wall ever since. I love that picture. It’s interesting though. Not many people get my thing for dragons. In face a therapist friend of mine was convinced I was silently screaming to be rescued and thought she was doing me a great big favor by giving me copy of the self-help book, Slay Your Own Dragons: How Women Can Overcome Self-Sabotage in Love and Work. I was really offended at the notion that I was searching for a man to be all things to me, but damn it, isn’t that true of all of us who believe in love.

And in hindsight, I should have heeded some of the good advice in the book, but that’s by the by. I have always written about men who love men. Some are searching for the ideal man. Others like the two in my new story About a Dragon, have sort of given up on love until they meet each other.

About a Dragon: Synopsis

TV writer Teddy Greist thinks he’s met the perfect guy. The man with the unusual name of Song Smith is so wonderful, Teddy couldn’t have written him better. He’s sexy, soulful, full of ambition, and—oh, no, Teddy soon realizes—just a little bit crazy.

Just as Teddy’s getting comfortable with the idea of being in love and having his hit show Oahu P.D. on the air at the same time, Song suddenly confesses to some weird family curse, then dumps Teddy faster than a bowl of soggy chicken dumplings.

Song is wild about Teddy, who’s changing his life in so many ways. But will Teddy still love him in return when he learns just how demented Song’s family really is? Can their budding romance survive the twisted tale of his father’s disappearance? And what will Teddy say when it becomes all too clear it has a lot to do with strings, sealing wax, and other fancy stuff?

Oh, and one more thing—it’s all about a dragon, too.

Genres: Gay / Contemporary Fantasy / Shapeshifter / The Arts / Action / Adventure 

HeatLevel: 3 

Length: Novella (27k words)

*     *     *

A NOTE BEFORE PURCHASING: This title is part of the Kiss Of Fire AmberPax™ Collection. To purchase this title individually, simply use the shopping cart on this page. To purchase this title as part of the entire AmberPax™, however, and receive an even greater discount off our normal retail price, use the shopping cart on the Kiss Of Fire AmberPax™ page.

For an excerpt and/or purchase, please click this link:

http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/2146-About-A-Dragon.aspx

How about you…do you like dragons? Which is your favorite? Please leave a comment to enter the draw to win a copy of all five Kiss of Fire books!

Love,

A.J.

The Girl with Dragons on Her Brain by Angel Martinez

Once upon a time, long, long ago… (Hush. We don’t ask how long. That’s rude.) There once was a little girl whose mother took her to see Sleeping Beauty, the 1970’s re-release, but who’s counting? While the movie entranced the little girl, the dragon at the end stunned her. Never mind that she knew the dragon was the evil fairy. She has never forgiven Prince Philip for killing the beautiful black and purple dragon.

As she grew older, she noticed a terrible pattern in legend and myth. Everyone slaughtered the beautiful dragons and her list of heroes she could not forgive grew—St. George, Sigurd, Bard the bowman. Her favorite Brothers Hildebrandt artwork wasn’t of elves, no, no. It was Smaug, bright, terrible, and stunning. She drew dragons instead of heroes, imagining their bleached skulls beneath the dragons’ feet.

Bloodthirsty little mite I was sometimes. Luckily, I found better dragon stories as I got older, especially the Pern novels, but those older dragons, my poor, slaughtered friends, have always stayed with me. Why did the dragon have to die? And was it a true death, or something more mystical, more ritually sacrificial?

Good thing about being a writer, you get to construct your own reality frameworks, build from the blueprints you’ve approved. When Amber decided to do a Dragon Pax, I knew what I had to write.

I had to save a dragon. Seriously, what better job is there than writer? I get to right all the wrongs of my childhood.

(A Brandywine Investigations story)

The most valuable pieces of jewelry are vanishing from the god Hermes’ Manhattan stores and the security feeds only pick up clouds of smoke. While the god of thieves, messengers, and commerce doesn’t appreciate someone stealing from him, he’s intrigued by this thief’s ingenuity and skill. When he enlists his family to trap his burglar, he gets the surprise of his immortal life.

Fafnir just wants to be left alone. Doomed over the centuries to a never-ending cycle of violent death and painful rebirth, he had hoped to find an escape in the quiet life of author and illustrator. But there are forces at work he doesn’t understand, and his peace is shattered by the return to old cycles and the sudden interference of a beautiful and incredibly irritating Greek god.

Excerpt:

The last of the daytime lights shut down in succession, signaling the departure of the last employee. Velvet dark descended, with only the security lights illuminating the empty cases and the exits. The presumed target, locked away in the safe behind the case, was a marquis cut pink diamond of incredible clarity, set in a choker of white diamonds and pearls. According to Hermes’s calculations, this was indeed the third most expensive piece for sale in the city. The most expensive one left now, actually.

“I hate waiting,” Dio whispered as he hunkered down behind the screen.

Hermes shot him an irritated look. “Yeah. Big shock. Why are you here, again?”

“I think they stole your sense of humor, too,” Dio grumbled.

That hit too close to home. Hermes ran a hand over the back of his neck as he tried his best to unclench every tightened muscle. “Sorry. You came to help. That was uncalled for. There’s just something wrong about this whole thing. Has me in knots.”

“S’Okay. After we catch the creep, why don’t you bring your guitar, come jam for a few hours? I’ve got some good red stocked. We could see if Orpheus is up for it, too.”

Hermes bumped shoulders with his favorite brother. “Thanks. That might be just the thing. Let’s see what happens here first, right?”

Dark eyes huge in the dim light, Dio nodded and quieted. Yes, he was the family party boy, but he was also still half-wild. His nerves would be humming with the thrill of the hunt. There was the difference, Hermes realized. Zack, Dio, Uncle Hades, even Charon—they were all hunters and warriors. This sort of set up excited them, invigorated them. Hermes, jittery and slightly nauseous, was starting to think he should have waited in the van with Hephaestus.

An hour passed, then half an hour more. Just as he was convincing himself his thief had taken the night off, the door to the employee entrance clicked. Alarms should have sounded. Either the person had a key and the alarm codes, or the thief had disabled the system.

Or they were already in place before my staff left? But he’d still have to disable the alarm. Maybe I have to start designing magic-proof security systems. Wonder how much of a market there would be?

Dio gripped his arm and pointed. A shadow slid along the far wall, possibly a large man but the strange lighting could have added the perception of mass to a small one. The shadow stopped. Soft hissing drifted across the room, the same they had heard on the sound reconstruction the previous evening. And cue the smoke…

Creepers of gray slid along the floor toward the safe. They climbed over the cases, moving, ethereal vines obscuring the glass, and edged up the walls to block the security cameras. The soft rhythmic hissing slowly evolved into whistling, Peer Gynt again but the more haunting melancholy of Solveig’s Song instead of the Mountain King’s menace. Strange choice. The whistling became humming, the thief making no effort to hide his heavy footfalls. Hermes caught a glimpse of Doc Martens, size thirteen at least, before the boots vanished into the smoke surrounding the little room with the safe.

Tumblers clicked. The clank of a safe handle echoed through the smoke-shrouded quiet. That strange hollow laugh, bone deep and mirthless, emanated from the vicinity of the presumably open safe.

“Now, Zagreus!” Uncle Hades bellowed. A sharp snap followed, then the susurration of thousands of metallic links swiftly dragged upward. The thief’s roar rattled cases, an impotent storm of fury as Heph’s magical golden net snared him and hoisted him, struggling and snarling toward the ceiling.

Hermes uncoiled from behind his screen, prepared to confront this being who dared to steal from a god, even indirectly. He strode toward the center of the showroom while Dio called a breeze to clear the smoke. Flashes of black clothing and dark red hair flickered through the gold mesh as the captive thrashed, his large frame only hampering his struggles.

Hands on his hips, Hermes shouted up to the net, “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t call the c—”

Another roar deafened him, vibrating through the floor tiles. The body in the net began to expand. Instead of glimpses of black cloth and red hair, now gleaming red-gold hide sparked in the mesh. A huge claw poked through the side of the net and sliced the links open as if the magically forged gold were nothing more than pudding. Hermes could only watch in horror as a sinuous head emerged from the opening, followed by yard-wide, scaled shoulders and…wings.

The thief leaped free, plunging, then rising in the air as his wings unfurled. With one final roar, he arrowed toward the windows at the front of the shop and crashed through, leaving a dragon-sized hole in his wake.

*_*_*

Dragons, Diamonds, and Discord by Angel Martinez is now available at Amber Allure.

If you'd like the chance to win the entire pax collection, just leave a comment on today's post. On Saturday, a winner will be picked at random from all the comments made this week on the blog. Comment on all, and that's multiple chances to win!

Dragon Herder by K.M. Mahoney

Dragons. There is something incredible about them. Huge, magical, powerful, wise. I adore them. I have dragons all over my house, wear them as jewelry…heck, I even have a giant stuffed dragon on my bed. So when this Pax theme came up, I had to jump in. Then came the fun part: what type of dragon? As my fans already know, I’ve done dragon shifters. While I wasn’t opposed to doing them again—because let’s be honest, who doesn’t like dragon shifters?—I decided I should stretch my creative muscles, so to speak, and try something different.

I devoured fantasy novels growing up. Not the slick, modern urban fantasy novels that are all the rage right now, either (not that there’s anything wrong with those, because I read my share!). No, this was back in the 80s and 90s, dark and gritty stories with warriors, barbarians, and monsters. Now, I don’t do dark and gritty. It’s just not my writing style, and the few times I tried usually turned into farce, because I simply can’t sustain it. But there are a genre of stories that do fit. Writers like Piers Anthony, L. Sprague de Camp, Robert Asprin and, of course, Terry Pratchett. Authors who write about those monsters and barbarians with their tongues firmly in cheek.

It was those stories of my teen years that I drew from when I wrote Dragon Herder. The burly, uncivilized brute, who is much smarter than he looks. The lean, sarcastic wanderer with a secret past. Interfering gods and misunderstood beasts. It’s a romp through a fantastic landscape with a cast of quirky characters and a healthy dose of humor for good measure. So come and join the fun!

*_*_*

Dragon Herder by K.M. Mahoney is now available at Amber Allure.

If you'd like the chance to win the entire pax collection, just leave a comment on today's post. On Saturday, a winner will be picked at random from all the comments made this week on the blog. Comment on all, and that's multiple chances to win!

LATEST PAX RELEASE - Kiss of Fire

Genres: Gay (M/M) Erotic Romance

The titles listed below comprise the Kiss of Fire AmberPax™ Collection. Buy all five together and receive a 35% discount! To purchase any of the titles individually, click on the covers below to go to the books' separate pages. 

About a Dragon by A.J. Llewellyn Extended Amber Kiss (Gay)

Dragon Herder by K.M. Mahoney Extended Amber Kiss (Gay)

Dragons, Diamonds, and Discord by Angel Martinez Extended Novella (Gay)

Pandemonia: Combustible by Darcy Abriel Novella (Gay)

Trailing Air by T.A.Chase Extended Novella (Gay)

 

In conjunction with our newest release, we will be having a giveaway! Any comment made from today throughout the week (3/15-3/20) will be eligible to win the entire pax collection. A winner will be picked at random on Saturday from all comments received.

Trailing Air by T.A. Chase

(Part of the The Preternaturals series)

What are the Preternaturals supposed to do when the book holding the destruction of their kind within its pages is stolen from them? Not panic and hope that the situation changes before the humans get their own hands on it.

The werewolf Rover Canis can’t believe he’s escorting the very creature that stole the book holding spells that could kill every Preternatural in the world. Yet here he is doing so, and admiring his extremely attractive companion probably isn’t the smartest thing he’s ever done either. But if he is to save himself along with all his kind, Rover needs to keep his mind on the mission.

Elwin Ice Cloud, a shapeshifting dragon, swipes the powerful book in order to save his kidnapped sister, but he never plans on handing it over to the humans. Yet when dangers grow too difficult for him to handle on his own, he returns to the lycan on whom he’d been spying. Meeting the sexy Rover gives him something else to think about, yet falling in love isn’t in his plans either.

Together, these two very different shapeshifters must find a way to trust each other in order to save all the Preternaturals from certain death. If they somehow manage to do so, will love be their ultimate reward?

Genres: Gay/Dark Fantasy/Werewolf/Shapeshifter/Witchcraft/Magic/Action/Adventure/Paranormal/
Series
Heat Level: 3

Length: Extended Novella (31k words) 

Read a short excerpt...

...His brother stopped and stared at him. “You aren’t protecting him, are you? He’s the one who stole the book and attacked Marvus. Only the gods know where Pavel is.”

“I have an idea where he might be,” Elwin spoke up.

Rover glanced behind him. “I suggest you keep your mouth shut at the moment. I’ll protect you because my mother and the others will want to talk to you, but I’m not any happier about your presence than Bandit is.”

Opening and closing his mouth, Elwin nodded, brushing his hair over his shoulder and out of the way. Rover’s gaze followed the flow of that light blue glittering mass. He clenched his hand and let it drop, instead of touching Elwin’s hair.

“Come join us at the bar. Rover, maybe our guest would like a drink.” Serpens’s suggestion wasn’t really one. It was definitely a command.

Rover whirled around and glared at the cobra, but even his meanest look didn’t faze the spirit guide. Nick gestured to the stool next to him.

“Please come and sit with us. I’m not sure why you’d chose to walk into the Wolf Pack, knowing how they feel about you, but you must have your reasons.”

“How we feel about him? What about you? Grime has your best friend, Nick, and we don’t know if he’s okay.” Bandit snarled, claws breaking through his skin.

“Get a hold of yourself,” Rover ordered. Most of his patrons were wolves, but some weren’t, and those had no idea wolf shifters existed.

Bandit lunged for Elwin, and Rover grabbed him by the throat, swung him around, and slammed Bandit against the wall. Silence reigned in the bar. It wasn’t the first time Rover had disciplined Bandit, but it was the first time Rover wanted to rip his brother apart.

“Go and get the rest of the pack. Mother needs to talk to Elwin. Don’t force me to prove I’m stronger than you.” Rover crowded Bandit’s personal space.

“Rover, let him go. It’s okay.” Elwin laid his hand on Rover’s arm.

Rover’s fury eased and he dropped Bandit back to the ground. “Go now.”

Bandit stalked out and slammed the back door behind him, emphasizing his disdain of Rover and the others. Rover met Elwin’s bright blue gaze, and the thought hit him that the dragon’s eyes matched his hair. Shaking his head, he eased that stupid image. It didn’t matter, because once Elwin told them where to find the book, Rover would throw him out on his ass.

“All right, everyone, bar’s closed for the night.” Rover motioned for his patrons to leave. “Pay your tabs and get the hell out.”

After the mass exodus, Rover rejoined them at the end of the bar.

“Why have you been watching my family?”

Rover returned to behind the bar, picked up a towel, and started cleaning a glass. Ray, Nick, and Elwin settled on stools, facing him. Elwin sat between the other two, and Rover’s mind skittered around, thinking how pretty all three of those men were. Shit. He needed to get his head out of his pants or things would get out of hand.

“What can I get you to drink?”

Elwin studied him with those brilliant eyes and pursed his lips. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had anything to drink in the human world. I believe I’ll simply have some water, please.”

Rover tried to ignore how much he wanted to press his lips against Elwin’s mouth. This stranger had stolen the one thing that could save all the preters. Rover shouldn’t be feeling any sort of good feelings toward him.

Yet there was a small voice in the back of his head that said maybe he should give Elwin the benefit of the doubt. There had to be a reason why the dragon had done what he did. Rover snorted as he filled a glass of water for Elwin. Don’t let your dick try to convince you the dragon did nothing wrong. He stole from you...

Pandemonia: Combustible by Darcy Abriel

(Part of the Pandemonia series)

Earth of 4035 is a wasteland populated with sectors of penal colonies, seeded through the generations by its life-long inhabitants of criminals, lunatics, political prisoners, and DNA-spliced mutants, all ruled by a powerful conglomerate of scientific researchers called the Nucleate.

One such sector, Pandemonia, is situated on the former European continent in the vicinity of Paris, now a hunting ground of a world gone horribly awry.

Drayce Eth, of dragogen-spliced DNA creation, rules one quandrant of Old Paris with a strong hand. He has never mated, never taken a long-term lover, and has always denied the instincts of his dragogen-spliced DNA. But then he encounters an attractive disciple and slave of his arch-enemy, Dr. Francois Beljon, and a simple game of poke-the-bear to relieve his ennui may just result in more than Drayce ever expected. It may also be exactly what he needs when his mating instincts are aroused by this least likely of potential mates.

Crispen Wills is a product of the mean streets. He’s a survivor—a dancer, a liar, a scavenger, and whatever else will serve to keep him alive. But when he becomes a desirable pawn in a treacherous game, it could easily cost him his life. What Crispen never expects is to fall in love with the powerful dragogen that his master has sent him to destroy.

Passions mix with danger in a highly flammable game devoid of rules and safe words, where all’s fair in love, lust...and death. Only a fool would dare to risk everything for a fleeting chance at love, especially when that lover could easily barbecue you should you make one false step...

Genres: Gay/Science Fiction/Futuristic/BDSM/Series
Heat Level: 3
Advisory: This book contains some material that may not be suitable for the more sensitive reader. 

Length: Novella (23k words) 

Read a short excerpt...

...Drayce rose from his chair and circled Crispen. The room was so quiet he could hear the dripping faucet from down the hall. Until he inhaled a breath and exhaled a shot of flaming fire that singed the opposite wall, making everyone jump back, and the boy scrambled as far from the flame and sparks as he could get—considering the collar and chain that bound him to the spike in the floor.

“So, you’re Beljon’s flavor of the month,” Drayce finally said, after clearing his throat. He leaned forward, gripped a handful of Crispen’s curly hair and yanked his head back. He leaned closer and inhaled. Then slowly exhaled. “You smell of the Nucleate. I wonder how much you’re worth to Beljon? If you’re worth anything. The bartering shall begin.” All a game, just a game to piss off Beljon and to entertain himself.

He waited for Crispen to beg. But as he stared into the boy’s eyes, expecting tears, whining, he saw something else. Something that surprised him. Yes, there was fear, but combined with a certain street-wise cunning as well. A wariness, speculation. Some fear, but not nearly as much fear as Drayce might have expected from a disciple that licked at the heels of the Nucleate Assistant Director of Scientific Interrogation. Drayce released him and turned to the men who waited for his orders.

Zadrian stood silently, at attention, his demeanor wolfish—caninogen enhanced DNA, stiff as his militia training had prepared him. Just as Drayce once had been. Like gravitated to like in this penal colony.

“Any trouble getting in and out, captain?” Drayce asked.

“No, sir,” Zadrian said. “It actually went better than we expected. My contact was right on the money.”

On the money. That in itself made Drayce suspicious. It shouldn’t have been that easy. He turned and stared at Crispen. Meek, mild, cowering. At least outwardly. But there was something else—something in his eyes that said there was more to this whole situation, and Drayce meant to find out what it was. Crispen was hiding something, but what?

“We’ll see,” Drayce said, more to himself than to the others. He turned to Ion, who served as supply master and manager of the Rouge nightclub. “We’ll see how much he’s worth. Prepare the demand. Let’s get these negotiations underway. See if we can’t squeeze Beljon to sweeten our storehouse.”

“You got it, Drayce. You think he’s worth all that?”

Drayce shrugged. “Might as well start high and see where that takes us.”

“And if Beljon won’t negotiate what are we going to do with him?” the overseer asked.

“Then he’s dead weight and we serve him up to the ratogens. They need a new nibble. Fatten him up a bit, and that’ll keep them happy for a night or two, and off my back with their whining for fresh meat.”

Drayce was pleased to notice that the possibility of becoming ratogen appetizer got some attention from Crispen. He watched the whelp tense, whip his head upward to stare at Drayce with panicked eyes. Drayce felt his dragon’s blood heat. Something about this boy made his blood simmer in a way it hadn’t in a long time. It wasn’t the fear expressed in his whole attitude, it wasn’t that he seemed to be a new shiny jewel in the Assistant Director of Scientific Interrogation’s overflowing jewel case of domesticated pets. Maybe it was just the flicker of defiance he’d caught in Crispen’s eyes. The speculation that seemed to challenge Drayce. That was the look that intrigued him...

About a Dragon by A.J. Llewellyn

TV writer Teddy Greist thinks he’s met the perfect guy. The man with the unusual name of Song Smith is so wonderful, Teddy couldn’t have written him better. He’s sexy, soulful, full of ambition, and—oh, no, Teddy soon realizes—just a little bit crazy.

Just as Teddy’s getting comfortable with the idea of being in love and having his hit show Oahu P.D. on the air at the same time, Song suddenly confesses to some weird family curse, then dumps Teddy faster than a bowl of soggy chicken dumplings.

Song is wild about Teddy, who’s changing his life in so many ways. But will Teddy still love him in return when he learns just how demented Song’s family really is? Can their budding romance survive the twisted tale of his father’s disappearance? And what will Teddy say when it becomes all too clear it has a lot to do with strings, sealing wax, and other fancy stuff?

Oh, and one more thing—it’s all about a dragon, too.

Genres: Gay/Contemporary Fantasy/Shapeshifter/The Arts/Action/Adventure
Heat Level: 3

Length: Novella (27k words) 

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...Song retrieved his car from the parking lot, trying not to fret over the ridiculous twenty-five dollar parking fee. Of course, the valet guy expected a tip on top of it. He gave him a few bucks, which was more than the tourists would have given him, and went to The Modern. That wasn’t easy, considering all the one-way streets. And then, when he arrived at the hotel, he feared that Teddy would have had his car blocked from parking there, but everyone was nice as usual.

Song raced up to the room, but Teddy wasn’t there. Neither was Vic. It didn’t look like Teddy had come back after finishing work. Where was he? Who was he with?

He called him on his cell phone, but Teddy’s voice mail was full.

Something was wrong. He felt it. Song paced. He checked Teddy’s Instagram account, and saw that he’d posted a photo earlier from a restaurant table. The image was startling. A rowdy bunch of male ducks were trying to mate with a female duck, and a waiter from the restaurant was fighting the ducks away with a dish cloth.

Courtship Hawaiian-style had been Teddy’s caption.

Song stared hard at the photo. He thought he recognized the wooden tabletop, but maybe he was wrong. He was certain Teddy was at Haleiwa Joe’s, the North Shore seafood restaurant he’d introduced Teddy to. He called the main number, and the woman at the front desk immediately knew who he was.

“Oh, you mean the nice guy with the dog? Yeah, they were on the patio for a couple of hours. They just left. I think he’s on his way home. Said he had work to do.”

“Thank you,” Song said, the most sincere words he’d ever said. He sat on the bed and waited, guesstimating that it would take Teddy thirty minutes to make it back here. It was the longest wait of his life. He rehearsed over and over in his mind how he would tell Teddy about the dragon.

How to explain? He said the words aloud. They sounded dumber than the customer service script at Chen & Yeung. The words were ludicrous.

But Teddy took close to an hour to return and his initial joy at seeing Song seemed to turn to anguish when he said, “Why did you leave and why did you come back?”

“I left because I love you. And I came back because I love you.”

Teddy looked at him for a long moment. And then he smiled. “I love you, too. Idiot.”

“Let’s see if you still feel that way when I tell you about the dragon...”

Dragons, Diamonds, and Discord by Angel Martinez

(Part of the Brandywine Investigations series)

The most valuable pieces of jewelry are vanishing from the god Hermes’ Manhattan stores and the security feeds pick up only clouds of smoke. While the god of thieves, messengers, and commerce doesn’t appreciate someone stealing from him, he’s intrigued by this thief’s ingenuity and skill. When Hermes enlists his family to trap his burglar, he gets the surprise of his immortal life.

Fafnir just wants to be left alone. Doomed over the centuries to a never-ending cycle of violent death and painful rebirth, he had hoped to find an escape in the quiet life of author and illustrator. But there are forces at work he doesn’t understand, and his peace is shattered by the return to old cycles and the sudden interference of a beautiful and incredibly irritating Greek god.

Genres: Gay/Contemporary Fantasy/Shapeshifter/The Arts/Action/Adventure/Suspense/Thriller/
Series
Heat Level: 3

Length: Extended Novella (39k words) 

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...The last of the daytime lights shut down in succession, signaling the departure of the last employee. Velvet dark descended, with only the security lights illuminating the empty cases and the exits. The presumed target, locked away in the safe behind the case, was a marquis cut pink diamond of incredible clarity, set in a choker of white diamonds and pearls. According to Hermes’ calculations, this was indeed the third most expensive piece for sale in the city. The most expensive one left now, actually.

“I hate waiting,” Dio whispered as he hunkered behind the screen.

Hermes shot him an irritated look. “Yeah. Big shock. Why are you here, again?”

“I think they stole your sense of humor, too,” Dio grumbled.

That hit too close to home. Hermes ran a hand over the back of his neck as he tried his best to unclench every tightened muscle. “Sorry. You came to help. That was uncalled for. There’s something wrong about this whole thing. Has me in knots.”

“’S’Okay. After we catch the creep, why don’t you bring your guitar, come jam for a few hours? I’ve got some good red stocked. We could see if Orpheus is up for it, too.”

Hermes bumped shoulders with his favorite brother. “Thanks. That might be just the thing. Let’s see what happens here first, right?”

Dark eyes huge in the dim light, Dio nodded and quieted. Yes, he was the family party boy, but he was also still half-wild. His nerves would be humming with the thrill of the hunt. There was the difference, Hermes realized. Zack, Dio, Uncle Hades, even Charon—they were all hunters and warriors. This sort of set up excited them, invigorated them. Hermes, jittery and slightly nauseous, was starting to think he should have waited in the van with Hephaestus.

An hour passed, then half an hour more. Just as he was convincing himself his thief had taken the night off, the door to the employee entrance clicked. Alarms should have sounded. Either the person had a key and the alarm codes, or the thief had disabled the system.

Or they were already in place before my staff left? But he’d still have to disable the alarm. Maybe I have to start designing magic-proof security systems. Wonder how much of a market there would be?

Dio gripped his arm and pointed. A shadow slid along the far wall, possibly a large man, but the strange lighting could have added the perception of mass to a small one. The shadow stopped. Soft hissing drifted across the room, the same they had heard on the sound reconstruction the previous evening. And cue the smoke…

Creepers of gray slid along the floor toward the safe. They climbed over the cases, moving, ethereal vines obscuring the glass, and edged up the walls to block the security cameras. The soft rhythmic hissing slowly evolved into whistling, Peer Gynt again, but the more haunting melancholy of “Solveig’s Song” instead of the Mountain King’s menace. Strange choice. The whistling became humming, the thief making no effort to hide his heavy footfalls. Hermes caught a glimpse of Doc Martens, size thirteen at least, before the boots vanished into the smoke surrounding the little room with the safe.

Tumblers clicked. The clank of a safe handle echoed through the smoke-shrouded quiet. That strange hollow laugh, bone deep and mirthless, emanated from the vicinity of the presumably open safe.

“Now, Zagreus!” Uncle Hades bellowed. A sharp snap followed, then the susurration of thousands of metallic links swiftly dragged upward. The thief’s roar rattled cases, an impotent storm of fury as Heph’s magical golden net snared him and hoisted him, struggling and snarling, toward the ceiling.

Hermes uncoiled from behind his screen, prepared to confront this being who dared to steal from a god, even indirectly...

Dragon Herder by K.M. Mahoney

Torgny may be a burly, uncivilized mercenary, but even he has his limits. Hired to rid a village of a dragon, Torgny gets quite a shock when he finds the marauding menace is a tiny pink dragon named Jezebel, who takes one look at him and decides she’s found a new best friend. Much to the annoyance of her handler, Noel, who seems to believe most people are prejudiced idiots.

Torgny’s not sure Noel’s wrong about people, but he would really like to be the exception to that opinion. Noel is tall and attractive, and Torgny falls into a case of instant lust.

When Noel decides it’s time to move the dragons to safety, Torgny tags along, determined to explore this attraction between them. It’s a journey fraught with danger, interfering gods, and rambunctious baby dragons, but if they can survive, they might just find a life for which neither realized they were seeking.

Genres: Gay/Fantasy/Shapeshifter
Heat Level: 2

Length: Extended Amber Kiss (17k words) 

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...A small noise caught his ear, too deliberate for any wildlife. Torgny paused, hand going to the sword hilt resting between his shoulder blades. He sniffed the air.

Yep, he was definitely going in the right direction. The faint smell of brimstone floated on the air, as well as something infinitely more appealing—roasting meat. Torgny dropped his arm and waited. It didn’t take long.

“Stay right where you are.” A dagger pressed into the small of his back.

Torgny sighed in annoyance. Why did everyone always move straight to violence? Didn’t anyone say “good day” anymore? “Would you put that away?”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“Actually, what I would like is if you’d move it about an inch higher and a little to the left. I’ve got an itch I can’t reach.”

The knife point wavered. Torgny amused himself by imagining the look of disbelief on the man’s face.

Then the sharp point pressed in again. “Stop trying to distract me. What are you doing up here?”

“I came to—Jezebel!”

A round of excited squealing preceded the small creature. She galloped out of a bush in all her vibrant pink glory and headed straight for him. It was quite the sight. She kept trying to fly, but her little wings weren’t quite up to the task. All she could manage was a kind of running flop and tumble.

“Jezebel, get back home!”

The dragon ignored her keeper and kept rushing forward until her small snout bumped Torgny’s leg. Tiny claws pricked at his skin as she climbed him like a tree.

“Hey there, little girl.”

Jezebel chirped, and he could almost hear the words in her chatter. He laughed and stroked one tiny wing as she wrapped around his neck and nuzzled behind his ear.

“Goddamn traitorous dragon.” The knife was removed, the tall, slender man stepping into view. “Hurt her and I’ll finish what I started,” he warned.

“Not with that little toy, you won’t.”

“Toy?”

Huh. He hadn’t noticed before, but the man dressed in leathers and covered in dirt was actually kind of pretty. Especially when his cheeks flushed red with emotion. His dark blond hair was pulled back into a messy braid, and his brown eyes were huge in a face as narrow as his body.

Jezebel was busy purring in Torgny’s ear, so he flashed his best and brightest smile. “I was looking for you, you know...”