Stalked
by Flames
Dragon’s
Breath Series
Book
One
Susan
Illene
Genre: Urban Fantasy/New Adult
Date of Publication: ebook- July
27th, 2015
Date of Publication: audio-
September 24th, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9863361-0-2
ASIN: B012O4NCSQ
Number of pages: 484
Word Count: 101,000
Cover Artist: Jeff Brown Graphics
and Claudia at Phatpuppy Art
Book Description:
Bailey Monzac has just graduated
college and is leaving town for her parents’ ranch in Texas when a massive
earthquake unleashes the unthinkable on the world: fire-breathing dragons.
Chaos erupts as people flee for
their lives, and Bailey survives only because she is somehow immune to the
dragons’ flames. In the midst of the mayhem, Bailey is helped by a
shape-shifting dragon named Aidan, who recognizes Bailey is a dragon slayer and
will be an essential ally in the power struggle between—and within—the dragon
clans.
Natural disasters intensify and
dragons lay waste to the world as civilization all but collapses amid the loss
of electricity and running water. Roving gangs prowl the debris-filled streets,
and Bailey and her friends manage to find refuge in the university library. As
her relationship with Aidan deepens during private training sessions, Bailey
must learn to harness her newfound skills or see everything she knows and loves
destroyed.
Stalked by Flames is a gritty
urban fantasy about a woman’s journey into a dark new reality she never could
have imagined.
Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/VjxCyQLsBkg
Available at Amazon
Excerpt:
The dragon
stomped toward me on all four legs, steam puffing from his nostrils. His nose
was as big as both my fists put together. I grabbed a brick off the ground and
clutched it in my hand. Maybe I should have tried to run—a normal person would
have—but being attacked by dragons had spiked my adrenaline.
Whenever that
happened, it was as if another side of me took over. I became someone who
fought and stood her ground. More than once my stepfather had marveled at my
ability to compartmentalize fear and think clearly when in danger. My mother
hated it. She feared it would get me hurt or killed someday.
I grew up on a
ranch outside of Dallas where we had a lot of land. When I was ten years old,
I’d decided to go out fishing by myself. Along the path to a nearby pond, I
stumbled across a rattlesnake. Most people would have run screaming, especially
a girl my age. I chucked a heavy tackle box at the thing. That didn’t kill it,
of course, but it immobilized the snake’s body long enough for me to beat it to
death with my fishing pole.
That’s how my
stepfather had found me. Hovering over a mangled snake and pondering whether to
get my tackle box back. It had blood and guts all over it. Killing a poisonous
snake was one thing, touching icky stuff was another.
Now I had an
honest-to-God dragon coming at me and once again I refused to panic. I needed
to weigh my options. With my back against a wall, there was nowhere to go
before he’d reach me, but there had to be a way out of this mess. Did the
dragon have a weakness I could exploit? Something to buy me time until I could
get to a safe place?
I glanced at my
brick—it was all I had. A heat-seeking missile would have been preferable, but
no one had told me we were about to get invaded by mythical beasts, so I didn’t
have one on hand. I looked up at the sky and wished a bolt of lightning would
strike my opponent. The storm wasn’t close enough to make that a possibility
yet. Not that I’d get that lucky.
The red-scaled
dragon lumbered closer, less than ten feet away. His gaze still didn’t show any
signs of wildness or rage in it. The tilting of his head made me think he was
curious more than anything. It’s what stayed my hand as he lowered his head to
sniff at my legs. The heat emanating from his breath warmed the skin on my
calves.
I stared down
and noted once again that my jeans had been burned off to my upper thighs. The
sandals I’d been wearing earlier were missing, too. How had I lost half my
clothes? There weren’t any signs of burns, only scratches and bruises.
The dragon
inspected all of this as his head inched upward. His hot nose tickled the skin
of my thighs and he let out a puff of steam near my crotch. Okay, that was just
a little too uncomfortable. I smacked his nose.
“Back off!”
He shook his
head and let out a snort, then reared onto his hind legs. Flames licked up his
body, consuming him. Standing only three feet away, there was no escape from
the heat. I scrambled along the wall sideways, putting as much distance between
us as I could. What had just happened? Did smacking dragons in the nose trigger
some weird reaction?
The flames
narrowed and became brighter. Then a dark shape emerged within them that had me
tripping over my own feet to get away. It looked demonic—like something
straight out of Hell. There was standing my ground and then there was being
stupid.
I spun on my
heels and took off down the sidewalk that lay between the library and the
building next to it. A growl echoed down the corridor—a really angry one. I
passed by bushes and benches that provided no cover from a menacing dragon and
kept going. There were plenty of paths to take up ahead if I could just get
past the library. The damned building seemed to extend forever.
Through the
racing of my heart, I caught heavy footsteps behind me. They didn’t clomp the
same way as the dragon’s and sounded more like boots on pavement. Glancing
back, I saw a man with feral yellow eyes wearing strange clothing. The red
dragon was nowhere to be seen. Shivers raced down my spine as I realized this
guy’s attention was focused solely on me and he was racing toward me fast.
Where had he come from?
About
the Author:
Susan Illene served in the US
Army for eleven years and worked as a human resources specialist and an Arabic
linguist. She served two deployments to Iraq, and after leaving the army, she
studied history at the University of Oklahoma. She and her husband currently
live in Oklahoma with two high-maintenance cats doing their best to help her
write her books.
Visit her at
Website: http://www.susanillene.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SusanIllene1
Twitter: https://twitter.com/susan_illene
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