~Excerpt from Shadow's Embrace. We're at Hudson's home and about to meet some of his dragon's.
“Now, come on, you two.
I want to introduce you to some of my people, Austin.”
They followed Hudson to what could only be described as a communal living area/game room. There were several black leather couches set in front of a big screen TV, and on the other side of the room was a pool table.
Several men and women
crowded around the TV playing video games, and two more were at the pool table.
People were snarling
and hissing—either at the TV or at the balls on the pool table—while others egged
them on or laughed good-naturedly at the jokes flying around the room.
The hissing reminded
Austin of the noise a snake made in warning—low and mean. The hair on the back
of his neck stood up. The primitive side of his brain warned that there was
danger and to back away. He clutched Kage’s hand.
He knew there wasn’t a
threat, but good God, that sound. Kage squeezed his hand. The comforting
gesture helped. Some. Okay, not really, considering there were at least six
dragons in the room, and Austin was the only human there—kind of human, at
least. Sort of.
Shit, was it too late
to take a rain check? He was on the verge of dragging Kage out of here.
Hudson cleared his
throat. “Everyone, Kage and Austin are here.”
“Hudson.” Kage’s voice
was low when he spoke Hudson’s name—low and a tad bit growly.
Had Kage picked up on
Austin’s unease? Of course he had. Several heads turned toward him suddenly,
and holy moly, the timing on that was horror movie worthy. A few dragons eyed
Kage.
The intimidating
hissing and snarling came to an abrupt stop. Thank God. Now that his hind brain
had calmed down, two things jumped out at Austin immediately.
Everybody had some
shade of red hair—which was a trait of the Fire Court—and they were all
breathtakingly sexy.
One dragon set his pool
stick down on the table. “Sorry about that. If you’re not used to us, we can
sound a bit daunting.”
Austin didn’t know what
to say without sounding like a smart ass, so he just nodded. It was scary,
but he was in their house. In their territory. He really didn’t have a right to
complain, even if it did freak him out. Jeez, he could live forever without ever
hearing that sound again.
Yeah, he’d take daemons
over dragons any day of the week.
A dragon walked around the
pool table and toward them. “Hey there. My name is Conrad Turner, and I’m Hudson’s assistant.” Conrad
held out his hand. “Welcome to the Redmond Compound, base of the Fire Court.”
