good urban fantasy

What a storm! An ice storm ripped through my area, and we were without power for a bit. But it gave me time to re-read Three Little Words.

The Order of the Dragon Series

The great thing about writing books is that I always have something to read. This weekend, I decided to dive back into my Order of the Dragon series. This fun urban fantasy series stars a novice vampire, who always seems to find herself in one pickle or another.

Each book in the series, of course, helps to take her along, and the reader discovers more about her and her new world, just as she does. As a woman in her mid to late thirties, well, she has a lot to say. Yes, the snark ensues, and her ghostly Gran and sister are their for the ride into the supernatural.

Yesterday, I decided to reread my book, Three Little Words.

Slow burn romance, Urban Fantasy action adventure, character and world growth!

OMG! Can I just say how much I loved this book (and not because I wrote it)? I totally loved how everything was tied up, but there is still so much happening in the world, and the slow burn romance between Leslie and Alistair!

I also can’t wait for the author (ahem, me), to reveal more about what is going on with Claudine!

So, I pulled out this excerpt for your reading pleasure.

Excerpt from Three Little Words

Let me set the scene. We are at Leslie’s birthday party, when sh*t is about to get real:

A deafening gust of wind whipped into the room like someone had opened a portal, genie’s bottle, heck, for all I knew it was a storm in a bottle unleashed.

       The laughter turned to screams as a piercing, maniacal cry moved into the space. “Summoned by thee, summoned three, destruction bringeth we.” Three apparitions whipped into the apartment. Their ragged black capes fluttered behind them, and with gnarled claws bearing silver blades on their fingertips, they moved outward and attacked. Some they held in a beam of light, as if sucking the life from them, while their victims remained standing, paralyzed. I watched one Rudy Rupert change—his face turned from healthy, blushing red, to white, to now gray. His cheeks slowly sank in.

       The room moved in slow motion. With all the power present, our will to survive should have sent us into overload. Instead, I turned and saw Alistair push forward ultra-slowly, knocking the old table over that took forever to crash onto the antique carpet.

       But they must have only been the appetizer to destruction. Then entered what must have been a man dressed up like a white rabbit. His costume was stained with dirt as if he’d crawled out of a grave. The stench of decomposition mixed with old blood. His neck hung at an odd angle. His abdomen exploded, and a blood-soaked goblin stepped out. The rabbit crashed to the floor, unmoving.

Covered in glopping goop, this goblin’s body was as slick as a dolphin’s. Every muscle and connecting tissue was visible, like a human body had been turned inside out. Hairless, his face was pulled tightly, his eyes wide apart, his teeth pointy and sharp. Just like the wraiths, his long fingers resembled talons with blades as nails.

       “I’ve come to grant you a new life, just as you wished,” he croaked.

       “I didn’t summon you.”

       “Are you afraid?” he reached out a talon. “I can show you the life you were always meant to have. Come join me, Leslie.”

       I willed magic to appear, a ball of something to throw to protect those I loved. I turned to see Claudine cowering in the corner, Gran slowly shifting to her pirate form, Alistair still trying to move, and Killian even in the middle of a wolf transformation.

       “Does your magic not work?” He clicked two of his fingernails together, and the blades sparked until his hand glowed orange.

       “Let me fix that!” He impaled me with his burning hand. I threw my head back, pain consuming me as though the fire peeled off one layer of skin at a time. He lifted me high, and I looked him in the unflinching eye.

       “And you are the one to save us? How, when you can’t save yourself?”

       I raised my hands, and they glowed white.

       “Yes, we shall break you, Leslie.”

       He then slammed me down.

       I opened my mouth, and a roar erupted. My body convulsed in pain. Stretching out, I wrapped my hands around his wrist and watched it burn. Absorbing the power around me, every fiber of my being lit up until all that could erupt was the pain, the hurt, and a light I couldn’t control.

       The building shook, the windows cracked.

       “Leslie,” I heard Alistair yell my name, “No.”

       But it was too late. I’d said those three little words and f*cked us all.

***

Inspiration

One reason I love this series is that it combines different mythologies (this book in the series includes a tokoloshe from Zuli/Xhosa mythology, dryads from Greek mythology, Wendigo from the First Nation Algonquin tribes), our legends (for this one it includes the famous Vlad the Impaler), and stays faithful to the idea of the supernatural world being diverse, hidden, and multifaceted.

I can let my imagination run free.

With the ice storm leaving the area, I hope this week to again be able to dive into the next book in the series, Four Times the Fight, and keep the magic coming!

Woot!

Of course, if you haven’t read Three Little Words, then grab it and discover the rest of the series thus far!