Night of the Highland Dragon
By Isabel Cooper
Highland Dragons, Book #3
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Release Date: June 2nd, 2015
Genre: Historical Paranormal/Dragon Shapeshifter
Length: 352 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-402284731
ASIN: B00SG8TG44
About the book:
Then the leader roared and
rushed forward, and the rest followed his lead. It was an answer, just not the
one Judith had wanted. “I did my best,” she muttered, not sure if she was
speaking to William or the robbers or her own conscience. Then she gave herself
over to the moment.
“They say,” said the girl,
“that people disappear up there. And I heard that the lady doesna’ ever grow
any older.”
“The lady?” William asked.
“Lady MacAlasdair. She lives
in the castle, and she’s been there years, but she stays young and beautiful
forever.”
In the Scottish Highlands,
legend is as powerful as the sword—and nowhere is that more true than in the
remote village of Loch Aranoch. Its mysterious ruler, Judith MacAlasdair, is
fiercely protective of her land—and her secrets. If anyone were to find out
what she really was, she and her entire clan would be hunted down as monsters.
William Arundell is on the
trail of a killer. Special agent for an arcane branch of the English
government, his latest assignment has led him to a remote Highland castle and
the undeniably magnetic lady who rules there. Yet as lies begin to unravel and
a dark threat gathers, William finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the
mystery of the Highlands…and the woman he can neither trust nor deny.
He prays she isn’t the
murderer; he never dreamed she was a dragon.
This June marks the release of The Night of the Highland Dragon, the third in Isabel Cooper’s fantastic paranormal Highland Dragon series. To celebrate the release, Isabel is giving us an exclusive peek into some of the MacAlasdair’s more interesting ancestors – some of them may even appear in future books of the series!The Ancient One, The Ancestor, “Raven”, Ravi (dates unknown)Ancestor at least to the MacAlasdair line, and possibly to other families of shapeshifting dragons, this…being…had a friendly relationship with the servant of a Roman merchant travelling through Persia around 300 BC. Her account and that of her master, such as they are, suggest that he at least looked Indian, that he was more considerate than the average man in his situation, and also that he seemed both amused and occasionally startled by most facets of human life. Both Indian and Chinese mythology speak of dragons or snakes that can take human form; both mythologies suggest that these beings are close to divine in nature.
EXCERPT
From the soot-stained sides
of the alley, shadows emerged and became men. Judith counted five: big fellows,
all of them, and at least two openly carried long knives. She let out all her
breath, hissing it through her teeth, and took a step back.
“It’s all right,” William
said, putting a hand on her arm. Oh, good: he was going to try and be
protective. This day was going wonderfully. He turned to the men. “Very sorry
to disturb you. We’ll just be on our way.”
Protective and diplomatic.
Even better.
“Don’t move,” growled one of
the larger men. “Don’t run. Don’t scream. You’d better not scream. Nobody’d
hear you. Nobody’d come anyway.”
Even from a distance, he reeked
of drink. His eyes were glassy, and he grinned when he spoke in a way that
Judith didn’t like at all. Neither did she like the way the others were looking
at him, taking their cues. On their own, sober, any of them might have been
reasonable. Right now she could feel the avalanche building.
Judith took more quick
inventory. The men would probably catch up quickly if they tried to run. The
alley was dark, and the leader was probably right: she’d never known most
people in cities to intervene, and the local constabulary didn’t take much
interest in a neighborhood like this one. She wasn’t armed. She didn’t know if
William had brought whatever weapon he’d been reaching for out at Finlay’s, or
how skilled he was with it if he had. And she was wearing skirts.
She sighed, held still, and
decided to try a little diplomacy of her own. “I’m sure we can settle this
peaceably. Just leave us enough money for tickets home, aye? We’ll hand over
the rest.”
The leader shook his head.
“Won’t need money when we’re done with you. Won’t need to go home, either,” he
said. Judith didn’t recognize what cue he gave, and he didn’t speak, but she
heard footsteps behind her.
Fine, then. Fine.
She whirled, caught the man’s
outstretched hand as he tried to grab her arm—they always tried for the bicep
if you were a woman, devil only knew why—and used his body as a pivot for her
own. Her elbow smashed into his jaw with all her weight behind it. His head
snapped sideways with a cracking sound: his jaw, not his neck, for he yelled in
agony and staggered back, clutching the side of his face.
There was no time to see
William’s reaction.
“Are we finished—” she
started to ask.
About the AuthorDuring the day, Isabel Cooper maintains her guise as a mild-mannered project manager in legal publishing. In her spare time, she enjoys video games, ballroom dancing, various geeky hobbies, and figuring out what wine goes best with leftover egg rolls. Cooper lives with two thriving houseplants in Boston, Massachusetts.Website: http://www.isabelcooper.org/
I like dragon, werewolf or some type of big cat. :)
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