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An Excerpt From: DRAGON’S RISE
© Copyright TIELLE ST. CLARE, 2004.
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave, Inc.

Kei stepped cautiously toward the dragon’s lair, his sword bared and held loose in his right hand. He hated to enter a dragon’s home with a sword drawn but with this particular one, he needed to be prepared. The dragon had kidnapped four women in the past two weeks, snatching them from fields and farms, even the center of town. The creature had become the terror that legends warned. And Kei needed to stop him.
He had to see if he could talk to it first. He didn’t want to destroy the dragon but there might not be another choice. He stopped at the entrance to the cave, marveling again that he himself might have ended up in a place like this, if Lorran hadn’t saved him. Accepted him. Seduced him, really. He smiled at the memory and Nekane rumbled pleasurably inside his head. In the ten years since Kei had been bitten by a dragon and the animal had become a part of him, he’d learned to adapt to the creature who shared his soul. They’d adapted to each other.
Kei tilted his head to the side and listened, hoping for some sign that the dragon was sleeping or pacing. Any sound that the dragon was in his lair.
Instead, there was a rustle of leaves behind him.
Kei whipped around, crouched, sword ready.
Wide green eyes met his and both froze. Kei was the first to recover.
“By the Hells, Bren, what are you doing here?” he demanded of his oldest son. The boy, serious even at this young age, pulled his shoulders ...