Excerpt: Dragon Blues by Edie Ramer

Today's excerpt is the newly released novel by Edie Ramer -- I haven't read this one yet, but the description compelled me buy it and add to my to-be-read list! Check it out:

Once a dragon…
Saxophone player Noah Long shifted from dragon to human 2500 years ago, but the dragon blood still coursing through his veins has kept him healthy and virile. Now his secret is out, and the man who discovered it will do anything to make Noah’s blood his own. Noah’s only ally is martial arts expert Lila Fox, who heats up the fire in his belly…and his heart.

Twice a killer…
Lila Fox’s first kill was at age sixteen after her stepfather put her mother in a wheelchair. Fourteen years later, she kills another abuser to save a woman’s life. When the man who wants Noah’s blood kills her sister, she can’t let the death go unanswered. She teams up with the strangely compelling Noah, and discovers he’s not all man and has a few tricks of his own.

Review:

5 stars! “Edie is brilliant! I love her snarky characters, the humor, the sex, the incredible story and the perfect narration she is able to spin into a single novel. I was on the edge of my seat while savoring another Ramer masterpiece! This comes highly recommended!” – Aimee, Coffee Table Press

From Dragon Blues:

Noah flipped the Open sign to Closed. Triple locked the doors. Turned on the alarm. He trod to the desk, his footsteps nearly soundless on the wood floor, and left the jade dragon and the ring on the desktop instead of locking them away as usual.

Tomorrow. He would put them away tomorrow.

Something tore at his throat, at his chest. A weight pressed down on his shoulders. Darkness devoured him, and he knew its name. Loneliness.

He was a solitary creature by nature, but there was a difference between being alone and lonely. At least this time he knew better than to do something that would make it worse instead of better.

He turned off half the lights, then climbed the back staircase to his rooms above the shop. His furniture in the living room was dark reds and black, and the lamps and the pictures gleamed with touches of gold and silver. A meow came from the black chair in the corner. Mystic, curled up, wisely staying away from the fracas. On the table next to the black chair, a tenor saxophone glimmered in the dusky light.

Noah crossed the room, bent and picked Mystic up. Her body was warm, pliant. He sat, draping her on his lap. She allowed him to pet her, her body rumbling with purrs.

“I have you,” he said. Usually he had more than one cat, but he’d seen too many die. Every death wore on his soul. Even beasts had souls, and sometimes lately he thought his was rubbed down to translucency. Like a fine silk cloth, so thin only threads remained.

A siren wailed outside. Mystic meowed, jumped off him and padded into the kitchen.

He didn’t follow her. He needed something to fill the gaping emptiness inside him. To smooth his rippled emotions. To bring him peace.

A need roared in his chest. Not for food, not for liquor, not for women.

Music. That’s what had kept him sane this all these years. Kept him alive.

He picked up the saxophone, the metal smooth beneath his fingers, bringing him a small measure of peace, mending the torn threads of his soul.

Then he lifted it to his lips, took a breath, closed his eyes and played “Is That All There Is?” The Peggy Lee version. Slow and sexy and sad.

The sounds outside faded, and nothing mattered. Not Beauty, not the thief, not the lonely, lonely years. Just the music that poured through him and out of him. Out of his soul.

When he finished, he sat in the chair for long moments as night invaded the room, darkness falling around him like a magician’s cloak.

“Is that all there is?” he whispered to the silent room. “Is that it?”

A noise answered, someone knocking on the alley door.

___________

Edie Ramer loves her cat so much, she wrote CATTITUDE, a book in which a cat changes bodies with a woman. Edie tried to put herself in her cat's mind. She managed so well it was eerily freakish.

She lives in southeastern Wisconsin with her husband, two dogs, and the original Belle the cat. She started writing in the 1990's, selling short stories in the mystery genre to National magazines and two Women Sleuth books. In addition to non-fiction articles, she wrote verses for greeting cards, and she possesses a drawer filled with cards for any occasion.

She's co-founder of Write Attitude (writeattitude.net), an inspirational website for writers, and a popular group blog, Magical Musings (magicalmusings.com).

You can visit Edie at www.EdieRamer.com.



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