Title: Bones and Bourbon
Author: Dorian Graves
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: April 23, 2018
Heat Level: 1 - No Sex
Pairing: No Romance
Length: 102000
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Ace, bisexual, trans, faeries, dark, immortals
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Synopsis
Half-huldra Retz Gallows is having an
awful day. First, he wakes up in the middle of driving to who-knows-where with
an angry unicorn head in his passenger seat. This is almost normal, thanks to a
lifetime of sharing a body with Nalem, a bone-controlling spirit with a
penchant for wicked schemes and body-stealing joyrides. It’s probably a bad
idea to ask what else could go wrong.
Jarrod Gallows left home with plans to
rescue his little brother from possession. Instead, he got saddled with a
dead-end job as a paranormal investigator, a Faerie curse, and a daredevil
boyfriend who might be from another world. At least he’s got a new job—except
why is his brother Retz here and why does this sudden reunion feel more like a
bane than a blessing?
This day’s going to get worse for the
Gallows brothers before it gets better. To survive, they’ll have to escape the
forces controlling them, as well as the wrath of carnivorous unicorns,
otherworldly realms, and even their own parents. Only time will tell if they’ll
make it out alive…or sober.
Excerpt
Bones and Bourbon
Dorian Graves © 2018
All Rights Reserved
Chapter One: Retz
I woke up right when the teeth clamped
down on my arm, which made me crank the wheel and almost ram into a guardrail
before I realized I was driving. Neither of these things surprised me because
it wasn’t the first time I’d woken up just in time to feel the hurt for
whatever it was I’d unconsciously done.
What did surprise me was the identity of
my attacker: a lone unicorn head. No body to speak of, just flaring nostrils,
bloodshot eyes, and two rows of long, sharp teeth that wouldn’t have looked out
of place on a shark.
I did the stupid thing and kept driving
while I tried to shake the unicorn head off me. Why? Because I’m Retz Gallows,
and I’d learned by then that even if I had no idea what I was doing when I woke
up, I needed to get the job done first and ask what the fuck happened later.
I focused on the teeth that had broken
through my skin (and my favorite shirt to boot) and were just striking my arm
bones. My first order of business was strengthening my skeleton so the
unicorn’s jaw couldn’t snap anything in half. It took just a few seconds for
the bones to fortify, heavier but sturdy as stone. The unicorn gnawed my arm as
if it were a chew toy. It snorted in confusion, both because of the sudden
change and the fact that there was no blood or muscles in the way.
In case such wasn’t obvious, I’m not human.
Well, not all the way. My father was a man of flesh, blood, and too many
weapons hidden on him at any given time. But my mother was a huldra; her body
was hollow, but she could still punch hard enough to stop a truck in its
tracks. I’d seen her do it before too, though sadly, I hadn’t inherited nearly
the same strength.
I imagined how nice it’d be if the
unicorn’s teeth were fragile enough to crumble. As I did, bits of teeth stayed
buried in my arm as the pieces fell apart, and the unicorn’s head fell
unceremoniously into the passenger seat.
No, I hadn’t inherited the ability to
control bones, even though sensing them was as natural to me as seeing and
hearing. It’s a power my family wishes I’d never been given. But since I was
pretty sure the unicorn head was no longer a threat, I decided it was time to
ask the source of my powers what was going on.
“Nalem, you’d better not be asleep. Mind
telling me where the hell we are?”
A deep, smooth voice purred an answer
back in my head, “If you had bothered to look at the sign we just passed, you’d
realize we’re in Oregon.”
“In case you didn’t notice, I was a bit
preoccupied.”
A chuckle reverberated in my skull, and
I felt the false sensation of my arms stretching, the ghost of Nalem’s actions.
“Of course I did. I can tell when you’re borrowing my powers—and besides, who
do you think left the head in here in the first place?”
I rounded another corner as the
aforementioned head tried to headbutt my arm, horn-first. I realized I couldn’t
affect the horn with my powers—it wasn’t quite bone, but something more magical
that slipped away from my senses whenever I tried. So I just hardened my bones
again and ignored the attack as I took in the scenery. True enough, we were on
a half-paved road in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by evergreens that tried
to block out the bright blue sky. It was late July, so deep into summer that
not even Oregon’s fondness of rain kept the heat away. My windows were rolled
down, seeing as the AC in my ancient Buick had died out long ago.
“Two questions, then. Where are we
going, and why do we have a unicorn head with us?”
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Meet the Author
Much like Sasquatch and other local cryptids, Dorian Graves can supposedly be found in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. Few have ever seen Dorian, but investigators have found trails of plot notes scribbled on receipt paper if they followed the distant sounds of old Blue Öyster Cult albums long enough. There have also been reports of Dorian lurking around the Mills College campus in Oakland, CA, where Dorian was last seen scurrying away with a B.A. in English/Creative Writing. Dorian occasionally crawls out of the woodworks with offerings of fiction, strange and fantastical stories with equal parts humor and horror, but often retreats quickly unless bribed with coffee and bad puns.When not writing or working “the other day job,” Dorian lives with a romantic partner and a mischievous cat. Dorian Graves can be convinced to sit still if given art supplies, games of all sorts, or a selection from the ever-growing TBR pile. Dorian can be more reliably found on www.doriangraves.com, where one can find artwork, fiction, and whatever inane topic Dorian feels like rambling about this week.
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