Her Hacker Dragon E-Book

AJ Tipton

• Herausgeber: AJ Tipton
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

A talented hacker. A remarkable scientist. When their community is plagued with sudden deaths, can these two find the cause?Brilliant, transgender shifter Alec Harper is trying to atone for his dark past by dedicating his life to healing humans. When it appears his life-saving drug may actually be a life-taking drug, Alec must race to discover the truth before more innocents die.Vampire scientist Penelope O'Hara has been fascinated by all things supernatural for three hundred years. When Alec saves her from a sudden attack by dragon shifter goons, Penelope is pulled into a dangerous world of hackers, killers, and conspiracies. Logic tells her that the perils of being with someone from the Iron Claws is a bad idea, but her heart commands her to stay.Her Hacker Dragon is an adult paranormal romance novella. If you like daring rescues, sexy science, and a nerdy romance that defies expectations, then you’ll love the fourth installment of the sizzling Her Biker Dragon series.Buy Her Hacker Dragon to nerd out today!The HER BIKER DRAGON books may each be read as standalones. However, you may find they are best enjoyed in the following order:1 Her Valiant Dragon2 Her Delicious Dragon3 Her Rock Star Dragon4 Her Hacker Dragon5 Her Alpha Dragon

Leseprobe

Her Hacker Dragon

A Dragon Shifter & Vampire Romance

AJ Tipton

Illustrated byZamajK

Copyright © 2017 by AJ Tipton

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is for sale to adult audiences only. It contains substantial sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers. All sexually active characters in this work are 18 years of age or older.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and incidents appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is purely coincidental.

Created with Vellum

Dedicated to the transgender community, written with love and respect by two cis women who tried their best.

Two dragon shifters had been following Dr. Penelope O’Hara for blocks. She pulled up the collar of her jacket to hide her vulnerable vampire skin from the sun and ducked under a barbershop’s awning.

Penelope prayed to every god she could think of that she was just being paranoid.

She held her breath as the two heavily-built men continued past her. Three steps. Four. The dragon shifters stopped and turned to talk to each other, one pointing at something on the opposite side of the street while the other just stared at her with his beady eyes.

Fuck me with a fairy wand, Penelope cursed to herself. What could they want with her? She ran through a quick mental list of the research she was conducting back in her lab. Not a single experiment would impact dragons.

So why the tail? She wondered.

If dragon shifters were after her, she needed somebody to get her the fuck out of here. Fast. She scrolled through the contacts list on her phone and sighed. It was dishearteningly barren. Her family had been dead for centuries now, and the rest of the vampire community tended to think anyone who didn’t go clubbing for blood orgies every night was contagiously weird. Penelope tapped on her lab assistant, Bog’s, number.

“Sorry, I’m not here right now,” Bog’s distracted voice sounded after a few rings. “I’m probably asleep. Or working. Or eating. You don’t know. I don’t know. But I don’t check my voicemail, so if you want to talk to me, just send me an email. But I don’t check that very often either. So I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”

Penelope tried calling again, but Bog still didn’t pick up.

I need to make more friends. Penelope stuffed her phone back in her bag and assessed. The sun was blazing strong, sapping Penelope’s vampiric strength enough that a bunny shifter could probably take her out, let alone two dragons. There were no cabs around, and the closest bus stop was miles away. Most of the shops were closed or closing, and the lab was too far to make it on foot before the dragons would be on top of her.

One of the shifters started to stalk toward her and Penelope tried to casually move away from him, just as a beam of sunlight burst from the clouds. It hit her on the cheek and Penelope gasped from the pain of it. The ray hit the entire side of her face, and she could smell the burning flesh.

Stupid son-of-a-harpy sun. She hastily started moving down the street, pulling out the small vial of blood she always kept with her in case of injury.

She flipped open the cap and downed the lukewarm liquid like a shot, trying to avoid the taste. As quickly as she drank it, she still caught the slight aftertaste of the blood’s source: female, human, kind and open-hearted, slightly bored, probably from waiting in a reception area before donating blood. Penelope pushed back the sensations--easier to do with a blood-bag source than directly from the vein--as she felt her cheek return to smooth, healthy skin. She patted down her jacket, confirming what she already knew: that was the only vial she’d packed that morning.

Fucking ball of fire in the sky dicking with me.

Penelope looked around, reviewing a mental map of the city between here and her apartment. There was a supernatural-friendly bar, AUDREY’S, a few blocks up. Penelope felt a fresh burst of energy as a plan formed. If she could get to the bar, there would be enough vampires, shifters, and whatnot there to keep the dragons busy until the sun set and she was strong enough to fight back.

Penelope tried to walk quicker, but the sun felt like a heavy weight against her shoulders. From the corner of her eye, she could see the two dragons moving quicker to keep pace. Of course they don’t mind the sun. Fuckers.

The dragon shifters looked like normal humans at first glance, perhaps a little taller and more muscular than most. One of them had a small cut on the back of his hand. The scent of his blood on the air told Penelope’s nose all she needed to know about him: male, dragon, angry, violent...and frightened? The last one was faint, but definitely there.

If it was night, they would have reason to be scared. Dragons and vampires were about equally matched in strength: her scale-piercing fangs opposite their flames meant that everyone tried to get along. Penelope didn’t need to glance at her watch to know there were a few hours until nightfall, and she would be back to full strength.

“Hello, there. You’d sure be pretty if you smiled,” a rough voice said from so close Penelope nearly stumbled. The shifter without the cut hand had gotten much closer than she’d expected--the fuckers could move a lot faster than her in the daylight--and was walking so near she could smell his blood through his skin: male, dragon, ready for a fight and desperate to prove himself to his superiors.

“Thanks for the valuable life advice,” she said, walking quicker. “I’ll keep it in mind.” There were just a few more blocks before she reached the bar, but fear twisted a knot in Penelope’s chest.

She glanced around. There were too many people around; humans and magical beings hurrying home after work or out to one of the restaurants a few blocks away. If they got into a brawl here, a lot of people could get hurt.

What if that’s their plan? Dragons weren’t famous for their subtlety, and if a fight between a vampire and two dragons took out a city block, Penelope and her lab would come under the kind of close scrutiny from the magical community that she’d been avoiding for years.

Did the covens finally lose patience with my work? Penelope wondered, her sweating hands clenching into fists. She had spent the last three hundred years trying to unlock the scientific foundations of magic. As far as she knew, her lab was the only place on Earth investigating how magic actually worked, rather than blindly accepting that chanting could defy physics.

“Hey lady, my friend just wanted to give you a compliment.” The dragon shifter with the cut hand was now on her other side, herding her in the direction of an alley bathed in dangerous sunlight.

“Your friend needs to get better at sweet talk.” Penelope tried to move away from the shifters, but the first dragon was now blocking her path whenever she tried to walk around him.

Her pulse quickened. This was not good. The men were closing in on her from two directions, leaving the alley the only path not blocked by a wall of sweaty muscle. She didn’t need her four doctorates to know what would happen once she got to that alley.

“Leave me alone, assholes,” she shouted, looking around for anyone close enough to hear and intervene. Everyone was either on their phone, or out of earshot.

Fuck this.

Penelope turned on her heel, pushing through the men with every ounce of her strength. They shifted just enough for her to break through and she sprinted down the street. The sun burned the back of her neck as the collar of her coat bounced with each stride. She could smell her own seared skin.

Adrenaline coursed through her and she ignored the pain. Running under the hot sun was like trying to push her way through taffy. Her chest felt tight and her side ached from the effort, but she kept struggling forward.

“Help! Somebody help me!” she cried, her voice coming out in a gasp. She dashed around corners, trying to shake her pursuers, but their footsteps sounded closer and closer.

A strong hand latched around her elbow and swung her whole body around.

“It’s nothing personal, sweet cheeks,” the man sneered. “Our boss just doesn’t want you around.”