A Look at “Rex”- A YA Fantasy

In seventeen year old Dakota Kekoa’s line of work, a job can go bad in a split second.

And when a job goes bad, people die.

Suspended from working as a tax collector in her draconic family’s protection racket, Dakota is assigned a secret mission from her grandfather. A foreign queen has offered a grave insult to Dakota’s grandfather by running a vampire dinner cruise off the coast of the Mabiian Islands, and his retribution must be swift.

Yet, when Dakota infiltrates the ship ‘Crimson Sunset’, nothing is at it seems. In a split second, not only is Dakota in deathly peril, all of New Anglo is on the road to war.

Author Bio

Rita Stradling is the author of The Deception Dance series, the Dakota Kekoa series and The Fourteen Day Soul Detox Serial. She has a BA in Art History and a particular love for modern and medieval art.

Rita lives with her husband and son in Northern California.

She has an insatiable novel addiction and mostly reads young adult and adult: romance, paranormal, urban fantasy and high fantasy.

Links

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Rex-Dakota-Kekoa-Book-2-ebook/dp/B01ICAW8X6/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28597378-rex

Author Website: http://ritastradling.wixsite.com/rita-stradling-books

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book Excerpts

Excerpt #1

“What is your name?” Harrison asked me, drawing my attention back to him.

I gave him a small smile. “Does it matter?”

“Yes, I’d like to know.”

“You like your regional cuisine to have a name?” I raised an eyebrow at him.

His jaw clenched. “My brother is an idiot. I don’t feel the same way about humans as he does.”

As Harrison stepped closer, I felt my heartbeat quicken. I should be talking him out of biting me. I should be telling him I have some horrible communicable disease. I should be pulling out my gun. Instead, I was staring at his mouth, curious about how it would feel to have his fangs puncture my neck.

It would be a bold move, bold enough that perhaps Wyvern would dissolve the contract.

Harrison’s chest was inches from mine and I knew that this was the moment for me to voice an objection. There were about a thousand reasons why I should do everything in my power to stop him.

Yet, ever since that moment I broke things off with Wyvern, I’d felt lost, so much more alone than I’d ever been before Wyvern blasted through my life. For the first time in a long time, standing here in this very dangerous situation with this very dangerous stranger, I didn’t feel lonely.

Harrison’s hands touched my arms and gently moved up and down. “You’re shivering, are you cold?”

“No,” I whispered, looking up at him.

“Tell me your name.” His gaze again moved over my face slowly.

“I don’t want to have a name right now, please.” My heart picked up speed as he leaned in.

Adrenaline and a dangerous curiosity pumped through me from my stomach and I let my head fall to the side just slightly, showing him my neck.

Harrison’s canines lengthened as his head moved forward.

Excerpt #2

The look Wyvern turned on me was full of heat and interest, as if I’d shut the door hoping for a make-out session. I needed to squash that right now.

“Wyvern,” I snapped. “No more kissing, hand holding, or holding me for more than like a minute, okay? This is getting out of hand. We’re friends.”

“But a minute is okay?” he asked, with a mischievous smile. In an instant he had his arms wrapped tightly around me and I was pressed to his chest. “Because a minute is a pretty long time to hold you, let me show you: one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand…” His arms moved up and down my back as he spoke.

“Ugh, ten seconds, you can hold me for no longer than ten seconds,” I said.

He leaned back, looking down at me, “What if it was ten second kisses instead.”

I swallowed hard. “No kissing.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, leaning in so close I could smell his sweet, spicy breath.

I nodded, glancing between his eyes and his lips.

“Not even for this long?” he asked as his lips came down and brushed gently against mine for one second.

When he pulled back, I nodded again, then remembering what he asked, and I shook my head instead.

“How about for this long?” His lips met mine with a sudden hungry intensity that I wasn’t expecting. His hands buried in my hair while his lips pushed against mine, sucking on my lower lip before his tongue entered my mouth.

I lifted to my toes, unable to stop myself from kissing back. I grabbed onto his jacket and opened my mouth to his kiss. My lips were as hungry on his as his were on mine.

My breaths were coming hard and fast when he broke away. “You play so dirty,” I whispered.

“I always will.” He grabbed me, holding me tightly against him. “I’ve missed you so much, Dakota,” he whispered into my hair.

It was like I could literally feel him reeling me back in. And it wasn’t with one of those cheap plastic fishing lines either, he was reeling me in with a giant net. It didn’t matter how much I struggled, the net would always win.

Excerpt #3

Wyvern vanished.

One minute there was a growing mass of limbs the size of a mid-sized car sprawling across the golf course lawn, the next, only my little eastern portal purse sat nestled in the grass. That strange shimmering line between us did not vanish, it instead changed its direction to lead straight down to the ground.

I looked back up to my uncle Glacier.

He shook his head ever so slightly. “Do not even think about it. That’s an order Dakota!”

“I’m suspended from taking orders!” I dove for the purse. A second later, three bodies smacked into mine, pining me to the ground.

When one of my not-so-well-known uncles and cousin soldiers wrested me into showing both my hands, Glacier looked at my closed mouth where I had already shoved the purse in, sticking my tongue through the portal.

I looked up at Glacier, seeing the pure terror wafting off his soul as he shoved his fingers into the sides of my jaw. His soul was a solar flare of fear; I’d never seen so much fear condensed into one place before. His thumbs dug into the sides of my face.

Even though I was sure I was going to have two perfect bruises, I locked my jaw.

“Damn it, Dakota!”

I straightened my lips into a sort-of smile. I couldn’t help it; I’d never heard Glacier swear before in my entire life.

“Don’t do this! At least let me go with you!” he shouted in my face.

I shook my head, sudden tears coursing down my face. My last thought was, ‘oh gods, I hope Wyvern cleared a path for me,’ as my body was suddenly stretched like a noodle and pulled through the portal.