Southern Fried Dragon

SOUTHERN

FRIED

DRAGON

a Civil War Paranormal Romance

by Nancy Lee Badger

Copyright © 2012 by Nancy Lee Badger

Revised November 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system-except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine, newspaper, or on the Web without permission in writing from the publisher. All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. SW

Cover illustration copyright © 2012Florina Romoser

Dedication

To those who put on a uniform, not knowing what the future might bring, I salute you all.

Books by Nancy Lee Badger

Clan of Dragons

Spark

Smoke

Smolder

Kilted Athletes Through Time

My Lady Highlander

My Dark Highlander

My Hunted Highlander

White Mountains Thrillers

Shiver

Ignite

Highland Games Through Time

My Honorable Highlander

My Banished Highlander

My Reluctant Highlander

Highland Games Through Time-boxed set

Dragons

Dragon Bites

Southern Fried Dragon

Dragon in the Mist

Dragon’s Curse

Military

Unwrapping Chris

Find all buy Links on Nancy’s Blog

http://nancyleebadger.blogspot.com

The Story

Amid cannon fire, and the threat of Civil War, love and trust will find a way.

Dru Little flew away from her home in a cave beneath a Scottish Island to end her lonely existence and find companionship across the sea. Her journey in late 1860 has led her to the modern American city of Charleston, South Carolina. Hiding her true self, she takes over the life of a serving girl and enjoys the hard life working in a tavern near the wharves. She has no idea that her life will turn upside down in a dark alley the moment a handsome soldier saves her life.

Lieutenant Shaw Stenhouse has his own worries. Southern secessionists are talking up a storm in Charleston. His fellow Federal soldiers are suddenly at risk from the community they are here to protect. The possibility of civil war takes a backseat when he saves a comely lass from drunken sailors. A good deed and a stolen kiss put a smile on his face until the threat of war becomes a reality. Their instant attraction proves disastrous when Dru spots her former lover, the Black Dragon, working for General Beauregard and the southern troops. As the clandestine group plans their attack on Fort Sumter, and Shaw’s soldiers, she takes to the sky.

Dru fights against the threat of detection, while she fears losing Shaw’s love. What will he do when he finds out that she is a powerful Scottish dragon Hell-bent on carrying him to safety? When Shaw discovers her hiding inside the heavily guarded fortress, thoughts of espionage—and worse—catapult the two lovers into danger from many sides.

When her former lover threatens Shaw, Dru must decide which is more important: protecting another of her kind, now nearly extinct, or protecting the human male, the man she has come to love.

CHAPTER 1

Charleston Harbor, South Carolina

December 1860

The men were on her in a heartbeat. They groped, pawed, and mumbled filthy words, expecting Dru Little to welcome their company. Blazes. Just my luck. A trio of smelly, drunken seamen had wandered down the alley behind the inn, moments after she’d stepped outside. How careless to lose awareness of her surroundings simply fetching a bag of flour. Even with her supernatural senses, she’d smelled liquor-tainted breath and soured uniforms too late to avoid the attack.

When a large meaty fist squeezed a breast, she hissed. The hand disappeared, but returned quickly. Her attention swung to another man who yanked the hem of her dress above her knees. She squirmed as she gathered strength to hold her nature at bay. Dru kicked until her booted foot met bone. A dark shape dropped to the dirt.

Bitch.

Dru smiled. Her tongue licked the tips of her lengthening fangs still hidden from her assailants. A third man stepped back, his eyes wide.

Maybe, not so hidden.

The sudden splitting of thin human skin tore a scream from her dry throat. The pain increased each time her talons escaped from beneath her human fingernails.

She grabbed the hand on her breast and squeezed. Its owner howled as the tips of her claws sunk into his flesh.

The satisfaction was short-lived. The man she’d kicked had jumped to his feet only to lunge at her with murder reflected in his lamp-lit eyes. Two filthy hands with calloused fingers encircled her neck before she could take a deep enough breath to summon a ball of flame. A suffocating near-silence, peppered with grunts, enveloped Dru as they pulled her to the ground.

How sad to die in human form. How inexcusable to not have torn the men to pieces before they’d gotten the best of her inner dragon.

Who goes there? A deep voice split the night, and heavy footsteps grew close. A man raced toward them through the darkness. His blue uniform screamed authority. His outraged yell made her attackers pause. When he brandished what she assumed was a sword, the drunks scattered like rats.

Two tripped over each other, then scrambled to their feet, while the stranger’s weapon swooped and slashed. Oddly, Dru’s superior senses did not smell blood. The alley’s rancid odor made her sneeze, which garnered her savior’s attention.

Dru retracted her talons, sat up, and fussed with her hair. The bun she wore while working, required by her employer, had come undone during the drunkards’ attack. She had felt no fear.

I am a dragon.

The scoundrels should thank their lucky stars the soldier’s appearance halted her transformation, or they might have found themselves her late night snack.

When the tall shadow moved and crossed the dark alley to stop in front of her, she smelled the sea. Wild, fresh, and sexy. It enveloped him, a more pleasant smell than the stench of the alley and the three drunkards. He offered his hand.

The hand not holding the weapon. Dru accepted it, now that her fingers had returned to normal. Normal for her human persona, anyway.

The moment they touched, a spark tingled and raced up her arm despite the fact her savior wore gloves. His eyes widened. Had he felt it, too?

He released her and stepped back, then saluted her with his weapon. Dru laughed, the lighthearted and improper sound a welcome change from the stillness after the attack. His weapon was a long, slightly bent loaf of bread.

Lieutenant Shaw Stenhouse, at your service, Ma’am. Nearly breathless, he swept low in an exaggerated bow, then poked through the shadows with his boot. He scooped up the hat she’d seen fly off his head as he ran when he’d brandished his weapon.

Dru laughed again. Pleased to meet ye, young sir. Aye, ye did those men a service.

Pardon?

He ran a hand over his head, straightening his dark hair. Brown or black? Hard to tell beneath the moonlight spilling in the alley. He’d tied it back in a queue, and the piece of coarse hemp rope fluttered in the soft breeze that lacked the strength to clear the fetid smells from the dark alleyway.

Tread lightly with this one, she thought.

I gave as good as I got, sir. They earned a few well-placed bruises this night. I wanted to inflict more, ‘tis all.

He laughed. The low rumble made goose bumps pop along her forearms. Heat spread deep inside her womb. How odd. No human male had ever caused such a reaction, but this male smelled good and was very pleasing to the eye.

She moved several steps back toward the inn’s kitchen door. He followed, still smiling. Candlelight seeped from the kitchen and rewarded Dru with a glimpse of a deep-set pair of sparkling gray eyes.

By his nervous shuffle and backward glances, Dru sensed he had somewhere else to be.

He’d run to her rescue, and she should thank him with more than a few words.

The thought made her lips tremble, itching to taste him. Not as dinner, of course, but as the human male standing before her. When he gazed down at his feet, then back at her mouth, she’d smiled. The weird longing to kiss him senseless was out-of-place in their situation. She planned to pass through this human existence until something better came along. Dru had no need for sexual entanglements.

Not tonight, anyway.

I feel I’m a’keepin’ ye from yer duties, sir.

If they come back—

Fear not, sir. I will not remain outside this night. Where are ye’ headed?

Across the harbor, to Fort Moultrie. I am part of the 1st U. S. Artillery regiment. I travel by boat once a week to the Charleston docks for supplies. He turned and gazed toward the end of the alley facing the harbor. My men are waiting…

When he turned back to face her, Dru tossed her loosened hair over one shoulder and couldn’t help giggling when his eyes tracked the movement. Maggie needs this flour. Maggie? he croaked, as he