by Rhys Ford
San Diego blurred behind him, steel structures dotted with lit constellations hidden behind the fog coming in. His tongue raked over the inside of my lower lip, tracing its pout. I was shocked to hear a sigh of surrender pour from my throat. I tried to swallow it, but Ryder caught it in his mouth, teasing it away from me.
Pressing further, Ryder coaxed me with long, even strokes of his fingers along my back, arching me into him. Moving until his thighs touched the short wall, he trapped my legs between his, bending down to deepen the kiss. His tongue tickled the palate ridges in my mouth, and I gave in, sucking at Ryder’s heat with a fierceness I only had for good whiskey and fine chocolate.
Kissing Ryder didn’t seem to be quenching the need in my body. If anything, it was like pouring kerosene on a wildfire. I felt like dying under his hands and not caring because I wanted him that badly. My common sense, already threadbare, strained as my body reacted to Ryder’s touch, and I drew in long heaves of the night air to cool me off.
“Nope,” I said, shaking my head and hoping Ryder didn’t see the trembling in my hands. “I’d kill Dempsey if he tried that. Still might kill you for it.”
“It might be worth dying for, Kai,” Ryder said into my hair. “The offer still stands, you know. You are always welcome in my Court.”
“Answer’s still no,” I scoffed, pushing him away. I put the burned-out clove into a can of sand I’d left near the roof’s ledge. I needed some space or less space. Distance seemed safer, but up close would have been more satisfying. “You just want me in your bed.”
“Not a bad thing,” he said, leering at me. “I’m pretty good in bed.”
“I only have your word for it,” I replied, stepping back toward the door. “I know how good I am. You could suck big time, and then where would I be? Stuck with you when I could have had Alexa.”
“Ah, áinle.” I was nearly at the stairs when Ryder stopped me with his soft whisper, “What makes you think I wouldn’t share?”
More from Rhys Ford
The Kai Gracen Series: Book Two
Kai Gracen has no intention of being anyone’s pawn. A pity Fate and SoCalGov have a different opinion on the matter.
Licensed Stalkers make their living hunting down monsters and dangerous criminals… and their lives are usually brief, brutal, and thankless. Despite being elfin and cursed with a nearly immortal lifespan, Kai didn’t expect to be any different. Then Ryder, the High Lord of the Southern Rise Court, arrived in San Diego, and Kai’s not-so-mundane life went from mild mayhem to full-throttle chaos.
Now an official liaison between the growing Sidhe Court and the human populace, Kai is at Ryder’s beck and call for anything a High Lord might need a Stalker to do. Unfortunately for Kai, this means chasing down a flimsy rumor about an ancient lost Court somewhere in the Nevada desert—a court with powerful magics that might save Ryder’s—and Kai’s—people from becoming a bloody memory in their Merged world’s violent history.
The race for the elfin people’s salvation opens unwelcome windows into Kai’s murky past, and it could also slam the door on any future he might have with his own kind and Ryder.
The Kai Gracen Series: Book Three
Stalker Kai Gracen knew his human upbringing would eventually clash with his elfin heritage, but not so soon. Between Ryder, a pain-in-his-neck Sidhe Lord coaxing him to join San Diego’s Southern Rise Court, and picking up bounties for SoCalGov, he has more than enough to deal with. With his loyalties divided between the humans who raised him and the Sidhe Lord he’s befriended and sworn to protect, Kai finds himself standing at a crossroads.
When a friend begs Kai to rescue a small group of elfin refugees fleeing the Dusk Court, he’s pulled into a dangerous mission with Ryder through San Diego’s understreets and the wilderness beyond. Things go from bad to downright treacherous when Kerrick, Ryder’s cousin, insists on joining them, staking a claim on Southern Rise and Kai.
Burdened by his painful past, Kai must stand with Ryder against Kerrick while facing down the very Court he fears and loathes. Dying while on a run is expected for a Stalker, but Kai wonders if embracing his elfin blood also means losing his heart, soul, and humanity along the way.
Ink and Shadows: Book One
Kismet Andreas lives in fear of the shadows.
For the young tattoo artist, the shadows hold more than darkness. He is certain of his insanity because the dark holds creatures and crawling things only he can see—monsters who hunt out the weak to eat their minds and souls, leaving behind only empty husks and despair.
And if there’s one thing Kismet fears more than being hunted—it’s the madness left in its wake.
The shadowy Veil is Mal’s home. As Pestilence, he is the youngest—and most inexperienced—of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, immortal manifestations resurrected to serve—and cull—mankind. Invisible to all but the dead and insane, the Four exist between the Veil and the mortal world, bound to their nearly eternal fate. Feared by other immortals, the Horsemen live in near solitude but Mal longs to know more than Death, War and Famine.
Mal longs to be… more human. To interact with someone other than lunatics or the deceased.
When Kismet rescues Mal from a shadowy attack, Pestilence is suddenly thrust into a vicious war—where mankind is the prize, and the only one who has faith in Mal is the human the other Horsemen believe is destined to die.
Readers love the Kai Gracen Series by Rhys Ford
“Kai is my favorite type of character – the tough, scrappy, outcast, snark-monger extraordinaire.”
—Gail Carriger, Author of The Parasol Protectorate Series
“Heart-pounding action, dramatic betrayals, and creepy backstories are all in a day’s work for Kai.”
—AudioFile Magazine
Black Dog Blues
—Library Journal Best Books of 2013
—AudioFile Earphones Award winner
“Awesome book that I’ll absolutely recommend to fantasy lovers.”
—It’s About The Book
“This story is everything a fantasy should be.”
—Love Bytes
Mad Lizard Mambo
—Paranormal Romance Guild
Reviewers Choice Award: Best Novel
“Mad Lizard Mambo is an outstanding sequel. Once again we are drawn into this crazy world author Rhys Ford has so lovingly created and carried away on an adventure beyond our imagination.”
—Joyfully Jay
RHYS FORD is an award-winning author with several long-running LGBT+ mystery, thriller, paranormal, and urban fantasy series and is a two-time LAMBDA finalist with her Murder and Mayhem novels. She is also a 2017 Gold and Silver Medal winner in the Florida Authors and Publishers President’s Book Awards for her novels Ink and Shadows and Hanging the Stars. She is published by Dreamspinner Press and DSP Publications.
She shares the house with Harley, a gray tuxedo with a flower on her face, Badger, a disgruntled alley cat who isn’t sure living inside is a step up the social ladder, as well as a ginger cairn terrorist named Gus. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep of a 1979 Pontiac Firebird and enjoys murdering make-believe people.
Rhys can be found at the following locations:
Blog: www.rhysford.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rhys.ford.author
Twitter: @Rhys_Ford
By Rhys Ford
KAI GRACEN
Black Dog Blues
Mad Lizard Mambo
Jacked Cat Jive
INK AND SHADOWS
Ink and Shadows
Dim Sum Asylum
7&7: A DSP Publications Anthology of Virtue and Vice
Devil Take Me Anthology
Published by DSP PUBLICATIONS
www.dsppublications.com
Published by
DSP PUBLICATIONS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dsppublications.com
This is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Black Dog Blues
© 2019 Rhys Ford.
Cover Art
© 2019 Chris McGrath.
www.christianmcgrath.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. 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 any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact DSP Publications, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dsppublications.com.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-64405-317-1
Mass Market Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64108-179-5
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64405-318-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018962535
Digital published March 2019
v. 3.0
First Edition published by Rhys Ford, June 2013.
Second Edition published by DSP Publications, February 2015.
Printed in the United States of America
