For today’s blog post, I thought I’d share a snippet from the draft of LIONHEART. There are people who stand up just fine to Dragos’s overbearing personality, and Dr. Kathryn Shaw is one of them. And yes, she is the heroine in LIONHEART.
As always when I share something that I’m currently writing, this may contain typos and grammatical errors, and it may change during the editing process. Hope you enjoy.
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When the Lord of the Wyr issued a summons to those he kept on retainer, one responded with as much immediacy as one could manage. While Dr. Kathryn Shaw was no exception to this rule, she also refused to walk out of surgery to accommodate his demands.
“Tell him I’m busy,” she said tersely to the nurse who had delivered the message to the operating room over the intercom.
As she spoke, Kathryn eyed the mangled leg in front of her with a frown. The leg belonged to a twelve-year-old boy who had taken a bad fall while trespassing on a construction site. It was a tricky operation that needed a combination of both magic and physical surgery—the only kind of case that Kathryn took on anymore—but she had her favorite surgery team with her, everyone worked really well with each other, and the boy stood a good chance of a near total recovery if Kathryn got it right.
So, she would get it right.
A few minutes later the dragon himself broke into her mind. Kathryn, I need you at Cuelebre Tower, Dragos said telepathically. Get here as soon as you can.
She paused, frustrated, and when the nurse beside her gave her an inquiring glance, she held up a gloved finger and shook her head.
Everyone else in the world had a telepathic range of ten or fifteen feet—everyone, but Dragos. His telepathic range was over a hundred miles, and Kathryn had cause to regret that more than once in her professional life.
She snapped, And I said I was busy. Is anybody on fire? Are any of the sentinels near imminent death?
No, Dragos growled.
Well, I’m in the middle of surgery, and as I’ve told you before, I don’t care for telepathic interruptions when I’m operating.
The Wyr lord was frustrated too. She could hear it in his voice. Can’t you hand the surgery to someone else on your team?
She could, but she wouldn’t. She told him, You wouldn’t want me to walk out on you if I was operating on you, would you?
As she had, in fact, recently operated on him, this hypothetical was more than a little potent. Recently, while in a battle to rescue his kidnapped wife, Dragos had been shot several times and taken a few hits to the chest. One of the bullets had come close to penetrating the truly spectacular protective casing around his powerful heart.
By his pause, she suspected that he was thinking of that injury too. No, of course not.
Then don’t expect me to do it to someone else, she said. If you don’t have a clear cut medical emergency for me to respond to, then you pick up your damn phone and call or text—and if I say you have to wait, you have to wait. Is that clear?
Well, get here directly after surgery.
Of course. But right now, I’ve got a twelve-year-old boy’s leg to save, so get out of my head—and stay out. She inhaled deeply to get rid of the stress, then turned her total attention back to the boy on her table.
Three hours and twenty-six minutes later, she finished and stepped back to let Angus close for her. Euphoria and relief flooded her tight body. Rotating her head to release the tension in her neck and shoulders, she stripped off her operating gown, gloves, and mask and headed out.
It had been a good afternoon’s work. Better than good. It had been great. She would have a better idea of the boy’s prognosis after his body had fully absorbed the spells, but when she felt this good about a surgery she was rarely wrong about it later. She was pretty sure he would regain full mobility.
But it was too soon to tell his anxious parents that. For now, it was enough to simply tell them that she was pleased the surgery had gone very well. She multitasked and drank a hot, bracing cup of coffee while she briefed them. After promising to check on his post op recovery that evening, she was finally able to head up to the hospital roof.
As she climbed the stairs, she texted Dragos. Out of surgery. On my way. Be there in 20.
His response was almost immediate. How is the boy?
That last caused her to shake her head and snort. Just when she got to thinking the Wyr lord was a total self-absorbed ass, he switched things up on her. She answered him rapidly. Doing well.
Excellent. Come to the meeting hall when you get here.
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Copyright 2018 Teddy Harrison LLC
All rights reserved
Love it! Love her telling Dragos to wait, and love his caring about the boy!!!
Oh this just makes me drool for the rest of the story. I just love how your mind works truly awesome
Love it, can’t wait!!! ❤️
Love that Dragos continues to grow, slowly but surely. Like pulling dragon teeth, as Pia would say! I am so looking forward to Katharine’s story!
So true! These characters continue to be dynamic. One of the few series where i’m as excited to read more Pia/Dragos as i am to read new lovers find each other.
Thank you, so looking forward to this
Oh I’m so excited!!!
I LOVE this parallel series and I love how she stood up to Dragos ❤️❤️❤️
I can’t wait until the release!
I like it. I will definitely be pre-ordeing this.
Thank you so much for this snippet from Lionheart! I am hooked! I Can’t wait until I get to read the whole book. ❤️
Can’t wait for this book. Well done someone actually put dragos in his place so looking forward to this book.
Although I’ve found, and very much enjoy, other urban fantasy type novels and series, the Elder Races world and characters remain at the very top for me in quality of writing and richness and depth of every individual character. And the world building is unsurpassed, as well! Very much looking forward to this full length novel in the tandem Moonshadow series!
I really don’t enjoy the much shorter novellas, although I’ve gobbled those up, too, to partially assuage my intense hunger for MORE ELDER RACE BOOKS!!
Thank you, The a Harrison, for sharing your incredible imagination and amazing gift for writing!
Looking forward to this!
I have such a hard time reading these little blurbs. I want to keep reading the rest and I don’t have any patience where good books are concerned. Love the cover!
Oh cant wait, looking forward to this new book. Dr Shaw is going to give us a fantastic read, know I’ll so enjoy it. Also love the book cover.
Ooooh! This looks as good as your stories always are! This is definitely an auto-buy as soon as the link comes out. Thank you so much for the snippet! We need these every week. 😉
You write him so beautifully and the characters that surround Dragos are so well wrought they stand as equally brilliant. I’m chomping at the bit to read more. I’ve read your entire series in less than a month! Write faster Thea!!! LOL. (I’m an artist, link above and I review books at NextBookInYourHand.com)
Kathryn to Dragos:. “Is that clear?!”
Loved it.
Oh how I LOVE strong females! And one that stands up to Dragos? Double points! His caring question as to the boy’s care was AWESOME.
So…. can I have this NOW? LOL
I think I love her already! She has some brass telling Dragos to get out of her mind. I can’t wait to see where this goes!!!’
Sounds Wonderful
i have every book! I am waiting, not patiently, for this story! I am positive I will love this as much as all the others.
Thank you. Love her strength and backbone. Love Dragos showing his concern for the boy. Excited -looking forward to the release.
I absolutely love your stories of the Wyr, and I am just so joyful every time you release a new story! Basically just “happy, happy, joy, joy!” Thank you very much for providing such great enjoyment!
This is a great blurb. I can’t wait for the whole story to come out. I love your imagination and the depth of you characters. I have read all the elder race books and each one has been absolutely fantastic!
It’s official!!! I can’t wait I need more pronto!
This sounds like another great story ahead! I can’t wait!
Your stories never get stale. Looking forward to this one.
This story sounds wonderful and I can’t wait to read it and listen in Audible.
I can’t wait, love all your books.
Thank you – it’s great – can’t wait for the release
What a wonderfully strong woman. I really wanted to read more about Kathryn ever since you introduced her character. Dragos is Dragos of course, bossy but caring too.
All the best for this new book and every book you’ll write Thea. I love reading your books. You’re one of my absolute favourites.
Love your books. I know you probably hear this over and over. In my case I am a retired major metropolitan police officer with thirty years behind me. Sleep is a rare thing due to PTSD, battle fatigue and hyper vigilance. Your books have seen me through so many endless nights and are among the few I can read repeatedly enjoying them as much as I did the first time. The elder races are my favorite escape when old ghosts walk! Thank you so very much for that! I hope it feels great to hear that readers love your books in my case add on that they sincerely make some really bad times easier to get through and touch my life in a way you perhaps never intended and it’s much appreciated .
I love it when you release another full length Elder Races book.. looking forward to this next one.
Thanks for sharing! I’m looking forward to more!
I love her work, truly amazing….
As usual, u caught me from the beginning. Now, I am eagerly waiting for the rest.
Loved, loved, loved it!!!!!!!!!!
great little teaser…..
Wonderful news of new book – thank you – have just read Wulf and Lily’s story – so heartwarming – are there plans to continue their adventures? Please!
I can’t wait to read this story! What is the ETA?!?!?
So glad that Dragos (and company) are in this series, too. Even if in the background and not as main characters.
I love the Elder Races!