Autumn Reads: Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order by David Lee Summers

Autumn Reads: Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order by David Lee Summers

I hope you’ve been enjoying these features as much as I have! I’d love to do more in the future. My final feature for now is the marvelous David Lee Summers and his book Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order.

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Three vampyrs. Three lives. Three intertwining stories.

Bearing the guilt of destroying the holiest of books after becoming a vampyr, the Dragon, Lord Desmond searches the world for lost knowledge, but instead, discovers truth in love.

Born a slave in Ancient Greece, Alexandra craves freedom above all else, until a vampyr sets her free, and then, she must pay the highest price of all … her human soul.

An assassin who lives in the shadows, Roquelaure is cloaked even from himself, until he discovers the power of friendship and loyalty.

Three vampyrs, traveling the world by moonlight—one woman and two men who forge a bond made in love and blood. Together they form a band of mercenaries called the Scarlet Order, and recruit others who are like them. Their mission is to protect kings and emperors against marauders, invaders, and rogue vampyrs. In the end, they must confront their ultimate nemesis, Vlad the Impaler.

Purchase Dragon’s Fall: Rise of the Scarlet Order from the following locations:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Lachesis Publishing (Ebook is on sale for $1.49 for September!) |
Signed print copies are available from Boutique du Vampyre in New Orleans.

Here’s an excerpt:
Soon after Draco is turned into a vampire, he confronts Wolf, the vampire who made him:

“You brought me into this life that’s not life?” My words were clipped and I took several short steps toward him.

Again, he shook his head. “No, I merely fed off you. My only intention was to slake my thirst. You chose to attack me.”

Slowly, I sat down on the rocky ground. Even more questions churned and roiled in my mind. Finally, I practically screamed the one that kept coming to the forefront. “Am I doomed to live this way forever?”

For the first time, I saw something like a smile spread across Wolf’s features. “Perhaps not and perhaps fortune has led you to me.” He bade me come closer to the fire and he told me the story of an encounter he had had almost four hundred years before. He met a man traveling to Britain called Joseph of Arimathea. “Are you familiar with the one they call Christ?”

I nodded, remembering what my father told me about the Christians of his youth and about the teacher called St. Patrick. I recalled my conversation with Arthur about his shield and the image of Christ’s mother emblazoned on its front. “Those who follow him consider him a god, do they not?”

“Those that follow him say he is an incarnation of the one and only God,” corrected Wolf. “They say he has the power to forgive even the most heinous sins.” He went on to tell me about a cup and a scroll that Joseph of Arimathea carried. “The cup was used during Jesus’ last Passover feast. Some say it holds the blood of Christ himself, even to this day. Others say that you pour wine into it and it transforms into His blood. You are but a fledgling, but could you imagine what it would mean for one such as us to drink of that cup. If that is the blood of a god – of the God – and it contained forgiveness of the magnitude that is claimed.”

“You said there was also a scroll?” I asked. My mother had taught me to read Latin and that knowledge served me well. No doubt it helped bring me to the attention of Ambrosius, his daughter, and the first Dragons who instructed me. I loved to read but there was little of value to read.

“Joseph said that it contained the writings of Jesus himself.”

I let out a breath. Through my father, Arthur and others, I knew a little of the writings about Jesus. However, I’d never once heard that Jesus himself had left behind any writings. That would, indeed, be a treasure. “Why didn’t you simply take the cup when you had the chance?”

“It was guarded,” he said bitterly. He went on to describe the eagle-like creature that attacked him, preventing him from taking the chest that contained the scroll and the cup. “Over the centuries, I have encountered and heard many stories of creatures like that. Many take elemental forms, such as flames or water. Others take animal forms like this creature. Some people worship them as gods. I believe the Christians call these creatures, angels.”

“What can one do against such a creature?” I asked.

“They say these angels are immortal,” said Wolf, barring his fangs, “but I believe they can be wounded or even killed. I have been studying them over the centuries and I think I know a way. That’s why your becoming a Neuntoter may be particularly fortuitous.”

“So, where do we find this cup? This scroll?”

“All I know is that it’s here on the islands of Britain. I don’t know where to begin the search.”

“I may know someone that can help,” I said. Even as I thought of enlisting Bran and Arthur’s aid and seeing Guinevere again, I worried what she would think of my new sharp-toothed countenance along with my need to drink blood in order to survive.

Check out more of David’s work at davidleesummers.com or at his blog and be sure to follow him on Twitter!

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