Dance in the Stones

What kind of person inherited a castle - or bought one, maybe - and then just...left it to crumble?

Damon, one of the original Hellhounds, has been living in a rental cottage in the shadow of a ruined castle for the past three years. His peace and quiet is threatened when he receives notice that the owner of the property – who Damon has never met – was coming to do renovations with a view to selling the property. Little did Damon know that the owner's arrival meant a lot more than thinking about somewhere else to live. Meanwhile, what on Earth was going on with his hound?

He doesn't know what we are to each other. We need to figure out what he is first and then find a way to tell him without scaring him away. We've got the time.

Redford Stone, a gargoyle who ran the FBI taskforce related to paranormal crimes is suffering from burnout. Needing something to do with his time off, he decides to head to a castle he'd inherited five years before, planning to do some renovations and probably sell the place. His plans are thrown into complete disarray when he arrives at the castle to hear the stones singing. So much for simply staying for three months and going back to work.

"You…" Damon couldn't form a coherent sentence. "You were courting me? By having me lug rocks around?"

Hellhounds can't tell their mate from sight or scent, so Damon and Redford dance around each other, neither one of them saying anything that might scare the other one off. In the meantime the castle is hiding secrets of its own – historical secrets with very modern day repercussions. When Redford and Damon accidentally "awaken" the castle, the threats and benefits both become very real.

Dance in the Stones is book 9 in the Hellhound Collar series. While it can be read as standalone, reading previous books in the series – in particular Magical Beast (Book 7) where we met Damon for the first time, and More than Words (Book 8) where Redford was introduced - would give more context for the secondary characters.