Author: catstark

Yeah, brain is blank slate, therefore enjoy the daily prompt!

From Protector of the Grey House:

Natalia took her time going downstairs to the security room, and tried to think of where Vincent and Mierka might be. All the bedrooms were occupied; they weren’t in the sitting room, library or ballroom. That left Vincent’s study, the large meeting room, or the dungeon. She could look in all the remaining rooms and would if the guard in the security room didn’t want to help her. At the door to the security room, she took a deep breath then opened the door. Charlie grinned at her as she entered.

“Hi! What’s up?”

Weekends are meant for sleeping in. Hope you all have a good one!

From Protector of the Grey House:

Natalia stood before Anthony, staring him down. Julia was standing behind him, hiding a smirk. Vincent was standing beside them, waiting to see if the two would put aside their differences long enough to run the experiment. Natalia was up to it; she was smiling. Anthony wasn’t. He was frowning and had his arms crossed. They were all standing in Anthony’s living room. Four weeks had passed since Natalia’s punishment and she was willing to test Joseph’s theory of whose blood could possess her and whose could not. They decided to start with the most unlikely candidate.

“This has to be done?”

“No real harm to you, vampire. I’m the only one at risk.”

The word was actually ‘uncle’ but I didn’t use that word in this trilogy.

From Protector of the Grey House:

“Come with us.” The room stilled. Ashley stared at her and Natalia saw the shock then consideration, then blankness steal across the girl’s features. Ashley was no Slayer and both women knew it. She had never heard the angels and only ran with Slayers because her family had been killed by a demon when she was quite young. Natalia decided to push her luck. She took a step forward showing kindness in her eyes.

“Have you heard the voices yet? Or are they letting you have your own mind?” Her voice sounded motherly and Ashley started to shake. Natalia stepped forward; her actions unclear even to herself. She felt Charlie’s hand on her arm, tentative and pleading, and stopped her advance.

Pain gripped Ashley’s features as Father Sulta clamped his hand on her shoulder. “Take her out of here or we kill her.”

From Protector of the Grey House:

She took a breath to calm herself. “The thing that bothers me is that after the police left, two men dressed in black suits claiming to be with the police asked to see me. I was placed in a private room and a nurse told me they wanted to talk to me. I saw them through the open door. They worried me, so I told the nurse that I was tired and didn’t want any more visitors. After she left, I was hit with paranoia and destroyed my phone. I flushed the pieces down the toilet, then laid down for a nap.

“I woke at sunset this evening. I had slept for more than 24 hours. Someone took my clothing. All I had was the gown the hospital gave me. I called the nurse, but she had no idea what happened to my stuff. She left, and said she would try and find out. As I didn’t want to stick around, I left the room. I stole my clothing from a doctor I met on the stairs. My luck his clothing fit.”

The first word found was ‘flex’ and it was part of a three sentence dialogue, that would have given WAY too much away. So here you go:

From Protector of the Grey House:

Natalia sat at the desk in Vincent’s library, using the optical recognition tool on her laptop to scan one of the many Slayer journals onto her computer to be saved on disk. Most of the books were too old to be rifled through on a regular basis. Also, it was easier to skim through the files with the “find” tool then skimming the physical pages. She had been trying to scan one book a week, and often found herself entangled between Vincent’s sheets rather than the books’ pages in her free time. With him gone, it was easier to get this sort of work done. Vincent had been gone two nights; she went through five large books in that short time.

From Protector of the Grey House:

“How did you escape?” Mierka’s voice was almost too quiet to hear.

Natalia turned her head to look at the lady. She sighed heavily and continued. “The one who believed me gave me back my cell phone in secret. When I was sure they had all left the house, I used my cell phone to call the police.” She paused, an odd look in her eye. The youngest Slayer, Ashley, gave her back her cell and confirmed she believed Natalia. She shook her head and continued her story.

Back to the day job today. They don’t really want us to tell others the amazing things they have done for us during the pandemic. I still haven’t figured out why. One day, I’ll probably tell all because all businesses should be more like them.

From Protector of the Grey House:

Vincent spoke reluctantly, through years of distance. “How…long…waiting?”

Joseph stared at the couple and understood. He shook his head. He needed to get Vincent out. Diana must have woven a spell, and the pair was caught in its delicate web. Joseph stepped forward, trying not to look amused. He pulled a half-witted Vincent toward the door of the bathroom, extracting the vampire from his lover. He threw Vincent into the bedroom and went back for Natalia. He wrapped her in a towel and picked her up. Once in the bedroom, he placed her on the bed, ignoring her light inviting touch. By the time he turned back to Vincent, his boss has regained his senses.

“How long?” He zipped himself up and tucked in his shirt.

“For what?”

“How long since I came up here?”

“Few minutes.”

“What?” Nothing but shock.

There are a few times that Natalia steps out of line in this trilogy. I feel I should have added a scene or two with others that disobeyed the rules, then realized that I did. It’s just that Natalia is the main character, and we focus on her. Also, really, the others have been with Vincent long enough, they now not to step out of line.

From Protector of the grey House:

He calmly walked to her, knelt beside her and gave her a cold, cold smile. “You are greatly valued in this house Natalia and are often allowed to disobey Vincent. I am sure that he enjoys some things that occur when you disobey him, but that ring on your finger would have been our death. Because you were able to fight it off, you were given a warning. Had you somehow been able to get through me, Vincent would have killed you.”

From Protector of the Grey House:

Natalia told him that she often had to infiltrate groups of Slayers. Before, it was one at a time. Now she often spoke with three or four at a time. She told Vincent she took care of the Slayers cautiously and made sure to kill them one at a time, when they were by themselves. She avoided going against Slayers groups all at once. Still, she started training for the inevitable. She fought his vampires two or three at a time. Vincent didn’t care for these sessions but allowed it, as she needed the training. It didn’t help that Joseph and Mierka both thought she was doing a worthy job and helped to push the human to her limit and beyond. Joseph fought her often and Mierka gave her pointers on stealth tactics.

From Protector of the Grey House:

“Take more, Natalia. Drink your fill. Don’t you dare allow Vincent to take you from me.”

Natalia whimpered and continued to take the blood her mistress offered. Merika pulled her arm away and healed the wound. Natalia turned to her mistress and smiled.

Mierka caressed her cheek. “Are you well, my dear?”

Natalia nodded.

“Tell me who you want to be with tonight. Tell me you want to be with me.”

Soft confusion caressed the human’s featured. Natalia looked to Mierka for confirmation, saw the smile on Mierka’s face and gave her a similar smile. The vampire’s blood control won, and Natalia answered her mistress. “I want to be with you.”