Author: catstark

I truly believe that the only difference between men and women are biological and even those lines are being blurred.

From Inside the Grey House:

“Men.” She placed the shoes in front of Natalia as she sat on the couch.

“You heard?” Natalia slipped her feet into the simple black flats. They were leather with square toes. They were cute, but nothing special. She wondered what shoes Vincent wanted her to wear.

“It doesn’t matter what species they are; they all want the same thing.”

“So do I.” Natalia stood, testing the shoes. “Don’t you?”

Lilly appeared to think about it, then shrugged her shoulders. “I suppose. Men are just more obvious about it.”

“Don’t say that until you’ve seen me around Vincent. Where is he anyway?” She was walking around, getting comfortable with the shoes.

Sometimes, when fighting vampires, Natalia gets hurt.

From Inside the Grey House:

Natalia’s eyes were closed, and her hands were gripping Vincent’s arm as she did her best to hold on to consciousness. The scream was still threatening to rupture from her throat and burst through her teeth. She breathed deep trying not to think of the pain. Her ankle was broken, no doubt about it, but Lilly would heal her quickly and she would be all right. She felt herself being picked up and someone pulled her good leg out from under her. She was told to brace herself as someone placed warm hands on her calf and slowly brought her left leg straight out in front of her. She closed her eyes, knowing if she saw the break she would pass out. The gasps from onlookers made her understand how bad it looked.

“Natalia? Can you hear me?”

Natalia nodded as she heard Lilly’s voice. Her eyes were still tightly shut.

The healer spoke again. “I have to set the bone. This is going to hurt.”

While writing this trilogy, I wrote the mages as I have always seen magic users: as pulling energy from their surroundings to cast spells. This is not how it is in the RPG Contagion, but the inventor of the game let me do it. Which was awesome.

From Inside the Grey House:

“I need to move her.”

Vincent moved forward and knelt beside his woman. “Where?”

Lilly looked around, eyes closed, trying to find…and there it was. “Your office.”

The healer lowered Natalia to the floor then stood and ran to the office to prepare it. Vincent slipped off his jacket, bundled it up and pressed it to the hole in Natalia’s stomach. He snapped his fingers and held out his hand to Joseph. It took a second for Joseph to understand, but then he slipped off his own jacket and handed it to his boss. Vincent slid the folded jacket under Natalia and rose with his lover in his arms. He carried her silently, swiftly to his office, her words echoing in his mind.

From Inside the Grey House:

Natalia leaned against the stairwell wall, pausing for a moment to consider the events of the past year. Most of Vincent’s people accepted her. The wolves quicker than the vampires, but that was because of Charlie and Rebecca. She spent many days catching up with Charlie and learning about his lady. Natalia liked Rebecca and was glad Charlie found her. The pair also tried to help her find Donald, her mother’s killer, which was proving to be impossible. There were sightings of him every once and awhile, but nothing concrete. It seemed as if he had disappeared. Natalia believed he might have been killed but didn’t want to accept the possibility. She therefore continued to search, but never seemed to look too hard. The truth of the matter was that she was happy. Trying to find her mother’s killer brought up too many memories she was reluctant to deal with. She would be happier if Vincent let her train with his men, but that was her only real complaint.

I wanted to illustrate that Vincent is a vampire who has a hard time stopping his desires. Scenes like this, where he things to drain Natalia, help to contribute to that character flaw.

From Inside the Grey House:

Vincent’s hands sank into Natalia’s hair, curling into her flesh, loving the feel and smell of her. He closed his eyes as the scent of her blood brought his body to life. He growled hungrily into her hair, trying to control himself. He couldn’t take her blood; he wouldn’t be able to stop. Hands were pulling her away and he didn’t protest.

Mierka held Natalia back as Joseph presented a human to Vincent. The human fell to his knees, dagger in hand and offered himself over to Vincent, who drank the warm blood down as Natalia watched, speechless. When he was done with the first, he stood and beckoned a second.

“What happened?” Natalia’s voice was shaking with wonder and worry.

Mierka answered as Joseph and Vincent both drank from their blood donors. “Edwin knew we were coming and knew we would try and save some of the children. It’s a game we play. He takes as many children as he can, knowing we have a chance to free most of them. This time was no different. Except that once the children were safe, we ran into some demons. They attacked us and nearly killed us, leaving us for the Morning Star to finish. Anthony was able to contact one of his men to come get us. We were badly drained.”

In this scene, we learn a little more about the working relationship between Vincent and his werewolves.

From Inside the Grey House:

Charlie took another look at the man, wondering if the ex-waiter from The Red Thread was indeed still human.

Rebecca leaned back against the desk, chewed on her lip and plunged ahead. “I’m pregnant.” Vincent raised an eyebrow; Markus made a noise and Charlie blushed. “Do you remember how my mother was when she was pregnant with me, sir?”

Vincent nodded his head once, slowly in affirmation. Rebecca’s mother became rather dangerous in her later months. “You’re leaving then?”

“As long as you approve.” There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Vincent snorted then smiled. “And Charlie?”

“I’d like to go with her, until she sends me back.” Rebecca’s mom hadn’t been able to stand her husband in the last two months of pregnancy and he had been too much of a risk at that point as well. Charlie was warned it could be the same with him.

Natalia often uses her desirability to win fights in training combat against Vincent. In this scene, she is fighting another man, and is trying the same tactic. You’ll have to read the book to find out how this turns out.

From Inside the Grey House:

She was within arm’s length of Joseph now, her hands behind her. She stopped and very carefully cut her thumb on the rapier. She let the pain show on her face, even if it didn’t really hurt. Sure of herself and of the vampire’s hungry look she brought her injured hand to his face. She placed her bleeding thumb on his lips, letting the other fingers rest near his jaw line. His eyes closed as she traced his flesh, leaving blood lipstick on his lips. She pulled her hand away.

“Lick your lips clean, vampire. Sample the consolation prize.”

Fight scenes. In all my years on this planet, I’ve only ever taken 2 semesters of a martial arts class. It was in college. When I write a fight scene, I picture it in my head, try not to make it too outlandish or unbelievable and write what I see in my head.

From Inside the Grey House:

Natalia returned her gaze to the crowd, who were all trying to get out the closed door at the same time. She heard interrupted screams and saw gray clouds around the four Slayers. Their deaths showed Natalia how young Edwin’s lot was. The crowd parted around one Slayer, a young woman, and Natalia saw Mierka was closing in on her. The Slayer held a stake in one hand and a spray bottle in the other. Natalia guessed it was filled with either holy water or garlic oil. Natalia felt the warrior in her take over and she pounced.

The woman turned when she saw Natalia jumping toward her. As she was now the only true target, the girl aimed the bottle at her. It landed on Natalia’s outstretched arms. She closed her eyes to slits as the smell of garlic hit her. The oil, if made right, could blind a human. Since Dean was amongst the group, Natalia knew the oil would be potent. She slammed into the Slayer, opened her eyes, drew her hand back and punched the woman in the face. The girl brought the water bottle up and tried to spray her in the face. Natalia slammed the girl’s hand down on the floor, using more force than necessary. She was used to fighting vampires. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement and remembered the wooden stake in the girl’s other hand. A foot landed on that wrist before the Slayer could do anything against her.

Fiona’s Guardians by Dan Klefstad

I want to thank Dan for allowing me the opportunity to read Fiona’s Guardians before its October release date. There are a lot of positive things I could say about this book. Here are a few.

Fiona, a vampire, is the type of character I love. She makes her survival top priority, understands exactly what the consequences will be and revels in it. She does not care who she hurts to attain her goals, and hurting others seems to be part of her goals.

Though Fiona’s Guardians is from the perspective of a few characters, it is all about Fiona and her survival. At times, she shows a sensitive side, but even Daniel, her main guardian, knows she’s just being manipulative.

If you’ve read vampire stories before, the rules here are slightly different than the ‘norm’ but I like when authors do that. It makes the creatures their own.

A good read with strong characters. Highly recommended.

You can pre-order the book now and it will be delivered to your Kindle or other device on October 2, 2020. Do it! And in case you missed it above, click here for the link: Fiona’s Guardians

There are a few times in this novel that Vincent wonders if he’s made the right decision in having Natalia in his life.

From Inside the Grey House:

“Is it safe to keep her when she has her own agenda and will continue to defy me? This may cause too much dissension in the ranks.”

“She does as she pleases to further her own cause but has only openly defied you this once. You yell at each other, but generally in rooms no one else is in. We all know that you allow her a certain amount of leeway, but tonight proved that you are still in control. Your lover challenged you, but you showed her and all others in your house that you will punish her if she steps out of line. You have not lost face.”

Vincent nodded. “Then she stays.”

Joseph bowed then left the room. Vincent stayed where he was, tapping his fingers on his thigh as he thought about the situation for a few more minutes before leaving the room.