Author: catstark

From Inside the Grey House:

“He’s an old vampire, takes more than a staff in the gut to stop him.” There was a mocking quality to his voice as he almost imitated the master fighter.

Natalia laughed around the water bottle straw. It made both men feel better. She took some more swallows of water, slowly. Her stomach was rolling; she felt like throwing up. She took the bottle and placed it on her leg, holding it steady with one hand. Looking at Vincent she willed her vision to clear. There was concern on his face. She reached out a shaking hand to touch his cheek. Vincent saw the sheer determination taking over and stopped being worried. His hand stole over hers as he turned his head to kiss the palm of her hand. Natalia, still able to focus, noticed Joseph standing nearby. She took two quivering breaths.

“Did I win?”

From Inside the Grey House:

Natalia was having a hard time holding the sword in her hand. The cut from earlier was bleeding freely. It wasn’t a deep cut, but it ran the length of her lower arm. Theodore had raked her arm with his thumbnail, digging in deep. It was making her whole arm throb, and Vincent saw the pain. She could switch to her left hand, but her right was stronger, even cut. Therefore, she hid the pain, channeled it, and held her ground. When Vincent stood, she held the sword at the ready. The vampire’s eyes were still on her arm. He watched as a single drop of blood fell from her arm to splatter on the hardwood floor. Natalia watched his reaction but missed the significance.

From Inside the Grey House:

The wolves were gathered in his office. Charlie, once more in jeans and t-shirt, was leaning against the far wall, the sword by his side, hilt in hand, tip pointing down. The others were in wolf form: Orlando, and Doug to his right and left. They were sitting, panting, waiting for someone to make a false move. It was to Natalia’s credit that Charlie and the others followed her orders. In Rebecca’s absence, she became their surrogate alpha female.

The healer was sitting in the center of the room, naked. She had small cuts running across her chest and down her arms. Lilly had drawn some recognizable runes on the carpet in blood. He could smell it and wondered how the wolves stayed calm. He couldn’t remember the last time Lilly used blood to heal Natalia. Vincent glanced sharply at the healer then at Natalia. Were he human, his face would have gone pale. As it was, his eyes grew wide as he placed Natalia on the floor next to Lilly.

From Inside the Grey House:

Charlie nodded, not trusting his voice. He turned wolf, jumped, stumbled and fell on to the wooden lawn chair taking up most of the balcony and turned human. Natalia landed next to the chair, giving Charlie a triumphant smile when she saw how he landed. Both turned sharply when they heard the door on the Slayer’s balcony opening. Natalia dropped her backpack to the floor, quickly joined Charlie on the chair, grabbed him to her and kissed him passionately on the lips.

He tried to pull away, but felt her legs entwine in his, felt her body against his. Her hands were on his back, under his shirt, touching the inside of his legs. He shuddered when her hand found his hard erection and old feelings, he had forgotten, came back to him. His arms pulled her closer, and he fell into her kisses. He briefly wondered what they were doing, making out while being chased. Before his caresses could get any more exploratory, Natalia pulled away and looked toward the other balcony.

“You know, a picture lasts longer.” Sarcasm dripped from her voice.

Side note (nothing to do with book) having Cinnamon Apple Cake for breakfast.

From Inside the Grey House:

It was close to sunrise. Ben and one of Vincent’s humans had been taking care of Natalia for a full day. Ben had been able to give Natalia plenty of water but no food. She wasn’t awake enough for that. He was attempting to give her more water when someone knocked on the door. Joseph came in not waiting for an answer. His shirt and pants were wrinkled, and his pant cuffs were caked in dirt and dust.

“Don’t come closer.” Ben pointed to his boss’s dirt covered pants. “An infection could kill her.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Poison. We think. The Slayer who shot her ended up killing herself before we could interrogate her. How’s Orlando?”

From Inside the Grey House:

“Very much.” Her eyes were closed; her breath was coming in short gasps. She was straining against the chains, trying to touch him. She tried to bring him closer by hooking his leg with hers. But he wasn’t moving toward her. In fact, she found he was backing away. Natalia growled her dissatisfaction. She opened her eyes to glare at him. He was backing up to the door, giving her his hyena smile. Her face fell as she contemplated her situation.

“Vincent? Where are you going?”

“Don’t fret Natalia. I wouldn’t leave you chained in my dungeon unless you were the only one in it. But there’s something I must retrieve.”

From Inside the Grey House:

Most vampires who visited Vincent in his home or office, knew he kept everything bugged. Some, such as Christopher and Edwin, always demanded to have the cameras and recording devices turned off when meeting with Vincent. They didn’t know that Vincent’s top people had override codes for such situations.

Rebecca’s hands curled again, inadvertently caressing the keyboard. Vincent always allowed Joseph his privacy and advised Rebecca never to listen in on his longtime friend unless given specific orders to. She had no such orders for this instance. Rebecca hung her head, sighed and pulled her hands away from the keyboard. Whatever Joseph was doing, it was not for her to know. She sat back in the chair, waiting for the screen to come back on. Half an hour later, the room came back on the screen. It showed Joseph standing in the room slipping something into his pocket; Natalia was still tossing and turning.

From Inside the Grey House:

“All I know is that it was a woman.”

Natalia thought about it as she started walking a few steps. “Judith left before Vincent came to save me. If she shot me, there’s no telling what she used. She found a way to add various poisons to her bullets. She spent years perfecting the process. I have no idea how she did it. Chemistry wasn’t really my thing.”

Lilly frowned as they slowly continued to walk to the other bathroom. “Was she a Slayer?”

“She was.”

From Inside the Grey House:

Natalia was now yelling. “I’m not going to wait in his study like the disobedient child he thinks I am! He can find me, or I’ll go to him, but I will not wait!”

Natalia marched into the ballroom, looking angry and determined, but her expression was not what he noticed first. Vincent pushed against the wall to straighten himself, his eyes wide with surprise. Natalia’s lower right arm was wrapped in gauze that was slowly becoming crimson. Her jeans and shirt were ripped and there was blood dotting the rips. It was the first time in a while she had come home hurt. He was used to her coming home with that satisfied grin.

“You’re hurt.” He sounded rather displeased.

From Inside the Grey House:

She nodded; amazed he was able to change his mood so quickly. “You treat everyone the same way, don’t you? It doesn’t matter that I sleep with you. I disobeyed an order and you punished me. You didn’t give me any chance to talk my way out of it or sleep my way out of it and you never will.”

“Did you expect to be treated differently?”

Natalia paused before answering, pondering the question. When she decided she wanted to join Vincent’s house, she knew how he operated. Knew that she would be killed quickly if she did something to harm his people. She turned the full force of her dark eyes on the vampire. “It would be an insult if you treated me differently. I appreciate that you did not and hope that this means that you feel I’m worthy to be a part of your house.”

Vincent smiled. “If you weren’t worthy, Joseph would have killed you the night we met.”