From The Grey House:
His words were thrashing through her whirlwind thoughts, destroying all resolve. His touch, icy to her burning flesh, singed her bare skin. She was grinding her teeth, pushing herself against him while trying to push him away. Finally, unable to think clearly, she threw back her head and howled her frustration. The din tore down the beach like a great beast in heat.
From The Grey House:
The rough movements of the vehicle woke Natalia, but she didn’t immediately sit up. She could tell she was lying on someone’s lap, and there was a hand on her shoulder. The hand did not feel confining; it felt comforting. She took deep breaths and opened her eyes to darkness. She was still blindfolded. Fine. She tried to move her arms and realized they were tied in front of her. Her legs were bound as well, but as there wasn’t pain in her feet, she assumed they had not tied her tightly.
Once she understood she was bound, Natalia tried to sit up. The hand on her shoulder stopped her gently and Dean spoke kindly. “If you just woke up, give yourself a few more minutes before you try to sit up. You might be dizzy.”
From The Grey House:
He threw Keith at the far wall then followed, going around the hole. The Blitzkrieg had changed to human form and retreated to the door, giving Vincent space to move. He was on Keith in seconds. The younger vampire was still conscious. Vincent was glad. He picked the man up and swung around, holding Keith over the hole by his shirt.
“Have fun,” Vincent stated plainly. He let Keith go.
From The Grey House:
They were back at Vincent’s estate before long. Everyone was left to their own devices. Rebecca, wanting to stretch her muscles, turned into a wolf and ran off. Vincent owned the hill the house was on and the one next to it. The two hills were filled by many farms run by humans. They willingly gave their blood to Vincent and the other seven vampires who lived under Vincent’s protection. The werewolves could run the land as wolves but were warned on a regular basis that the humans had tranquillizer guns to take them down if they did something foolish. If for some reason the tranqs didn’t take them down, the humans had shotguns with silver buckshot, and would use them if they were threatened.
From The Grey House:
There was a small silence. Vincent regarded the mage. “Your service is no longer needed, Carlos. You may leave for the day.”
“With respect, Vincent, I believe my debt is paid. I’ve been chanting for hours. It could have killed me.” Carlos stood his ground even as the large vampire approached him.
“As could I.” Vincent stood very close to Carlos, letting his size intimidate rather than his voice. “But I agree. Orlando will take you to my meeting room. I will join you when I’m done.” He looked to Orlando. “Take care of his needs.”
From The Grey House:
Before she could reach them, she heard a shuffling behind her. Leroy, having been hit second with her staff, was apparently still aware. He was on his feet and swinging his staff at her. Natalia tried to bring up her staff but couldn’t move quickly enough. From above, another shot rang out, too late. Leroy’s staff connected with Natalia’s right shoulder as he fell to the ground dead. There was enough momentum to push her to the ground.
She was quickly on her feet and looking toward Agnes and Zechariah. Agnes stared at her, then shot at Natalia. Natalia spun to the right as the bullet sped past her arm. She lost her footing and fell to the ground as another shot rang out from upstairs. Agnes fell, pulling the trigger one last time. The bullet went wild and lodged into a wall.
From The Grey House:
The woman who walked in was shorter than Natalia by about four inches. She was stocky, but Natalia could tell it was muscle. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail revealing a large hickey. She was wearing ripped jeans with a blue button up shirt. The shirt was open to reveal her cleavage. She was a good-looking woman, but the woman’s appearance was not what held the human’s attention. It was her necklace.
The woman wore a silver chain with a large red stone. The stone was set in silver backing and had silver markings on it. To a casual observer, the markings probably looked like a random design. Natalia had seen a large picture of it in the Slayer journals and knew better. The pictures of the one she found in the book was the pendant Vincent wore. That one had a fleur-de-lis that wrapped to the edge of the stone. This one had a paw prints behind a silver fleur-de-lis. Natalia had a vague idea what the design meant but as the red stone was the exact color of the necklace Vincent wore, Natalia could surmise only one thing. The woman worked for Vincent.
From The Grey House:
She thought that maybe the safe house was empty because it wasn’t actually the safe house. There was the possibility that The Hook Up was the actual meeting place. It was not a good idea, tactically, to have a safe house across the street from a twenty-four-hour establishment. Rebecca figured that someone here, either an employee or customer, was the point of contact. She wanted to figure out whom but didn’t want to look too suspicious. She was already quite conspicuous sitting in an Internet café without a computer. The public computers were by the wall, which was not a convenient place to watch her quarry. Therefore, she sat and looked at her watch, looking like she was waiting for friends.
From The Grey House:
“What did it?”
She gave him a frank look. “He was there all night. When I fed you my blood willingly? He heard that, too. While I was convincing him to let me come tonight, he told me that no untainted human would offer a vampire their blood. That I wasn’t to be trusted because I was probably Hellspawn already.”
Vincent watched her again, not saying a word, thinking of their encounter at The Ocean’s Edge.
From The Grey House:
A gasp of hope escaped the frightened Aaron. Vincent cocked his head to look at the human. Aaron was quieting; becoming still. A look of pure hope was indeed spreading from his green eyes to his tanned face. A few more words and he would be completely convinced everything would be okay. A hard need worked its way from the pit of Vincent’s stomach throughout his body, making him tingle. Vincent loved the look of desperate hope on a human’s face. It had been a long time since he had seen it. He decided to play it.
Vincent strolled over to Joseph and held out his hand for the key. Joseph looked his friend dead in the eye and understood. He reached into his pocket and handed Vincent the keys to the shackles, making as much noise as possible. Vincent took them, hid his glee and turned. He looked toward Keith first, who had known Vincent too long and knew the truth. His grim demeanor was ever present.
Cat Stark 