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From The Grey House:

“Hey, what’s your name?”

Natalia looked up to see three young boys checking her out. They were prepubescent, probably no older than ten. This neighborhood was supposed to be a rough one, but the boys looked nicely dressed. It wasn’t Sunday, therefore they weren’t headed to church, just looked nice. She nodded to the one who spoke to her.

“Hello. My name’s Natalie.” Close enough to it, anyway. “What’s yours?”

“Uh…” He seemed surprised that she answered. “Um… it’s Letto.”

“Short for Stiletto?”

He nodded once. “Yeah.”

“Cool. How can I help you?”

“What are you doing here? People don’t usually stop here and draw.”

From The Grey House:

“She’ll set everything right before she leaves. Always does.”

Vincent stared at the screen showing her personal belongings. Natalie Dovenski was not a rare name, but neither was it common. He wondered if it was his mystery woman. He could watch in here until she was within view, then go outside to meet her if it was Natalia Dveski. But there was a problem. He and Richard were the only people in the restaurant. Joseph, his usual shadow, had a date with Mierka. They were off for a few hours, doing whatever it was they enjoyed doing. His eyes slowly moved toward Richard. Three was a crowd.

“Go home, Richard.”

From The Grey House:

“About two months after you bit me, I went on a road trip to find Donald, my mother’s killer. I was determined to find him and kill him. I found the route he used to take and drove it up and down, stopping at truck stops and restaurants; anywhere a trucker would stop. Along the way I met a Slayer. He told me about a training camp in North Dakota that was run by militants. Most of them didn’t know about Hellspawn, but as long as I was willing to do as they said, I could be trained on any number of weapons. All I had to do was mention the Slayer’s name and I’d be in. He gave me the information, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. I kept looking for Donald…. It was a human that convinced me to get training.”

From The Grey House:

“Natalie, did you find anything more on who is trying to run the vampires in San Francisco?”

She glared at him for not saying her name right. She didn’t say anything as he seemed to do it to push her buttons. “Vincent Grey isn’t the head of the vampires. A man named Edwin is. His group is the one killing the kids.”

“Are you certain?”

“No, but I have an interview at one of Vincent’s establishments this weekend. I’m going to get a job at The Ocean’s Edge as a waitress to see if I can learn anything more. We might want to look at one of his other establishments, The Red Thread. They aren’t hiring there, but you may want to have people watching that club.”

From The Grey House:

Vincent left the room, and the memories, behind. It was called an oubliette for a reason.

Rebecca closed and locked the door once he was out. Joseph followed behind him as he walked up the passage to the cellar steps. Mierka and two others were waiting for them by the door. As they approached, one went into the air chamber. By the time Vincent reached the door, it was open. Mierka was standing by it, waiting. Vincent stepped through, closed the door then opened the other. His thoughts were far from pleasant as he walked up the steps.

From The Grey House:

“But then you’d have to kill all the rest of them off. Do you know how many of us you would have to kill before you would actually be in charge?”

Vincent, seeing a way out of this situation, let the smallest smile touch his pursed lips. “There were about 20 when Christopher left, but it seems the list has grown smaller in the past few months. Your competition seems to have a lot of ill luck. Christopher won’t be happy if he learns you had anything to do with that.”

From Kaymbria:

Prologue

“…and they lived happily every after. The End.” Sarah closed the book of fairly tales and smiled at her daughter. “And now, it’s time for sleep. We’ve read three stories tonight. That’s enough.”

Evelyn crinkled her nose. “There are never any good dragons in the stories.”

Sarah smiled. Evelyn said the same thing every night. Though the stories they read never contained any dragons at all, Evelyn always wanted to hear about a good dragon. “I’ve told you the stories of Lillisthad, child. You know there are good dragons.”

“I know, but…” She shook her head then yawned. “They also never show girls that can fight their own fights. I want to read about a girl that saves the Prince.”

Her mother laughed softly. “Perhaps you’ll tell a story one day of a girl that saves the Prince.”

“Lillisthad should have their stories in books so you can read them to me.”

Sarah stood and placed the book on the nightstand, well away from the candle. “That’s enough questions for the night, dear. You need sleep. We go to the market early tomorrow morning.”

Evelyn nodded from her bed but stayed sitting up. She looked up at her mother, a new question in her mind. Seeing the look on her mother’s face, she snuggled down into her covers and took a deep breath. “Mom? Why do the stories always say, ‘handsome prince’?”

Sarah stopped tugging in the covers and gave her young daughter an odd look. “What do you mean, sweetheart?”

“Well, the stories all say the prince is handsome, but they never say that he’s kind. Wouldn’t it be better if he were a ‘kind prince’? Or both?”

Sarah sat back down on her chair. She had never really given this much thought. “Well, the stories show that he is kind in how he acts, but unless there are pictures, we don’t know that he’s handsome.”

Evelyn crinkled her nose. “I still think they should say he’s kind. Then we know who the hero is, even if it’s always a boy.”

“All right, dear, enough of that. Go to sleep.” She said it with kindness as she caressed her daughter’s hair.

“Goodnight, mom.”

Sarah leaned down and kissed her daughter on the cheek, then turned and picked up the book and candle from the nightstand. She left her daughter’s room and went to her own. Her husband was getting ready for bed.

“How many stories tonight?”

“Three.” Sarah placed the book and candle on the nightstand. “She asked a new question tonight.”

Will turned to his wife as he continued to undress. “Oh?”

“She wants the prince to be kind.” There was laughter in her voice.

He chuckled and shook his head. “Then add the word when you tell her the stories. It’ll make her happy.”

Sarah placed a hand on the book. “Will, I want you to teach me to read.”

“I have often offered, but what changed your mind?”

“She’s getting older. She wanted to try to read one of the stories tonight.” Sarah looked down at the title on the book “Farmers Guide to Irrigation”, at the letters that meant nothing to her. “She’ll know soon enough that the stories I tell her aren’t from this book.”

Will went to Sarah and took her in his arms. “They’re from your memories of the stories you were told as a child. She should know that anyway. Why you don’t tell her is beyond my understanding.”

Sarah shrugged and gave her husband a kiss. “I will, when she asks, but I want to learn how to read before then. It may help me to find a book with stories that she wants to hear.”

He smiled down at his wife. “We’ll start now.”

She smiled back. “Thank you.”

Will smiled again, kissed his wife then let her go. The couple settled on their bed as Will took the book in hand. He opened it up and started to teach his wife to read.

                                                            *****

“Evelyn, I’m sorry, but they don’t have a fairy tale with a good dragon and a girl that saves the kind, handsome prince. I’ve looked.”

From her bed, the small girl frowned, her blue eyes showing disappointment. “That’s ok. Can you call the prince kind when you tell me a story?”

Sarah smiled. “Of course, love. Anything for you.”

Evelyn gave her mother a huge smile. “Thank you, mommy!”

She smiled again and opened the new book of fairy tales Will had purchased at the fair earlier in the week. It was a present for her and Evelyn, as she could now read well enough to decipher the new stories. “Daddy bought you a new book. We’ll read from that tonight.” Evelyn smiled, settled in her bed and waited for her mother to start. The stories her mother told were fine, but Evelyn still wanted to hear about dragons and girls who could save the day. It happened every day in Lillisthad, therefore Evelyn felt it could also happen in her home realm of Kaymbria.

From the Grey House:

Vincent closed the door tightly behind him and continued to the main staircase. A very wealthy San Franciscan built the house in the late 1800’s. Vincent acquired it in the early 1900’s and made repairs and renovations to most of the house and restored the grand marble staircase. He enjoyed walking down a large sweeping marble staircase. It made for a grand entrance. Reaching ground level, he turned right walked a few steps and turned right again, walking beside and then under the staircase.

There were five rooms on the ground floor. There were two meeting rooms, a state-of-the-art kitchen, a substantial library/sitting room and a ballroom. The large meeting room was connected to the ballroom/training room by a sliding wall. The dividing wall was often opened for parties. There was also a good-sized pantry and a bathroom. Vincent was headed for the cellar stairs, which were across from the kitchen. He opened the door, looked around, then stepped inside.

From The Grey House:

“Natalia,” he paused, caressed her cheek, leaned in and placed a light kiss on her lips. Natalia pulled back slightly, surprised by the tenderness. “There is much that I would like to do to you and have you do to me, but you are in no condition to match my desires. I don’t deny I want you, but if I take you now, when you’re already hurt, I’ll hurt you further. We’re not doing this today.”

She stared into his eyes, wondering what he had wanted to do to her before she took the beating from Marshal. She also wondered about the kiss. It revealed far more about him than he probably wanted it to. Natalia reached up and placed her hand on his cheek, caressing his lips with her thumb. She wanted him, but knew he was right. She wouldn’t be able to take him on his terms. She nodded as her eyes closed to hide her emotion.

From The Grey House:

“Why didn’t you tell me you knew who she was before this?”

“I didn’t know I did until yesterday. Joseph was telling me my schedule while watching the tapes from the restaurant. I saw who you were with and realized who she was. I was afraid to tell you I knew her.” A bragging tone snuck into his voice and he had a mad twinkle in his eye. “And since you two seemed to be enjoying each other’s company, I didn’t think it was right to tell my boss that I had slept with his new girlfriend first.” He gave Vincent a wolfish grin. “Do you?”

“Will you be apologizing for your current attitude?” His demeanor and tone did not waver from his original stoic position.