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When I originally wrote this trilogy, the story started from a few months before Natalia’s conception and showed her childhood. When I decided to publish, I took out most of her early existence. But we all need to know about Donald, so I added that part, what he did to her mom, to the end of the book. Here’s part of that.

From Protector of the Grey House:

He was starting to sound like Lucas, but Lucas had had the voices in his head. Donald was a fanatic and possibly insane. During his soliloquy Natalia moved her arms back and forth, testing her range of motion. He’d done a poor job of tying her; she could maneuver her arms to the edge of the chair. By gathering the fabric in her hands, she was able to reach her jacket pockets, which still contained her stash of anti-vampire weapons. She needed the knife though, and that was in the pocket on her right side, which was the side closest to Donald.

“I couldn’t have you then. You were too young. That wouldn’t be right. Each night, after your mother fell asleep, there you were swimming in my dreams. All I could do was chase you. You never let me catch you, not even in my dreams. It felt wrong to be with your slut mother and want her beautiful young daughter. Then, on a late-night trip, God sent me the hitchhiker, who offered me such interesting secrets. So interesting that I could not pass them up. It seemed like I was being punished for my desires, but now that I have everything I want, I must think that being made into this being is a reward for my patience.”

Some of you know this, some of you may not. I’m a widow. I was widowed at the age of 38. April 23rd would be 27 years engaged, and April 24th would be 17 years married. I have decided to share something I don’t think I’ve shared before. This is not a spoiler, as I’m not sure it actually happens, but a vision of what we should all have, at the end of our days, when we’re old and grey.

This has no title but we’ll call it “The end of an old wolf”:

Rebecca came out of the room with her head down. Her tired eyes found Natalia. “He’s asking for you.”

Natalia let go of Vincent’s hand and walked to the bedroom. It was dark and smelled strongly of death. Natalia stopped her breath and walked to the bed. She sank into the chair beside the bed and took the old wolf’s hand.

“Charlie?” She said softly, trying not to let the sadness into her voice.

He took a deep, stuttering breath and looked to her. His eyes fluttered open and he smiled. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Looks like…” he took a ragged breath. “Looks like I still owe you a life.”

The tears blurred her vision as she leaned closer. She placed her hand on his cheek. “Charlie, stop.”

He smiled, deepening the wrinkles on his face. “Maybe I’ll become a ghost. Haunt you and keep you safe.”

“Charlie…” Her voice cracked.

He said nothing for a while but took ragged breaths. He turned to her again. “You still look as beautiful as the day at the club. Remember that?”

“Yeah.” She moved to the bed and sat close to him. “I do.”

“Not sure what I would have done if you turned werewolf.” He gave her a silly grin. “Maybe I could have had two wives.”

She laughed. “I’m sure Rebecca would not have allowed that.”

He shrugged his thin shoulders. “Meh. You never know.”

She laughed as pink tears ran down her cheeks. “Charlie.”

He smiled again and took a shallow breath. “Take care of Rebecca and the kids.”

She placed her hand on his cheek again. “Of course.”

“Tell Vincent it was a pleasure to work for him.”

“You could tell him yourself.”

“Nope. Gonna talk to my women only.” He coughed a bit. It sounded wet and painful, but he calmed quickly. Once he calmed he looked into her eyes and placed a hand on her chest, above her breasts. It was a friendly gesture. “I love you, Nat.”

“I love you too, Charlie. I’m going to miss you so much.”

He gave her a sad smile. She leaned down and kissed his lips softly. He returned the kiss and sighed as she pulled away. She left the room and went to Rebecca. “Thank you.”

Rebecca started for the room but paused at Natalia’s side. The women embraced before Rebecca went back to her husband. Natalia went to Vincent. He held her and comforted her. A few moments later, they could hear Rebecca crying. Danni went into the room and came back a moment later. There were tears in her eyes.

“He’s…”

She didn’t have to finish her words. Natalia buried her head in Vincent’s neck as the others around her mourned in their own way. Charlie’s words came back to her as she felt a wind on her neck. She hoped the old wolf was at rest. He had been her protector for a long time. She didn’t need him any more, but she would miss him for all her days to come.

From Protector of the Grey House:

“What did it do to you?”

He growled louder. “It asked too many questions.”

She stopped, let him cool down and started again. “I believe I deserve to know Vincent, as it nearly killed me.”

“You chose to jump into the oubliette, my love. No one from this house forced you.” He started to caress her inner thigh and pressed himself against her to stop her questions to no avail.

“What would one do to deserve such punishment?”

He growled again, louder this time. “Keep pestering me, human and you will know.”

“I’m not letting this drop. I want to know who it was and why it was in there.”

An arm tightened around her as the other hand went to her neck and squeezed a little harsher than was safe. “It’s called an oubliette for a reason, Natalia. Stop this questioning.”

She breathed a little easier when he let her neck go. There was no fear in her voice when she continued. “Do the others in your house know why it was there?”

This is from the parts I am re-writing. Some will be changed a little, some a lot. I’m not sure if I said why I am changing things, so I’ll say it here. The scenes made it seem that Natalia was with an abusive partner and I didn’t like that. A freaking all. And, as I read and reread the section many times, I started to understand that Natalia was not in control of her own mind when she did what she did. Therefore, why punish her for that?

From Protector of the Grey House:

“Where are you going?”

She struggled against his hold and tried to pull her hand free. “Let me go!”

“Not until you answer my question. Where are you going?”

With her free hand she slapped him hard on his cheek. He barely felt it and did not turn his head. “I said let me go! You have no reason to have me down here?”

He moved fast and her head spun. She was up against the wall, his hand around her neck. There was a glint of fear in her eyes, that quickly turned to anger. “You wish me to let you go? Tell me where you are going.”

She bared her teeth. “Away from you!”

“And then where?” His voice stayed mild.

Natalia kicked at his legs, but Joseph barely felt it. With his hand still around her neck, he moved toward the last cell in the dungeon. She threatened to kill him, but her voice turned raspy as he restricted her air flow slightly. Once inside the room, he stopped moving and looked at her coldly.

“Look down, Natalia.”

She bared her teeth. “I said let me go, you miserable Hellspawn!”

From Protector of the Grey House:

“Why? After seven years with her, why have one of your top men be suspicious of her?”

“Keeps me from having to.” Vincent strolled to his desk, and left his glass on the windowsill.

“Emily was human for far less than that, and you had more reason to distrust her, yet no one followed her.”

Vincent smiled at the name, and pulled his key ring out of his pocket as a vision of the lovely lady came to him. She was blond with green eyes, of average height and very shapely. Emily was as beautiful as Natalia, almost as smart, but had no desire to fight. “None of the women I’ve loved have been like Natalia. Natalia is smart, beautiful, and dangerous. Perhaps I want to make sure I know what I’m getting myself into.”

“Even after seven years?”

That first sentence needs work. It will be different when this is published.

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.

She was so lost in her work she didn’t hear Franklin come in until he set the tray of food on the desk. She looked up into his grinning face.

“Hi. Thought you might be hungry.”

From Protector of the Grey House:

“Why the hesitation?”

Her voice eased Natalia’s nerves; Natalia placed her hand on Mierka’s thigh, almost grateful the woman was wearing jeans and not a skirt. She sighed and pulled away to look into Mierka’s eyes. When Natalia felt nothing but her own thoughts, she knew she was no longer under the vampire’s control.

“I didn’t realize I was bi-sexual until you suggested we try this. Tonight has brought out a lot of odd feelings.”

Mierka looked deep into Natalia’s eyes, and carefully brushed her fingers under the human’s chin. “Say no and we leave.”

From Protector of the Grey House:

Charlie watched as the beautiful human walked toward his group. No one had moved since she pushed Rebecca out of the way and launched herself at the demon. They had been too stunned at her actions and at Orlando’s death. Charlie stared at her face, wondering at the transformation. She stood tall and looked sure of herself, but for the tears that streamed down her face. He caught the look in her eyes, closed his eyes and looked away. There was no emotion in her eyes. Although the tears betrayed the humanity that lay in her heart, her eyes did not look human. She had come a long way from the scared 18-year-old that had been thrown into the room with the trapped werewolf.

Charlie looked back to the woman he used to call his lover and found that she was staring at him. The look in her eye grabbed him and threatened to hold him up as the world crumbled at her feet. Charlie shook at the look, understanding it completely. She was his leader. The others around her seemed to sense the same thing. Rebecca was handing her the scabbard for her sword, bowing her head as the human took it. Natalia sheathed the sword and called to him. Charlie came forward and fell to his knees at her feet. She handed him the sword and whispered for him to take it to the car. He nodded and left, knowing his place well. He was her sword bearer and protector; would carry out his duty until she couldn’t wield the sword, and until he repaid his debt.

From Protector of the Grey House:

Vincent smiled slowly as a memory unwound in his mind. One day last week, Morgan showed up while Vincent was fighting Natalia in the training room. Vincent caught her in his arms and fed her his blood. He never gave her much, just enough to fool the casual onlooker. Natalia fought it off easily but acted as if she were under his control. They sparred a little bit more, while he seduced her. When they were both aroused to the breaking point, he threw her against the wall and screwed her as everyone watched. That morning, alone and secure in their bedroom, while performing her own seduction, she informed him that should he do something like that again, she would slice him in half.

He didn’t doubt that she would. Her statement only made him want to try it again.

Vincent sipped his wine, wanting blood. He declined it though, as the blood in Edwin’s house was suspect. Edwin didn’t feed his guests his own blood; he fed them the blood of children. Vincent enjoyed taking blood from the unwilling, but not from children. Missing and dead children brought too many police officers around. Dead children drained of their blood brought too many Slayers.

From Protector of the Grey House:

Mierka was amazed Vincent was still capable of speech.

“We let her go; you’ll kill her.” Mierka turned to Vincent; she expected a fight. Joseph held him back, so it would be a fight of words, not fists. She was ready.

“Why would I do that?” His words revealed the depth of his hunger. Mierka shuddered with anticipation. She was the only woman in the household who could take him in this state.

“You’re not in control of yourself Vincent. Let me take you to bed. You’ll be better tomorrow evening.” Her voice was soft and soothing. Vincent shot her a look of disgust, and turned the full power of his gaze on the lovely Natalia. She tried to step toward him but was hindered by Mierka and the two wolves behind her. All present seemed to understand what was at stake, except for the two that mattered.