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Vincent is not what you call “good”. He lives by his own rules and is not above killing, imprisoning and torturing people that get in his way, or harm hi m or his people. Therefore the antagonists had to be worse.

From Inside the Grey House:

“Those Edwin doesn’t trust are ordered to sleep at his house. If we don’t show up before sunrise, he sends people after us. Thugs he’s hired to keep us in line.” Janice looked distraught. “I was late once, traffic was bad. As I drove up, six people were getting onto motorcycles. When I got out of my car and went inside, they followed me until they saw I was going to Edwin.”

“I tried to get out once.” Kari waited until Vincent looked her way. “I told Edwin I wanted to go find some new challenges. I told him I would be back in a week. He said I could go, as long as I took an escort. To hide what I was doing, I went to Los Angeles. He had me take two of his thugs. They were with me everywhere I went. Edwin may not appear to be that bad, but he’s worse than you know.”

Vincent stared Kari down. “Edwin is a monster. Nothing about him surprises me.”

In the “Contagion”, the rpg this book is based off of, there are Slayers and there are the monsters. I created a subclass of Slayers for my world. They are the vampire hunters, do not have the same ability as Slayers and are not treated very kindly by some of the Slayers. Dean is one of those people.

From Inside the Grey House:

He gave her a sad look and she saw how much he wanted her to understand. Natalia frowned but let down her guard and listened. “When Judith and I found out you were with the Hellspawn, she wanted to kill you. I stopped her from killing you, but she still shot you. I hated her for that. I ran away for a while, thinking I needed to be a warrior for the Slayers.” His look grew even more depressed. “I was really mad at you for allowing Judith and the others to die, but then after a while realized I was madder because you had escaped, and I didn’t.”

Her thoughts stilled. “What are you saying, Dean?”

The Grey House Trilogy is based on an RPG my friend Travis Legge created. This means that every once in a while, something is mentioned in the book that isn’t really explored. Those are bits and pieces of the game world showing up in the book. If you like roll playing table top games, you should give it a try.

From Inside the Grey House:

“Whenever a Slayer is found on the streets or in a park, the body disappears, and a secret organization takes over the investigation.” She slammed her hand on the steering wheel. They were at a red light and Natalia felt each second that passed as a knife in her mind. How the hell had she missed this? “If we can get him away from her, bring him back to his apartment and kill him there, the Slayers will take care of their own and no one outside of the Slayers will know about it.” Charlie repositioned himself

Vincent trusts some of his people explicitly. So much so, that if one gives an order he listens. This happens with very few of his people.

From Inside the Grey House:

Vincent fumed as the intercom buzzed from the security room. Mierka had gone there after greeting her man.

“Stairs. Now.”  It was an order.

Vincent, not waiting for more instructions, raced out the door Anthony held open. Anthony followed, wondering what the problem was. When he saw the healer holding Natalia, he felt his skin crawl. He tucked away his distrust of the woman to serve his leader in any way he needed.

Vincent sat on the stairs and carefully took Natalia from Lilly’s arms. “What happened?”

“She fainted. Happens when you think you can do more than your body is ready for.”

He placed a soft kiss on Natalia’s brow. “I thought you were supposed to heal her.”

“And I did. The poison has been removed and her wounds are gone. But that’s all I can do for her, sir. Anything beyond that needs to heal over time.”

Vincent gave the healer a hard look. “Such as?”

The thought of a woman fighting in stilettos, or really any tall heels, was a real turn on for me. Until someone brought reality into the situation. When I first wrote this scene, it turned out well for Natalia. In the final edition, it does not.

From Inside the Grey House:

Fighting in a gown was hard, but she found that if she wore a dress with slits up the sides, it gave her more room to move. She hadn’t figured out how to keep steady on her heels, though. Natalia liked wearing heels and did so whenever she and Vincent went out. She sometimes wore heels around the house, just to drive him crazy. Moving slowly and seductively on heels and trying to walk as a warrior in them were two entirely different creatures. She felt like a child trying out heels for the first time. The sharp thin heels would be great to use as weapons, though. Now, as she was facing down a practice threat, she wasn’t too sure. She circled slowly using every other part of her body to intimidate, knowing that at some point the terrified vampire would strike.

And then he did.

I don’t want to say too much about this scene, as saying to much would reveal what happened before. Therefore, enjoy!

From Inside the Grey House:

He slipped his fingers out of her to hold her closer. “There is something I wish to discuss with you, Natalia.”

“Anything. Just make it fast.” She gave him a seductive look. “There are other, more pleasant things I want to do.”

His hand traveled up to her head to tangle in her soft, luxurious hair. “When did they become our men, Natalia?”

His words caught her by surprise. She thought back to the night’s event, remembering what she said and why. The look of surprise vanished, and she raised her head high, giving him a proud look. “I’ve spent the past five years fighting with these people, learning from them, talking to them, and living with them. The creatures I see the most are the ones that live in your household.”

The Grey House Trilogy takes place in the San Francisco Bay Area. Natalia’s house in San Francisco, is actually where some friends of mine had a house, and is right around the corner from the apartment I grew up in. Here, Vincent and Joseph discuss Edwin, and his desire to be in charge.

From Inside the Grey House:

The agitated vampire shook his head. “No.” He paused in thought. “Edwin enjoys pretending to be Captain because it means no one can touch him, but he’s been Acting Captain for almost five years. I have to wonder how long a vampire like him can stand only being the Acting Captain. There are limits to what he can do. There are still too many in the Bay Area who won’t listen to him. It may be that he wants to show his power, show that he has power. We need to be there.”

“Of course, we do.” The tone in his voice made Vincent look up hard.

“What does this have to do with you testing Natalia today?” He looked as if he didn’t want to know the answer.

“We’ll need her.”

“Out of the question.”

Vincent has an odd relationship with one of his werewolves, Charlie. Charlie, despite working for the vampire, and being married to a werewolf that has been employed by the vampire for generations, tends to protect Natalia more than Vincent.

From Inside the Grey House:

Rebecca gave him a triumphant smile, until she heard Vincent clapping. The werewolves turned to face their master. He had a bored look on his face and was leaning back in his chair, clapping slowly as if amused. He was not. He stopped clapping but continued to give the pair a hard look.

“Very nicely said. I’m sure your wife will reward you for your words at a later date. This doesn’t change the fact that you are more loyal to the women in this house than you are the vampire who houses you and allows you to live. What are we going to do about this?”

Charlie looked down, feeling Rebecca’s reassuring hand in his. “Whatever you have to, Vincent.”

Lorraine is Vincent’s sire. She isn’t happy that though Natalia is on the West Coast and Lorraine and Vincent are far away on the East Coast, Vincent almost refuses to sleep with his sire. She is also trying to point out to Vincent that he knows nothing about the human.

From Inside the Grey House:

Lorraine smiled at his reaction. She sounded amused. “She’s gotten into your blood. How interesting, and only after what, three meetings? I’m impressed.”

“Four.”

“What?”

“Four meetings. I’ve met her four times.” Vincent was smirking. He would bet that Joseph had not told Mierka of Vincent’s encounter with Natalia at the restaurant. Vincent would have the pleasure of telling Lorraine every lustful detail. He would have the upper hand tonight.

“Vincent, listen to yourself. You’ve lost control. You care about how many times you’ve seen her, and not what you will one day do to her. What will you do when you accidentally kill her?”

I’ve decided to talk about my weight loss journey, as it might help someone understand themselves more. I know all bodies are different and every weight loss/gain story is different. I am not encouraging or discouraging anyone from doing what they think is right for their body, but sometimes, it’s nice to hear a success story that is less drastic than most. And I think it’s good for my own sake to write about it, as I’m really happy with what is going on.

As a kid I was not fat. My mom is French, and we learned portion control early on. Also, she cooked dinner for us every night, from scratch. We had processed foods and fast food on special occasions.

I graduated high school in 1993. It was a long time ago, but that’s where it starts for me. I was 5 foot, was on the tennis and swim team in my senior year and weighed 110 pounds. I was in great shape, and didn’t know it, due to low self-esteem.

I left home to come to college and on the way here, gained a few pounds. My parents drove me from San Francisco, to Rockford College in Rockford, IL. We stayed in hotels and motels and ate at restaurants for every meal, as that’s all there was. By the time I got to college, I was probably 115-120 pounds.

I stayed pretty stead in that range for most of my adult life. I got to be probably around 130 by the time I was diagnosed with MS in 2006. I stopped trying to exercise at that time, as it made me too tired. If you know anything about MS and exercises, I don’t want to hear it. I know it already.

Weight stayed steady until I started working at my current job in 2012. They cater lunch, and have a kitchen that is open all the time. And the food is free. Including soda, coffee, chips, cookies, ice cream, and lots and lots of candy, including Peanut M&Ms.

I ate too much once a week at lunch. I know this as I started gaining more weight, and my stomach hurt once a week from eating too much.

Then in 2013, my husband died. I filled the void he left with LEGOs, sex, and food. (All things considered, I could have filled the void with far worse things).

I gained more weight, despite finding out I had Graves Disease (hyperthyroid) which makes people lose weight, due to overactive thyroid.

I went on meds for that and continued to gain weight. I didn’t have a scale for a long time and only found out how much I weighed when I went to the doctor. I tried to ignore the steadily increasing numbers but just didn’t care. Though I started dating in late 2014, I wasn’t taking care of myself as I should have been. I kept eating too much. Peanut M&Ms are soooo easy to eat. They were not my only downfall, but they were my greatest weakness.

This continued until, in 2016, I went to visit my mom. She has a scale. I stepped on it and in horror, got off quickly when I realized it was settling in at 170. (Old scale, analog, not digital.) That’s when I knew I had to do something. I was uncomfortable in my skin and I found out I had high cholesterol. Not too high, but it didn’t need to get any higher. I tried eating less on and off, but didn’t really start anything real until September of 2019. By then, I had gotten down to 157 pounds.

I decided to download a calorie counter to see if that helped. Also, by July of 2019, I was taking off my hyperthyroid meds, as my numbers were nearly normal. My doctor felt they weren’t necessary anymore. I saw her in October and had already started losing weight. She was fine with the amount I was losing as it fit with normal weight loss and not uncontrolled hyperthyroid weight loss.

A few things to note:

1. I don’t drink soda. I hate most sodas and even the ones I like (Dr. Pepper, Orange Soda) I can’t drink more than a few sips before I’m done. The exception being A&W Cream Soda. Which I get vary occasionally. This meant I didn’t have any “easy” thing to remove from my diet.
2.  I like food and I’m not willing to cut anything out. Life is too short to eat foods I don’t like.
3. MS makes it impossible for me to starve myself. My symptoms flare if I get hungry and stay hungry for too long. And fuck that. Not going through that discomfort.

Once I downloaded the app, I realized how little I understood about food portions, but I did the best I could. I also cheated a lot. I didn’t always write down what I ate, as I didn’t want to know the calories. I knew the calories, as I would look them up, but didn’t write them down. What I did was keep it in mind for the end of the day and made sure I didn’t eat more than the allocated calories. Yes, I cheated badly. What it came down to, is the calorie counter helped me to be more aware of how much I was eating, and I therefore ate less. For me, it worked.

In January of 2020, I weighed 148 pounds. I had to know the number, as I was getting an MRI with contrast. I told the tech I lost weight and told him what I weighed. He told me that January of 2019, I was 162 pounds. That made me feel really good.

I continued the course, kept eating better and less (carefully). I was never hungry, because fuck that. Then the pandemic hit. And my job stated we would be working from home. And I stopped eating Peanut M&Ms on a regular basis. I had stopped eating them every day, but I was still consuming a lot of calories because of those yummy suckers.

Now, it’s not that I didn’t have sweets at home. I like to bake things. We often have more than one homemade dessert to eat. I just don’t over indulge.

As of this writing, I am 136 pounds. I’ve lost a good amount of weight. My goal is 130 pounds. I’m not that far away. I have added using my treadmill to my day, and hope that continues to help.

So far, for me, eating less and being more mindful of food intake has helped me a lot. I’m glad to be down to a weight that I’m more comfortable with and hope that I am able to continue eating with forethought, rather than stuffing yummy food into my mouth and overeating.

Almost forgot to mention, I am now 5 feet 1.5 inches, therefore I know it is impossible, impractical, and probably an unhealthy idea to get back down to 110. I’ll be satisfied with 120-130 pounds, but currently aiming for 130 pounds.