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From Inside the Grey House:

Natalia was taken aback. She read of the ritual tongue removal but thought it had faded with time. It was popular with a group of Slayers during colonial times; used to ensure no one could tell their secrets when accused of being witches. Stunned, Natalia opened her mouth to speak, but Vincent beat her to it.

“Enough. Go upstairs Natalia. I’ll join you shortly.” There was no emotion to his voice.

Natalia looked at Vincent’s inscrutable back, reading nothing from his posture. She nodded once to Mierka and left the dungeon, using Vincent’s pass code to exit. She walked proudly upstairs, wondering at her punishment.

I love the scene that follows. It’s one of my favorites.

From Inside the Grey House:

“How the hell do you expect me to answer that?!?” Charlie yelled; he couldn’t help it. He was sure his voice carried outside the office.

Vincent grinned maliciously while Charlie breathed deeply to calm himself. Still smiling, Vincent backed up to lean against the nearby chair. “I expect you to tell me the truth.”

Giving up the fight, Charlie let himself slump to the ground as he continued to breathe deep to stop himself from turning Blitzkrieg. After a couple minutes, Charlie looked up at Vincent. “At first, I was worried about what Rebecca would say, then about what you would do, but in the end, she just feels too good and knows how to distract men way to well. Of course, I enjoyed her. She’s a beautiful woman that I used to screw on a regular basis. How would you feel if an ex-girlfriend came up to you and started making out with you for no reason you could discern?”

“I’m not happy with you, Charlie.”

Charlie stood, angry and annoyed. “You know what, Vincent? Screw you. She’ll be in your bed tonight and what about me? I’m going to spend the night in my bed,” he raised his right hand, “with my right-hand man. My wife, who would be more than happy to remind me that I’m hers after an incident like this, is conveniently in another part of this country. You get to leave this room, find your woman, throw her into your bed and claim her and make her scream your name. I’ve got I don’t know how long before I see my woman again.”

From Inside the Grey House:

He spoke quietly again. “You are more ready then you realize.” He raised his voice. “Rise, child and accept my challenge.”

She did as she was told, trying to calm her stomach, which felt as if it were twisting into knots. Natalia knew she wasn’t ready. As the others moved back, she felt her confidence slipping. She witnessed a fight between Joseph and Vincent once, and it proved to be a bloody and violent hand-to-hand battle. When Joseph won, Vincent turned, looking for her. Both men were very low on blood and therefore ravenous. Mierka stepped in front of her, keeping Vincent from quenching his thirst on the delicate human. Joseph, in complete control of his actions, left the room to feed, taking a disgruntled Vincent with him.

From Inside the Grey House:

Natalia watched him go, then made sure her backpack was securely on her back. She stood up and went to the edge of the balcony. She grabbed the top of the iron bar railing, lifted herself up and swung one leg, then the other over the top. She turned to face into the balcony, gripped the bars very carefully and allowed herself to slide/drop to the balcony beneath her. Once her feet were on the edge of the railing, she let go of the balcony above her and jumped into the empty balcony without a problem. She took a few deep breaths then repeated the steps to end up on the first-floor balcony. From there, it was an easy jump to the ground.

On the ground, she hugged the wall, but ran quickly to the back of the building. At the corner of the building, she knelt down, looked around the corner, saw no one was around, stood and walked leisurely to her car. Once at her car, she opened the door, nodded to Charlie in the passenger seat, dug out her keys and started the car. They were out of the parking lot and well on their way before Natalia realized that Charlie was still staring at her in disbelief. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye.

From Inside the Grey House:

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?”

“Malnourishment, blood loss, lack of sleep. She can only heal those with time. Replenishing her blood and fat stores takes far more energy than I have, and with her will being as strong as it is, I have no hope of helping her sleep-deprived psyche.”

From Inside the Grey House:

“What is this?” He didn’t particularly like that three of Edwin’s people were still in his club.

Joseph indicated the three vampires. “They said they wanted a word with you.”

One by one Vincent looked all three in the eye. “All right. Start talking.”

Morgan stepped forward. “We want your protection.”

“Oh? From what I’ve seen, you can do fine on your own.”

From Inside the Grey House:

She was going to answer but had to wonder. “He feels very protective of her and his loyalties may be suspect.”

“He never gave me his full loyalty, Rebecca. He gave it to you. Would he protect her over you?”

Rebecca blinked, finally looking unsure of herself. “I…”

Vincent held up his hand to silence his Alpha. “Don’t answer. Fetch Charlie. Bring him here.”

From Inside the Grey House:

Natalia’s anger flourished in his apparent detachment. Her anger consumed her and wrapped her in a blanket of raw heat. Logic was gone; instinct took over. She grabbed Anthony’s staff and swept Vincent off his feet before anyone knew what was going on. He fell to the ground and she pressed the end of the staff against his neck. Were he human, his air passage would be blocked. Natalia and Vincent locked eyes, neither looking to concede.

From Inside the Grey House:

“Does anyone know who it was?”

“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:

“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.”

The vampire stayed silent for a few minutes, wondering what he really wanted to do about Charlie. He could easily kill Charlie but didn’t think that was a worthy punishment. Also, Vincent wasn’t sure Rebecca would stay loyal if her husband was dead by his hand. Vincent had known all along that Charlie wasn’t loyal to him, but knew the werewolf was loyal to Rebecca. That was never a problem. He had to wonder if it was really a problem that Charlie would save Natalia over him.