Category: Guests

Guest Post | A Dash of Town Bronze by Ellie Thomas

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ 2 Comments

Today, we have the lovely Ellie Thomas back on the blog. She’s here to tell us about her story, A Dash of Town Bronze. Welcome, Ellie!

Thanks for having me as your guest again, lovely Ofelia! I’m Ellie and I write MM Historical Romance. I’m here today to chat about my latest release, A Dash of Town Bronze.

This under-4k-word release consists of two Town Bronze bonus chapters I wrote for my newsletter subscribers, now published by JMS Books as a freebie. Nothing like a free read! These two stories were originally titled Not in the Petticoat Line and Country Matters.

The second story, Country Matters focuses on the couple in the first Town Bronze story, Jasper and Mortimer. This age-gap romance with a surprising spanking kink began in Town Bronze in the spring of 1812 and continued on in the background of Petticoats and Pantaloons (Book 2) and Impeccable Credentials (Book 3) in the autumn and winter of the same year.

I wanted to give Jasper and Mortimer a hint of an HEA and so Country Matters seemed the ideal opportunity. There are plenty of obstacles for this couple. The nearly twenty-year age gap, which older partner Mortimer is deeply conscious of, and the fact that, until he met Mortimer and discovered his propensity for spanking, twenty-one-year-old Jasper considered himself a ladies’ man.

The four months of the Regency Season in London where they meet and start their relationship, wasn’t long enough for either man to overcome his reservations. In London, their differences are obvious; age, connections, sophistication and manners. Mortimer has all of those qualities and Jasper almost none.

But in Country Matters, when Mortimer invites Jasper to his home to break his journey on the way to his parents’ estate for Christmas, their similarities are revealed. They are both countrymen at heart with the same interests and values. These common interests are at the heart of this romantic short story, giving a firm foundation for the years to come.

A Dash of Town Bronze

These two under-2k-word stories are bonus chapters for the Town Bronze novella trilogy. In these short scenes, two out of the three couples in the ensemble cast deepen their romances, together with the guest appearance of Nathan Brooks from Twelve Letters. 

Barney and Ross/Rose from Pantaloons and Petticoats, Book 2 in the series, snatch some precious time together at lunchtime in a busy coffeehouse.

Then Jasper and Mortimer from Book 1, Town Bronze have their long-awaited chance for a happy ever after, away from the distractions of London and their friends’ love lives.

Excerpt:

Sir Mortimer Cleverly felt unduly gratified, regarding the young man sitting at his fireside as though he belonged there. 

At the end of London’s autumn Season, it felt like a natural progression to invite Jasper to Gloucestershire to break his journey home. 

Their bond had strengthened over several months since their first inauspicious meeting. Mortimer was persuaded they would benefit from some days alone together, away from the constant bustle of London.

Previously, Mortimer had conducted his fleeting affairs with sufficient tact that avoided unpleasantness and unwelcome notoriety. Yet, he acknowledged the situation with Jasper was entirely unprecedented. Despite his considerable experience, Mortimer was subject to an emotional pull that surprised him by its strength. 

Nearly twenty years Mortimer’s junior, Jasper was very green when he’d arrived in London last spring, unleashed from the constraints of formal education and his overprotective parents. Since then, he had started to find his feet amongst the hazards of the social whirl with a distinctly coltish grace that occasionally faltered. 

Looking over at Jasper, far more comfortable in a country sitting room than a Mayfair ballroom, Mortimer smiled to see the younger man so at ease.

“Yes, you need attention, too,” Jasper crooned at Pepper, one of Mortimer’s house dogs, pawing at his knee. Pepper licked his face, making Jasper laugh, while Mungo, the aged terrier, nudged his hand for an ear scratch.

I needn’t have worried, Mortimer thought with a smile, watching the show of indulgence towards his household pets.

Once Jasper had accepted his last-minute request, Mortimer fretted that he had made a mistake. Rather than furthering their relationship, being thrown into each other’s company without the distractions of the city might bring their differences into sharp relief.

He had momentarily forgotten that Jasper, like Mortimer, was a true countryman. When they arrived at Mortimer’s estate, his guest displayed an easy confidence he lacked in town. 

Proving to be a more than competent horseman, he’d ridden around the fields, making intelligent comments about the lie of the land. Similarly, Jasper had approached the outdoor and domestic staff with just the right degree of familiarity. He was capable of conversing with Mortimer about everyday landowning concerns, from rotating the crops to animal welfare, as though he was born to it.

Which indeed he was, Mortimer acceded. It was easy to surmise that the Goodhew establishment in nearby Worcestershire didn’t differ greatly from this estate in terms of land management. 

The expedient absence of Mortimer’s sister-in-law and his young nieces, which had prompted the invitation, had made his and Jasper’s togetherness complete. 

Once the household retired for the night, Mortimer navigated the darkened corridor to Jasper’s room. More often than not, Jasper was awake, awaiting the specific stimulation that gave him such intense relief. But sometimes, he was already slumbering when Mortimer slid into bed beside him. Jasper snuffled in his sleep and instinctively rolled towards Mortimer, seeking his body warmth, nestling into him in the most disarming manner. 

Mortimer confessed himself as captivated by that unconscious trust as much as by the lissom body in his arms.

“A penny for your thoughts, Tim?”

Jasper was smiling as he continued to make a fuss of the dogs.

Book Links:

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Dash-Town-Bronze-Ellie-Thomas-ebook/dp/B0CW1G9MW7/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1

Universal Book Link:

https://books2read.com/u/bWyY0W

Publisher:

https://www.jms-books.com/ellie-thomas-c-224_420/a-dash-of-town-bronze-p-5121.html

Add to Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214380369-a-dash-of-town-bronze

Add to Bookbub:

https://www.bookbub.com/books/a-dash-of-town-bronze-by-ellie-thomas

Bio:

Ellie Thomas lives by the sea. She comes from a teaching background and goes for long seaside walks where she daydreams about history. She is a voracious reader especially about anything historical. She mainly writes historical gay romance.


Ellie also writes historical erotic romance as L. E. Thomas.

Website: https://elliethomasromance.wordpress.com/

Facebook reader group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/8308047409266947

Twitter/X: @e_thomas_author

Bluesky: @elliethomas.bsky.social

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19835510.Ellie_Thomas

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/ellie-thomas

Guest Post | The Death God by Holly Day

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

The death god

Hiya! I’m here as Holly today 😊 A couple of days ago, The Death God was released, so I thought I’d pop over here and share the first chapter.   

Now, this is the sequel to Rufus the Dead, and I strongly suggest you read it first. In Rufus the Dead, we get to meet Rufus (of course), Jaki, Minerva, Thanatos, Prophecy, and Gregory. Gregory and Rufus are vampires who steal four psychics (the names above minus Rufus and Gregory 🤪), leave their coven behind, and buy a fixer-upper castle.  

The Death God is about Thanatos and Gregory. Thanatos’ skill is that he can see how people die. Gregory, who went searching for a way to prolong his life and found a vampire willing to turn him wants nothing to do with Thanatos and every time he sees him, it’s a reminder he won’t live forever.  

But there is an event hosted by the local werewolf pack, and they’re invited. To explain why they’ve left their coven without telling everyone they’ve stolen four psychics, they decide Gregory is gonna pretend to have fallen madly in love with a human. And that human is Thanatos.   

It’s somewhat of a challenge LOL  

The day we’re celebrating is World Gin Day, because when things don’t go as Gregory wishes – which they seldom do – he drowns his sorrows with gin.  

Read the first chapter below! 

The Death God

thedeathgod

Sequel to Rufus the Dead

Drinking vampire blood saves lives, but it comes with a price.  

A couple of months ago, Gregory Acklam gave his blood to one of the psychics living in his castle. Vampires don’t share their blood willingly since it creates a partial mate bond when they do, but Thanatos would’ve died if Gregory hadn’t intervened. The effects of a partial mate bond wear off after a couple of weeks, so how is it possible Gregory still feels drawn to Thanatos?  

Thanatos Sage never asked anyone to save his life. It doesn’t mean he’s not grateful, but no one asked him. It feels unfair he should be punished for something he didn’t do, but months after it happened, Gregory still refuses to be in the same room as him.  

It all changes when Gregory needs a fake boyfriend to bring to a werewolf event. Gregory goes from avoiding him to constantly being in his space. He claims they need to smell of each other to fool the werewolves into believing they’re a couple. Thanatos is surprised to realize he doesn’t mind playing the part of Gregory’s boyfriend, but shouldn’t they stop pretending now that they’ve met the werewolves? 

Buy Links:

Paranormal gay romance:  50,482 words

JMS Books :: Amazon

Chapter 1

Gregory Acklam walked through the dark corridor of the cold basement until he reached the room with all the booze. The former owner had left a lot of things behind, including a room filled with a variety of bottles.

He’d never met them, but the real estate agent had said everything in the castle was included in the price, since the current owner was in a remote location and unable to come into the country to empty it. Suspicious? Yes. But that was why it was so cheap. The owner was looking for a quick sale, which worked in Gregory’s favor. Though, he believed the price had more to do with the risk of the building falling on their heads any second now.

It didn’t matter. He’d bought a fucking castle.

He grabbed a bottle of gin, uncapped it, and guzzled several mouthfuls before walking along the dark stone corridor.

He glanced into the room where they held Zidane. His still form was sprawled on an old, scarred table, the stake protruding from his chest.

Zidane was a fellow vampire they kept in one of the basement rooms in case of an emergency. He’d tried to kill them, so Gregory didn’t feel bad about it. He talked to him from time to time to let him know they were still there. He didn’t answer, of course, which was for the best. He’d never liked Zidane. Looked like a fucking fairy and acted as if people should be pleased to see him. They already had Prophecy in the castle, and one person with that kind of personality was more than enough. Unpleasant bastards.

He snorted and took another swallow, only to grimace.

Two months ago, Gregory had made a decision he wished he hadn’t. Seven years earlier, Orla, his maker, the leader of his coven, and a close friend, had been murdered. Iris, the new coven leader, had tried to pin it on Gregory’s best friend, Rufus. Gregory had been able to provide an alibi for Rufus at the time of the murder and therefore saved his life. Rufus had been sentenced to being staked in a coffin for seventy years though, and Rufus was claustrophobic.

It ate away at Gregory knowing Rufus was living his worst nightmare while Gregory was getting on with his life—or trying to get on with his life. He lost his will when both his friends were taken from him, but he couldn’t give up. Not until he’d gotten Rufus out of the coffin.

So he’d done what any good friend would do—offered Rufus up for an arranged mating with a person neither of them had ever met. Yup. It was the kind of friend he was.

Blood bonds were forever. There was no way out. From the moment of the blood exchange till the second you drew your last breath, you were mated, and Gregory had made sure Rufus got the gig.

It turned out the person Rufus got mated to was a psychic named Jaki who lived in a fucking asylum commonly known as the house of horrors. Or maybe not commonly, but it was the name it went under in this house. Castle. It wasn’t a house; it was a castle, and they owned it because Gregory had panicked.

He’d believed he’d lose Rufus again, so he’d sold everything he owned. Then he’d sold everything Rufus owned. The home he loved, all things with monetary value, and his backup home. Rufus was careful like that. He always had a backup plan for everything, aliases for aliases, and places he could move to should his home get compromised. Not now though, since Gregory had sold everything.

Yeah. That was the kind of friend Gregory was. The kind who set you up for arranged matings and sold everything you owned.

Rufus took it in stride. He might have grumbled about the fucking castle, and he might have been right, but when did you ever get a chance to buy a castle? It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing even for a vampire who, essentially, could live forever.

Had they still had any money, they could’ve blown everything out and fixed it up. It could’ve been lovely.

Now they’d settled to make sure all rooms had intact windows.

He took another swallow of gin.

“Having a good day, Zidane?” He watched for a flicker of life, a sign he’d heard him, but there was none. Being staked left you aware but unable to move or feel. Gregory could cut his hand off, and Zidane wouldn’t feel a thing.

He walked into the room, took another gulp from the bottle, and stroked his hand over Zidane’s eyelids. He looked into forest green eyes—because of course they were forest green. The only thing missing from Zidane living a real-life Lord of the Rings movie was pointed ears. The eyes didn’t move, but Gregory knew from experience he could see and hear him, and his brain worked as effectively as it did when not staked.

“Yeah, me either.” He took another swallow of gin. “I’d offer you a drink, or maybe not, since you tried to kill us.”

He leaned against the cool stone wall and closed his eyes. He couldn’t go on like this. He skipped meals, and he wasn’t sleeping. All he wanted to do was grab Thanatos and carry him to his bed. Except, he fucking hated Thanatos. There was no creepier man than Thanatos the death god.

When things had gone south, Iris had sent Jaki back to the house of horrors, so, of course, Gregory had stolen Rufus from the coffin he was in—because it was the kind of friend he was. He’d done it right after having sold everything Rufus owned.

They’d gone to the house of horrors to get Jaki only to find it empty. But since Rufus was bonded to him, they could follow the pull of his heart—not as romantic as it might sound—and they managed to locate Jaki. In a convoy of vans.

Rufus narrowed it down to two possible vans Jaki could be in, so they’d taken them out and grabbed all the psychics in them. Luckily, it had only been Jaki and three more. Minerva was okay. Prophecy was an ass Gregory wished they’d eaten instead of saved, and Thanatos… the death god.

He’d taken one look at Gregory, his eyes had gone completely white, and now he knew how Gregory would die.

Then, at the same time as they’d gotten hold of Zidane, Thanatos had been about to bleed out, and Rufus had begged Gregory to save him—because that was the kind of friend he was. Fucker. So Gregory had formed a partial blood bond with Thanatos, and now he wanted to kill him as much as he wanted to fuck him. And care for him. And keep him safe. And gaze into his eyes and say sappy things. Ugh.

He snarled before bringing the bottle to his lips. He swallowed greedily. With too little food and too little sleep, a bottle of gin created some buzz.

The problem was it had been two months. A partial mate bond should only last for a couple of weeks, and yet Gregory couldn’t be in the same room as Thanatos. He didn’t feel any different now than he had the moment the one-sided bond had slid into place.

He fucking hated Thanatos.

“Next time one of them is about to bleed out, we’ll feed them your blood.” He nudged Zidane’s shoulder, but he wouldn’t feel it. “Do you think it’s different because they’re seers?”

He didn’t think so. The mate bond acted the same whether you mated a human, a shifter, or another vampire. Vampire-vampire bonds were a little different since they couldn’t feed from each other, so there was no natural way to strengthen the bond. Though he suspected they bit each other now and then to keep the bond strong. Or not. A bond was a bond, and he feared he’d gag if he had to drink dead blood.

As soon as the hold of the partial bond let go of him, he’d go into the closest town and hook up with the first stranger he encountered. Or maybe not the first. He had some standards. But a nameless, faceless one-night stand was what he needed to free himself of this weird hold Thanatos had on him.

“I’m gonna go and get drunk in the kitchen now. I’d invite you to join me, but I don’t think you’re fit for company.” He leaned over Zidane and closed his eyelids. He was kind like that; didn’t let his prisoner’s eyes dry out.

* * * *

Thanatos Sage looked at the instruction video from the beginning. Again. He’d followed it step by step, but his sourdough starter didn’t bubble.

It had been two months since Rufus and Gregory had saved him from the house of horrors, and his new life was so much better than his previous one.

When he’d lived in the underground facility, the warden had sold his services, and his services included both his skill to foresee someone’s death and his body.

He never wanted to go back.

The warden was dead. Jaki had shot him, but since there hadn’t been any news about a group of people being found anywhere, he suspected someone else was running the show now. It was a lucrative business, and all the guards and other staff knew it.

Thanatos had lived most of his life in the blue wing. It was called the blue wing because everyone who lived there wore blue scrubs. Each small room with its crisp white walls housed two unhappy psychics. He’d shared a room with Prophecy since the day his father sold him to the warden.

Not now. Now he had his own room, and he loved it. He closed and locked his door behind him every night. He’d gotten extra locks. Rufus had looked at him as if he were insane when he’d asked for door latches, but he’d provided. Thanatos now had three sliding latches and two door chains. It made him sleep better. Or maybe not, since he didn’t sleep, but it made him calmer.

He tapped on the glass jar, hoping to see a bubble in the dough, but nothing.

Jaki and Rufus were his new favorite people. He’d lived next door to Jaki in the house of horrors, but they had never spoken other than a grunted hi from time to time. He’d heard him through the walls though. Not words, but he could pick out the tone of his voice as he and Minerva had talked.

His and Prophecy’s room had always been silent. It was as if there had been an invisible barrier in the middle of the room preventing sounds from filtering through.

Prophecy never asked how he was, what he was thinking, or if they should go to the canteen together. He’d envied Jaki and Minerva. The only ones he ever spoke to were his clients and he didn’t want to talk to them.

He shuddered and shook the glass jar. Still nothing. He watched the instruction video again, poured out most of the sourdough starter and fed it again. He moved the rubber band on the jar to where the surface of the dough started and placed it on top of the refrigerator.

When steps approached, he pressed himself against the kitchen counter and held his breath. Praying whoever was walking in this direction would turn around.

Gregory appeared in the doorway, scowled, and muttered something Thanatos couldn’t make out.

Gregory wasn’t as big as Rufus, who was a tall, broad-shouldered vampire with flaming red hair and a scarred face, but he was still taller than Thanatos. Thanatos was the smallest of the men currently living in the castle. It didn’t matter, but when Gregory glared at him, he shrank into himself more.

Pathetic. He was almost certain Gregory wouldn’t touch him. Almost. But a lifetime of experience had him keeping his distance.

Gregory drank from a bottle, the liquid see-through. Thanatos didn’t know enough about alcohol to be able to guess what it was from looking at the bottle, but he was sure it was liquor.

He didn’t know if a vampire could be an alcoholic. Since they healed almost everything, addiction seemed far-fetched, but he was no expert.

“Gonna stand there for long?”

Thanatos shook his head. As soon as Gregory moved away from the doorway, he planned on running, but moving now would mean stepping closer to him. His heart was beating hard in his chest, and his breath came in stutters.

Gregory narrowed his eyes, then grunted and walked further into the kitchen. Thanatos sucked in air and held it. As soon as there was a wide enough gap between Gregory and the kitchen counter, he rushed for the doorway. Had Gregory wanted to grab him, he could have. Vampires could move faster than the human eye could catch when they wanted to.

He rounded the corner of the doorway and panted as he hurried down the corridor toward his room. Once there, he closed the door and engaged all the locks.

This was better than the house of horrors. Much better. He had his own room, his own bathroom, he could pick clothes, and he was allowed to be in the kitchen and try to cook as many things as he wished, but it didn’t make his hands stop shaking or his heart wanting to break out of his ribcage.

What if the guards had killed the remaining seers in the house of horrors? He believed there had been twelve on the blue wing, but there was a pink wing and a green wing too. How many seers had lived there, he didn’t know, but no one would kill forty-ish people, would they?

He’d search all the news sites again tomorrow. It had been two months. Someone had to have found the other seers. Though, if someone had taken over the operation, he feared they’d never be found.

Guest Post | Vampire Lee by Holly Day

~ Ofelia Gränd ~ Leave a comment

Short blurb

Hiya! I’m here as Holly today 😊 A couple of days ago, Vampire Lee was released, and I figured I’d post the first chapter for you to read.  

This is a sequel to A Vampire Chew Toy, and even though it’s about a new couple, I think it would be best to read A Vampire Chew Toy first.  

Toward the end of A Vampire Chew Toy, Mars, Murrie, Rei, Hanna, and Faelan rescue Devin and Dillon from where they’re kept as blood slaves. Vampire Lee is about Dillon and how he’s been coping after having moved into the manor house the others were already living in.  

It’s also about Lee, who is a bartender in Hagwall’s only shifter bar. One night, he hears something he wasn’t meant to hear, and since the guys in the manor house are the equivalence of the paranormal police, he contacts them. Below you can read about how that’s going 😁  

Vampire Lee

vampireleeCan you chase away imaginary monsters with real life monsters?  

Dillon Ross lives in a huge mansion together with six other people. Four of them turn furry, one drinks blood regularly, and one is a former blood slave, just like him. Seven months ago, he was rescued from a fate worse than death, and he’s been doing his best to avoid people ever since. Which is hard when you have well-meaning but nosy roommates.   

Lee Dowell is a vampire working in a shifter bar. One day, he hears something he wasn’t meant to hear, and while his first reaction is to ignore it, he reaches out to the supernatural version of the police. It might not have been his smartest move, since he now has a target on his back.  

Dillon isn’t pleased to realize he is sharing a floor with a vampire. There are enough monsters in his head, he doesn’t need one in his space too. But Lee has put himself in danger by trying to help some people held captive, and his roommates are trying to keep him safe. Lee doesn’t do humans, but when Dillon’s nightmares wake him time and time again, he wants nothing more than to gather him in his arms and chase away his fears. But can you chase away imaginary monsters with real life monsters?

Buy links:

Paranormal gay romance: 50,312 words

JMS Books :: Amazon

Chapter 1

Lee Dowell looked out over the crowd at The Rambling Rogue, the bar where he’d worked the last five or so years. He was looking for Rei. One of the people in Rei’s group of friends would suffice, but he preferred it to be Rei. Or maybe not. They’d hooked up, but then when they were to meet again, Rei’s assistant had called and informed him Rei was busy and unable to make it.

It had been weeks ago. A couple of months, maybe. He didn’t keep track.

“Vampire Lee! Give me another.”

He was yanked out of his head and nodded at Eli, the wolf shifter leaning against the bar. Vampire Lee. In the beginning, he’d tried to make them not call him that, but he was a vampire in a shifter bar. He guessed it was too much to ask. They had plenty of vampire patrons too, but there was no question about it being a shifter bar.

Pouring a beer from the tap, he looked out over the crowd again. “Have you seen Rei?”

“The jaguar?”

“Yeah.”

“Dude, good luck.”

Lee turned his gaze to him. Good luck? Had something happened to him? Come to think of it, Rei hadn’t been in for ages. Lee had seen him with his friends once or twice since they’d hooked up, so he didn’t think he was dead. Maybe he’d moved. Nah, the only thing Rei had sounded excited about was his job. Lee didn’t think he’d give it up unless he had to. “Why would I need it?”

“You banged him, right?”

Had Eli been there that night? He might have, he was a regular. Pleasant enough guy, despite being a wolf. Wolves were the largest shifter group, which was reflected in the clientele. Lee didn’t mind them too much, though pack animals— He grimaced. He didn’t understand pack animals.

“Yeah.” He dragged it out, realizing too late that Rei might not want him to tell anyone. He wasn’t exactly considered a catch among the bar’s visitors. Vampires and shifters could get along, he’d seen it, but… Yeah, he was a vampire in a shifter bar.

“Then he won’t come here again.”

“What? It’s a bar. The only shifter bar in Hagwall. Of course, he’ll come.”

Eli snorted. “How well do you know Rei?”

Know? He’d served him drinks for years, and they’d fucked. Once. It had been… Rei was a fine specimen, but it was a hook-up, nothing special. “Only superficially.” And he doubted Eli had much input to offer. He’d never seen them talk to each other.

“He’s somewhat of a legend.”

“Somewhat of a legend?” Deep down, he knew shifters weren’t more stupid than other species, but sometimes it was hard to truly believe it.

“He fucks everything with a pulse, then never calls them back.”

Lee shrugged. “And it makes him a legend?” Did it make Lee a legend too? He and Rei handled the subject of lovers in a similar manner.

Eli stared at him. “I don’t know, but now you’re one of the people he’s turned down.”

A light headache started to build, and he slowly shook his head. “I’m not looking for a hook-up, I need to talk to him.”

“Did he give you crabs?”

Vampires and shifters couldn’t get STDs the way humans did, but they could get crabs. “No.” His sigh was long and deep. “It is not related to sex, diseases, relationships, emotions, or anything like that. I only need a word, so if you see him, could you tell him? Or one of his friends. The bitchy wolf, what’s her name?”

“She’s not with them anymore.”

She’s not? They were a tight knit group, and they often came in together. Not all of them at once, but they came and went. He was pretty sure he’d recognize the females. If he remembered correctly, there were only two. Though if the bitchy one had quit, there was only one left.

He tried to conjure up an image of her. She was of average height for a shifter female, which meant taller than the average human woman but not enough to stand out, with long brown hair and kind eyes. Yeah, he’d recognize her if she came in. She often had a guy with her, also a wolf. He never spoke and had a tendency to melt into the back of the club. Come to think of it, Rei did too. “What happened to her?”

Eli shrugged. “I only know they’re one man short. My mother is on some committee or other, and they’re donating to them. She said they were looking for a recruit.”

Did you have to have a special skill to join? Lee was sick of pouring drinks for drunk shifters. He could use a challenge.

They were getting off-topic. “If you see any of them, can you ask them to come talk to me?”

Eli grabbed his beer and gave him a nod right as the next person shouted for Vampire Lee. Fuck his life. He went to take the order, and then another, and another.

Soon the evening was in full swing, the noise level getting higher by the minute, and Lee didn’t have time to scan the crowd anymore. There was no lull in the demand for drinks.

Hours went by, then someone walked up to the half-door at the end of the bar. He’d locked it, but anyone could jump over a half-door. He was in front of them before they could see him move. The guy didn’t jerk back though, he simply stared into Lee’s eyes. Not afraid of Lee trying to control him mentally, then. He never would, not in the place he worked. Hardly anywhere else either. Lee wanted his lovers fully aware, and he drank his blood from bags, so no need to mesmerize anyone not to feel his bite.

“Staff only.” He gestured at the sign fastened to the half-door.

“You wanted to speak to me.”

Did he? Lee stared at him. It took ages before recognition hit. It was the invisible wolf who hung out with Rei. Damn, he was good at disappearing in a crowd, which should be impossible since he was huge. “Right, sorry. What’s your name?”

“Faelan Campbell.”

“And you work at the—” He ended the statement with a wave of a hand because he had no idea what they called themselves. Did they have a name? There was some secrecy involved. They were law enforcement, and Lee believed you could report things to them, but it wasn’t like they had an online presence. Or maybe they had. He hadn’t checked.

“I work with Rei, which was what the guy said you wanted to talk to me about.”

“Eli, yeah. I was wondering if I could have a chat with your boss.”

Faelan narrowed his eyes. “My boss?”

There had to be a boss, hadn’t there? “The one responsible for—”

“Vampire Lee! I’m thirsty.”

Lee gritted his teeth and waved at the wolf calling him. Wanker. The crowd was building up around the bar, and it would take him ages to get back into a good flow where he wasn’t drowning in shouts about more drinks.

“Do you have a phone number?”

Faelan studied him for a second. “Why don’t you come by tomorrow, say around ten in the morning? I think Murrie is in then.”

“Great! I’ll do that.” He took half a step away only to turn back. “Come where?”

A small frown made an appearance. “Give me your number, and I’ll text you the address.” He reached for his phone, and Lee rattled off his number.

Faelan nodded once and disappeared into the crowd. Great, now he only had to figure out what to say.

* * * *

Lee walked toward the manor house with a sense of dread. Had Faelan given him the wrong address? This place was fucking massive.

Taking a deep breath, he jogged up the steps to the front door and knocked. Someone knew he was coming. The gate was locked, and he’d had to press a button to be let in.

It took a few seconds, then he heard steps approaching. He straightened. He didn’t know what breed the leader of the organization was. Maybe he should’ve checked before coming. He pulled in a deep breath to try to catch the scents of the people having walked through the door, but he was a vampire, not a bloodhound. Sorting scents out wasn’t something he excelled in.

The door opened and a short human with heavily tattooed arms squinted at him. “Yes?”

Human. Why was there a human here? It had to be the wrong address. “Hi, I’m eh…”

He didn’t have time to say anything more before a vampire more or less materialized before him, fangs on full display. Lee took a step back in surprise and stared between the vampire and the human.

“Eh, I’m here to see—” Fuck, he didn’t know the name. He was so ill-prepared. “—Faelan.”

“He’s in the kitchen.” The human pushed at the vampire. “Come in.”

The vampire hissed. Seriously?

“Mars, get real.” The human sounded exasperated. “If Faelan is bringing his boyfriend over, we need to be polite.”

“Boyfriend? I’m not—” Before Lee could say anything else, Rei appeared behind the human, his eyes narrowing the moment he noticed who was on the doorstep.

“Dude.” He more or less lifted the human out of the way. “It’s not cool coming here. Devin already told you—” He gestured at the human only to turn to him. “—what did you tell him?”

The human, Devin, threw his hands in the air. “Oh, my fucking God, how should I know? I don’t know who this guy is.”

“Lee,” Lee provided helpfully.

“The bartender.” Rei ignored Lee and stared at Devin.

“Seriously, Rei. I break up with so many people for you, I can’t remember what I’m telling them. Most often I say a work thing came up.”

“There was nothing to break up.” Lee had to clarify this misunderstanding before it got out of hand. More out of hand. “I’m not here for Rei. We hooked up once, that’s all.”

Rei stilled and looked at him. “That’s all?”

“Yeah…” He dragged it out. “I thought it was clear.”

“But you wanted to meet up after.”

Lee grimaced. “You said let’s do this again tomorrow, and I said sure, then your assistant called to tell me you couldn’t make it. I didn’t know you had my number, man.”

“Great.” The human pulled Rei away from where he was blocking the doorway. “See, you didn’t break any hearts this time. Not everyone is dying to be with you.”

Rei snorted but looked far more relaxed. Devin tugged at Mars too, but he didn’t budge, and Lee noted the small smile spreading on Devin’s lips. He didn’t mind having an overbearing vampire blocking the door despite trying to make it sound as if he did.

“Faelan is in the kitchen, as I—”

“Faelan!” Mars called loud enough to wake the dead.

Faelan appeared in the doorway, looking half exasperated, half amused. “No need to shout, I’m right here.”

“So why didn’t you come the moment he arrived?” Mars sounded annoyed, then his head whipped around to glare at Faelan. “You let Devin open the door for a stranger. Alone. Without backup.”

Devin made a frustrated sound, and Lee was unsure of what was going on. If Devin was their assistant, wasn’t he supposed to open the door? Why did they have a human assistant? Humans weren’t supposed to know about their existence.

“Lee is Murrie’s ten o’clock appointment.”

Devin snatched a phone from his pocket so fast, Lee would’ve reevaluated the whole human thing hadn’t his senses told him Devin was human and nothing else. “Oh, you’re the Vampire Lee meeting?”

Mars snorted, and Faelan shrugged. “It’s his name.”

“My name is Lee Dowell, not Vampire Lee.”

Devin chuckled. “I’m sorry for the idiots, Mr. Dowell. I think they were all dropped on their heads at one point or another. Please come with me.”

Lee crossed the threshold. A few steps later, he realized the whole group followed Devin toward a door to the right.

This couldn’t be how they normally acted. Was it because he was a vampire? Shifters didn’t like vampires in their homes, but there was a vampire in the group.

Right before they were about to enter, a dark-haired man came walking down the stairs. Too thin, and he had a haunted air around him, his eyes cataloged everything as if he expected monsters to jump out of the walls. His gaze focused on Lee and the others, then he whimpered, frozen in place halfway down a step.

Lee opened his mouth to say something, but Devin gestured at the door ahead of them. “Come on.”

“The man—”

“Dillon. Doesn’t like people.” He opened the door, and an office stretched out in front of him. The walls were white, there were six desks along the wall, and in the middle of the room there was a large conference table. The female Lee had been sure he’d recognize was sitting by one of the desks, tapping away at a keyboard, and by a desk farther in was a big man with honey-colored hair. Not wolf.

Lee pulled in a breath. Coffee. This room had seen a lot of coffee. Vampire noses weren’t nearly as good as shifters’, but he could smell some things. The guy could be a bear. Maybe. He’d know for certain when they were closer together.

“Murrie, your ten o’clock is here.”

The man looked up and blinked at the group. “I have a ten o’clock?” He was quiet for a second. “With all of you?”

“This is Lee Dowell.”

Murrie got to his feet, walked toward Lee, and offered his hand along with an easy smile. “I’m sorry. I haven’t prepared for our meeting.” He glanced at Devin. “I must’ve missed the appointment on the schedule.”

“Oh, it’s okay. I only need a few minutes.” He only wanted to tell someone with the power to do something about what he’d heard. Five minutes, tops, then he could go back to pouring drinks and not think.

“No, no, we’ll do this right.” He looked at the group surrounding Lee and frowned. “Let’s sit in the kitchen where we don’t disturb anyone.” Then he turned to Devin again. “Can we have the kitchen?”

“Sure.”

Mars, Devin, Rei, and Faelan parted ways so Murrie could pass, and Lee followed. Before they reached the door, Murrie snatched a pen and a notepad from one of the desks.

Once they’d stepped out of the office, Murrie closed the door behind them and looked at him. “So… what do you do?”

“Eh… I’m a bartender at The Rambling Rogue.”

Murrie looked confused but gestured toward the kitchen. As they walked in, the man, Dillon, made a sound and backed up against the island across from the big table in front of the windows.

“Oh, sorry, Dillon. Is it okay if Mr. Dowell and I sit here for a bit?”

Dillon didn’t reply, and Murrie let out a low sigh. Lee could hear it, but he doubted Dillon could.

“Please sit.” He gestured for Lee to move toward the table. Once he was seated, Murrie moved to stand between him and Dillon and gestured toward the door.

Dillon more or less ran out of the room without a word.

Murrie turned to him, grimaced, and pulled out the chair across from him. “PTSD, making progress, but…”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Murrie shrugged. “It took Devin three years to dare to be around us without flinching. I’m not giving up on Dillon for a long time yet.” He smiled. “So…”

Lee wanted to ask what had happened, and why they kept traumatized humans in the house, but it wasn’t his place.

“I didn’t know we had a vampire coming in. Was it a last-minute decision?”

Silence spread while Lee tried to formulate an answer. “I… eh… spoke to Faelan—”

“You know Faelan? That’s good.” He made a note on the notepad.

“I don’t know Faelan. I asked him to put me in contact with you because…” He trailed off, and Murrie nodded.

“Diversity is important to us, and I’m gonna be honest and say we’ve been hoping to find a suitable female to fill the position, but we’ve been lacking vampires for years. Mars is our only one, and it makes it risky when we have to do undercover work. We’ve always been a majority of wolves, which of course reflects the community as a whole, but it can lead to some conflicts. Pack animals versus non-pack with everything it entails. Not to mention shifters sticking together against vampires, and now we have humans to think of too.” He rubbed his neck. “You’ve done anything similar to this kind of work before?”

Lee stared. Had he ended up in a job interview? “I’m sorry. I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding?” Murrie stared at him. “You don’t want the job?”

“I’d love the job. I’m not sure what it entails, but believe me, I’m ready for anything where people don’t shout for Vampire Lee all through the night. It’s not why I’m here though.”

“It’s not?” Murrie looked baffled.

“I heard something I wasn’t meant to hear.”

Murrie nodded.

“In my line of work, you hear a lot of things, and at first I wasn’t paying attention, but—” He pressed his lips together. Maybe telling was stupid. Jala, his boss, would kill him if he told on her friends, and she was friends with at least one of the men he’d heard talk. She was a lioness, so she could cause a lot of damage, and he’d most likely lose the job.

“But?” Murrie waited.

“But…” Fuck, this was stupid, wasn’t it? He knew what happened in those places. A shudder went through him, but he did his best to ignore it.

“Lee?”

“I heard them talking about an underground fight. First, I didn’t pay attention because it happens all the time, right? But then—” He came to a halt. The words had tumbled out of him so fast he wasn’t sure if they’d made any sense to Murrie. “Then they said the bait finally was being shipped and was to arrive in two days, and something about how it was bad for the fighters’ training that the shipping had been delayed. And I heard it two days ago, so they should arrive here in Hagwall today.”

“Bait?”

“Do you know anything about dog fighting?”

Murrie swallowed and gave a slow shake of his head. “More than I want to, but not a lot.”

Lee filled his lungs. “Bait is used for stronger fighters to train on without risk of getting hurt. Fighting and/or killing someone with your claws for no other reason than you’re told to do so doesn’t come easy to most of us.”

Murrie paled. “Right.”

“You need to train your fighters to do it without thinking about what they’re doing.” Though many of them weren’t right in the head and took pleasure in hurting weaker beings. It was how Lee remembered it, at least.

A short nod followed his words.

“And since you don’t want your fighters to get hurt in the process, you bring in bait. Someone weaker who doesn’t stand a chance.”

“And you heard someone talk about bringing in bait?”

Lee was quiet for a few seconds. “I don’t care when they arrange normal fights. If two equally strong fighters want to beat each other bloody in front of an audience to make some cash, I simply look the other way. But if someone’s bringing in bait, it’s not participants who have chosen to be there, and it’s way more organized than a game for… fun.” He scrunched his nose.

“Gotcha.”

Lee waited while Murrie drummed the pen against the pad. Then hard brown eyes met his. They’d been blue before. “Can you give me names, location, anything along those lines?”

“I don’t know the names of those who were talking, but one of them comes by The Rambling Rogue now and again. I don’t think he lives in Hagwall, so not too often, but I’ve been there for years, so I recognize him. Bear, friends with Jala—”

“The lioness?”

“My boss, yes.”

Murrie nodded. “You think she knows what’s going on?”

Lee shook his head. “Nah, I find that hard to believe, but it doesn’t mean she won’t do what she can to protect her friend.”

“And you don’t know what means of transportation they’re using, where the new fighters will arrive, at what time, or anything along those lines?”

“Sorry, I… I looked for any of your people in the bar, but there was no one there. I didn’t know how to contact you, and I didn’t want to draw attention to myself by asking around, and yeah…” Fuck, should he have been asking around? “I’m not sure if it’s new fighters. It could be they keep a stock of weaker fighters to train on and those are the ones being shipped in now. Killing too many people will draw attention, and not everyone kills their fighters, but it doesn’t mean life as bait is pleasant.”

Murrie grimaced. “Right. We’ll look into our channels. Are you working tonight?”

Lee nodded, and Murrie wrote a list of numbers on the notepad, tore the page off, and handed it to Lee.

“These are our numbers.”

They were all the same apart from the last digit. Lee read the names. Murrie, Mars, Rei, Hanna, Faelan, and Devin.

“Devin can reach us all and most often knows where we are.” Murrie reached over and pointed at Devin’s name with the pen.

“Dillon’s not on here.”

“Dillon doesn’t work for us. He only lives here.”

Lee nodded.

“Add these to your contacts and get rid of the list. We have an official number people can call, but this way you can reach us faster.”

Lee’s heart blocked his throat. Shit, this was serious business.

“Contact anyone of us if you hear anything. I’ll brief the team, so they know what’s going on.”

“Thank you.”

Murrie stared at him as if he’d said the weirdest thing, and maybe he had, but he knew what it was like to be trapped in a fighting ring, and he didn’t wish it upon anyone.