Title: Let the Bite One In

Series: Kitten and Blonde, Book Two

Author: Eule Grey

Publisher: NineStar Press

Release Date: 09/10/2024

Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex

Pairing: Female/Female

Length: 41900

Genre: Paranormal, contemporary, paranormal, British/Yorkshire, lesbian, over 40, mystery, vampires, blogger, reporters, local paper, witch, neurodivergence, Whitby

Description

Throw a hungry vampire a steak.

Life has never been better for Kitten and Blonde, paranormal investigators and beer enthusiasts. Finally, there’s time for a rest instead of always rushing into the spirit world to solve ghostly disputes. Even Penny, the grumpy office cat, is purrfectly happy.

Everything’s good until the vampire sisters of Whitby fly in for a visit. Enigmatic Em is well known throughout Yorkshire as a defender of women’s rights and for her hefty right hook. But the minute she laments about a lost vampire, things go bats-up. It’s a twisted tale… Is Em thirty or three hundred? One fact is indisputable—she’s hot. Mave pushes aside her doubts and accepts the case. The pay’s good; the perks are even better—everyone likes a day on Whitby Beach. Count Dracula is a fun myth, right?

Wrong. As soon as Mave starts digging, the nightmares begin: a woman trapped on a train, unsettling aromas, a watchful, hooded figure. It sucks. Even butch Lisa gets her spook-on, and Penny accompanies Mave everywhere, as if she senses malice creeping inevitably closer.

Never tell a witch and her familiar no. Mave discovers strength and powers she didn’t know existed. Meanwhile, a timeless love story hurtles to a fearsome battle for the vampire crown and a woman’s soul.

Dracula. Betrayal. Atonement. Sibling love. When the blood hits the fan, will Kitten and Blonde be strong enough for the final Countess-down?

Kitten and Blonde: Love at first bite. Mostly paranormal. Sometimes alien. Always gentle.

Excerpt

Let the Bite One In
Eule Grey © 2024
All Rights Reserved

Why does nobody see me, trapped on a train crammed with people and their noise?

I make a fuss, bang on the windowless walls, float through seats and bodies, but still, nobody notices me at all. “Hello? Where’s the exit? I can’t get out. Help! Can’t you see me?”

They look through me because I don’t matter.

I’m alone with the chaos of my own head.

“Help!”

I mattered once, but I lost her.

I lost her.

Without her, I’m nothing but a dirty stain.

Did I ever exist?

Am I real?

Shut up.

Shut up!

There’s something at the far end of the carriage that I can’t quite see. With slow, confident steps, it walks towards me.

It’s him.

Coming.

For.

Me.

“Help!”

I woke up screaming. The nightmare faded almost immediately into a telltale prickle at the base of my neck. The prickling sensation was my body’s way of letting me know a spook was nearby.

Rather than fear, an indignant sense of resentment rose to the surface. After a lifetime of liaising between the physical world and the supernatural, those seeking my services hardly ever showed the same respect I offered them.

“What do you want?”

I’d spent the previous two weeks staying with Lisa, and it seemed some of her natural assertiveness had seeped into me.

The entity didn’t reply. Through the darkness, I gained the impression it was saddened rather than angered by my question. Guilt crept in. Maybe the entity had its reasons for sneaking in?

I adopted a more professional tone, albeit grudgingly. “Please call back at a sociable hour. We’ve a drop-in Wednesdays and Thursdays in the garden shed from eleven. If there’s a queue, wait your turn, and no arguing with other customers.” Boundaries were necessary, especially for the dead, who did not discern doors or locks. I didn’t bother offering an address for Lisa’s house. Ghosts rarely needed a map.

The weekday drop-in had been her idea. After a lengthy 3:00 a.m. heart-to-heart with a lonely ghost, she’d put her foot down. “They can make an appointment like anyone else does. You were in the bathroom for hours last night, for fuck’s sake! I thought you’d been sucked down the loo by a giant snake.”

The welcome memory of Ms Blonde led me to a kinder disposition. “You’re here now, so you might as well talk. Where are you?”

The dark cold of my bedroom offered no clues as to the position of the ‘guest’. Though my eyes smarted from the intensity of my glare, only the outline of a wardrobe and billowing blackout curtains looked back.

I inched up the wall until I was sitting rather than prostrate. The top of my head banged against the headboard. To relieve the tension in my neck, I looked up.

It hovered directly above me, only inches from my face. Later, I’d swear she was female, but the shape vanished too swiftly to be sure. A stain of a conflicted aura remained in the atmosphere, chaotic and afraid, a contradictory spirit at odds with itself. The aura might have comprised more than one being. Oddly, it reminded me of Lisa’s brother, Tom.

Wishing I’d spoken more gently, I reached aside and clicked on the lamp. Bright pink light—a Christmas present from Tom—flooded my room. I leapt from bed with the agility of a young Olympiad, banged open every cupboard door, and swept aside my curtains in haste to apprehend the spirit and, perhaps, to make it feel better.

I was too late. It—she—had already departed. The only lingering evidence of her visit was a chilly draft blowing in through a crack in the windowpane I’d meant to fix and a curious smell of godawful cheap perfume. “Ugh.”

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Ornery Owl's Review

Rating: Four out of Five Stars

This is an intricate story about a pair of paranormal investigators hired by a vampire to help a ghost. During the investigation, Mave (Kitten) discovers how strong her own psychic abilities are. The story does not shy away from complex topics, such as the abuse women have suffered throughout history at the hands of controlling men. It also touches on such topics as the prejudices people with neurological or psychological challenges face.

The subplot about the ghost, Jacinta, is deeply engaging. The reader can't help but sympathize with this unfortunate spirit who was so downtrodden during her life and finds love only to have it ripped away from her. To save Jacinta, Mave, Lisa (Blonde), and Lisa's brother, Tom, must solve many mysteries that will keep the reader guessing along with them.

The reader must pay close attention because the story has multiple subplots and many characters to keep track of. I don't have a problem with this aspect, but some people prefer a more straightforward path from point A to point B. I also appreciate the inclusion of multiple neurodivergent characters, but some readers may find the narrative about these characters a little on the nose. Establishing the correct balance between inclusivity and turning audiences off by seeming preachy is challenging.

I knocked a star off my rating for the story because of Lisa's narrative about needing to lose weight. The author wasn't hateful in presenting this assessment, but it would have been preferable to have Lisa simply say she needed to work on her conditioning without bringing weight loss into it.

Speaking from personal experience, making weight loss my goal drove me away from exercise for many years. I have a lot of health problems, but there actually are fit fat people. It isn't my weight that caused my health problems. In fact, some of my health problems are known to promote weight gain.

The author should consider reframing narratives about weight loss in the future. I know the conflation between body type and health is something that's been drilled into all of our heads, and I want to reiterate that I don't feel the author was being hateful. I simply wish to impart the suggestion to approach the issue of physical fitness from a health at every size perspective rather than a size normative perspective.

Readers who like paranormal/supernatural romance and mystery, especially if vampires or restless spirits are involved, may enjoy this story. However, the book is only suitable for readers 18+ because of its dark and/or violent subject matter and sexual situations.

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Meet the Author

Eule Grey has settled, for now, in the north UK. She’s worked in education, justice, youth work, and even tried her hand at butter-spreading in a sandwich factory. Sadly, she wasn’t much good at any of them! She writes novels, novellas, poetry, and a messy combination of all three. Nothing about Eule is tidy but she rocks a boogie on a Saturday night! For now, Eule is she/her or they/them. Eule has not yet arrived at a pronoun that feels right.