I absolutely loved A Vampire Chew Toy, so I’m thrilled about Holly’s new release, Vampire Lee, set in the same world! Come read all about it ❤️…
✨ GUEST POST ✨
Hello, everyone! Thank you, lovely Addison, for allowing me back on the blog!
I’m Holly Day, and I write MM Romance stories for different days. This time I’m here to tell you a little about Vampire Lee, which I wrote for Plant Something Day. If you’ve read some of my stories, you know that planting things and having a garden is something my characters do pretty often.
In this case, however… Lee lives in an apartment and plants aren’t something taking up any space in his brain. Dillon might live in a house with a big yard, but he hasn’t put a single toe over the threshold in over seven months. Planting things isn’t anywhere on his to-do.
Some seeds will, however, find their way into the soil at one point or the other, but if you’re in the mood for gardening, perhaps check out some of my other books 😄
Vampire Lee is a sequel to A Vampire Chew Toy, and if you’ve read that, you might remember a blood slave being saved from his captors. That blood slave is Dillon. It’s been seven months since he was taken from the nightmare he was living in and was given a room on the third floor of the manor house where Mars, Murrie, Rei, Faelan, Hanna, and Devin work.
Since they’re the paranormal version of a police station, though hiding in plain sight of humans, they’re the people to contact if you hear something you shouldn’t hear.
Lee, a vampire working as a bartender in a shifter bar, hears something he shouldn’t hear, and since he knows Rei from before, he visits the manor house.
Lee suspects there is an underground fighting ring in Hagwall and that people are being forced to fight against their will. The one they suspect runs the fighting ring shows an interest in Rei since he’s a jaguar shifter. Lee and Rei pretend to be dating to be able to gather more information, a move they regret shortly after having announced their new relationship status.
They keep the pretense up though, and one night when they walk back to Lee’s place after his shift at the bar, they find his apartment trashed. Rei brings him back to the manor house and gives him a room on the third floor, right next to Dillon…
Dillon would’ve been happy if he never saw a vampire ever again, and Lee doesn’t do humans. But when he’s woken in the middle of the night by Dillon’s screams, he breaks his door open and rushes to the rescue, only to realize it was a nightmare.
Since he’s broken Dillon’s door, he takes him to his room, and we’re having ourselves an only-one-bed situation 😆
So a vampire and a human, a fake relationship with another person in the house, some mysteries to solve, and some seeds to get in the ground. If that sounds like your cup of tea, give it a go!
Vampire Lee
by Holly Day
SERIES: Hagwall (book #2)
RELEASE DAY: May 18, 2024
GENRE: Gay Paranormal Spicy Romance
LENGTH: Novel / 50,314 Words / 187 Pages
HEAT RATING: 4 Flames
🛒 Purchase Links
Blurb
Can 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?
Excerpt
Rei gave a short nod right as they reached the gate. Instead of pressing the button to be let in, Rei kept going until they reached a grid door a few steps away. He punched in a combination of digits on the code lock and unlocked it.
“When do you have to leave tomorrow?” Rei motioned for him to go in and closed the grid door behind them once he had.
“I was supposed to be off tomorrow, but Jala asked me to cover for Conan since he was unable to come in, and she was busy elsewhere.”
“Where?”
Lee frowned at him. “No idea.”
“If I set up a morning meeting with everyone, will you be able to attend?”
“Yeah, of course.” How early was morning?
Rei walked toward the house, unlocked the door with a code, and motioned for Lee to enter. Before he’d closed and locked the door, he had his phone up. “Murrie has a Zoom meeting with someone at eight, but it looks like everyone can do nine. That okay with you?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Rei tapped on the screen for a few seconds, pocketed it, and looked up at Lee. “There are rooms on the third floor.”
He strode toward a built-in closet underneath the stairs. “Everyone has their own sheets and towels and stuff in their rooms, but we have a few spare ones here.” He stacked what Lee assumed was a sheet, duvet cover, and pillowcases on his palm, then he reached farther in and pulled out a toothbrush and toothpaste, followed by a towel. Then he looked at Lee and pulled out a bath towel as well.
“It’s the best I can do.” He handed the pile over to Lee.
“Better than many hotels.”
Rei chuckled. “Wait until breakfast. I fucking love Devin.” He grinned at Lee. “Breakfast is served at seven, but Devin doesn’t start to clean it away until everyone has eaten. Apart from Dillon. He has his own schedule.”
Lee nodded. “Which room should I take?”
“Dillon’s is the first door you see when you step into the corridor. All the others are available.”
“Okay.”
They stood unmoving for a few seconds, then Rei sighed. “You think they planned on taking both of us or only me?”
Lee hadn’t wanted to think. He still didn’t. “How do you get someone to fight if he’s unwilling?”
Rei’s eyes shifted to yellow. “Blackmail?”
“Got any dirt on you they can use?”
A slow shake of his head. “No, I don’t think so. I…”
“Siblings, lovers, friends they could threaten to hurt if you don’t do it?”
“No. No siblings, no lovers I care about, and my friends are all in this house.” He looked at Lee. “Maybe it’s you they want.”
Lee snorted. “I’m not nearly special enough. You’re a freaking jaguar. They can get a mediocre vampire anywhere, but a jaguar…” He shook his head. Then a thought hit him. “Unless they think we’re a couple for real. Take us both, and you’ll fight to protect me?”
Rei groaned. “We shouldn’t have played a happy couple.”
“But you were such a sweet boyfriend.” Grinning, Lee looked toward the stairs. The house was so silent he never would’ve guessed seven people lived there.
“Got free beer out of it.”
Lee barked a laugh, then remembered people were trying to sleep and clamped his mouth shut.
“Right, we’ll discuss it with the others tomorrow. Maybe we could have a very loud, very public breakup.”
Lee grimaced. “Or I allow myself to get taken.” Ice slithered through his veins. “But then you better get me out of there faster than fast because I don’t do well in those environments.”
Rei looked at him for a long time, seeing more than Lee wanted him to. “I think Murrie will say no, but we can talk about it tomorrow.”
About the Author
According to Holly Day, no day should go by uncelebrated and all of them deserve a story. If she’ll have the time to write them remains to be seen. She lives in rural Sweden with a husband, four children, more pets than most, and wouldn’t last a day without coffee.
Holly gets up at the crack of dawn most days of the week to write gay romance stories. She believes in equality in fiction and in real life. Diversity matters. Representation matters. Visibility matters. We can change the world one story at the time.