GUEST POST ~ The Death God by Holly Day #GuestPost #Excerpt
✨ 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 holidays. The holiday I’m here to talk about today is World Gin Day. Are you gin fans? Gin and tonic? I seldom drink hard liquor, wine is my go-to alcoholic drink, but on a warm summer day, I won’t turn down a gin and tonic.
A couple of months ago, I was here talking about Rufus the Dead, a paranormal romance story I wrote for Kiss Your Mate Day. It’s about two vampires who rescue/steal four psychics from an underground facility where their services are sold against their will.
The psychics call the facility the house of horrors, and today I’m here to talk about The Death God, the second story in the House of Horrors series.
Gregory is Rufus’ best friend and the second vampire from Rufus the Dead. Normally, he’s pretty laid back, but to save Thanatos, one of the psychics’ life, he fed him his blood, and when a vampire gives you their blood, it creates a blood bond.
Gregory hates Thanatos and doesn’t want to be connected to him in any way, so being trapped in a blood bond is a nightmare. To cope, he drowns his sorrows with gin. The problem is, since it was a partial blood bond, Gregory never drank any of Thanatos’ blood, it should’ve disappeared by now, but Gregory is still obsessed with Thanatos.
He doesn’t want to be, but he is.
The reason Gregory became a vampire in the first place, is that he wants to live forever. Thanatos’ skill is that he can see how you’ll die. Gregory hates it – HATES it! Every time he looks at Thanatos, it’s a reminder he knows how Gregory will die and that his life will end no matter what he does. He won’t live forever.
When there is an invitation to an event from the closest werewolf pack, Gregory needs a plus one, and they decide to pretend they’ve left their old coven behind because Gregory is in an interspecies relationship, which their coven leader never would allow.
So Gregory finds himself in a situation where he needs a fake boyfriend, and the only plausible option is Thanatos.
I think it’s best if you read Rufus the Dead before you read The Death God. It’s about a new couple, so the romance arc is complete in this book, but there is a lot of background story you’ll miss if you don’t read them in order.
If you’re in the mood for psychics, vampires, and werewolves, check it out! We have some traumatic past, fake boyfriend, enemies to lovers, and chosen family going on.
The Death God
by Holly Day
SERIES: House of Horrors (Book 2)
PUBLISHER: JMS Books
RELEASE DAY: June 8, 2024
GENRE: Gay Paranormal Spicy Romance
TROPES: psychics, vampires, werewolves, traumatic past, fake boyfriend, enemies to lovers, chosen family
LENGTH: Novel / 50,482 Words / 190 Pages
HEAT RATING: 4 Flames
🛒 Purchase Links
Blurb
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?
Excerpt
Gregory walked into the kitchen, snatched a bread roll off the cooling rack, and then spotted the cake in the baking pan. He cut a piece and shoved it into his mouth.
“Carrot?” He glanced at Rufus over his shoulder. Minerva and Jaki were there too, both of them spellbound by their phones.
“Yeah, breakfast cake.”
Gregory frowned. What the fuck was breakfast cake? Were there special cakes for breakfast? Listening to make sure Thanatos wasn’t about to enter the kitchen, he cut another piece.
“Where is he?”
Rufus didn’t ask who Gregory meant. “In his room. He and Prophecy exchanged their normal morning greeting, and he ran off.”
Their normal morning greeting? Gregory had avoided Thanatos for two months now, so he wasn’t sure what their greeting entailed. He squished the jealousy trying to take hold in his chest. He didn’t care how they greeted each other. “What does it entail?” His tongue would get the memo, eventually. Any day now.
“The greeting?” When Gregory nodded, Rufus continued. “Prophecy glares or says something rude. Thanatos checks his death and either smirks or says he knows something Prophecy doesn’t, then Minerva cuts in and defends Prophecy despite him being the ass.”
“I do not!” Minerva looked up from her screen. The seat next to her was vacant, but Gregory suspected Prophecy had been sitting there earlier since there was a cup still on the table.
“Prophecy then postures like a peacock and thinks he’s the shit, and Thanatos leaves without eating any of the breakfast he’s prepared for everyone. I fear he’ll fade away soon.”
Anger burned in Gregory’s veins. “We should kill Prophecy. Why the hell are we keeping him?”
“Hey!” Minerva glared at them. “Everyone deals with trauma differently.”
They ignored her.
“Maybe we could try to sell him back. It would give us a lead to where the rest of the seers are.” Gregory had meant it as a joke, but he liked the idea more and more with each second.
A bread roll flew through the air, hitting him on his temple. “You’re such an ass, Gregory!”
Gregory stared at her. He’d never seen Minerva as angry as now. He turned back to Rufus. “Perhaps we should discuss our plans in private.”
A low chuckle rose from Jaki, his eyes sparkling as he looked at Gregory. At least one of the seers appreciated him.
“Actually—” Before Rufus could say anything else, Minerva screeched.
“I’m so sick of you saying shit about Prophecy!” She glared around the room. “He’s been through the same nightmare we have, so cut him some slack.”
Before Gregory could think of anything to say, Jaki spoke. His voice was soft, but it had a steely tone. “And yet the rest of us manage to be around other people without acting as if they should drop to their knees and worship the ground we’re walking on. Prophecy is still acting as if he’s more important than the rest of us. The only reason he got any perks in the house of horrors was because he licked the warden’s ass whenever he got the chance.”
Minerva spluttered, but Jaki continued to speak.
“I’m not saying I blame him. We all had to do what we had to do in there, and being the warden’s pet had its perks, but we’re out now. And here in this castle, Prophecy isn’t worth shit. Walking around thinking he deserves special treatment when he isn’t contributing to anything is getting on everyone’s nerves.”
Minerva stared at him with wide eyes, and Gregory cut another piece of cake. Carrot wasn’t his favorite, but it was still cake. And cake and entertainment went hand in hand.
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.
