Chocolate with a Bite

By Holly Day

Sequel to A Vampire Chew Toy

Devin Jace lives in a huge mansion together with six other people, four of them turn furry, one needs to drink blood to survive, and one is a former blood slave, just like him. Most days he’s happy with his life with his vampire boyfriend, Mars O’Ceallaigh, but today he’s arranged a chocolate-tasting evening for everyone in the house, and Mars is nowhere to be found.

Mars has a problem. The guy delivering his blood bags can’t get hold of any, and Mars is starving. He doesn’t dare go near Devin since he’s afraid his control will shatter, and he’ll eat him. In a bad way. Without informing anyone, he sneaks out of the house to try to figure out what’s gone wrong with the blood delivery.

The night doesn’t turn out as Devin had expected, but he does his best to hide his disappointment. Mars never meant to hurt Devin’s feelings, but what is a hungry vampire to do? Eat his favorite person?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Dec 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9781685506278

Holly Day

Holly Day and Sherman Wick are the authors of several books about the Twin Cities. Sherman Wick received his BA in history from the University of Minnesota and has been a member of the Minnesota Historical Society for several decades. Holly Day has worked as a freelance writer for local and national publications for over twenty-five years and teaches writing classes at the Loft Literary Center.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Devin Jace walked into the kitchen of the manor house he shared with six others. He hadn’t known monsters existed until he was kidnapped by vampires and kept as a blood slave for about a year. Back then, his current housemates had saved him, and he’d lived with them for three years. Then, two months ago, his captor had escaped prison and had kidnapped him anew. Lucky for him, the guys he lived with were the supernatural equivalent of a police department, and they’d managed to get to him before anything too bad had happened.

He wished he could say the same about Dillon, a fellow blood slave who hadn’t been as lucky. They’d rescued him along with Devin back in October and had brought him home with them, but he still had a long way to go. He mostly stayed in his room, and whenever someone came too close, he shut down.

Devin hadn’t realized how hard it was to stand on the sidelines and watch someone struggle with trauma. He wanted Dillon to be a part of the group, to joke and laugh, and to hang out in the kitchen like everyone else, but he didn’t. He hadn’t given the others enough credit for how patient they’d been with him when he first arrived. It was frustrating, but they’d never let on.

Only a few months ago, he too hid in his room, but then Murrie, an easy-going bear shifter and the leader of the group, had asked him to take on kitchen duty. Devin loved to cook and bake, so he’d accepted. He also had a thing for schedules, so he’d more or less become an assistant slash cook, and he loved it.

The kitchen was his domain, and he ruled it as he saw fit…Which in reality meant he didn’t rule at all, but since everyone except Mars were shifters, they needed to eat a lot, and Devin wanted them to have good, nutritious food. Topped with cakes and cookies, of course.

Today wouldn’t be a good day nutrition-wise, but it didn’t matter.

Back in October, he’d joked with Murrie, who had a bit of an M&M obsession, about them having a tasting buffet of all the different kinds of M&Ms. Murrie hadn’t sounded as thrilled as a sane person should have sounded and had claimed the original was always best.

Today, they’d see.

Devin had a plan. He’d pour the different bags of M&Ms he’d ordered into different bowls, so the others wouldn’t be able to tell which flavor it was, and then he’d ask them to organize them from their favorite to their least favorite. He hoped they wouldn’t be able to tell by scent which was which. Though it mattered little as long as the others couldn’t see in which order the one tasting ranked the different kinds. It was only meant to be a bit of fun, and he wanted Dillon to take part, too.

He never ate with them, which was fine. Devin hadn’t either when he’d first arrived, but this wasn’t a sitting-down-and-having-everyone-stare-at-you event. And he needed Dillon’s vote on the M&Ms to be able to tell which was the best. Important stuff, and they couldn’t have one man missing. He needed all the test subjects he could get, or the result wouldn’t be reliable. He grinned to himself. It would be great.

There was a commotion in the hallway, then Rei entered, dragging a Christmas tree with him through the doorway. Where do you want it?

Rei was a jaguar shifter, and one of Devin’s favorite people in the whole wide world, but right now he looked grumpy.

What’s wrong? Nerves instantly filled Devin’s gut.

Nothing.

Devin didn’t believe him and went through a hundred different things that could’ve gone wrong. Anything from a stubbed toe to kidnappings and murder. The