((Even if you don't know Tokyo Ghoul, things will be explained!))
Yuuichirou Hyakuya has lost his entire family to the hands of ghouls--his mother and father, the rest of the orphanage, and his best friend, Mikaela Hyakuya.
Taken in by a man who works for a special sect of the CCG, the Moon Demon Company, Yuu is placed in training to become an investigator so he can avenge his family, and is placed on a special elite squad of people like himself--Shinoa, who's entire family is a part of the CCG--Yoichi, his sister murdered by a ghoul--Mitsuba, trying to be like her sister--and Kimizuki, needing money for his sister's health.
Mikaela Hyakuya struggles with the ghoul part of himself--half a creature that killed the rest of his family and no longer human, living as a ghoul under the protection of Krul Tepes, a ghoul who runs the café Sanguinem. Mikaela longs to be human once again, disgusted with the ghoul part of himself.
Working at Sanguinem, he meets more ghouls--Lacus, who's afraid of starvation--René, experimented on by humans--Chess, her family killed by the CCG--and many more.
Will Yuu ever run into Mikaela, discover that not only is he alive, but is now...A ghoul?
Antique store owner Liz brings home a Victorian taxidermy hound from auction, unwittingly unleashing dark forces on her wife and son.
*****
Nat Loman has finally married the love of her life, Liz, and is getting used to her role as stepmother to Liz's 5-year-old son, Liam. The Loman family runs a bustling antique business so they attend a sale where a striking, black taxidermied hound is up for auction. Liz picks it up for the business, but it ends up being stored in their home, where Nat notices strange things occurring. She quickly discovers the past residents had died violently. Then she hears from a friend about the myth of "the devil's dog", a hound that perches in the shadows, tearing families apart from the inside. Soon, people around the Lomans are dying, and Liz is changing, darkening. It's up to Nat to save the woman she loves from the darkness closing in, and to save Liam from danger no matter what she has to sacrifice.
[[Winner of the 2018 Wattys "Hidden Gems" category]]
[[word count: 60,000-70,000 words]]