Page 109 of How to Seduce a Slender

“On it!” Havershum zipped into the house, a blade out and eyes glowing angrily.

Smith stepped back, his back to the front of the yard, hands out at his sides. Elyth stood up, facing him with a snarl plastered to her features. “Cute, Smith, but silly little blades only sting.”

“Well, we’ve got a lot to catch up on, you and me. Don’t want this party to end so suddenly, now do I?” he teased, stepping backward. She followed him step for step, her long gown like a curtain draping down her body. She was taller than he remembered. Or maybe he was just used to a certain short werewolf who pushed up on her toes to backtalk him to his face. Smith noticed the blade she held at his back was back in one hand, Havershum’s in the other.

“Oh no, I’ve waited for this moment for a long time, Smith. I’m here to savor it.”

“Smith!” Austin’s bellow rose Smith’s spirits.

“But I hate being interrupted.” She raised her hand toward the graveyard. Elyth shattered those spirits. Smith lurched backward, his attention on the rumbling graveyard.Oh…right…the entire graveyard of corpses made by Lord Rosemont. That graveyard that she has access to. The graveyard specifically made to house all the undead we experimented on…that graveyard.

“Fuck,” Smith hissed.

Chapter Thirty-Nine:

Melody

Itfeltlikealifetime before she crested over a hill to stare down at the black iron fence surrounding the manor. To see Austin in the yard, fist to fist with another undead of unimaginable size. Eldritch ooze poured out the windows. Melody could feel the energy pulsing in the air. Her legs wobbled for a moment as she searched but couldn’t find Smith anywhere. “No…”

She stumbled down the snow, tripping and catching herself over and over and over until she fell through the gate. “Austin!”

Her shriek was rattled and cracked as the ogre tossed the mangled corpse away from him. Melody didn’t see until it was too late the jumbled bits and pieces…and all the graveyard soil upon it. The stench filled her nose like a freight train hitting her directly in the nostrils. Melody reeled back, hands to her face. Warm blood trickled down from her nose to her upper lip. Austin roared while the beast lunged back at him.

Austin tore it into two smaller creatures, all its arms and legs and tentacles swirling to catch one another. A hundred eyes blinked open and stared at her. Melody fell back against the fence as the creature lunged away from Austin.

“She’s got him!” Austin screamed, pouncing on the thing, and trying to pin it to the ground. Tears made of blood and soot and ichor traveled down his face as he punched the creation into submission.

Melody’s heart stopped.

“She took him through the graveyard. Kevin tried to come find you, but the animals went berserk in the back. She’s got control of the house and the ghouls in it…you gotta stop her!” Austin croaked seconds before the beast tossed the ogre across the yard and into the side of a massive boulder. It screeched like a thousand rabbits being beaten as it charged for her. But Austin was faster, pushing off the boulder and shouldering the thing to the ground. “I’ve got him! Go!”

Melody didn’t need another word, recovering from the brutal attack on her senses. The world filled with red as she let her instincts take over. Claws scooped up the front of her dress as she charged through the clovers. The beast under Austin popped its bones, tentacles lunging for her, but she bound over them. A massive hand swiped for her made of claws and the crystallized bones of experiments long since abandoned, and she danced away from it.

And descended into the heavy fog of the graveyard. Melody knewexactlywhere Elyth took him.

That symbol on the bedroom door. The one she’d already used and failed. It looked familiar.So fucking familiar.The mausoleum doors with the blood symbol painted over the front of it. It was sloppy but Melody couldn’t bet on it not being strong enough. For all she knew, it could be recent.

Melody bound over tombstones and flew through the icy fog. The air bit into her exposed flesh. She had to nimbly avoid open graves and lingering dead that hadn’t quite escaped their containment. Her skirt caught on something’s hand, but she didn’t let it stop her. The fabric tore, breaking her heart for Agatha’s hard work.

But that was only for a moment as she came skidding to a halt. The blond woman from her hallucinations, held a dagger above a barely contained Smith. He was fighting a slew of dead holding him to the mausoleum doors, all with gnashing teeth. Some were mangled mockeries, like a zombie made of all kinds of parts. One was a knot of tentacles the color of toxic waste. A skeleton had his legs impaled upon their jagged bones. Smith held Elyth off with tendrils of smoke as her wings slashed at him with their clawed ends.

“Let him go!” Melody roared as her claws took up a tombstone and tossed it in their direction in one fluid movement. It shattered against the mausoleum causing Elyth to scramble away from him. The dead loosened their grip and Smith escaped in a cloud of electricity. Melody grabbed another tombstone, aiming it at the necromancer. “Touch him again and I’ll rip you limb from limb.”

“Melody,” Smith panted, appearing at her side. She didn’t drop the tombstone, only engaging her muscles more as Elyth slowly circled them. Her predatory eyes locked with Melody’s. Smith stayed at her side, stepping with her as they kept the distance between her and them. “I need you to summon the eldritch beasts.”

“What?” She hissed under her breath, checking to make sure the dead still lingered by the mausoleum.

“Last night, you were able to summon them to your side. Much like the wolf she had under her control. You can do the same thing.” Smith placed a soft hand to her back. “We’re sorely outnumbered and don’t look now, but Elyth has closed us off.”

Melody’s arm hair stood on end as she too realized the world was hushed. The thick fog that surrounded them blurred the outside world.A trap.She’d set her nasty trap and Melody walked right into it.

“I don’t know how I did it.”

“You howled for them.” Smith rubbed her back softly as Melody adjusted her hold on the tombstone.

“You two done trying to plot an escape? I’ve waited too long for this moment, and now that everyone’s attending the party, I’d like to get star—Oop!” Elyth was cut off mid monologue as Melody chucked the tombstone at her head. It narrowly missed her, the necromancer bolting to the left. Melody rushed backward, away from Smith.

Please let this work.Last night, they’d been playing. She’d been running and chasing him back. They’d been wrestling. She didn’t even realize she’d summoned them. It was a part of the game. But if Smith believed it would help, he was the brains of their operation. She was just the fiery werewolf.

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