Page 73 of How to Seduce a Slender

“Sorry, was that rude?” Melody grimaced.

“Not at all,” Smith shrugged nonchalantly as he climbed to his feet. “Sweet girl, I am delighted you’re curious.”

“It’s just, there’s a lot to know and I still haven’t…you know…seen themseen them, so,” she stuck out her bottom lip. He saw right through her. Despite her teasing and playful flirting…Melody was stalling. She wasn’t ready to go back downstairs and face Dahlia. It still stung like a fresh wound.

Melody could handle body shaming. Melody survived all the orphan jokes in her childhood. Melody ignored the passive aggressive elitism from the richer folk in town.

But her intelligence had always been a sore spot. Her personality plus all her energy did not make for a cohesive relationship with the classroom. She didn’t graduate with anything but a piece of paper that said she’d physically showed up.Don’t be fucking stupid.Melodyfeltstupid. She should have known they wouldn’t have her back. Why would they? They weren’t her real family. No one was…

And the reason she hadn’t told Smith yet was the fear that he’d take Dahlia’s side too. She could take the abandonment from Agatha, Havershum, even Kevin…but if Smith betrayed her like that, she might break.

So, she held it in with a smile on her face as she pawed at him playfully from the bath. “You know, I wasn’t the only one who was drenched in cum this morning.”

“Mmm, but you’re also the only one with actual flesh,” he rebutted, taking out a towel from the metal trunk near the wall. “Besides, you need more than my venom in your belly.”

“Who says? You’re a lawyer, not my healer.” She laid back in the tub, grinning up to him as he stepped up behind it. Looming over her, his voice grew low.

“Melody,” he warned.

“What? I’m just saying, if you really wanted to take care of me, you’d take care ofall my needs.” She batted her eyelashes up at him.Nothing.Damn.

“All your needs were met, my wicked thing,” he growled as he snapped at the waist and blocked out the dancing lights of the bathroom. “You wiggle those brows at me and suggest you want more, but you and I both know if I wrap my lips around your clit, you’ll be begging me to stop. Because you’re overstimulated. One of us knows where your limits are and one of us is stalling.”

“Am not,” she snorted and scoffed in the same petulant breath.

“I’ve met better liars tied up by their toes, Melody. Which happens to be how my guest in the basement is doing. You need breakfast and water and the last gulp of your draught. And I need to threaten Mr. Winters within an inch of his sanity. Unless you want to explain why you won’t get out of the tub?”

Melody wanted to counter. Wanted to suggest he spank her if she didn’t. Anything to get him out of bringing her downstairs.

You should face her. Tell her it upset you. No more backseat driving. This is full speed ahead, Melody Deathless.

She exhaled, dunking herself under the water to rinse the soap from her hair. Raking her fingers through her hair, she stayed under for a moment longer than she should have. By the time she broke the surface, she needed to gasp for air.

Unfortunately for her, when she broke the surface, Smith wasn’t there with her. Melody broke the thick surface of a gelatinous membrane over the top of the bath. Chunks of ruby with bits of bones floated around her like a bad witch’s brew. Her eyes snapped up to the person across the tub with her. She snarled, thrashing around in the tub, “AwCome on! Fucking dragons-Liches-and the holy fucking sun god why! Why?!”

The woman at the other end of the tub only smiled. Melody was fed up. If she were a dragon, smoke would be pluming out of her nose. She exhaled sharply through her nose as pieces of goop flew from her nostrils. Everything was uncomfortably warm and syrupy around her. The bathroom was caked in blood. It streaked the walls, the mirror, everything. However, only one person hung from a meat hook over them. Melody glared at her silent bath guest. “Really? Really! Smith was in the fucking bathroom with me! How fucking rude! Can you go away? I have bigger things to deal with than—”

Her rampage was cut short as the blond drenched in blood surged through the curdled blood soup and snatched Melody by the throat. The werewolf wrenched back and forth, but something held her arms below the water. Melody tugged but her shoulders ached. She’d dislocate them before she freed herself. Stupid illusions.

“What!” Melody barked, spitting in her face.

“You think he’ll protect you? You think you matter to him? He’s a hungry beast, a starved predator, enjoying the easiest prey he’s ever had. You arenothingto the Slender.”

Melody took a moment to breathe. She sat back against the hard porcelain. The woman wasn’t a girl anymore, not like the last time. She was early twenties, maybe. Elves don’t age like humans or even werewolves. But the woman was young enough to still have baby pudge in her cheeks. Though she was the same height as Melody, with clearly a good amount of strength. If she were allowed her hands, Melody could take her head off in one blow. Missing wolf or not.

“You know, Smith never told me he had jealous exes,” Melody teased, cracking a smile.

“You’re a fool.”

“Yeah, maybe, but at least I’m not haunting some random chick in a bathtub through an old journal. Say, where’d you find the eyeballs for the front? You carve them out of one of your victims? Or do they come standard for bathtub hags like yourself?” Melody raised an eyebrow. The blonde’s face scrunched up as she tightened her grip on Melody’s throat.But Melody felt nothing because this wasn’t real. None of it was real.The werewolf chuckled, “Choke me harder, daddy.”

“You! Are! Nothing!”

“And! You! Are wasting my time, let go!” Melody broke free of the restraints, tossing the woman out of the tub and into the far wall. Her claws were out. Eyes flashing red as she climbed to her feet. Chunks of meat and bone tickled the sides of her legs as blood dripped down her naked torso. “I’m getting real tired of your games. Who are you?!”

The woman screamed. Fingers long like daggers with pointed ends, fangs on both top and bottom. Her jaw unhinged, showing off an endless abyss deep in her gullet as she hunched. Then she flew through the air, wings of leather and bone protruding from her back as she snatched Melody by the shoulders. Melody’s back hit the tile of the floor and reality came flooding back.

“Melody!” Smith’s worried tone filled her eyes as she cracked her eyes open. She was spread across the floor, slightly sudsy, but no longer in the blood dungeon of the mysterious woman.

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