Page 24 of How to Seduce a Slender

“Daddy?” Smith choked on his tongue.

Moonpie glanced down at her prey, picked it up in her fangs, and bolted for the door.

“See what you did!” Sebastian roared. “Havershum, convince the feline to forfeit the brain slug, please.”

“Here, kitty-kitty!” Havershum bellowed as he slipped through the wall.

“Why can’t I be daddy?” Sebastian immediately rebutted Smith.

“Would you like my issues categorized by level of disgust or the fact it’s physically impossible for you to be…a daddy.” Smith glared at his Lich before dusting off his suit.Better not have brain slug juice anywhere, stains worse than any substance known to necromancer kind.“A thousand-year-old sorcerer, a wraith hunter specifically made to kill necromantic creatures, and a fucking eldritch horror, and we get shown up by acat.”

Sebastian shook his head, rubbing his temples. “I must give credit, where credit is due…Moonpie is a mighty huntress.”

“Tell that to the Lady Rosemont when she finds a present in her bed from Moonpie.” Smith put his hands on his hips.

“Youhave a point!” Sebastian flew out the door, bellowing after the undead cat. “Moonpie, please, bring daddy the present.”

Smith groaned, hanging his head.That couldn’t have gone worse.He worked to pluck the apron off the floor and found most of it shredded to pieces. Likely the unwilling victim of the brain slug’s hunger. Vicious little beasts that weren’t sentient enough to tell food from foe. No eyes, no sense of direction or smell; just teeth and a hunger.

Smith dropped the apron into his trashcan with a growl.Whoever put that in her apron meant for it to eat Melody.Brain slugs grew bigger with every meal. Starting no bigger than an inch worm, the more they gobbled, the worse they got. Slow but efficient.Apparently faster than the three of them could manage.

“Got the little bastard,” Sebastian panted, returning triumphantly with a jar.

“And it got all of Melody’s evidence,” Smith snapped, flipping his hand angrily at the mail slot. “Now how are we going to piece together what happened?”

Sebastian stood beside the Slender, staring down the oblivion tunnel of his mail chutes. “We’ll figure it out, Smith.”

Smith sighed, “But not before someone tries to end her life again. A brain slug? I thought they were extinct!”

The Lich nodded, tucking the jar of the creature suspended in viscous liquid into his jacket pocket. It disappeared from sight. “They’re an old practice. Whoever did this knows old magic…and sloppy, to use a brain slug? They’re so impractical. I know far more things that can rip a person asunder much faster that have less upkeep than breeding brain slugs. They’re obsolete, at best.”

Smith shook his head, ripping away from the chute. First, she has a nightmare, next someone tries to kill her? Melody was going to be upset missing another piece of the puzzle. He couldn’t doanythingright, could he? He wasn’t taking care of her, he was…badgering her into drinking her water. Smith was babysitting at best, and at worst? He couldn’t even bear the thought of it.

I just want her…even if I can’t have her…just for once, let something be mine. Let something see me…feel me…want me…and not scream in terror…I’m not that monster anymore.

“Old friend,” Sebastian exhaled slowly.

“I’m fine,” Smith twisted to face Sebastian.

“I can tell you’re lying. You know that I can. I don’t see the purpose in doing so.” Sebastian stepped to the other side of the old ashwood desk.

Smith collected the chaos of papers and shredded fabric with six extra hands that burst from out of the walls. “I don’t know what you want me to say Sebastian. That you’re right? That I’ve been hopelessly trailing after a woman who, the second she realizes what it would be like to be with me? To endure me? To suffer my hungers and my obsessions with work and…”

Sebastian raised a scaley brow over his mint green face. “Smith, I want you to look me in my face and tell me I don’t know what it’s like to hopelessly want someone.”

Smith snorted, shaking his head. “It’s different, sir.”

“Is it?” Sebastian crooned as he stepped away from the desk. “I am going to clean up the mess the fearless hunter left and then I’m going to go check in on my beloved. I would suggest…mayhaps…you speak with Ms. Deathless about her dreams? I mean, you’re a man who enjoys a good deal. Strike one. And should you need assistance?”

Smith rolled his eyes, waving his hand for Sebastian to go. “I know who to call.”

“Good,” Sebastian nodded his head victoriously.

“Kevin.”

Sebastian let out a frustrated roar as he stomped away from the doorway. Smith could hear his muttering all the way upstairs about his ungrateful staff.

Chapter Nine:

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