Page 45 of How to Seduce a Slender

“Sir!” He exploded into a cloud of lightning bolts and crackling white smoke, his shoes touching the marble floor of the laboratory.

Sebastian squawked, tossing the brain in his hands up into the air. Smith watched in slow motion as Austin and Sebastian helplessly scrambled to catch it. Unfortunately, it splattered across the floor in three gelatinous blobs.Whoops.Smith flinched as the lab went eerily quiet for a long moment. All three of them stared at the splattered brain. Austin eventually sighed, “I’ll grab a mop, sir.”

“Smith,” Sebastian hissed, ripping his mask off. He spun to face his Slender with his left eye twitching and jaw tight. Austin ducked his head, sparing Smith a ‘good luck’ expression before stalking away to the cleaning closet within the lab. Sebastian sucked in air through his nose, making his ear fins flutter for a moment before he exhaled. He slapped his hands in a prayer motion before sharply pointing the prayer pointed fingers toward Smith. “I say this with a plethora of love and admiration for you, and with a deep appreciation for what you do for me… Why must you be a fuckwit? Why did you explode into my lab? Could the stairs not have been used? I wasted a perfectly good brain! Smith! That was mylast brain!”

Smith tried not to shrink at the ire in Sebastian’s voice. A nervous laugh fell out of his chest and filled the air. “Melody and I were attacked.”

“What!” Sebastian exploded, rushing across the floor. “Where is she?”

“She’s fine, she’s with Agatha. Neither of us were injured in the attack. But our necromancer is far more determined than expected. Having attacked us in the middle of the day in the middle of King’s Fall. I am about to return to investigate how they were able to cast a subtle coverage over us, let alone have three eldritch beasts on our heels in seconds. I just wanted…to first, beg your forgiveness for destroying your last brain, but for your permission to leave some of my duties today to tend to this. Like I would if this were you and Lady Rosemont.”

Sebastian eyed him with confusion. “Of course you can. You need not ask; you could have simply told me that from the stairs before rushing out. No need to explode down here.”

Smith was thankful none of the other staff, particularly Havershum or even Kevin—who would have ratted him out to Sebastian—were down here or had seen him. It wasn’t that he needed to bust in, but that he was rather…excited. The roller coaster of battling beasts in the woods, the mystery of the undead wolf leading the pack, the delirium of Melody…mixed with the absolute delight of having kissed her, had her, touched her… Smith couldn’t explain to Sebastian in words how dizzy he felt. He wasn’t thinking straight, if that had ever been an option for the Slender.

The sound of Melody’s whimpers echoing in the foggy graveyard would circle his brain for the rest of his days. He would never stop thinking about the glint of mischief in her eyes or the taste of her mouth. What he wouldn’t give to taste her. Sink his teeth into her flesh, hear her scream with delight, and devour her dreams that night as she replayed the pleasure in her mind, over and over in a cycle of madness just for him.

It made his collar hot. Smith subtly shifted his shirt, straightening his tie.

“My apologies, sir.”

Sebastian sighed, glancing at Austin as the pale ogre brought up a trash can, bucket of mop water, and their abused mop. It’s cracked wooden handle was held together by metal rings and a wood curse. “Austin, I’ll need you to actually go with Smith into town.”

“Sir?” Austin and Smith both blurted out at the same time.

“I am not fond of a necromancer attacking Ms. Deathless in the middle of the day, in the middle of the city. No one is to leave alone, not until we’ve found the source. But it would be cruel of me to go gallivanting when my dearest can’t even get lunch with her girlfriends in the city limits without threatening the council with havoc. So, go with him, keep an eye out for each other. And both of you go to the morgue to replace my destroyed brain, please. Preferably human, but I will accept elf, dwarf, fae, anything non-psionic and no curses, hexes, or damages magical or benign, please.Just a brain.”

Smith eyed Sebastian with a cock of his head. “Can you make special requests at the morgue?”

The Lich shrugged, taking up the mop from Austin’s hand. “I do not know, but they’ve never toldmeno.”

“Fair,” Smith snickered, nodding to Austin to move toward the stair. “Shall we?”

Austin beamed behind his massive, spiral tusks before rushing to the coat rack. He tugged off his apron and pulled on a vest, much like the one Smith wore, over his blouse. “This is so exciting, I never get to super sleuth with Smith!”

“Now, gentlemen,” Sebastian warned, rolling up his sleeves with the broken mop handle in the crook of his elbow. “This is the city, so all your actions will and can have consequences. I don’t have to remind you Smith, but Austin, please be courteous to those around you. We are what? Necromancers, not?”

“Necromessers,” Smith sighed begrudgingly while Austin chirped it with glee.

“Correct. Now, shoo, both of you. And don’t either of you consider returning home without a brain!And I do not mean the ones in your heads, don’t you dare try and pull a fast one on me!” Sebastian bellowed up the stairs as the pair rapidly climbed them. Smith could feel Austin’s excitement with every rumbling of the walls. The ogre made the door rattle before he shoved it open, then held it for Smith. The Slender took stock of the house but found Agatha’s voice and Dahlia’s presence coming from the library. He could hear Melody’s soft heartbeat. Likely exhausted, after all the excitement. The life drain, though she was healing, was not great when one is trying to flee a hunter like Smith.

“Is Ms. Melody okay? Do you want to go check on her before we leave?” Austin whispered, crouching down to speak in Smith’s non-existent ears.

“She is alright. Thank you for the concern, big guy,” Smith chuckled, patting the ogre on the arm affectionately. “By the way, when did you start wearing a vest?”

“Since Aggy showed me the pattern! I’ve gotten quite good, you know…with big clothes. Not much good with fiddly stuff. I know these fingers work, but it feels like Sebastian only gave me thumbs when it comes to tiny stuff. Like trying to stitch doll clothes.” Austin rambled as the pair strolled down the main hall, past the grand staircase and out the front door. Smith would have normally blinked across the expansive forest, but Austin would lose his flesh in the exchange.

Plus…if Smith was being honest, he wanted to talk with Austin. He felt a tad guilty at his obsession with Melody taking his mind away from all his duties. He was supposed to take care of the house, keep it in order. Sebastian was their Lich. Their protector, their leader, the puppeteer…not that he did any puppeteering. Sebastian enjoyed when his staff were their own free thinkers.Made him feel more like a person than a Lich.But it was Smith’s job to take care of the house. Paperwork, deals, contracts, finances, all the good things. Over the years that became taking care of everyone in the house.

And he’d been slacking.

“It looks quite splendorous, big guy. You’ve done a fantastic job.” Smith beamed up at the large, pale fleshed monstrosity to his side. Austin puffed out his chest, popping the collar of his shirt against his stitched-together neck. “You’re surely the hunk of King’s Fall.”

“Hunk?” Austin sputtered.

“I think that’s what all the kids are saying. It’s a compliment. It means one who is large, muscular, and sweet, I believe.”

Austin preened like a peacock, poking his hands cooly in his pockets, “A hunk, huh? I like it.”

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