Page 5 of How to Seduce a Slender

“Acquaintance?” Agatha chuckled, floating up through the floor. The ghostly visage of the banshee made Smith flush harder, as she had it written all over her face. Wispy hair dancing over her head, ghostly dress that disappeared like the mist of a dream, never walking but always floating.Agatha knew the truth.

Smith waggled a warning finger her direction, “Hush.”

“No, Agatha, do tell,” Dahlia glared at Smith before pivoting to face the housekeeper.

“Smith’s been going to her diner to sit in her section several days a week just to talk with her for a few years now,” Agatha smugly confessed with a suggestive wiggle of her brows.

“You traitor!” Smith hissed.

“Me? You ruined my perfectly good tea towels!” she snapped back.

“That was years ago,” he seethed, heat burning across his non-existent skin.Why was his collar hot?

“Suffer…” She snickered, sinking back through the floor with a victorious look plastered to her wavering visage.

Smith froze in place, half tempered to just disappear. That was something he could do. Something he should do.But would Dahlia and Sebastian just forcibly summon him back without mercy was the question.Smith steadily looked up from the floor where Agatha disappeared to his lord and lady’s incredulous faces.

“How long has this been going on?” Dahlia crossed her arms over her ruffled sleeping gown and hastily pulled on robe.

“It’s not what you think!” Smith proclaimed before hastily clearing his throat and whispering. “It’s a diner by the council building. I go there frequently to get lunch while I’m working on files or cases.”

“Uh-huh,” Sebastian snickered. Smith felt like a child with his hand caught in the cookie jar. Both parents stared down at him with slits for eyes.I’m in trouble.He didn’t even know what he was in trouble for!

“She needs my help!” he huffed.

“You brought her into the manor, Smith! You are the only one other than Dahlia who has express permission to do that. How dare you break my trust in this way! You didn’t even consult me!” Sebastian grumbled darkly.

“She was in danger! She wasrunningthrough the woods. I didn’t know where else to take her! Areyouseriously beratingmefor rescuing a scared woman in the woods?Sir?” Smith didn’t mean to take that tone with his employer—but if they were about to compare offences? Smith huffed, “I, at the very least, introduced myself to the woman I smuggled into the manorpriorto the smuggling.”

“Hey,” Sebastian growled.

“Is for horses, dear, and Smith has a point,” Dahlia sighed.

“That’s not…both of you… Gah!” Sebastian threw his arms up into the air, storming away from the pair and toward the stairs. “I’ll be in my lab if anyone else wants to parade strangers into this homethat I protect!”

Smith grimaced, clutching his hands behind his back.Oh no, he’s going to be in a sour mood after that.Sebastian spent five years pining after Dahlia before she even found out they were inside the manor. Smith felta smidgenguilty for bringing that up.

“Smith,” Dahlia brought his attention back to her with an irritated huff. “Is she at least okay? Does she need anything? Was she harmed?”

Smith hesitated, unable to answer it fully. He’d barely been able to stitch up her leg in a rushed manner. She would need a healer. Sebastian could stitch up wounds and tend to the undead. Agatha knew basic medical aid. But Smith needed a regular, mortal healer.

“Smith?” Dahlia repeated.

“One of them bit her, she’s going to need a healer. But I fear whatever lurks out there for her will only attack again should we risk leaving the house. I’m not sure what manner of creation they were, but I know eldritch beasts when I see them. She needs help…now.” He straightened out the lapels of his jacket nervously.

“Well, you’re lucky I know a good healer. Keep an eye on her while I get them on the crystal ball. And Smith?”

“Yes, my lady?” Smith bowed his head.

“If you ever try that again, I’ll send you back to the Nightmare Realm and leave you there until I feel fit to bring you back. Am I clear?”

“Crystal clear, my lady.” He nodded vigorously. Dahlia quietly stalked away from him into the shadows, no longer needing a candle to light her passage through the ghostly halls. Once upon a time, Dahlia was the living, breathing mortal in the manor. Sebastian kept the gas lamps lit in the halls where they walked the most, but the romantic amber lights dancing through the halls had been forgotten about when Dahlia ascended to be The Hungry One.

Smith twisted on his heels, staring at the door.Hopefully she didn’t hear any of that.He turned the doorknob and gently cracked it open. It groaned with every inch until Smith stood inside the room. Melody was curled up on her side under the blankets. He could see her shivering from the doorway. Despite the heavy fabrics, there was nothing warm about his room. Dark plum curtains wrapped around a black, four poster bed. The room was longer than it was tall, unlike a lot of the rooms that were perfectly square. A long, royal purple runner lined the middle of the floor made of the most elegant, silky fibers one couldn’t find on the market today. The kind of carpet that was made to stand the test of time and won. The walls were black stripes, half glossy, half matte, with ash wood to frame it.

Two paintings hung on his walls; one he’d found himself in the city, and the other from Dahlia’s collection. Both of them roses, both with bone and blood imagery in them. However, there was a space on the wall where a third hung long ago…back when this room and this manor belonged to a family. A family of mortals with the last name Rosemont. Back when this was Elyth’s room.

And that space had been a portrait of her back when Smith met her. Back when there was still life in her cheeks and a beating heart in her chest.

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