Page 75 of How to Seduce a Slender

Havershum was on the ground next to a mangled corpse, wrestling to keep a massive tome with teeth and limbs from taking a chunk from him. Two large blades were embedded in the skin casing of the journal. Smith saw the eyeballs first.

Melody lined up her shot and came flying like a cannonball at the book. With one hard kick of her foot, Melody punted the thing across the room and into the wall. Havershum cried out, trying to un-impale himself on something from the floor. Smith engulfed the book in tendrils, caging it on the spot. Sebastian was at Havershum’s side, pulling him off the broken, wooden post he’d been stabbed onto.

“Thank you, my lord,” Havershum coughed up smokey phlegm as his boney body began to heal. “I’d almost forgotten what pain felt like.”

“Are you alright, my boy? Do you need mending?” Sebastian held the wraith by the cheeks, inspecting him from every angle.

Havershum chuckled, batting away Sebastian’s gloves. “I am fine, my lord. Much like yourself, a few stabs do a hunter good. Reminds me what a true fight is like. I apologize for worrying the house; it was more surprise than pain. The beast caught me with my attention elsewhere.”

“What is that thing?” Dahlia confessed breathlessly. She held up her skirts as she tiptoed around the corpse at the center of the room.

Disappointment sunk into Smith as he stepped up to the body.Great. There goes all my hard work.“Unfortunately, my only other witness to the Necromancer.”

“No, I knew who Winters was…though, he looks better without his head, if we’re being honest,” Dahlia snickered. Instead, she redirected her attention to the gnashing teeth on the book in Smith’s trap. “What isthat?”

“The book!” Melody sank to her knees in front of it and jabbed it with her finger. It hissed, lashing out against the cage. Melody cackled evilly, “Yeah! That’s right motherfucker! Finally caught you! Go on, show your true form? Or can you only do that in the bath?”

“What is going on?” Sebastian huffed.

“The books possessed.” Everyone, including Havershum, answered.

“Yes, yes, I canseethe books possessed, butwhyis the book possessed?” Sebastian put his hands to his hips.

“That is the question of the hour, isn’t it?” Smith shook his head, kicking the side of Winter’s leg with frustration.Should have ate him when I had the chance.Melody hadn’t spoken if she remembered who the person at the table with Winters was, and without that, he was no closer to figuring out the identity of the necromancer. She even said she normally didn’t put her nose where it didn’t belong. So it must have been important enough for Melody to break her rule of survival.

Without a name or identity, he would have little to go off on. Short of diving headfirst into their lair…which was a fool’s errand. If he didn’t know who they were, he would be facing traps unknown. Granted, he was fed now. Smith could feel it. Like a pressure that finally took up residence within him, made him solid. Smith was back to his old powers again.But would that be enough to kill a necromancer’s hoard?

“I can’t tell you who she is, but maybe someone here has seen her? I can show you.” Melody climbed to her feet.

“First,” Sebastian sighed, waltzing up to the book. He snatched it through the smokey bars of Smith’s cage and held it by the spine. A low, pathetic scream was cut short as Sebastian crafted a muzzle from thin air. Immediately, Winter’s body deflated as if the bones had been removed.

“Whoa,” Havershum jerked back, away from the flattened corpse.

“It’s not like he needs them,” Sebastian chortled, looking at his craftmanship. A book bound in bone with a muzzle across the outside. A copper lock in the shape of a heart kept it shut. “There, much more manageable. And now you can’t eat anyone else’s head. Greggory?”

“Here boss!” the tiny, blue crypt keeper came frolicking out of the group of bodies at the base of the stairs.

Sebastian handed him the book, “Make sure this is housed in the library under more lock and key. I doubt it’ll give you much fight now, but until we’ve studied it, I won’t have it destroyed.”

“What?” Melody squawked, hands thrown to her sides with frustration. “Why not? That thingeats people.”

“So do many things, and we don’t put Kevin in jail for it,” Sebastian countered.

“That’s not what she meant, my love,” Dahlia sighed, shaking her head.

“Oh,” Sebastian put his hands to his hips. “Well, there’s also the fact we don’t know what horrors will be released should the book be destroyed. Some things are worse dead than alive. Trust me.I would know.”

Sebastian slapped his own knee before shortly breaking in half backward with a wicked cackle. Smith watched his werewolf glare at Sebastian while fighting her own laugh. The problem was Sebastian’s evil giggle was infectious. Dahlia was already rolling her eyes, shoulders trembling. She tugged her husband away, heading for the stairs. Greggory held the book above his bulbous head and frolicked after them. Smith stepped over bits and pieces to Melody’s side.

Melody saw through him right away. Funny how he was the one without a face to observe, and yet she could see him so clearly. “You know who it is, don’t you?”

“I have a sneaking suspicion,” he sighed.

It’s Elyth, isn’t it? He didn’t want to say it out loud, but there was only ghost he could even fathom would want to cause him such pain. Only one person who earned such ire with him. Someone who would reasonably think Melody was the foolish person fallen victim to his teeth.

“Want me to still draw her?”

“Yes,” he confessed in a burst of air. “I need to confirmation.”

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