Page 83 of How to Seduce a Slender

Smith kissed her like he was drowning in an ocean of madness…and she were the only pocket of air.

Chapter Twenty-Nine:

Melody

Hissolutionwastoblink them from the graveyard to the bedroom floor. The reasoning being he’d ‘already shaken up her organs, so a little more wouldn’t do much harm’. And on a technicality, he was right. But man, oh man, did Melody suddenly realize why he didn’t do that earlier. It jumbled up her insides like a hot, oily pan full of her organs. They sizzled, popped, and gurgled with discontent. Thankfully, it went away quickly as Smith wasn’t done kissing her. Not as he backed her into a wall on the way to the bathroom. Their lips clashed over and over in a dizzying waltz that never seemed to stop spinning.

Then everythingjust stopped.

AndMelodyopenedhereyes. Giovanni’s boot was on the merry-go-round in the school yard, keeping her from spinning to oblivion. One of her favorite things to do when she was upset.

“Hey, look, I know Caeser is a jack wagon, but you can’t let him win like that. You can’t show fear like that. People feed off of it. They’ll rip you to shreds.”

“Why do you care?” Melody spat, her tiny fangs barred as she ripped the merry-go-round from her brother’s foot. He hit the sand with a grunt. Melody pushed off and started on another spin of doom. “He doesn’t bother you.”

That’s right.Caeser Falinel had bullied her. Every day until that day, he was her personal boogeyman. He followed her every chance he got. Caeser was afraid of Giovanni because her brother punched him so hard he spun into the lockers…but Melody? She wasn’t like Giovanni. She wanted everyone to like her. How could they be friends with her if she was aggressive? Besides, that’s what Caeser wanted.

Caeser was a wolf shifter…and the shift community kicked werewolves out. Called them aggressive. Called them mutations. Called them every mean thing in the book. And even though Giovanni only took one swing on Caeser, it was Giovanni who got in trouble, not Caeser. It was Giovanni who was in and out of school suspension and labelled as a troubled child even though Caeser all but begged him to do it. Melody didn’t see the point in giving into a bully’s desires.

“You gotta stop doing what everybody says!” Giovanni huffed, getting up. He planted himself on the merry-go-round but Melody shoved again. This time, taking her brother with her. They spun violently in a circle. “You’re such a teacher’s pet and a people pleaser.”

“Yeah! Well, at least people like me!” she barked back at him.

“They don’t like you! They pity you!”

“At leastthey don’t hate me like they hate you! You get so mad about the bullies you’ve become one!” She glared at him as they turned. Round and round, the world blurred around them. Giovanni stood as a concrete statue on the metal contraption. Melody’s lower lip quivered.

That’s right! We fought that day.Melody forgot the whole thing started with a fight. All because some stupid kid pulled Melody’s hair and she accidentally scratched him. And when Giovanni waited in the circle of kids surrounding the pair, eager to see his sister pummel the same jackass that he did…he watched her apologize instead. She apologized and got Caeser to the nurse, even let the principal give her a slap on the wrist for losing control of her claws.

“If I’m such a bully, then stay here and pout like a baby. I was going to invite you to come see this cool witch stuff Leonard told me about in the woods…” Giovanni scowled, looking away.

Melody scowled back. “Leonard is the biggest dumb-dumb in the world, he keeps calling me girlie pop, and you are just as dumb if you listen to anything he says.”

“Says the dumb-dumb who apologized to someone after defending herself!” He spat.

“My claws came out!” she roared, jumping off the contraption. Her legs wobbled but held firm as she twisted to face her brother. “He might be a bully, but he’s not got claws like we do. I could have hurt him bad, Giovanni. And the teachers always tell us to apologize.”

“See! You are always taking orders from other people! Not standing up for yourself! You’re a house dog when we’re supposed to be werewolves.”

Melody swallowed the rage brewing in her belly. “You wanna go see witch stuff in the woods? Let’s go then! But when it’s some pile of shit in the leaves and Leonard’s there to laugh at your face, I’m gonna laugh at you too!”

“Fine!”

“Fine!”

Aroundandaround.Theywere kissing, Smith and her. Melody was dizzy before her thighs hit the bathroom counter. She panted for air, pushing Smith off her with weak arms. “Sm-Sma-Smith.”

“Sorry,” he laughed sheepishly, panting for his own air. “I forget you have lungs that need filling.”

Melody giggled, woozy and wobbling as she took ahold of his shoulders for strength. He pulled her into him, tucking her head in the crook of his neck. His gentle hum lulling her back into her own mind. Soft hands rubbed her naked back…and she was gone again.

“We’reclose!”Giovannicheered,racing through the thick oak trees, up a hill. They’d been trudging for an hour thought the dense forest. The further they got from the city, the worse Melody’s anxiety got. It no longer felt like a silly prank some preteen would make. And more a serious problem. But she’d asked him to show her and he’d only whine about her being a baby if she backed out now.

Melody remembered exactly how it felt to pass through the barrier. Like being brushed with a whole wall of feathers. The sun was still up but the temperature instantly dropped. She wasn’t sure what season it was anymore. There wasn’t any snow on the ground or dark, moody clouds…but the trees all looked frosty. Like someone sucked the very warmth from the air. The deeper they went, the worse the trees looked until they were desiccated husks. Not a single leaf was to be found as they came upon a clearing. Someone had chopped and roughly dug up a bunch of trees in a circle. A broad area clear of anything but a spell circle. Runes were designed in dark ash on top of lines of sticky red. It wasn’t until Giovanni cheered, tiptoeing around the lines, did Melody crouch near the first one. Blood. Old blood. And lots of it. The whole spell was outlined in it. Melody’s stomach turned.

“Giovanni, we need to go,” she whimpered.

“Quit being a baby! This is so cool! Look, Mel, look at the bones!”

---