Page 26 of How to Woo the Undead

She pulled her arm back, rubbing over where the teeth indented her skin.I felt that bite too.Hyacinth furrowed her brows. There were a few things she’d learned, one being that other than her scars, physical pain didn’t work on her. Not efficiently. It was muffled like a scream against the pillow. When she glanced down to her pouting, thumping bunny, she studied him with interest. He was round, soft, and fluffy. Nothing out of the ordinary, not that she would know, but even Austin thought he was an extremely average rabbit.

The bedroom door opened and her time for self-reflection and inquiry fell away as Austin stepped in. “Alright, I’ve got hay, a bowl for water, pellet, and some fresh veg for the little guy.”

Hyacinth grinned, scurrying off the bed. He set some of it down by the door, but she helped him spread the hay in the large wooden crate. It said ‘eggs’on the side and was clearly used for holding a massive amount of farm fresh chickenpresents. However, he’d popped out some of the slits so the hay could be tugged out by a little rabbit.

“He bit me,” she confessed, showing the bruise.

“He bit you!” Austin whirled around without seeing it.

“I think I had one of those bad dreams,” she grimaced as she offered up her arm to Austin again. That time he inspected the wound slowly, brushing his thumb over the bite mark. The words didn’t stop, they just tumbled one right after the other. “I was sat there, thinking how my teddy bear doesn’t smell like you anymore and I saw her in the mirror. She crept closer and I couldn’t scream or move or do anything. Then he bit me and I woke up.”

Austin’s gaze roamed her face for a long moment before he offered the bunny a small smile. “Thank you, my good sir, for the rescue.”

“You did say the best way to get rid of a bad dream is to wake up.” Hyacinth shrugged. Austin nodded solemnly, letting go of her arm. But not before his fingers brushed all the way down her forearm. There was a moment where those fingertips brushed that all those moths returned to eating her insides and creating a windstorm in her chest.

“You said it doesn’t smell like me?” Austin smiled at her, rounding the end of the bed. He gave the bunny a small boop between the ears before he grabbed the teddy bear. Austin tucked the fluffy creation into the front of his shirt before putting his arms out to the side. “Ta-da.”

Hyacinth sputtered, stumbling to the end of the bed as little, nervous giggles bubbled up through her. “You don’t mind?”

“Mind? It’s your nose; I think I smell pretty good right now. Bathed just this morning!” He grinned, jabbing a thumb at his chest.

Hyacinth hid her giddy grin, scooping up the bunny to give her hands something to do other than helplessly flap at her sides. She pet the fluffy hostage as gently as she could, given the circumstance. “I like your scent a lot.”

“Well, you can sniff me anytime.” Austin sat down on the side of the bed.

“Anytime?” She challenged, raising a brow.

“Anytime,” he chuckled and tapped his chest for good measure. Hyacinth brought her inky hostage with her as she crept closer to the undead man in her room. With each step, something woke up in her body. Something that definitely wasn’t there before, but something thatfit.It made her lungs tighten and she’d nearly chewed a hole in her bottom lip.But the perk of being undead is if I break my lip or ruin my lungs, they can give me new ones.

Hyacinth stood in front of him, staring directly into his red eyes instead of up into them. They were the same height when he sat down. Hyacinth leaned forward, bent at the hips at such a ridiculous pose, she actually felt silly. The first time since she awoke that she felt heat brush across her face and throat and thought to herself,I’m being ridiculous.But then she put her nose against the soft cotton fabric covering his massive shoulders and inhaled deep.

Smells just like him. Smells perfect. Smells right.

Hyacinth pulled back, hugging the rabbit to her chest like he might fight off the angry fluttering in her chest with his wiggling whiskers.

“Still like it?” Austin whispered. Hyacinth nodded vigorously, not trusting her tongue in her mouth to work for even a moment. Austin put his hands out and for no reason other than instinct, she deposited the bunny in them. He held their sharedwoodland creature aloft. “We really ought to name you. Hyacinth, you’re good at naming stuff. What do you think?”

“I am?” She snorted. “I’ve named one thing. Me.”

“And it fits. You’re as beautiful as a bundle of hyacinths. What about this little guy, huh?”

Blink, blink.Hyacinth searched the room for inspiration. Only, her gaze kept returning to him and the sniffing creature hoisted over his head. Hyacinth stared deep into the bunny’s eyes and knew deep in her being what his name was.

“Snuffles.”

Chapter Fourteen:

Austin

Theraincameinfast that evening. Much to Lord Rosemont’s credit, it did storm so bad that Kevin locked up the barns, the roost, the cows, then took up refuge in the kitchen with Carl. Winds howled against the house for the rest of the day. Rosemont Manor was quiet. Even the ghouls lurked slowly in the shadows. Agatha was translucent for most of the evening, going from looming in Smith’s office to the library. Austin spent all of that in a daze. Between holding up the shutters while Sebastian set the wards in place to helping cart a trunk from Lady Rosemont’s office into one of the many closed-off rooms, he wasphysicallyvery busy. But his mind was upstairs. Replaying that moment with Hyacinth where she was in his grasp. The way her purple eyes glittered up at him, holding Snuffles to her chest. Feeling her nose to his shirt and shivering at how close she was. It left him in a hazy cloud, floating through the house until he made the mistake of trying to go to sleep.

Austin lay down in his bed, curling up tight, and closed his eyes. The sweet fog he’d existed in up until that moment lead him astray. Gave him false hope. Then he was in a dark wood. Rain pelted him, thunder cracking over his head but the lightning was blocked out by inky foliage. Stood in the middle of carnage, he watched the outlines of his family ripped apart by a faceless entity. With each lightening bolt, red flashed over his eyes andhe watched Kevin melt into goo. Then Carl’s fire went out. Then Melody was quartered and dragged apart, screaming into the thunder.

Austin lurched toward each of them, going in circles and unable to reach them before the lightning cut him off. With each crash of thunder, his legs grew weaker, his hands shaking harder. But he spun to the last shadowy outline, this time, the rain was lit up by a giant pyre. Immune to the rain, the flames roared as it engulfed the forest. Hyacinth was tied limply to a wooden pole, head almost completely off her neck except for a single stitch.

He scrambled after her as the fire reached her feet. Then her ankles. Then her legs. Her eyes stayed closed, lost to her slumber, as lightning struck her. Austin screamed out in pain for her, falling to his knees just before the fire.

“May Nexxus preserve her rotting soul.”