Page 27 of How to Woo the Undead

Austin glanced up to the hand on his shoulder and stared at the priest from outside the fence. Fury licked up his body and he lurched to his feet.Your fault. Your fault. All your fault.The voices in his head chanted it over and over as he wrapped his fingers around the man’s neck.Your fault. Your fault. All your fault.Austin throttled the Cleric, drool forming in his mouth as he heard the telltale snap of a neck.Your fault. Your fault. All your fault. You’ll never save them in time and it’s all your fault.

Austin shot forward in his bed, gasping for air. His room filled with sudden, sight-devouring, bright white. Everything spun as he crumbled out of his bunched sheets and blanket. He could still hear them chanting, like a chorus of children mocking him from within the walls. Hollowed eyes with razor sharp teeth, waiting for him to fall to his knees before they descended upon him. Parasites. Piranhas. Perfect little vultures that wanted to pick his borrowed bones clean.

He stumbled out of his room, leaving the taunting voices and the devouring light behind. The hall was refreshing, albeit frosty cold. His toes hit the hard wood floor, and a tingle ran up his leg bones. While ogre’s don’t normally get goosebumps due to the nature of their thick skin, he felt the sensation all the same. Austin involuntarily shivered as he hugged his arms to his body. He squinted in the dark, only able to see the puffs of air out of his mouth and a candle glowing halfway down the hall. He followed its dancing flame with furrowed brows. While the house could get nippy in the winter, Sebastian usually lit the fireplace in the library to keep the house above frostbite. He glanced down at his bare feet and found the little black spiderwebs creeping up from his calloused heels to his ankles.

He reached the carpet runner that led to the stairwell and stopped. Someone was walking steadily down the steps. The creaking, uneven and soft, sounded intentional. Like a mimicry of the house’s natural groan. A hard gust of wind hit the side of the manor, and he heard the rapid patter of footsteps down the stairs. His legs moved of their own accord, rushing forward to the top of the stairs. Austin hit the first step as a familiar bundle of auburn hair disappeared around the corner. “Hyacinth?”

Austin bound down the stairs, teeth chattering and fingers nearly rigor mortis stiff around the railing. The frostbite grew stronger the closer to the first floor, but Austin couldn’t let her suffer the chill alone. He croaked out her name again to no avail. Touching down on the first floor, he rounded the corner in confusion.She can hear me, can’t she?While it wasn’t his booming voice, he was never quiet.

The air tightened in his lungs as he found Hyacinth pressed up against the front door. He heard a light grunt followed by a grumbling snarl, like a cat warning approaching strangers. Austin glanced around the first floor. All the doors were closed.Even Smith isn’t awake at the hour. Rain pounded against themanor and wind beat the wooden planked shutters. Not a drop got inside, though, thanks to Lord Rosemont’s wards.

Nothing in or out till the storm was over.

Austin crept forward, calling out her name again. “Hyacinth?”

Another grunt and rattle. It wasn’t till he was two steps away, having said her name several times, that he realized she was trying to shoulder the door open. Her body threw itself against the wood angrily, hands rattling the knob.

“Hyacinth, we warded the doors. You can’t get out without Lord Rosemont’s help. Are you alright? What’s...what’s...” He trailed off as he knelt to the floor by her hip. Her hair was draped in front of her eyes, curtaining off the world in front of her. However, looking up and under her hair, he found her eyes wide open. Little red lines, angry and possessed, filled her sclera. Her mouth was agape, taking little breaths that formed in front of her as clouds. Every inch of her was broken out in gooseflesh. “Hyacinth?”

With a yelp, she jerked away from him. Her back knocked into the door, her wings flapping angrily like a panicked bat against the heavy wood. Austin held up his hands, white flags as her purple orbs scanned the house. “Wha-what-what happened.”

“I think you were sleepwalking,” Austin offered with a grimace. Hyacinth finally lowered her wandering gaze to him. Wild eyed and panting for air. He reached up, cupping her cheeks. Her body melted forward into his touch. For a breath, she was a floating goddess over him, back lit by the split of lightning through the turbulent storm. Then she collapsed into his chest, wrapping her arms around him. He tugged her close.

“You’re alright,” he whispered into her hair, hugging her tight. “I’ve got you.”

“It’s so cold,” she shivered. Her teeth clinked together as he pulled her off the floor. It wasn’t as devastatingly cold on the second floor, and that was the only insight he had as he charged up the steps toward her room.In her room, under her blanket, I can get other blankets and put a bunch of candles in the room.His mind ran faster than him, but by the time he got in the room, his feet tingled with feeling again.Not numb or frost bitten anymore? Strange.He set her on his hip in order to pull back the blankets. It was incremental, but the house felt warmer.

Not by much. But enough that he could stand on the hardwood floor and didn’t fear his feet turning to icicles.

“Have you ever done that?” she asked, pushing her back up against the headboard. First, she rummaged around her pillows and blankets. Austin didn’t get a chance to ask what for as she gasped ‘ah-ha! There you are’ as she whisked out the teddy bear. Holding the fuzzy beast to her chest with one arm, she glanced up and slapped at the other side of her bed.

“Done what?” He blinked, following her orders though she hadn’t voiced them.

“Sleep walked?” She drove her feet under the blankets and pulled them up to her hips. Austin sank onto the other side, driving his aching feet under the duvet. If they weren’t both undead, it might actually warm up more than a few degrees. Yet, being hip to hip with her in the bed was enough to make his collarhot.

“No, not that I can remember.” He gave her a soft, apologetic shrug that elicited a sigh from the dead woman’s lips.

She hugged the werewolf bear tighter before planting her chin over top of its chunky head. “I don’t think I dreamed. I just remember laying down, then, next thing, you woke me up and it’s really cold.”

“It is really cold,” Austin grumbled.

Hyacinth slid closer to him till there was no more space between them. Only to nudge his elbow up with her hands. He hoisted the arm up and she dove underneath. His heart thudded against his ribs as she curled up around him. “It’s not so cold like this.”

“I don’t makethat muchheat,” he laughed sheepishly. And yet, his hand stroked down her arm, rubbing the goosebumps away steadily. He told himself it was to warm her up.Just to get her temperature up, fae bodies typically thrive in a warmer climate much like elves and humans.Yet, as the moments ticked by and he heard her breathing even out, he stopped stroking with the flat of his palm. His fingers ended up drawing designs in her flesh. Up and down her bicep till he adventured down to her forearm, around her elbow, then up to her shoulder. Somehow, he ended up tracing her stitches along her collar bone, up her throat, and around her jaw.

Hyacinth softened like butter in his touch. He watched breathlessly as her muscles shifted, giving him better access to her throat. Austin traced her larynx.She’s so soft.Her back arched into the touch across her collarbone.So delicate.She turned out her arm so that he traced the dark, inky vein running down the seam.Like a flower.He followed it down to her palm where his fingers spread across hers. She laced hers with his and squeezed.

Austin didn’t remember having certain anatomy. Like his bladder, where it was only present when it was full. Or his stomach that only annoyed him when it was empty. There were other attachments to his body he only recognized when it jerked to life. Itthumpedheavily against his thigh as her other hand trailed down the front of his chest. Her knuckles brushed like a feather across his stomach down to his thigh. It restedinnocently against his leg. And yet on the other thigh, his cock was firmer than it’d been in ages.

“You make enough for the both of us,” she sighed dreamily against his chest as she curled up her knees into her chest. Her body fit so easily into the crook of his arm. While she wasn’tsmallfor a fae, she was tiny compared to him. Precious and delicate, she was his flower curled up against his ribs. Austin wanted nothing more than to protect her. Yet, as he continued to trail his fingers along the side of her legs, now in reach, then her arm, he couldn’t help but think ofotherthings he wanted.

Austin never thought of kisses before outside of stories. Tender touches were for characters in books. Romance novels weren’t unfamiliar territory to him, plus Lord Rosemont had a robust collection of erotica and instruction manuals. Anything a curious creature could peruse for several lifetimes and still have more to explore. It always felt more academic until he bent a little to loom over her. Her head picked up at the same time he leaned in close. His lips brushed her forehead and she pressed into it, making his kiss firm to her cold skin.

Lightning flashed behind the window. Rain pelted the house. The shutters slammed against the side of the house and a ghostly howl made by a terrible storm filled the air. And yet, he couldn’t see anything else outside the hazy aura that surrounded her. He leaned over her, with a hand to the back of her head. She smiled, eyes finally fluttering open.

“What was that for?” she murmured, lilac gemstones searching his face.

“Sweet dreams,” he croaked. “Helps ward off bad dreams.”