Page 75 of How to Woo the Undead
Austin and Hyacinth held their breaths while the wrath’s eyes glowed red. Snuffles reared up, his antlers bursting from his head. He grew longer with his cheeks hollowed out and his body fur in mats. Snuffles opened a mouth full of writhing tentacles at Havershum.
“I see,” Havershum hissed, deep in his chest. “I shall honor your bravery with a truce. A tentative, very thin truce. You may hunt to your heart’s content, but you do not do itinsidethe house. I cannot stop you while we are all stuck inside, but once we’ve righted this wrong, and the gates can reopen, you shall hunt for your dinneroutside! Got it?”
Snuffles thumped his backfoot against the chair.
“Then we are in agreement. Shake on it.” Havershum put a boney hand out to the rabbit. Snuffles softly wrapped the tentacles in his mouth around their wraith’s hand and they shook.
Havershum disappeared into the walls, Snuffles settling down as his fur grew back and his form returned to an orb of inky fluff once more. Melody stood beside Austin, shaking her head. “Listen, that’s got to be the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. And Kevin talked to a fucked-up squirrel puppet for me.”
“Snuffles is kind of like a werewolf, if you think about it,” Austin laughed with a shrug.
Melody narrowed her eyes on him, clacking her tongs at him. “Don’t you dare, cause if you say that, then Kevin’s going to want to make him a part of the pack.”
“He’s a good hunter,” Austin wheezed motioning at Snuffles.
“You’re on thin ice, mister!” Melody snapped the tongs at him again before whirling on her heel. “Don’t even think of trying to use your undead mind tricks against me.”
“Undead mind tricks?” Austin scoffed, following her to the stove. She planted a plate into his hands where she ripped the steaks off the make-shift grill.
“That’s something you can do, right?” Melody furrowed her brow up at him. Austin shook his head. Melody scoffed, “Really? Then what kind of magiccanyou do?”
“I don’t,” Austin grimaced.
“So, what, you’re just like…”
“A hunk, sadly, yes,” Austin sighed, nodding his head. Melody smacked him upside the arm with her tongs as he snickered, returning to the table.
“What’d you do?” Hyacinth asked, gaze darting between Melody stirring some sort of rice side dish and Austin. He set the tray of steaks out on the table. Snuffles bound up only to be dragged off, his tentacles and claws digging into the table. “Table manners, Snuffles. We’ve talked about this.”
“Ehh! That bunny better not touch my hard burnt steaks! I did not nearly light my eyebrows on fire for the abomination from the underbrush to eat my breakfast of champions. Austin, feed the creature one of the raw pork chops in the fridge.”
Austin chuckled softly, whispering to Snuffles, “Sorry, little guy. Hang in there, I’ll throw in some celery for being a good sport.”
While Hyacinth held the rabbit in her lap. Austin unwrapped one of the aforementioned pork chops and left it bleeding all over an extra plate. He ripped off a few celery stalks and brought them over to the table. Melody dished out plates with a mini mountain of spiced rice and a fried egg draped on top of it, their steaks and grilled onions to go with. The sight of it made his stomach groan in need. Austin dropped down into his seat, putting Snuffles plate further from the rest of the food. Their carnivorous bunny bound up onto the table, immediately tearing into his pork chop.
“This smells amazing,” he moaned appreciatively.
“Good, cause I only know steak and eggs the diner way. Well, plus this is better, trust me, this is better,” Melody snorted, breaking her egg. The gooey center coated her pile of rice and made a dipping sauce for her steak. The three ate in relative silence, the sound of rain pounding against the outside of the house playing as background music. The sky was a dark gray still, splitting only to let bolts of lightning through. Austin studied the kitchen with confusion.
“Wait, whereisKevin?” The gardener usually took up refuge in the house when a storm was that bad. After locking up all the animals in the barn, he usually didn’t have room to sleep out there. Not between the horses, cows, goats, chickens,andpigs, there wasn’t room for the massive hellhound and zombie.
“He…uh…went with Smith to the city.”
“With Smith?” Austin blurted out in bewilderment. Austin jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. “To King’s Fall? They let him in?”
“Well, Smith and I figured, out of the lot of us, Kevin’s the one better built to deal with…rampaging flora?” Melody winced as she spotted Hyacinth’s curious stare. “No offense.”
“I’m not sure what about that statement was supposed to offend me?” Hyacinth spoke between gulps of food.
Melody chewed on her words for a long moment before whispering, “The tree—”
“Sabine’s tree is rampaging through the city?” Hyacinth roared, flying to her feet..
“No! No…okay, not so much rampaging as misbehaving.” Melody put her fork down. Raking her fingers through her hair, the artist of the house was never good with words. Austin liked that about Melody. She was just as awful about explaining things as him.
“Melody,” Austin broke through the tension in the room. “What’s happening with the tree?”
Hyacinth sat down stiffly, her plate already clean. She didn’t even stop Snuffles from licking up the drippings of their steak as the rabbit rejoined the group. Austin fed the rabbit the fat scraps that he happily ripped apart and nibbled.
