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“No,” she said hurriedly. “I just wondered.”

“Sometimes they sneak in from other realms,” Slate admitted. “More often, lost souls corrode and become demons while they are trapped here.”

Ruby stopped chewing. She swallowed hard. “Trapped? Theybecomedemons?”

“Yes,” Slate said, wondering what they were teaching witches in her part of the mortal realm nowadays. He was sure they used to be more knowledgeable than this. “Lost souls appear here, most often when something goes wrong after their death. Most of them, I can lead to where they must go. But some refuse to follow. Those unfortunate souls turn into shades.”

Ruby’s eyes went huge and round. “But… the dog spirit…”

“He is…” Slate’s tail swished. “A rare case. He does not refuse to follow. I just have nowhere to lead him yet. I am supposed to feel it. But there is nothing.”

“Oh.” The tension drained from her shoulders, but her expression stayed worried. “It’s mostly shades that try to get past the ward barrier at Sweetsguard.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” he said.

Ruby frowned, tugging at her dress strap absentmindedly. It had fallen when her shoulders sagged.

Slate watched the loose material and concentrated. His hand folded into a fist, claws pricking his palm.

Ruby gasped and twisted to watch her sleeve. It was turning into a liquid shadow, tightening around her body just as Slate had commanded it.

Slate’s fist loosened in his robes. “You startle easily.”

“I’m not startled,” she said, too fast. She plucked at her new sleeve, which fitted much more snugly. There was some apprehension in her expression. But just as he was about to apologize, her mouth quirked in such wonder all the breath fled from Slate’s chest.

“Okay,” Ruby said as if to herself. Then she looked up, and her face smoothed out.

She moved the pie and then the dead rabbit to the nightstand, straining to reach its tall height. “We need to… practice. Like you talked about.”

Slate’s cock thickened under his robes. Yet another irrational physical sensation he hadn’t had to bother with in centuries. Butgods, did it feel good.

“As you say,” he said.

He surged over her, pushing her flat against the bed and trapping her hands above her. The bed was too big for him, and it completely dwarfed the tiny mortal lying on it. It would stand up well to whatever they did to it.

Ruby gasped, a delicious flush spreading down her plunging neckline.

Slate fought the urge to run his tongue down it. Soon, he told himself. Not yet.

He forced his gaze back up to her reddening face. “How would you like to begin?”

“I…” Ruby trailed off. Her teeth dug into her lip, and Slate wondered, for the very first time in his long existence, what kissing a mortal would be like.

Her raven hair fell down her cheek. Her dark eyes glittered in the firelight. Lying here like this, covered with him, she truly did look like she was crafted out of shadows. Like she washis.

“How many times will it take?” Ruby asked shyly.

Slate had no clue. But it was nothistown that would die if they ran out of time.

He nuzzled her cheek, listening to her heartbeat pound under her flimsy skin.

“A pertinent question,” Slate said, unsurprised to find his voice was even more gravelly than usual. “Would you like to find out?”

Seven

Ruby expected the low growl to frighten her.

Instead, it made the heat between her legs pool even faster. She rubbed her thighs together under her dress, appalled and wondrous. Since when had she been interested in feral beasts? She had never dreamed of monsters when she was alone at night, touching herself in her empty cottage. And here she was, dripping wet at the idea of being ravaged by aSkullstalker,of all things.