Page 8 of Shared with the Hellhounds (Halloween Temptation #4)
Danny
One Year Later...
" W elcome to Advanced Conjuration."
Dipped deep within Seth's shadow splayed across the hardwood flooring of the classroom, I watch and wait as the professor instructs his flock of little lambs. Seth sits among them, but he is not one of them.
He is ours. He is mine. My mate and master.
He may be a witch, yet he's also part of our pack.
It is still strange to think of myself in the singular.
While Mal and I always have been and always will be two paired together as one, the longer we wear these human masks, the more we distinguish ourselves.
I am Danny.
Seth's most faithful companion. Glued to his side.
Pinned to his heels. I'm there at his beck and call.
I do not wander. I'm his warrior, bodyguard they call them now, while Mal plays at scholar.
I do not care for Professor Hawthorne's droll lectures and quaint demonstrations, yet Seth delights in all his classes, so attend these lessons with him.
While I wear flesh most days, and quite prefer it, Seth finds it most convenient to spell my shape into his shadow for a few hours. Not to keep me safe, but to keep others safe from me.
You should eat him. I speak these words directly into Seth's mind as his pretty fingers glide his favorite fountain pen across the first page of his grimoire. Its pages were blank until just now. A freshly bound grimoire. Made from sheepskin, felled by I and Mal's fangs.
Seth reaches back to me in our shared mental space. He tells me we aren't eating anyone, that witches don't eat each other. But I know otherwise -- I'm well aware of how his classmates tried to tear him down before he summoned us.
From the dark, I glower at the worst of the lot. One of the Charmwell's offspring. An ancient family, but one whose legacy is bathed in betrayal. Leonard, luckily, possesses none of his ancestor's bite. There is nothing to back his cruelty. He has no teeth, and his claws are weak.
He is afraid of Seth. The fear makes him an enticing target. Though Seth says no and I obey.
"Now, to prepare for our first lesson, please decide on your study partner. With Samhain fast approaching, we'll be doing quite a lot of complicated sigil work."
Seth sits in the front row of the classroom.
His rightful place. While his professors still may not like him, they respect him.
It has been centuries since a witch has bound the hellhound as their familiar.
They see his power. They fear it as much as they love to see it being nurtured within its cradle.
I watch as Seth turns in his seat to look right at Leonard. With a sickly sweet smile, he tells, not asks, the Charmwell boy to partner up with him. Such grace our mate has to forgive, though I'm pleased to see he will never forget.
Leonard and Seth will never be friends. But Leonard will never dare to make Seth into a foe. The boy squirms in his seat, but nods in understanding. The great Charmwell family is truly nothing but a bunch of scaredy cats now.
Where is Mal? Seth thinks to me.
Off to speak with the feline familiar spirits. I think the words with an eye roll.
Mal thinks of himself as a scholar, always quick to assist Seth with the craft, but he also thinks of himself as an ambassador.
He doesn't like how the little familiars hide whenever they cross our paths around camps.
We are too big for them and too strange.
Our ability to shift between flesh and fur or solid and incorporeal unsettles them.
They fear us in the same way their witches fear Seth.
Mal says we must make nice with the cats so one will respond to your call if ever a time comes to summon their kind.
They are small spirits, yes, but they have their uses.
Good scouts. Perfect spies. And our Seth is destined for greatness in conjuration and summoning.
He will need to know how to call forth all spirits.
From all realms. Both the weak and the strong.
All of them will one day kneel before him. Just as Mal and I have done.
Don't sound so glum. Seth smiles down at me. When we get back to the dorm, I'll feed you.
Such a tease. He will pay for it later. If I could growl within this shadowy form, I would do so.
Until I'm freed and wearing flesh again, ready to suck Seth's pretty prick and shove my fat cock down his throat, I'll have to make do with merely watching him.
Feasting on the sight of him in his most natural element: learning.
Our clever mate. Our brilliant witch.
Not mine alone, but mine together with Mal.