Page 36

F oxx’s breath came in gasps as he ran at full speed away from Harlow, fully planning to kick Gavin’s ass when all this was said and done. When the FUCK was the dragon going to do what he planned to do?! It had been like thirty minutes!?!

“GAVIN!” he screamed, the looming shadow overhead did not seem to be making any moves to come closer.

This fucker—there was only so much forest he could run in, and it was getting harder and harder to avoid bloody people! The worst part was, he knew that Harlow…well, his dhampir side, was just playing with him. The man should have been able to catch him by now. Hell, Harlow should have been able to grab him within the first few bloody seconds.

Another bad part was how quiet the dhampir was. The man was still there, he could hear him, but he wasn’t making a sound, other than his breathing and heartbeat. Speaking of that heartbeat, he didn’t hear or sense a dhampir behind him, or a vampire—which is often how Harlow came across—no, what he heard, in all sense of the way, was someone…human.

Fully conscious Harlow could fake being human pretty well now, but he had nothing on ‘lost to blood burn’ Harlow, because the former had yet to do it for longer than fifteen minutes. At least, the man could easily fake being a vampire and fool almost anyone now.

Though, at the moment, none of these thoughts were really that helpful—ugh !

“No!” Foxx whined as he picked up a human heartbeat, right at the peripheral of his senses, in the direction he was running.

Taking a left, he broke through some trees, coming to an abrupt stop as he stared wide-eyed at the cliffside that just seemed to go up and curve in his way. He wasn’t sure if he could blame the sweat in his eyes for not seeing the fucking thing through the trees, or the fact that he was exhausted.

Foxx spun around and took a step back when Harlow stepped into the small clearing.

“G-Gavin!” he screamed again, panting hard.

Swallowing, he smiled. “Harlow…Old Man, it’s mee—” Foxx’s words cut off on a squeal as he barely managed to dodge the dhampir.

The man growled, his eyes seeming to grow brighter as they trailed over him. Oh…he knew that look.

He lifted his hands up to ward the man off, as he slowly backed away. “Now is not the time for that! I get you aren’t really conscious, but I’m a bit too knackered at the moment for sex.”

“ Mine! ” Harlow growled.

“Shit… I…” he trailed off, frowning when he noticed that the shadow around Harlow had begun to rapidly grow.

BOOM!

Foxx jumped, the ground beneath his feet shaking as he just stared. His jaw dropped in shock at the giant dragon that now stood where Harlow had just been, his two front clawed feet on the exact spot.

“Stompie time!” Gavin laughed in a deep, growling voice.

“Wait…” He flinched back as the man started to—the best way he could describe what he was seeing was…hop like a bunny. The ground shook each time the dragon landed.

Foxx hesitated for only a moment before crying, “STOP!”

Landing on Harlow again, the dragon blinked, his large reptilian head tilting before he slowly shuffled off of the man.

He inched closer. “Harlow…? Are you…okay?”

The dhampir, who was now in an indent in the ground, let out a guttural growl.

Foxx winced. “Nevermind, continue! ”

With a tired huff, he sat down on the ground as it began to shake again with each ‘stomp’ Gavin made. “Fuck am I knackered. Really, Gavin, what took you so long to act?!”

“Too.” Stomp. “Many.” Stomp . “Trees.” Stomp .

His eyes narrowed. “Too many what?! Too many trees?! You have to be bloody fucking kidding me?!”

“Ga—” Foxx perked up as he heard a familiar voice cut off abruptly. “GAVIN!” Harlow managed to shout, before the dragon landed on him once again.

Gavin froze, looking down. “IT WORKED!”

Foxx rushed over, yelling, “Get off him, you idiot!”

“Right!”

He winced as the dragon basically used the dhampir as a springboard, Gavin lightly landing on two very human feet next to the Harlow-shaped hole he’d created in the ground.

Foxx tugged Harlow up. The dhampir took a shaky step, before pausing to grasp at his head. The man shook it a few times while Foxx tried to brush the dirt off him.

Harlow smacked his hands away, and grabbed onto Foxx’s shoulders. He yelped as he was tugged against the man’s body, the dhampir taking his mouth. Foxx moaned into the demanding kiss, Harlow clearly trying to stake his claim. He whimpered, barely holding back his begging when the man nicked his bottom lip on pulling back.

Harlow’s eyes, while normal, were angry as he stared him down. “You…” The dhampir let out a threatening growl, but released him. Turning to Gavin, Harlow socked the dragon in the stomach. As the man doubled over, the dhampir stormed off.

“WHY DID I GET HIT?!” Gavin cried with a pain-filled groan.

While he was curious as to why it hurt this time, but hadn’t all the other times Harlow had hit the man, at the same time, he didn’t care. Because Gavin, the right bastard, had let him run for over thirty bloody minutes because of TREES… Trees that the dragon could have one hundred percent broken like a toothpick.

“Well, did you want him to hit me?!” Hmphing, he hurried after Harlow, leaving Gavin standing there looking baffled.

Harlow kept walking, ignoring Foxx as he brushed himself off while looking for any tears in his clothes. Surprisingly, while he felt achy and tired, overall, Harlow was…fine, even after being fucking stomped on by a damn dragon.

Foxx slipped his arm through his and whined, “Aww, don’t be mad, Old Man.”

Harlow snorted, but said nothing as they kept walking.

“Harlowww,” the vampire whimpered, shaking his arm.

He winced and pulled away, stopping to rotate his shoulder. “Fucking hell,” he cursed as the joint cracked.

“Are you hurt?” Foxx asked, actually sounding concerned.

“I’m fine,” he ground out between clenched teeth.

“You don’t sound fine.”

He hissed, before starting to walk again.

Harlow sighed as Foxx once again grabbed on to him. “I’m sorry, Old Man.”

“Bullshit,” he grunted.

“Okay, I’m not sorry, but I am sorry I didn’t find out that Gavin’s plan was to…stomp on you.”

He stopped and stared. “You really didn’t even know his plan?!”

“To be fair, I wasn’t wrong in thinking that he could do it.”

“Foxx!”

“Okay, but do you know how long I was running around?! Over thirty minutes! You know I hate to exercise!” Foxx plucked at his sweater. “Just look at me, I’m covered in sweat!”

Harlow stiffened, and actually took a good look at the vampire. He was less covered and more drenched in sweat, the man’s sweater and overalls clung to his body. His black curls were plastered around his face, cooling sweat dripping down his cheeks. Even the man’s breathing was still elevated. The vampire looked pale and just…exhausted.

“How fucking long did you say?! Thirty minutes!?” Harlow ground out. “Why the hell did he wait that long?! What if I had gotten a hold of you? How the fuck would he have stomped on me then?!”

“Yeah, thirty!” Foxx whimpered. “And he said he waited because the trees were in the way!”

“Gavin!” He spun, eyeing the dragon who was trailing far behind.

The man froze with a stiff smile on his face. “Yes?”

“I will shove a damn tree down your throat if you ever fucking use them as an excuse to leave my vampire in danger again!”

Gavin sputtered. “Here I am, helping you all out, and I'm the one getting yelled at, chased, and punched! Like, what about me?! Aren’t I important?! Don’t my feelings matter?!”

“No,” Harlow said without hesitation, or a hint of emotion.

A giggle slipped past Foxx’s lips before he managed to cover it up with a cough. “Harlow, that’s not nice,” the vampire said sternly, his eyes sparkling with humor.

“Come on.” He slipped his arm free, to wrap it around the man’s waist, tugging him forward. “Let’s get the fuck back on the road. We have a full day of driving, and a night of sleep, until the next fight.”

Foxx let Harlow pull him along. “Do you think we can stop somewhere for me to get a shower… Maybe both of us should. You are a bit dusty.”

He chuckled as the brat rubbed at a bit of dirt on his chest. “Well, you try being shoved into the ground and come up clean.”

“Been there, done that, clean was never the result.”

“YOU BOTH SUCK!” Gavin shouted behind them.

Harlow flipped him off and kept walking as the dragon started to squawk.