Page 43

W ith the others behind him, and his favorite song still playing on repeat, Foxx slammed the door of the room open. Gee, what a surprise, more white walls, floors, and lab equipment.

“Hello, anyone in here?!” he taunted, listening to the seven racing heartbeats in the room, the last humans alive on the third floor. And it was floor three, not four—three!

Humming along to Play With Fire, he walked in as the others followed. The sound trailed to nothing, Foxx’s smile tightening as his gaze slid over the corpse that was splayed out on a dissection table in the middle of the room.

Naked with a sheet covering his privates, a young male vampire was laid out with a gag in his mouth. The inner layers of skin were peeled back on his chest, showing the inside of his chest cavity. His sternum had been sawed into and removed, his heart missing. Based on the pained and fearful look that was locked into the dead vampire’s eyes, he could only assume they’d cut it out while he’d still been alive.

Even when Harlow, Gavin, and Mari spread out and began to hunt the humans down, he stood there staring silently, his gaze trailing over the dead…he’d say man, but teen would be more accurate.

So young…with so much life unlived.

Without looking away, Foxx tore the door of the metal cabinet to his left clean off. The sound of metal screeching was loud and almost unbearable. Before the door had even finished clattering on the ground, he’d wrapped his hand around the neck of the human hiding inside and dragged him out.

The man fought, clawing at his wrist and kicking, while Foxx forced the tall human down onto his knees. He shifted his hold on the bastard to the back of his neck, as he held him inches from the teen’s face. “What is his name?”

The human grimaced and looked away, his mouth clamping shut, but just before he'd averted his gaze, Foxx saw a hint of something that really, really fucking pissed him off.

“Did I say you could look away?!” Foxx hissed. “Look at him!”

The human didn’t budge.

Clenching his hand tighter on the back of the man’s neck, his claws started to draw blood. “I said LOOK AT HIM!”

Crying out in pain, the human finally looked back at the teen. The same expression he’d only caught a glimpse of came back so clearly then—disgust. There was disgust in this adult human’s eyes for the poor murdered teenager.

“What. Is. His. Name?” Foxx ground out.

“I don’t know.”

The words were said so softly that one could easily be mistaken into thinking they hadn’t been said at all, but they had, and he had heard them.

“Louder, say it louder.” When the man remained quiet, he bellowed, “SAY IT LOUDER! You have a bloody teenager laid out on a fucking metal slab! You walking human rubbish bins had no trouble slicing into his chest to experiment and murder him, you damn well will shout your ignorance loud and FUCKING clear when I want to hear it!”

“I don’t know!” the human shouted, the man now glaring up at him. “And it doesn’t matter! He didn’t matter! His name doesn’t fucking matter because he’s DEAD!”

“Is that so?” Foxx said with a fake laugh, and an even faker smile on his face.

“Yes,” the man spat.

His smile twisted. “Then I’ll follow your ways by not bothering to learn yours.” Foxx squeezed slowly, his nails lengthening as they punctured into the man’s throat.

The scumbag croaked, his eyes going wide in shock as the defiance and anger drained away to fear and pain. His struggles returned, but grew weaker the longer Foxx’s claws became. After many agonizing seconds, the man went slack.

Foxx had just extracted his claws when he found himself spinning around on instinct at the sound of an odd clash of something behind him. His eyes widened slightly as he stared at the human now standing there in an all-black outfit, who he hadn’t even heard approach. Though, now that he’d seen him, he finally heard the man’s heart racing away.

Right next to the man was Gavin, his arm stretched out and covered in rainbow obsidian scales, which appeared to be what had broken the needle that likely had been intended for Foxx.

“You fucker.” Harlow let out a low growl as the man stumbled back away from Gavin, not hesitating to wrap his hand around the human’s neck and lift him upward.

The man struggled, choking as he tried to pry Harlow’s hand off. He was seconds from killing the bastard when it finally hit him just how much effort he was exerting to keep hold of him.

With a laugh of disbelief, he slowly lowered the man to the ground without letting him escape. “Well, well, well…looks like they are experimenting on themselves now. So much for being the superior species.”

“I didn’t hear him move,” Foxx mused.

“I thought the one you had was the last until he appeared out of nowhere. I did see him move though, and it was much faster than any human should be able to, that’s for sure,” Gavin confirmed.

“Interesting,” Foxx hummed. “Gavin, turn off the music.”

The dragon pulled his phone out, and seconds later, the music that had been playing on repeat turned off .

The vampire sent a smile Harlow’s way. “Mind turning him to face me? I have a few questions for him.”

Gripping hold of one arm, he let go of the man’s neck to grab the other, and turned the human towards Foxx.

His boyfriend's lips lifted into a too sweet smile with his dimples flashing. Even the one fang, and all the blood, didn’t detract from the look of innocence. “Tell me, human, is anyone above like you?”

The human stuttered, “W-will you let me l-live if I tell you?”

“Do I look like someone without mercy?” Foxx asked, his smile unchanging.

He couldn’t help but smirk at the non-answer. His brat could be manipulative, that was for fucking sure.

“I’ll tell you!” the man blurted out after a few seconds of silence. “There are ten others. All stronger than me.”

The vampire pursed his lips. “By how much?”

“I d-don’t know… This…this is a recent program. I’m not a scientist, I’m just a?—”

“Guinea pig?” Gavin snorted.

The man’s face reddened. “Yes.”

“Who should we look out for?” Foxx asked.

“A man named Declan O’Connor. He’s young, tall, and muscular with bright red hair, and lots of freckles. I don’t know how strong the others are, but he was dangerous even before we started testing.”

“I see. Well, thank you.” With a smile still on his face, the vampire plunged his hand into the human’s chest.

“W-why?” the man cried, sounding betrayed.

“You didn’t ask who my mercy was for,” Foxx said with a cute giggle as he pulled his gore-covered hand out, the human dying instantly.

Harlow released the corpse.

“That’s concerning…” the witch murmured.

He glanced towards her at the odd yet somewhat familiar tone, sighing as he saw how vacant her gaze was, her face just as blank. “I’m more concerned about how you said that.”

Mari’s eyes snapped back into focus, a smile spreading across her face. “The wheels of time are always turning as new paths reveal themselves. Nothing to be worried about at this moment.”

Gavin scoffed. “In other words, whatever it is will come back around to fuck shit up later.”

The witch let out a cackle and just said, “Let’s head upstairs.”

Foxx looked up, cocking his head. “The heartbeats are gone. On the floor above, that is.”

Harlow listened and heard nothing except them. “Guess they decided to gather in one place. How nice of them to make it easy for us.”

“Want me to restart the music?” Gavin asked.

“Nope! Making sure we hear the possibly genetically modified human’s move is more important,” the vampire said, before enthusiastically pointing towards the ceiling and chiming, “Upward!”