F oxx took a deep breath before clicking on the secure video chat that Gavin had set up for them, calling Tony.

“I’m sorry,” Gavin rasped.

He glanced up at the man with a frown, the dragon looked grim.

“I’m sorry that I failed to find him in time.”

Foxx smiled. “You did all that you could. You’re the whole reason we had any chance of finding him at all.”

The dhampir lightly punched Gavin’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Kid,” Harlow grunted, sounding uncomfortable.

They went silent as the call connected. Foxx frowned when he saw Tony sitting, with Oceana standing to his right, and a man who was clearly Santiago to his left, though the werewolf’s head was out of view.

But their presence wasn’t what had him frowning. What had him worried was how pale the human’s deep-brown skin looked. Was that a sheen of sweat on his brow?

Tony cleared his throat, his voice sounding as strained as it had on the phone earlier when he spoke. “I’ve called everyone here because we’ve received a video from Maverick, and you all are either involved in searching for, or have requested updates on, Iggy Leighton. I have not watched the video yet, as I figured it would be better for everyone to see it at once.”

But then, Tony didn’t do anything. Foxx’s concern grew as the man seemed to start breathing heavier. “Tony?” he pressed gently.

The human blinked. “Oceana, could you…press play? ”

“Of course,” she rasped.

He heard a key being pressed, before the three disappeared and the screen filled with a video that looked to be shot in some sort of warehouse. Iggy stared into the camera, smiling, but his eyes were enraged. Bound by rope, the human was clearly exhausted as well.

“Why is his hair white?” Harlow asked.

Foxx didn’t answer, nor did anyone else, as a man off screen, who was clearly Maverick, started to speak.

“ I want you all to understand, but especially you, Tony, that what is about to happen to Ignatius is your fault. You think I don’t know that you purposely twisted his mind against me? That you kept him away from me when you shouldn’t have ?”

Kept…away? Foxx felt like he was missing part of this conversation.

“ You knew he was meant to follow me, so you purposely KEPT him away when you had no RIGHT !” the man ranted.

“ Oh, fuck off!” Iggy snapped. “ ‘No right’?! ‘Kept me away’!? I was a fucking child, you Looney Tune! It was sort of the obvious option to keep me out of sight and away from the deranged, psychopathic, homicidal, bigoted nutjob who seemed to be fixated on my underage ass! Which, by the way, I'm still judging whoever the fuck bad touched me and removed all my damn body piercings !”

Foxx’s brow rose slightly as he heard a growl that he thought may have been from Santiago.

“ I removed the things that made you unpure !”

And just hearing those words, Foxx now also felt bad touched. It fucking reminded him so much of the sanctimonious bullshit that the priest who bloody raped him went on about.

“ Yep, I now feel even fucking worse knowing it was you, you creepy bastard. And you know what, Maverick, that’s what you have always been to me. A creepy fucking man who I wanted to stay far the fuck away from me!

“Like, how many hints do I have to drop until you finally fucking get that I don’t like you. I don’t trust you. I don’t even want you near me, let alone touching me!

“Get this through your thick fucking skull, asshole. I will never agree to anything you are doing. I will never take a single order from you. And I will never fucking forgive you for murdering so many of the people I worked with, and for taking away my only chance to say goodbye to them, while fucking taunting me with it!

“So, with all of my hatred for you, let me tell you now that I will NEVER join your stupid, brainless, useless death cult . A cult that I have, in the weeks since I’ve been here, taken unending joy in hearing about the destruction of, as you ranted on about Harlow and Foxx fucking up your men. And boy do I smile knowing those two crazy assholes made it hurt!”

They had. They had made it hurt…

Maverick growled. “ My kind treatment of you thus far has made you grow foolishly bold, Ignatius .”

“It’s fucking Iggy, you dick! Speaking of, oh yeah, I like dick. In fact, I was fucked by a werewolf the very day you took me ! Still felt it for days after, while you ranted on about your psycho shit.”

“ Tony has really allowed you to sully yourself, ” the man hissed. “ But then, he let you fail so badly when it came to firearms, so I shouldn’t be surprised by this.”

“ Tony didn’t allow me to do anything! I’m a fucking person. Not a thing to be controlled! And Tony, wherever he is, knows that whatever happens to me, it’s not his fault.” The man’s gaze grew intense. “ Tony, if you see this, it is not your fault. You know that, right? Don’t you dare take a shred of blame, you hear me?!”

Maverick started to laugh. “ You really think he cares? I bet he and all the rest were hoping they’d find you dead in the explosion. How many is it now, Ignatius? How many of your fellow hunters have you accidentally shot?”

Iggy smiled, and unlike at the start of the video, it reached his eyes. “ I’ve lost count. But I can tell you how many I shot on purpose.” The man’s smile widened. “ Just one .”

Maverick’s laughter cut off. “ What…? ”

“ That’s right, Maverick. It wasn’t an accident. I shot you on fucking purpose! Everyone else, yeah. But you, no. You, I aimed for. I was, of course, aiming for your head, but a shoulder was good enough at the time.”

“ You—” The angry words were cut off by this loud screech, like something metal had been ripped open.

Iggy’s eyes became wide as an animalistic roar broke the short silence, but then he threw his head back and began to laugh. The joyful sound continued right up until large claws entered the camera frame, raking across the human’s chest, as the blood spray blocked the camera.

As Iggy was lost in the frame, there was the sound of someone gasping, and then a thump.

Foxx’s heart skipped a beat in fear when Oceana cried out, “ Tony !”

Santiago heard nothing else in the room as his eyes and ears focused on all the video was giving him. His gaze narrowed at the loud screech, and the roar that followed. Santiago’s brow pulled, his eyes narrowing further as the claws he caught a glimpse of were blocked by a spray of blood.

On the video going dark, the sounds of the room came rushing back, him looking down to Tony in horror when he heard the human’s heart stop, right before the man slumped over on the desk.

“Tony!” Oceana cried, rushing to pull the human out of the chair and lay him down.

Santiago gently moved the already crying and trembling vampire out of the way, as she seemed to freeze, before dropping to his knees to begin chest compressions.

“Go see if anyone here is a trained paramedic, and call for an ambulance.” When she continued to stand there unmoving, he roared, “GO!”

She snapped out of her stupor, running away without a single word.

“ Tony?! Oceana! Santiago!? What’s going on?! ” Foxx cried.

“Busy!” he growled, not bothering to even glance at the screen.

Bending down, he plugged Tony’s nose and blew air into his mouth, before starting compressions again. “Come on, Tony. Come on, human. You’ve got people who need you!” he snapped .

Santiago kept going, counting the seconds as they ticked by and nothing happened, but then…finally, he heard something—a beat. It was barely there, and so very weak it could be lost again in a second, but as he kept going, it grew stronger.

“That’s it, that’s it. Now, breathe!” He blew into the man’s mouth again after the man’s pulse grew stronger still, jerking back when the human suddenly spasmed, gasping violently as his eyes snapped open again.

Tony stared, his breathing ragged. Tears flooded the human’s eyes, then instantly spilled over as the man started to sob.

Santiago winced the moment he heard Tony’s slow heartbeat begin to dangerously speed up again. “Tony, you need to calm down, or you are going to go into cardiac arrest again!”

The man shook his head, sobbing harder, his mouth opening but no words coming out.

“Tony, Iggy is alive!”

Tony’s cries of despair cut off abruptly, the older human now looking at him with fear, hope, and…distrust.

“D-don’t lie to me,” the man ground out.

“I’m not lying! I can’t explain it clearly, but I know he is alive. My instincts are telling me he is alive. My wolf is telling me he is.”

Tony stared silently before slowly nodding, more tears trailing down before he covered his face with his hands, crying softly now.

Santiago felt a touch of relief as he heard the man’s heart slow down to a much more normal pace. “That’s it, just relax. Help is coming.”

The man he recognized as the Police Chief of Houndside Hazard rushed in with two other men, holding what looked to be medic bags, Oceana right behind them.

“Fucking hell, Tony,” the Police Chief rasped, clearly shaken.

Santiago stood and moved back out of the way, letting them get to work. While she'd come back with them, Oceana hadn’t stepped past the door frame. She was just standing there with her hands clenched together, looking lost as tears ran down her face.

He slowly walked over and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. Oceana flinched, glancing up at him. The vampire’s gaze flicked to Tony, and then to the screen of the laptop that still sat on the desk facing them. But there was nothing to see, just empty, inky blackness now that the video had ended. When she finally pulled her gaze away to look back at him, her face crumbled. “Iggy,” she sobbed.

His grip on Oceana tightened as she seemed to sway on her feet. “Iggy is alive, I promise you.”

She blinked. “H-how?”

“You are just going to have to trust me for now.”

She nodded, but her tears didn’t slow. Santiago hesitantly pulled her into a hug, giving her a chance to pull away, but she came willingly, grasping on tight as she started to fall apart further.

Iggy was alive…that he was sure of. It would, however, be nice if his wolf and his instincts could clue him in to why exactly he knew that.