Page 62

F oxx didn’t slow or hesitate as he pushed past the doors at the top of the stairs. The room it opened up into was pitch black, but with his vision, it didn’t matter.

With the same metal walls and cement floors as below, the first floor of the warehouse had been turned into a living space. A bedroom and bathroom were across from the doors, a small kitchen in an alcove to the right, and a living room to the left, while in the center of the room there was a big fat nothing.

There was a lot of nothing. The furniture was pretty sparse throughout; a singular couch, one coffee table, a bed with no frame, or nightstands, just a trunk at the foot. The only thing that really stood out was the stack of crates—which were no doubt chemicals as they were covered in warning labels—in the corner near the couch. Oh, and also the bathroom, which was just a toilet that sat out in the open about five feet from the bed, with a free-standing shower right next to it. Privacy was not a problem here apparently.

There didn’t seem to be any lamps, but there was a wide metal walkway above, supported by metal beams. In a U-shape, it went along the right, left, and far wall, across from the one the door was on. Set back on that walkway was what looked to be large, almost people sized, spotlights—not that they were on—but someone was currently standing behind one of them.

There were only three heartbeats in the room—his slower one, Harlow’s, which currently sounded human, and lastly, the one belonging to the person standing in the shadows above. The heartbeat of the person above, that had to be Maverick, sounded human enough, even if it was oddly elevated—but then, who knew what the fucker was on.

Foxx drew in deeply, his nose wrinkling as he caught what must be Maverick’s scent. The man smelled a bit like dirt and licorice. Just this odd musty, or maybe dusty scent. The dustiness was so dry that it almost made him sneeze. For some reason, something about it bothered him, but Foxx couldn’t quite figure out what it was. He also felt like he had smelled it before.

The spotlight in front of the shadowy figure turned on, shining almost blindingly down at them, before the person stepped in front of it, casting a large shadow of the man on the wall at their back, in the otherwise still dark room. No longer hidden by the bulk of the light, he could see the man had thick muscles, dyed short blond hair, and a bad orange spray tan. In his black sweatpants, white tank top, and black combat boots, he also appeared unarmed.

“Did you kill him, my wolf?” Maverick asked slowly, his voice stiff and clearly upset at the prospect.

“No,” Harlow stated, sounding bored.

“What did you do to him then?”

Foxx smiled sweetly. “Why don’t you come down here and find out?”

Maverick growled. “I have a right to know! He is MINE!”

Yep, the video had made him feel all sort of ick for what Iggy had likely dealt with, and this was not making him feel any less.

The dhampir chuckled. “You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were attached to the lowly monstrous creature.”

“Don’t you dare lecture me, Harlow!” Maverick ground out, before suddenly laughing. “You're trying to anger me, but it won’t work. As long as what is mine is alive, I can find out myself later. Really, I shouldn’t be surprised that you don’t see what I see. You, someone whose mind was too simplistic to understand the complexities of the world we live in, down to the basic moral fibers of humanity, would never be able to comprehend just how miraculous Ignatius’ existence is. Then again, unlike Ignatius, who has far exceeded my expectations, you, Harlow, have only brought unending disappointment. ”

“Drats, my bad,” Harlow deadpanned.

Foxx giggled. “That’s all you are going to say after he called you stupid?”

The dhampir smirked at him. “It's hard to take it seriously when a moron calls me stupid.”

“You—” the man hissed. “Joke all you want, but you know it’s true! God, you had so much potential. Do you realize how hard it was for me, watching the plans I had put in place for you crumble?! Many were made before you betrayed me and shot me in the back, but even after, I held on to them! You were just too perfect for what I needed, this unfeeling, killing machine. And it would have WORKED! You would have been mine, just as Ignatius is, but you ruined it by being too unpredictable!”

“Eww,” Foxx blurted.

“W-what?!” the human sputtered.

“Just seriously, EWW!” Foxx huffed, waving toward the man. “All of that is just ew. Like, do you hear yourself?! I mean, I’m literally dating a psychopath, and am frankly not much more stable than him, yet you are managing to give me the creeps. Congrats, I guess.”

He pouted when Harlow chuckled and patted him on the head.

Maverick let out a rather impressive growl. “Silence! I do not care what you think of me, nor would I ever take the opinion of a depraved creature such as yourself into consideration.”

“Depraved?” He slowly smiled, the corners of his mouth twisting up cruelly rather than with joy. “Mmm, I sure am. Sadly, you haven’t even seen me at my worst yet, but no worries, you will.”

“Laughable,” the man scoffed. “Tell me, Harlow, was betraying humanity really worth the whore standing beside you? Was betraying me really worth some long dead corpse?! Was betraying God worth it?!”

“First of all, fuck humanity. Second, loyalty has to be involved for betrayal to happen, and there’s never been any between us. Third, I don’t give a fuck about your God. And fourth—actually, no, I’m not going to touch the corpse and whore comment. I will just hurt you for them later.” Harlow waved sarcastically. “Okay, feel free to carry on with your boring villain monologue now. ”

“You dare deny?—"

“Do we have to let him continue?” Foxx whined, cutting the man off. “It’s just all fake moralistic bullshit anyway!? Haven’t I been patient long enough? I want to hurt him!”

“I was?—"

“Is my brat getting impatient?” The dhampir chuckled.

“Yes,” he huffed with a pout.

“I WAS SPEAKING!” Maverick shouted, before raging, “Disappointment after disappointment, betrayal after betrayal! Lie all you want, Harlow, but YOU KNOW YOU BETRAYED ME! And everything that has happened up to this point is YOUR fault! If you would have just done as I needed you to, this world would have come to its knees, and rightfully elevated all of humanity to their righteous place! But no, you shot me in the BACK!

“WHY?! Why are you so hell bent on burning all I have accomplished to the ground?! What gave—” Foxx leaped upward. “—you the—” His fist slammed into the man’s stomach right as he landed inches from him, cutting the rant short.

“I feel you are putting way too much weight on his reasons for doing things,” Foxx drawled while the man doubled over in pain, despite him holding back. Well, he’d held back as much as he could towards someone he fucking hated.

“You weren’t even there!? What do you know?!” Maverick growled, his head jerking up sharply.

Foxx skipped backward with a giggle, his boots ringing against the metal walkway as he avoided the man’s hands.

But the smile dropped slowly, him frowning when he found himself having to move faster than he normally would expect to in order to avoid an attack from a human.

“I'm afraid he’s right,” Harlow said, sounding bored again, the dhampir still standing right where he’d left him. “Want to know your problem, Maverick? You made a decision about who I am, one that was always incorrect, but because of your inability to admit you’re wrong, you doubled down, while making the same damn mistakes over and over again.”

“And what mistake was that?!” Maverick snarled as he swung at Foxx .

Instead of stepping back, he caught one fist, and then the other, as Maverick tried and failed to pull away. While the man struggled, using more strength than any human should have, Foxx took another deep breath, drawing in the man’s scent as he called to his bloodline powers. With Maverick’s threads lit before his eyes, and all the pieces coming together in his mind, he smiled.

“Harlow, guess who’s not human?!” With a giggle, he tightened his grip around the paranormal’s fists and launched himself backwards, dragging the man over the edge with him, Maverick yelping in shock.

Midair, Foxx spun them around, causing the man to hit the ground before him. With a hard crack, Foxx landed with his knees first on Maverick’s ribs, drawing a scream from the man.

Grinning down at him viciously, while the fucker groaned and spat blood, he sneered. “So, was it you who changed Iggy, or some other werewolf you have stashed around here? I hope you know that fake human scent you coated your ass in doesn’t really work as well as you think.”

“I knew I smelled that scent somewhere before! Fucking hell, he’s a werewolf?!” Harlow started to laugh.

“Yep, I think I would have realized it sooner if I hadn’t been expecting someone human.”

He supposed expectations could really taint your view of the world. But there was no doubt in his mind now that he’d seen the man’s glowing blue threads. That dry dusty scent that made him want to sneeze was the sad attempts of scientists at large, helping others pretend to be human.

Truth be told, most humans had a slight dusty scent, even if it was largely unnoticeable, unless one was looking for it. Foxx’s best guess was it was just their dead skin cells accumulating. Most paranormals didn’t shed skin the same way humans did, due in part to many of them not aging as rapidly or at all. Either way, it was what helped his kind, and others, identify them as humans.

So, really, it was a good attempt, and the scientists had definitely gone in the right direction. Unfortunately, as he and Harlow discovered when trying to use it, in order to cover up a paranormal’s natural scent, one had to coat themselves in the substance. By the time it finally covered up what it needed to, the overall smell was off…

You wouldn’t smell like the paranormal you were, but you also wouldn’t exactly smell human, and would likely draw more attention to yourself. At least, more notice from other paranormals, or…possibly from humans who would know better, like hunters.

Maybe the reason they hadn’t run into any ex-hunters wasn’t because he was using them elsewhere, but because very few were actually working for Maverick?

The dhampir pulled Foxx up and away from the man, right before the werewolf jumped back to his feet with a snarl.

Harlow, seeming unworried by the possible threat, continued to laugh as he said, “Holy shit, that’s fucking hilarious!”

“Y-you,” the werewolf growled, his voice trembling with rage. “You dare to laugh?”

The man not only continued to laugh, he started laughing harder.

“STOP LAUGHING! ALL OF THIS IS YOUR FAULT! ALL OF IT! YOU STOLE MY HUMANITY FROM ME, YOU BASTARD!?!” Maverick roared as he lunged for the still laughing dhampir.

Santiago once again threw the other werewolf back, the man not tiring as he’d hoped. His little blue bird was stronger than he should be, among other worrying things. But this couldn’t go on any longer, he’d end up hurting him if it did.

Growling in frustration at all of the unanswered questions, Santiago leaped towards where the wolf was now trying to stand, seeming shaky on his feet. Not giving Iggy time to react, he grabbed one of the wolf’s wrists and dragged him up, slamming him against the wall. He easily pinned both of the young man’s arms down.

“Change!” he demanded, putting more power behind the word than he had the first time .

It didn’t work, just as it hadn’t before. He leaned his face away, avoiding the man’s teeth as he snarled and snapped his jaw at him.

Taking a deep breath, Santiago tried again, using all of the strength of his thousand plus years. “I demand that you change!”

When nothing happened again, he reached inside himself, drawing from the well of power that he’d inherited from his father, from the very lineage that all of his kind had come from. Bellowing in a booming voice, deeper and more guttural than normal, “CHANGE!”

As the building around them shook with the power he’d just released, Iggy went slack in his hold. Santiago scooped the now passed out man up as his form shrank, the fur rapidly drawing back to reveal his pale almost colorless skin.

Holding the smaller wolf against his chest with one arm, he lightly ran a hand through the man’s white hair, as he whispered, “Rest well, Blue Bird. I’ll keep you safe.”