Page 8

W ith Harlow right behind him, Foxx stepped out of the back door of the Guild, not bothering to zip his face shield in place as the sun had set thirty minutes ago. Hours had gone by, and Foxx was honestly just…tired. Both physically and mentally. Tired and angry—the latter growing, just as the dried, crusted blood on his hands had.

Only a few feet away from the building, laid out in what felt like an endless row, were body bags, and not a single one was empty. Past that horrifying line, the police had set up a few tents, where they had been making records of all that had happened, and who had been found, while trying to keep the efforts organized.

About twenty feet away from the tents was a barrier created by wooden barricades. Officers looking grim stood in front of the large crowd that was pressing against it, as many yelled names and demanded answers. Some though… Some just sat on the ground, wailing as if their hearts were breaking. It's likely they were. Because none of the people were reporters, just families trying to find out what was going on.

Foxx couldn’t help but be grateful that the police had set up another barrier a quarter of a mile back, thankfully keeping the fucking parasites away. For hunters, privacy was everything, even in death.

Walking to the right, Harlow’s arm slipped around his waist as they went. Even though Foxx knew he shouldn’t, he still found himself counting as he passed the bodies. He didn’t need to, though. He had a list all typed up on his phone. First names, last names…he knew every single one, and now, every face that they belonged to.

When his nose caught Charity’s familiar scent, he didn’t stop or react. Foxx was pretty sure he was out of tears to cry at the moment. The overload of loss was making him feel oddly numb to the pain, even though his anger burned bright.

The one thing he didn’t dare to do was to look towards the line of people once the cover of the police tents fell away. A glance was fine, but peering closely…that he couldn’t do. As numb as he was feeling, Foxx didn’t think the cold wall he’d built would withstand the face of their tears and despair. He heard it well enough. He didn’t need to add their faces to his memory.

“Foxx! FOXX!”

His head snapped in the direction of the barricade, his eyes widening as he came to a stop on spotting Alastair standing there with tears in his eyes, holding his puppy. Snowball appeared to be sleeping. And it looked as if his friend had been, or had been about to sleep before likely having Daydric poof his ass there, as the man wasn’t fully dressed.

While he had on a navy-blue turtleneck jumper, his trousers were light-blue pajama bottoms, and on his feet were matching slippers. His asymmetrical dark-brown curls were looking a bit flat, like the man had run his fingers through them again and again.

The vampire tried to cross the barrier, but an officer stopped him. “You don’t understand, I know him!” Alastair hissed angrily.

“Wasn’t he with Daydric?” Harlow drawled slowly.

“He was…” Foxx hesitated for a moment before yelling, “Let him back!”

“Foxx…”

“Well, it’s not like he has a ride, or a magical vampire waiting around to take him back. Daydric wouldn’t have stuck around any longer than it would have taken him to let Alastair go. Too many people, and…police.”

The dhampir sighed. “Fair enough.”

When the officer he’d instructed to move didn’t appear to be intending to listen, Foxx snapped, “Until we leave, the scene is still under our control. Let him back!” He may have already used what was technically Harlow’s authority quite a few times before this.

The human eyed him with irritation, before nodding and dragging the barricade out of the way for the vampire to slip past.

With tears still trailing down his face, Alastair rushed over, but instead of letting the man fuss, he looped his arm through his friend’s and dragged him along with them. The other vampire, thankfully, remained quiet, even though his gaze seemed glued to Foxx.

Alastair didn’t say a word until they were both settled in the backseat after they’d set the sleeping puppy in the front seat next to Harlow.

His friend’s eyes trailed over him, a soft sob slipping out of the man as Alastair’s shaking hands hovered over him. “Oh, my baby. Oh…are you okay?!” Alastair cried when his hand finally made contact, cupping his face.

Smiling sadly, Foxx gripped one of the man’s hands as he listened to Harlow start the car and pull out onto the road. “I’m fine. I promise. We weren’t here when it happened.”

“Thank the Goddess,” the man sniffed.

“I’m sorry I didn’t answer my phone, but…”

“No, no.” Alastair shook his head. “It’s fine. I g-get it. You had to help them.” The vampire ran his thumb lightly beneath one of his eyes. “You’ve been crying.”

Foxx swallowed hard. “We lost…a lot of people.” He swallowed again as, beyond belief, he felt tears try to flood forward. “Alastair…we lost Charity… I tried to—ah—I tried to change her. But…” A tear broke free. “I don’t know if I-I did something wrong, but it didn’t work, so she died.”

As much as he tried to stop them, the tears kept coming, and he burst into sobs when he finished admitting that he’d failed.

Alastair started to wipe them away, his friend’s touch remaining gentle. “Foxx, Baby, there is no doing it wrong. If it didn’t work, it means it was too late already.”

“B-but m-maybe if we had been there when it happened, I c-could have saved her! Or if I was there s-sooner—AH!” The grief that he’d tried so hard to bury earlier that day broke free, his heart clenching hard enough that he was sure it had finally broken in two as the pain washed over him.

Sobbing hard, he clung to Alastair when the man pulled him into his arms.

Harlow’s head felt like someone was slamming a hammer against it, but the throbbing did nothing to dampen the cold rage inside him that was currently content to just grow and wait until it could finally be let out. And grow it did as he drove silently down the road while listening to Foxx break down again.

Alastair was murmuring softly to the man. The words weren’t registering, even though each one set his nerves on edge.

Everything was too loud, and had been for hours. At least it wasn’t too overwhelming at the moment. He couldn’t say he’d appreciated the random flashback that had happened earlier. One minute, he’d been trying to hide his disgust as he listened to a barely injured man pathetically scream and plead with Foxx to save him while the vampire tried to free him, and the next, he’d been back in that fucking ranch-style house, tearing people apart. He remembered a bit more of the night, but recalling how he tore some vampires apart wasn’t exactly a useful memory to fucking have.

Harlow really just wanted to go home and hold Foxx, while lying to him that everything would be okay, just as Foxx had lied to so many as they’d taken their last breath. Then he just wanted to sit there silently comforting the man. He also wanted to murder people, but that was a separate emotion.

Unfortunately, as their current assignment was not even close to being done, Harlow could neither go home nor murder. And even when the job was complete, there would be no relaxing, both of them knew that, but at least there would eventually be murder.

“Where are you going?!” Alastair suddenly snapped. “Last time I checked, our apartments are in the opposite direction!”

Foxx took a shuddered breath. “We are going to First Mercy Hospital… We h-have to report to our director.”

“What?!” the other vampire hissed. “Fuck that! Harlow, you rank bastard, turn the bloody car around! Foxx needs to go home and be comforted and cuddled!”

Harlow ignored the man, deciding now was not the time to argue with Foxx’s best friend, particularly when his brat was upset.

“Alastair, it’s our job. I know you are trying to look out for me, but this is our job. Tony was injured. We have to give him our report.” Foxx took a deep breath in and slowly let it out. “We have a list of deaths…and turns…and injuries. We need to check on those in the hospital and then report in. Tony left us in charge.”

Alastair let out an irritated hiss, before huffing, “Fine! But I’m coming too.”

Where else would the man go? “Technically, he put me in charge. You are just in charge of making sure I don’t murder anyone that pisses me off.”

He smiled as Foxx snorted, knowing the sound well enough to be sure that he had just successfully distracted the vampire from his sadness.

“And at that job, I have excelled, as you haven’t killed yet!”

Harlow chuckled. “You punched the Fire Chief in the face.”

“Well, the piss baby looked at me funny!” Foxx lied.

The human hadn’t looked at Foxx at all. But then, the man was lucky the vampire had held back, because as far as Harlow was concerned, they both wanted the fucker dead. Ahh, how hard it must have been for his brat to hold back in that moment, when he’d likely been thinking of the delays the man had caused.