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T ell…Daydric… Nooo… No, no, no, no. That would be a no from Foxx on telling Daydric anything at the moment.

“I…” He hesitated and then lied. “I’m not sure it’s the right time yet.”

His friend rolled his eyes. “No, what you’re not sure of is what he’ll do once you tell him.”

No, it was more that Foxx knew exactly what he’d do…

“I’m surprised you didn’t tell him.”

Alastair shrugged. “I thought about it. But I knew you would be mad if I had.”

“I would have.”

“And I also knew Daydric would have likely just eliminated Harlow before things became a bigger problem. Which would have made you sad.”

“He would’ve, and I would have been sad.”

“Well, while we can’t be sure what Daydric will do now, the time for him to just eliminate the problem has long passed. Regardless of if they haven’t done anything yet, the council no doubt knows.”

“It's so nice to be referred to as ‘the problem’,” Harlow snorted.

“There are worse things I could call you, dhampir,” Alastair sneered.

Foxx was the one rolling his eyes now. “Be nice.”

Alastair gave a sarcastic wave of his hand. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll be ‘nice’. You, however, need to be careful.”

“I am being careful. We are being careful. I’m just tired of staying home all the time. And our job will be starting up any day now, so being careful won’t really be an option much longer. As for Daydric…he will find out when the council makes their move.”

“Right…then it really will be too late for him to just off the fucker,” Alastair grumbled. “You stress me out, you know that? Like, can’t you go even a single decade without causing some sort of chaos?”

Foxx giggled as he flopped over and cuddled into the man. “Would I be me without my chaos?”

The man’s arms came around him. “I suppose not.”

Harlow chuckled. “So, this isn’t his first calamity.”

Alastair snorted. “Not by a long shot. Speaking of calamity, what exactly is going on right now that means I need to stay inside? I understand it has something to do with that weird fanatic who appeared on the news, and those vampire attacks, but… That man, or rather, that group, doesn’t really…have something to do with why those vampires were killing everyone, do they?”

Foxx hesitated and pushed away from his hold, sitting back. “Maybe…you should get out of the country… Stay with Daydric for a while.”

“What is going on, Foxx?”

“That man on the news is angry with Harlow. I’m worried that you’ll be drawn into it. Though I think that attack was random. It’s just better if you stay inside, or get out of the country right now.”

“Of course the fanatic is angry at Harlow, as you definitely needed more bloody danger in your lives right now,” Alastair said sarcastically.

“Foxx…you need to watch how much you tell him,” Harlow warned.

“We can trust him. While he couldn't give a fuck about you dying, he wouldn’t endanger himself or my kind.”

The dhampir sighed and waved him on.

He eyed Alastair, who was looking confused. “You see…”

Foxx explained more than the news had shared, confiding in him about what only three others knew.

“By the Goddess… What a nightmare,” Alastair rasped. The vampire fiddled with the neck of his jumper. “I’ll…stay home. I won’t go to Daydric… I can’t. You know I’m bad at lying to him. While I can keep safe what you’ve told me about this…Maverick, as I can just say it's related to your job…that won’t work with the other issue. If he asks me about you, even about how you are…he’ll know I’m holding something back. And while he won’t force it out of me…my reluctance would just send him right to you.”

Foxx grimaced. “You’re right… But…I’d rather you not be at risk… Maybe… You have connections with his other siblings… Maybe go to one of them.”

While Foxx hadn’t really gotten involved with Daydric’s siblings, Alastair had. He’d have suggested just getting out of the country…but Foxx wasn’t sure how widespread this group was. What if they were in other countries too, and had just decided to start here first?

“If it gets bad, I’ll go to Daydric. Beyond that, I can just promise that I’ll stay inside and be as careful as I can be. Daydric won’t question me coming if things get bad here in the States. And by that point, any question about how you are, I could excuse away with you being a hunter and possibly being in danger.”

“But…”

“Foxx, if you think me going to him and holding back would make him suspicious enough to show up at your door, then me staying with one of his siblings would have him poofing inside your apartment without a knock,” Alastair stated. “I have connections to them, yes, but we are not close enough for me to just show up at their homes with no questions asked. Or without them blabbing to Daydric that I am there. In fact, a few of them would likely call him the second I am out of sight.”

Foxx sighed. He couldn’t argue because…he didn’t know the siblings well enough to refute any of what Alastair was saying. “Fine…just stay safe.” He went to say more but Harlow’s phone started to go off.

The song My Boy Lollipop started filling the room, coming out louder and clearer than ever before, now that the man no longer had a phone from the last decade. On informing the office about Harlow’s new phone…Charity had requested that Foxx make it her ringtone…

The human had somehow talked him into it. Just one too many ‘sweeties’, ‘sunshine’, and compliments, and he had somehow fallen prey to her whims. Charity seemed to have figured out the right buttons to push to get him to do whatever she wanted… Foxx wasn’t sure if he should be concerned by that or not.

Harlow pulled his phone out of his jacket and…slowly slid his finger across the screen.

Foxx sighed. He probably should change the way the man could answer… They’d likely be at risk of missing calls if he didn’t.

Holding it to his ear, Harlow said, “What is it, Charity?”

He didn’t bother putting the phone on speaker, as they could both hear it at normal volume anyway. At the same time…Charity didn’t need to possibly hear Alastair.

“Hello to you too, bumble bee. It’s time to get back to work. But luckily, you get to stay in the state. I have a nest for you to take out in Morison, which is only about an hour and a half away. So, not too far, but warning, it’s a large group. And…” Charity hesitated.

“What? What is it?”

She sighed. “That last big attack has set tensions high. I haven’t mentioned it, but there have been a few cases where we’ve had to deal with humans trying to ‘help’. In this case, you have a police barricade keeping back an angry mob.”

Harlow looked over to Foxx. Foxx mouthed, ‘mob’?

“What a fucking mess. What did they do? Also, I thought we were supposed to stay away when humans are involved.”

“They aren’t involved ,” she snapped, before grumbling, “they are just stupidly risking their lives in some self-righteous bullshit.”

“I’m surprised the nest hasn’t attacked. They should have noticed they are being cornered.”

“Oh, they have. But Tony managed to enlist the help of a werewolf pack about thirty minutes out. I believe you both know them.”

Morison…that’s in the same direction as… “Santiago’s pack is involved?”

“Correct, bumble bee. And they have so far managed to keep them back without killing. And as I’d rather they not have to deal with the fallout that would come with killing one of these biters, I need you two to get there as quickly as possible. Because death warrants in place or not, they are not hunters, and they do not have the protections you two do.”

Yep…because warrants or not…if Santiago or his wolves ended up killing one of the vampires, there would be a trial. And they all knew it would put whatever wolf involved at risk from human fanatics. “We’ll set off now.”

“Good…but like I said…hurry… As again, the vampires are not the only problem. While the werewolves are keeping the vampires back…it doesn’t seem to connect in these pea-sized brain-dead humans that attacking the werewolves, who are the only thing standing between them and the murderous vampires, is beyond idiotic,” she hissed, her voice rising in pitch with each stress-filled word. Charity then took a deep breath in and out, and continued a bit more calmly. “It’s a mess, okay. The town is small and full of churches. I think you can catch my drift on what their sentiment towards paranormals was before all this shit went down. So, watch your asses, don’t kill any dumb humans, and yeah, take care of the problem. Just try to calm things down.”

“I’ll handle it…” He ended the call. It took him a few tries to actually get it to disconnect, but he did it. Fucking technology… Wait…only thirty minutes away…

“So, it’s not just Maverick we have to worry about,” Alastair sighed.

His vampire grimaced. “He knew what he was doing when he poisoned those people.”

“If Santiago’s pack is only thirty minutes away, that means…”

Foxx smiled. “That means the cabin is only thirty minutes away!”

“Day trip?” Harlow suggested.

“Day trip!” The vampire giggled.

Harlow grinned, and clicked on the globe on his screen, knowing it was the browser. Slowly, he typed in West Gally… His grin grew as he read a list of current events. “There’s a craft festival currently going on through Monday. So, five possible days to go still.”

“Really?!” Foxx beamed. “Oh, look at you, Mr. Technology! Using your internet! I’m so proud!”

He snorted, rolling his eyes at being praised for such a ridiculous thing. “I’ve been practicing. And yes, really, a wood carving festival. It goes until midnight tonight, and it’s just now 2:30. By the time we are done, it should still be running.”

“OHHH! We can just wipe them out, go shower at the cabin, and then head straight to it!”

“You two are really just talking about killing people and having fun in the same breath,” Alastair said, sounding slightly disgusted.

Foxx huffed. “Well, we have to plan out dates when we can, between our job, the psychologist appointments, and waiting for the council’s slow ass to show up!”

The vampire’s eyes widened. “Psychologist?!” the man cried. “You are actually seeing someone?!”

“Well…sort of… We’ve only seen him once so far… And really, he’s Harlow’s psychologist… I was just…pulled into it.” Foxx started to glare at the other vampire, who now had a bright ass smile on his face. “DO YOU HAVE TO LOOK SO BLOODY HAPPY ABOUT IT?!”

“How can I not be?! I’ve been trying to get you to see someone since the beginning of their profession!” Alastair laughed. “Harlow Blackmore, you know, maybe you aren’t that bad. I mean, I still don’t like you, but…you definitely pulled off a miracle.” The man stood and picked up his puppy, who had settled in the middle of the floor after having found a sock to chew on. “Well, you two have fun killing…and at your festival. I’ll get out of your way.”