3. Connections

T ony stared at the paperwork in his hands, trying to read the same damn sentence he'd been staring at for the last hour. His gaze flicked to his phone on his desk. Growling, he tossed the paperwork aside and just sat there glaring at it.

"Ring," he growled. "Ring, you piece of shit!"

Tony jumped when the thing buzzed against his desk, it finally ringing. He almost flung it in his attempt to pick it up at the sight of Foxx Honeywell on the screen.

Connecting the call, Foxx spoke before he got a chance to. "Harlow is alive, but I need you to come to my apartment now."

"What?!"

"Just come," the vampire replied stiffly, before the fucker hung up on him.

Tony sat there for a moment, before cursing vehemently as he got up. Grabbing his coat, he stormed out of his office.

The muscles in Harlow's back and arms seemed to spasm and tighten up while he shoved Micah in his trunk. It was odd, the man had seemed light, but…he felt like he'd just lifted something he fucking shouldn't have.

Grunting as he stretched, Harlow then, as gently as possible, shut the back, both because he didn't want to break his Jeep, but also because his head was throbbing enough. Even then, the clicking felt like fucking nails on a chalkboard to him.

The sound of crackling fire was loud behind them, the house well engulfed at this point. Though everything was pretty fucking loud to him at the moment. His footsteps, the wind blowing through the grass…fucking dumb ass bugs.

He eyed Foxx, who was on his phone typing away after ending his call with Tony. Just tap…tap…tapping away. Harlow's left eye started to twitch.

"What exactly is meeting up with Tony going to do? You mentioned something about registering?" he asked when Foxx slipped his phone back into his pocket, taking a few steps towards the driver's side.

He had his keys…as they had luckily found his leather jacket unharmed. They had not found any of his weapons, unfortunately, just a bunch of empty sheaths and his holster—which fucking sucked.

After cleaning off as much blood as he could without hunting down a shower, Harlow had changed into new clothes from the shit he had stored in his car… Foxx had changed too. There were definitely some benefits to having to-go bags at the ready.

Honestly, if he ignored the lack of thirst, how sharp and clear everything around him was, every single noise digging into his skull, his skin feeling like pricks of needles, and the odd muscle spasms that, now he thought about it, felt more like random bouts of weakness, he felt normal— so normal.

"Other side," Foxx said. The vampire had spoken softly, but he heard him loud and clear. He just didn't know what the fuck he was talking about.

He blinked. "What?"

"Go to the passenger's side. You are not driving. You felt it, right? Your muscles spasmed when you moved Micah."

"Yes?"

"Your body is adjusting to your new strength. Over the next week or two, you will be dealing with random muscle weakness, or sometimes total failure. I would prefer not to crash. To add on, while this is something newly turned vampires experience, as a dhampir, it likely will be worse. Because there is a greater gap between what your strength once was to what it will be now."

"Right…" He sighed and walked back the other way, around to the side. Getting in, once Foxx was situated in the driver's seat next to him, he asked, "Who were you texting, and once again, why Tony?"

"I was texting Tony the gate code, sending a notification to security that he will be coming without a pass, and telling a bullshit story to Charity. Just nonsense about you being kidnapped in front of me, me following, and well...that it led to us burning a house down. I asked her to please tell the fire department to leave it alone."

Yeah, the fire being put out would be a bad thing. The torn apart bodies would bring up way too many questions, even with them being hunters.

Harlow pulled his seatbelt on as Foxx did, wincing at the sound of the buckles clicking. "Right, so Tony?"

"So, as I said, the council actively eliminates your kind whenever they can. If they find out during the pregnancy stage, they will forcefully end it. Beyond that, the ones that managed to survive, if exposed early, they are, of course, executed. All except a few have managed to survive and thrive. Past a certain age, the council won't touch them. Well, it's more that they can't touch them without significant losses, as they are too strong to take down. And until recently, remaining hidden until reaching that age of untouchability was the only way for dhampirs to survive."

The council's out here killing infants, yet Harlow was supposedly the unstable one? Well…he was…but he was also not running around killing fucking babies, toddlers, and young children…

"So, what happened recently?"

"The Paranormal Existence Acknowledgement Registration happened," Foxx said slowly. "A few years back, a couple was able to register their child before the council found out, as the human had many connections in government. That registration put too many eyes on the child for the council to act. And there are a lot of eyes on any individual who registers under that species in PEAR. Because the human governments, at least those who deal with paranormals, know that your kind exists, and are aware, despite the council trying to hide it, of their policies towards dhampir.

"The key is…to be registered before the vampire council is made aware. They illegally monitor all applications. Which is why we need someone with connections who can have your application processed and fully registered without it ever making it into any digital system. Because the council will kill you before the registration goes through if they can."

"And that is where Tony comes into this. The man definitely does have connections."

"Exactly." Foxx turned on the car and started back down the drive.

"So, he gets me secretly registered and then, that's it?" Harlow asks, frowning. "The council didn't go after the couple at all?"

Foxx hesitated. "They were pissed, and they lobbied threats, but...in the end, they didn't touch either the couple or the child."

He didn't bother saying why they held back. It was better for Harlow to not know that the only reason the couple, and any vampire who helped them, didn't end up dead in place of the child, was because they were too connected. It was better to keep it to himself that the council would likely try to come for him. It wasn't like Foxx wasn't connected as well. He was... His connection to Daydric wasn't well known, but it existed. And it likely would be enough when the time came. Until then, he was going to do whatever it took to push the registration through. Foxx figured he could handle the council after that.

"There's one issue," Harlow drawled slowly.

His gaze flicked over to the man. "What?"

"I'm no longer human."

Foxx wrinkled his nose. "Harlow that is the whole fucking issue."

Harlow grimaced. "Foxx…we're hunters, partnered hunters, but I'm no longer human, while you are still very much a vampire."

His eyes widened as the point Harlow was trying to make clicked. "They...they wouldn't try to separate us, would they?"

The dhampir shrugged. "I honestly don't know. This partner thing is new. Hunters have lost partners already, but I don't think anyone has had their partner turned yet...until now, that is."

Foxx hissed. "One problem at a time."