40. A Call For Help

S ephira started to pour her tea, but froze when she felt a presence. Slowly setting the kettle down, she left the kitchen and headed straight to her front door. Without hesitation, or waiting for a knock, she opened it, smiling up at the handsome vampire standing on the other side.

"Daydric…it's been a long time, old friend."

"It has." The vampire smiled. "May I come in?"

"Of course, always." She back up and let him inside. "You have perfect timing, as always. I just brewed a pot of tea. Is Oolong, okay?"

"Sounds lovely, Phira," the man replied while he followed her back into her kitchen.

As Daydric pulled out a chair and took a seat at her wooden island, she quickly poured him a cup of tea and settled with her own in the seat next to his.

It honestly had been too long since she'd seen the ancient man.

Daydric lightly blew away the steam and took a sip, before setting his cup down. "You no longer live alone, I see."

She smiled. "Yes, I adopted a child."

"Congratulations. But…it's best to tell him to mind his manners. Eavesdropping would not be wise with the guests that could show up at your door."

Sephira tsked. "Swayer, if you don't get your butt back upstairs now…"

"What?! Can't I be curious that you have a non-gay man inside the house?!"

"Go," she said without even turning around.

"Fineee!" the teen whined in full teenager glory, before stomping away.

"Non-gay?" Daydric asked with a frown once Sawyer was upstairs.

"He thinks I need a man." Sephira rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, he can't hear us while upstairs. I have enough spells in place to ensure that."

"Is he…aware that you, yourself are gay?"

"My sexual orientation hasn't really come up, but it seems that conversation needs to happen soon. Now, you didn't come here for my life updates. Tell me, what has come to pass?"

Daydric chuckled. "As astute as always, madam."

Foxx wrinkled his nose, something was tickling it. Opening his eyes slowly, he giggled and brushed the feather away. On glancing out at the room…he winced. The small table and chairs that had sat in the corner were now laying in pieces, and the door to the room was open and barely standing. What was left of one of the down pillows that once sat on the bed was discarded on the floor. Feathers were everywhere…

Oh, they had made a mess. Foxx also vaguely remembered breaking more things along the way to the room. The kitchen table…some picture frames…the front door…

Well, at least…they hadn't broken anything that would be too much of a pain to fix… Unlike last time when Harlow broke part of the wall… A wall that was still broken, the last time he checked.

But as far as Foxx remembered, and could tell, in here at least, the pretty redwood walls were intact, the stone fireplace was all in one piece, the wood ceiling was fine, and while he couldn't see all of the floor, from what he could see, it looked a-okay.

Harlow grunted beside him, stretching before his arm came around Foxx, pulling him tighter against him. Foxx smiled.

"I'm going to have to buy sturdier furniture," Harlow grumbled softly.

He giggled.

At the sound of a phone going off, the dhampir groaned. "That's mine, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Do you have any clue where it's at?"

"Nope!" Foxx snickered.

Harlow sighed, and quickly unwound himself from around him before climbing out of bed. The man disappeared out of the room. Foxx crawled to the edge of the bed, eyeing the dhampir's taunt bare ass as he dug through a pile of clothes in the kitchen, at the other end of the hallway.

"Found it!" Harlow straightened with his phone and… "Fuck…" the man cursed, failing to answer it. "FUCK!" Harlow growled again.

Foxx did his best not to laugh. The phone had to be on the last ring by the time the dhampir finally managed to make it work.

"Fucking phone," Harlow grumbled and made his way back to bed.

"Harlow?" a deep voice asked, sounding confused. The voice being loud and clear told him that the dhampir had set it to speaker phone.

"Sorry…new phone. What's up, Santiago?" The dhampir sighed as he laid back in bed.

Foxx snuggled against the dhampir, slightly curious as to why the werewolf was calling Harlow. He didn't even know the wolf had his number.

"I need your help." Santiago sounded…grim. "Something has…" The man's voice broke, and there was a long pause before he tried again. "Something has occurred that I can't fully explain…but if it's related to what I think it is…the ramifications of it would be dire. I would have gone to your Guild, but I don't know who I can trust there besides you, and perhaps that boss of yours."

"Hey, I'm trustworthy too!" Foxx huffed.

Santiago let out a soft…yet…sad sounding laugh. "Sorry, vampire, I didn't realize he wasn't alone. I meant no offense."

"What do you need us to do?" Foxx asked. "And it will be us , as Harlow isn't going anywhere without me at this time. As in, he isn't allowed to."

Harlow snorted.

"Uh…I…" Santiago trailed off. The werewolf sounded absolutely bewildered.

"What he isn't saying is that I'm no longer human, Santiago. I'm guessing you missed that yesterday due to the crowd."

"Ah…"

"Well, what else would I have meant?" Foxx asked cheekily.

Harlow glared at him. Foxx stuck his tongue out. ‘Brat' the dhampir mouthed.

"Right. Can you two come here?" The man rattled off an address.

"How soon?" the dhampir asked.

"Now… Now would be best. When you get there…drive to the barn in the back."

"Okay, we'll be there soon," Foxx said.

"Thank you," Santiago replied softly, before hanging up.

"Well, that was weird," Foxx mused. "When did you get close to him?" He eyed the man.

"I didn't. But his pack did assist in helping to track you down. Well, they helped us track down the priests who took you, and pointed out which ones in the monastery I needed to torture for information."

Foxx's eyes widened. "They did?!"

"Yes. I called Santiago when I realized you were gone. Basically, hoping they could track you down, but…"

"It was windy that night, and…vampires aren't a species that werewolves can easily track," Foxx finished for him.

For some reason, his kind's scent wasn't one that werewolves could pick up easily. In fact, unless it was fresh, with little disturbance, they could barely track them at all. To other vampires though, and he supposed to dhampirs—based on Harlow's actions the day before—the trail was as strong as any other species they came across.

"Pretty much. But they did find the priests that were involved in taking you. Not where you were, but, it helped."

"Hmm, so you cashed in your favor."

"I did. They came and chose to see it through."

"Santiago is their Alpha, right?"

"I believe so. Not that I've heard them use any of those traditional terms while talking to each other."

Unlike in the romance novels Foxx sometimes perused, the terms Alpha and Beta for werewolves didn't actually have anything to do with birth, and were more just terms to easily identify the top person in the pack, along with their second in command. Though the leader, or Alpha, was usually the strongest in the pack, while the Beta was second strongest. As the stronger the leader, the stronger the pack, or something along those lines.

"I guess we should get going then," Foxx started to say, before cutting off on a cry as he remembered something. "What about the festival?!!"

Harlow chuckled. "It's on all day. We will still make it, brat."

He pouted. "I wonder if that small sculpture I wanted to buy is still there…"

The dhampir pulled them both up into a seated position. "Come on, brat. Let's get showered and get going, or we will miss your precious festival."

"You know…that lady took my money already, so like…shouldn't she have it on hold or something? I mean, she also saw me get kidnapped… Though…she did look pretty dazed at that moment…so she probably had been hypnotized…"

Harlow rolled his eyes. "You can ask her when we get there, after we see what Santiago wants."

Foxx sighed. "My sculpture…"