47. Sticky Fingers in a World of Hatred

I gnoring the burning pain, Harlow pulled Foxx into his arms. The vampire sniffled and buried his face against his chest, the man clutching the phone tightly in his hand.

The wails…reminded him of the sound Foxx had made in the hospital on waking up with that priest above him. Really it just brought back all of the times Foxx had lost all control of his fear and pain.

Those sounds, Foxx's cries and screams…had made him feel so much, yet…right now…Harlow felt nothing. These people's pain made him feel absolutely nothing. If he felt anything at all…it was worry, about how this was affecting Foxx. Which, well…he guessed if he was going to feel shit…at least it was priority driven. As in, he only felt shit for Foxx. He supposed it made catering to his emotions easier.

Honestly, if he felt as much as Foxx obviously did for mere strangers… Ugh…

Eventually, the wails grew distant, even if still present… Which probably meant that either Cardel had gone into a new room, or the other people had.

"I…" the werewolf started, his voice cracking.

Foxx jerked out of his hold, which pulled at Harlow's wounds. He winced while the vampire blurted out, "I'm sorry, I should have said that…in a better way."

"No… I…" Cardel cleared his throat. "You didn't know I wasn't alone. There is more you have to tell me, isn't there?"

"Ah, yes. We feel it's best that you and your pack stay where you are, and…play dead, for now. No phones, no outside contact, nothing. Because we believe…that the person responsible is targeting your pack. Santiago agreed, and he told us to call you because we have a secure line."

"I see. If that is what Santiago wants us to do…then we will. Thank you. Goodbye." The man hung up.

Foxx winced, just staring at his phone.

"Want me to call Tony?"

Sniffling, Foxx shook his head. "No, it's the last call… I might as well make it too."

"Okay." Harlow cleared his throat awkwardly. Accepting that he had emotions…for Foxx, didn't mean he was comfortable with emotions. "Do you need another hug first?"

"Yes," Foxx whimpered, his bottom lip wobbling.

He smiled hesitantly and opened his arms, again ignoring his pain. "Come here, brat."

Harlow groaned in agony when the vampire slammed into his chest, but hugged him anyway, because he was a good boyfriend. "There, there." He patted Foxx's back.

The vampire snorted as he pulled back. "Very comforting."

"I attempted, that should count for something," Harlow said with a smirk.

Sniffling, Foxx rolled his eyes at him, but there was a small smile on his face, so Harlow decided that meant he had been successful in his endeavors.

Smile still in place, the vampire called Tony.

The human answered before the second ring. "Reports came in about another attack, but with the odd addition that two people were seen running towards the danger. Noting the location is near your cabin, am I right to assume the problem has been taken care of, and that sending hunters would be a pointless endeavor?"

"Yes," Harlow stated blankly, before quickly summarizing everything, while leaving out why he was injured.

"It may work," Tony said slowly after hearing the plan for the pack to play dead. "Go get your back stitched up, feed, or eat something, as it will likely be a long wait, and then head to Santiago's pack lands. I'll have Charity send you a layout. Look around, see what you can find out. Figure out a likely entrance they will use to come in, and be prepared to stake it out for hours until the bastard shows up."

"Maybe you could send out the news early, and get whoever it is to come sooner?" Foxx suggested.

Tony grunted. "No… I doubt Maverick will send anyone at all if we do that. He'll assume the place will be crawling with people. This could be our only decent chance of snagging one of the bastards."

"If they report in about finding nothing before we find them, this plan will go to shit," Harlow pointed out.

"It's a risk we have to take."

"Santiago and his people are the ones taking the risk," Foxx grumbled.

"They are in hiding already. The only reason those six died was because they stayed. Whatever property the pack is currently staying at, it's not known by any of our channels. They will be safe for now. And once Doc figures out whatever the hell Maverick has cooked up…we will be able to get doses to them to hopefully prevent it from harming them in the future. Now, unless you have more to say, I'm hanging up."

"Ah…there is one more thing. I promised Santiago I'd have the ashes of the werewolves collected… Could you…" Foxx trailed off.

"Why in the hell would you promise that?" Tony asked, sounding baffled.

"Well, I did, so get it done! Because it is the right thing to do! And without Santiago, we wouldn't even have a chance to stop Maverick's plan for the werewolves!" Foxx snapped. "Cause here's a clue, I did see the latest news, and the bodies are gone again. You'd think I'm asking for a fucking miracle with the way you two are acting."

The human let out an irritated growl. "Fine! Don't burn anything. I'll send a damn team to take care of it! You burn them now and it'll all be fucking blown away by the time the clean-up crew gets there!"

The man hung up without another word. Foxx hmphed. "Is being considerate going to kill us?!"

"No, but Tony may try to," Harlow said with a snort.

Foxx sighed and looked around sadly. "Looking at cool wooden crafts was just not in the cards for me, it seems."

"Sorry, brat. But, hey." Harlow smirked and reached into one of his inner jacket pockets. "Look, I got those keychains you liked." He held out the two cat keychains.

Foxx stared, his face pinched. "You mean you stole the keychains I liked."

Harlow grimaced. "Not on purpose."

He had just pocketed them when the screaming started and they took off running. Can't really hold a fucking pack of keychains and two guns at the same time.

"Well, on purpose or not, we are going back and paying for those!" Foxx hissed.

He held his hands up, wincing as the movement caused him pain. "Fine, fine. Like I said, I didn't do it on purpose."

Though…he wasn't sure who'd be there to even take the payment. Harlow could only assume that the stall owner had run with everyone else.

Foxx grabbed the keychains from him and started to walk away, the man shaking his head.

"I really didn't mean to steal them," he said as he followed with a sigh.

"I wonder, do you keep your hands sticky, or are you just that quick a swiping shit?" Foxx asked sweetly.

"I admit to stealing one blood drawing kit, and suddenly I'm a klepto in your eyes?!"

"Considering how much shit you are able to pull out of your pockets, it's likely, yes!"

"I'm not a klepto! And that blood drawing kit was practically shoved at me. They literally harassed me the whole damn time I was there! Every time I passed that booth at that stupid fucking conference I got dragged into a motherfucking demonstration! EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME! I WAS THERE FOR SIX HOURS!" Harlow growled when Foxx didn't respond or turn around. The vampire, in fact, sped up. "Foxx! Did you hear me?! I am not a klepto! FOXX!"

"Can't hear you over my STOLEN KEYCHAINS, OLD MAN!"

Harlow sat as stiff as possible on the edge of the passenger's seat, trying to not feel. Fucking hell, back wounds were a bitch! He almost sighed in relief at the sight of the hospital.

"Ahh, fuck," Foxx hissed.

He frowned, glancing over to the brat, who he really wanted to spank after the bullshit with the keychains. Even if one of said keychains was now hanging off his damn keys. "What?"

"The attacks seem to have stirred up the protesters."

He glanced ahead, seeing what he missed the first time. Protesters with signs seemed to have completely surrounded the hospital, even blocking the entrance. Cops were already on the scene, two officers, one with gray hair and another with brown, and looked to be arguing with the mob.

Harlow took a deep breath in and out. "If they don't move, run them over."

"Yeah, a vampire running humans over, that will solve the problem," Foxx deadpanned.

He just growled in response.

Pulling to a stop right behind the cop car, Foxx said, "You stay here," as he hopped out.

Yeah…Harlow was SURE that a vampire showing up in a bright fucking blue bear sunsuit with clouds on it would somehow make shit better.

At least with his idea they'd get through.

Foxx, at the moment, was absolutely done with bigots. He had no tolerance left to give, and no fucks.

With the wails of anguish and loss still fresh in his mind, he marched around the police cruiser, while ignoring the glares of hatred and the signs wishing him death.

Blocking out the chants of ‘protect our people', ‘they don't belong here!' and ‘let the freaks heal themselves', he walked right up to the people blocking the entranceway and glared at the large brown-haired human who was arguing with the cops. "Shut your ignorant, bigoted, small-minded mouth, and move your small dick energy-ed ass out of my motherfucking way!" he hissed.

The officers spun around at his words, the older gray-haired one sputtering, "N-now…I understand you're upset…but?—"

"NO, you don't understand. None of you understand. None of you care. I just finished telling people that their relatives were murdered by humans because they had the audacity to be werewolves. Werewolves, mind you, who have lived in your community longer than any of you people, and frankly, those before you, have been alive, and who had never done a single bloody thing wrong to any one of you. You didn't have to hear the screams of pain. To hear those people's hearts shatter. So no, I won't be coddling any assholes today. And I don't care what you THINK you understand." His glare shifted from the officers, who now looked grim, to the still angry but now more hesitant faces of the humans. "You will MOVE out of my way, so my partner can be seen, so we can go do our damn job as hunters. Because, for some reason, we signed up to protect your ungrateful asses, even though you would rather us bleed out than step foot in your precious human hospitals.

"Now, let me be perfectly clear, I will have you all arrested for interfering with hunter business if you don't move. You two!" His gaze shifted back to the cops. "You should have arrested them already for blocking the entrance to emergency services. Either do your job, or I'll do it for you. And if you bigots wonder if I'm bluffing, ask the grand old townspeople of Morison how that turned out for them. I'm sure you'll have a fun time sitting beside each other in jail as you wait for your court dates."

The humans in front of him paled a bit. Apparently, going to jail for their cause hadn't been something they ever considered.

Harlow eyed Foxx as the vampire got back in and buckled up, before putting the Jeep into drive without saying a word.

"That's one way to move a crowd," he drawled, as they drove past the parted protesters, who were glaring but doing nothing.

"As long as it worked, right?" Foxx said stiffly.

Irritated with the man or not…he reached out and gripped Foxx's right hand. "I won't say everything is going to be okay, but we are at least going to be okay."

Not looking over, Foxx sniffed. "I hate the world sometimes."

Harlow smirked. "I hate the world all of the time."

The vampire let out a tired laugh, his gaze flicking over. A small smile slipped onto the man's face as he turned his hand over to grip his. "I love you…"

The words… As much as he wished he could say them…he couldn't yet…and maybe not ever… He just wasn't sure if love could describe the obsession he felt. "In a world that I hate, full of people who don't deserve to keep breathing, you are the one person who I'd sacrifice the world and myself for, regardless of whether it meant you'd live years longer or only a few seconds."

Despite not saying those three words back, Foxx's smile widened. Which could only mean that what he had said had been enough for now.