61. Elowen

S taring into the bright lights, as they cut off, Foxx blinked away the floaters.

He eyed the two people who started to approach, and could only assume that they were hunters. The human woman was, he'd say, near Harlow's age. With blonde hair with strains of white throughout set in a thick long braid, the woman had warm brown eyes, and a beaming smile. The lines on her face suggested she smiled more than not. More importantly, the human was wearing a super cute jumper, paired with light blue skinny jeans and brown boots.

Said jumper was a very pale peach color with bishop sleeves. Like there was some obvious puff before they came in at the wrist, and the cuffs even had stitches and a bow. The style alone was cute, but add in the repeated fuzzy, raised textured peaches, shaped like hearts, and the entire thing just came together in an adorable array of something…he needed.

Her vampire partner, on the other hand…looked like he had raided Harlow's closet… Well, minus the cute little spots of love that he had just the other day finished stitching on to all of the dhampir's clothes.

Oddly, the stylish older woman was staring at Harlow with familiarity. Not so oddly, her vampire partner was looking at the dhampir as if he had a second head. A look Foxx was sure he shared when he glanced up at Harlow and found an odd smile on his face.

While the man had various types of smiles…the one thing they all had in common was there was always this hint of smugness. That smugness…was gone right now. Even his eyes seemed softer…different. It was…bloody scary, to be honest.

"So…Tony hadn't been fucking with me when he said you were no longer human, huh?" the woman said with an affectionate smile, her words sounding sympathetic.

"Afraid not, Elowen. Believe it or not, I was done in by a damn tranq dart and that fucker, Micah," Harlow said brightly, that odd smile growing as he shrugged. "Just turned out that I was never human to begin with."

The name Elowen would have piqued his interest, as Harlow had mentioned her name before when talking to Tony…but…the weirdness of what was going on was just too distracting. Foxx stared at Harlow, wondering who the fuck was standing next to him because it certainly wasn't his boyfriend. His eyes slipped back to the woman, and he couldn't help but stare at her jumper…

He wanted it… He wanted it so badly.

"That disgusting son of…" Elowen grimaced, tsking. "It's a fucking tragedy that the bastard managed to survive as long as he did. That motherfucker is dead now, right?"

"Very dead," Harlow confirmed.

Her gaze did a sweep over the man. "Well, I suppose there was always something not human about you." Elowen snickered. "Either way, I'm glad you lived through it, in whatever capacity that is. There's not many of us left… At least, not if we exclude the ignorant bigots who started this shit."

Foxx popped up between them. "Hi! I'm Foxx! I just have to say, I love your jumper. Where did you get it? Can't say I've ever seen one like it. And I—" He glared as a hand came down over his mouth.

"Sorry, he's chatty," Harlow drawled.

The vampire who hadn't said a word before stuttered. "You're…you're?—"

Foxx batted the dhampir's hand away. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's a dhampir. So special, so surprising, soo formally forbidden. Moving on!" He smiled up at the woman cutely. "Can I get your number?"

"Foxx?!" Harlow growled, soundly slightly more like himself.

"What?! I like her clothes!"

Elowen giggled. "You got paired with a chatterbox, I see. Nice to meet you, Foxx. I'm Elowen Hawke. Me and this big lug you've been paired with go way back. As for my number, it's…" Foxx pulled out his phone and typed in the number she rattled off.

The woman smiled. "Now, I'm sure you two have better things to do than talk to us, and we are here, I'm guessing, to pick up that piece of shit on the ground behind you."

"Pick up away!" Foxx chimed.

Harlow kept the fake smile on his face as he eyed the pair.

When the vampire kept standing there, staring at him, Elowen looked at her partner and snapped, "Well, go get him, Vern. You might as well fucking work since you are intent on standing there like you've lost what little brains you have left."

Vern cleared his throat, and with his eyes never leaving Harlow, the man made a wide berth around them to get to the downed human.

The woman tsked, shaking her head as she watched her partner carry the man past them, again making another wide berth. "Sorry about that. But it was good seeing you, Harlow. Maybe we can sit down and have a meal when the world is less on fire."

The smile that slipped onto his face was more genuine than it had been since she showed up. "Sounds good, Elowen. I'd liked to catch up. Just drop me a call, my number's the same."

"I'll do that. That cutie beside you is welcome to come as well." She turned to leave, but paused and turned back, a smile on her face as she said, "You know, I always had a feeling you were into men. I even made a bet with Gabe about it." The smile dimmed a little, sadness creeping in. "Fucker owes me twenty… Though, I guess if I want it, I'd have to dig him up."

"A waste of sweat, if you ask me. The bastard would definitely find a way to dig himself deeper to get away from you."

She let out a surprised bark of laughter. "That he would. That he would… See you, Harlow." Elowen spun around and left.

Harlow maintained the fake smile until the car was out of sight, and then he slowly turned towards the person who'd been staring at him silently through the tail end of the conversation.

"Need something?" he asked Foxx with a raised brow.

The vampire crossed his arms, his eyes trailing over him. "What was that?"

Harlow smirked. "Congrats, Foxx. You just got to witness me faking being normal."

"I'm not going to lie, it was kind of creepy. Next question, why did you fake being normal?"

"Simple. Because back then, she made a big ass meal for anyone who went on a hunt with her and her partner. After just one taste, making sure she liked me became a necessity."

Foxx snorted. "Faking it for food. I thought you said you didn't do many joint hunts."

"Damn right, I did. Best fucking brisket I've ever had. And we didn't, which is why the liking part was important. Because while she would grudgingly feed anyone after a hunt, she and her partner would invite those they liked over anytime they happened to be in the same area."

"Ah, and no one ratted you out?"

Harlow chuckled. "I got some stares, but those nutjobs had their own shit to worry about."

"Think she'll feed us after this? She did say she wanted to eat with us."

"Ah…I don't know. Her partner and husband, Gabe…who we mentioned earlier, died in a hunt gone wrong, right before paranormals were exposed. She stepped back from hunting at the time, and I honestly haven't seen much of her since then. This may actually be the first time in years. I didn't even know she was hunting again."

Foxx's nose wrinkled. "Didn't think to visit her after her loss?"

He had, it was just… "I did…a few times. But the thing about faking being normal is that you have to know how to express those emotions to be able to fake them. After too many close calls, I figured it would be better if I stopped before I hurt the woman. Better I hurt her by not showing up then hurt her by revealing I didn't actually care or understand. Because as much as I respected both of them as hunters, I felt little at his death, beside possibly anger at the person who caused it. Not exactly an emotion she needed at that time."

Even though he'd always faked part of himself around them…he had been closer to Gabe and Elowen than the Youngs.

When Harlow had found out about Gabe's death…he had thought that maybe he would feel something. But he hadn't. And as he watched Elowen cry, without even a twinge of any sort of emotion triggering, it had slid home in his head just how little he felt for those around him. And with no clue what to say, or how to even fake the emotions that would help, Harlow quickly realized that he couldn't keep going over.

While he hadn't just cut her off, Harlow had gradually pulled away. Fast enough that he got out before she noticed just how off he was, but slow enough that he at least hoped she hadn't felt the loss. There were luckily still plenty of people able to help her. Like Tony.

"Someone caused it?"

"Part of the blame is on Jake Dunt, but the real person at fault was…Maverick," he ground out.

"So, was this before or after you shot him in the back?"

Harlow smirked at the memory. "Before. It may have been what pissed me off enough to shoot him. I will say, that year, she happened to send me a nice ass Chr—" He cut off on realizing that was not a word he should say.

"What?" Foxx asked, a smile on his face.

"Nothing!"

The vampire laughed. "No, what? What did you get?"

He winced. "A…Christmas basket…"

As if his joy had been stomped on, Foxx's smile dropped. "She's Christian? Wait…she's not catholic, is she?!"

"She's an atheist… Elowen just uses any holiday as an excuse to cook. Anyway…what was with you asking for her number?"

Foxx pursed his lips and said, "I want her jumper."

"As if you need more."

"I NEED IT!" Foxx hissed, his eyes narrowing. "And with as many jumpers as I ruin on hunts, not to mention ones that you destroy, I need all that I can get my hands on!"

"Of course you do." He rolled his eyes. "Come on, let's get back to wandering around."