64. Good Job!

H arlow eyed the packed parking lot of the Houndside Hazard Hunters Guild. He'd been back once since his change, but on that occasion, not many people were there.

"Feels weird being here," Harlow mused as he pulled into one of the last few parking spots left. Part of him was hoping this wouldn't take long, so they could drive out to see the plots of land he'd been looking at…

Or was it too soon to do that? He'd gathered…from the man noting how quickly he'd come to his conclusion about their living situation, that he was…possibly…moving a little too fast…

But like, Foxx had said yes, so what was the point in delaying? It wasn't like the construction would go quickly, and who knew how fast land sold in the Inner Village… He'd looked over what was available, and to be honest, there wasn't much. Harlow had been lucky to find what he had. So it was best to look and buy the one they liked now, rather than risk losing it to some unknown asshole.

"Well, Charity had let us avoid the Guild until the news came out about dhampirs. And, besides that one time, we've been able to stay away while things settled. Wouldn't be good for one of the vampire hunters to attack you... because that had always been a possibility."

"Elowen's partner looked like he wanted to."

"I feel like he was more afraid of you over wanting to attack."

Harlow grunted. "Let's head in."

As they pushed inside, Jerry, the secretary, smiled widely on spotting them.

"Harlow, Foxx! I'm so happy to see you both." The human beamed. "I've got something for you two!"

He eyed the pink gift bag the man was holding up.

Foxx scurried over and peeked inside. "Cookies!" the vampire squealed excitedly. "Did we win the monthly cookie race?!"

"You more than did! I mean…without you two, no one would have been saved." Jerry held the bag out.

Harlow grabbed it. Peeking inside, his brow rose at how full it was. "There looks to be more than normal."

"I figured you two definitely deserve it after all the hell you've gone through the last few months…and well…the change, and…" Jerry sighed. "Well, just good job on everything!"

Harlow grunted in response as the man came out from behind the desk and gave Foxx a hug. The human wisely didn't try to hug him…

After Foxx finished getting his…as he liked to call it, his fluffy hug, he nodded goodbye to Jerry and they headed into the back.

Opening the door, he took a step past it and…Harlow immediately wanted to back the fuck out, but refused to show fear as every set of eyes in the fully crowded room zeroed in on them.

At the second step in, Harlow's right eye started to twitch when, in what could only be a nightmare-induced illusion, every one of those motherfuckers started to clap. He felt Foxx stiffen up beside him, which informed him to the reality that it was, in fact, NOT an illusion.

When the clapping subsided, Foxx let out a hesitant, soft laugh. "Ah ha…thank you?"

The door to Tony's office opened, and the man himself stepped out. The human snorted before yelling, "Get back to work! Fuckers did well, but you are making them uncomfortable. Though, if that is the point, feel free to do it more, but on your own fucking time!"

The room instantly went back to doing whatever the fuck they'd been doing before Harlow and Foxx had walked in.

"That was weird," Foxx whispered.

"Let's just get to Tony's office before it happens again."

Foxx, as Harlow had taught him too, opened the door straight away instead of knocking. It was a tradition at this point—can't break tradition!

"Yes, come in. Nice of you to fucking knock," Tony drawled with an eye roll before barking, "Close the door."

Walking in, Harlow closed the door behind them, while Foxx eyed the room. It was a bit of a mess. Files were everywhere, and they absolutely covered Tony's L-shaped desk. The boxy chairs that usually sat in front had been stacked by the couch to the right. Probably because Charity was currently sitting on the floor where they usually were, surrounded by piles of manila folders. In front of the bookshelves that lined the left wall, there was a corkboard with a map of the US, covered in red dots.

"What's all this?" Foxx mused.

"Just all the cases we think may be connected to Maverick," Tony said with a sigh.

Charity huffed. "We are trying to narrow down likely locations for him, but…"

Harlow clucked his tongue. "I'm guessing he moves around, based on the clusters of dots."

"Likely." She grimaced.

"So, now what?" he asked.

"He's a wanted man, as is anyone associated with him. They've put Maverick and his group on the terrorist watch list worldwide…" Tony hesitated before saying, "And now, your job is done."

"What?!" Foxx snapped, at the same time that Harlow growled, "What the fuck?"

The human rolled his eyes. "Not done, done. But in terms of Maverick, it's over for now."

"Why can't we be the ones to go after him?"Foxx couldn't help but ask.

Charity snorted. "And where exactly are you going to go, sunshine? We don't know where he's at. Frankly, it would be a waste to send you two off on a wild goose chase to find him."

Harlow cursed. "He is going to keep fucking with me, you know that, Tony. How can you expect me to sit here and do nothing?!"

"Harlow is right," Foxx snapped. "Santiago barely had any connection to Harlow, and the man decided to target him and his whole pack, just because he helped him that one time! Who knows who he will target next!"

"Look," Tony said. "I get it. You want this bastard. So do I, and so do many others. But we have nothing."

Nothing… How could they have nothing?!

Harlow let out an irritated growl. "Those humans we captured. Let me torture them, I can?—"

Tony cut him off. "They don't know anything."

"Nothing?!" he hissed. "How can you be sure?"

Charity giggled. "Well, that lovely vampire, Doc, used a totally… non -illegal substance on the two humans and got them to tell us all they knew. Which wasn't much."

"That about sums it up." Tony huffed as he ran a hand over his closely shaved hair. "They don't know where he's at. Hell, they don't even know what he looks like. They never met him in person. Which is pretty much what all the others said."

"Others?" Foxx asked.

"Yeah, the other Guilds managed to capture a few people too. Not a single one of them knew what Maverick even looked like. They even tried to see if they were lying by showing them a picture of the fucker, and there was no recognition whatsoever."

"Well, fuck… So we…wait?" Harlow said, feeling a little bit deflated.

Tony snorted. "Yes, you wait, and more importantly, take some time to work through your change. This whole thing forced you to come back to work too soon."

Harlow frowned, while Foxx slowly asked, "You…want us to go on holiday?"

The human smirked. "Holiday, vacation, break, whatever the fuck you want to call it. You two are officially off for the next three months."

"Three months?!" he choked.

"Can you even spare us?!" Foxx asked in clear disbelief.

Charity cleared her throat. "I can answer that. And the answer is yes, we can! A few of Santiago's wolves have agreed to join up. Their council doesn't approve, but they can't stop them.

"Though, speaking of the werewolf council… Oh, that's a whole other nightmare right now with the counteragent mandate, but whatever. Regardless of that mess, we have new hunters coming in. So not only will we not be down two, we will actually have more than before. And as they are trained fighters, they will be ours after just two short weeks of training. Thankfully, due to you two, we now know that there are no rules against pairing two paranormals together."

"Go," Tony ordered. "Go figure your shit out."

Harlow frowned and looked at Foxx, and found that the man was looking back and frowning just as he was. "It…it wouldn't be a horrible idea…" the vampire said slowly. "You do still have a lot to learn. Control being one of them… And then there's that thing Daydric warned us about."

"Daydric?" Tony hissed.

But he ignored the question, as he remembered something that was horrible. "Fucking hell, you are going to make me have to deal with Gavin, while I have no excuse or reason to run away!?"

"He's coming here?!" Tony asked, his voice full of understanding and dread of the horror that was Gavin.

"Yes!" Harlow snapped.

"He seemed really nice on the phone. I'm not sure why you two are so worried," Foxx said with a frown.

Tony barked out a laugh. "Yeah, have fun with that. You may leave now." The man waved them away dismissively with his hand.

"So much sympathy," he hissed.

"Hey, I'm not the one who saved the kid and led him down a path of whatever the fuck his weird worship thing for you is. Now, out! Both of you! Get out of my office. Out of this Guild. Go home. Relax…or…do…your weird, creepy shit. I don't care what you do, or where you go. Just go and do it somewhere else, because you can't stay here!"

"Fucking hell, you suck," Harlow growled. "Both of you!"

Charity giggled.

Foxx looped his arm through his. "Maybe we could go on holiday, and then train?! Like say, a few weeks at the cabin? You can fish, and I could watch and not touch the disgustingness. Or…we could even…start planning our future house?"

"House?" Charity gasped nosily.

Smirking, he turned the vampire around, having no intention of answering her. Foxx smiled evilly up at him, the brat realizing his plan.

"Harlow, Foxx."

They turned back on hearing their names.

Tony smirked. "Good job!"

Harlow shuddered in disgust as Foxx sputtered, "S-shut up!"

The man burst into laughter.

"Okay, but what house?!" Charity huffed, seeming to ignore the laughing older human.

"Let's go, Foxx. We are obviously not wanted here."

"Let's," Foxx hmphed.

With that, they left with Tony's laughter following them out… Not to mention Charity's repeated question of ‘what house?' echoing behind them.