37. A Wonderful, Perfectly Evil, Idea

Staring out at the house, Foxx had to say, the picture in the file hadn't done it justice in terms of how fucking weird it was…as it had only been an extreme close up of the house.

He had never imagined he'd ever see a Queen Anne-style house on ten-foot-tall stilts in the middle of a bloody swamp. While somewhat stained by time, the wooden siding was still notably light blue, while the fish scale shingles on the roof were a dark gray. The trim of the house, the door, windows, stairs, railings, and the porches' decorative columns were all white.

On the first floor to the left, as was common with Queen Anne-style houses, there was even a tower.

The asymmetrical structure was situated on a large patch of grass. A railed staircase came up from the ground to the rounded porch, and appeared to wrap around the ground floor of the building.

At the edge of that grass, in front of the house, was a dock where the land dropped off into what looked to be some rather deep…swamp water. They'd either have to swim or walk around to get to it.

Head tilting, he listened. There were heartbeats on all three levels; the attic, first floor, and ground floor. The majority were on the ground floor. Adding them up quickly in his head, he sighed in relief on finding a total of fifty-one.

"They are all in there," Foxx stated.

"The noise kind of gave that away. So, I guess we were right and they locked themselves in."

Foxx narrowed his eyes on the front door. He could see it was shaking, but it didn't appear close to breaking. "They must have." Foxx took a deep breath. "I smell something… sickeningly sweet." He wrinkled his nose. "It's jumping from eye wateringly sweet to rancid and back."

"Well, at least we know now that the flowers don't attract vampires."

Foxx snorted. "I already knew that. Either way, they must be nearby."

He wasn't sure how many there were, but the scent, while present, wasn't all that strong. Either they were still a distance away, or the flowers didn't give off much scent. At least, they didn't to him.

"They can hear us, right? Even over the noise," Harlow asked.

"They know someone is here, that's for sure. Their heartbeats were already rapid, but the sound of movement increased the nearer we got."

Harlow grunted. "They have a generator, or at least whoever owned this place before had one."

Yeah, the generator was not horribly loud, but yet, it was still noticeable over the banging, growling, snarling, and howling.

"The question now is, how do we get across and where should we go in?" Harlow drawled. "There is no point trying to sneak in since they know we are here. But we also have to make sure that none of them get past us and run out."

Foxx eyed the various and complex rooftops, most very slanted, and slowly began to smile as a wonderful, perfectly evil idea entered his head. He looked at Harlow, his smile only growing. Harlow frowned and took a step back when he caught the expression on his face.

"What…"

Foxx holstered his gun, the smile still in place. "I have…" He took a step towards him. "…the perfect…" He took another step forward, Harlow in reach now. "Idea." As he said the word, he struck. Moving too fast for Harlow to possibly stop him, he swept the other man up into his arms.

"What the fuck, Foxx?!" Harlow squawked, his arms flailing.

"Don't move too much. Wouldn't want me to drop you!" Foxx said with a malicious laugh as he took a leap.

Harlow's free hand clamped hard on his shoulder as they launched into the air, the man screaming, "FOXX?!"

Foxx landed lightly on the dock across the water.

"Foxx, put me down," Harlow growled.

He looked into the human's face, smiled evilly, and jumped up again.

* * *

Harlow let outan honest to fucking hell scream when Foxx leaped many feet into the air. Eyes wide, he clung to him, his heart racing as somehow the vampire landed light as can be in the motherfucking wedge space created by the roof of the tower and the middle section's gabled roof. He stared for a moment at the scaled shingles on either side of him, before turning a murderous glare on Foxx, who was laughing his ass off.

"You fucker," Harlow growled.

He knew Foxx would get his pound of flesh after he'd pissed him off, he just hadn't realized it would happen so fucking soon.

"Well, we needed a way in that wouldn't lead to them escaping past us or surrounding us," Foxx giggled as he set him down on his feet beside him. As where else would he stand?! They were literally in the wedge between two fucking roofs!

"So, you picked the roof?! A surface that is the furthest thing from flat?!"

"Sure. I mean, there are seven right below us on the second floor."

"Third floor, though it"s more of an attic than an actual floor."

"I'm not having this argument again, Harlow!" Foxx snapped, before letting out a soft gasp as he eyed something behind him.

Harlow looked back, his brow rising at the expanse of grass behind the house. It went out quite a distance. And growing on that expanse was a whole field of at least two-foot-tall blue flowers. Most of it looked undisturbed. All except the right corner of the patch, where it appeared as if someone had rolled over them. The small patch of trampled flowers and grass was covered in a layer of the same electric blue dust that had been on the dead werewolf.

"Well, that confirms that," Foxx sighed.

"It would…be a disaster if this place flooded." Harlow frowned. "Should we be worried about the wind spreading it?"

"A flood would be a disaster. The wind… It could be a concern for the plants that the werewolf destroyed, but I don't feel any wind at the moment. As for the rest, from what I understand, the pollen—which is what that electric blue dust is—remains contained in a sack near the stem. There is a small opening that releases some of it, but as long as no one crushes them, it should be fine," Foxx mused, before turning towards the gabled roof to their right with his hands on his hips.

"Right! Let's get going. Get both of your guns out, because they can jump, and they likely will once I start tearing into the house. I'm guessing the only reason they haven't broken out is because they more than likely re-enforced the doors and windows, and are too out of it to realize that they could just create a hole in the wall or roof."

Harlow pulled out his other gun, making sure the safety was off, as he said, "Let's do this."

Smiling, Foxx punched his fist into the side of the gabled roof, before starting to pull the shingles off, followed by removing wood, insulation, and more. Harlow aimed his guns where the vampire was creating the hole and waited.

When the hole was at most a foot wide, the wolves below began attempting to break free. Harlow fired at the first sight of fur. A yelp was the response to his actions, but it didn't deter the wolves. The sounds of wood breaking spread, no longer localized to just where Foxx was tearing the roof apart. And with it came loud thuds as the wolves slammed their bodies into the roof from below, again and again, until the shingles under their feet were shaking.

Harlow just kept shooting while Foxx widened the hole, from body shots to finally head shots as the opening grew. By the time Foxx had created a space big enough for them both to fit through, the shingles no longer shook.

"Are all seven dead, or did some run?" Harlow asked as he quickly checked and reloaded both guns.

"All dead."

"Forty-forty more to go then."

He eyed the attic. It just seemed like one wide open space, besides the bodies and the mess of destroyed boxes, clothes, toys and just some random ass shit that was spread all around. It looked like the werewolves had been having fun tearing into the previous owner's crap before they'd arrived.

"Want me to help you in?" Foxx asked sweetly.

Harlow glared. "You even try to pick me up and I will shoot you."

The vampire sniffed. "I was just trying to be helpful."

"Bullshit."

Foxx stuck his tongue out at him and jumped into the hole, barely making a sound as he landed on the pile of bodies.

Rolling his eyes, he holstered his guns, and was about to slip down when the gunfire started. He jumped, gripping the broken edge and hung there for a brief second, before swinging himself forward and jumping to avoid the pile of bodies his shots had created.

Harlow landed loudly, unlike Foxx. He managed to retrieve one of his guns, just in time to put a bullet between the eyes of a charging tan furred werewolf. The creature's skull burst as the bullet pierced it, the body falling to the ground. Another wolf took its place right after.

Continuing to fire, Harlow pulled out his other gun. And side by side with Foxx, he eliminated the wolves emerging from the stairway.

As more and more bodies fell, Harlow yelled smugly, "And you were worried they'd be too much."

"Just shut up and keep firing!" Foxx yelled back.

Shaking his head, he smirked, taking two more out. His body remained tense and ready, even when no more came.

Harlow quickly counted the new dead. "Down to thirty-two. Reload, we can't risk running out."

* * *

Foxx reloaded his gun,and couldn't help but think how easy this had been so far. But then he supposed…Harlow hadn't been wrong about werewolves. They were easy enough to take out…as long as they didn't get their claws into you.

"There are ten on the floor below. According to the blueprints, the stairs from the attic lead to a hallway, and directly across from the stairs there is a room with one werewolf in it. The hallway itself goes to the right and has a total of six doors." He listened carefully. "I think the doors are locked…but based on the cracking I'm hearing, they won't be for long. So?—"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be careful by the doorways."

Foxx glared. "I was actually going to say, why don't you use yourself as bait? You'd be a nice possible chew toy for them. I'm sure they'd bust out right away."

"And I thought you were worried about me," Harlow chuckled.

Foxx rolled his eyes and pushed past Harlow. Stepping over the bodies, he made his way down the stairs.

He had just stepped into the hall when the door across from them broke open. The doorframe fractured, one of the three metal planks keeping it shut, instead of just breaking free of the wood, was sent flying. Foxx flinched back in shock as it embedded into the wall to his left.

But he didn't have time to freak out about how close he'd come to being pierced by a piece of fucking metal again. Gun raised, he was about to shoot the werewolf barreling towards him, when a shot went off above him. Head exploding, the wolf dropped to the floor dead.

"Looks like you are all the chew toy they need," Harlow mused from behind him.

"I had that, you know," Foxx said grumpily.

Stepping into the hall, he turned around and eyed the piece of metal that was sticking out of the wall. Two inches more to the right and he'd have gotten to experience being pierced through twice.

Harlow let out a whistle. "That was close."

He brushed past Harlow, and took one step down the hall, intending to stop before the first door to stay clear of any possibly flying metal. When, as if on cue, all six other doors in the hall broke open at once. No flying metal this time, but plenty of werewolves stumbling out, falling over each other to get at them. A few were moving so fast they slammed into the hallway wall.

Foxx didn't even have time to curse before the wolf closest was on him. As he tumbled back under its weight, he fired, and he kept firing, even when he felt the first prick of claws digging into his sides, until the thing stopped moving. Above him there were growls and howls of pain, while a barrage of gunfire kept going.

He shoved the body off himself just in time to witness a tawny-colored wolf leap over him, no doubt towards Harlow. He didn't take the time to check, he just kept firing instead. His bullet hit the creature mid-chest, sending the thing off course and slamming into the wall as it howled.

Another shot rang out, the tawny wolf jerked, sagging in death. And then Harlow was there, yanking him to his feet.

"You need to stop ending up under werewolves. Are you hurt?"

"I'm not doing it on purpose! And, no."

"There are a lot of things you don't do on purpose, Foxx, that seem to keep happening anyway. You're bleeding," Harlow said with a frown as he holstered one of his guns, and started to poke at his side.

"What?! What keeps happening?!" He holstered one of his own guns, just to be able to smack Harlow's hand away. "I'm fine, they are shallow cuts."

Harlow eyed his superficial wounds for a moment before meeting his gaze, after apparently deciding they were as minor as Foxx had said they were.

"Well, let see, you always end up in the brightest fucking outfits when we need stealth. And now, twice you've ended up underneath a werewolf. Though this one likely wouldn't have started humping you."

"Fuck you," he hissed, before raising his gun and firing, dropping the werewolf that had just appeared out of one of the rooms. He flinched at a loud bang that came from below, the floor shaking a bit.

"Oh, I will, Foxx. Soon enough."

Foxx let out a laugh of disbelief, glaring when the man pushed past him.

He grabbed Harlow's arm and yanked him back around. The human didn't try to pull away, even if he did glance down at Foxx's hand on his bicep, before staring at him with a raised brow.

Foxx let go. "You really think I'm going to let you in my ass anytime soon after today?!" he yelled. Really, it was just the audacity!

Foxx frowned as the floor once again shook, another loud bang coming from below.

Harlow slowly leaned down, his face inches from his as he chuckled, "Oh, you'll let me in. Beg for it, even."

Jaw dropping, his brain malfunctioned for a moment before rage just seemed to flood his head.

THE AUDACITY OF THIS FUCKER?!?!

The floor oddly creaked as Harlow straightened up again, the man staring down with a smug smirk plastered on his face.

"YOU—"

Whatever rant he had been planning to let loose was lost when the floor beneath them collapsed.