45. Things Are Not Fine

"We're sorry, the number you've dialed is no longer in service."

"That son of—!!" Tony growled. Did the fucker block him?!? Oh, by the heavens above, Foxx was just as big of a pain in the ass as Harlow!

He stared at his phone, and cursed when he noticed his hands were shaking.

Tony slowly sat his phone down and roughly rubbed at his eyes. Had he lost another hunter? Ah, fuck…not even another hunter…another friend…

Tony swallowed hard as an image of Harlow the night they'd first met flashed in his mind. Jet black hair, hands covered in blood, the smile on his face had looked so normal, as if Tony hadn't just walked in on him butchering someone. The broken ropes and the bite marks had told him well enough that it had been self defense. Still, it hadn't changed the fact that the real predator in that house had always been Harlow, and not the vampire he eviscerated.

Harlow was never one he thought he'd outlive… Stupid and rash sometimes, but the kid had always been smart, if not at times too arrogant.

Harlow had to still be alive… And as long as he was alive… Well, Tony had always taken alive over human. Most hadn't…not back in the beginning. But there was so much death…pointless deaths…on both sides…

His shoulders sagged as many decades of deaths just seemed to weigh down on him. Tony was tired of always being the only one left standing, or as it had been for the last twelve years…the one sitting around and waiting for the death calls to come in. Waiting to face the anger and heartbreak of the families they left behind.

Shaking his head, he picked up his phone and tried to think of who to send.

Who was even available to send? He had to send someone… If Harlow was gone… Well, he sure as hell wasn't fucking losing Foxx too, just because the man was following his…heart?

Oh wow…he still hadn't…come to terms with that one. Who'd have thought someone would want to claim the crazy that was Harlow. Fucking hell…

Focus…Focus… Maybe it would be better to send some friends of his from outside the Guild? It would be faster…

He eyed the screen and the location. Falls Landing? He frowned. Why did that sound familiar?

AH–Antony"s nest was near there. The vampire owed him a favor! Perfect.

Tony went to dial, but his phone started ringing before he could. His first instinct was to decline, and then when he saw who it was, his gut reaction was to answer. As Sephira was not someone that should ever be ignored.

Hesitantly, he accepted the call. "Yes?" he asked slowly when she didn't say anything.

"Sometimes action causes more damage than if one were to just sit back and wait," the woman said, her voice smooth and airy.

Tony groaned. "Why am I surrounded by people whose only purpose on this planet seems to be giving me a headache and heartburn."

Sephira laughed. "Surely you aren't referring to me, dear Tony?"

"I'd never. Mostly as I'd like my body parts, as old as they are, to remain where they are and continue to look how they should."

"I'm sure you do."

As much as he knew she had never been wrong before, Tony couldn't help but ask, "Are you…sure, Sephira?"

"If you do what you were about to do, you will lose all that you were trying to save."

"So, if I do nothing, things will be fine?"

She tsked. "Things are not fine, but when have they ever been? Understand, the normal as it was, is well and truly gone now. Yet, as it always does, life will go on. Turmoil comes first. Followed by more disasters and uncertainty. But eventually, the dust will settle, and with it there will be a new normal once again."

He rubbed at his head with a sigh. "Great…clear as fucking always, Sephira."

* * *

Sweat dripping down his face,Foxx's grip on the steering wheel tightened more and more the closer he got to where the tracker had pinned Harlow's location. The city fell away to suburbia, and suburbia to open farmland. Houses going from close together to sometimes many miles apart.

His gaze kept flicking to the map on the screen, the minutes ticking by. Was he…already too late? Had he been too late hours ago? If he…if he had noticed earlier…would he have been able to save him…?

He swerved at the sound of a horn, just barely missing the car whose lane he had drifted into. The darkness was back, his vision narrowed to just the road. Taking a gasping breath, his hands clenched around the wheel.

At the sound of the wheel creaking, he forced himself to loosen his hold. Taking a deep breath in and out, Foxx prayed. "Please, Nycinthea, please let him be alive. Please don't let me be too late."

He swallowed hard as the dot on the map grew closer, stiffening when the navigator told him to turn up ahead.

Foxx turned onto a nondescript dirt road. He didn't bother with stealth. He didn't care if they knew he was coming, because he was going to kill each and every one of them. Even if he had to track them down one by one, they all would die.

Dust puffed up as he sped down the road, a large ranch-style house appearing in the distance. He kept on going, rolling down the window as he sorted past the noise of the road and the engine, zeroing in on the house.

Foxx let out a whimper of distress, tears forming in his eyes while he tried to deny and rationalize what he was hearing. But there was no lying to himself… There were only two heartbeats, not enough to lead to any confusion… And even from here, he could tell…no one…currently alive inside the house…was human.

Taking shallow breaths in and out, Foxx barely held back his sobs. "Calm… Calm… It doesn't mean he's dead… It doesn't mean that!"

He focused on the beats, willing them to tell him who they belonged to. One of them was sluggish, so much so, there was no way they were conscious or healthy. The other…was slightly strange…vampire-like, yet odd. It was like the beat had an echo…

The oddness of it pushed back the avalanching panic more than anything. More so when between one second and the next, the beat was as normal as any vampire"s was. Why did it…feel like he knew what that echo meant…?

Coming to a screeching stop in front of the building, he put the car in park and jumped out, only for the wind to suddenly shift and hit him in the face, blasting him with the scent of blood.

Foxx staggered to a stop and took a deep breath in. There was so much of it. Like a massacre had occurred. Yet…while he smelled Harlow's blood mixed in, there wasn't much of it… No, there wasn't enough of it! Harlow wasn't dead. Whoever was dead in there, it wasn't Harlow! Harlow… Harlow had to be alive! He had to be, he could smell him, but not his blood, so…

Shaking his head, he rushed forward and kicked the door in, his eyes widening as he got his first look of the blood he'd smelled. Bodies littered the ground…

Foxx slowly walked into the house, his gaze flicking around at the carnage. Blood spatter was everywhere, the smell was putrid, with flies buzzing around. At the same time, he remained focused on the heartbeats. Neither were moving.

He stopped by one of the bodies, or rather a part of a body—a male lying face down, who just so happened to be missing his lower half. There was a trail of blood starting at an opening to the right that led straight to it, along with bloody handprints, telling him he'd dragged himself to this spot before dying. The long top he was wearing prevented Foxx from being able to actually see the wound.

Foxx flipped him over with his foot, brow pinching on realizing that the man hadn't been cut in half as he assumed…he'd been ripped. It looked like he'd been attacked by a werewolf, yet he didn't catch any scent other than vampire anywhere. What he did smell near him…was burning leaves…

He glanced at the other bodies and found them much the same… All these vampires had been literally torn apart.

Foxx stared for a brief moment more, before shaking his head and speed walking past it all. He didn't care who killed them, all he cared about was finding Harlow. And the man had been here, he could smell him—burning leaves, the man had always smelled like burning leaves. The scent didn't smell human anymore…but…

Foxx sped past it all, taking a hallway to the left of the living room. He found himself following a path of bloody footprints through the house, taking him right to the heartbeats.

Jumping over the remains of a broken glass door, Foxx came to an abrupt stop in an outside courtyard. As splayed out in the middle of that courtyard, on blood covered stone, at the end of the bloody trail he'd followed, were two men, lying inches away from each other—both were alive, and one of them was…Harlow.

"Harlow!" Foxx sobbed, dropping to his knees beside the man as he gently pulled his head into his lap. Tears dripping down his face, he smoothed the man's hair back.

He was alive… Harlow was alive. Foxx's head swayed, his shoulders sagging as relief slammed into him. Sobbing softly, his eyes closed on his head tilting back. Silently, he sent a thank you to his Goddess that he hadn't been too late… Harlow…wasn't human…but as long as he was alive…

Foxx's eyes fluttered open on a frown. His hands…were wet. He held them out in front of him, eyes widening at the coat of blood now covering his palms. Foxx's gaze snapped down to Harlow, eyes roaming over him.

Blood… As if he had bathed in it, Harlow was covered from head to toe in blood. Had his relief at finding him alive blinded him on actually seeing the state Harlow was in? Foxx started feeling around for injuries…but the only one he found was the one on his neck. It looked like someone had tried to rip his throat out… Yet…

Foxx brushed his fingers over the ragged edges, his frown deepening. "It's…partly healed…"

What…was going on? The blood on Harlow…would suggest that he was the one who killed all those vampires…but how could that be true?! Yet…his scent had been there…and not his human one…

But, no…he was a new turn. Harlow shouldn't even be able to stand for at least another five hours. And even then, he'd hardly have the strength to defend himself, let alone tear people apart.

Foxx slowly moved Harlow off his lap and looked over to the other man. His throat…was viciously bitten into as well, but unlike Harlow"s, it looked fresh, raw, not even in the beginning stages of healing. This was the sluggish heartbeat he'd heard.

Tall and lanky, mousy brown hair, the man's white dress shirt was soaked with blood, but the thing that stood out the most was that the lower left trousers leg of his black slacks was missing, perfectly displaying a metal prosthetic leg.

"You…must be the pedophile," Foxx ground out.

Foxx scooted over to the bastard who'd tried to blow them up. Searching his body, just like with Harlow, Foxx found no other wound besides the one on his neck.

Frowning, he probed the bite with his fingers. But just as quickly, he jerked his hand away as if the man's flesh were burning him. "No…that…" Foxx took a shuddered breath. "That can't be right."

Hand shaking, he felt inside the wound again, tracing the marks that the teeth had left behind as he counted. "One…two…three…four..."

Four fangs… "It can't be…" he whispered. "It…" He swallowed hard, and then the panic welled up just as all the pieces fell into place. Pulse pounding in his ears, the things he had somehow forgotten rushed to the forefront of his mind.

At the sound of shuffling, Foxx looked back, his eyes wide.

Standing there, his light brown eyes now sky blue and glowing, was Harlow. A blood covered nightmare, the man's head slowly tilted, his eyes seeming to be locked on Foxx.

"Harlow," he squeaked, pushing to his feet. Foxx barely took a step back before it was too late.

Hands clamped on his arms, pinning them to his sides. With all his strength, Foxx tried to break the hold, but it was no use… Harlow was too strong.

Staring into the bloodthirsty gaze of his lover, he pleaded. "Harlow, stop. It's Foxx, it's me?—"

Foxx's words cut off on a cry of pain as Harlow's double fangs pierced his neck.

With each pull on his vein, he felt himself weaken.

Too late…he had recognized the signs too late. He had too…he had to warn Harlow…

"Harlow…" he croaked. "Y-you…hide…" Tears streamed down his face. "Harlow…you have to…hide."

His head began to spin, even while his panic continued to scream away.

Danger—Harlow was in danger! They'd come for him! They had to hide this before it was too late! If they found out…they'd come… They always came. And when they did…they would destroy him…

Because Harlow…wasn't…a vampire…

Harlow was a dhampir.

The End