“Fuck! We need to get you…” He trailed off. “I don’t even know where the fuck we need to get you. I don’t know if we can take you to the hospital… I know the one near Hazard is the closest one that takes paranormals, but it’s almost two hours away, and there is also all this shit going on. And if we are going that far we may as well go to Doc’s, but I’m not sure if he has the equipment to help you…”
Oceana sighed. “Let me get—”
“Harlow,” Tony called out.
Speak of the devil.
He glanced over his shoulder to see his boss coming down the steps into the now drained pool.
“I’ll take over here. Get Foxx to the hospital. The Guild has taken control of the nearest two. I have made it clear to them that they have no choice but to treat whoever we shove at them. You’ll hear some grumbling, but they will do as they are told, unless they want to find themselves in jail.”
“Good. Come on, Foxx, let’s get you the fuck out of here.” Harlow tried to gently scoop Foxx into his arms, but it didn’t work. The vampire’s cries of pain had him wincing. “Sorry,” he grunted.
“I want to go home,” Foxx whimpered.
Clutching the vampire tightly to him, he said, “I know. I promise, right after the hospital, I’ll take you home.”
“I’ll come too!” the girl cried out.
Harlow glanced down at her, unsure what to do or say. He looked at Foxx to see if he knew what to do, but he found the vampire once again passed out.
Tony crouched by her. “Little one, Foxx needs to go with Harlow to get treated. And you need to go with Oceana here. But later, when both of you are all better, you can see Foxx, okay?”
She frowned. “But…”
“Foxx is really hurt, little one. He needs treatment. He can’t get that here,” Oceana said gently, holding out her hand to the girl.
The little girl’s bottom lip wobbled, tears welling up and spilling free, but she just nodded and took Oceana’s hand.
Shaking his head at the bizarre interaction, he started back the way he came with Foxx.
Harlow stood there next to Tony, staring down at Foxx. The vampire was lying on his stomach, his back and neck bandaged up. There were smaller patches of gauze taped all over his body. Each wound the doctors had told him about had made him want to go back and riddle that fucking Priest Samuel full of bullets.
“Have you slept?” Tony asked.
Harlow glanced at him. “Why?”
“Your bags are looking a little thick.”
“Fuck off.”
Harlow would sleep when he damn well pleased. Not now… later. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t napped… He had…briefly. Then again, twenty-four hours had passed since they’d rescued Foxx. His choices had been, either he lie down for a few hours or pass out where he stood. Harlow had chosen to nap.
He eyed the vampire. The man hadn’t stirred once since he’d passed out again in the cavern.
Harlow tensed when the door opened…and tensed further when a tired and sad looking woman rolled the little vampire girl from before into the room in a wheelchair. The burns he could see, mostly on her face, looked better than before, less raw. Though her hands and feet were wrapped up in bandages.
The woman, who he was guessing was a vampire, rolled the young girl to Foxx’s bedside. Then the child reached out, and gently patted Foxx’s black curls.
He supposed some would have found it ‘endearing’, Harlow just found it weird. And he kind of wanted to tell her to stop, but figured he shouldn’t.
The kid turned to him. “When will Foxx wake up?”
Harlow cleared his throat awkwardly. “It will be a while. But he is fine.”
Foxx…was fine, in that he’d survive. The vampire had second degree burns on his neck, back, feet, and hands. The smaller burns, which he had found out earlier that day had been from fucking holy water rain, were already fading. The worst were the third degree cross shaped burns. The marks, which littered his body, would take the longest to heal. The good news was that none of them would leave permanent scarring. It was likely that they all would be healed within one to three weeks.
But those were not the real issue. The real issue was…that Foxx had damaged something the other vampires kept calling threads—whatever the fuck that meant. It wasn’t damage any human doctor could help with. It was also why he was still sleeping. Doc Robinson had come by earlier that morning, brought in by Tony.
