“Well, let’s find out what the fuck is going on,” Harlow grumbled, waving Foxx forward.
The vampire headed inside, as Harlow followed behind. The place was empty…and clean. A lot of exposed wooden beams and wood floors with pale green walls. The entrance had doors leading off to the right, and then one directly ahead, along with stairs leading up on the left.
“It’s not a bad house… Sort of a pity we have to set it on fire,” Foxx mused, as the vampire peeked in the door to the right. Harlow stared, not surprised when Foxx closed the door upon finding nothing inside.
He followed behind Foxx as they headed to the door directly across from the front.
“If it wasn’t so far away, I’d buy it…just for the land. The house itself…is too big just for me,” Harlow mused.
“Oh, is that your way of asking me to move in with you?” Foxx teased with a giggle as he pushed into another room.
“No.”
“Spoil sport.” Foxx stuck his tongue out at him. “There doesn’t appear to be anything on this floor. And the heartbeats are upstairs.”
“At least, the ones you can hear.”
They quickly checked all the surrounding rooms connected to the ones they passed, before continuing on further. “Yeah…I don’t hear any movement, other than the one vampire.”
“Illusionist line?” Harlow asked as they entered the last room on the first floor. It, like all the rest, was empty.
“Maybe?” Foxx said with an unconcerned hum.
“Think the other heartbeats are fake?”
* * *
Could they be fake?It was possible. They were odd enough to be. But why eight fake heartbeats instead of nine?
“Possib—” Foxx’s words cut off on a yelp as the floorboard he went to step on dropped, as did the five around and in front of it. Instead of falling into the hole, like he was sure he was meant to, he landed hard on his ass, legs dangling down.
Foxx peeked over the edge at the same time Harlow did. His eyes widened at the sight of evenly spaced two-to-three-inch wide spikes below, in what must have been a basement of some kind. No basement had been mentioned in the report…
The human let out a whistle. “Good thing you have a fat ass.”
“Shut up.” Foxx grimaced, scooting back so he could stand up to rub at his poor abused butt.
“Is it okay?” The man moved over to him and pulled him close as he began to rub his ass.
“I’M FINE, thanks for asking!” he snapped, pushing Harlow away. “How nice of you to fucking worry about MY safety.”
“No problem,” Harlow said without a single hint of shame.
Foxx rolled his eyes. “I keep telling myself that if I kill you, I’ll miss your dick. But is dick really worth this many headaches?”
Harlow smirked smugly. “Hmm, good dick is.” Harlow smacked him on the back. “Don’t feel too put out, Foxx. If it makes you feel any better, I decided your ass was worth the headache. Well, that and Tony would probably know I did it.”
Foxx smiled evilly. “That’s an interesting notion, as he would never suspect me, old man. But do keep pushing.”
Harlow cleared his throat and looked away. “Let’s just head upstairs.”
That’s right, asshole. You know Tony wouldn’t suspect a thing! Feeling smug, he skipped past Harlow, but then abruptly stopped, worried that more of the floor would drop away. So, calmly, he walked toward the stairway that had been near the entrance.
Reaching the second floor, he instantly knew something was definitely off—well more off than the odd heartbeats had already suggested.
He frowned. There had to be an illusion here. Unlike the ground floor, the first floor was a completely open space. Besides a few beams, you could see the entirety of the floor. Which was a big‘what the fuck?’because the heartbeats were here. Even the moving one.
“Do you…”
