“It is. I usually just sit there and stare at good old Johan.” Harlow smirked. “Drives him insane. But Tony told him to deal with it and pass me for duty. It’s generally agreed upon that me actually talking would be pointless. Especially since I don’t really react to things like ‘normal’ people do. And it’s not like I can admit I’m a psycho.”
“The government would probably have issues with that.”
“No doubt.”
“I guess I’ll just lie through it,” Foxx mused. “A few tears here and there, and I'm cured!”
Harlow snorted. “So, the humans. Six? Any of them trained?”
“No. Mostly in blue and white collar jobs. Nothing that would help them with this. It’s interesting how most aren’t… As if they just one day decided they must attack innocent people for being different, and think ‘oh, I work in an office, I’m sure that experience is enough for me to handle beings that are much, much stronger than I’. Then again, they usually go after young paranormals, so training isn’t always necessary.”
“No, actually, they usually end up dead.”
“Do we have cases where it’s determined that the paranormal killed in self-defense?”
“We do…they are a pain in the ass. Huge media shit storms, rioters, all that bull. Because there will be a trial. To be honest, if a paranormal kills in self-defense, it’s better if they just get rid of the body. Because if the courts don’t find some way to punish them, the deranged part of the human public will.”
The judicial system currently ignored how dangerous it was for any paranormal to have a public trial. Which meant there weren’t any sort of protective orders they could be given to hide their identity. Harlow was going to assume that would change eventually, considering that the last two people who’d gone to trial, and had successfully proven their case, had ended up murdered afterwards.
Foxx chuckled. “You don’t think most don’t already do that?”
Harlow smirked. “Oh, I’m sure they do.”
He was sure the majority of older paranormals did just that. Then again, many paranormal species had strong community bonds. Not that they all lived together, but that they had plenty of people to reach out to if they needed help. So if you had a dead body, you just called up a bunch of friends to help get rid of it—problem solved.
Vampires were a little bit of an exception. Some lived in large nests, but a good many were loners. Or rather, they preferred to settle in a spot on their own, or be constantly always on the move. Mind you, they usually still had a close group of their kind to reach out to, they just likely got rid of the bodies on their own.
He assumed Foxx was in the loner category. And while Harlow wasn’t sure if the vampire had been a traveler or not before coming here, he was thinking, based on his hobbies, that he hadn’t been.
“Did you travel around before this?”
Foxx blinked. “Travel?”
“Before you got this job, did you travel?”
“I mean, I have. Especially in the beginning. But after a while, not so much. I mean, I still went on the occasional trip here or there with Alastair, and even Daydric, when my home was still in England. But after coming to America, generally, I stuck to my homes in either California or Australia. Though, mostly Australia the last five years,” the vampire said before explaining, “They opened up their borders for paranormals around the same time as the USA did, and well, Alastair had sort of been stuck there for those first two years of chaos. And I missed him, so that’s where I was before coming here, after learning of the new hunter laws. Speaking of the man, Alastair is more into traveling than I am. Anyway, why do you ask?”
Harlow frowned. Why had he asked? “No reason…Just thinking about how vampires are. If you all aren’t living in a nest, or traveling, then you are settling somewhere on your own.”
Foxx giggled. “You aren’t wrong. I tried living in a nest before. As Daydric lives like that. Huge mansion with a lot of people, even if he does travel a lot. But yeah, it was not for me. And, as for traveling… It’s fun for a while, but it doesn’t really let me go all out with the things I love. Dragging a sewing machine and a shit ton of yarn from one location to the next can get real tiring, real fast.”
Harlow, for some reason, found it oddly satisfying that he’d been right.
“I don’t suppose it makes it easy to bake things either.”
“Nope! What about you, have you ever traveled? Or is it something you’d like to do?”
“I’ve traveled all over the US for hunts, along with a few places in Canada, but I don’t particularly have any urge to travel on my own.”
“That fits. You don’t seem like the type who’d be interested in exploring historical sites or amusement parks.”
He grimaced. “Yeah, no.”
“So, what’s the plan for this one? Bust in, smack them around a little, and try to get them to give up? I suppose, that’s if they are all at the location. It’s odd that we only got one this time. Though, it was the same on the last case.” Foxx frowned.
“Whoever investigated probably took the time to narrow down the location. It happens. And yeah, pretty much. Break a few bones, grab some zip ties, throw them in the Jeep.”
The vampire frowned. “I don’t think they will all fit in the back.”
