As pretty as the rest of it was, the stand out piece in the room was the giant centered rectangular wooden island surrounded by at least thirty chairs. Ten of the chairs were filled, and every one of those people had gone silent as they’d walked in.
Foxx gave a small smile and said, “Hello.”
“Hello!” they all chimed at once.
“Aww, he’s so cute!” a blonde-haired woman squealed.
“Foxx, Harlow, the loud one is Tabitha,” Sephira drawled with a laugh.
“Rude,” Tabitha huffed with fake indignation before giggling.
“Let’s see, not everyone is here today,” Sephira tsked. “To be honest, while we always have a full house, rarely does all my coven come for these things. But then, there are a total of thirty of us, and not all of them like baking.” She sighed. “Tonight, we have, as I said, Tabitha, who always comes, but next to her is Daya. Then there’s Cortney, Abby?—”
Foxx’s eyes crinkled as she listed more and more names, having a feeling, unless they came more frequently to these things in the future…he’d never remember most of them.
“Don’t worry about remembering names, Foxx, you’ll get them eventually. As for the rest, you’ll probably meet them at one point or another. Ah.” She laughed and added, “Also, therearemale members in my coven, and a few non-binary, but none came tonight. Anyway, everybody, this short cutie of a vampire is Foxx, and the tall, broody, and possibly dangerous human is Harlow.”
Harlow snorted, only to squawk as the crowd descended on them.
Foxx suddenly found himself surrounded by gawking, smiling women, petting his head and calling him cute… He was…in pure bliss.
Harlow, on the other hand…looked like he was about to stab someone when one of the women, he thought her name was maybe Cortney, groped his arm, while another woman poked at him.
“Look at those muscles,” laughed a beautiful woman with umber skin, who he was pretty sure was named Daya…maybe…
“I feel I should warn you that he does bite.” Foxx snickered, still all smiles as Tabitha, the one woman whose name he was sure of, continued to pat his curls like he was the cutest thing—which…he was, so like, about damn time his cuteness was appreciated.
Harlow glared over the top of their heads at him.
Harlow mindlessly mixed the butter cookie dough as he watched Foxx giggle and laugh with the witches. It was…not horrible seeing Foxx so relaxed. Even if the conversations were…pure nonsense… Like who the fuck cared what celebrity was dating who, and who had been exposed as a paranormal?!
“Having fun?”
His gaze snapped to the right, eyeing Sephira. The woman was…beautiful, but…as beautiful as she was, he felt nothing looking at her…or really any of the women in the room, which was…odd. He frowned. Shouldn’t he feel something? Was he no longer attracted to women?!
Oh fuck, he was starting to believe that maybe Tony was right…something was wrong with his head—more than normal.
Gee, what was your first clue, Harlow?! The nightmares, the murderous rage at the thought of someone touching Foxx, or your mind’s insistence that the vampire was somehow yours?! Nooo, of course not! It was the fact that you seem to no longer be attracted to women, as if all that other shit didn’t raise red fucking flags?!he thought sarcastically.
“Is the silence a no?” Sephira mused with a soft laugh.
Harlow blinked. Right…she had asked a question. “I’m…fine.” He cleared his throat. “So, you caught that witch, right?”
Her head tilted slightly. “That’s one word for it,” she said with a small smile.
Harlow smirked. “I don’t care if you offed them. But I do want to know if you found out who was also working with them.”
He’d been meaning to ask Tony if they knew, but he kept fucking forgetting with, well…his head being such a fucked-up mess lately. Not that he’d admit that to Foxx. The old man comments would never end.
Sephira’s expression remained unchanged as she simply asked, “Working with, in what capacity? The ones who hired her, or the fools that somehow ended up under one of her spells? She did not have anyone working with her in the sense that she was paying them for their services. And the priests were not her only clients. The woman was not picky on the morals of others, as long as they paid enough.”
Well, that told him it was greed that had the witch agreeing to help capture Foxx, and not some religious bullshit.
“A fool under her spell is my best guess. Someone inside the Guild.”
“Then yes, there was one. A clerk whose job was to organize cases in order of importance, followed by distributing them to the handlers at the office. Some magic did come into play in placing you two on that case though. The man has since been de-spelled, and moved to a different job. I’ve added some wards to the Houndside Hazard Guild to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
“De-spelled…” Harlow grunted in disgust.
