One had to feel more than indifferent towards something to actually hate it. And he did not.
“Pretty much,” Harlow grunted. “I could tell the minute I arrived that there would be no saving anyone inside. Most were bordering, if not already in, bloodlust.
“But there had been a lot of recent disappearances. The hope was that even if they were changed, if we found them in time, they could still live normal lives. Hidden lives, but lives nonetheless.”
Foxx cursed. “Overfeeding them until blood was all they wanted. He no doubt used bloodlust to control them. They wouldn’t care what he did to them after that, as long as he kept giving them blood. You know…how my kind eats food, but can do without?”
“Yeah?” he asked, not sure where this was going.
“If a vampire child…were to stop eating food…they’d stop growing. And not just physically, but mentally too.”
“Ah fuck…” Harlow grimaced in disgust. “I’m going to shoot Iggy the next time I see him.”
Foxx snorted, but a yawn followed right after. The vampire stopped looking up, in favor of burrowing his face into Harlow’s chest.
“Did you not find him again after that?” Foxx asked, his words slightly muffled now.
“Oh, I did… During a fucking group hunt where Iggy ended up fucking shooting me.”
“Get away again?”
“Yes,” Harlow growled.
“Did you ever find them? The children from the first time?”
“No…” Harlow said with a sigh.
“Yeah, you definitelyshouldshoot Iggy the next time you see him,” Foxx said with another yawn. The vampire mumbled sleepily, “I’m curious to know how many hit lists you are on.”
“Too many,” he chuckled as he ran his hand over Foxx’s black curls. “Go to sleep, brat.”
“Mhmm,” Foxx murmured. Moments later, the vampire let out a soft snore.
Smiling, Harlow closed his eyes.
Foxx sat there leaning against Harlow, doing all he could to empty his mind. What he should have been doing was focusing on whatever was going on in the murder mystery they were watching…but it was taking everything in him to not think of the shit he shouldn’t think of.
Thinking, in general, led to bad things for him nowadays. He didn’t want to think back or forward, or about anything at all. Because his head was too crowded with things that shouldn’t be there—fear…worry…traumatizing memories…
Foxx had only been out of the hospital a day, and it was looking like he was, maybe…possibly, not okay. Jumping at every little fucking thing—like sudden and loud noises—generally wasn’t classified as being okay. Not to mention, him randomly getting jump scared by Harlow because the human somehow managed to move around without him noticing…or rather, when he, for some reason, decided to ignore everything around him. Which seemed to be a frequent thing now.
None of it really made sense… Well, him jumping when Harlow just appeared in a spot near him made sense—sort of. Those fucking priests had just ‘appeared’. But what the hell was his problem with loud noises?
“Relax,” Harlow rumbled before pulling him more firmly against his side. “Whatever you are thinking about, stop.”
Great…even thinking about not wanting to think was stressing him out—ugh. Well, he hadn’t been thinking about nothing now, had he?
Stupid brain, stupid trauma response. He just wanted to forget it all…which was pretty hard with the fucking burn scars on his face and body still hanging around. Maybe…once they were gone, he’d manage.
Yes…he’d manage. He’d done it before and he’d do it again. It wasn’t a big deal. None of it was. But, hey, on a positive note, Foxx had beaten his fear of priests, hadn’t he? That was progress. He’d fought back, he argued, he killed… It would be fine—hopefully…
It felt like…like… Not that he was still there…but that he was waiting for something more to happen. Like it wasn’t over. And it wasn’t really, was it? Those people were still out there. No matter how many they caught this time…they were still out there, and their demented ideals and beliefs would spread again. They always did. There would always be more…
And really…who knew if anything would actually happen to the ones who were caught. Humans…didn’t care about his kind. At least, not over the lives of other humans. Even if they did get prosecuted…the ones out there would come…
“Foxx!” Harlow growled. “Enough.”
Foxx blinked. He realized his whole body was tense again, and he had a death grip on Harlow’s arm. Taking a deep shuddered breath, he forced himself to pull away from his spiraling thoughts. Glancing up, he found Harlow frowning down at him.
