“I’m fine,” Foxx assured him.
The human snorted. “Yeah, totally ‘fine’.”
“Shut up.”
Harlow gasped. “Foxx? Telling me to shut up?”
Foxx huffed. “Yet,I’mthe brat?”
“Always,” the human drawled.
He would have responded with something sassy, but at that moment, someone appeared in between them and the TV. Before his brain had time to realize who it was, Foxx screamed.
“What the fuck?!” Harlow yelped.
His scream cut off, ending in a squeak the minute his brain caught up. “Alastair!” he rasped breathlessly.
Swallowing hard, he tried to calm down while his pulse beat away rapidly in his throat. The other vampire looked much as he had the last time he’d seen him; model good looks, with his runner’s build, high cheekbones, pointed nose, and pouty lips. His dark brown, asymmetrically cut curls, however, did look a bit out of sorts, and the vampire was looking pale. But that was likely due to the rematerializing. Alastair shook his head and stumbled a bit forward, seeming slightly dazed.
Yeah, the man was definitely out of sorts due to the rematerializing.
“No, really, what the fuck just happened?” Harlow growled.
Alastair blinked a few times. When his eyes cleared, the vampire turned to Harlow, hissing, “You!” before attacking.
Foxx leaped off the couch and slammed directly into Alastair. Wrapping his arms around the vampire’s waist, he stopped the man in his tracks. Foxx may have been weakened…but Alastair was… Not to call him a weakling, but…his friend, even at his advanced age, could likely be taken down by an average human.
“I’m going to feed you and that boss of yours, piece by piece to a fucking werewolf, you human piece of shit!” Alastair screamed.
“Enough,” Foxx snapped.
When the other vampire continued to hiss and struggle and throw threats at Harlow, he angrily roared, “ENOUGH!” The power he pushed into his words felt like a drain on his very soul. But it was worth it, as Alastair stilled in his hold. “Do you have a death wish?! You couldn’t win a fight against a paper bag, let alone an experienced hunter!?!”
Alastair sniffled, and turning in his hold, the vampire wrapped his arms around him, crying, “My baby!”
Foxx grimaced at the sound of what was definitely the safety on a gun clicking back into place.
“Baby?” Harlow snorted in disbelief behind him, before asking, “How did he poof in here?”
“Daydric,” Foxx said without explaining further. There was no point, he couldn’t fully explain how it worked, only that it did. Materializing from one location to another…was a skill only the original vampires possessed.
He pulled back out of the hug, and found Alastair staring down at him, pouting. He brushed one of the man’s tears away and grabbed his hand, dragging him to the stairway. “Come on, let’s talk.”
“Not going to explain more than that?” Harlow complained loudly as they ascended the stairs. Alastair let himself be tugged along wordlessly.
“Nope!” he chimed, never looking back.
Foxx pulled his friend into his bedroom, closing the door once they were both inside.
Alastair immediately wrapped his arms around him again. He didn’t hesitate to hug him back.
At another sniff, Foxx sighed and…lied. “I’m fine… I promise.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Well, I am. I’m just…healing.”
“Healing again, you mean,” Alastair said stiffly as he pulled back to look down at him. The man lightly cupped his face, thumb brushing over the bandage there. “Quit this job.”
