“No.”
“Foxx, you’ve already been seriously hurt twice… Isn’t that enough?!”
He pulled away and moved over to the bed before he sat down. “I won’t quit. I’ve been hurt, but so what? I’ll heal. The marks will go away. Like I said, I’ll be fine.”
He hoped he’d be fine…
“Meaning you aren’t fine right now.”
Foxx sagged a bit, arms wrapping around himself as he looked away. “I’ll get there…like I always do.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” The bed dipped as Alastair took a seat next to him, and once again wrapped an arm around him.
Foxx leaned in, and arms dropping, he said nothing as he wrung his hands in his lap.
“You and I both know that you ‘getting there’ is really just you burying things deep inside, and then ignoring that they ever happened.”
“And what’s wrong with that?!” he snapped defensively.
Alastair sighed. “Everything. Because no matter how deep you shove something down, it will always find a way to come back up and bite you in the ass.”
“My method has worked pretty well so far, why stop now?”
“Has it?” the other vampire drawled. “How did you get captured in the first place?”
Foxx flinched.
Alastair let out a huff. “That’s what I thought.”
“It wasn’t…” He gulped, cutting off the lie as his emotions swelled.
Alastair was right… He’d been weak… He was weak. He’d let his past affect him. The memories had burst free at the worst possible moment…taking him to his knees before men who were coming to kill him… Well, kill, as in, capture and then torture to death.
Swallowing hard, he tried again to defend himself. “Just… You don’t understand—” He cut off, wincing at how shaky his voice had sounded. Hands clenching, even as tears started to well in his eyes, he tried again. “I can’t… I won’t… I…”
“Oh, Foxx,” Alastair said softly. He didn’t resist when the man pulled him onto his lap.
He just fell into his embrace and held on tight, just as fiercely as the man was holding on to him. One tear slipped free, followed by another, and another, all the while he just sat there trying not to think as he clung to his best friend.
The man rubbed his back soothingly. “I won’t ask what happened. I know you don’t want to talk about any of it. But don’t lie to me that you are okay. We have known each other too long for that, haven’t we?”
Sniffling, Foxx nodded and buried his face into Alastair’s neck.
“I will ask how you are healing, though… Do you need help with anything? I’m here for you, Foxx.”
“I’m healing…I am. My wounds are… Well, they don’t really hurt anymore. One or two of the burns are tender, but otherwise, they are fine… The scars are…still there…but should be gone in a week or two.” Foxx hesitated, before admitting, “The biggest issue is that my threads were damaged.”
Alastair inhaled harshly. “Damaged?! How?! Did you see a doctor? What’s being done about it?!”
“Calm down. I saw one. Tony…introduced me to a local vampire doctor when I was first injured. And then he came to the hospital after Harlow rescued me the second time. Doc helped me along, it’s just going to take like a month to get back to normal, that’s all.”
“A month?!” Alastair screeched. “Foxx, what did you do?!”
Foxx winced, and even more hesitantly explained, “I…connected one of my threads to a child that was being held captive with me.”
“Foxx, that could’ve killed you!”
“I know…and…it would have, if Harlow and them hadn’t shown up when they had.”
