Foxx’s eye twitched as he suppressed the unholy rage that tried to release from inside of him.
He wasn’t sure he had ever found Harlow so fucking annoying. Had he thought he liked him?! Well…he did, but this was just—UGH!
Why was he being like this…? Well…it was obvious, wasn’t it? This was his revenge. Harlow’s way of getting back at Foxx for saying no.
At least with all the bickering they’d done, he was able to push past the stupid headspace he’d been in. Because while he still didn’t want Harlow to die, he was very much hoping the bastard would get injured. Just a little…
Regardless, he was going to make sure that payback was a bitch. But the human getting slightly maimedwouldprevent the man from escaping his grasp when he was ready to make him suffer.
Staring out at the house, Foxx had to say, the picture in the file hadn’t done it justice in terms of how fucking weird it was…as it had only been an extreme close up of the house.
He had never imagined he’d ever see a Queen Anne-style house on ten-foot-tall stilts in the middle of a bloody swamp. While somewhat stained by time, the wooden siding was still notably light blue, while the fish scale shingles on the roof were a dark gray. The trim of the house, the door, windows, stairs, railings, and the porches’ decorative columns were all white.
On the first floor to the left, as was common with Queen Anne-style houses, there was even a tower.
The asymmetrical structure was situated on a large patch of grass. A railed staircase came up from the ground to the rounded porch, and appeared to wrap around the ground floor of the building.
At the edge of that grass, in front of the house, was a dock where the land dropped off into what looked to be some rather deep…swamp water. They’d either have to swim or walk around to get to it.
Head tilting, he listened. There were heartbeats on all three levels; the attic, first floor, and ground floor. The majority were on the ground floor. Adding them up quickly in his head, he sighed in relief on finding a total of fifty-one.
“They are all in there,” Foxx stated.
“The noise kind of gave that away. So, I guess we were right and they locked themselves in.”
Foxx narrowed his eyes on the front door. He could see it was shaking, but it didn’t appear close to breaking. “They must have.” Foxx took a deep breath. “I smell something… sickeningly sweet.” He wrinkled his nose. “It’s jumping from eye wateringly sweet to rancid and back.”
“Well, at least we know now that the flowers don’t attract vampires.”
Foxx snorted. “I already knew that. Either way, they must be nearby.”
He wasn’t sure how many there were, but the scent, while present, wasn’t all that strong. Either they were still a distance away, or the flowers didn’t give off much scent. At least, they didn’t to him.
“They can hear us, right? Even over the noise,” Harlow asked.
“They know someone is here, that’s for sure. Their heartbeats were already rapid, but the sound of movement increased the nearer we got.”
Harlow grunted. “They have a generator, or at least whoever owned this place before had one.”
Yeah, the generator was not horribly loud, but yet, it was still noticeable over the banging, growling, snarling, and howling.
“The question now is, how do we get across and where should we go in?” Harlow drawled. “There is no point trying to sneak in since they know we are here. But we also have to make sure that none of them get past us and run out.”
Foxx eyed the various and complex rooftops, most very slanted, and slowly began to smile as a wonderful, perfectly evil idea entered his head. He looked at Harlow, his smile only growing. Harlow frowned and took a step back when he caught the expression on his face.
“What…”
Foxx holstered his gun, the smile still in place. “I have…” He took a step towards him. “…the perfect…” He took another step forward, Harlow in reach now. “Idea.” As he said the word, he struck. Moving too fast for Harlow to possibly stop him, he swept the other man up into his arms.
“What the fuck, Foxx?!” Harlow squawked, his arms flailing.
“Don’t move too much. Wouldn’t want me to drop you!” Foxx said with a malicious laugh as he took a leap.
Harlow’s free hand clamped hard on his shoulder as they launched into the air, the man screaming, “FOXX?!”
Foxx landed lightly on the dock across the water.
“Foxx, put me down,” Harlow growled.
