Foxx parked the car in one of their two open spots, listening intently for anyone who could possibly be walking around in the underground car park. He relaxed on realizing that the heartbeats he'd heard were not on this level. Not that it mattered too much… Harlow was reading as a vampire to him…as long as he didn’t focus too hard that was.
If he listened long enough, hard enough, he could hear it again—the echo. Foxx could even notice a smell that was something other than vampire, if he looked for it. But that was possibly only because he knew what Harlow used to smell like. It was easy to pick out new scents when one knew what hadn’t been there before.
“Where’s your car?” The dhampir was eyeing the empty spot it usually was in.
“Back at…” Foxx hesitated before saying, “Your psychologist’s office.”
“Ah…” Harlow said slowly.
“We can…talk about that, and other things, later.” Looking around once more, he said, “Let’s go. You…smell like blood. Youare absolutely drenched in the scent, but the guard at the desk knows we’re hunters, so he should disregard it. And to me, you are reading as mostly vampire right now…so… Just go straight to the lift when we walk in and wait for me, while I inform the guard about Tony coming.”
“Right.” Harlow nodded, the man looking as if he had questions.
Then again, why wouldn’t he? Harlow’s life had been turned upside down, and he was now something he’d once thought a myth. He likely didn’t know much else about dhampirs, beside what little Foxx had told him.
They got out of the car silently. On walking into Silver Hollow’s from the entrance out of the car park, Harlow walked past him to the lift as Foxx headed to the guard’s desk in the middle of the lobby.
Foxx plastered a fake ass smile on his face when he reached the older man. “Mr. Fenmore, hello.”
The man’s brow rose, his gaze flicking to Harlow with a frown.
“Aha…yes, there’s…been a change. We are working through it…”
The golem gave him a hesitant smile. “Are congrats in order or…?”
Right, because even with how many willing changes there were nowadays, there were still too many forced ones. Might as well go with a vague lie that was close to the truth. “Not…really…”
The man grimaced. “My condolences.”
“I have a guest coming, probably in the next ten minutes or so. His name is Tony Varley, could you please let him into the lift when he gets here?”
Mr. Fenmore nodded. “Of course. I’ll send him right up when he arrives.”
“Thank you.” Foxx turned to leave.
“My condolences again,” the man called out.
He smiled and nodded before hurrying over to Harlow. The dhampir was in the middle of unlocking the lift as he reached him. Once inside, and the doors had closed, Harlow said, “How do you…stand all this noise?” The man was grimacing. “It felt like I was right there for the whole conversation.”
Foxx frowned. “I’ll…explain when we are home.”
He wouldn’t dare say the word dhampir out here. There were too many ears that could possibly overhear. There were just too many eyes and ears everywhere. Nothing out here felt safe.
The ride up was quick, and he pulled Harlow swiftly down the hall once the doors opened. When finally inside their apartment, Foxx closed the door, engaging all the extra locks, before pushing Harlow down the hallway. “We can talk freely here…”
Foxx found himself too nervous to sit, so he stood there awkwardly, hands clasped tightly in front of him.
“It’s,” Harlow looked around. “Quiet…”
“There is paranormal grade soundproofing in all the apartments in this building. Meaning, we can’t hear them and they can’t hear us.”
“Thank fuck for that,” the dhampir groaned, rubbing at his temples.
The man slowly walked over to the first grouping of chairs and couches. Removing his jacket, Harlow laid it over the back of the teal couch he was standing in front of before sitting down, closing his eyes as his head rested back.
Foxx couldn’t even find it in himself to care that the man had dried flecks of blood on him. He could see them from here, just small patches here and there. Though, Harlow had managed to clean his hair well enough, even with just using the sink. Itwasweird for the man to come home and have no weapons toremove. Usually, that only happened if he was coming back from the gym.
Though, to be clear, the dhampir did have weapons hidden in his furniture… Foxx only knew that as he had caught the man hiding them. He was pretty sure one couldn’t go more than four feet in any direction in his apartment without finding a weapon. The fucker had even hidden a few in his craft room. Luckily, Harlow had been smart enough to NOT try to hide his oiled-up fucking guns in his fabric.
