“Well, that was weird,” Foxx mused. “When did you get close to him?” He eyed the man.
“I didn’t. But his pack did assist in helping to track you down. Well, they helped us track down the priests who took you, and pointed out which ones in the monastery I needed to torture for information.”
Foxx’s eyes widened. “They did?!”
“Yes. I called Santiago when I realized you were gone. Basically, hoping they could track you down, but…”
“It was windy that night, and…vampires aren’t a species that werewolves can easily track,” Foxx finished for him.
For some reason, his kind’s scent wasn’t one that werewolves could pick up easily. In fact, unless it was fresh, with little disturbance, they could barely track them at all. To other vampires though, and he supposed to dhampirs—based on Harlow’s actions the day before—the trail was as strong as any other species they came across.
“Pretty much. But they did find the priests that were involved in taking you. Not where you were, but, it helped.”
“Hmm, so you cashed in your favor.”
“I did. They came and chose to see it through.”
“Santiago is their Alpha, right?”
“I believe so. Not that I’ve heard them use any of those traditional terms while talking to each other.”
Unlike in the romance novels Foxx sometimes perused, the terms Alpha and Beta for werewolves didn’t actually have anything to do with birth, and were more just terms to easily identify the top person in the pack, along with their second in command. Though the leader, or Alpha, was usually the strongest in the pack, while the Beta was second strongest. As the stronger the leader, the stronger the pack, or something along those lines.
“I guess we should get going then,” Foxx started to say, before cutting off on a cry as he remembered something. “What about the festival?!!”
Harlow chuckled. “It’s on all day. We will still make it, brat.”
He pouted. “I wonder if that small sculpture I wanted to buy is still there…”
The dhampir pulled them both up into a seated position. “Come on, brat. Let’s get showered and get going, or wewillmiss your precious festival.”
“You know…that lady took my money already, so like…shouldn’t she have it on hold or something? I mean, she also saw me get kidnapped… Though…she did look pretty dazed at that moment…so she probably had been hypnotized…”
Harlow rolled his eyes. “You can ask her when we get there, after we see what Santiago wants.”
Foxx sighed. “My sculpture…”
Harlow eyed the two-floor wood cabin, and drove past it as instructed. The barn was a traditional bright red structure and sat a bit behind the main house. In front of the closed doors stood a man he believed was named Zane. The heavily muscled, freckled, red-headed wolf looked grim, no hint of the smile he was used to seeing on the man’s face most of the time they’d interacted in the past.
He rolled his eyes when Foxx whispered, “Are we…sure they aren’t plotting to kill us?”
The vampire had spoken so softly, Harlow had almost not heard him. But he was sure that was so the wolf wouldn’t hear. Though…that did push him to make a mental note to soundproof his Jeep.
Maybe he’d just get a new Jeep and pay for a shit ton of upgrades. He did have dents now…fucking bigoted bastards.
“Come on,” Harlow grunted, getting out.
They approached Zane, who just nodded and opened the door.
Walking in, the wolf closed the door behind them. As he caught sight of Santiago, his brow rose. Well, the brow raising part was less because of the wolf standing there looking grim, with his arms crossed, hands clenched into fist, and more about the table with an obvious covered body on it.
“Well, that is a problem, but not necessarily…” Foxx trailed off, and then took a deep breath in. “He smells off…”
Harlow didn’t bother trying to smell whatever Foxx was…as he wouldn’t have known what was off anyway. His gaze flicked away from the body to Santiago, when the man didn’t respond to Foxx’s comment, and found the werewolf’s startled dark brown gaze locked on him.
“Ah…you can tell,” Harlow stated.
Foxx glanced over at him. “Tell wh—ah!” The vampire looked to Santiago. “Yes, well… Tada, Harlow isn’t a vampire.” The vampire waved at him.
