“If you know they’re real, then you also know what the new risk is.”
Ugh…the ‘good reason’.
Tony groaned. “Ah, fuck. I most definitely do.”
“Then…we…” Foxx grimaced and trailed off.
His gaze was drawn to the vampire’s hands that were clenched together and shaking. Foxx looked towards Harlow, clearly worried.
Tony’s brow rose slightly when the man, his expression still empty, held his hand out. The vampire quickly moved to take it as he slowly sat down next to the dhampir.
Dating… Foxx had said they were dating. Well, hell…he hadn’t been sure if he believed it, and had pushed it from his mind on finding out that Harlow had actually been in trouble, but now…
Maybe…pairing them together hadn’t…been a bad thing. Even as fucked in the head as he found Harlow, Tony was slightly relieved by the sight, relieved to know that the man finally had someone that he’d likely try to keep living for. Healways worried for the hunters with nothing to lose…as usually, those were the ones he lost first…
Sighing, Tony slowly smiled and asked, “What do you two need me to do?”
He’d just royally pissed off the werewolf council with the whole wolfsbane situation. Might as well piss off one more paranormal council while he was on a roll. It's not like he actually liked those bastards anyway.
Eyeing Tony, Foxx waited for the man to answer the question he’d just asked. The one that all his hopes were riding on. The human looked much the same as always.
Tony was dressed in the strange ill-fitting clothes he liked to wear that seemed to emphasize that while he was in shape, he was going a bit softer around the middle. There were, however, bags under the human’s eyes that seemed deeper than normal on his brown skin. Otherwise, even with the wrinkles creeping in—not that they were super noticeable, despite the man’s age—Foxx had to say, the human was a handsome older man, with his white hair styled in a buzz cut, strong jaw, wider set nose, and sharp brown eyes.
In the time he’d taken to examine the older man, in his effort to hold back, he had exhausted his patience.
“Can it be done?” Foxx blurted. As much as he assumed it was something the human could do, only the man himself would actually know if it was possible.
“It can be done.” Tony nodded, his expression more neutral than grim. “I’ll need to make quite a few calls, but?—”
“You have to be careful,” Foxx stressed. “Every call you make must be secure, without any risk of the info leaking out.”
“I get that. I have plenty of ways to contact people without the chance of being overheard, or spied on. No worries there.”
“But can the people you are calling be trusted?”
“Foxx, he wouldn’t contact them at all if he thought there was a chance they’d leak this,” Harlow murmured.
Foxx glanced over to see that Harlow’s expression was slightly pinched, and he was breathing through his mouth… Was the man hungry again, already?
He supposed Harlow probably hadn’t eaten since that morning. With the lack of food, and the changes coming much faster than he assumed they would…Foxx wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t already burned through most of his blood supply.
Though…it was possible that Harlow just had a headache from the sensory overload…
“Harlow is right, Foxx. I won’t be contacting anyone who I think could become a risk. I’ll be calling around, and I’ll have to pull some favors, but I can get it done. How long it will take to accomplish…? It will likely be faster than a normal registration, but beyond that…I don’t know.”
“Okay…well, before it goes through, how about…” Foxx frowned, thinking of the other problems… Mainly their job. “Maybe you can put us on leave? I made up a different story about Harlow getting kidnapped that I told to Charity. Mainly just so we could burn the house down without anyone putting it out and seeing the torn apart bodies inside. But we could use it as an excuse to keep him hidden.”
“Do I really have to stay hidden until I’m registered?” Harlow sighed.
“Even with the kidnapping story, that will buy us a few weeks at most,” Tony cursed.
“What if we claimed he was injured?”
“No.” The human shook his head. “Too many documents would need to be forged. If there is one thing that upper management in the Guild loves, it’s fucking paperwork. Think about all the forms you had to fill out, not to mention the appointments you had to go to, when you were injured.”
Foxx wrinkled his nose just thinking about all the forms. “Right…then what do we do?”
“Until Harlow is registered, the world needs to think he’s still human. If we try to say he’s a vampire, anyone looking closer will know you aren’t in the process of being registered. Not to mention, there is the whole partner thing. I don’t even know what the fuck we are going to do about that. They may separate you two.”
