He winced. “A…Christmas basket…”
As if his joy had been stomped on, Foxx’s smile dropped. “She’s Christian? Wait…she’s not catholic, is she?!”
“She’s an atheist… Elowen just uses any holiday as an excuse to cook. Anyway…what was with you asking for her number?”
Foxx pursed his lips and said, “I want her jumper.”
“As if you need more.”
“I NEED IT!” Foxx hissed, his eyes narrowing. “And with as many jumpers as I ruin on hunts, not to mention ones thatyoudestroy, I need all that I can get my hands on!”
“Of course you do.” He rolled his eyes. “Come on, let’s get back to wandering around.”
Foxx ran alongside Harlow, listening, trying to hear any sort of cry for help. The reports of attacks had dwindled as the hours had passed. Unfortunately…that’s when the calls of them finding paranormals dead had begun to come in. Bodies of vampires and werewolves alike. Time was running down for those still alive.
Foxx turned a corner, about to head one way when he heard it.
“Help! Please!” A weak cry came.
Spinning around, he took off, winding through streets he found a woman sprawled out on her back in a damp, dark alleyway. With her face covered in blood…she looked…like that one woman had over a month ago—scared and confused.
Running to her, with the counteragent already in his hand, he fell to his knees. Grabbing one of her hands to give support, Foxx stabbed the end of the injector directly into her chest, and pressed the release. Hoping, no, praying that he wasn’t too late.
She cried out in pain at his action, staring at him with fear as she tried to pull her hand from his hold.
“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here to help. It will help. It will fix this.”He hoped.
He really hoped…he wasn’t about to witness another innocent vampire’s death. Unfortunately, they didn’t know how well the counteragent would work this late in the poison’s progression. It wasn’t something they could test without putting someone’s life in danger.
Slipping into his bloodline powers, he stared at her threads, cursing as they continued to shred and grow dimmer. She was also…so very young—only fifty…
When the needle retracted, he tossed the injector aside and pulled her head into his lap as he began to run his hand over her hair. “Just keep fighting, okay? You need to keep fighting.”
“Hurts… It hurts.”
“I know, but you have to fight. I gave you something that will help, but it can’t work if you don’t fight.”
“O-okay,” she gasped, tears falling down her face.
Foxx’s hand started to shake as her threads grew darker and darker. When her eyes began to close, he snapped, “No, no. No sleeping!”
Foxx patted her cheek when her eyes fully closed. He pushed as hard as he could, sending some of his energy into her, and while most didn’t go through, unlike the last time he'd tried, some did. Her threads brightened up just a bit as her eyes snapped back open on a gasp.
“That’s it, stay awake. What’s…” He swallowed. “What’s your name, hun?”
She shuddered. “C-Cindy.”
“Ah, Cindy, well, I’m Foxx.”
“Hurts…so…b-badly…” she cried out. As she screamed, the little bit of light that had returned faded again.
“Come on, Cindy. I know it hurts, sweetheart, but you have to fight!”
Her screams grew louder, and before his eyes, her threads shredded more and more… Not much left now.
No…no… Not again… Never again! Hissing angrily at the unfairness, Foxx shoved a large amount of his life energy at her, pushing back against whatever force was trying to block his way. He kept shoving until every single bit of it went inside.
His body shaking due to the effort, Foxx let out a sob of relief when he realized that the shredding had finally…stopped…and had even begun to reverse. Tears formed in his eyes as he watched the beautiful threads weave back together.
