Harlow eyed the packed parking lot of the Houndside Hazard Hunters Guild. He’d been back once since his change, but on that occasion, not many people were there.
“Feels weird being here,” Harlow mused as he pulled into one of the last few parking spots left. Part of him was hoping this wouldn’t take long, so they could drive out to see the plots of land he’d been looking at…
Or was it too soon to do that? He’d gathered…from the man noting how quickly he’d come to his conclusion about their living situation, that he was…possibly…moving a little too fast…
But like, Foxx had said yes, so what was the point in delaying? It wasn’t like the construction would go quickly, and who knew how fast land sold in the Inner Village… He’d looked over what was available, and to be honest, there wasn’t much. Harlow had been lucky to find what he had. So it was best to look and buy the one they liked now, rather than risk losing it to some unknown asshole.
“Well, Charity had let us avoid the Guild until the news came out about dhampirs. And, besides that one time, we’ve been able to stay away while things settled. Wouldn’t be good for one of the vampire hunters to attack you... because that had always been a possibility.”
“Elowen’s partner looked like he wanted to.”
“I feel like he was more afraid of you over wanting to attack.”
Harlow grunted. “Let’s head in.”
As they pushed inside, Jerry, the secretary, smiled widely on spotting them.
“Harlow, Foxx! I’m so happy to see you both.” The human beamed. “I’ve got something for you two!”
He eyed the pink gift bag the man was holding up.
Foxx scurried over and peeked inside. “Cookies!” the vampire squealed excitedly. “Did we win the monthly cookie race?!”
“You more than did! I mean…without you two, no one would have been saved.” Jerry held the bag out.
Harlow grabbed it. Peeking inside, his brow rose at how full it was. “There looks to be more than normal.”
“I figured you two definitely deserve it after all the hell you’ve gone through the last few months…and well…the change, and…” Jerry sighed. “Well, just good job on everything!”
Harlow grunted in response as the man came out from behind the desk and gave Foxx a hug. The human wisely didn’t try to hug him…
After Foxx finished getting his…as he liked to call it, his fluffy hug, he nodded goodbye to Jerry and they headed into the back.
Opening the door, he took a step past it and…Harlow immediately wanted to back the fuck out, but refused to show fear as every set of eyes in the fully crowded room zeroed in on them.
At the second step in, Harlow’s right eye started to twitch when, in what could only be a nightmare-induced illusion, every one of those motherfuckers started to clap. He felt Foxx stiffen up beside him, which informed him to the reality that it was, in fact, NOT an illusion.
When the clapping subsided, Foxx let out a hesitant, soft laugh. “Ah ha…thank you?”
The door to Tony’s office opened, and the man himself stepped out. The human snorted before yelling, “Get back to work! Fuckers did well, but you are making them uncomfortable. Though, if that is the point, feel free to do it more, but on your own fucking time!”
The room instantly went back to doing whatever the fuck they’d been doing before Harlow and Foxx had walked in.
“That was weird,” Foxx whispered.
“Let’s just get to Tony’s office before it happens again.”
Foxx,as Harlow had taught him too, opened the door straight away instead of knocking. It was a tradition at this point—can’t break tradition!
“Yes, come in. Nice of you to fucking knock,” Tony drawled with an eye roll before barking, “Close the door.”
Walking in, Harlow closed the door behind them, while Foxx eyed the room. It was a bit of a mess. Files were everywhere, and they absolutely covered Tony’s L-shaped desk. The boxy chairs that usually sat in front had been stacked by the couch to the right. Probably because Charity was currently sitting on the floor where they usually were, surrounded by piles of manila folders.In front of the bookshelves that lined the left wall, there was a corkboard with a map of the US, covered in red dots.
“What’s all this?” Foxx mused.
“Just all the cases we think may be connected to Maverick,” Tony said with a sigh.
Charity huffed. “We are trying to narrow down likely locations for him, but…”
