Frown deepening, he closed his eyes and listened again, doing his best to tune out Foxx’s heartbeat, and the other random noises of the apartment. Harlow didn’t hear it at first, but as minutes passed, and the other sounds fell away…a faint echo appeared.
Harlow’s eyes snapped open as the sound grew louder, his heartbeat now doubled, before pausing and repeating its double beat again.
“You’re right… There’s an echo…” He winced as the other sounds he’d pushed away came rushing back, and between one moment and the next, the echo was gone. “That’s…weird. Why does it beat like that?”
“I don’t know. Why does a vampire’s heart beat slower? Why does a werewolf’s beat faster?” Foxx shrugged. “I’m sure someone knows the answer, but it never interested me enough to look too deeply into it.”
“It doesn’t seem as if I have much control over my body when it comes to hiding it. How am I supposed to pretend to be human if I can’t seem to even stop pretending to be a vampire?”
“It’s going to take some trial and error. I don’t know exactly how you are doing it either, since I’m not a dhampir. But all we can do is try and practice. And to be honest, I think you’ll need to practice making the vampire one even more believable, because I can still tell, and if anyone looks closer…they may be able to as well.”
Harlow sighed. “How are we ever going to figure this shit out in just two weeks?”
“I don’t know… I think the best option we have is doing our best to avoid the office, so you don’tneedto pretend to be human. Those we work with are the only ones you need to keep your changed state from anyway. And your vampire mask is at least passable right now, so if we practice that, it should be good to go in two weeks, even if your human mask isn’t.”
“Right.”
“Harlow…” Foxx hesitated. “Moving…past the dhampir thing. I…I mean, when you went missing, I found your phone, and on it, you had several missed calls from someone nicknamed Nosy Fucker?”
“Right… You know about him now.”
He didn’t stop the man when Harlow gathered Foxx up and placed him on his lap, facing him.
The dhampir cleared his throat. “So…you remember the nightmares I told you about.”
Foxx tilted his head. “Yes…?”
“And the night I said I ran to Tony thinking I was dying?”
Foxx rolled his eyes. “Harlow, you only told me this the other day. So, yes, old man, I do recall.”
He wrinkled his nose when the man pinched it.
“Brat.”
Batting his hand away, Foxx stuck his tongue out.
Harlow smiled, but then sighed. “Well, when Tony realized I wasn’t dying, and that my problem was mental, he forced myass to see his psychologist friend on the downlow. And I’ve been seeing him ever since.”
Foxx frowned. “You called him that night… The night you told me you cared… Are you okay with telling me…why?”
Harlow threaded a hand through Foxx’s hair, and his heart fluttered as the man pressed a kiss to his forehead, before pulling him against his chest, wrapping his arms around him. Foxx couldn’t help but notice the man’s body was a lot warmer than when he’d been ‘human’. Despite being related to vampires, did dhampirs run at the opposite end of the spectrum when it came to body temperature?
“To be honest, though I was seeing him, I refused to let Wes diagnose me. But that night…after hearing what you said, and listening to your doubts, I called him to tell him I’d changed my mind about that. Because… I just…want to know how much I can give you, before I end up hurting you.”
Foxx’s eyes widened. “You…called him because of me?”He slowly pulled back. “You…don’t want to hurt me?”
Harlow scoffed. “Of course not! You’re my brat. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. I…can’t hurt you. I’d lose you then…and you're mine, so…losing you would be very inconvenient. You being mine…is sort of a permanent thing, in case you didn’t know.” The man cleared his throat awkwardly.
Foxx stared blankly, his brain bouncing between a whole lot of ‘What the fuck?’and ‘Aww, Harlow said he doesn’t want to lose me’.
Ugh…love was stupid. There were so many red flags there. The permanent thing was a big red fucking flag…yet…
Dammit, he didn’t care.AWWW, HARLOW SAID HE DOESN’T WANT TO LOSE ME!!! AND ALASTAIR CLAIMED HARLOW WASN’T SWEET!!! Nonsense!
Foxx sniffled. Clinging to the man, he kissed the dhampir’s cheek and beamed, “Thank you for caring.”
“No problem, brat,” Harlow chuckled.
