A hand roughly gripped his hair and yanked his head back, exposing his throat. His smirk only widened.
“Why are you smiling?! Don’t you get what I’m about to do?!” Micah snapped.
“Why? Are you waiting for me to beg and cower?” Harlow chuckled.
Micah?He barely had the thought before very different visions pushed it aside.
Threat...Surrounded by threats...
“No! NO!!!” a man screamed.
He shookhis head as shrieks, screams, and crying filled his mind... Men, women... The feeling of his hands piercing through flesh. Claws...claws shredding...blood spraying over him. Faces stretched in terror, blood vessels in eyes bursting as the life was squeezed out... Hands that were his own tearing through people like they were just paper.
Harlow shook his head again as the violent images continued to flicker through in a jumbled, confused mess.
Sweat dripping down his face, body swaying where he stood, he took deep breaths, trying to push it all away. But even as the violent images faded and stopped, the smell, the feeling, it remained. Harlow felt wet...gritty...and the inside of his nose was burning under the onslaught of blood. He wasn’t even sure how he managed to smell Foxx under it all.
And fuck, it was loud... Breathing, his own and others… Odd pulsing, thumping noises, creakings, things scurrying around, bugs outside...animals... Everything was just so fucking loud.
Swallowing hard, he took another deep but shuddered breath. Micah...had changed him...
What the fuck was that other shit though?! No... It didn’t matter. Foxx... Foxx was what mattered. He forced himself to focus on the vampire again.
Foxx looked worryingly pale...as pale as he had been when he’d found him pierced through with a spike. The bloody handprint left behind stood out starkly against his skin, as did the freckles on his face. The man’s eyes were closed, and his button nose to his pale plush lips were slack and unmoving.
The green overalls Foxx was wearing had odd bloodstains, as if he had pulled something onto his lap, and the yellow sweater that had illustrated suns on it, now sported two bright bloody handprints from him holding him.
More worrying... Harlow grimaced as he eyed the bloody mess of a wound he’d left behind. A trail of blood had formed from it to the neckline of his sweater. Was it...still bleeding?
What...should he do? Wait...he was a...vampire now... Saliva! His saliva would now be a slight coagulant! Maybe... Was that just a myth? Harlow winced, closing one eye as the throbbing in his head ramped up.
Fuck it! He leaned down and licked at the bite mark, his heart skipping a beat before racing at full speed on realizing just how tempting he found Foxx’s blood. Harlow had to force himself to back away once he’d licked off all that was there.
On his first look at the now clean wound, his head tilted while he continued to stare, his brow pinching as he eyed the edges of the bite. They were torn due to him yanking away...but the imprint of his teeth was clear enough... Clear and...wrong.... “What...?”
Harlow ran his tongue over his teeth, frowning on finding four fangs instead of just two. What the fuck? Was he...a mutant?
His gaze flicked to Foxx’s face when the vampire let out a groan. The man’s head lolled back, and Foxx’s eyes fluttered open. Looking dazed, the vampire stared up at Harlow.
“Foxx?” he rasped. “Hey, Foxx, are you okay? I don’t know...why I...” he trailed off.
Why...had he bit Foxx? Foxx was a vampire...why would he be biting him? Why hadn’t Foxx pushed him away... Did it matter? Fucking hell, he needed to help the vampire first, then he could figure out whatever the rest was about later.
“H...” Foxx mumbled incoherently when he scooped him up into one arm. Harlow was almost shocked at how light the man felt. Was his...new strength kicking in already?
“I’m sorry, Foxx. I don’t know why I bit you, but...let’s see if we can find you...some...blood! Yes...there has to be some around here somewhere...”
Micah was staying here… At least it seemed like he was based on the flashes of the house he’d seen. And the...terrified people he’d possibly torn apart.
Harlow looked around. He was in some sort of outdoor courtyard. Tiles covered the ground, benches were situated around the edges, and it felt like there should have been a fountain in the center, but there wasn’t.
The area wasn’t that big, and it appeared to be in the center of the house rather than along the exterior, with a door to the left and right of him. A bloody trail leading off from the shattered glass door to his left...came right too—big surprise—him. Whatwasa slight surprise was the still breathing vampire splayed out on the ground where he thought a fountain should be.
He eyed Micah with disgust and shuddered on realizing the man’s mouth had been on his neck at one point. Harlow resisted the urge to rub at the no doubt still open fucking wound, that now he was thinking on it, was starting to sting.
“Hide...”
He glanced back down at the fear-filled word, frowning at finding Foxx’s eyes closed. Why had he even been trying to talk to a severely blood depleted vampire? Blood! He had to find blood for Foxx... Where…?
