He eyed the red faces of the humans, their gaze full of hatred and barely leashed violence. “Have to say, it’s been a few centuries since I’ve faced an angry mob.” Foxx grimaced. “Can’t say I’ve missed it.”
At the sound of something or someone hitting the car, Harlow growled, “These motherfuckers.”
When the driver’s side window started to roll down, Foxx hissed, “Harlow!”
“GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY JEEP!” Harlow roared. His voice was booming, even over the shouts of the humans. “I swear, if there is a single dent, I’ll hog tie every single one of you bastards together and leave your asses here until tomorrow fucking morning.”
The ones closest flinched back a bit, but a few looked ready to do some damage.
There was a loud, angry, animalistic growl, and the crowd scattered back as three fully transformed werewolves drove them away. Behind the wolves was a uniformed officer, and Santiago, in his human form.
The pack Alpha looked a bit amused, yet at the same time, grim. To be honest, the human police officer looked tiny next to the werewolf, but then Foxx likely would have looked even smaller. Hell, Foxx was pretty sure that Santiago would even make Harlow look short-ish. The man had, what…five or six inches on the dhampir?
“You have ten minutes to fully disburse before I start arrestingandcharging people,” the uniformed officer, standing directly beside Santiago, said loudly over a megaphone. “You are officially interfering with hunter business, and any further action will result in jail time. And before you think yououtnumber us, ten fully armed SWAT teams are less than five minutes out.”
Chatter amongst the crowd grew, sounding less angry and more concerned.
“Actually, you can arrest them now,” Harlow said with a dark chuckle. “They were interfering the moment they blocked our way. And they officially crossed the line when they attacked my vehicle. Or is attempted assault on two hunters not considered a crime in this podunk town?”
Was…this…Harlow’s idea of…trying to calm things down?
Foxx pursed his lips. Well…chaoswasmore his style. And like, the fuckershadbeen screaming death to non-humans, so what did he care if he gave a bunch of asshole bigots an arrest record?
The officer hesitated.
“We have a right to protect our town!” someone yelled.
“Yeah, we have rights! We have a right to protest.”
“Protesting?” Foxx barked out in laughter. “What exactly are you protesting?”
“These freaks, these vampires, are invading our peaceful town! They’re murderers, monsters!”
Foxx smiled, flashing one of his fangs as he did. “Ah, a freak and a monster, am I?”
The ones who could see him took a step towards his door threateningly.
“Move back and stay back,” the officer bellowed into his megaphone. “Frankly, all you folks need to pipe down before you get yourselves into more hot water! In case you ain’t realized, these city people ain’t me. They don’t know you. They don’t live here. And they sure as shit don’t care what an arrest record will do to you.
“To be honest, I’m at the point where I don’t care either. I have never in my life been more disgusted by the actionsof people I thought I knew. Do you even understand the implications of me having to call in SWAT teams to handle y’all’s asses?”
The man’s southern twang seemed to get thicker the longer he spoke. The officer was clearly upset by the crowd.
“You’re disgusted?!” a young man said, sounding outraged. “You did nothing as these creatures killed us!”
“Cletus, I’ll tell you what, boy. Next time there are murders, I’ll call you to come investigate, and you can put your ass on the line. Because as I see it, we did our jobs, we found the perpetrators, and it’s YOU all who are standing in the way of them facing justice!”
“This feels like one of those old western movies,” Foxx whispered to Harlow. “Like an angry mob wanting to hang the criminal, and then we have a sheriff standing between them and the person in jail so he can have a fair trial.”
The dhampir snorted. “Except this mob is the one delaying the execution.”
“Well, I mean…I know that, but it’s the twang. Like, can’t you see the similarities?” Foxx huffed.
“Yeah, yeah, I see the similarities, brat.” Harlow looked over, his brow raised. “Since when did you start watching westerns?”
Foxx wrinkled his nose. “Not willingly… But Alastair likes them, and…sometimes he traps me into watching marathons. It’s…painfully boring, and… I don’t know, he likes cowboys.”
A smile broke out on Santiago’s face, the wolf no doubt hearing them. Foxx had a feeling there were too many people here for the werewolves to notice Harlow wasn’t human. The smells and sounds alone would make it harder for them to pick out. Not if they weren’t bothering to look for it.
